Today, December 25th, 2017, either by divine providence or coincidence, my daily Bible reading brought me to Exodus 32 which is the account of Israel worshipping the golden calf that spontaneously generated in the fire from some earrings that Aaron threw into it. At least that was his story (Exo 32:24). Aaron’s cockamamie recollection of the origin of the idol he made is pure bovine manure to any Bible believing Christian, but would easily pass a stringent peer review process for any leading evolutionary scientific journal. But even more ridiculous than Aaron’s fabricated tale are professing Christians who would be aghast at the idea of worshipping a golden calf, while doing essentially the same thing in their homes this morning.
Moses had been on mount Sinai for quite a while receiving the ten commandments, and his brethren, growing impatient, decided to spice up their religion a bit by asking Aaron to make them gods to go before them (Exo 32:1). Spineless Aaron had them turn over their golden earrings which he melted in the fire and fashioned into a golden calf (Exo 32:2-4). Aaron then built an altar before it and proclaimed that “to morrow is a feast to the LORD” (Exo 32:5). The people rose up early the next morning, had a religious observance, ate a meal together, and then partied (Exo 32:6).
Consider the following things before continuing. The golden calf that Aaron made was an idol (Act 7:41). They incorporated the idol into their worship of the LORD (Exo 32:5), which was also idolatry (1Co 10:7). Green trees are likewise idols that have been worshipped by pagans for thousands of years (Deu 12:2; Isa 57:5).
Now let’s observe the similarities between the idolatrous celebrations of Israel of old and Christians of today. Israel setup a pagan idol one day before they consecrated it to be used to honor the LORD, rising up early the next morning and worshiping God with it. Traditionally, Christians setup pagan idols (green trees) in their homes on Christmas Eve, consecrating them “Christian”, rising up early the next day to allegedly honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel then “sat down to eat and to drink” (Exo 32:6) after their idolatrous religious rite. Christians, after worshiping the Lord with their idol in the morning, have a meal together in the afternoon. After getting all of the “wholesome” religious stuff out of the way, Israel then “rose up to play” (Exo 32:6). After having worshipped the Lord under their green tree and having a meal together, the more carnal Christians among us then dive into the spiked eggnog and party it up. Note: you Christians who are appalled at your fellow idolaters getting wasted on Christmas night, just ask yourselves which is more heinous in the eyes of God: worshipping His Son under a pagan, idolatrous green tree, or getting drunk afterwards? Step out of that glass house before you start throwing rocks.
Was God pleased that His people Israel held a celebration in His name accompanied by a pagan idol? He certainly was not, which is evident by the fact that He killed thousands of them for it (Exo 32:7-35). Is God pleased that many of His people today do essentially the same thing, supposedly honoring the birth of Jesus using a pagan idol on a pagan sun worshipping holiday? To ask the question is to answer it.
13 Responses
Thank you for your blog on this topic. Exodus 32 put the “nail in the coffin” on pagan holidays for me. I think if people sincerely would look into the origins and traditions for themselves, while at the same time studying the Bible, they too would be convicted. Unfortunately, people just shut down when it comes to this holiday. They just don’t want to hear it. I think it is because they just really don’t WANT to be convicted. It’s willful ignorance.
I agree with you, Kim.
Iam sorry Pastor. I don’t mean to be contrary. Iam going through your sermons, videos and blogs and I am learning much that is helping me grow in grace and in the knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for which I thank you. I would love to be able to say that I agree 100 per cent on everything that you believe and teach but I would be lying. Do you mind if we agree to differ on some things in the spirit of Christian love and forgiveness?
That is no problem, Bob. I would have been surprised if we did agree on everything 100%. If you were referring to worshiping on Sunday or sabbath keeping, I covered that in the series called “The Christian and the Old Testament”. You can check it out if you’re interested here: https://pastorwagner.com/old-testament/.
Thank you Pastor but I was thinking more about whether it is right or not for a Christian to refer to the days of the week after their pagan names which is widespread today or should we think Biblically. Personally, I feel very uncomfortable using the pagan names. Is it time to unlearn the lies? Can we become too Biblically minded?
God forbids incorporating pagan practices into His worship, but calling the names of the week (or the months of the year) by pagan names is not an act of worship, nor does it have anything to with our worship of God. I am no linguist, but given that a lot of words in English have their etymology in Greek and Latin, I would have to assume that a huge number of words that we use every day for all kinds of things have their roots in Greek and Roman paganism. I assume that the eloquent preacher Apollos (Act 18:24) was named after the Greek god Apollo, but yet his name was not changed after his conversion (Tit 3:13).
If your conscience is not at ease with calling the days of the week by their pagan names, then you should not do so (Rom 14:23). We cannot become too Biblically minded, but remember that sin is the transgression of the law (1Jo 3:4) and where there is no law there is no transgression (Rom 4:15); so if there is no law in the Bible forbidding us from calling the names of the week by their pagan names, then it is not a sin to do so. At this point, I am not aware of a verse in the Bible that forbids us from doing so, so my conscience is okay with it. If someone shows me from the scripture where God forbids it, then I will start calling the days of the week whatever the Bible tells us to.
Exodus 23:13
God called the original days of the week simply “the first day, the second day…. etc Genesis 1-2:1&2
But, of course, Satan wants to be like the Most High and has his own days of the week named after the heavenly bodies eg Saturday ( Saturn’s day ), Sunday ( self-explanatory ), Monday ( Moon day ) etc
Idolatry I call it. Worship of the creatures.
I have done some research on this topic, but it’s too much to post in this reply. I plan to post it as a blog or possibly a sermon when I get it finished.
Here is the sermon series on Pagan Names: https://pastorwagner.com/pagan-names.
Don’t some Christians supposedly honour the resurrection of Jesus on a day that they call Sun-day Pastor?
Yes, they do so during Easter sunrise services which are not new (Eze 8:15-16).
Ezekiel 8 is typical of apostate christendom today.