Slideshow image

The thought experiments of the 1960’s where people sought spiritual highs through drugs or eastern meditation were dismissed and ignored by most of the church as failed ideas on the edge of society.  But in the 21st century we can see that their revolution has succeeded. The average Westerner now accepts ideas like transcendental meditation, New Age spirituality, many paths to God, or all-religions-are-one with the divine universe as legitimate ideas.

These notions are pagan lies.  The word “pagan” comes from the Latin, paganus, “of the earth.”  The Apostle Paul gives us God’s definition of a pagan:  someone who “changes the truth of God for the lie and worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).

There are two notions of worship that are opposites.  They cannot be blended together.  One is truth, the other is counterfeit.  Everyone is spiritual.  We all worship and serve something.  If we worship and serve anything other than God the Only Creator and Redeemer, we are pagans, whether we like the term or not.

“You gotta serve somebody,” sang Dylan. “It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,” the maker of heaven and earth.  If it is the devil, he will get you to worship the earth in one form or another.

Over the next several weeks we will be looking at the polar opposites of Christian faith and paganism.  The readings will be online at Minden-epc.org in the pastor’s blog and they will be shared on Facebook.  Once a week a portion (like this one) of the readings will be in your newsletter.  This information is important as many “churches” have tried to blend the dividing line between the truth and the lie, and it cannot be done legitimately.  So, either you are caught up in the Spirit of God through Christ and you are being swept upwards, or you are caught in the spirit of earth and you are headed downwards.