What is the truth about christianity ?
By iuliuxd
@iuliuxd (4453)
Romania
December 10, 2011 6:29am CST
"The church has picked December 25th as a date to celebrate Christmas to replace the pagan Yule festival "
This is one of the things we are told all the time from people who have a problem with the christianity. What is the truth ? Can any of you who believe there was a pagan Yule festival to prove the christians have stolen your date and turned into their celebration ?
"The majority of christians are celebrating Sunday and this is another satanic plan of the Constantine the Great because they are celebrating the pagan God of Sun "
"On Sunday the venerable day of the Sun let the Magistrates and the people residing in the cities rest, and let all workshops be closed." Edict of Constantine A.D. 321 and since that date Christians worship on the the venerable day of the Sun!!"
So they claim it is Constantine the Great edict in 321 A.D. the one that established the celebration of Liturgy on Sunday.
But here is the evidence that the sunday was celebrated before Constantine the great:
http://www.earlychurchtexts.com/main/elvira/canons_of_elvira_02.shtml
The council of Elvira in 305 - 306 A.D. 21st Canon : "Si quis in civitate positus tres dominicas ad ecclesiam non accesserit, pauco tempore abstineatur, ut correptus esse videatur."
Now i come from a latin country but i don`t know too much latin and i can`t find a good online translator but from what i can understand it`s written "If someone misses 3 Sundays from Mass he will be be excomunicated " Dominica means Sunday ,we still say Duminica and italians are saying Domenica.
There are even older evidences that the christians have replaced the old celebration day with Sunday.So why do we have these people telling others every time how bad they are because they believe some "lies " or how bad their religion is ?
Why do you care if someone is celebrating Christmas or whatever he wants ? Don`t you have Hanukkah,Yule,New Year`s Eve or Festivus like they had on Seinfeld ? Let the people celebrate whatever makes them happy.
3 people like this
8 responses
@Mashnn (4501)
•
10 Dec 11
No one can really explain the truth about Christianity. There is so much conflicting issues outside there that the best thing we can do is just stick on what you believe is right or wrong or follow what you think is right. I don't think there is any problem with celebrating Christmas or any other event. We all have freedom to choose what you want to celebrate.
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
10 Dec 11
"This is one of the things we are told all the time from people who have a problem with the christianity" - actually, you'll hear it from anyone who states things based on historical evidence and, most often, it's in defence of Christianity in response to someone who has a problem with Christmas being "Jesus' birthday". It's simply a reason why the date was chosen, not a "for" or "against" issue. Only people who are really picky care about the exact date Jesus was born: the simple fact that he WAS born is what matters.
"Can any of you who believe there was a pagan Yule festival to prove the christians have stolen your date and turned into their celebration" - yes, plenty of historical evidence available, in the same way as old churches used to have a pagan altar by the side entrance to encourage the local non-Christians to worship in the same building (and give their money to the Christian administration). Again, a case of historical evidence, not a "for" or "against" issue.
The Sunday thing, I have no clue about. I always assumed it was a carry-over from the Jewish sabbath day, since that was (and is) the predominant religion of the area.
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
10 Dec 11
"we are accepting them as truths but we have no idea what really happened" - I've said much the same thing myself, elsewhere on myLot. There is no such thing as "fact" or "truth", merely a commonly-accepted answer.
The original Christmas date was probably chosen because it's Midwinter. It has seasonal significance, it's important as a measure of passing time, it's when the year begins anew (since days start getting longer afterwards) and so on. It's considered "stolen" because in the West, at least, the pagan religions celebrated the date before it was Christmas. In the East, it was different.
Like I said, it doesn't really matter anyway. Dates are completely arbitrary. I blame the Romans. 
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
12 Dec 11
That's interesting. 
Makes me think: in a couple of hundred years, will people be debating whether dressing up for October 31st is really to celebrate "Hallowed Eden" and the Genesis story or if it was just a pagan ritual adopted by the Church...?
It's amazing what a good bit of time, a few lost records and some imagination can do. In the end, I think we both agree - who cares what the practical reasons are, if you're celebrating the thing you want to celebrate, with your heart in the right place! 
Makes me think: in a couple of hundred years, will people be debating whether dressing up for October 31st is really to celebrate "Hallowed Eden" and the Genesis story or if it was just a pagan ritual adopted by the Church...?
It's amazing what a good bit of time, a few lost records and some imagination can do. In the end, I think we both agree - who cares what the practical reasons are, if you're celebrating the thing you want to celebrate, with your heart in the right place! 
@6precious102 (4043)
• United States
10 Dec 11
The Bible doesn't have calender dates for anything. It might mention a particular historic event or when some ruler was in power to give us an idea of the period, but nothing precise. Therefore, it's difficult to say when Jesus was born, but many have given their calculated opinion based on various signs - like who was ruler of Rome and Judea at the time, astronomy, Old Testament prophecy, the fact that shepherds were watching their flocks by night and would not have been in the field if it had been winter. Many think it unlikely Jesus was born in December, but some believe He might have been conceived in December and born in September.
Regarding Christians worshiping on Sunday: The Bible says they met on "the first day of the week," but doesn't give a name for the first day. Meeting on the first day was probably in honor of Christ's resurrection, not because of any pagan god. I know calenders have been around for a long time, but I don't know when they got the current names for the days of the week. Do you know, was it before or after Christ's resurrection?
@iuliuxd (4453)
• Romania
10 Dec 11
I think the oldest mention about the week is the Hebrew Book where we can see they celebrated Sabbath.And we know it was the 7th day of the week.The Greeks took this system from them i suppose.
Here is an "evidence" that the Christians were celebrating Sunday even more earlier but we need to search for the proof:
"For early Christians, Sunday, as well as being the first day of the week, was also the spiritual eighth day, as it symbolized the new world created after Christ's resurrection. The concept of the eighth day was symbolic only and had no effect on the use of the seven-day week for calendar purposes. Justin Martyr wrote: "the first day after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and [yet] remains the first". This does not set up an eight-day week, since the eighth day is also considered to be the first day of the next cycle (i.e., not the following day)."
Justin Martyr lived between 103–165 A.D.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
10 Dec 11
This is one of the many things that really threw me off of religion as a kid. While everyone else was worshiping and insisting I do the same, I wondered why so many different versions of supposed divine truth were available, and why none of them made sense as "truth" if there were any alternate version out there.
However Christians reconcile the date of Christmas, all the best to them. I personally celebrate the Americanized Santa version of Christmas, with a tree and not a manger scene, eggnog and not sacrament.
In terms of satanic plans and whatnot, well, in the words of Seinfeld, "Good luck with all that." 
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
14 Dec 11
I think that the reason that Christmas is celebrated on December 25 is because of the fact that it just seemed like a good time to have a holiday when Christmas was established. However, it is true that a lot of Christian celebrations fall on the same day or nearly the same day as pagan celebrations.
I've been Christian all my life, and it has never been a part of me to question what I've always been taught.
@maidangela7349 (1191)
•
11 Dec 11
I don't know about the truth of Christianity but the ultimate truth is that nobody knows or ever has known how the universe or the earth was created and what happens when you die except that your body decays and your atoms go on to form part of new bodies or things. As to god who is watching you or controlling your life nobody knows about that either although lots of people try to tell you they do. All that going to church and praying may help some people who need to believe in some mythical being but in the real world it does nothing. Of course it is good to have celebrations with friends a family and if it is necessary to pretend that you are celebrating the birth of some person then there is no harm in that until you start taking it seriously
@joylynsebog (72)
• Philippines
11 Dec 11
We just have to believe what we want to believe. Anyway, as long as you have a deep faith in God, then you can believe the thing that sounds right for you.
