...'So what's all the fuss?...an article I wrote in Janurary of 2010

http://voices.yahoo.com/paganism-christianity-so-whats-5269477.html?cat=9



Paganism, and Christianity - so What's All the Fuss?




 Ok, since I need a little more space to continue this will be part three in my series tonight about some reasons there are so many conflicts between Christianity and Paganism.



Now in my last article I touched on just a few things concerning the Catholic Church. Now, I know I may very well have offended some, but that is not my intent to create strife. My intent is instead to point out what happens and did happen when a Christian church of any denomination accepts and or takes on pagan practices.



What happens is corruption comes in, first little by little, but later it comes in full force, until the members of the church are blinded. Having had their spiritual senses dulled by the watering down of and the perverting of the gospel of Christ.



Not only do you see perversion in the Catholic Churches, but you see perversions in every denomination. Denominations are ALL man-made organizations; there is nothing that can be gained by belonging to a particular denomination.



That being said, not every organization or group of people who get together and start a "church" are Christian in the truest sense of the word. Even some very popular churches today, are not by Biblical standards Christian. It could easily be said they were more of a Pagan organization in many ways, because they have the church, the steeple and the people BUT, they have left Christ setting by the way side.



Remember I mentioned that many Pagans claim that Christians have stolen their "days". Well this is in fact actually true. And this was largely done by the Roman Catholic Church. At one point in time, and possibly still in some areas of the world, the Catholic Church sought to "convert" people to Catholicism. Now did you "hear" what I said?



They were not seeking to convert people to Christ, but instead they sought to convert people to the "Church". And the Roman Catholic Church did indeed make many "converts" to the church. But few if any true conversions to Christ.



The reason I say this is because no one can be forced to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived to die on a cross, so that he could rise again the third day, having paid for all of our sins. And truthfully to believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. It is a matter of faith, as many things are.



Think about this for instance what is it you truly believe? If you believe in God why do you believe? Who told you to believe? Were you forced to believe this by someone, and you agreed just to make the person cohering you go away and leave you alone? Or do you believe for some other reason? Such as having looked all around at the evidence for a creator God, or maybe you have decided within your own heart to believe that the scriptures are true, and believe in faith, that what you have heard is true?



Or perhaps you are an Atheist. Why? Have you looked all around and decided that no one, not even God could have created so many things? Have you settled it in your heart of hearts that there is no god? Are you prepared to suffer the consequences when you find too late you were wrong? Have you closed your heart, and mind to anything that could take you in the direction of God? Do you trust in your own wisdom? How has trusting in your own wisdom helped you through the difficult times in your life? How do you feel about death? If you are right and there is really no God, why are you ever concerned with what is right, what is wrong? Why?



These are serious questions that as an Atheist you must ask yourself. Because if you are really wrong, as I personally believe you are, then guess what? No matter how "good" you were or how "charitable" you were or how, "kind" you were. All of your "goodness" will not outweigh the debt that you owe.
You see all of mankind has inherited a debt. That debt was imputed to each individual due to one man's sin. Maybe this does not sound fair, but God created this world and God set the rules. I don't believe he asked for our help in defining what was and was not fair.



But God is a just God, and a fair God. He created mankind so that he could have company, or family, he created us in His image with our own individual freewill. Because he did not want a family of robots that could be programmed to say and do whatever he wanted them to do. I mean think about this, if you had the ability to create for yourself a robot that would do every single thing that you said to do, and do it exactly the way you wanted it to do it, but could never say anything or do anything that you had not programmed it to do, after awhile this would get old. Because it would be just a machine, there would be no love, no passion, and no compassion. Just an old machine that at times may even need to be rebuilt or fixed, granted God could have made unbreakable robots. But he didn't instead he created people in his image. He wanted us to share his likeness; he wanted us to be like him as much as possible. Not the same position of course, but he wanted us to be like him, just as many proud parents want their child to be like them, especially parents who have done important things in life, like became a doctor treating many illnesses, or any number of other professions, or trades. Most parents or grandparents take pride in their child or children when they do well, and are grieved when they do not do well.




So what has this got to do with Paganism? Well I want to ask you a question first. Let's say you are a very hard worker and you budget your money wisely, yet you are only able to save a very small amount of money if any. Now let's say you have a child whom you love very much, and you find something you would like to give your child for a gift. But due to the fact this gift is priced well out of your reach, you know there is no way that you can purchase this gift.



For sake of illustration I will use the example of a pull wagon as the gift item, but really it could be most anything. This is just the example I am going to use.



Now, you know that you can't buy this item for your child, But you have found that with the little bit of money you have saved, you will be able to buy the materials to make this item. Also for the purpose of illustration, we will say you have the needed skills, tools and space to make this item.
So you go and purchase the items you will need to make this beautiful gift for your child, perhaps a pull wagon, or a dollhouse, or a rocking horse, etc.



Now you take great care to make this item so it is made with excellent craftsmanship, it will be an item that will one day be a collectable. Many people will find value in it, because you will have made it so that it will not fall apart, it will not break, and you'll have built it to last. Not only will you have built it to last you will have taken care to decorate it, perhaps painting, or carving designs, maybe even a little of both.



The finished product finer than most anything that can be found in any store anywhere, you will have put your heart and soul into making this item.



  Now comes the big day, to give your child this gift. And your child loves this gift. But instead of thanking you for it, your child bows down and thanks the gift!(gives thanks to the created item, the item you made). Gently you pull your child up and say, "I made this for you". Again your child hugs the item you made and thanks the item for the gift. (Thanks the item for giving itself.) Now I know this sounds confusing, and I meant it to be, for a reason.



What I want you to see is this, God put time and effort into creating for us a beautiful world to live in. He created for us lights in the sky (stars, moon and sun) so that we could see. He created mountains, valleys, oceans, streams and rivers, deserts, plains, and more, so we would have beautiful things to look at. Places for us to explore. He created for us plants, and trees, animals, of all kinds, so we'd have food, clothing and shelter. He created many different kinds of rocks, minerals and stones. So we could build things, and so we could be creative.




God gave us many gifts.
God even planted a garden for man. And brought to him the perfect wife, she was perfectly suited to him in every way. She had no sickness, no baggage from previous relationships, no in-laws, no gossips. No hidden secrets. She was exactly the wife that man needed.



Then God gave that man and his wife one rule, and only one. That was they were not to eat fruit from a particular tree. But at some point this first couple sinned against God. That is when sin entered this world. Sin first came from the man, not from the woman. Because the Bible says the woman was deceived, the man however ate of the fruit willingly and was not deceived.



Now I said all that to make this point, God is the one who created everything, nothing came into existence without God.



Yet, mankind chose to worship, rivers, streams, trees, etc. All things that God created, that God took time to make. This began not very long after Adam and Eve were made to leave their garden home due to disobedience to God.



Because of their willful sin, their children also sinned, their oldest Cain, becoming the world's first convicted murder.



Now when God created this world and all that is in it, and even us, he like the parent in the example above wanted to give us a gift that would free us from the wage we'd earned through sin.



God is a just God and faithful, and never changes, so when he'd made the price for sin death, that price could not be changed. Because to do so would mean God was changeable, that his word was not truthful. That he did not mean what he said. It would have made him a weak God.



So God decided that he would pay this debt for us. And he did.



We are able to love him, because he first loved us. He loved us so much that he died for us.
There is no animal, no river, no ocean, or tree, or idol, or any other thing that has the power to both love us, and pay the price of sin for us, and not only to pay the price for us, but to go and prepare a brand new home for us. A home that is absolutely perfect, where sin cannot enter in at all ever. A perfect home, no leaky roofs, no holes in the floor, no broken water heaters, and no repairs needed, ever.



Yet those who practice paganism want to make the son of God, (Jesus Christ) to be no more than a prophet or wise man. But Jesus is more than that he is God. He was the only one, in all of Heaven who was both willing and able to pay a debt for us that we could never ever pay.



As this is getting much too long I will need to continue this in another article. I will try to go into a little more detail with each article I write on this subject, taking care to be truthful, but also not hard hearted because I know that it is a difficult concept for many to believe that God loved us enough to pay the full price for all of us, all we have to do is accept that he has.



But if we choose instead to pay the price ourselves we will pay forever.
Anyone who goes to Hell does so by choice, because even the creation speaks to us of God. In other words you can see the hand of God in every thing. In the Heaven's, the mountains, the oceans, the rivers, everything, the hand of God is in every thing he has made.



Everyone who rejects God will find themselves standing before the God of Heaven without excuse. All who have rejected God, choosing instead to worship the "creation" will find themselves cast out.
Cast into the eternal Lake of Fire. Because God made only one way for all of us to be saved, not many.



The second largest error of the Pagan is believing that "all" roads eventually lead to Heaven or Paradise. This is speaking of the Pagans that believe in an afterlife, not all do. But for those believing they will go to Heaven by whatever path they find, they are in serious error, that will cost them a wage they will not want to pay.