Christian handling of Pagan roots. Part 1

Many Christians have serious issues with the Pagan roots of many holidays and especially many holidays that often observed across Christianity such as Easter and Christmas.

I respect those that view these days and seasons with such historical origins as somehow inappropriate for believers to recognize or celebrate in any way, however here is a bite sized truth to consider: what a person or people celebrates in their own mind and heart may have nothing to do with its original historical origins.

There is no doubt that many of the traditions and names around these holidays often originated with practices and beliefs that do not honor one true God, monotheistic, let alone honor the God of the Bible. That fact in and of itself doesn’t necessarily tell us what people are currently honoring, celebrating or remembering in their practices. Can’t old traditions give way, be moved aside and fade as new traditions are established?

I for instance do not celebrate ancient pagan roots when I celebrate Christmas or Easter in any respect. I celebrate Jesus Christ the Lord’s birth during the Christmas season and then his death, burial and resurrection during the Easter season.

I understand that the roots are Pagan but we should also understand that much of what you and I speak about and follow the patterns for every day are pagan.

Let’s define our terms first. In a religious context such as we are discussing, a Pagan is – An adherent of a polytheistic religion in antiquity, especially when viewed in contrast to an adherent of a monotheistic religion. Webster also discusses the evolution of the word pagan and heathen as it relates to Christianity from a word that originally meant simply country dweller to one that became similar to heathen in a fully derogatory sense.

So Pagan in this context basically means that the origin was from some religious context that was not monotheistic and therefore certainly NOT Christian. Does being pagan in origin make a thing particularly evil or ‘an abomination’ to the Lord God?
Well that depends I suppose on what in particular you think God finds offensive or inappropriate or what you yourself feel that way about.

So much of our society, especially in the West is based on words and traditions that were long ago pagan in origin even now those origins are unknown and meaningless to people.

How about the days of the week for example?
How many understand that the names we use every day have pagan roots that originally honored pagan Gods and beliefs?

The entire society we live in uses these names and organizes our lives around them. Take a quick look at the Pagan traditions you could consider being ‘honored’ by recognizing, speaking and or writing the days of the week most of us use every day.

Here’s a summary. for more detail see Ancient-Origins.net and many other sources.

Sunday is the Sun’s day of Roman holiday Pagan orgin. Many societies have worshiped the sun and sun-gods. Perhaps the most famous is the Egyptian Sun-god Ra, who was the lord of time.
Monday is the Moon God’s day, from the Anglo-Saxon ‘monandaeg’ and on this day people gave homage to the goddess of the moon.
Tuesday is Tiu’s day named after a Germanic god – Tiu (or Twia) – a god of war and the sky and associated with the Norse god Tyr, who was a defender god in Viking mythology. Tiu is associated with Mars.
Wednesday is “Woden’s Day” or more recognizable thanks to comic book characters as the Norse name, ‘Odin’. Odin’s Day, the god equivalent to Mercury, who was the messenger to the gods and the Roman god of commerce, travel and science. Anglo-Saxon mythology considered Odin the chief god but the name directly translated means “violently insane headship”. Fans of comic and now movie super hero Thor know Odin, (from Woden) was the ruler of Asgard home of the gods, and he is able to shift and change into different forms according to mythology.
Thursday was “Thor’s Day”, named after the Norse god of thunder and lightning and is the Old Norse equivalent to Jupiter. Thor is often depicted holding a giant hammer and during the 10 ^th and 11 ^th centuries when Christians tried to convert the Scandinavians, many wore emblems of Thor’s hammer as a symbol of defiance against the new religion.
Friday is associated with Freya, the wife of Woden or ‘Odin’ and the Norse goddess of love, marriage and fertility, who is equivalent to Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
Saturday derives from “Saturn’s Day”, a Roman god associated with wealth, plenty and time. It is the only English week-day still associated with a Roman god, Saturn.

History shows that the influence of the Scriptures, and the ‘people of the book’ has often led to Christians bringing the biblical influence into their secular society which is to pagans and heathens and any society they brought the light of God’s word into.

The Biblical Hebrews called Saturday the “Sabbath”, meaning, day of rest and the Bible identifies Saturday as the last day of the week. Western society and much of the world now respects the traditions of resting and taking off on the weekends as both Saturday (Sabbath) and Sunday (“The Lord’s resurrection”) took over from their old Pagan meanings and influenced the world with Biblical ideas, customs and practices.

Even the seven-day week can be seen as originating with ancient Babylon prior to 600 BC, when time was marked with the lunar cycle, which experienced different seven-day cycles but a millennium later, Emperor Constantine converted Rome to Christianity and standardized the seven-day week across the Empire. Rome may initially have acquired the seven-day week from the mystical beliefs of Babylonian astrologers but it was the biblical story of creation, God making the Heavens and Earth and resting on the seventh day that will have led the first Christian emperor of Rome to make sure it endured to this day.

What do the names of these various days, including the holidays signify to you? What do practice in your life on these days? What do you honor? What do you celebrate?

Romans 14:5 – One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. (KJV)

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. (NIV)

Was America founded as a Christian Nation?

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Mayflower Compact (1620)
Was America founded
as a Christian Nation?

In BiteSizedTruth fashion, let me first cut to the chase on this question that has become in recent times a “controversial” question to even ask. Because this is BST I’m going to start by giving the answer to answer, then you can read as much of the rest of this series as you desire or do not desire.

The answer quite simply depends simply on 2 things:

How you define a “Christian Nation”
Who you ask the question.

Primarily, do you define “Christian Nation” as officially by the agreement of law a Nation declaring itself committed to a particular religion? In that case the answer was always “NO”.

The overall agreement of the founders clearly wanted no “official religion” to be declared and more importantly no particular religion to be enforced as official religion of the new country. In fact they were fleeing from such a government with an official “state religion” even though they themselves were FAR from secular as a society or group.

If on the other hand if you by “Christian Nation” you mean that
A) Most of the people of the country believed in a particular religions AND

B) The laws and culture of the country was based on a particular predominant religion adopted by most of the society…

Then the answer is absolutely, unquestionably, YES, America was in culture and in foundation-building-values a Christian Nation.

The 2nd thing to remember is the answer to this question will always depend on WHO you ask.
The answer will almost always reflect the “spin” they/we choose to put on it based on our own bias. Even the historical quotes will be “cherry picked” based on the point of view they/we wish to present.

Read more of this growing series to study some of our own “cherry picked” part of the United States history. At least this stuff is quite directly quoted and in solid context of the historical setting AND you will be reading it for yourself.
You can then go back to finding your favorite Christian/Atheist sources and get those “cherry’s” but remember the BST answer above:
1) How do they define “Christian Nation”
2) Who is answering the question.

Selah –

Mayflower Compact

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Study history for yourself and see the agreements, binding covenants that formed America such as the Mayflower Compact (1620)

This article is directly from and courtesy of CBN.
Just click here for the PDF document.

IT WAS A SLIGHTLY chilly april day in the year 1607 when
three tiny boats, scarcely bigger than twenty-first-century cabin
cruisers, appeared on the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean and sailed
toward the coastline of North America, where they dropped anchor
in deep water just offshore. One hundred twenty bone-weary English travelers then took their turns climbing down into long boats that deposited them onto the sandy beach.

After an agonizingly long journey during which the travelers
had been packed into their tiny vessels, they were intoxicated with
the feel of land under their feet and the scent of woods and flowers.
They scrambled up the adjoining sand dunes in search of wild
berries, fresh water, and firewood. The next three days were spent
in exploration and profuse apologies to one another for the contemptible attitudes many had displayed during their most trying
voyage. But they had come to settle a continent, not to beachcomb
on this point of land they named Cape Henry, after Henry, the son
of King James I of England.

On April 29, 1607, their spiritual leader, Reverend Robert Hunt,

Founding a Christian Nation
We, . . . Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the
Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do . . . solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick . . .
—Mayflower Compact (1620)

suggested they memorialize their landing in this New World. He directed that the seven-foot oak cross they had brought from Englandbe carried from one of the ships and planted firmly in the sand of what years later became the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. These brave pioneer men and women then knelt in prayer around the rough-hewn cross and claimed this new land for the glory of God
and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Biblical Archaeology – Nebuchadnezzar’s Iraq

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As I’m meditating and studying the book of Daniel this morning I stumbled into this recent archaeological find related to the very time the scripture is historically documenting.

The time period where God has given a unbelieving king, a king who did not in fact know the true God, King Nebuchadnezzar, power to conquer and rule over the Jewish people. Scriptures make it clear God allowed this because of the sins of His people and disobedience in refusing to follow His ways.

Clearly a MASSIVE archaeological find of 110 ancient Babylonian tablets being discovered in Iraq is meant to speak to the world, to any who can hear the message.

We have here 2500 year old cuneiform clay tablets dating back to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule in Babylon confirming (yet again) that the PROPHETIC book of Daniel is indeed a historically reliable record. Perhaps some of those who think these writing are simple “mythology” along the lines of other writings to should at least take a 2nd look at the book.

This is especially important when you consider that the scientific find (archaeology is science, right?) hails from an Ancient land that is so relevant it appears EVERY day in our present news on screens everywhere. Perhaps there are reasons to pay attention to these lands and the prophetic words related to what has occurred and we are warned WILL occur in the world as it relates to ancient “Babylon” and the middle east.

2,500 Year Old Jewish Tablets Discovered in Iraq.
Ancient Tablets Confirm Biblical Account of Jewish Exile in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.

And why should you or I care today about this “ancient” history? What’s the point?

Eccl 1:9 (NLT)
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

Biblical Archaeology – The Magdalen Papyrus & Eyewitness of Jesus

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Article segments from: Bible-Science Guy

“On Christmas Eve, 1994, The Times of London reported on its front page an astonishing claim made by the German Biblical scholar Carsten Peter Thiede.
‘A papyrus believed to be the oldest extant fragment of the New Testament has been found in an Oxford library,’ the newspaper said. ‘It provides the first material evidence that the Gospel according to St.Matthew is an eyewitness account written by contemporaries of Christ.”

“The story concerned three tiny scraps of paper belonging to Magdalen College, Oxford … On both sides of the fragments appeared Greek script, phrases from the twenty-sixth chapter of St. Matthew, which describes Jesus’ anointment in the house of Simon the leper at Bethany and his betrayal to the chief priests by Judas Iscariot … Thiede argued that they were of astonishingly early origin, dating from the mid-first century A.D. The argument was complex, based upon expert analysis of the Greek writing on the fragments and upon extensive comparisons with calligraphy on other manuscript fragments.”

The book is Eyewitness to Jesus: Amazing New Manuscript Evidence About the Origin of the Gospelsby Thiede and D’Ancona (Doubleday, 1996).

It describes the worldwide sensation created by the most momentous discovery for Biblical research since the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed in 1947.

The key to re-dating the Magdalen Papyrus fragments was Dr. Thiede’s identification of them as contemporary with three other datable collections:
– Greek papyrus fragments from among the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls,
– Greek papyrus fragments from Herculaneum, and
– Greek ostraca (potsherds with Greek inscriptions) from Masada.

Dr. Thiede based this identification on painstaking analysis of numerous Greek handwriting characteristics and on extensive comparisons of calligraphy on many manuscripts. His conclusions dynamited the foundations of liberal NT criticism.

Thiede’s investigation was the first time Greek fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls had been used for comparative purposes to date other Greek literature

Mayflower Compact (1620) Was America founded as a Christian Nation?

Study history for yourself and see the agreements, binding covenants that formed America such as the Mayflower Compact (1620)

Mayflower Compact (1620)
Was America founded
as a Christian Nation?