It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Relevance Fallacies
(Musings
of X-mas and other forms of will worship)
If only we would heed Mr. Preacher’s advice
which he initially gives 13 minutes into his message “Why I love X-Mas”. He
offers it in a question, ‘What would you do if you only had the bible?’ Certainly this is a welcomed suggestion as
the scripture itself commends those who ‘received the word with all readiness
of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so’
(Acts17:11). What is strange however is how this exhortation is used as a basis
to discard the history related to the pagan origins of X-mas. Which history
mostly brings great shame upon the custom, specially for those that believe.
If this suggestion to use the bible had only
been heeded in regards to this custom and tradition one would discover quickly
that Christians ‘have no such custom, neither the churches of God’. Not because
the apostles left us no ordinances or traditions to follow (1Cor.11:2,16,
14:36-7, 2 Thes.2:15, 3:6). Christ left the exhortation to his apostles to
teach all nations ‘to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you’
(Matt.28:20). The observing of days, and months, and times and years however
was not among them (Gal.4:10). If therefore the word of the Lord, from which we
were begotten again, even the voice of our beloved who hath grace poured into
his lips, hath left us no such things from whence did it originate? Which
things also we speak, in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but not which
the Holy Ghost teacheth (1 Cor.2:13). Were we to search the writings and
traditions of men in history we would find most to agree that it was not a service to the Lord of Glory. The winter solstice was interpreted with a variety of
pagan myths. The Norse celebrated the Yule the Germans worshipped Oden around
this time. In Rome Saturnalia was observed in honor to their god Saturn while
others held this to be the birthday of their sun god. The Druids believed their
sun god to have been born on December 25th. These were related to
the ending of the shortest days of the year by those in the Northern
Hemisphere. It was an ancient practice to be ‘dismayed at the signs of heaven’.
The Roman Catholic system mingled these traditions with the name and worship of
Christ, in historical accounts. God gave us the lights in the firmament for
signs and for seasons, and for days and for years (Gen.1:14-5). And expressly
for his people Israel to observe the feasts and times he spoke to them in
clarity through his servant Moses. Which serve as shadows of things to come.
But God warned about worshipping the hosts of heaven (Deut.4:19, Job 31:26-7)
and carrying out service and customs for their sake. Indeed they are brought
forth in their season by Him who setteth the ordinances thereof in heaven, and
all declare his glory and show his handywork.
These winter solstice celebrations of the sun
bring us to Mr. Preacher’s discussion of Jeremiah 10. Mr. Preacher correctly
informs us that the passage has no direct instruction against the modern
customs of the people with Xmas trees. This is true in a technical sense as
they made the trees into images to worship. But what he overlooks here is the
striking similarity of the customs both of Jer.10 and modern Xmas trees. Such
similarity cannot be overlooked. Since God gave us no such custom of Xmas trees
as Mr. Preacher also affirms we can conclude with the historians that it
originated with the heathen. And when we see the similarities of the modern
custom with the customs of the heathen people in the Old Testament times, we
can at the least conclude that the secular views of its origin are close to
accurate.
This is not however the most poignant
criticism to draw from the passage. But the rebuke we ought to give the more
earnest heed to is this:
Jeremiah 10:2-3
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:
God warns us not to learn the way of the heathen because the customs of
the people are vain. Vain is by definition: ineffectual or unsuccessful; futile: a vain effort. without real
significance, value, or importance; baseless or worthless: vain pageantry; vain
display.Archaic. senseless or foolish. without effect or avail; to no purpose:
to apologize in vain. in an improper or irreverent manner: to take God's name
in vain.
This agrees with the bible use of the term
also as seen in Isaiah 30:7 …”in vain, and to no purpose”. That Xmas is vain in
the sense of it being ‘without real significance, ineffectual or of no avail’
to the spiritual Mr. Preacher agrees, perhaps inadvertently but nonetheless
agrees. For he acknowledges it is not necessary for a Christian and it is not
commanded nor given by the Lord from whom every good and perfect gift finds its
origin. What ought to cause all who are called by his name reservation is the
attachment of Christ’s name onto trees and days, lights and decorations, dramas
and movies, blasphemous Romish masses and revelry common to this time of the
year. Not to mention everything marketable, Christians themselves buying
‘making merry and sending gifts to one another’. This ‘holiday’ yokes the
conscience and soul and mind of Christians along with the world to the
traditions and customs of men. Let us examine ourselves with this commandment:
Exodus 20:7
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Vain traditions are indeed addressed by the Lord. For example:
Matthew 15:9
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men.
Mark 7:7-8
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. [8] For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold
the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such
like things ye do.
Mark 7:13
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which
ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Titus 1:14
Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men,
that turn from the truth.
2 Kings 17:15
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their
fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed
vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them,
concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
Job 15:2
Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with
the east wind?
Psalm 119:113
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Isaiah 1:13
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;
the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it
is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Isaiah 45:19
Seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare
things that are right.
1 Tim. 6:20
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane
and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
2 Tim. 2:16
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto
more ungodliness.
Titus 1:10
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
specially they of the circumcision:
Titus 3:9
But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and
strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
Ephes. 5:11
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove them.
Christ therefore who in times past commanded Israel of old "ye
shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their
groves, and burn their graven images with fire. v26 Neither shalt thou bring an
abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou
shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing"(Deut.
7:5) surely would not expect less holiness from his bride whom he might
sanctify and cleanse with the washing of water by the word, [27] That he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephes. 5:26-27
Israel did not heed Gods command to destroy those nations utterly, but ‘were
mingled among the heathen, and learned their works’ (Ps.106:35)
Nay he hath said " But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship him. [24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:23-24 And again
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:16-17 Why go we
about therefore with invented methods of worship which men have imagined in
their own heart. Do ye think the scripture saith in vain "The backslider
in heart shall be filled with his own ways:"? Proverbs 14:14. Let us be as
the apostle which taught us to worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Philip. 3:3 Not mingling the
desires of our flesh and mind with the issues of our heart and service of our spirit.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their
hand; (Psalm 149:6) not the customs of the people, not the ways of the heathen.
Neither do we bring offerings ‘of the fruit of the ground’ which
required ‘the sweat of our face’ (Gen.3:17-19, 4:3). And our sacrifices unto
the LORD are not made upon altars of hewn stone. For ‘if thou lift up thy tool
upon it thou hast polluted it’ (Ex.20:25). God rejects all worship finding its
origins with the heart of man, neither is worshipped with men’s hands
(Acts17:25). Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise... What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (Dt.12:30, 32)
Numbers 15:39
… and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that
ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use
to go a whoring:
1 Kings 12:33
So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth
day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own
heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered
upon the altar, and burnt incense.
Isaiah 58:13
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure
on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,
honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine
own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isaiah 66:3
Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth
in their abominations.
Jeremiah 9:14
But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and
after Baalim…
Jeremiah 7:24
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the
counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and
not forward.
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding.
A warning in the scripture to ‘flee from
idolatry’ (1 Cor.10:14) is a warning to keep ourselves from worshipping ‘the
work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made’ (Isa.2:8).
Israel was snared by their idols and ‘defiled with their own works, and went a
whoring with their own inventions’ (Ps.106:36-39).
This title 'Why I love Relevance Fallacies'
is due to the nature of the majority of argumentation employed in Mr. Preacher’s
message. He starts with an exhortation for those who 'learn not' the customs of
Xmas to be consistent in their behaviour regarding other heathen customs. Which
is a valid exhortation, yet this changes into a series of relevance fallacies
which dominate the logic in his message. He suggests that perhaps the use of
Choir robes may also be pagan in origin. Maybe church buildings and other
holidays, or any other number of things built into our society. He mentions a
number of other things that we may not be consistent in. Would this in fact
refute the position on the customs of Xmas? If we were entirely inconsistent on
every other point would that prove us wrong on the Xmas issue? Those exercised
in proving all things and holding fast to that which is good see the error
here. Those acquainted with introductory logic would know this to be a fallacy
of relevance. He appeals to the apostle in 1 Cor.8 as a proof text that we
could partake of something originating with paganism. What is obviously
overlooked is that 'meat' does not originate with the heathen. Rather it is a
creature of God sanctified with the word of God and prayer (1 Tim.4)
This pattern of thinking is carried on with
examples from whether we should stop going to hospitals because they may abort
children, to maybe we shouldn't eat at restaurants which serve alcohol to any
other such like combination of things. Does this doting about questions and
strifes of words found the basis of a reasonable point? Nay. It does not revive
one stone out of the heaps that can be laid upon another. Nothing logically
relevant is added, and only a matter of consistency is psychologically
relevant. Maybe we should cast off our choir robes and neck ties? We just don't
know. He gives us no guidelines, no criteria, no way to determine which pagan
customs are to be avoided and which ones are to be mingled into our worship of
God. His entire argument at this point seems to be ‘Since we do some pagan
customs, we are justified in doing others’.
His points about the Feast of Dedication and
the supposed excesses with the feast of tabernacles which Jesus didn't address
are simply arguments from ignorance. In this context nothing mentioned
indicates nothing in particular. Not to mention his appeal to history here that
was bemoaned at the start. And the only point perhaps containing any validity
for a human invented holy day being observed by Christians is an appeal to
Christian liberty. The closest thing in scripture that I am aware of is Israel
after a near tragedy ordained 2 feast days as a memorial (Esther 9). The Jews
observed days and times. But a study of the issues from Jewish formalism to
Gentile excesses of rioting in Acts 15, 21:20-28, 1 Cor.8,10, Gal.2 and Rom.14
clarify the issues relating to Christian liberty. Namely liberty is not an
occasion to the flesh (Gal.5:13), nor an invitation to be conformed to the
world (Rom.12:2). It is being liberated or set free from "a yoke...which
neither we nor our fathers were able to bear" (Act15:10) A Gentile
believer who has knowledge could find himself eating meat offered to an idol in
an idol's temple in an effort to gain them that are without law. To them that
are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under
the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. 1 Cor.
9:21 Yet he is admonished to regard the weaker brothers conscience and this
stern admonition:
1 Cor. 10:19-21
What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in
sacrifice to idols is any thing? [20] But I say, that the things which the
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not
that ye should have fellowship with devils. [21] Ye cannot drink the cup of the
Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of
the table of devils.
Those who drink into the spirit of the world quickly lose their sense of
the dangers associated with the world and the things that are in the world. The
scripture states that the ‘whole world lieth in wickedness’ (1 Jn.5:19) and
therefore admonishes us to ‘Love not the world neither the things that are in
the world’ (1 Jn.2:15). Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God (1 Cor.2:12), and as we are transformed into the
image of Christ and not conformed to this world (Rom.12:2) we discover what is
meant in Ephesians 2:2. That the world is walking on a course led about by the
prince of this world (Jn.12:31, 14:30) which will find its completion in
Revelation 13.
The serpent who beguiled Eve through his
subtilty has also crafted many devices against us equally as subtle. We know
that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one.
(1 Cor.8:3) But idol worship is devil worship. (Lev.17:7, 2Chr.11:15,
Deut.32:16-17, Ps.106:36-7, Rev.9:20) and is rooted in the lusts of our flesh
(Gal.5:19-20). It is an inordinate desire for the supernatural and to make God
more like ourselves (Rom.1:19-23); usually by making us more 'godlike'. Paul warned in Colossians 2:18 ‘Let no man
beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels,
intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his
fleshly mind’. There can be a lure to worship and wonder after angels which are
greater in power and might (2 Pt.2:11). Satan himself seizes upon this lust and
transforms himself into an angel of light, and a seducing spirit. (2
Cor.11:4,14, 1Tim.4:1). Since we think (not exclusively) in imaginations
(images), visions, patterns, analogies, symbols and similitudes, Satan seeks to
put thoughts into our heart by these means (Jn.13:2, 27). And with our hearts directed by the
devil he seeks to enter into men to possess them. Christians are admonished to cast down
imaginations in our thoughts as a method of warring with the enemy (2
Cor.10:5).
Towards the end of part 2 of his sermon, Mr. Preacher
takes us into dangerous places by instructing us that graven images are okay only
not to be worshipped. His states this during his nativity apologetic, and
appeals to the Hebrew text for support. He continues stating further that the
Hebrew word for graven image indicates exclusively an image that is worshipped.
Now the plain context in English indicates as much, but from this he proceeds
to carve out the idea that you can have images of God and Jesus because Jesus
appeared in an image in the flesh. Of course Paul said though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more (2 Cor.5:16). Peter
likewise stating that now we see him not (1 Pet.1:8). And this is the basis for
justifying a nativity scene. What also appears to be justified is all images of
any sort from Satanic worshippers pentagrams, to the Roman Catholic statues of
all the saints, as long as they are not worshipped. Your house could be full of
Buddha’s, Hindu gods of all kinds, golden calves, Dagons, maybe even a picture
of the devil himself, and whatever else you find pleasing in a decorative sense,
but just don’t worship them. How, it must be asked, does this exhortation Mr. Preacher
advances comport with verses like Deut.7:25-26?
-The graven images of their gods shall ye burn
with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take
it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to
the LORD thy God. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house lest
thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou
shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
The problem is that Satan is more subtle than Mr.
Preacher acknowledges. Satan is well aware of the propensity of humans to
project emotions and characteristics to inanimate objects as well as animals
and events (see the use of idols, anthropomorphisms, reification etc.). It is natural
for the soul to long after traditions kept from the youth up. It is natural to
project emotion to images and pictures of Jesus and Mary. As in Ezekiel
23:14-16 when Jerusalem was seduced and saw men pourtrayed upon the wall and
images pourtrayed and doted upon them. She was drawn away by the lust of the
eyes and snared. Many people think of images of Jesus when praying and praising
God. (Deut.4:12, 15) This is how people are seduced into visualization, spirit
guides and prayer guides. We must wonder at this point whether Mr. Preacher would
object to using a picture of one of the Greek or Roman male gods and renaming it
after our God as a representation of him. What objection might he have for such
things? The seducing spirits draw many away by men’s desire to change the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and
continue downward to images of birds, four footed beasts and creeping things. Mr.
Preacher also fails to ask the basic question ‘Why are certain images chosen
over other images?’ Since we have before pointed out the Gentiles worship
devils, and the images are chosen by devils as means by which they can access
the heart of man. Some images would be better suited for this purpose than
others. Those who wish to educate themselves on the devices of the devil in
response to verses like 2 Cor.2:11 may seek to study why the devil appears as
an angel of light while he is in contrast called a dragon, a crooked serpent, a
fiery flying serpent and leviathan. Likewise his angels are spoken of as frogs,
serpents and scorpions, unclean and hateful birds. And further study the
unclean animals in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. He that hath ears let him hear.
And on a final note Mr. Preacher points to
X-mas trees and decorations of the season as a way to admire the beauty of God,
as a method of worship (see above). Decorating is perfectly fine and giving
gifts to people is also a good thing. Many of the customs followed in the X-mas
celebration are perfectly acceptable under different contexts. So it is argued
they can be acceptable during this season. What has been subtly accepted in
order to receive this thought is what is know as a “fallacy of
composition”. That is the error of
attributing to the whole what can only be reasonably attributed to the parts.
X-mas is a whole composed of many parts. And while many of the parts are fine independent
of the whole the whole itself has an entirely different view. Using this type
of reasoning which Mr. Preacher uses to validate the customs of the people
during the X-mas celebration, one could equally assert that a house is not very
heavy because every single brick is not very heavy. Or that a sentence
containing great blasphemy is not evil because each letter within the sentence
is not evil. This type of reasoning can only lead to error and should be
exposed as such.
Let us not be ignorant and unwise but understanding what the will of the
Lord is. Proving all things and holding fast to that which is good. Laying
aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. X-mas has been
observed not to be in the bible but to originate among pagan worship. It is a
vain custom, and attempts to justify it are mere will worship. It fosters the
spirit of the world and teaches Christians to be spotted by the world, thereby
causing the Christian to have communion with darkness.
The name of the only Lord God and our
Lord Jesus Christ be glorified.
