Trinity, hellfire, immortality of the soul, christmas, easter

Question For Christendom:

Why do you try so hard to deny that many or your key doctrines and celebrations are so steeped in paganism that the first-century Christians didn't even adhere to them. Many of Christendom's ways of thinking are heavily...

influenced by pagan ideology, by Hellenistic philosophy, and by whatever political opinion happens to be trendy for whatever time-period it happens to be in.

Why Can't Chrisendom Just Come Clean And Stop Giving The Bible & Christ A Bad Name? (You Are Actually Bringing Reproach Upon The Almighty Himself Through Your Bad Conduct & Many Sincere Individuals Are Mislead From What The Bible Actually Teaches),

Michael

P.S.-Whenever I hear an explanation for any of the pagan festivities, customs, and beliefs, they are always tainted by dishonesty or down-played which are not becoming traits of those who would profess to be followers of Christ.

Amblessed: "Christians aren't perfect, but they are saved from damnation having been bought with a price - by Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary."

Orion: WOW! You really hate Christians don't you! Do you hate God too?

Two of the biggest zealots on here, and neither answers a very legitimate question. They only offer dogma, and emotional outbursts.

I challenge either of you to explain why so many christian doctrines, holidays, and rituals are so similar to pagan ones.

Do you deny that concepts such as a virgin birth, gods born to mortal women, god eating rituals (communion), baptism, and the resurection all predate the birth of christ? There are many more. Dionysus even turned water into wine. There is nothing really original about christianity.

So please tell me, is it just coincidence that all of this well known pagan dogma actually then came true with the birth of christ? Or was it an old fable that was simply recycled?

WOW! You really hate Christians don't you!

Do you hate God too?

Christians aren't perfect, but they are saved from damnation having been bought with a price - by Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.

I'm curious on what basis you've arrived at the doctrines and celebrations of 1st century Christians. Virtually nothing is known about early Christians

At least we haven't started building giant wicker men and filling them with prisoners and setting fire to them yet. . . .
You must be familier with the catholic church. . .
Don't judge us all by the catholic traditions. . . .

there are those of us christians out there that dont deny many of our holidays to be pagan in orientation. the days of the week are pagan names! we are surrounded with symbolization that is pagan in origin. it is part of our culture, and will always be. I dont have a problem with it. and many of us are not as closed minded as the majority. I love my God and Jesus, but I also love my husband and he is pagan! We have a respect for eachother and our right to choose our own way of belief. My husband is the most honest, decent, respectful man I have ever met, even of all the men I met in the christian community! my mother who is a deconess in her church loves him dearly! I dont know if I will spend my forever with my husband, or where he will be in the next life...only God knows, but we have determined to make our life here, today, the best we can together. he and I both are better people for loving eachother, and not all christians get on a soap box preaching hell and damnation to the masses!

orion, he didn't say he hated Christians. Accusations won't help the matter, please keep it civil.

rnealw: No, the crusades and the inquisition were much more humane than that, I'm sure.

Michael,

With respect to your comments regarding Chrisendom: if you've done any amount of research into the socio-theological developments of Judaism from the Second Temple period up to the time of Paul, you would (quickly) find that such developments arose because of interaction (and influence) from pagan ideology, Hellenistic philosophy, and political agendas of the time. (This is not to say that Jewish-Christianity is those things; it is simply pointing out the fact that Jewish-Christianity was keenly aware of such things and adapted them to varying degrees for its own purposes). So in criticizing the methodology of Chrisendom, you are laying the same criticisms against the methodology used by many of the writers of several key biblical texts.

I would also like to see a legitimate response.
this is a question that I have wondered about and I would love to see it addressed here.
please stop with the preaching and answer the question.

maybe amblessed could take this one...

orion is just too angry and judgmental.

Get over it, We have to do something while the pagans are doing there thing, thus the holidays

I am not just talking about the holidays. I could understand if it was only things like the dates of holidays or the easter bunny and eggs that were adopted from pagan days, but I am talking about the core tenets of christianity. Baptism, communion, the virgin birth, the resurrection. All of these things existed before the birth of christ in pagan religions.

Are there no true believers who will take this one on?

If you truly believe in what the bible says then you know that what would be know as Christianity didn't just spring up at the birth of Christ. Jesus was God in the flesh and God has been around forever ... In the bible it talks about prophecy of a saviors birth LONG before he came around; Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." (sounds familiar don't it?). Well Isaiah wrote Isaiah (did ya see that one coming ? ) and he lived almost 800 years before the birth of Jesus. That is just the easy to find and most well known prophecy about the coming of Jesus.

It's easier (and correct) to believe that somehow pagan beliefs came from Christianity (before it was called that). I'm not going to try to get in an argument here because I don't have the time or the energy to make someone see what they don't want to. God is God and has always been ... he doesn't need people to believe that he is to be (though he REALLY wants you to). So to sum it up, if you want to debate weather God was/is or not then you can't see what I'm talking about; since God was here first he was the originator of all things so paganism came from someone adopting and changing his ideas.

IS THERE A …[ holy three ] or [ a holy # 3 ] [or a holy trio ] or [ a holy tri ]

or [ a holy triangle ] [ a holy threesome, ] …[or a triad, ]
ff
[a holy trilogy, ] [ or triple, holy # 3 ] [ or holy triplet GODS- EVER EVER ONCE - MENTIONED AS A TRINITY … in Gods word ?

"The word Trinity is not found in the Bible . . . It did not find a place formally in the theology of the church till the 3th century."
Only one divine Person was present--Jesus Christ the Lord.

. Is there the word holy trinity or even holy three in the Bible? Ever ? Does the Bible say that there are three OR TWO persons in the Godhead?
NO - NOT ONE single PLACE

Does the Bible ever use the word three in reference to God?
Only one verse in the entire Bible does so--
1 John 5:7 speaks of the father, the Word (instead of Son
and the Holy Ghost, and it concludes by saying, These three are 1

ONE PERSON ONE GOD
GOD IS one."

NO - NOT ONE single PLACE

GO YE THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE …...N A M E ... OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST

THE NAME… OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST IS JESUS CHRIST
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

FATHER, IS NOT A NAME
HOLY GHOST IS NOT A NAME
SON IS NOT A NAME

THE BIBLICAL BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS DEMONSTRATED ALL THROUGH THE NEW TESTAMENT
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

AND BACKED UP BY THE OLD TESTAMENT

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (1951). II, 384, 389: "The formula used was "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" or some synonymous phrase; there is no evidence for the use of the trine name…

nterpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (1962), I 351: "The evidence… suggests that baptism in early Christianity was administered, not in the threefold name, but 'in the name of Jesus Christ' or 'in the name of the Lord Jesus.'"

Otto Heick, A History of Christian Thought (1965), I, 53: "At first baptism was administered in the name of Jesus, but gradually in the name of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (1898). I, 241: "[One explanation is that] the original form of words was "into the name of Jesus Christ" or 'the Lord Jesus,' Baptism into the name of the Trinity was a later development."

Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church (1947), page 58: "The trinitarian baptismal formula,,, was displacing the older baptism in the name of Christ."

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1957), I, 435: "The New Testament knows only baptism in the name of Jesus… which still occurs even in the second and third centuries."

Canney's Encyclopedia of Religions (1970), page 53: "Persons were baptized at first 'in the name of Jesus Christ' … or 'in the name of the Lord Jesus'… Afterwards, with the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, they were baptized 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'"

Encyclopedia Biblica (1899), I, 473: "It is natural to conclude that baptism was administered in the earliest times 'in the name of Jesus Christ,' or in that 'of the Lord Jesus.'

WHEN JESUS TOLD PETER Go teach all nations BAPTIZING
them in the , ...NAME... OF the Father and of the Sonand of the Holy Ghost

ONE PERSON ONE GOD

WHAT DID PETER DO ?...???

… WHAT EXAMPLE DID THE BIBLE TELL AND GIVE OF THIS

11 DAYS LATER IN (Acts 2:37) Peter preached a sermon The CROWD “PETER, " What MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED (Acts 2:37)

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, For the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
ONE PERSON ONE GOD Acts 2:38

GA 3:27... For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED into Christ have put on Christ

1CO 1:13... Is Christ divided? ..was Paul crucified for you? or were ye BAPTIZED in the name of Paul?
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

RO 6:3... Know ye not, that so many of us as were BAPTIZED into Jesus Christ were BAPTIZED into his death?
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

AC 19:5 ... When they heard this, they were BAPTIZED in the name of the Lord Jesus

ONE PERSON ONE GOD

AC 10:48... And he commanded them to be BAPTIZED in the name of the Lord… Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

AC 8:16... (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were.. BAPTIZED in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

AC 8:12... But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were BAPTIZED, both men and women. [NO BABIES ]
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

Acts 19:3-5 ..."He, unto HOW were ye baptized? And they said, unto Johns baptism. Paul, SAID YOU believe on Christ Jesus. ... When they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus."
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

Ephesians 4:5 "THERE IS One Lord, one faith AND , one baptism."
ONE PERSON ONE GOD

Ephesians 4:5 "THERE IS One Lord, one faith AND , one baptism."

Isaiah 9:6 ... For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
ONE PERSON ONE GOD JESUS CHRIST

you CANT FIND ONE SINGLE PLACE WHERE ANYONE EVER ONCE PERFORMED BAPTISM IN THE TITLES OR MANIFESTATIONS OF THE FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT

The name of Jesus Christ is a declaration of who He is

1. Wonderful
2. Counsellor
3. The mighty God
4. The everlasting Father
5. The Prince of Peace

Acts 4:12: "Neither is there salvation in any other: For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

The early Church did not yet use the term "Trinity" and hence did not refer to Christian baptism specifically with that term. New Testament references to baptism in "Jesus' name" (Acts 2:38; Acts 19:5)

TRINITY IS A CATHOLIC .../,,...ROMAN ~TIC INVENTION ...ROME INTRODUCED...THIS AND CHANGED BAPTISM FROM THE BIBLICAL APOSTOLIC...ORIGIONAL BAPTISM...FROM { THE BIBLE COMMANDMENT & DEMONMSTRATION OF BAPTIZING... in the name of the Lord Jesus.) TO USING THE TITLES FATHER & SON & SPIRIT

BAPTISE IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND...OF THE SON...AND ...OF THE HOLY SPIRIT...

THAT NAME IS JESUS CHRIST...YOU ARE BAPTISED IN CATHOLIC INVENTED & PERVERTED BAPTISM...

Jo8:19 THEY SAID to him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father

24JESUS CLEARLY SAID IF ye believe not that I am HIM, ye shall die in your sin 27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.

~~~24JESUS CLEARLY SAID IF ye believe not that I am HIM, {{{ THE FATHER }}}ye shall die in your sin

Ph2:6 Jesus WAS and the Form /MORPH- Greek] of God, thought it not robbery / PLUNDER- Greek] to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form /MORPH- Greek] of a servant

JESUS IS THE FATHER MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH...JESUS~~~THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE SPIRIT OF GOD...

TRINITY IS A MAN MADE PERVERSION...GOBBLED UP BY ALL OF ROMES...DAUGHTERS / W.H.O.R.E..S/AS REV CH..17 PROPHICIES...

///...STILL PRACTICING HER PAGAN HOLIDAYS, LYING DECEIVING...GREEDINESS...AND LOVE OF LIES...AND REJECTION OF THE BIBLE & APOSTOLIC CHURCH