The Sunday Sermon: The Return of Paganism

When you read the Levitical laws, a lot of those laws were designed to set God’s people apart from the world around them. Many ceremonial and cleanliness laws went to outward appearances that could visibly identify God’s people. Today, those laws do not apply to Christians, but the moral law is still binding. That law sets God’s people apart from the rest of the world. The peace and joy of a Christian’s life in turbulent times draws people to them. As the west moves beyond Christianity, we are not arriving at something new but returning to something very old. And the Christian moral law is the best way to stand against that old paganism rearing its head again.

Think about tattoos for just a minute. I come not to condemn them. My wife has several. But God told the Israelites to have no tattoos. Leviticus 19:28 reads, “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.” (ESV)

It was a marker that separated Israel from the world. We know from the archeological evidence of the time that globally, the Jewish people were about the only ones not embracing tattoos. Now, Christians do not believe that passage to be binding on them these days. It was not part of the moral law.

But, in the twenty-first century, it is harder and harder to find a person without a tattoo. The pagan world has crept in, even on stage at your local hipster church. What sets the Christian apart is not the tattoo but the morality. Our outward behaviors toward others are supposed to set Christians apart. In the Roman Empire, Christians looked like the world around them, but they acted in a way that set them apart and drew people to them.

I bring all this up because there really is a profound mental health crisis shaping up, and I believe its roots are spiritual. As Christianity recedes in the West, very old paganism is returning and manifesting itself in disturbing ways. Please take a listen.