|
 “Pagan”
is from a word meaning “heathen.” It brings to mind
uncivilized savages, perhaps head-hunters, dancing about a
crudely carved, leering statue. We shrink in horror, at the
human skulls or blood-stained mystic symbols upon their altar.
We would scoff at the suggestion of “paganism” in our
country, or “pagan religions” among our close associates.
But
“pagan” and “heathen” are relative terms. Gentiles were
“heathens” to the Jews, and for centuries anyone not “Christian”
was considered heathen. Now, so says the dictionary, anyone “neither
Christian, Mohammedan, nor a Jew,” is a pagan; and the same
book says “heathen suggests adherence to polytheism or
the practice of idolatry, especially among rude or uncivilized
peoples.” (It was the so-called “civilized” people who
wrote that line.) When we call pagans “irreligious” we mean
they have not “our” kind of religion. From a strictly N. T.
Christian viewpoint, pagans seek God some way other than
through Jesus Christ.
Pagan
religions are systems whereby men probe the mysteries of Deity
with human philosophy, mystic symbolism, speculations concerning
heavenly bodies, Cabalism (occult or mystical interpretation of
Scriptures, with special emphasis given to numbers and geometric
figures), and the like. The error is not that they reject “God”
in some form or kind, but that they know not the true God.
Pagans were not, and need not be, atheists. Today they “seek
light” even as did the pagans of ancient Egypt and Babylon —
and in some of the “secret orders” of our day they use the
same symbols as did the ancient ones — the triangle, green branches,
|
|
etc., — and
proudly acknowledge the source. (See Morals and Dogma, Bishop
Pike.)
Our
generation is so unacquainted with Jehovah God, as manifested in
Jesus Christ, and set forth in the Bible, that many will “swallow”
the pagan philosophies of the Rosicrucian's, the Bahai Faith,
etc., because “they believe in God,” And by the same
childish imperceptivity many class as “Christian” such cults
as Christian (?) Science, Unitarianism, Jehovah’s (?)
Witnesses (?) whose use of the Bible is highly allegorical, or
devoid of faith in Jesus as the Son of God in a Biblical sense.
We are surrounded by paganism and do not seem to recognize it.
Paul
wrote, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.. .“
Do we really believe that? It is difficult to understand how
Christians who grasp the meaning of Col. 2:6 -10, can approve,
much less be part of any system for “seeking light” or
serving “The Great Architect” other than that revealed in
Jesus Christ and His way.
The
men of Athens were ”religious” but knew not the true God in
Christ. (Acts 17:22-f) Nor will a thin veneer of traditional “Christianity,”
polluted with sectarianism and the “social gospel,” keep
paganism from stalking and dominating our land.
[Previous
Article] [Next
Article]
|
