Often, in defense of the christian holydays (which, anybody who bothers to do the slightest amount of research will find, are actually nothing but pagan traditions wrapped in “jesus” paper), christians will claim that their religion of christianity actually “redeemed,” or “made clean,” those pagan holydays, and turned them into worship acceptable to the Almighty.
The easiest way to define such a fantastic argument is this: it is a symptom of demonic delusion.
As is typically done when trying to support many of the false teachings of christianity with scripture, passages will be lifted out of their contexts to make them say things other than what is actually said, or teachings about two different things will be conflated to try to make one precept apply to something altogether different.
It was recently suggested to me by a christian that 1 Corinthians 10:31 makes all the pagan holydays, which are revered in christianity, perfectly acceptable to the Father. Hmmmm. Let’s take a look at that argument. The verse states, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
But wait, as already mentioned, it is ALWAYS necessary to understand the context of any scripture that is used to support a teaching. So, what is the context of this verse? In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul clearly explains that believers should never enter into idolatry (false worship), as the Israelites had done in the wilderness.
Could Paul possibly be stating that idolatry is wrong, but then, if one enters into the practices of idolatry, he should do it “to the glory of God”? Heaven forbid! That would be no different than saying that if one commits murder or adultery, he should do it “to the glory of God.” Eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols is not the same thing as actually entering into the false worship of sacrificing animals to idols.
Paul went to pagan temples, stood outside them, and preached Yahoshua’s Gospel to the pagans there. He didn’t go into the temples and join the pagans in their false worship. There is a clear distinction between the two. So, no, scripture nowhere supports the idea of attaching Messiah to rituals that are pagan in origin. That practice is actually the literal meaning of “taking His name in vain,” which is to attach Him to what is false, worthless, or idolatrous.
That same christian then also conflated the ancient tradition of covering oneself with “sackcloth and ashes” as an outward sign of mourning, or penitence and remorse for wrongdoing, with the ash cross that is placed above the brow on “ash Wednesday” (Odin’s day) to suggest that the pagan tradition done today by christians is a perfectly acceptable practice. The ash cross on the forehead is a public request for protection to the pagan god Odin, and it begins the pagan observance of lent (40 days of weeping for Tammuz—Ezekiel 8-9).
Again, this is the conflation of two entirely different things, which is a common practice with false teachings. One cannot make pagan rituals mean anything different than what they are, when using such things in false worship of the Almighty. Deuteronomy 12:28-32 makes it exceedingly clear how the Creator views such practices. He said that those who are His true children are NOT to adopt pagan rituals in worship of Him. He has NEVER changed, and never will!
A pagan tradition is always a pagan tradition, and any pagan tradition that is hijacked for supposed use in worship of the Creator is false worship, and is not acceptable to Him as worship! He sees such things as no different from the idolatry condemned throughout scripture.
I have said it many, many times—it never ceases to amaze me just how vehemently christians will fight FOR their pagan holydays and traditions, and AGAINST the actual days and traditions Yah calls His. This particular practice of pretending that pagan holydays can have anything to do with the Father or the Son demonstrates very clearly that we don’t all worship the same God.
“He knows my heart” is code for “I can choose how I want to worship, and since my heart and my feelings are so pure toward who I think is God, then He is obliged to accept my choices as acceptable worship” (see: Jeremiah 17:9 about the heart).
It is, again, demonic deception in full force. In 1 Corinthians 10:21, Paul explains, “You cannot drink the cup of Yah and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of Yah and the table of demons.” That is exactly what the christian holydays purport to do—attaching Messiah to the ways of demons.
Yah ordained one weekly Sabbath (seventh day) and seven annual Sabbaths (feasts), and He gave His Sabbaths to His children only, as family identification. There are no other holydays that He sees as worship of Him. The christian holydays have nothing to do with Him, but are a work of the evil one to draw people away from the truths of the Holy Spirit—the Gospel of Messiah Yahoshua.
For more information: Why I Am No Longer a Christian