We don't "think" they do...we "know" they do.
M’Clintock and Strong’s
Cyclopædia says:
“The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of NT origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the NT, or, indeed, from any other source.”
The Encyclopedia Americana informs us:
“The reason for establishing December 25 as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the ‘rebirth of the sun.’ . . . The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration.”
The
New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges:
“The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month".
What is accepted by most scholars is that the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the
dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.
Roman Catholicism has so many sun symbols connected to their worship.
No one knows the date of Jesus' birth because Jews did not celebrate birthdays.
Easter is even worse, since they didn't even change the name of the goddess that was honored by the pagans at that time of year...the Spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Encyclopædia Britannica comments:
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia admits:
“A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.”
Eph 5:10-11....
“Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord; and quit sharing with them in the unfruitful works that belong to the darkness, but, rather, even be reproving them.”
2 Cor 6:14-18...
". . . .what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Beʹlial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? . . . ‘“Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,” says the Lord, “and quit touching the unclean thing”’
Nonsense....it never 'Christianized' the paganism.....but 'paganized' the Christianity. But if you want to keep those things, that is entirely up to you. You will never be able to tell the judge that nobody told you.
So please tell me why so much was added to that simplicity to make it into something so complicated that Christendom demands that you have a theological degree in order to learn all the things they added over the centuries. None of Christ's 12 apostles were educated at the Rabbinical Schools.....neither was Jesus.
You are as shackled as all the rest if you subscribe to their core beliefs.....you are just better at kidding yourselves that it doesn't matter. What if it matters to God?
No one "suddenly" changed their mind about anything. Satan has always had time up his sleeve, so he introduced his deceptions gradually, over centuries of time. (ever hear about the frig in the pot?) It took almost 400 years to finally get approval for the trinity to become official "church" doctrine....but that was a battle fought over many years.
Immortality of the soul and hellfire were introduced from paganism to scare people into submission. The church forbade anyone to read the Bible, so for about 1500 years, the ignorant masses did as they were told....or else.
I would rather change my view a hundred times and arrive at the truth, than be stuck in the same hole for centuries and be dead wrong.
Again, it is not the configuration of the execution stake that is of any significance.....the cross was a religious symbol long before Christ walked the earth.
According to the
Encyclopædia Britannica.....“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”
The cross is not a holy thing to God....it was a murder weapon. If your child was killed with a gun, would you hang a replica if it around your neck or decorate your house with it?
Not according to my research. Even with the arms above the head, without the footrests to push up their body to breathe, suffocation would likewise have caused a slow and agonizing death. That is why they broke the legs. The position of the arms determines where the full body weight was carried on the point where the nails were driven into the flesh. Outstretched, the body weight would have torn through the tendons with ease. Above the head would have carried the weight. But the nails may have been driven through the stronger tendons of the wrist.
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Single pole executions happened in ancient times.....why does it need to be a cross? And what does it matter the configuration?
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The
New Catholic Encyclopedia states
: “The representation of Christ’s redemptive death on Golgotha does not occur in the symbolic art of the first Christian centuries. The early Christians, influenced by the Old Testament prohibition of graven images, were reluctant to depict even the instrument of the Lord’s Passion.”
There were to be no images used in worship.....remember? "No image of anything".