1S7-8: ‘Christianity Did Not Destroy Paganism; It Adopted It’

There’s something important I need to remind you about when I talk about the idolatrous behavior of the Hebrews.

It wasn’t like they had stopped believing in YAHWEH…even during their gloomiest times.

They never stopped believing in the Lord…

They had never renounced the Law they were given at Mount Sinai…

They never denied God’s holiness and righteousness…

The problem was they allowed impurity and uncleanness to slowly but surely creep into their lives…

It’s kind of like the process Eve went through before biting into that forbidden fruit…

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.”-Genesis 3:6

Notice the key elements leading to sin in this verse?

First, she was tempted by appearances…

Then she was tempted by the desire to be cool (which is what desiring to gain wisdom is)…

And before she knew it…

Just like the proverbial boiling frog in the kettle…

She had committed a fatal sin.

Well, the same thing happened with the Israelites during the Judges and Samuel’s time.

A little mixing in of Baal worship here…

A little mixing in of Ashtoreth idols there…

Observing some pagan holiday with their gentile neighbors here…

Eating some unclean food there…

And then almost imperceptibly, one day they woke up and found themselves at the opposite end of what God had intended for their lives.

That’s just how tenacious the nature of sin can be.

And again, before we start criticizing the ancient Hebrews for their behavior…

Ask yourself this.

Is the modern church with all of their pork-eating, sabbath-desecrating and pagan holiday celebrating ways really any different?

And speaking of pagan holidays…

I mentioned above how the Israelites incorporated Ashtoreth idols into their worship…

Well, the word “Easter” is the Anglo-Saxon version of that word…

That’s right folks.

The church is pretty much doing the very same thing the ancient Israelites were called on the rug for thousands of years earlier.

In fact, I’d say in many ways they’re worse because they try to rationalize their behavior with booooool sheeeeet excuses.

I think you know exactly what I’m talking about homies.

“I understand that Christmas and Easter have pagan origins but we’re celebrating these pagan festivals in God’s Name”.

“Oh, we don’t actually worship all of these objects in our church.  They’re just symbols”.

“God has one set of laws for the Jews and another for gentile believers.  Haven’t you ever read the book of Acts?”

Here’s the thing.

The truth is I don’t even need to provide these examples of mixing the profane with the holy.

Because you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I betcha a couple of things come to mind right now as you’re reading this.

You have your own little idolatrous pet peeves you hold onto that you know deep down inside are ungodly but still refuse to forsake.

I know I myself have made all kinds of rationalizations before watching some pornography…

Or going to a restaurant that I know uses pork-flavoring powder to spice up their curries…even in their so-called vegetarian curries.

Well, these are the exact same rationalizations the ancient Israelites used in their day.

We humans just don’t change, do we?

There’s only one small problem.

God doesn’t buy our ridiculous rationalizations and excuses for our lawlessness.

He didn’t buy it back then…

And He most definitely doesn’t buy it now.

Folks, keep in mind…

The Lord didn’t exile His people from the land for renouncing Him…

The Israelites never gave up worshipping YAHWEH.

The problem was they added what according to their fleshly rationalizations were “fun” or “practical” elements of a pagan system to the Lord’s pure and holy system.

And they thought it was all cool because their heart was in the right place.

They said to themselves…

“We just wanna have fun and not offend our neighbors…

So what could possibly be wrong?”

Boy, haven’t we heard that BS before?

So I’ll leave you with this takeaway.

Idolatry and Christianity are NOT mutually exclusive.

In many cases, they’re one and the same!

In fact, the very reason you defend your idolatrous behavior so vigorously is because deep down inside you know it’s wrong.

I leave you with this quote:

“Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it … From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity” (The Story of Civilization, Caesar and Christ, Will Durant, Part III, 1944, p. 595).