Valentine's Day: Wholesome Christian Fun or a Pagan Tradition?

It's a big day for florists and candy makers, along with restaurants and nightclubs. It's Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is a festival that has been incorporated into many church activities without regard to its origin or validity for a follower of the God of the Bible.

Asking a professing Christian who participates in Valentine's Day, what it is all about will illicit various responses. For many, it's just a day that they can lavish gifts on their spouse or significant other and an excuse to get out on the town for an evening of fun. Others break out the party line answer that it is a celebration of the patron saint, Valentine. And still others have never even considered Valentine's Day; its origins and practices. Where did Valentine's Day come from? Is it a valid practice for those who profess faith in the Almighty God of the Bible? What does the church say? What does the Bible say?

What does the church say?

Well the story changes a little depending on who tells it, but it has some basic elements that carry over from one to the other. The reason for that is there are no valid historical facts to back up the traditional church understanding of Valentine's Day.

According the website American Catholic; to some Valentine was a priest in the Roman Empire who helped persecuted Christians during the reign of Claudius II. He was, as legend has it, thrown in jail and later beheaded on Feb. 14. In fact there is no historical supporting evidence of such a man. Others say Valentine was someone who secretly married couples when marriage was forbidden, or suffered in Africa, or wrote letters to his jailer's daughter, and was probably beheaded. Still others say Valentine was a Catholic bishop or Terni, during the reign of Claudius II who was beheaded. The historical evidence supports none of these legends that have been handed down for generations. So what is the truth of Valentine's Day?

The Pagan Origins of Valentine's Day

Known as Lupercalia Day, the festival that has become known as Valentine's Day had illicit sex at the core of its reason and practice. Dedicated to the Roman god Lupercus, this festival was celebrated with a lottery in which a man would draw the name of a woman and she would become his sexual companion for a year. It's easy to see the jump from a pagan celebration of sex to what we call Valentine's Day, or as some say, "Sweetheart's Day." Due to the lack of historical evidence the Catholic Church decided to abandon St. Valentine's Day in 1969. But the people continue to hang on to it, including the Protestant Church that is adamant that she broke away and has nothing to do with Catholicism.

All of the pagan origins of Lupercalia are mixed up and were even in the century previous to the incarnation of Messiah. But the fact that it was celebrated and was entirely pagan in origin is unmistakable. Some believe the festival honored Faunus, who was a god of herds and crops and much like the Greek god Pan. According to the website Crews Nest, "Each year, on February 15, the Luperci priests gathered on the Palantine at the cave of Lupercal. Here, according to legend, Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, had been nursed by a mother wolf. In Latin, the word lupus is the word for wolf."

The history of Lupercalia, known today as Valentine's Day, has its origins in paganism with sexual and fertility overtones. In fact the month of February itself, of Roman origin, comes from the Lupercalia ritual of young men running through the streets with goatskin thongs known as "februa" and the young women would come into the street during the run in hopes they would get lashed (februatio) by the thongs. Pagan thought was that it made them better able to bear children. This happened on what we now call Valentine's Day and corresponds to the month we celebrate the pagan feast; February.

What does the Bible say?

In Exodus 19:5 the Almighty speaks to Moses and tells him to say to Israel, "Now therefore, if you will indeed hear My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine." The qualifier for being a special treasure to Him, in fact one of His at all, is hearing His "voice and" keeping His "covenant." The phrase "unconditional love" is tossed out freely by professing Christians, but the Bible shows us differently. God is love, but in order to shower His love and blessing upon a person that person must live a life of obedience to His commandments. Yeshua, the only begotten Son of God; the Almighty Himself, said the same thing.

Matthew 19:17: "So He said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? ^£No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.'" Entering into life, according to the One who died that we might have eternal life, is predicated upon keeping the commandments. What does the Apostle Paul say about the commandments of God?

1^st Corinthians 7:19: "...keeping the commandments of God is what matters." For a witness to Paul and Yeshua, let us check in with the Apostle John.

1 John 2:4: "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps the His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we know Him."

Make no mistake; the commandments of God are for those who are saved "by grace through faith," and they are the proof of being a new creation in Messiah. What do the commandments say concerning our look at Valentine's Day (Lupercalia Day) and for that matter any practice of pagan origin that is brought into the church?

What do the commandments say?

Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before Me."

Numbers 33:50-52: "Now the Lord spoke to Moses...saying 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: "When you have crossed Jordan into the Land of Canaan, then you shall drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all the their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places..."'"

Numbers 33:55-56: "But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then is shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you I the land where you dwell. Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them."

Deuteronomy 6:14-15: "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord you God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth."

Deuteronomy 11:16: "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the Lord's anger be roused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you."

The pagans and their practices are dangerous to the Almighty's people. They can draw one away from the true God into paganistic confusion and deception. Left in that state a person begins a journey that, if persisted in, can lead to destruction. What did Yeshua say about the path that leads to destruction versus the path that leads to the gates and into the city?

Matthew 7:13-14: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

Revelation 22:14-15: "Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dongs and sorcerers, and sexual immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie."

The gates we must enter into are the gates of the New Jerusalem. Contextually it is a difficult and narrow gate and very few find it. In fact the Greek word for "few" means "puny, according to the Strong's definition of the word." The emphasis that Yeshua placed on this in Matthew 7 and finally in Revelation 22 should cause professing believers to take a second look at what they hold to and practice. The "narrow... difficult" way is associated with keeping the commandments of God versus the wide road traveled by those who "love and practice a lie."

Consider what the Almighty says in Hosea Chapter Three, Verse One:

"Then the Lord said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans'." Are we so arrogant as to believe the Lord will not hold us as accountable as He did Israel? Why do you think warnings by Paul to "not be deceived... do not deceive yourselves..." or, "Do not be haughty, but fear." It is because there is an unhealthy lackadaisical attitude towards the Almighty that no longer fears Him and thinks His commandments to be something that the professing church has risen above. It is a haughty attitude that comes from deception.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Consider John Chapter Ten, beginning in Verse 1:

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. ⁵Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

Please note John 10:11-12:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. ¹²But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them."

Do you remember, from earlier in this article about the root word for Lupercalia? It is "lupus." Let's read it again: According to the website Crews Nest, "Each year, on February 15, the Luperci priests gathered on the Palantine at the cave of Lupercal. Here, according to legend, Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, had been nursed by a mother wolf. In Latin, the word lupus is the word for wolf." The word "lupus" is the word for "wolf." The wolf wants to come in and scatter the sheep; single them out, away from the Great Shepherd that he might kill them and consume them.

Recall, if you will, what Yeshua said in John 10:4: "and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

Now please remember with me the Words of the Almighty from Exodus 19:5; "Now therefore, if you will indeed hear My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine."

I urge you to rethink the commandments of the Lord and to rethink the practices that the professing church, and possibly you yourself, hold to and practice. We read in Ephesians 5:11 that the Almighty does not want us to have anything to do with "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." What we call Valentine's Day is darkness, according to the perspective of the One whose opinion matters.

As for wanting to romance your wife; try surprising her several times throughout the year with a romantic evening out and flowers and candy. Tradition tries to demand it at Valentine's Day, but love should constrain us every day.