Mainstrean "christians" worship pagan Idols, including christmas trees, page 5

the bible is full of precedence as to whether things like ¨christmas¨ are acceptable for christians to participate in.

first, you have the isrealites when they came out of egypt. they agree not to worship idols, then first chance they got, they made a golden calf.

what is particularly interesting in that passage is the fact they made toe calf to signify GOD. meaning they thought they were paying respect to god himself.

exodus 32:[5] And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
[6] And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

¨LORD´is a place keeper for ¨YHWH¨

in effect they were infact ¨worshipping¨ GOD the the almighty. not some pagan god.

however we see that latter in the chapter, GOD did not find this acceptable. infact, he was quite angry about it.

what does this teach us?

well, for one thing, its not just WHO you are worshiping, but also HOW.

one could reason that a celebration like christmas is no big deal because you or the church has decided that this holiday is now about jesus, but this doesnt garantee god´s approval of it.

jeroboam is another example of worshiping god in a disapproving way. after solomon died, the kindom of isreal split. 10 tribes to the north and 2 tribe to the south.

the southern kingdom held jerusalem, and according to the law, this ment that if people wanted to worship god correctly, they still had to travel to the southern kingdom.

jeroboam, who was king of the northern tribes had a different idea. he sent up 2 golden calfs, one to the north and another to the south in bethel. then he man priests of people who werent levi. he also made festivals up to honor the ¨sons of isreal¨

1kings 12:[26] And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
[27] If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
[28] Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
[29] And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
[30] And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
[31] And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
[32] And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
[33] So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

what he did was basically take the spirit of the law and he changed it alittle. instead of going to the temple, you have choices. he still had priest, just the wasnt the requirement of them being from levi.

not long after, god showed his disapproval through a prophet.

calf worship, like christmas, is taken from foreign rituals. whether the calf worship the isrealites dabbled in was taken from egypt or from chaldea or even from the neighbors who also worshipped calfs in their ¨baal¨worship, the point remains, taking a custom and ¨declaring it holy¨ doesnt work.

if that was the case with the isrealites, then why would it be any different for the christians?

why would christians participate in events and customs that started out as rituals to pagan gods?