It begins by addressing the accusation that Halloween is an evil celebration that should be shunned by Christians, but it goes further. With brevity and clarity, it answers the charges that Christian holidays (and other practices) are nothing more than resurrected pagan practices.
The writer is familiar with the names and titles I was familiar with growing up: Jack Chick, The Golden Bough, Alexandor Hislop of The Two Babylons, Ralph Woodrow of Babylon Mystery Religion, etc.
All of these "historical" sources "proved" to me and my family that those who observe Easter, Christmas, and other Christian celebrations are modern-day pagans, blindly participating in the ways of this world, headed by Satan.
I did not, and still do not, resent growing up Christmasless. My family and church rejected Christian holidays because we thought of them as "so-called 'Christian' holidays." We truly believed, because of their alleged pagan origins, that they were abominations in God's sight. They were "counterfeits" that distracted society from God's economy of true worship.
Our intentions were noble, but our understanding was lacking.
It wasn't until my mid- to late-20s when I began to reconsider how reasonable and scriptural some of my ingrained beliefs were.
Now I wonder how I would've responded had I read an article such as this one in my mid- to late-teens. It would have been a good introduction to the "other side," but at that age I imagine I would have dismissed it as a set of "clever" arguments, a spiritual pit into which Satan would just love for me to fall.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I did fall -- I fell into the Truth that I was unable to see before, because it was buried and covered.
I think the key is (to borrow a phrase) a relentless pursuit of the Truth:
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
--Matthew 7:7-8
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