There actually have been many pagans throughout history who have turned to the One True and Living God. The Bible is full of many such examples. The following are just a few:

Ruth the Moabitess left her pagan country and embraced the One true God. “And she [Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law] said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:”

The Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;” I Thess.1:9.

Mark 5:1-20 tells of a demon possessed man set free by the Lord Jesus. After Jesus left his city, the man went back to his town and proclaimed the “great things Jesus had done for him” (v. 20).

Luke 8:2-3 tells of “certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him [Jesus] of their substance.”

“He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Hebrews 7:25
No one, no matter what their life has been, is beyond the reach of God’s saving grace.

The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We cannot measure up to God’s holiness on our own. This puts us in a very precarious position because “the wages of sin is death [eternal separation from God in hell]” (Rom. 6:23a). No matter what good we try to do, we cannot earn God’s forgiveness. Even our righteousness is as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6).
Thankfully, God offers salvation as a free gift to all who believe. “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Rom. 6:23b.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” John 3:16-18.

I am working on source verification at this time and hope to post my findings in the near future.

Thank you.
~ Vida

Further comments to this post are closed for the present.

I wonder how many of his friends, when he was a human, lived under persecution, and eventually died for their belief in him? I’m sure more research will tell me.

Anywho, last I checked, this was a blog. Vida is under no such obligation, as a journalist might be, to fact-check every quote, or fact, or whatever that she puts on this blog. (However, as a judge in South Carolina has recently ruled, journalism can legitimately take the form of blogging.)

Vida can say what ever she wants to, and she can quote whoever she wants to. Bearing false witness would be misquoting, or perhaps taking a quote out of context making it appear to say something other than what it was originally meant to say.

It may be _wise_ to check sources, etc., but I’m not so sure about obligation, so long as it’s not libel.

Just my $0.02.

Shepherds would not be watching their flocks in the hills in December in ancient Israel, though many other aspects of the nativity story are taken from Mithra’s mythology.

I should point out however that the quote supposedly from Valerie Duffy is plagiarized from Jack Chick, who in turn got the ideas from John Todd (a.k.a. Lance Collins) who was exposed as a fraud by Evangelical journalists many years ago. See the essay “Halloween Errors and Lies” at my website for citations.

Tom Sanguinet is also a well-known fraud, having also been exposed by Christian writers. In fact I haven’t yet met a supposed “former Pagan who is now born again,” who wasn’t a fraud milking gullible fundamentalists for money and attention.

You are entitled to your belief that every religion in the world other than your own is demonic. I happen to believe that the Bible is filled with lies, myths, errors, and an occasional good idea and reject your authority to blaspheme my dieties.

As a citizen journalist/blogger, however, you do have an obligation to research your sources and not just quote them because they say what you want to hear. Remember that part of your beliefs about not bearing false witness?

What _we_ celebrate is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The fact that that happened during the Passover was no coincidence. It was the fulfillment of the Passover. The Jews at the time probably thought it rather inconvenient to have to put someone to death on that most holy of holidays. (I’m not entirely certain, but wasn’t that against Jewish law?)

I think we ought to celebrate the Passover when the Jews do. For they celebrate the angel of death passing over their ancestors because their doors were marked with the blood of a lamb. We celebrate the death passing us over because we’re marked with the blood of _the_ lamb; the lamb that conquered death.

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As for Christmas, we celebrate it on December 25 as sort of a compromise with the pagans. They celebrate Winter Solstice on Dec. 21. I can’t remember when the original Christians celebrated the birth of Christ, but I don’t think it was Dec. 25. I think that practice started shortly after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. Afterwards some pagan rituals were combined with Christian practices, like Christmas and Easter. I could be wrong on that.

I think we ought to celebrate Christmas towards the end of February. I have no Biblical reasons for this (except it provides separation between Christmas and Winter Solstice). Instead, my reasons have to do with Winter being a long and dreary time. All you have to look forward to is Christmas. After that you have 3 months of sub-zero temperatures, snow and ice storms, bad drivers putting us all at risk, cold and flu season, etc. If we shift Christmas to the last week of February, then all through winter we have Christmas to look forward to. Once it’s over, we’ll have Spring to look forward to!

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As for Halloween, I’m still working through my position on it. I’ll likely end up in the same camp as you; don’t participate in the pagan festival. But until then, I just thought I’d get up on my Christmas and Easter soapboxes.

-=Andrew