Pagan worship in Christianity.

[Rudy]

Not sure of the accuracy but has some interesting points. Touches on the trinity as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1vjY...eature=related

[renee819]

Rudy, I wish every Christian would watch these. I saw some of them, but have studied this years ago, That is why Denominations are wrong. Even when they have the right foundation, wn they accept Panganism, (many blindly) it is hard for them to come out of it.

[Sam]

This is from pages 4 and 13 of the March 1956 issue of The Pentecostal Herald

Paganism in Christianity
by Roy H. Maki
(minister, Duluth, Minnesota)

A noted scholar once remarked that much of present-day Christianity is nothing more than "baptized paganism." Anyone who has delved at length into pagan mythological beliefs of ancient times can vouch for the fact that much of what is palmed off as genuine Christianity is simply paganism in a new garb.

Church Festivals

One need only to trace the history of the observance of practically all the so-called Christian festivals celebrated by nominal Christianity, to come to the surprising conclusion that the Apostate Church has taken these festivals "lock, stock, and barrel," from paganism, and forced them to fit into the Church calendar by associating Christ and the apostles with pagan deities and personalities, and substituting Biblical observances for pagan ones if they were at all similar. Almost to a letter the Church festivals generally coincide with the dates of the earlier pagan festivals!

The Apostate Church, willing to meet paganism halfway, compromised the precious truth spoken by Jesus Christ, and the doctrines left us by His disciples and apostles. So-called Christianity did not convert paganism, but rather assimilated it with its customs. In short, paganism had overcome the Church without the Church's being aware of it. The pagan antagonists of Augustine taunted, "There is no difference between you and the pagans, except that you hold separate meetings." Thus did the Church go from the mountain top of inspiration into the valley of tradition, completely obliterating her apostolic heritage.

Christmas And Easter

The methods of celebrating the Nativity, and Easter, the two prime festivals of the Christian calendar, are excellent examples of how paganism has almost totally obscured the original significance of these two occasions.

No one denies that the chief festival of the pagan cult of Mithraism was the annual celebration of the birthday of "The Unconquered Sun" on the, 25th of December. Emperor Constantine, the first "Christian" ruler of the Roman Empire, was devoted to Apollo, the sun god of the Greeks and the Romans, and designated him as his patron. Apollo had a day of worship set aside called "the sun's day." Many of the early representations of Christ on the banners of the Roman legions of Constantine pictured Him in the garb of Apollo, with the rays of the sun streaming about His head.

Easter is another Church festival which is pagan in concept. It is encumbered with pagan ideas of Easter eggs, bunnies, and senseless ritual, which includes abstaining from certain meats, and observing special days considered holy in themselves. Authorities agree that the word "Easter" is a corruption of the name Astarte or Asharoth, a licentious pagan deity. The translators of the King James version "leaned over backward" to include the word "Easter" in their translation of the Bible. The word "Easter" used in Acts 12:4 should have been translated "Passover," and is thus designated in the margin.

The Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is another example of how paganism has obscured vital Christian doctrines. It is difficult to comprehend how paganism could have crept into our so-called Christian doctrines but the transition has been so subtle as to escape the scrutiny of most theologians. Nevertheless the fact remains that behind the fundamental doctrine of the Trinity lies the essential pagan concept of a plurality of gods!

Most sensible theologians and Christians will be the first to deny that they believe in a plurality of Gods. But a study of the controversies which raged over the Godhead among the ante-Nicene theologians shows that such a concept was held by many of them. The early Church was divided into three contending parties--one believing in three separate and distinct Gods (the Tritheists), another which believed that God the Father and Christ the Son were one and the same Person (the Sabellians or the Patripassians), and a third which believed that there was one God in three Persons (Athanasian Trinitarianism). There were also the Arians, who denied the divinity of our Lord.

Some of the representations of the Trinity in Christian literature and art have been rather bizarre. One is a picture which depicts God the Father and Christ the Son as a man with two heads on one body! One of the heads in this particular picture looks like the average one of Christ, while the other is that of an old man, to represent the Father. The Holy Ghost in the form of a dove rests in the foreground of the picture of this Trinity. Certainly pictures of this sort must be repugnant to the average sensible Christian.

This fantastic concept of three separate and distinct Gods has its roots in paganism, which was allowed to creep into the apostate Church. Consider for example the following pagan trinities, which will be explained briefly.

Pagan Trinities

In India the ancient Hindu divinity was called Eko Deva Trimurtti, which means "one God, three forms." It is represented as a being with three heads on one body. The Buddhists of Japan worshipped a similar three-headed god whom they called San Pao Fuh.

The ancient Persians symbolized their trinity of gods in the form of a shamrock, the very same kind of shamrock which St. Patrick used to illustrate to the pagan Irish the meaning of the Christian Trinity! The ancient Babylonians worshipped a Trinity in unity, called Asshur, symbolized in the form of an old man to represent the father encircled by a cipher to represent the son, and having the wings and tail of a dove to represent the spirit.

According to Layard, the Babylonians also used the equilateral triangle to symbolize their triform divinity. The Egyptians too used the triangle to represent their trinity of gods. Not too long ago I read an article by a Trinitarian who used this very same pagan symbol of the triangle to prove a point.

It is interesting to note that the supreme divinity in almost all heathen nations was a triune divinity.

Monotheism

On page 745 of Halley's Pocket Bible Handbook we read, "The Genesis idea that man started with a belief in One God, and that polytheistic idolatry was a LATER DEVELOPMENT, has been verified in inscriptions found by Langdon, in pre flood layers, at Jemdet Nasr, near Babylon. In Egypt, Petrie found indications that Egypt's first religion was Monotheistic."

How then, might we ask, did polytheistic ideas creep into the thinking of the ancients? The answer, we believe, is to be found in the 10th chapter of Genesis, wherein is given a short history of Nimrod "the mighty hunter before the Lord.'' This same Nimrod was the founder of the first city, Nineveh, in the land of Shinar. It is proven that Nimrod is the same as Ninus, the first king of Babylon. Contrary to popular belief, Nimrod hunted more than wild beasts. He captured the souls of men as the cofounder, with his wife Semiramis, of a gigantic religious system, set up to oppose and frustrate the plan of God as revealed to the Israelites and their descendants. Eventually these pagan notions of Nimrod and Semiramis found their way from Babylon to practically every country of the ancient world. The religious concepts and deities of practically all pagan religions have their counterpart in the Babylonian religious system.

The pure monotheism inspired by the Israelites and the early inhabitants of the earth was corrupted by Nimrod. Much of the paganism including the basic idea of a Trinity of Gods, found in Christianity has come down to us straight from Babylon.

The Council Of Nicea

So divided was the thinking of the theologians of the Nicene era, and so intense were their quarrels over the nature of the Godhead, that Emperor Constantine, a quasi pagan at best, was forced to call a council to settle the most important Christian doctrines. It was this same Constantine who revered the sun god Apollo, and who held the office of Pontifex Maximus,
the nominal head of the pagan state religion of Rome, who presided over the Council of Nicea, in 325 A. D. He later assumed the right to pass on the reasonableness of Christian dogma, issuing decrees upholding his verdicts.

A Helpful Suggestion

Our prayer is that Christendom as a whole will cast out of her midst all that is pagan and unscriptural, and strive to the end that "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God." May God enlighten our minds and cause us to prayerfully consider the infinite mysteries of the Godhead. May we always have a sane, logical, and scriptural foundation for our convictions. Let us hold fast to the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and resist all efforts to relegate Him to a secondary position in our worship and thinking.

[KeptByTheWord]

An interesting book to read on all the pagan influences on Christianity is found on Amazon. It is called Pagan Christianity, and is written by Frank Viola and George Barna. This is an awesome read, and truly eye opening!!

[renee819]

Sam, I may have read that. That is about the same time that I began to see the Paganism in Christmas and Easter.

GOD HATES MIXING HIS TRUTH’S WITH FALSE RELIGION.

That is the very reason that God had the Israelites to destroy the giants of Canaan. I believe that Paganism came from the fallen angels, and passed on to their offspring, the giants. I have read that Nimrod and his wife, were giants.

Deuteronomy 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee:
18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

Later when, the Israelites were carried into Samaria, they learned the way of the heathen and served idols. God punished them and what did they do? They mixed the 2 Religions together.

2 Kings 17:12 For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

Because they left the commandments of God is why, that God allowed the King of Assyria, to capture them. After they were captured, they still did not look to God.

2 Kings 17:22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
32 So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.

“They feared the Lord, and served their own gods”

I have heard it over and over, “we don’t worship the Christmas Tree.”
Just as a Catholic will tell you they don’t worship Mary, or they don’t worship Idols.

Take the Christmas Tree, and the presents away from Christmas, and see how depressed some people get. Where is Christ in that? Oh they might take a few minutes to read the Birth story in Luke.

Christ +mass, they have combined Christ with Paganism.

What about the children. If they are small, you can teach them the truth. However, if they are older, you are out of luck. If you send them to the school of Sodom and Gomorrah, then they will learn to hate you for suppressing what they just consider as fun.

I know, it would be very hard.

It is sad, that our ministers impose on the people, man-made dress codes, and man-made laws, and yet, turn around and accept the way of the heathen, in many more ways than just Christmass.


Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

I know this isn't going to make me many friends, but the Truth is the truth.

Do some research or the origins of Christmas.

[whoami]

Humanity as a whole has a very pagan history. I'm of the opinion that it's impossible to live a life where you don't do anything at all that has pagan connotations. In the context of paganism's influence on christianity, I think the intention of the person doing an action is more important than ancient historical references.

[AreYouReady?]

Originally Posted by renee819

Take the Christmas Tree, and the presents away from Christmas, and see how depressed some people get.

When we took away the christmas tree and presents, it felt like an anvil being taken off my back.

[Michael Phelps]

Originally Posted by whoami

Humanity as a whole has a very pagan history. I'm of the opinion that it's impossible to live a life where you don't do anything at all that has pagan connotations. In the context of paganism's influence on christianity, I think the intention of the person doing an action is more important than ancient historical references.

[renee819]

Originally Posted by AreYouReady?

When we took away the christmas tree and presents, it felt like an anvil being taken off my back.

That is because, you knew the origins of those things, therefore you obeyed God.

I wonder how many on here would feel the same?

[navygoat1998]

We open our Christmas presents, we sacrifice a big rib roast to the god of gluttony and wash it down with a few diet sodas to the god of we are just fooling ourselves with the diet sodas. Is gluttony still a "sin"???? I am just a Pagan or a border line Baptist and I can't help myself! Bring on Christmas!