Paul Wilson (31 Dec 2008)
"a diluted christian letter to the editor of WND"


Christianize your pagan practices

Regarding the question of who is and who is not a Christian according to whether or not they celebrate Christmas: Let me remind all Christian WND readers that we are all called to carry out the Great Commission and Christianize every corner of the world.

This is why eating pork and lobster – formerly forbidden to the Children of Israel – can be seen as an act of evangelism and the bringing of the Gospel to formerly pagan areas of the Earth. The same goes for formerly pagan practices such as Eule: As a Christian, I claim this Nordic pagan rite in the name of Christ and practice it now to celebrate Christ's birth, not the solstice of the sun. In the same light, I reclaim the ancient spring fertility festival of Astarte and now use it to celebrate the resurrection of my Lord as the holiday of Easter. I thereby Christianize what was formerly a pagan celebration in the service of the Great Commission.

I thought all this was settled back when the Lord gave Peter the vision regarding food.

You are a Christian if you accept the saving grace of Jesus Christ. This doesn't mean you will automatically be a mature Christian; it simply means that you have begun the journey.

Your job now is to begin to reclaim your life in the name of Christ and Christianize all those pagan elements of your personal life that do not reflect your new state of salvation. This can take years. As you Christianize your life, you also begin to Christianize your environment. This can take even longer.

It is not in our jurisdiction to make eternal judgments as to who is or is not a Christian. That judicial domain belongs solely to God. We are called to make earthly judgments in that regard; however, if we deem someone not a Christian we are to use our intelligence, patience and yes, sometimes our wit to witness and evangelize to that person, not to cast stones. We may be hit by stones in our witnessing to the pagans, but we are not supposed to cast them ourselves.

Larry Wall