16 KJV Bible Verses About Pagan Holidays

Jeremiah 7:18

“The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.”

Reflection: God asks Jeremiah in the verse before, “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” Every member of the household has a task: the children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough for cakes to the queen of heaven. In Jeremiah 44:17-19 the people defend the practice, saying that when they burned incense to her “then had we plenty of victuals,” and the women add that they did not make her cakes “without our men.”

Ezekiel 8:15-16

“Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”

Reflection: Ezekiel is carried “in the visions of God to Jerusalem” (8:3) and led through the temple courts. Just before this he is shown women at the north gate “weeping for Tammuz” (8:14), and here about twenty-five men stand with their backs to the temple and worship the sun toward the east. Verse 17 asks whether it is “a light thing” for Judah to commit these abominations in the Lord’s own house.

Hosea 2:13

“And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.”

Reflection: Hosea pictures Israel as an unfaithful wife (2:2) who credits her harvest to her lovers. Two verses earlier God says he will end “her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.” Here the days are “the days of Baalim,” days kept for the Baals, on which she burned incense, put on her earrings and jewels, and “forgat me.”

Exodus 32:4-8

“And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”

Reflection: The people asked Aaron to “make us gods” while Moses was on the mountain (32:1), and he made a calf from their earrings. He then built an altar and proclaimed, “To morrow is a feast to the LORD,” so the day was announced in the Lord’s name while the calf was hailed as the god who brought them out of Egypt. God tells Moses the people “have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.”

1 Kings 12:32-33

“And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.”

Reflection: After the kingdom divided, Jeroboam set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan, telling the northern tribes, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem” (12:28). He then ordained a feast “like unto the feast that is in Judah,” but in a month “which he had devised of his own heart.” Verse 30 has already given the verdict on the calves: “this thing became a sin.”

Mark 7:7-8

“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.”

Reflection: The Pharisees had asked why Jesus’ disciples ate “with unwashen hands” (7:5), and Jesus answers by quoting Isaiah on worship that honours God with the lips. His example in verses 9-13 is the Corban vow, by which a gift set aside for God released a son from supporting his parents. The charge is “making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.”

Deuteronomy 12:29-31

“When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.”

Reflection: Moses speaks to Israel before it enters Canaan. The warning is against curiosity that leads to imitation: asking “How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.” The reason given is what those nations did in worship, burning their own sons and daughters. The next verse sets the rule for Israel’s own worship: “thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

Leviticus 18:3

“After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.”

Reflection: Israel stands between two lands: Egypt behind, where it lived, and Canaan ahead, where God is bringing it. The next verse gives the alternative, “Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances.” The practices the chapter goes on to forbid are chiefly unlawful unions, along with giving children to Molech (18:21), and verse 25 says the land itself “vomiteth out her inhabitants” for them.

Deuteronomy 18:9-12

“When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”

Reflection: The list sets child sacrifice beside divination, the “observer of times” and consulting the dead. Verse 12 gives the reason: these practices are “an abomination unto the LORD,” and because of them God drives the nations out. Verse 14 sets Israel apart: “these nations … hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.” In their place God promises a prophet like Moses, and says, “unto him ye shall hearken” (18:15).

Jeremiah 10:2-4

“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.”

Reflection: The tree in Jeremiah 10:3-4 becomes an idol. A craftsman cuts it with an axe, decks it with silver and gold and nails it so that it will not move; verse 5 says the finished figures “speak not” and “must needs be borne, because they cannot go.” Verses 8-9 call the wood “a doctrine of vanities” and describe it dressed in blue and purple, and verse 2 tells Israel not to be dismayed at “the signs of heaven” as the heathen are.

2 Kings 17:10-12

“And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.”

Reflection: Second Kings 17:10-12 belongs to the account of why Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away (17:6). Israel had “walked in the statutes of the heathen” (17:8) and “went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them” (17:15). The images, groves and incense on every high hill are the evidence the writer gives.

Galatians 4:8-11

“Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

Reflection: Paul writes to Gentile believers who once served “them which by nature are no gods.” He is alarmed that, having come to know God, they now “observe days, and months, and times, and years.” The rest of the chapter addresses those who “desire to be under the law” (4:21), and verse 9 calls the turn to these observances a desire to be “in bondage” again.

Colossians 2:16-17

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Reflection: Paul tells the Colossians not to let anyone judge them over food, drink, “an holyday,” the new moon or the sabbath. He calls these “a shadow of things to come,” with the substance found in Christ. Later in the chapter he describes rules of “Touch not; taste not; handle not” as “the commandments and doctrines of men” (2:21-22).

Romans 14:5-6

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.”

Reflection: The chapter opens with receiving the one who is “weak in the faith” without “doubtful disputations” (14:1). Paul allows that one believer keeps a day and another does not, and says both act “unto the Lord” and give thanks. He asks each to be “fully persuaded in his own mind” and, in verse 4, asks the one who judges, “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?”

1 Corinthians 10:19-21

“What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.”

Reflection: Paul denies that an idol is anything, yet says pagan sacrifices are offered “to devils, and not to God,” so a Christian cannot share both “the Lord’s table” and “the table of devils.” A few verses later he allows meat bought in the market and a meal at an unbeliever’s house, eaten “asking no question for conscience sake” (10:25-27). If someone says the food was “offered in sacrifice unto idols,” the believer is not to eat it, for that person’s conscience (10:28-29).

Revelation 2:20

“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

Reflection: The Son of God addresses the church at Thyatira (2:18), which he first commends for its charity, service, faith and patience. The fault is that it tolerates a woman called Jezebel who teaches his servants to commit fornication “and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” The same charge is made against the church at Pergamos in verse 14, linked there to “the doctrine of Balaam.”