Merry Christmas!

I have Christian friends who don’t celebrate Christmas because they believe Christmas trees, and other symbols of Christmas have pagan origins. I thought this was a very good refutation of that line of thinking.

From John Andrew Reasnor:

“Pagans believe that there is real spiritual significance to temporal and material objects and symbols. For example, certain animals, signs, words, symbols, trees, figurines, days, dances, clothing, hair styles, and so on all have inherent spiritual value and can be tapped into for certain powers or blessings.”

“Christianity, on the other hand, believes that all creation is good and redeemable if the heart of the individual is pure in regards to the relationship to the material objects. This world was not created by Satan, this world does not belong to Satan, and Satan is not reigning as King over this world. This means that we need not fear objects, but rather we should be wary of our own hearts. We can take and twist any good gift from God, so don’t get me wrong. In that way the material objects do have spiritual value, but ONLY in the context of how man has used those objects. It is man we should watch out for. Not Pokemon. Not other fantastical stories and games. Not Christmas trees. Not hairstyles. Not certain foods. Not shapes. The problem isn’t STUFF, the problem is man making stuff into idols. Even in the most pagan and wicked cultures, their idols had no power, but their hearts were wicked and their hearts gave power over to demons.”

“To connect the dots, to think that children’s games, created objects, nature, shapes, and so on have INHERENT spiritual value is buying into the pagan worldview. It is pagans that connect spirits to stuff. You are seeing the world in the same way as the pagans, but instead of clinging to the “bad spirit stuff” you try to instead cling to the “good spirit stuff”. Either way, you’re living your life as if it’s a game of Dungeons and Dragons, but you’re the good cleric instead of the evil wizard. But that’s not how the world works. In other words, the “everything is pagan” nonsense I see from people on Facebook all the time IS actual paganism. So stop being a pagan and see this world as Christ’s. You don’t have to seek out Christians who like Harry Potter, Pokemon, or set up Christmas Trees to find paganism. Paganism is in your own heart already.”