“This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not learn the ways of the nations …” (Jeremiah 10:2).

When Israel finally entered the Promised Land, God instructed them not to learn the ‘abominable practices of the nations.’  The word ‘nations’ in this verse means non-Hebrew people.  Non-Hebrew people were called goy or gentiles.  The word goy also carried with it the idea of pagans and pagan practices.   The pagan practices of the nations were called abominations and God hated them; the practices disgusted Him.

As a gentile or one of the nations called into a relationship with the God of Israel, it is difficult to see and understand that Christian holidays have spiritually pagan roots because we have been taught that what’s in our heart matters more than what we actually do and participate in.   We must realize that our hearts are deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).  We are taught that freedom includes that personal interpretation for practices is the standard for what is right and wrong rather than the Word of God.  This mindset could be compared to the days in Israel when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That time period was called Judges!  According to Romans 11:16, if a root of something is holy then so are the branches that come from it,  but that also suggests the converse is true: if the roots are pagan and unholy, then what grows as a beautiful tree from those roots is also pagan and unholy.   

These posts of the ‘inherited lies’ is going to bring out the worthless idols and false gods still embraced by the nations today and defended by the largely gentile Christian church under the pretext of ‘that’s not what it means to me’ rather than looking at ‘what it means to God’.

Even more indefensible is telling  Jews who come to know the Messiah of Israel that they should also embrace these practices.   Writing as a gentile who has left these pagan practices behind through many challenges and spiritual battles,  it breaks my heart to hear Messianic Jewish ministries in America suggest to new Jewish followers of Yeshua that they should mix the holy and the profane as part of some restoration between Jews and gentile.  This is just not Biblically sound and God’s chosen people should not combine their rich spiritual heritage with the ways of the nations around them.