The Pagan holidays when I first read about them made me want to vomit, all that I had been raised to believe was a lie. I grew up thinking the same as most people loving Christmas and Easter, but I have a few questions...

How do you not support (which I am not) these pagan holidays and still spend time with your family who does?

How do you share the truth when no one wants to hear it because they like their traditions?

How do you separate with out destroying families? (This question is probably the most important to me; see my mom and dad don't understand why I don't want to celebrate these events. When I am away from home its easy I just don't tell them, but this year I will be home for christmas and life will go about as usual except I know the truth, a truth they don’t want to know about because it ruins their idea of the season)

Any insight would be great! Thanks

Tiffany, that is a very hard one!! I don't think anyone really wants to do Christmas, but when you say your actually not they go a little crazy!! This will be the first year we will not be doing Christmas. Last year we did keep it because other family members were just getting this and we didn't want to push it. I love keeping the feasts as there is more of them..ha...I think these are the only "holidays" we will be keeping. Now to figure out what we should really be doing in them!!! I'm keeping it pretty simple for now.
Jeannie

Edited by user Saturday, July 7, 2007 12:17:34 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I must say that I agree with Noach in this instance. That is not to say that it will not be hard for some. For me, however, it will not be hard but for those of you who will find it difficult(which is okay, I am not saying that it is wrong if you do) I just say remember to rely on Yahuwehs word and truth. Noach actually gave the first verse I was going to write. Yahushua knew that we would face this problem.

I was brought up Christian(born again). My mom and two older sisters are Christian. I have begun to gradually plant seeds. I love them but not more than I love my relationship with my Creator.

Theophilus,

Good questions. The root of the problem lies in replacing and mixing Yahuwah's appointed times with celebrations rooted in paganism. Days that America has designated as special such as Memorial day, labor day, Independence day, and thanksgiving are not rooting in paganism and are not designed and promoted to replace Yahuwah's appointed times. If though, we use these days as an excuse to replace Yahuwah's appointed times then we have created a problem. Birthday celebrations are absolutely an abomination. Every aspect of this behavior is rooted in paganism from the coned wizard hats to the candles and birthday cake. It is one of ha shatan's biggest promotions.

It really comes down to how much of this behavior you are prepared to accept. Remeber, Yahuwah was around when celebrations like birthdays, easter, christmas, and valentines day were celebrated openly, we weren't. Today the real meanings have been hidden as ha shatan knows that we would not openly worship him (at least not the ones he is trying to deceive), but Yahuwah still sees them for what they are, and by no means wants them associated with His family. We can revise the meanings all we want, even attribute their meanings to Him, but Yahuwah is not fooled. Yahuwah does not compromise, should those who have chosen to be a part of His family?

Noah

My family is struggling with this as well. We've certainly opened the gates and started letting everyone know what is going on, but acceptance varies among family members and friends. I thought I would share a couple of things that I've found as icebreakers for this sensitive topic.

I was raised Catholic and have found that some of my catholic relatives are so entrenched that it is like talking to someone with a force field at times. I've found a couple pictures of the pope kissing the Koran and shared them with the most entrenched folks. I wasn't really trying to shock them or anything, but I found that it does help open catholic minds a bit quicker.

On another level, we have found that time helps. We began prepping our families for this around mid-march and have slowly eased them into the idea. They were not excited about it at first, but I offered to celebrate the appointed festivals as an alternative.

Also, I've found that there are some family members and especially friends that have suspected something like this all along and are much more receptive than I thought they would be at first. It usually helps to come armed with clear and concrete examples of why you are no longer celebrating christmas. One I've found particularly useful is the mention of pig sacrifices in the temple on Dec 25th mentioned somewhere in Maccabees II? (around ch 20 or 22 if memory serves). Funny thing though; the "paganess" of this holiday was pretty much well communicated during my various Catholic educational experiences; however, it was never really questioned. Reminds me of a post a I saw on biblical scholars blog a few months ago. The gent said something to the effect, "I know I'm not supposed to question, but......". It is an old story - group think. Heck, I was even considering going to DTS at one point, but noticed the theology is pretty well hard coded - scholarly group think, though I'm sure this applies to other schools as well.

With the group think problems though, right is right, and wrong is wrong, right? So regardless of what the group thinks, you have to go with what is right. The question is what is right in this case? Are you not dishonoring your earthly mother and father by failing to show up at a family gathering that is not intended to celebrate the ol' sun god, in their minds at least? I guess you have to weigh which is more important them or your heavenly father.

I can think of perhaps a couple of examples of the right course of action through the example set by Daniel. If memory serves, he did not object to having a pagan name, working for a pagan king, etc., but at some point he refused to eat with the king. I think if one ponders at what point was Daniel reluctant to partake in some Pagan dining activities it may help draw a good analogy for what is appropriate. Something like, "yeah you can call me whatever you want, but don't expect me to dig swine or get craisy drunk".

It seems like Paul also mentioned something along these lines. I believe the specific topic was on consuming meat that had been sacrificed to false gods. I hope I'm not misstating this, but I believe it was something to the effect that there is nothing wrong with eating meat sacrificed to idols provided that your conscience is in check (it's just meat), but don't eat that kind of meat in front of someone that would freak out about it. In modern terms, I can think of this as perhaps not drinking wine in front of your baptist father in law if you can avoid it. Further commenting on this, I think it was Yah'shua himself who said something about it is not that which goes into your mouth that defiles you, but rather that which comes out, and in addition I recall reading something about "other preachers" - something where He told Peter not to stop the "other guys" because those that aren't against us are with us. This would have to center around what message was being preached I suppose. In addition, it seems like Paul often spoke of the timing issue - referring to nursing learners on milk before they are ready for solid food.

I hope some of this helps someone - we're still working on this ourselves, but I think our solution will involve us telescoping the message that we are slowly withdrawing from pagan holidays, but plan to work a soup kitchen instead on that day and perhaps donate the gifts money to poor starving children in Africa or something instead of buying more useless junk to unwrap each year. Call me scrooge I guess.