St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote this to the Romans about their formerly pagan minds:
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2Now, CynicalBear, you show a text where God said NOT to transform a pagan thing and use it to serve him. Use specific book, chapter and verse please.
(By the way, CynicalBear, do you really believe that God did not tell people to use "writing" to "write things" that were later included in the Bible, even though "writing" was first used by pagans?)
That's right. TRANSFORM the mind, not reform it.
We are born again as new creatures in Christ. We now have a new mind, the mind of Christ, not our old mind reformed.
1 Corinthians 2:16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Galatians 2:19-20 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Oh ya think? The list would be too long for this forum to list all the things the RCC has adapted from the pagans to entice them into their religion. That’s conforming to this world.
>>Now, CynicalBear, you show a text where God said NOT to transform a pagan thing and use it to serve him. Use specific book, chapter and verse please.<<
I have done so multiple times. Here it is again.
Deuteronomy 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God
The RCC specifically states that taking something from the pagans to worship God is exactly what they did.
“When we give or receive Christmas gifts; or hang green wreaths in our homes and churches, how many of us know that we are probably observing pagan customs...the god, Woden, in Norse Mythology, descends upon the earth yearly between December 25th and January 6th to bless mankind...But pagan though they be, they are beautiful customs. They help inspire us with the spirit of 'good will to men', even as the sublime service of our Church reminds us of the ‘peace on earth’ which the babe of Bethlehem came to bestow” (Externals of the Catholic Church, 140).
>>(By the way, CynicalBear, do you really believe that God did not tell people to use "writing" to "write things" that were later included in the Bible, even though "writing" was first used by pagans?)<<
Prove that writing was first used by pagans. Catholics always try those tactics. Writing wasn’t specifically used in the worship of God. I breath air like the pagans do also. God said don’t look to see how they served their gods and we will do likewise. By their own words that is exactly what the RCC did. Claiming “they are beautiful customs” is simply saying “we will do likewise”. Catholics need to know that all the pagan customs that the RCC adapted are in direct disobedience to God.
That is a result of a new creation, not reformation as in Christianizing something God did not originally institute. And the transformed mind will honor God according to His assured word, the Scriptures, which do not mention annual feasts on the day of the Lord's birth. There is nothing wrong with having a day to celebrate/remember the Lord's birth, but not by Christianizing a distinctly pagan feast. And under the New Cov., the church is not shown falling into ritualism, only censures the annual observance of “days, and months, and times, and years.” (Galatians 4:10)
As the Catholic Encyclopedia>Christmas informs,
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Arnobius (VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the "birthdays" of the gods.(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm)
Likwise Biblical Archaeology.org:
Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled
he extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.1 As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point. http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/
In England, Christmas was forbidden by Act of Parliament in 1644; the day was to be a fast and a market day; shops were compelled to be open; plum puddings and mince pies condemned as heathen. - http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/
Lacking actual support, the Catholic is left with arguing from silence, as they do with certain other things, but which is weak and not a sound basis for doctrine.
show a text where God said NOT to transform a pagan thing and use it to serve him. Use specific book, chapter and verse please.
That is easy. For one, do a study on the "high places" in Scripture. The LORD strictly forbade the planting of a grove of any trees near the altar of God, or the setting up of any images on their own (Dt.16:21) and commanded the children of Israel to utterly “destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places” (Num. 33:52) - not convert them for their use.
However, in times of spiritual declension Israel turned to idols and worshiping upon the high places, but sometimes in periods of some restoration they sought to turn the "groves and high places" of the idolatrous nations into places of Jehovistic worship. (1Kg.15:14; 2Chr.33:17 ) Yet to be consistent with the Lord's decrees, they should have destroyed them (Ex. 23:24; Dt. 7:5), and which sometimes they accomplished (2Chr.17:6; 31:1; 34:3). Such attempts to reform that which God had not initially wrought served to keep such things alive, enabling them to more easily revert back to their original idolatry. (1Kg.12:31; 13:33; 14:23; 2Kg.15:35; 16:4; 17:10-19, 31-34; 2Chr.21:11; 28:4; Is.57:5).
Likewise, by "Christianizing" a pagan feast, it has prevented it from dying of neglect like many others, and enabled it to more easily revert into an idolatrous form.
However, it is the heart behind this all that is most critical, and i do not say i am better than others who observe Christ-mass, but must walk in the light i see, as we are to worship God in spirit and in Truth, for He is worthy. May i do so more and better.