Allie Beth Stuckey of Relatable.
Ironic that pantheistic pagan worshippers cause so much air pollution, isn’t it?
“You shall have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:3
No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
1 Corinthians 10:20
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:4-6
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Romans 8:7
Thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”
Jeremiah 10:2-5
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
1 Corinthians 10:14
Ken Pullen, Friday, September 13th, 2024
September 12, 2024
By Allie Beth Stuckey
Reprinted from Relatable & Blaze Media TV
VIDEO
Image from Burning Man 2024
Paganism has always been around, but in recent years we’ve seen it reinvigorate, especially in the West. Modern society has embraced pagan practices with unapologetic enthusiasm. In 2001, only 134,000 people identified as pagan in the United States. Today that number is a staggering 1.5 million. What used to exist mostly in the shadows is now being popularized in the mainstream.
Take the Burning Man festival that happened in Nevada last week as an example.
Originally, I thought Burning Man was just another popular music festival, but it turns out the event is a full-fledged pagan celebration.
Google Burning Man, and you’ll find that the week-long affair is marketed as an occasion to celebrate “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.” But allow me to translate that for you: It’s an occasion to celebrate debauchery of every kind and participate in sick pagan rituals — most notably the burning of a colossal effigy to represent the rejection of “the man,” i.e., corporatism, capitalism, patriarchy, societal norms, and even self-imposed expectations.
When attendees enter the Burning Man gates, they lay down their burdens at the soon-to-be burned wooden altar, eliminate monetary transactions on the philosophy of shared resources, and adopt a new name.
It is immediately evident that the festival is a perversion of Christianity. When we become Christians, we also become new creations; we take on an easy yoke and a light burden when we follow the way of Christ; and we cast all our cares upon the Lord. Burning Man flips the script and offers hope where there is none.
Some of the activities offered at the festival involve living out sexual fantasies (including violent ones), marriages to people you just met, being branded with an actual branding rod, and countless other carnal pursuits.
Burning Man woos the lost with promises of self-liberation, self-discovery, self-reliance, self-fulfillment, and self-expression.
Notice which word is repeated.
Unsurprisingly, at the heart of the Burning Man festival is the worship of self, which is what all paganism is really about. The worship of gods, goddesses, icons, and idols is self-serving at its root because your devotion depends on what these false gods can give you — pleasure, love, success, etc.
But we know that true freedom and liberation is not self-fulfillment or self-worship but actually self-denial, and that, of course, is the difference between cultish pagan practices and Christianity. Christians are not worshiping God to get something in return. We worship Him because He is pre-eminent, the creator of the heavens and the Earth. We worship Him because His Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we are compelled to worship Him because His very character demands our adoration. The love that He has given us compels us to love Him.
Burning Man and all other pagan practices and religions are merely cheap imitations of this incredible exchange that we can only find in the gospel.
One of the creators of the Burning Man festival was a man named Larry Harvy. Fascinated by paganism, Harvey said his burning of effigies addressed “a primordial human need [of] the desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time to belong to another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves even in the midst of impermanence.”
Again, the parallels to Christianity are stark. Harvey picked up on something that is true about mankind: We are wired to belong.
But he missed the second, more crucial part: We are wired to belong to our Creator.
The fact that people are flocking to paganism in astonishing numbers is not surprising in the least. Satan is at work – spreading darkness, telling lies, and doing everything he can to keep people away from God. And it’s working. The increase in people who identify as pagan is a testament to his nefarious nature. But this I know: God wins. As the darkness gets darker, God’s light shines brighter.
Link to the video for anyone unable to open it by clicking on the image.
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