Jane Hamon: Turn Your Rejection Into Redemption (Revelation 22:2)
Channel: King of Kings Worship Center
Date: 2021-12-14

Jane Hamon: Turn Your Rejection Into Redemption (Revelation 22:2)
Jane speaks at Vision Church at Christian International on December 5, 2021. Quotes: “Long before Constantine, Christians found a way to redeem local cultures and salvage elements in those cultures that naturally pointed to Christ, whether Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Roman. They denounced inhumane pagan practices but, and, at the same time, took over pagan temples and converted them into churches."

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The birth and the death of Jesus are two things that we, as Christians, need to commemorate, and not let ourselves be overtaken by the commercialism of the day. Many people say, "Well, because Christmas has pagan roots..." Let me just address that - both true and false.

In 98 AD, they started celebrating Epiphany. Epiphany means revelation. It represents the fact that Jesus appeared on the earth. From that time forward, they celebrated January 6th as Epiphany on the Roman calendar. In AD 336, the emperor Constantine, who was a converted pagan, decided that they would replace all these pagan celebrations that were going on.

What were the pagan celebrations in the Roman empire? Well, they celebrated and worshiped Mithras, who was the Persian God of light, and Saturn, who was the God of agriculture. They celebrated something called Saturnalia, and they worshiped a guy named Mithras. Now, how many here have heard of the worship of Saturnalia? Like three people, probably because you've heard me preach before.

How many have heard of Mithras? Constantine came in, and on the very day that those pagan gods were worshiped, Constantine decided to supplant and overthrow pagan worship. He decided to build a stronghold for Christ on top of the place that the enemy has his stronghold. You understand, that's an Old Testament principle. The Israelites didn't just go in and tear down all the cities. They went, and they conquered the cities, and then they built a stronghold for God where the enemy had once held a stronghold.

Constantine had this idea. We're going to overthrow pagan worship. We're going to replace it with worship for Christ. Now, there was a danger because of something called syncretism, which meant that they blended false God worship with true God worship - and that did happen and has happened throughout the earth.

But let me just ask you something. Most of you have never heard of Saturnalia. Most of you have never heard of Mithras. I think his supplanting of those things worked. 92% of American households say they celebrate Christmas. They may not even know the true meaning of Christmas, but they understand, to a certain degree, the baby in the manger. We go to Asia. Asia is wild about Christmas, crazy about it. You think we decorate? You ought to see Asia decorate. We go every January, and they're still in the middle of their decorations.

They may not fully understand that this is a Christian holiday because Buddhists celebrate it, Hindus celebrate it, I mean, they're crazy about it. They love it. Isn't that wild? I love it because it makes them ask questions. Why are we celebrating? Who are we celebrating? (chuckling) So, I think that Constantine overthrew idols... But that's where people say, "Oh, it's got pagan roots." OK, the day maybe, but what they did is they overthrew false worship, amen? 

So let me read this to you. This was written by one of the historians in that period of time.  It says, "Long before Constantine, Christians found a way to redeem local cultures and salvage elements in those cultures that naturally pointed to Christ, whether Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Roman. They denounced inhumane pagan practices but, and, at the same time, took over pagan temples and converted them into churches."

So if you have a hard time really celebrating Christmas because of pagan roots, let me just remind you that your seven days of the week are all named after Roman gods. Sunday is the worship of the sun. Monday is the worship of the moon. Tuesday is the worship of Tiu, a God. Thursday was Thor's day. So, if you're going to make this really strict line, most of your months are named after false gods. Can we redeem it instead of rejecting it (chuckling) and not be ridiculous?

Many Christian symbols started out as pagan forms of worship. Several people here are wearing crosses. The cross, to us, is a holy, sacred symbol because it is the implementation that God used to redeem mankind when Jesus was nailed to the cross. But, in the Roman culture, it was a symbol of death. To us, it's a symbol of life. To them, it was a symbol of death.