Why Christians Should Not Celebrate Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day has its roots in pagan rituals which included rapes and orgies and blood sacrifices to pagan gods. This is not taught, not spoken of, not preached about and, likely, not known by many of our black pastors who, in an effort to appease their even less knowledgeable wives, dress up like fools and engage in ritualized behavior that is an offense to the cross. Rituals and practices designed, from their inception, to deny the holiness of God are inappropriate vehicles for evangelism. Some have argued that we’re just taking Satan's tools and turning them against him. By definition, Satan's tools are Satan's tools. By definition they are forever condemned and ineligible for inclusion in worship to God [I Corinthians 10:20-21].
Many black churches here in town
are either planning or are supportive of “Sweetheart Balls,”
Saint Valentine’s Day socials by another name. Through great
effort and expense, these church folk organize and gather and
dress their best and buy their sweetie a gift—the dollar value
being the measure of a man’s manhood. That precious few pastors
I am aware of teach biblical truth—which condemns this
nonsense—is, for me, a measure of their manhood. These
pastors, showing up to these unbiblical functions in
foolish-looking, emasculating, matching red and white, are
demonstrating either that they know nothing about scripture, or
that their doctrine is not sound, or that they are simply
cowards, caving in to what Paul called “silly women, laden with
sin, led away with divers lusts” [2 Timothy 3:6], led around by
their emotion rather than their intellect, never seem to try a
spirit by the Spirit of God [I John 4:1] before exhausting
themselves preparing for these events which not only displease
God but surely offend Him. We offend God by our ignorance. By
our laziness. By it never even occurring to us that, having been
given new life and new breath by the immeasurable sacrifice of
God, we continue in our same ways, exactly the way we were
before we knew Him, going back to the same vomit of Valentine’s
Day and Easter eggs. That precious few pastors I know—I mean, I
can count them on one hand—take a stand against such nonsense
deeply saddens me. And I can only imagine how God feels about it
all.
Saint Valentine's Day has its roots in pagan rituals which
included rapes and orgies and blood sacrifices to pagan gods.
This is not taught, not spoken of, not preached about and,
likely, not known by many of our black pastors who, in an effort
to appease their even less knowledgeable wives, dress up like
fools and engage in ritualized behavior that is an offense to
the cross.
There is little if any actual evangelism being conducted by
black churches in this city. No evangelism, but most every black
church I know is supportive of these pagan “Sweetheart” balls.
Church folk gatherings which do little, if anything, to tell
people about Jesus and which offer Christ to no one. But they
raise money. They are festive, more pageantry and celebration of
ourselves.
Pastors: if you are allowing or promoting any Valentine’s Day
activities, you are lost in sin. You are encouraging your people
to sin.
...the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God,
and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you
cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of
demons. —I Corinthians 10:20-21
Instinct tells me most men could care less about Valentine’s
Day. Valentine’s Day is an amazing guilt trip, popularized by
greeting card giant Hallmark and advertising firms to do
precisely what it does: get men to spend a lot of money on
women, women most of these guys have been neglecting all year.
It is appreciation-at-gunpoint. Romance under threat. Given his
druthers, the average man would likely not even *remember*
Valentine’s Day, were it not for the threat implicit in not
observing it: a crying wife, a disapproving mom. “Silly” women,
which is not meant disparagingly but that these women were
under-educated and under-informed, connected more directly to
their emotions than to logic or reason, let alone scripture and
doctrine. Few, if any, women I know speak in any doctrinal tones
whatsoever when it comes to these idiotic “Sweetheart” balls.
God is simply not in the equation, not present in the planning,
and makes His presence known only in the blessing for the food.
God is simply not in these things, yet there’s Pastor, dolled up
like a red and white hyena, trying to keep the wife happy.
The truth is, gentlemen, you have an obligation to appreciate
and love your wives every day you draw breath. There shouldn’t
need to be some day on the calendar to remind you to love her.
Loving her is your responsibility [Ephesians 5:25]. Valentine’s
Day finds energy and inertia only in our failure to honor the
covenant we made with God and the women we love. I shouldn’t
need to observe some invented day to prove I care about you. I
shouldn’t need a special day to remind me who you are or remind
me to demonstrate how much you mean to me. You should be able to
see that, to know that, every day of your life. A man who really
loves his wife should buy her a house, not a stupid ring.
Engagement rings are not biblical. The biblical model is
*dowry,* the bride’s price: a bank account, a demonstration of
means to care for the wife and family. Diamonds do not replace
God’s promise. Wasting ten grand on a wedding is idiotic. Buy a
house. Get a man-made diamond—the expensive ones are not
Zirconium but are actual diamonds and cost a fraction of the
cost of the natural ones. Buy her a car. Get her kids out of
public school and into a private one. I can make a list, pages
long, of better ways to spend your money than on some frivolous
jewelry.
Sisters: grow up. Seriously. I’m just sick about this. About our sisters being infantilized, hinging their entire self-esteem and/or a man’s worth on the size of the rock he buys her. The value of your husband should hinge on his commitment to Christ and to his family. And you should be mature enough to know God and to put practical matters ahead of bling-bling.
