Understanding General Revelation and the Lucifer Story
When you say the word paganism, it conjures different images depending on your cultural background. For those raised in the 1980s, it may trigger flashbacks to the “satanic panic”—an era when concerned parents warned their children not to read comic books, listen to rock ‘n’ roll, or watch movies like Poltergeist. In retrospect, those parents may have been right after all. But that is a discussion for another time.
As a professor of Religious Studies, when I use the terms pagan or paganism, I am referring to something far more historically and philosophically substantial than stage theatrics, horror films, or tabloid sensationalism. I am not speaking of the overt and performative version of paganism—Ozzy Osbourne on stage biting the head off a bat, or self-proclaimed occultists conjuring the ghost of Aleister Crowley. Whether or not you consider that a viable career path is beside the point.
What I mean by paganism is a belief system—or more precisely, a broad family of belief systems—that stands in fundamental opposition to the biblical worldview. To identify and evaluate what is or is not paganism, one must understand both systems clearly: the biblical and the pagan. This requires a level of conceptual clarity often lacking in popular discourse. A person who is trained only to respond to surface-level impressions or cultural associations will not classify these systems correctly. Instead, we must think in terms of beliefs—about their starting points, their internal coherence, and their ultimate goals.
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