Can Christians repurpose pagan symbols to display in churches?

The question of whether Christians may adopt or reinterpret symbols that originated in pagan religious contexts has been discussed at various points throughout history. Some have argued that such symbols can be redefined and used to express Christian truth, while others have warned that it is in violation of the second commandment.

The following sources document a line of interpretation that has received relatively little attention in contemporary discussions of Christian symbolism, despite its presence in both biblical commentary and historical Christian writings.

(Some Primary Source Material on the Ankh Cross as a Repurposed Christian Representation and the Proclivity to Dismiss Iconoclasm.)

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Preliminary Note: The Crux Ansata, known also as the Ankh is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol signifying “life”.

“Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God. When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God:..”

—Deuteronomy 12:28-31a, [Emphasis added]

“The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol of life—the ankh… known as the crux ansata—was adopted and extensively used on Coptic Christian monuments.”  (Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th ed., Vol. 3. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1995, p. 753.)

“The sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both the East and the West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization.”

(The Catholic Encyclopedia. “Cross.” Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908, p. 517.)

“The shape of the [two-beamed] cross had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz… pagans were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols.”

(Vine, W. E. An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. London: Oliphants, 1940, s.v. “Cross.”)

“When the Temple of Serapis was torn down and laid bare, there were found in it, engraven on stones, certain characters which they call hieroglyphics, having the forms of crosses. Both the Christians and pagans on seeing them, appropriated and applied them to their respective religions:” and “Such are the reports I have heard respecting the discovery of this symbol in form of a cross.”

(Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 5.17)

“some stones were found, on which were hieroglyphic characters in the form of a cross, which on being submitted to the inspection of the learned, were interpreted as signifying the life to come. These characters led to the conversion of several of the pagans, as did likewise other inscriptions found in the same place, and which contained predictions of the destruction of the temple. It was thus that the Serapion was taken, and, a little while after, converted into a church;”

(Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. 7.15)

On images and icons as mere representations:

“and they could not be so stupid as to believe, that this calf, which was only a mass of gold, figured and decorated,… after their coming out of Egypt, was what brought them from hence; but that this was a representation of God, who had done this for them;”

(Gill, John. An Exposition of the Old Testament. Commentary on Exodus 32:4.)

“These idolatrous Israelites would have pleaded that they did not worship the golden calf, but they worshipped Jehovah under the figure of a bull.”

(Spurgeon, Charles H.

Sermon: “On Whose Side Are You?”)

Some final thoughts from Claudius, Bishop of Turin (fl. A. D. 810-827)

“But those devotees of superstition and false religion say: ‘We honor… the painted cross and its image in remembrance of our Savior and in His honor.’ They find nothing to admire in our Savior but what pleased the impious: the shame of His suffering and the mockery of His death. They believe only what the wicked, both Jews and pagans, believed about Him—that He died completely and remains always in His passion, retaining this belief in their hearts. They do not consider… what the Apostle says: ‘Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know Him this way now.’… To this we must respond: If they… worship any wood shaped like a cross because Christ hung on a cross, many other things that Christ did in the flesh should also be considered by them. He barely hung on the cross for six hours, but He was in the Virgin’s womb for nine lunar months and more than eleven days, which together make 200 lunar days. Seventy-one hundred days, that is, nine months and six days beyond. Should virgins then be worshipped, because a virgin gave birth to Christ? Should mangers be worshipped, because He was laid in a manger immediately after His birth? Should old cloths be worshipped, because He was wrapped in old cloths when He was born? Should ships be worshipped, because He often sailed in boats, taught the crowds from a boat, slept in one, and commanded the net to be cast on the right side of the boat, when the great catch of fish was made? Should donkeys be worshipped, because He rode one into Jerusalem? Should lambs be worshipped, because it was written of Him: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world’? But these worshippers of perverse doctrines wish to devour living lambs and worship the painted ones on the wall. Should lions be worshipped, because it was written of Him: ‘The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered’? Should stones be worshipped, because when He was taken down from the cross, He was laid in a stone tomb, and the Apostle says of Him: ‘And that rock was Christ’?

But Christ is called a rock, a lamb, and a lion metaphorically, not literally; by signification, not by substance. Should pine trees be worshipped, because a crown of thorns from a pine was placed on His head during His passion? Should reeds be worshipped, because His head was struck with them by soldiers’ blows? Finally, should spears be worshipped, because one of the soldiers opened His side with a spear, from which flowed blood and water, the sacraments from which the Church is formed?

All these things are ridiculous and are more worthy of lamentation than writing…. Return, you transgressors! Turn back to your heart, you who have departed from the truth, for you love vanity and thus you are vain and boastful. Why do you again crucify the Son of God and hold Him up to public shame? And by this, you lead the souls of the wretched, made companions of demons, away from their Creator through the abominable sacrilege of idolatry, casting them down and condemning them to eternal damnation.”

(Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Catalogue of Witnesses of the Truth, trans. Lucas King (Kingstone Press, 2025), 157–161 (section on Claudius, Bishop of Turin).)

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The historical record shows that Christians have sometimes adopted and reinterpreted symbols originating in pagan religion. Yet Scripture warns against learning the religious practices of the nations, and the example of the golden calf demonstrates that even representing the true God through unauthorized symbols is condemned. The question therefore remains whether the repurposing of pagan symbols reflects faithfulness to biblical worship or a repetition of the very pattern Scripture warns against.