7 PAGAN FESTIVALS WE STILL CELEBRATE TODAY ~ under the guise of Christian celebrations and names.

[Rella ~ I am a woman]

@The Learner,

You posted a sad face at the end of this.

Why?

Never mind... I saw my answer.

It is a boring subject to you.

Well, I think it has run its unintended course.

We started out with Christmas and it morphed into Halloween.

I agree. Halloween is overly boring and I am considering something new to give to the tots ... all 3 of them when they show up here on Halloween. Tooth brushes. If everyone would give something practical soon no kid would want to be out there.....

In any event...

The order that we were going to discuss had been

1. Christmas
2. New Year’s Day
3. Easter
4. The Roman version of Halloween
5. May 1st - Labor Day
6. Epiphany or Three Kings Day
7. Saint John’s Eve

Yet #2 and #3 ( #3 possibly the most important in the list) have been bystepped.

#3 could have been very educational once all the jelly beans got covered and if the meat of what why celebrate came into play .

Such as figuring out how from a Friday morning at 9AM when Jesus was placed on the cross, or 3PM when his body actually died... until very early in the morning, at around sunrise on the first day of the week
the tomb was found empty.

How anyone could figure that there are 3 days and 3 nights in that 39 maximum hour from 3PM Friday to say
6AM Sunday is beyond me.

Every single translation I have ever read has said that Christ Jesus said.... in Mathew 12:40

"for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

Either

!. Jesus was talking metaphorically.

2. Jesus was using the timing of God as was used in the 6 creation days so that specifically no one can know
about the timing of events.

3. Or Jesus, truthfully was telling a specific accuracy and the translators and clergy counted back 3 days from Sunday and landed on Friday because they could not figure out with a Passover celebration and a weekly Sabbath how it could be anything else..... (So fascinating .... that)

I shall stop now and tell you, The Learner..... STOP.... reading this thread for you will learn nothing here .

I am glad that Thanksgiving did not make the list. Yes... there are Pagan things there also.

 

[David in NJ]

This a boring topic. Those who celebrate those days are not keeping the pagan aspects of them. Christmass and Easter are Jesus centered.

In your estimation - is the RCC Jesus centered?

 

[David in NJ]

Absolutely. Because Protestants celebrate the holidays and all things Christian related to them.

And Halloween has not a thing to do with Samhain.

Protestants came out of the Harlot and they continue in some of her ways.

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write,

‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: 19“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

 

[David in NJ]

Absolutely. Because Protestants celebrate the holidays and all things Christian related to them.

And Halloween has not a thing to do with Samhain.

SEE Post #155

 

[BlessedPeace]

Protestants came out of the Harlot and they continue in some of her ways.

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write,

‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: 19“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Off topic.

 

[BlessedPeace]

SEE Post #155

I did.

 

[David in NJ]

Off topic.

Off base

 

[BlessedPeace]

Off base

That too. Thank you .

 

[Triumph1300]

 

[BlessedPeace]

View attachment 37136

Didn't you hear? Christmas trees are Pagan!

 

[Zao is life]

In your estimation - is the RCC Jesus centered?

Nope. It's Mary and other dead people-centered. It pays lip service to Christ.

In my honest opinion.

4 You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. -- Exodus 20

5 For God is one, and there is one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. -- 1 Tim 2

8 the Holy Spirit signifying by this that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.
11 But when Christ had become a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building
12 nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us. -- Hebrews 9

The difference between Jesus and Mary is that Mary never died for anyone's sins, never rose from the dead, isn't alive forevermore in her own body standing in the tabernacle in heaven mediating for us before God, nor is she seated at HIs right hand.

She's only alive in Christ. So why make statues to represent the body of a dead person and then bow to it and pray to it?

Not Jesus, nor the apostles taught is to pray to anyone except God, or through anyone except Christ. In His name, not in the name of Mary or any other dead person.

But there is no "thou shalt not observe the Christmas and Easter festivals in honor of the birth and resurrection of Christ" commandment. No dietary laws come with the New Covenant either, but only the commandment to believe in Jesus, and to love one another.

But I think the Holy Spirit stops all who trust in Jesus for their salvation from deliberately disobeying the commandment against idolatry, i.e making statues or other objects to represent things in heaven or on earth or under the earth, showing veneration for the dead person the statue represents by bowing or curtsying to it, and praying "through" the deceased person.

 

[Aunty Jane]

ishah (Hebrew)
ishtar (Chaldean)

Gen.3:15 the seed of ishah (the woman) was to come into the world and bruise the serpent's head.
Chaldean the seed of ishtar, the fertility goddess, was the incarnation of the gods.

All cultures had various adaptations of the same original myth, and different names for the same 'deities'.

The Word of God got corrupted, IMO.

You raise some good points....it wasn’t God’s word that got corrupted however, but the interpretation certainly did.
We will find many cultures that adapted events later recorded in God’s word, to include their own deities with minor adjustments to the original story. e.g. There is a flood story in almost every one of them.
Just because Moses did not record events under inspiration until well after many of them had taken place (before Israel was formed into a nation) doesn't take any of that away.

Ishtar was the fertility goddess. I don't see an accident in eggs and bunnies - symbols of fertility - associated with it.

To celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection with a clearly pagan festival honoring a fertility goddess whose name wasn’t even changed, and whose symbols were merely adapted to fit, is the ultimate betrayal for anyone who identifies as “Christian”. It is a clear fusion of paganism with Bible teachings. (2 Cor 6:14-18) Anyone who cannot see this is spiritually blind. (2 Cor 4:3-4)

So if we refuse to celebrate Easter and Christmas we are hypocrites if we still hold onto the same names of the week, which are named after sun, moon, the goddess Tieu (not sure of spelling), god Wotan, Thor, goddess Frei, god Saturn.

All gods.

The difference as I see it, is that the names of the days and months are in place as part of satan’s global system of rulership. (1 John 5:19) There is little we can do to change that because a Catholic Pope is responsible for retaining the name of those pagan gods when he introduced the Gregorian calendar that we all use to this day. But to use those days and months as part of our worship making certain days of the week into “holy days”, such as did the RCC in shifting their “Sabbath” to Sunday in order to honor their principle deity.....Sol Invicti, is wrong........sun worship is very evident in Roman Catholicism.

Hiding in plain sight....

There is a Babylonian sun wheel in the middle of St Peter’s Square (which is round) with an obelisk at the centre imported from Egypt, where it represented the sun god Ra.


Catholic people can't seem to see it.

We'll probably need to change our language too, which has lots of pagan origins in it.

Since it was God who first changed the language of humans to prevent them from staying in one place to make a celebrated name for themselves, he forced them to spread out in the world, taking their various languages with them....he will probably restore the original language of the pre-flood people. (Gen 11:1-9)

Actually we would just need to de-culturalize completely from our Western culture with pagan Roman and Greek roots. There's too much to get rid of.

God has already promised to do exactly that when he has cleansed the earth of all wickedness and those intent on practicing it, then with the coming of his Kingdom to rule mankind, God's will can then "be done on earth as it is in heaven".....its what Jesus taught us to pray for.

But I wouldn't become a Jew either because them Rabbis kept a whole lot of the nasty pagan practices they picked up in Babylon.

God has long cast fleshly Israel off because they could never keep their covenants with him and the final straw was the murder of his son.
Jesus passed sentence on them in the knowledge of their sad and sorry history, and what he knew they would do to him....(Matt 23:37-39)

So I don't know. Maybe we could just stop looking for the devil under every rock and behind every bush.

If we do that, he will have us for lunch....he is a predator, constantly on the hunt for easy prey.....we cannot let our guard down even for a moment. (1 Peter 5:8)

 

[Zao is life]

You raise some good points....it wasn’t God’s word that got corrupted however, but the interpretation certainly did.
We will find many cultures that adapted events later recorded in God’s word, to include their own deities with minor adjustments to the original story. e.g. There is a flood story in almost every one of them.
Just because Moses did not record events under inspiration until well after many of them had taken place (before Israel was formed into a nation) doesn't take any of that away.

To celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection with a clearly pagan festival honoring a fertility goddess whose name wasn’t even changed, and whose symbols were merely adapted to fit, is the ultimate betrayal for anyone who identifies as “Christian”. It is a clear fusion of paganism with Bible teachings. (2 Cor 6:14-18) Anyone who cannot see this is spiritually blind. (2 Cor 4:3-4)

The difference as I see it, is that the names of the days and months are in place as part of satan’s global system of rulership. (1 John 5:19) There is little we can do to change that because a Catholic Pope is responsible for retaining the name of those pagan gods when he introduced the Gregorian calendar that we all use to this day. But to use those days and months as part of our worship making certain days of the week into “holy days”, such as did the RCC in shifting their “Sabbath” to Sunday in order to honor their principle deity.....Sol Invicti, is wrong........sun worship is very evident in Roman Catholicism.

Hiding in plain sight....

There is a Babylonian sun wheel in the middle of St Peter’s Square (which is round) with an obelisk at the centre imported from Egypt, where it represented the sun god Ra.

View attachment 37152
Catholic people can't seem to see it.

Since it was God who first changed the language of humans to prevent them from staying in one place to make a celebrated name for themselves, he forced them to spread out in the world, taking their various languages with them....he will probably restore the original language of the pre-flood people. (Gen 11:1-9)

God has already promised to do exactly that when he has cleansed the earth of all wickedness and those intent on practicing it, then with the coming of his Kingdom to rule mankind, God's will can then "be done on earth as it is in heaven".....its what Jesus taught us to pray for.

God has long cast fleshly Israel off because they could never keep their covenants with him and the final straw was the murder of his son.
Jesus passed sentence on them in the knowledge of their sad and sorry history, and what he knew they would do to him....(Matt 23:37-39)

If we do that, he will have us for lunch....he is a predator, constantly on the hunt for easy prey.....we cannot let our guard down even for a moment. (1 Peter 5:8)

Yes but we are burdening ourselves with a yoke of bondage if we add thou shalt not commandments to scripture where something like holy days in remembrance of Christ is not mentioned in the law or the commandments as a thou shalt not.

We have to be careful not to add legalism to scripture and become completely legalistic with a new set of thou shalt nots.

Otherwise I appreciate the info you put out in your post.

 

[BlessedPeace]

You raise some good points....it wasn’t God’s word that got corrupted however, but the interpretation certainly did.
We will find many cultures that adapted events later recorded in God’s word, to include their own deities with minor adjustments to the original story. e.g. There is a flood story in almost every one of them.
Just because Moses did not record events under inspiration until well after many of them had taken place (before Israel was formed into a nation) doesn't take any of that away.

To celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection with a clearly pagan festival honoring a fertility goddess whose name wasn’t even changed, and whose symbols were merely adapted to fit, is the ultimate betrayal for anyone who identifies as “Christian”. It is a clear fusion of paganism with Bible teachings. (2 Cor 6:14-18) Anyone who cannot see this is spiritually blind. (2 Cor 4:3-4)

The difference as I see it, is that the names of the days and months are in place as part of satan’s global system of rulership. (1 John 5:19) There is little we can do to change that because a Catholic Pope is responsible for retaining the name of those pagan gods when he introduced the Gregorian calendar that we all use to this day. But to use those days and months as part of our worship making certain days of the week into “holy days”, such as did the RCC in shifting their “Sabbath” to Sunday in order to honor their principle deity.....Sol Invicti, is wrong........sun worship is very evident in Roman Catholicism.

Hiding in plain sight....

There is a Babylonian sun wheel in the middle of St Peter’s Square (which is round) with an obelisk at the centre imported from Egypt, where it represented the sun god Ra.

View attachment 37152
Catholic people can't seem to see it.

Since it was God who first changed the language of humans to prevent them from staying in one place to make a celebrated name for themselves, he forced them to spread out in the world, taking their various languages with them....he will probably restore the original language of the pre-flood people. (Gen 11:1-9)

God has already promised to do exactly that when he has cleansed the earth of all wickedness and those intent on practicing it, then with the coming of his Kingdom to rule mankind, God's will can then "be done on earth as it is in heaven".....its what Jesus taught us to pray for.

God has long cast fleshly Israel off because they could never keep their covenants with him and the final straw was the murder of his son.
Jesus passed sentence on them in the knowledge of their sad and sorry history, and what he knew they would do to him....(Matt 23:37-39)

If we do that, he will have us for lunch....he is a predator, constantly on the hunt for easy prey.....we cannot let our guard down even for a moment. (1 Peter 5:8)

Ancient Pagan mythos predated Christianity.

Noah's flood was predated by the Epic of Gilgamesh.

 

[Aunty Jane]

Yes but we are burdening ourselves with a yoke of bondage if we add thou shalt not commandments to scripture where something like holy days in remembrance of Christ is not mentioned in the law or the commandments as a thou shalt not.

Since Christians are not under the Law of Moses, but now under the law of Christ, Jesus told us that there are only two commandments that we are to keep under the new covenant.
Matt 22:34-40...
"After the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together in one group. 35 And one of them, versed in the Law, tested him by asking: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”

If the whole of the law (including the Ten Commandments) was founded on these two principle ones, then we cannot do anything that breaks either one of them. We are no longer bound by a written code, but a Christian must base all their conduct on those two important commandments.
Its not about being "legalistic"...its about obedience to a God who gave his laws to Israel for a reason. It kept them separated from the false religion that was all around them and had been throughout their whole history....if they had just done as they were told, most of the calamity that befell them would never have happened. They had the only true and powerful God on their side, no matter how strong their enemies were....yet they constantly fell into disobedience.

We have to be careful not to add legalism to scripture and become completely legalistic with a new set of thou shalt nots.

The two commandments that we are under, should be exercised with a Bible trained conscience. If we are well acquainted with God's word, then legalism should not even enter our minds as we will naturally do what God's word tells us to do through the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Otherwise I appreciate the info you put out in your post.

Thank you....

 

[Aunty Jane]

Ancient Pagan mythos predated Christianity.

Yes they did, which is why they could be so readily adopted by the later "Christians" who wanted to do what the Israelites had done so often...blending true worship with false worship.....something forbidden to both Jews and Christians. (Exodus 20:3; 2 Cor 6:14-18)

Noah's flood was predated by the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Just because the flood narrative was not written until well after the event doesn't mean that the "Epic of Gilgamesh" predated it.
Moses recorded events going right back to creation...how do you suppose he got all that historical information that happened well before his time? God was there and remembers it all.

You really should do some thorough research......"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"....ya know?

 

[BlessedPeace]

Yes they did, which is why they could be so readily adopted by the later "Christians" who wanted to do what the Israelites had done so often...blending true worship with false worship.....something forbidden to both Jews and Christians. (Exodus 20:3; 2 Cor 6:14-18)

Just because the flood narrative was not written until well after the event doesn't mean that the "Epic of Gilgamesh" predated it.
Moses recorded events going right back to creation...how do you suppose he got all that historical information that happened well before his time? God was there and remembers it all.

You really should do some thorough research......"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"....ya know?

You relish sarcasm, I can tell.

Indeed, very little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Thanks for the experience.

 

[David in NJ]

View attachment 37136

He who has Christ in his/her heart need not any man-made religion.

Thus says the Lord:

“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles;
Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven,
For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
3For the customs of the peoples are futile;
For one cuts a tree from the forest,
The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
4They decorate it with silver and gold;
They fasten it with nails and hammers
So that it will not topple.
5They are upright, like a palm tree,
And they cannot speak;
They must be carried,
Because they cannot go by themselves.
Do not be afraid of them,
For they cannot do evil,
Nor can they do any good.”

 

[David in NJ]

That too. Thank you .

FYI - i do not judge and certainly NOT condemn anyone for their celebration of Christmas & Easter

What i post is about the origin of these events which pre-dates Christ 1st Coming.

Peace

 

[BlessedPeace]

Nope. It's Mary and other dead people-centered. It pays lip service to Christ.

In my honest opinion.

4 You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. -- Exodus 20

5 For God is one, and there is one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. -- 1 Tim 2

8 the Holy Spirit signifying by this that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.
11 But when Christ had become a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building
12 nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us. -- Hebrews 9

The difference between Jesus and Mary is that Mary never died for anyone's sins, never rose from the dead, isn't alive forevermore in her own body standing in the tabernacle in heaven mediating for us before God, nor is she seated at HIs right hand.

She's only alive in Christ. So why make statues to represent the body of a dead person and then bow to it and pray to it?

Not Jesus, nor the apostles taught is to pray to anyone except God, or through anyone except Christ. In His name, not in the name of Mary or any other dead person.

But there is no "thou shalt not observe the Christmas and Easter festivals in honor of the birth and resurrection of Christ" commandment. No dietary laws come with the New Covenant either, but only the commandment to believe in Jesus, and to love one another.

But I think the Holy Spirit stops all who trust in Jesus for their salvation from deliberately disobeying the commandment against idolatry, i.e making statues or other objects to represent things in heaven or on earth or under the earth, showing veneration for the dead person the statue represents by bowing or curtsying to it, and praying "through" the deceased person.

Call no man father but your Father in Heaven.