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 25^th. 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.

 Perhaps inflaming lusts of generations of children has led us into the economic debt crises of today; covetousness fueled by ‘dross laden silver’. But to cause children to err and stumble by cultivating covetousness in them (which is idolatry- Col.3:5, Eph.5:5), and the love of the world “inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree” (Isa.57:5) seems especially pernicious when using the name of the Lord. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”- Matt.18:6

  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.