The Biblical Case Against “Christianizing” Practices (Saying “Well, I do it for Christ so its OK, besides I’m thinking about Jesus”)
This study looks at key Bible passages in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that show why God’s people must not “Christianize” practices that come from the world or from idolatry—whether holidays, rituals, lifestyles, or worship styles. We also look at:
- Whether the Sabbath was ever biblically changed to Sunday
- What Scripture says when people use “grace” as an excuse to live like the world
What Does God Say about “white-washing” or “Christianizing” practices that go against his word?
- A. “Do Not Learn the Ways of the Nations”
- B. Do Not Imitate the Customs of the Nations
- C. Mixed Worship: Saying It’s “for the LORD” but Borrowing the Nations
- D. God Alone Defines Worship – No Adding or Subtracting
- E. The Prophets Against Borrowing the Nations’ Practices
- F. New Testament Witness: Traditions, Worldliness, and Blended Worship
- G. Was the Sabbath Changed to Sunday?
- H. “Because of Grace, I Can Live Like the World”?
- I. Modern Examples and Life Applications
A. “Do Not Learn the Ways of the Nations”
1. Deuteronomy 12:29–32 – God Forbids Using Pagan Worship Patterns “For Him”
Context (Hebrew Bible): Israel is about to enter Canaan. God warns them not to be ensnared by how the nations worshiped their gods and not even to ask how they did it. He specifically forbids taking the nations’ worship methods and using them “for Yahweh.”
Deuteronomy 12:29–32 (NASB)
29 When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
30 beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?”
31 You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.
Key Idea: God explicitly forbids the logic, “We will worship the LORD using the patterns of the nations.” He doesn’t just reject their gods—He rejects their ways of worship.
Life Application: Any practice that originated as worship or devotion to false gods, or as a religious custom of the nations, cannot be made acceptable by saying, “We do it for Christ now.”
B. Do Not Imitate the Customs of the Nations
2. Leviticus 18:3 – Not Like Egypt, Not Like Canaan
Context: Before listing sexual, moral, and family laws, God tells Israel not to copy either the land they came from (Egypt) or the land they are going into (Canaan). This includes cultural and religious customs.
Leviticus 18:3 (NASB)
You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes.
Life Application: God’s people are not to shape their lives by the cultures around them—morally, spiritually, or ritualistically—even if they later try to re-label those behaviors as “for God.”
3. Leviticus 20:23 – The Nations’ Customs Are Rejected
Context: God is explaining why He is driving the nations out of the land: their customs are defiled, especially in the areas of sexuality, occult practices, and child sacrifice.
Leviticus 20:23 (NASB)
Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them.
Life Application: Customs that God abhors do not become acceptable just because someone uses the name of Christ while practicing them.
C. Mixed Worship: Saying It’s “for the LORD” but Borrowing the Nations
4. Exodus 32 – The Golden Calf “Feast to the LORD”
Context: While Moses is on the mountain, Israel makes a golden calf—an image form likely familiar from Egypt. Aaron then declares that the next day is a “feast to YHWH.” They use a forbidden image and a pagan form, but attach the LORD’s Name to it.
Exodus 32:4–5 (NASB, excerpts)
4 He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”
Life Application: This is an early example of trying to “rebrand” a forbidden practice as worship to the true God. God does not accept it—He calls it sin and judges it. Labeling it “for the LORD” does not sanctify it.
5. 2 Kings 17:33 – Fearing the LORD and Serving Other Gods
Context: After Assyria resettles people in the land, they mix fear of the LORD with devotion to their own gods. They add the LORD to their pantheon rather than repenting from the nations’ ways.
2 Kings 17:33 (NASB)
They feared the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.
Life Application: God rejects a worship that says, “We honor the LORD” while continuing in the same customs and practices of the nations. Mixing Christ with worldly practices is the same pattern.
D. God Alone Defines Worship – No Adding or Subtracting
6. Deuteronomy 4:2 & 12:32 – No Additions, No Subtractions
Context: Moses emphasizes that Israel must not tamper with God’s commands. They cannot add to His instructions or take away from them. This includes adding human traditions as if they were part of God’s way.
Deuteronomy 4:2 (NASB)
You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Deuteronomy 12:32 (NASB)
Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.
Life Application: Humanly invented religious days, rituals, or symbols may seem “harmless” or “helpful,” but when they become part of worship and are justified as “for God,” they cross the line God drew. He alone defines worship.
E. The Prophets Against Borrowing the Nations’ Practices
7. Jeremiah 10:2 – Do Not Learn the Way of the Nations
Context: God, through Jeremiah, warns Judah not to imitate the religious customs of the nations. The passage goes on to describe a tree being cut, shaped, and decorated as part of an idol-making process.
Jeremiah 10:2 (NASB)
Thus says the LORD,
“Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens Although the nations are terrified by them.”
Life Application: God’s people are not to “learn” or adopt the religious ways of the nations—their signs, their symbols, their rituals—even if someone later tries to repurpose them with a biblical label.
8. Hosea 2:11–13 – Ending Blended Feasts
Context: Israel combined God’s feasts with Baal practices, turning what God ordained into something He rejected. God says He will put an end to these celebrations because they are mixed and corrupted.
Hosea 2:11–13 (NASB, excerpts)
11 I will also put an end to all her gaiety, Her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths And all her festal assemblies…
13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals When she used to offer sacrifices to them, And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the LORD.
Life Application: When God’s people take His appointed times or worship and mix them with the nations’ practices, He does not simply accept the mixed version. He calls for repentance and, if needed, removes those practices entirely.
F. New Testament Witness: Traditions, Worldliness, and Blended Worship
9. Matthew 15:3–9 – Worship in Vain Through Human Traditions
Context: The Pharisees confront Jesus about His disciples not following the “traditions of the elders.” Jesus answers that they are breaking God’s commands for the sake of their tradition.
Matthew 15:8–9 (NASB, quoting Isaiah)
8 “This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 9 But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
Key Greek term: matēn (μάτην) – “in vain, to no purpose, uselessly.” Human tradition presented as worship is empty before God, even if done sincerely “for Him.”
10. Colossians 2:8 – Taken Captive by Human Tradition
Context: The Colossian believers faced pressure from philosophies, mystical practices, and human rules. Paul warns them against anything that is “according to the tradition of men” instead of according to Christ.
Colossians 2:8 (NASB)
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
11. 1 Corinthians 10:20–21 – You Cannot Share the Lord’s Table and Demons’ Table
Context: The question in Corinth: can believers participate in pagan feasts or rituals if they “know” an idol is nothing? Paul answers that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and believers cannot be part of it.
1 Corinthians 10:20–21 (NASB)
20 …the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.
21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Life Application: If a practice is rooted in idolatry or in the worship of other gods, it cannot be “cleaned up” merely by saying, “We now do it for Christ.”
12. Romans 12:2 – Do Not Be Conformed to This World
Context: Paul urges believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice and not be shaped by the world’s patterns, but transformed by renewing the mind.
Romans 12:2 (NASB)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Life Application: Conforming to the world’s holidays, entertainments, sexuality, and spirituality—then simply adding “for Jesus” to it—is the opposite of transformation.
G. Was the Sabbath Changed to Sunday?
1. God Blesses and Sanctifies the Seventh Day
Genesis 2:3 (NASB)
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
2. The Fourth Commandment – “Remember the Sabbath Day”
Exodus 20:8–11 (NASB, excerpts)
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…
10 But the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work…
11 Therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
3. Sabbath After the Cross
Luke 23:56–24:1 (NASB, excerpts)
23:56 …and on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
Note: After the death of Christ, the disciples are still described as resting on the Sabbath “according to the commandment.” The first day is simply called “the first day of the week,” not a new Sabbath.
4. A Sabbath Rest Remains
Hebrews 4:9 (literal Greek)
So then, there remains a sabbatismos (Sabbath-keeping) for the people of God.
Summary:
- No verse says, “God changed the Sabbath to Sunday.”
- No apostle calls Sunday “the Lord’s Sabbath” or a replacement of the seventh day.
- Sunday as a religious rest day arises historically through later human and imperial tradition.
Life Application: Calling Sunday “the Christian Sabbath” is a human tradition. To “Christianize” Sunday as a replacement for the Sabbath is an example of adding to God’s word (Deut. 4:2; 12:32).
H. “Because of Grace, I Can Live Like the World”?
1. Romans 6:1–2 – “Shall We Continue in Sin That Grace May Abound?”
Romans 6:1–2 (NASB)
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Key Greek phrase: mē genoito (μὴ γένοιτο) – “Absolutely not!”
2. Titus 2:11–12 – Grace Teaches Us to Deny Worldliness
Titus 2:11–12 (NASB)
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.
Life Application: True grace does not say, “You can live like the world.” It trains us to reject what the world loves.
3. 1 John 2:15–17 – Do Not Love the World
1 John 2:15–17 (NASB, excerpts)
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him…
17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
4. Jude 4 – Turning Grace into License
Jude 4 (NASB, excerpt)
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed… ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Life Application: When people say, “I’m under grace, so I can live like the world,” they are doing exactly what Jude warns against—turning grace into license.
I. Modern Examples and Life Applications
1. “Christianizing” Holidays and Rituals
- Christmas – Many customs (date, tree, certain symbols) have roots in pagan festivals. Saying, “We do it for Jesus,” follows the pattern Deuteronomy 12 warns about.
- Easter – Name and some symbols historically connected to fertility rites; often “Christianized” as resurrection day.
- Sunday as “the Christian Sabbath” – A human tradition treated as if God changed His commanded Sabbath.
2. “Christianizing” Worldly Lifestyles
- Worldly dating and sexuality dressed up with “we pray together.”
- Partying, drunkenness, or entertainment culture with “I’m forgiven anyway.”
- Yoga, astrology, or New Age practices with “But I think about Jesus while I do it.”
3. “Christianizing” Church Practices
- Turning worship gatherings into entertainment events that copy the world’s concert culture.
- Replacing Scripture-centered teaching with self-help or motivational speeches.
- Designing worship to fit worldly expectations, then attaching Jesus’ name to it.
Big Takeaway: All of these examples echo the same pattern Scripture condemns: learning the ways of the nations, then saying, “We are doing this for the LORD.” God calls His people instead to be set apart, to obey His commands, and to let grace train us away from the world—not into it.