I was married to a Lutheran whore, and learned a lot about the contrasts.
I mean, Luther’s thesis that he nailed on the doors is a pretty black and white example of the contrasts between the two. Any single one of his points in that thesis is an example of where they differ.
As for when paganism infiltrated, to the best of my knowledge this happened when Rome decided to become a “Christian nation.” To make the transition easier for many Romans (who had been pagan for a long time up to this point), they mixed in pagan shit with Christian stuff. So like, the Easter bunny for example is pagan AF, but many modern “christians” either don’t know this or believe it doesn’t matter. Same with Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc. Even the modern celebration of Christ’s birth has been corrupted by paganism.
Also, to my understanding, the Catholic Church is largely responsible for perpetuating that paganism into modern day cultures.
In my view, the Catholic Church is nothing short of Satan’s covert church on the earth.
I don’t mean to say all catholic congregants are willingly evil people. I don’t believe they are. But the clergy and overall institution is evil AF and certainly not reflective of biblical Christianity.
As for Lutheranism, I think Luther did the right thing in calling out the Catholics, and the existence of biblical Christianity in the modern day is largely a direct result of his actions. That said, I am not a Lutheran and do take issue with some of their doctrine. But I do not believe they are “lost” like the Catholics and some other denominations are.
I grew up going to a Lutheran church, but only sporadically and I did NOT pay attention. I'm aware of the Pagan symbolism issue, and my best friend is Pagan, but when she talks about this sort of thing it's mostly denouncing God and talking what sounds like nonsense. I haven't really learned anything from her.
Agreed on Catholicism. I know many Catholics to be good people (at least from what I can tell), it's the higher-ups that are problematic.
My faith is almost entirely founded on spiritual experiences, most of them evil and having driven me into His arms. Almost no education, I'm practically an imposter.
Spiritual experience and being driven into his arms is the best teacher anyhow.
Plenty of people view the Bible through an exclusively intellectual lens, but what they miss is that the spirit realm is not intellectual to begin with.
Your friend, whether she knows it or not, is captured by satanic forces. It’s that simple. Demons don’t tell the truth, so whatever spirits she communes with will present themselves as ancestors, nature spirits, fairies, aliens..basically anything except what they actually are: demons.
I’ll go out on a limb and assume that you want to know about paganism to be able to speak intelligently with her on these issues. While that doesn’t hurt and could potentially be advantageous, no one comes to the truth by their own intellect or even any intellect at all. In other words, you’re not going to convince her of anything through sheer intellectual discussion and debate.
Much like you described your own experience, I’d say that generally is how many people come to know the real God: through spiritual experience often borne of spiritual tribulation.
The best thing you can do is pray that God reveals himself to her as he revealed himself to you and so many others.
Sidebar, I’ve found that many sermons by a man named Derek Prince give a very good outline of paganism. You can find his stuff on YouTube and probably Rumble.
I suspect any spiritual good she experiences will be deemed a Pagan god in her eyes. She's told me of experiences regarding getting nosebleeds from painting the entities she sees. Demonic as hell, but she doesn't believe me.
When we have such debates, my arguments are weak to the point where I wonder if I'm wrong. And I know I haven't done the reading. So I'm trying to fix the problem.
Thanks for the recommendations.
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