Also the three astrologer kings that came with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The stars told them that God would be born as an infant. So God can use others to faiths to lead people to Him.
Christianity and Egyptian Mythology
There is no pre-Christian primary source data supporting the "Christian-Pagan" parallel claims.
Those areguments have no physical evidence and they are based on logical fallacies (false cause, genetic fallacy, etc). Tha "pagan parallel" theory was completely refuted by protestant scholars at the beginning of the 19th century, but many people don't know this so they continue with the lies.
PAGAN PARALLEL THEORY REFUTED
http://www.christiancadre.org/ topics/historicaljesus.html
http://www.jesuspolice.com/det ail_review_section.php?id=59
http://www.frontline-apologeti cs.com/mystery_religions_early _christianity.htm
BOOKS
Myth Became Fact (essay), by Lewis
The Gospel and the Greeks, by Nash
Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, by Bruce
The Case for the Real Jesus, edited by Strobel
- joasia
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It is often said that Christianity developed by building its feasts around existing pagan holidays - but the idea of pagan holidays as a prefiguration of Christianity to come is really quite mind-bending, given the usual tripe we here about Christians as religious thieves.
Why is that? The pagans were the second people to believe in Christ, after the jews. Have you heard of the travel of one of the Apostles(I can't remember which - perhaps Paul), who came to a city where they had a monument for the unknown god? The Apostle preached to them about Jesus Christ and showed them that this was the "unknown god" that they were worshipping.
God placed indicators so that those outside of judaism(the people of God) would come to recognize the true God. And the saints teach that God is in our hearts, because He created us. So, it's not that difficult to understand that people could come to the true worship of God.
What I find appalling is that the Christian world, after all these centuries has reverted back to pagan worship. Christmas has become Santa Claus worship. Pascha has become the Easter bunny(denoted from the worship of Oestre, the godess of fertility). All saints day has reverted back to the celebration of Halloween.
What was pagan before was rejected and Christianity prevailed, but today, it looks like all that is Christian has been usurped by paganism.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
- joasia
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Tha "pagan parallel" theory was completely refuted by protestant scholars
Protestants are the last people to consult about Christianity.
I'd advise you to read the works of the Orthodox saints. You might learn something.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
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Joanna,
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The monument to the "unknown God" referenced by St. Paul was, if I am not mistaken, in Athens.
I have not read the Protestant texts mentioned by Euthymios, but I hope that I will not render his "good mood" less than sanguine by mentioning that there are many Orthodox references to Godliness in pagan civilizations. Who, for example, was Melchizedek? What of the righteous Aleutian shaman who foretold the visit of St. Innokenty to his people? What of the Sybilline prophecies of the Incarnation? The Tao Te Ching? St. Paul taught that all people will be judged by what has been revealed to them. "Those who have the Law (Torah) will be judged by the Law," etc...
It is one thing for a pagan to live righteously without knowledge of the Incarnation of God, and another matter, as Joanna points out, for one to turn from knowledge of the Incarnation and to embrace neo-paganism, as so many are now doing in our American society. Such a turn is surely a denial of Christ God, and a Satanic delusion (prelest.)
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Pravoslavnik wrote:Stumbler,
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I have been very interested in the subject of pagan prefigurations of Christ. In Egyptian mythology the God Osiris was slain by his evil brother Set (?parallels with Shaitan, Satan?) and his body was cast into the Nile. [/quote]
There is no resurrection with Osirus. It was a zombification. Second, the hero of the account is not Osirus, but Isis or even Horus, their son. This is far different than Christ's reusrrection account where he was the gloriously Prince of life who was was seen by others on earth before his ascension into heaven.
There are other marks that distinguish Jesus' death and resurrection from the allaged pagan parallels: (1) In the mystery religions, the gods did not die willingly as Christ did. As Martin Hengel points out, "Attis and Adonis were killed by a wild boar, Osirus was torn to pieces by Typhon-Seth and Dionysus by the Titans. [see Martin Hengel, Crucifiction, 5-6]. (2). Hengel likewise points out that "crucifiction" plays no part in the mysteries" and cites the contribution of A.D. Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, vol. I, Z. Stewart, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 170, as an authoritative refutation of those, specifically Charles Kerenyi, who claim that crucified gods are found in the mysteries. (3). In ancient romance literature, the hero was always saved at the last moment prior to being crucified, and there was the obligatory happy ending (Hengel, Crucifiction, 81-82, 88).
"The conception that that the god dies and is resurrected in order to lead his faithful to eternal life is represented in no Hellenistic mystery religion." [French scholar Andre Boulanger]. See also Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks, 161-62; quoting Andre Boulanger.
Pravoslavnik wrote:Stumbler, There is a parallel pagan Syrian myth regarding the murder of Adonis and casting of the body into the sea. Both pagan religions associated the slain God with resurrection/immortality and a sacrificial love for humanity. The ritual sacrifice of the king in various forms has been seen in many pagan religious traditions.
See above. Also, Adonis is more than a hundred years after Jesus. Pierre Lambrechts has shown that there are no indications of a resurrection in the early information we have about Adonis. While there are four texts that speak of his resurrection, they date to from the second to the fourth century AD -- long after Jesus. [see Lambrechts, "La resurrection' d Adonis," Melanges Isidore Levy (1955), 207-40, quoted in Yamauchi, "Easter --Myth, Hallucination, or History?"].
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