--- title: The Pagan-Origins Attack — Refuse the Frame, Pivot to Jesus url: https://jw-apologetics.app/playbooks/pagan-origins-attack/ markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/playbooks/pagan-origins-attack.md type: playbook perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching jw_source: Reasoning From the Scriptures — Cross pp. 89-93, Birthday pp. 68-70, Holidays pp. 176+, Images pp. 183-187 attribution: Ralph Woodrow, The Babylon Connection? (1997); Jonathan Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine (1990); Bruce Longenecker, The Cross Before Constantine (2015); Steven Hijmans, Sol Invictus (Mouseion 47/3 2003); Philip Shaw, Pagan Goddesses in the Early Germanic World (2011); Mike Winger; Wes Huff added: '2026-04-09' last_reviewed: '2026-04-09' index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt --- # The Pagan-Origins Attack — Refuse the Frame, Pivot to Jesus The JW pagan-origin attack bundles at least four rs topics — Cross (pp. 89-93), Birthday (pp. 68-70), Holidays (pp. 176+), and Images (pp. 183-187) — under one unified move: "your traditions are pagan, therefore your religion is not Christian." The JW typically opens with one specific example (Christmas tree, birthday candles, cross on the wall) expecting the Protestant to defend it, then escalates across the others. The rs source chain for every example traces back through Vine's Expository Dictionary, Tyack's Cross in Ritual, Cutner, E.O. James, and several 19th-century Britannica volumes to Alexander Hislop's 1853 book The Two Babylons — the ultimate source for nearly every JW pagan-origin claim. Ralph Woodrow, who wrote the biggest Evangelical popularisation of Hislop in 1966, publicly retracted the entire case in The Babylon Connection? (1997) after checking Hislop's citations against primary sources. Modern scholarship (Longenecker 2015, Hurtado 2006, Hijmans 2003, Susan Roll 1995, Philip Shaw 2011, Jonathan Z. Smith 1990) has moved decisively against parallel-hunting methodology. The strategic goal of this playbook is not to win the factual debate on any one pagan-origin claim — the JW is scripted and you are not, and even if you win on Saturnalia the conversation is not about Jesus. The goal is to refuse the frame and pivot to the gospel. ## Recognition Signals - "Christmas is pagan" - "Easter comes from Ishtar" - "You celebrate Saturnalia" - "The cross is a symbol of Tammuz" - "Birthdays are pagan" - "Jeremiah 10:3-4 forbids Christmas trees" - "Christendom is full of pagan customs" - "Sol Invictus December 25" - "Crux ansata phallic" - "Cutner sex worship cross" - "Two Babylons" - "Chaldean mother goddess" ## Opening Question > "Brother, before we talk about Christmas or birthdays or the cross specifically, can I ask something bigger? Is it a general rule for you that if something has a pagan origin, Christians cannot use it? Or is the rule applied to some things and not others? Because I want to understand the principle before we argue the examples." ## Their Proof Texts - [Romans 14:5](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-14-5.md) - [Romans 14:6](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-14-6.md) - [Colossians 2:16](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/colossians-2-16.md) - [Galatians 4:10](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/galatians-4-10.md) - [1 Corinthians 8:4](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-8-4.md) - [Jeremiah 10:3](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-10-3.md) - [Jeremiah 10:5](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-10-5.md) - [Galatians 6:14](https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/galatians-6-14.md) ## Expected JW Responses ### Response 1 **JW says:** "Yes, anything with pagan origins is wrong — come out from among them and be separate." **Observation:** Good — they have committed to the principle. Now pressure-test it. "OK, the days of the week are all named after pagan gods. Sunday for the sun-god, Wednesday for Woden, Thursday for Thor, Friday for Frigg. You publish The Watchtower on Wednesday. January, March, June, May are named for Janus, Mars, Juno, Maia. Wedding rings come from pre-Christian Egyptian and Roman practice, and the Awake! magazine in the year 2000 defended JW wedding rings by saying 'although the wedding ring may have originated in pagan lands, the custom has become so widespread that it is no longer associated with pagan worship.' So the Watchtower itself applies a looser rule than 'anything with pagan origins is forbidden.' The real rule seems to be 'whatever the Governing Body decides is pagan.' Is that fair?" ### Response 2 **JW says:** "Not everything with a pagan origin — only the things that are actively idolatrous or tied to false worship." **Observation:** Now they have conceded the principle you need. The rule is not "pagan origin," it is "current idolatrous use." That is exactly the Reformed position: judge practices by their current content, not their historical etymology. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 8:4 — "an idol is nothing in the world." Romans 14:23 makes faith the test, not etymology. Once they concede this, the individual claims about Christmas trees and birthday candles and crosses collapse — because those are not idolatrous in any Protestant practice today. ### Response 3 **JW says:** "But the rs book has footnotes to scholarly sources like Vine's, Britannica, the Catholic Encyclopedia." **Observation:** Name the source chain. "Every one of those citations is a century old or more, and they all trace back through Vine and Tyack and Cutner to Alexander Hislop's 1853 book The Two Babylons. Hislop was a Free Church of Scotland minister who argued Roman Catholicism was crypto-Babylonian mystery religion. His most prominent Evangelical populariser was Ralph Woodrow, whose 1966 Babylon Mystery Religion sold over a quarter million copies. In 1997 Woodrow publicly retracted the whole thing in a book called The Babylon Connection? after checking Hislop's primary sources and finding them fabricated. Modern scholarship — Bruce Longenecker's The Cross Before Constantine (Fortress 2015), Larry Hurtado, Steven Hijmans on Sol Invictus (Mouseion 2003), Philip Shaw on Eostre (Bristol Classical Press 2011) — has moved past the entire methodology. The rs book is quoting 1900-era sources as if the last century of scholarship never happened." ### Response 4 **JW says:** "Jeremiah 10:3-4 literally describes Christmas trees." **Observation:** Do not argue vegetation. Ask them to read the next verse. "In your own NWT, Jeremiah 10:5: 'they are like a scarecrow in a cucumber field. They cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot take a single step.' Does your Christmas tree have feet that cannot walk or a mouth that cannot speak? Verse 9 adds that the thing is plated in silver from Tarshish and clothed in purple textile. Jeremiah is describing a Babylonian cult statue, not a decorated evergreen — and lit indoor Christmas trees did not exist until the sixteenth century AD, more than two thousand years after Jeremiah. Reading Jer 10:3-4 as a prophecy about Christmas trees is eisegesis." ## Follow-Up After the principle-test and the source-chain naming, pivot hard to Paul's own verdict in Romans 14:5-6: "one man judges one day as above another; another judges one day the same as all others; let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it to Jehovah." That is Paul's own ruling in the JW's own NWT, and the Watchtower's judgment of Christians over festival observance is exactly what Colossians 2:16 forbids: "do not let anyone judge you about ... the observance of a festival or of the new moon or of a sabbath." Read both verses aloud. Then close the loop to the gospel: "Brother, whether I celebrate a day or not is not the test of being a disciple of Jesus. The test is whether I know him and whether he has paid for my sin. Can I ask you something? Your own NWT at 1 John 5:13 says John wrote 'that you may know that you have life everlasting.' Do you know, right now, that you have life everlasting? Or does the doctrine you live under say that confidence is presumption?" That question is the hinge. It is not about Christmas; it is about assurance. ## Counter-Arguments (Recommended Order) 1. [The Cross Is Not Pagan — And Paul Boasted In It](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/cross-pagan-symbol-rebuttal.md) — Galatians 6:14 / 1 Corinthians 1:18 / Colossians 2:14 2. [The Birthday Ban — A Rule Generalised From Two Pagan Tyrants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Jeremiah 20:14 / Job 3:1 3. [Holidays Are Not Pagan — Read Jeremiah 10 to Verse 5](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/holidays-pagan-origin-engagement.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Colossians 2:16-17 / Jeremiah 10:5 4. [Images Are Not the Problem — Worship Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/images-in-worship-protestant-response.md) — Numbers 21:8 / 2 Kings 18:4 / Exodus 25:18 5. [Scripture's Own Sufficiency Claim — What Does the Watchtower Add?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/scripture-sufficiency.md) — 2 Timothy 3:16–17 / 1 Corinthians 4:6 / Acts 17:11 6. [Paradosis — What Paul Actually Preserved](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/paradosis-traditions-2thess215.md) — 2 Thessalonians 2:15 — 'Hold the traditions... by word or by letter' ## Pivot To - [Holidays Are Not Pagan — Read Jeremiah 10 to Verse 5](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/holidays-pagan-origin-engagement.md) - [The Cross Is Not Pagan — And Paul Boasted In It](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/cross-pagan-symbol-rebuttal.md) - [The Birthday Ban — A Rule Generalised From Two Pagan Tyrants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon.md) - [Images Are Not the Problem — Worship Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/images-in-worship-protestant-response.md) - [You Can Know You Have Eternal Life](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/assurance-of-salvation.md)