Pod Prep Valentine’s Day 2015
IT ALL SEEMS SO WARM AND INNOCENT WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Valentine's Day seems so innocent. It is all about showing "love," giving a card or flowers or chocolates to a loved one. What is there not to like about all of this, right? Wrong. Valentine's Day is big business like Halloween and Christmas. People believe the wonderful legends of the monks or saints that saved love during the dark ages. They have three different saints who get the credit for the nice legend of saving young romance. St. Valentine’s Day was removed from the General Catholic Calendar in 1969; local calendars can include it if they wish.
However the real roots of the holiday go back to the background of pagan Rome, unfortunately. According to most accepted historians, Valentine's Day was an adaptation by the Catholic Church from the ancient pagan Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival. The Catholic Church updated and connected it to a "Saint" Valentine sometime late in the third century A.D. (though there is some confusion as to who this person actually was and which one of the three, if any). It really took off commercially as a holiday in America in the late 1800s as did Christmas and Halloween because of the Madison Avenue touch and all the money involved.
WHAT IS THE LUPERCALIA LOVE LOTTERY?
So what's wrong with that? The problem is: Lupercalia was an immoral fertility festival also featuring gluttony and drunkenness. At the end of the festivities young men would draw the name of a young lady from a box, and the two were considered a pair (sexually and otherwise) for the coming year. This festival, Lupercalia was dedicated to the Roman god Pan, recognized as the god of fields, groves and wooded glens—and pictured as having the hindquarters, legs and horns of a goat. This pagan deity may explain the nymph with the bow that is pictured on this worldly holiday. It also was connected to fertility and the season of spring. None of what is connected to the feast of Lupercalia is worthy of a Christian's observance.
BUT CAN A LITTLE CUTE PAGAMISM BE WRONG?
If there were no God who is offended by remembering the pagan excesses on these dates it might not be so bad. But these customs do remind God of how destructive these holidays are for mankind. Well, what about showing love on Valentine's Day if I'm not doing it for pagan reasons? Isn't that okay? No, because the expression of that kind of "love" is still rooted in a former pagan holiday. True Christians must not adopt pagan dates and festivals as holidays, for they are to strive to please God in everything they do.
Even when you think you're innocently observing a holiday like this, you're still advancing the origins and meanings of the day—especially from God's perspective, as He certainly knows where it came from. God said not to do this. He told this to the Israelites entering the pagan land of Canaan: See Deut 12:29-31.
"When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise. ‘You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods".
GOD SAYS DO NOT BE SNARED BY FOLLOWING PAGANS
We must not merge pagan teachings with what God instructs through the Bible, we weaken the truth and violate God's clear command when we do this kind of blending. These pagans burned their children in sacrifices to these pagan false deities. It angers God. God’s ways are real true love. Showing love as God instructs is not wrong—romantic love included. It's a good thing to express your love toward others through a card, flowers, chocolates and dinner out or any number of other ways. Many forms of love pagan divinations developed in Europe and have become part of western culture. But we should not put our love under the trappings of a pagan holiday like Valentine's Day! If someone is special to you, then do those things throughout the year at times convenient to you both rather than waiting until February 14th.
True Christians should desire to faithfully observe God's own Holy Days found in the Bible (see Leviticus 23 for a list of them). Celebrating holidays like Valentine's Day in opposition to God's instruction does not honor or obey Him—no matter how well intentioned or innocent we believe it to be.
HOW we worship Him does matter to God. He expects us to understand the difference between what He has declared holy and the profane teachings, customs and traditions masquerading as godly worship. See Ezekiel 22:26 or Jer 10:1-2.
Jim
