How do you explain the Paganism in it?

DISCLAIMER*
*********
This was in NO WAY AT ALL intended to flame the Christians of HF, only for collective education!!!

*********

As I'm sure some of you may know, and some of you may not, MANY aspects of Christianity, or at least of the Bible, have been taken straight from Pagan rites.

Say, Easter, X-Mas, Thanks-giving. All these celebrations of the faith take place, using PAGAN RITUALISM, on the PAGAN EQUINOX of the season.

How about Mary the Virgin, never actually put into the Bible until about 450 AD after a consensus is reached on the inability to destroy faith in Gaia, The God Goddess, Isis, etc. (All the same Goddess under different names) They realized this after they discovered and effigy and incredible masses at the Temple of Epaphus.

Anyway, you get the idea.

What is your explanation for partaking in heathen rituals to praise your God which is a direct opponent of the festivals celebrating Him?

************
Once again this is NOT to flame or attack religions. It is for COLLECTIVE EDUCATION.

 

You are using Christianity to to describe both a belief and and cult here.

As a cult, they absorbed any and every belief from other religions over the years to attract more and more people.

As a belief, well, then it has nothing to do with any book at all...

The organized religion of Christianity is about nothing more then power for a few over others. All you have to do is look at the histories of it. Christians (the cult), raped, murdered, stole, exterminated and invaded. They participated in some of the worst atrocities in history. In some cases, they publically lead those atrocities.

So, to answer your question, because to them, (the organizers of it), the end, justifies the means.

 

Well, first of all, Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday

Second of all, I don't believe anyone is a "heathen."

Third of all, the old testament is very adamant about the Jews performing certain rituals differently from the pagans, so that they could make a clear distinction between their society, which they believed was hand picked by God, and the many other societies of the time.

When Jesus came along, however, the covenant was extended to all of humanity, therefore, we are all gods people and don't need to focus so much energy on distinguishing rituals and not associating with certain people. In one of his letters, (can't remember which one), Paul tells the church that other rituals followed by other cultures are to be allowed for, as long as the central message of Jesus remains the same.

We don't even technically need to celebrate holidays, we just do it to enhance our sense of community (this is true even of secular holidays). God isn't going to smite us if we celebrate christmas on the 25th, or if we don't celebrate it at all (and with all the rampant materialism that goes on around christmas, I would suspect he would rather us do the latter).

You're talking about petty semantics here. God only looks to see where our heart is.

 

Easter's name is also derived from the Greek word for Passover in almost every other language (Slavic languages often have named it the Great Day), and it's date is calculated similarly to that of the Passover.

Mary was also written into at least the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which are included into many early canons (Matthew often in antiquity was seen as the earliest Gospel)--they both call her a Virgin, and in Luke, he writes that "all generations shall call [her] blessed".

 

The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter." The Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the Sun god, whose worship is denounced by The Almighty in the Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.

If you look up the word "Easter" in Webster's dictionary. You will find: "AS. (Anglo-Saxon), from name of an old Teuton goddess of spring".



I personally believe that back then the Cesare's in the Roman empire made a very "Political" move by mixing the general Pagan worshiping (practiced by the vast majorities of the empire) in with the Christian Religion which was the only "lawful" religion and practiced by the Lords and Ladys of the realm.

 

So the use of a goddess' name for a Christian feast in one language makes the whole feast pagan? I know "Easter"s non-Christian roots in name---but all other languages use a different name (most commonly based on the Greek word for Passover)

 

No, obviously not.

Easter has MANY extreme similarities with the Pagan Celebration of the Goddess called Ostara or Eostre or by many other names. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. (Just like a certain Christian Holiday I could name...)

Rabbits are symbols of fertility. Rabbits also signifies intuition, rebirth, promise, fulfillment, and balance. It is the Goddess’ creature and represents the Moon, night and dawn. It is also associated with abundance, rebirth and release. One fable has Eostre creating the bunny (actually a hare) from a bird as a treat for her children. The bunny was unhappy that it was no longer a bird so Eostre allowed it to lay eggs once a year. But the bunny missed flying, too, so Eostre cast it into the night sky, creating the constellation, Lepus

Eggs symbolize fertility. In the mid 1900s, children would get rabbits and chicks as gifts for Easter. The ancient Druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of their order. In China, even as late as the 19th century, dyed or painted eggs were used during sacred festivals. The cock, in Celtic tradition, has connections to the Underworld. The bird drove off the evil night spirits and ghosts by crowing at dawn.
One mythological legend says that sometime after Semiramis died, a huge egg dropped from heaven. Out of the egg came a re-incarnated Semiramis, now a goddess. The Babylonian Talmud refers to her as Ishtar, or Easter. In ancient times, eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples.


The Original festival of Pasch (The Greek/Hebrew word for Passover that you mentioned) was observed by Christians a full month before the festival of Ishtar was celebrated by the Pagans. In addition, the festival of Ishtar (Easter) now observed in churches is far different from the original festival of Pasch.

The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do today. The Œbuns, known by the identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Ishtar, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, that is, 1500 years BEFORE the Christian era. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the gods was called ŒBoun.

Jeremiah 7:18 "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven."

 

Again, Jesus said there be two groups calling themselves “Christian”, one group he would tell; get away from me you workers of lawlessness and the other group he would commend.

Today one group of “Christians” as you say has adopted various Pagan rites into their worship and believes that by putting the name “Christian” on them has made them Holy in God’s eyes. One might ask themselves which above stated category, Jesus will put them in.

But today there is another group of Christians that do not celebrate Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving or any other celebration that has it’s origins in Pagan rites. To these Christians your question is meaningless because they have not allowed their worship to be contaminated by Pagan rites.

Also if you look carefully at what the Bible actually says, instead of what some people will tell you it says but doesn’t; I think you’ll find no Pagan influence in the Bible.

As for the Virgin Mary being added to the Bible in 450 AD the earliest manuscripts of the Greek Scriptures date from about the 1st century and they talk about Mary, so if she was added it would have had to have been about 300 years earlier than 450 AD. What you may be thinking of was 450 AD was about the time that the Catholic Church began calling Mary, the mother of God and started making a big deal of her; Ukr-Cdn can give you the exact date this happened as I'm not up on Catholic history.

 

Well the Gospel says she will be called Blessed by all generations. I can only think of a couple Churches to fulfill this prophecy...

Also, The Catholic Church relies on prophecies in the Old Testament (that are equally as vague as the ones about the Messiah) and say they refer to the pepetual Virginity of Mary.

431, Council of Ephesus, is when she was officially declared the Theotokos (lit. God Bearer), but also less literally the Mother of God. It was in use by church Fathers since the 3rd century. I can add more later

 

Speaking of Pagan symbolism AND the virgin Mary...
Isn't she called the queen of heaven by devote Catholics?

Jer 7:12 - 20

12 " 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.'

16 "So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. 19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?

20 " 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.

​

How odd that Mary - a mortal woman whose only role in the bible was to be the vessel for the christ child - should be crowned and arrayed as royalty. If I remeber correctly I do believe that Jesus blew his mother (the oh-so-sacred-Virgin-Mary) off on at least one account. Where in the Bible is Mary treated as anything but a walking womb? (Other than the obvious Christmas story) It seems Mary was only important as long as the babe was still inside of her...

 

Only role? Without the BVM there would be no salvation. She carried and conceived the incarnation of the very Lord YHWH. Ou God did not impose himself on her in some sort of spiritual rape, she consented to his will. No Mary, no Jesus.

Luke 1:41-43 Elizabeth calls the BVMary the Mother of her Lord (read: God. Kyrios in greek in the NT was used as a term for God). When Gabriel comes to the BVMary her begins by praising her (Blessed art thou amongst women). Luke 1:46-49 BVMary says all generations will call her blessed.

It is obvious she is not just any other woman. Also, Mary as a Queen comes from a couple places. 1) Her son is the King above all kings. Traditionally the Kings Mother was called the "Queen Mother". If Christ is the King of Heaven, then Mary would be Queen, no? Also, We use Rev 12:1-5 (a woman in heaven, giving birth to a child, crowned with stars).hole, hence some of the overlapping symbolism of the twelve stars.

Saying that because Jeremiah talked of a Queen of Heaven (probably Asherah) doesn't mean we cannot call other people Queen of Heaven. Jesus says to call no one Father (Dad, Daddy, Pops incl.). What do you call your Dad, "Guy-who-had-sex-with-my-mom-now-I'm-here"? I assume your "Master" is the Father and Christ. Do you call your teacher Mister So-and-So. If so, you blasthemer! Mister comes from Master and is taking another Lord before God, gasp.

Similarity does not mean equality.

 

To elaborate, Theotokos literally mean God Bearer or even the one who gives birth to God. Hence the less literal Mother of God.

Why can mat be called the Theotokos and not just the Christotokos, well we do not lessen or deny Christ's full divinity. Calling him any less than God would be tantamount blasphemy. Theotokos doesn't refer to Christ as the second person of the Trinity, but instead refers to the Incarnation. His humanity and divinity in one person. Theotokos has more to say about Jesus than Mary.

Part of the controversy surrounding Theotokos/Christiotokos was about Jesus' Divinity and Humanity. Nestorius believed that Christ did have only one person, but one hypostasis (a united nature). He believed in two conjoined natures. Only Jesus' humanity died on the cross.

 

ok, no one has really answered this question ssufficeintly. I will attempt to
Back in the 4th century, Constantine, united the faith of Jesus with the pagan religions of rome and this is how we came to all the paganism in the church, but it is not in the scriptures.

if you look at what man has done and not what God has done, you will not come to the truth becasue what men have made him, has become the sight to your eyes of him.

But if you come to him, the One, Jesu sChrist, he will begin to make himself real to you..... you just gotta make the effort to ask, seek and knock.

on a deeper level what was going on is, the saints of Jesu swere being heavily persecuted and martyred by the empire....the more martyrs, the more people rose to become christians, so behind the scenes, Satan and his demons were trying to extinguish th efire Jesus started and he could'nt do it, so then he decided on a plan to muddy the nam eof Jesu sby united the faith with the State and so the catholic church of rome was born and her controlling arm throuhgout the fragmented empire during th edark ages with different kings.

this is how we got xmas, easter, solstic holidays and othe rpaganism in the church, but God in scripture does not call the catholic church his bride. he calls her the whore of babylon in revelation ch 17, the woman who sits on 7 hills.....the only city with 7 hills at the time was rome...... so even God is discusted over all that corruption of the catholic church....the protestant reformation stopped short of reforming the fullness of the true faith.....none theless, the grace of God is sufficient fo rwhateve rhe breathes and births in his SPirit.

 

I imagine Ukr-Cdn will have something to say about what weatherbill just said.

 

so what you are saying weatherbill, is that the reason there are pagan images and references is because satan put them there??


LOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

okay, that was unfair of me...

Let me put this a different way...

according to what I read of your theory, man stole christianity from god and warped it in his own image....

So your god, the all powerful, all knowing master of all... the guy who can cause the world to flood, the lion to lay with the lamb (any animal trainer can do this btw), cause bushes to burn without consumption, turn people to salt on a whim.... was powerless to stop humans from warping his 'word' or chose not to do anything....

Now, I'll reference my previous post....


LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

I was going to call you on this but thought it would take the thread off topic, so maybe another time.

 

PM me if you wish.

 

Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus (27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337

The earliest reference to the celebration of the nativity on December 25 is found in the Chronography of 354, an illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome in 354. (i.e after Constantine)

In 313 Constantine I and Licinius announced toleration of Christianity in the Edict of Milan, which removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property. Since 306 there had already been several edicts that granted Christians religious toleration in the Empire, but the Edict of Milan removed all obstacles to the Christian faith.
This edict made the Empire officially neutral with regard to religious worship, it neither made paganism illegal nor made Christianity the state religion; these were later actions of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I.

Constantine had noting to do with making Christianity pagan. He legalized it.