Saint Paul on idolatry and heathen practises

Many Christians who live in pagan dominated countries like India face the dilemma of whether to participate in the festivals of heathens or not and whether to eat the food sacrificed to pagan gods or not. We were celebrating a heathen festival in our office and doing idol worship. I specifically looked around to check whether my Christian colleague was participating with us in the ritual and found myself that he was indeed present along with us participating with our ritual, worshipped the idol and ate the food sacrificed to the pagan god.

On the way back to upstairs I was waiting for him and asked him politely by placing my arm around his shoulders, "Can you worship a pagan god?" and he said confusingly by nodding his head, "No, this is the first time I am worshipping one" and he looked pretty tensed and upset about it. I went and searched what the Bible had to say about this and found that Saint Paul in his letter to Corinthians has specifically discussed about this topic.

1 Corinthians 8 New International Version (NIV)

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols

8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

 

I am not a big fan of idol worship and our Vedic rishis didn't do idol worship. Idolatry was introduced by the later Hindus which comes under the Agama shastras. The great doctor of the church Saint Paul was right when he said, "flee from idolatry" and in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 he discusses about this topic in detail.

I am a Valentinian Christian and we interpret the Pauline letters esoterically than how most orthodox Christians generally would interpret it. The teachings in the unforged Pauline letters can be differentiated to have been given to two classes of Christians mainly psychic Christians and pneumatic Christians.

When the great Saint Paul says ".....yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." he is making a soteriological differentiation between the psychic Christians who rely on blind faith and the pneumatic Christians who rely on the gnosis of the Father.

We maintain that there is one psychic Christ who is the son of the Demiurge in the kenomic world and there is an another pneumatic Christ who is the son of the unknown Father in the pleromic world. The psychic Christ is the one whom the psychic Christians rely upon for their salvation which is based on blind faith and they feared and understood the Lord Jesus Christ in this way and finally they too will be redeemed at the end of the world and enter the Pleroma. On the other end the pneumatic Christ is the one whom the pneumatic Christians rely upon who are redeemed here and now through the grace of gnosis of the unknowable Father. When one interprets Saint Paul's teachings in this way the Pauline letters makes perfect sense. God, the Father and his son the pneumatic Christ represent the pneumatic Christians and Demiurge and his son the Lord, Jesus Christ represent the psychic Christians. All the genuine Pauline letters has to be interpreted in this way. 

Then the apostle Saint Paul goes on to say, "But not everyone possesses this knowledge." which clearly shows that there was secret knowledge or gnosis known only to an initiated few Christians despite orthodox Christians denying that such knowledge existed.

I advised my colleague to read 1 Corinthians Chapter 8 and 10 which says, "Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do." and Saint Paul clears all the doubts and confusion among fellow Christians here. Amen!