Whether you realize this or not, we have all been born into a ready-made society.
We as individuals have not had any influence in forming or building the society that we have been born into.
If we go against the grain in this society we are viewed as rebellious by the majority who set the norms. It is not long before the thinkers who question the status quo are pushed aside and considered off their rocker. Question, What are we to do when we find out that the society that we have been born into has succeeded in believing something that is not substantiated by learned knowledge or precedent?
Every year, on Dec. 25, thisnation celebrates Christmas Day. They either buy a pine tree or they go into the forest and cut one down; and then they carry it into their homes and they nail boards to it so that it will stand upright.
Then they deck it with silver and gold and then they have to drop down on their knees so that they can put presents under it.
Dec. 25 is a special day on the calendar. Everyone knows that Dec. 22 or 23 are the shortest days of the year.
Dec. 24 is when we can see that the days are no longer getting shorter. Dec. 25 is the day that the heathen have a celebration which used to be called “The Return of the Sun.” Today it is called Christmas Day.
This is the day that most Christians believe that the Son of God was born on. It is not the day of his birth, but that is another topic.
If you are wondering what my point is, I would like to show you several verses in Scripture that you may not have ever read before. You may have never looked at them from this perspective before. Please get your (KJV) Scriptures out and turn to Jeremiah 10:2-5. It says, “Thus saith the LORD, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: For one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: They must need be borne, because the cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.”
The uneducated heathen believed that the evergreen tree was a god because it did not die like the other trees did every winter and so they prayed to it.
Question: Have you “learned the ways of the heathen” and put a pagan idol up in your home? According to your Scriptures, this is a pagan practice.
BOYD MCNIEL Pea Ridge, Ark.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 12/28/2011