Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bgsuvax!kutz@cis.ohio-state.edu (Kenneth J. Kutz) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Pagans and Christ (was Re: Christians abetting Satan?) Message-ID: Date: 17 Sep 90 07:18:41 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Lines: 91 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu > In timh@linus.uucp (Tim Hoogasian) writes: > >--to the moderator: > ...the "New Age" pagan movement does not honor Christ.... > This has several wrong assumptions. > 1) The "new age" spiritualist movement is not identical with the > neo-pagan religious movement. Specifically, much of the new age > spiritualism is appended to basic christian belief systems and a fair > number of new agers are churchgoers. IMHO, this hardly makes the new > age people enemies of Christ. There are a couple of things that need to be understood here. Tim gives two qualities to New Age spritualism. Let me address both of these qualities with respect to Scripture: (a) Much of new age spiritualism is APPENDED to basic christian belief systems. The appendices contradict the Book. Anything that contradicts the Book is a tool of the enemy of Christ. This needs to be plainly and clearly understood. When one writes a book, if an appendix is included, in most instances the appendix is in concert with the rest of the work. This is absolutely not true with New Age attempts to append to Christianity. (Tim, see Rev 22:18). It would take about six sentence with a "Christian" new ager before I heard something that has allegedly been "appended" to the Book which quite clearly contradicts the truths contained therein. The text below is a case in point. (b) A number of new agers are churchgoers. Read about the churchgoers in 2 Peter 2. Clearly, a churchgoer may be a friend or may be a foe. > 2) Pagan does not automatically imply Satanic. You all are certainly > welcome to your opinions about the origins and objects of > non-christian religions, but it is offensive and uncharitable to > presume that they are necessarily opposed to the aims of the > Christian traditions. Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? ... ``Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.'' (II Cor 6:14-17, cut and pasted courtesy of Geoff Allen's previous post and the X Window System from MIT :-) > 3) Pagan does not automatically imply that Christ and the God of > Christianity (however any particular christian chooses to define him) > are not "honored". There are a number of neo-pagan traditions that > honor Christ and the Christian god as deserving of reverence. They > simply hold an additional belief that there are other divinities that > also deserve reverence. People who believe there are "other divinities that also deserve reverence" are, like a picture in the Post Office, displayed in Romans chapter 1. "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator." Since through Christ, ALL things were created, then those who believe in "other divinities" are identifying themselves with this group. It could not be any clearer. Romans 1:30, describes these people to be "God-haters". Although one in this category may not speak out loud a hate for God, their acknowledgement that One True God does not exists puts them in this camp. Yes, if one is a pantheist, he is an enemy of Christ. > I will complain slightly by saying that while I know a large number of > "Christians" that will automatically condemn others for having the > "wrong" beliefs... Well I'm not sure what "condemn" means in this context, but perhaps this postings sheds some light as to why the Christians you know have problems with "wrong" beliefs. According to the Bible, those who have "wrong" beliefs to the extent that adhere to pantheism, are God-haters. For those Christians to accept the validity of pantheism, they would have to drop the Bible from the "inspired of God" category. The professing church is well on its way to doing that today as the apostasy increases in some circles, but then again, even the apostasy was predicted as something that would take place in the end times. So the existance of such of movement, to me, increases my faith in the infallibilty of Holy Scripture because it adds just one more of many fulfilled prophecies to a growing list. Please don't take this posting as a "condemnation" but rather as a clarification as to why some Christains you know feel the way they do. If they "condemn you to hell", I have a few texts you could pass on to them if you wish... :-) -- Kenneth J. Kutz Internet kutz@andy.bgsu.edu Systems Programmer BITNET KUTZ@ANDY University Computer Services UUCP ...!osu-cis!bgsuvax!kutz Bowling Green State Univ. US Mail 238 Math Science, BG OH 43403