Paganism and Christianity Part Four...an article I wrote in January of 2010

For this article I was paid 2.78 upfront, it is a non-exclusive article.


http://voices.yahoo.com/paganism-christianity-part-four-5270467.html?cat=37




Paganism and Christianity Part Four




Sometimes it really takes a while to get a point across especially when you are also trying to make sure to not on purpose cause strife or hurt feelings. But sometimes hurt feelings just cannot be helped.
Because sometimes the truth hurts, sometimes quite a lot actually, this does not however change the facts of the matter, truth is truth, and error is error.


Now we can all sit around and say my truth is more truthful than yours, or you are in error. And you are in error because I say so.


Doing this is absolutely foolish and unprofitable for anyone. So we have to have a standard or way to communicate with each other.


God created us to be social creatures. All of us are social creatures; we are sort of like pack rats in a way. We like to be close to people, or near where people are some of us even like to go talk to other people a lot. Some just like to be by themselves, but not too far away from someone. *Distance is relative. Some people are happy only being in touch with another person once every few weeks, some need daily contact.


None the less people need people. Because how else would we manage to build all the things we do? Have you ever seriously given thought to how you would go buy a piece of land in some remote area, and then build yourself a 100 story skyscraper, complete with a basement, and many rooms on every floor, and also furnish and decorate each room, hall and floor. Doing all the work by yourself, does this even sound like a reasonable idea?


I mean just how do you plan to do each task involved? Think about it.


Now what does this have to do with the topic we've been discussing tonight? Well depends on your perspective.


If you are a Christian, probably not a lot, if you are Pagan maybe a little, maybe nothing at all, if you are Roman Catholic everything...


So let's see how much this has to do with you. First we will look at the Christian.



Now the Christian looks at this idea and sees it for what it is a foolish, unwise idea, and if serious about wanting to build a skyscraper, he will go find helpers, and lots of money to build it. As it is highly doubtful anyone builds something of this size without a good deal of help, and a lot of money.



Now let's look at this one other way, let's pretend that this skyscraper is a meant to be a gift, the plans all made, the builders hired, the land and supplies purchased, everything ready to go. All permits etc.
Now along comes the Christian, who wants this building and desires this building having heard of these architects designs for many years. Now this Christian is told all they have to do is accept this free gift, nothing else. But instead the Christian says I can't accept this I must work for it.



The Christian has now taken on the problem of the Roman Catholic. Now you may be thinking how we jumped from the Christian to the Roman Catholic, well it's simple really. What happened was this, instead of accepting this large free gift, "the Christian" decided that they must work for this large and expensive gift.



However, this gift is only designed to be given away for free; it cannot be repurchased by someone else, just because it is so expensive. This gift was designed, to be built and given away free to the recipients. Now the recipient may refuse this gift. Or the recipient may accept this gift, but the gift is not given based on merit or works so if the recipient decides they must work for the gift, it is no longer a gift, it becomes a burden.



A burden that will be theirs alone to carry, because to work for a "free gift" is to make the gift no gift at all, it will be the result of a wage.



Now we move on to the Pagan, the Pagan see's the builder's plans, and see's the intended gift, and is unpredictable mostly. But a couple of things the Pagan is likely to do, number one, say "thank you, what a lovely gift". Or something that denotes the same idea, or maybe the Pagan will say "umm no thanks, I don't believe I need such a gift as that at the moment". Or maybe the Pagan will say "ok, here let me help build". Or maybe even "ok, where's the camera". Believing someone is playing a joke.



Now the first response from the Pagan is appropriate and is what the giver intended. The second response s also appropriate as the Pagan may see no real point in owning such a large and expensive gift. Then the third response is the same as the Roman Catholic, who chooses not to accept the gift but to instead "work" for the gift, earning a wage instead of accepting a free gift.



Now all of these responses are similar but there is a difference. One is the Christian who accepts this gift, they are accepting with the full knowledge that they do not deserve this gift, and have done nothing to earn it, also that they are unable to ever work long enough or hard enough for it. So the Christian accepts it. Very similar to what happens when a person accepts the complete and finished work of Christ, as the only way in to Heaven.




No one will see Heaven lest they have accepted the gift that God purchased for them through His son. Not only that rejecting this gift will lead to move than just missed opportunity, it will lead to an eternity separated from God. In a horrible place called The Lake of Fire. Because that the only lifeboat out was rejected.



It's sort of like this if someone happens to be in a flooded area and they keep rejecting help that comes by. You remember the story I'm sure. The one about the man who was praying for help to come, but when the first several lifeboats came by he refused saying he was trusting God or waiting on God. I can't remember exactly now how that went. But anyway, many people came to get this man out of the flood zone but he rejected them all one right after the other. Finally a police helicopter came by, but still this man refused help. Finally he drowns, and next in the story we see him standing at Heaven's gate, asking God why he did not send him help, to which God replies "I sent many to your home to warn you of the coming flood, I sent men with boats to help you, I sent the police helicopter, why did you not accept my help? ". The man is left with no answer.



This will be the same result for all you reject or refuse the only way that God has made for us to go to Heaven.



You see God made one door, to go through, and it's narrow, he did not make many doors, or paths.
Gifts are intended to make someone happy as a general rule, or to be helpful. Generally a gift is not bought in order to cause stress, strife, or grief, it is instead bought because we care about someone, or even love someone.



And the gift that God purchased for us, came with a very heavy price, he loved us. And he loved us so much he was willing to die in order for us to have this gift. He did not intend for us to 'work" for this gift.



Nor did he intend for us to blindly accept this gift, instead he wanted us to know what the gift was. That gift is life.



Carelessly accepting a gift can often lead to problems. For example look back at this large skyscraper, why would someone just accept this without question? Would you not want to know something about it?



Well God does not give us the free gift of life without telling us about himself, and about who he is. Look at Genesis chapter one, he tells us he is the creator that he made us. That he made this world for us. He made it perfect and good, but then we took it upon ourselves to transgress and disobey. So we earned for ourselves death, and not only for ourselves, but also for all our descendants.



We had earned a wage that could only be repaid through death. We'd ransomed our souls for just a taste of a fruit on a tree that God said no. Do not eat.



So God in his mercy, made a way that we could be bought back, he went and paid the wage we had earned. There was no way we could do this.



But what did we do in return for this that God had done for us, well we followed after idols. We decided that we were wise, that the Bible was full of errors, we decided that we were our own gods. We continued in the sins of our earthly parents.



Full of hypocrisy we told others that they must work their way into heaven, we told some they need not worry that they would keep coming back until they had it right. *reincarnation* Other's we told never fear this is all there is, when you die there is nothing left. Still others we told pay your dues and we'll pray you out of purgatory, deceiving many, right into the deepest pits of Hell.



And then we not so long out of the Garden, chose to worship the things we could see that God had made, we worshipped rivers, and streams, birds and beast, tree's and weeds, and idols we made with our own hands. Our very own creations even.



Making up rules and dictates that God never said, changing what God did say to suit our own purposes, deceiving and being deceived, forgetting God turning to the worship of the things God had made, we became Pagans.



As Pagans, we rejected the truths of the Gospel of Christ, being Pagans we looked for our roots. Seeing many had lived lives apart from God we chose these things. Believing that we were of a "New Age' enlightened even, this was the pagan belief.



But desiring God, the soul is hungry for acceptance, even that soul of the vilest amongst us, the desire to be reunited or brought into fellowship with God remains. The fellowship man once had broken through willful sin.



Pagans do not as a whole believe sin exists, nor do they believe in Satan, or a literal Hell, yet many of them believe in a goat type creature, that they worship. With their minds believing that it is okay to cast spells, practice divinizations, necromancy, and many other things. Doing all of these things apart from the will of God.



Now the Pagan will say their "faith" or "religion" has been around longer than that of the Christian, and what they are saying is in a way true. Their disobedience to God began in the Garden that he created for them. Paganism began when man decided to willfully transgress against God.



Paganism is not new, and it has crossed over into many areas of our lives. Even into many churches, who have accepted Pagan practices little by little through the years.



Paganism is a deceitful lie promoted by Satan.



Satan has used churches to spread his deceit for a long time, the Roman Catholic Church, having a long history of accepting and adopting errors, was in my personal opinion one of the earliest churches that willfully turned to accepting pagan practices as a way to "fit in" with their neighbors.



But true Christianity is not the acceptance of everything, nor will it "fit in" with all your neighbors, more likely if you will find yourself at odds with a lot of people you come into contact with. This does not mean that you need to strive to pick fights with people, but it does mean you need to beware of how you act, and behave.



Remembering that even though you may be saved you also have Pagan roots, no one is immune to the inherited disorder of sin. It came from our first parents, who lived in a perfect world. Sin came in by choice. Acceptance of the full gospel of Christ is a matter of faith, it is also a choice.