Questions and Answers
We have published a booklet which deals with the origin and practices of the holiday known as Christmas (“Don’t Keep Christmas”). Secular history also fully documents the many aspects of worship associated with Christmas observance, and one of the most widespread traditions involves that of Christmas trees. The use of an evergreen tree for religious observance was founded in pagan worship practices. Its origin far predates Christianity. From history.com, “History of Christmas Trees,” we find these comments: “Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, many ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness… “Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition—as we now know it—by the 16th century when sources record devout Christians bringing decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce… “Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first records of Christmas trees… In the first part of this two-part series, we looked at some of the superstitions that are commonplace in society today. Let us continue in reviewing this practice. We read the following at gotquestions.org: “There are many types of superstitions in the world, ranging from the benign—such as not walking under a ladder—to the occult practices of astrology, black magic, divination, voodoo and sorcery. Scripture condemns those who practice astrology (Deuteronomy 4:19), magic, divination and sorcery (2 Kings 21:6; Isaiah 2:6). Idolatry is also forbidden, and no one who practices it will enter the Kingdom of God (Revelation 21:27). These types of practices are extremely dangerous because they open the minds of the practitioners to the influence of the devil.” On the bible-dictionary.info, we read about superstition: “An irrational belief or fear that an object or other factor has the power to affect a person’s life with some action bringing bad luck or occasionally good luck. There is no Christian, rational or scientific basis for such behaviour as putting confidence in a lucky charm or doing something to gain protection from misfortune or to bring good luck. God causes or allows everything in keeping with His divine plan (Isaiah 46:9-11; Acts 4:26-28; Ephesians 1:9, 10). “Any unbiblical,… In answering this question, let us first of all define what superstition is. Wordnik defines this as follows: “1. An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome. “2. A belief, practice, or rite irrationally maintained by ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance. “3. A fearful or abject state of mind resulting from such ignorance or irrationality.” “Therefore, a superstitious person is one who relates to, or is swayed by superstition. “Superstition is irrational as can be worked out when reviewing some of these actions that are taken by superstitious people: “… crossing fingers for luck; touching [or knocking on] wood; not walking under a ladder (although it would be sensible if doing that to check that it was safe to do so); throwing salt over your shoulder; a black cat crossing your path; a broken mirror bringing seven years of bad luck; Friday the 13th being an unlucky day. Some countries won’t have a 13th level on an apartment block. Don’t open an umbrella inside a house. Finding a horseshoe is good luck.” And there are more of course. Lucky charms are another source of superstition thinking that a ‘rabbit’s foot,’ a… A relationship with God is important for us who have been chosen by God in this age to be involved in the preaching of the gospel to the world as a witness, prior to the return of Jesus Christ, as we read in Mathew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” We are also admonished to grow in Christ’s grace and His knowledge which helps us get close to God the Father. 2 Peter 3:18 says: “… grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” The key element for developing a close relationship with God is ODEDIENCE, which almost seems like a dirty word to some people. How important is obedience? Acts 5:32 quotes the words of Peter in this way: “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom [better: which] God has given to those who obey Him.” Failure to obey can prevent one from even being properly baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit. And if they received it, they could lose it again if they consistently resist repenting… Many are under the misimpression that no matter what we do, God will always love us. Not too long ago, we published four Q&As on the concept of “unconditional love.” We follow up on them in this Q&A and add some clarifying comments, lest someone misunderstands. In part 1 of our series (https://www.eternalgod.org/does-god-love-everyone-does-the-bible-teach-unconditional-love-part-1/), we stated the following, citing and then discussing Paul’s words in Romans 9:9-13: ‘”For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”’… “In Romans 9:13, God explains that He CALLED Jacob, and that He did NOT CALL Esau at that time. We need to understand that God had decided to call or choose for salvation certain ones ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:3-4).… We take it for granted that you know that Satan and his demons exist. It is not the purpose of this Q&A to address that fact; we have written and spoken many times about this. As this year’s Halloween is behind us—a feast dedicated to the forces of evil—we are moving towards the holiday of Christmas by the end of 2024 and New Year’s Day and the holiday of Easter in 2025. All these days have one thing in common: They are all connected with evil spirits. It was believed that during these days the “underworld” or “Otherworld” gave up their “dead” who walked around among the living as “ghosts” or “spirits.” Since dead people do not live in an “underworld,” those spirits were demons. They had to be appeased with gifts or frightened with noise. But how did those “spirits” appear? Did they show up as men or women? The answer is clearly no, nor do they appear that way to men today. Let us take the White House as an example. It has been reported and known for a long time that the White House is “haunted.” In fact, the evidence for this truth is overwhelming. But the “ghosts” in the… As members of the Church of God, we trust God because He is the great Creator and the source of all power. He is the greatest being in the universe and knows all that is going on in our lives and what we need. Human beings are fallible and make mistakes. God does not. Is it compatible to say that a man can trust both in God and man? Let us start with Psalm 118:8 where we read: “It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.” The explanations given by a number of Bible Commentaries on this verse are helpful. Let us look at a few of these: Barnes Notes on the Bible states: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man – This is stated apparently as the result of his own experience. He had found people weak and faithless; he had not so found God. Compare Psalm 40:4; Psalm 62:8-9. Literally, ‘Good is it to trust in Yahweh more than to confide in man.’ This is the Hebrew form of comparison, and is equivalent to what is stated in our version, ‘It is better’ etc. It is better, “(1) because man is weak –… In part 3, we looked at the fact that paganism is the very opposite of belief in a supreme Creator God and is inextricably linked with occult practices. We looked at a small selection of verses from the Bible to show its consistency in condemning such practices. In the last part of this four-part series, we will look at a number of well-researched sources that show that paganism has been a part of mainstream Christianity for a very long time. This practice is called syncretism—the mixture of godly and ungodly practices (is this meant to be repeated or is a word missing?). Syncretism was extant in Old Testament times. Let us look at just one section of Scripture outlining this in Deuteronomy 12:29-32: “When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done… In the second part of this series, we specifically looked at Deuteronomy 18:10 in some detail. This section of Scripture showed that the practices mentioned were those which the people of God should not get involved with. Let us now look at Deuteronomy 18:11: “(There shall not be found among you) one who conjures spells.” J R Dummelow listed “this evil practice as the device by which one claimed to weave magic spells and curses by tying knots, etc.” By no stretch of imagination can this be related to “getting information from God”. Consulter with familiar spirits” – such persons, pretending to speak with ghosts or spirits, “were probably ventriloquists who claimed to hold communications with subterranean spirits.” They were in fact communicating with demons pretending to be communicating with the “ghosts” of departed ones. Verse 11 continues: “(There shall not be found among you) a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.” The Authorized Version translates “who calls up the dead” as “necromancer.” Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible observe: “‘Necromancer’—This referred to one who made inquiries of the dead, pretending to procure vital information by this device. Despite this evil, futile thing being condemned in the law of God, Saul, king of Israel sought out the witch of Endor… In the first part of this series, we looked at paganism in its many forms in the UK and the USA. Different websites gave us a brief but clear picture of the growth of this phenomenon in these two major nations, which are revealed in our free booklet “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.” theconversation.com reports that “Nature religions, commonly described as Paganism (or neo-Paganism), are growing in Australia. In the last Census, 33,148 people claimed affiliation with a nature religion: including Animism, Druidism, and the many traditions of Wicca, the most practised Pagan pathway.” ca.paganfederation.org reports as follows: “With almost half a century of experience, the Pagan Federation (PF) started in England and shortly thereafter sowed the seeds for its sister organization: the Pagan Federation International (PFI), to respond to the needs of Pagans who did not reside in England. Now PFI has local branches all over the world: including Asia, South America, Australia, United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Belgium and of course Canada and the USA, and this list only continues to grow!“ This same website also states that in “Canada, we are always interested in talking with members to start pub moots, coffee cauldrons, festivals or events that…Why do people pay tribute to or even worship Christmas trees?
Is Superstition condemned in the Word of God? (Part 2)
Is Superstition condemned in the Word of God? (Part 1)
How can we strengthen our relationship with God?
Will God always love you?
How can Satan and his demons appear to You?
Trusting in God – and Man?
How do you view paganism today, and exactly what is it? (Part 4)
How do you view paganism today, and exactly what is it? (Part 3)
How do you view paganism today, and exactly what is it? (Part 2)
