Christian and Pagan rituals

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Im not trying to bash or ridicule christianity, but this has always been on my mind and I have to ask this because of simple curiosity. Besides initial belief systems, how is christianity any different than paganism in terms of practice? I see a lot of similarities between the two practices. I know some people say that christians stole a lot of their practices from pagans, whether or not this is true, this is not what I am looking for. My question comes more from christians preaching against pagans and their practices and they criticise their "satanic rituals". Yet I see a lot of similar rituals. For example, communion where you are told to eat a peice of bread symbolic to the flesh of christ, and drink wine symbolic to the blood of christ. There is the link between christmas/easter which are christian holidays that celebrate the death and birth of Jesus, which has a remarkable resemblance to the pagan rituals that celebrate the winter solstice and spring equinox also celebrating death and rebirth. The story of Jesus resembles the story of Tammuz the son of Ishtar, who dies every year and is rebirthed every spring. There is a long list of similarities that I have cross referenced. Just to be clear where I stand, Im not a pagan myself, but I grew up around christians who would bash the pagan religion and claimed they practised satanic rituals.. rituals that resemble their own.
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I guess what Im asking here is, how is Christianity not considered some form of paganism?
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handy0318
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I know a lot of the more mainline churches are pushing back on the "pagan" characteristic and are moving towards the mindset of 'other religions'"... which I think a good thing as really that's the truth. Paganism is simply another religion or more accurately other religions as paganism is a pretty broad term.

As to your OP, you raise good questions. Ritual has always been a part of human existence. Most Christians will recognize this as a need for worship...naturally atheists and others will have a different viewpoint. Being Christian myself, I do see an ingrained need for worship within the human experience. So, rituals abound throughout every culture in every part of the world.

As for Christianity, the only rituals that are expressly defined in our faith are communion and baptism. And yes, communion was rather shocking, taking on somewhat of a cannibalistic overture, even if just in a symbolic way. Christians have differing views of just what the Eucharist implies. Catholics believe that Christ's body and blood are miraculously present in the bread and wine, many Protestant churches view it as symbolically present. I tend to go along with the more Lutheran view which can be summed up as "Jesus did not say this 'symbolically represents my body and my blood.' He emphatically stated 'this is my body, this is my blood' and we as Christians are not entirely sure what he meant by that."

The accusation that Christians "stole" pagan rituals is false though... the truth is simply that as Christianity spread throughout the world, it took on the rituals common to the lands through which it spread. The celebration of Christmas was set at the same time as Saturnalia expressly to give Roman Christians a holiday to observe as they were observing it anyway. Feasting and gift-giving are two obvious examples of rituals that were absorbed into Christian tradition. Pope Julius specifically determined that Christ's birth would be celebrated on December 25th in order to give Christians a more Christ-like reason to celebrate rather than participating in the celebration of another god. It should be noted that only the Roman Christians took December 25th as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ. Eastern Christians to this day celebrate Christ's birth on the original day of it's celebration which was January 6th. The Church calendar had been established prior to Pope Julius' decree that the Roman church would place Christmas on December 25th. Many of the Christmas traditions that we see in Europe and America are not shared in the Eastern Churches, because they were influenced by European customs rather than the more Eastern cultures.


Guest wrote: Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:46 pm I guess what Im asking here is, how is Christianity not considered some form of paganism?
Momto2boys973
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Well... I’m an Orthodox Jew and we do consider Christianity to be a form of idolatry. Especially those branches that give Jesus divinity. It’s somehow conflicting because ultimately, they do worship the same G-d we do, but we do believe that the way they go about it is idolatrous and mostly based on Pagan ideas and beliefs.
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mommy_jules
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Guest wrote: Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:46 pm I guess what Im asking here is, how is Christianity not considered some form of paganism?
As a Christian, my beliefs are in some ways much different than other Christians. My beliefs fall more in line with the Religious Society of Friends aka Quakers. I don't believe that rituals and ceremonies are needed. I celebrate Christmas and Easter, but it's more like a tradition than a religious holiday. I also do not participate in the Eucharist.
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AllofFive19
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Christianity used to be the pagan belief.
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mrsmacgiver
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So, the Roman Empire pushed for the spread of Christianity because it created a system of wealth for the empire. There was no money to be made for the empire in Paganism.

One of the reasons Christianity adopted so many pagan rituals was to make people feel more comfortable with converting. They were already somewhat familiar with it so it wasn't as scary. Of course, this didn't always work- most had to be forcefully converted.

I would say one of the main differences is not in rituals but in dogma. Paganism is not dogmatic.
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Momto2boys973 wrote: Mon Jun 18, 2018 11:13 pm Well... I’m an Orthodox Jew and we do consider Christianity to be a form of idolatry. Especially those branches that give Jesus divinity. It’s somehow conflicting because ultimately, they do worship the same G-d we do, but we do believe that the way they go about it is idolatrous and mostly based on Pagan ideas and beliefs.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that the major differences between Christianity and Judaism is that Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but revert to Moses as the Messiah (IDK if you call him Messiah but I'm using it in a general way).

Is that correct? Because past that I don't really see much difference except Jews go by Old Testament and Christians technically go by the whole bible.
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No. Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. Moses was a prophet. The Messiah has to be a direct descendant of King David, who reigned long after the Exodus.
Dylexsmommy wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:13 pm
Momto2boys973 wrote: Mon Jun 18, 2018 11:13 pm Well... I’m an Orthodox Jew and we do consider Christianity to be a form of idolatry. Especially those branches that give Jesus divinity. It’s somehow conflicting because ultimately, they do worship the same G-d we do, but we do believe that the way they go about it is idolatrous and mostly based on Pagan ideas and beliefs.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that the major differences between Christianity and Judaism is that Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but revert to Moses as the Messiah (IDK if you call him Messiah but I'm using it in a general way).

Is that correct? Because past that I don't really see much difference except Jews go by Old Testament and Christians technically go by the whole bible.
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Momto2boys973 wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:19 pm No. Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. Moses was a prophet. The Messiah has to be a direct descendant of King David, who reigned long after the Exodus.
Dylexsmommy wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:13 pm
Momto2boys973 wrote: Mon Jun 18, 2018 11:13 pm Well... I’m an Orthodox Jew and we do consider Christianity to be a form of idolatry. Especially those branches that give Jesus divinity. It’s somehow conflicting because ultimately, they do worship the same G-d we do, but we do believe that the way they go about it is idolatrous and mostly based on Pagan ideas and beliefs.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that the major differences between Christianity and Judaism is that Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but revert to Moses as the Messiah (IDK if you call him Messiah but I'm using it in a general way).

Is that correct? Because past that I don't really see much difference except Jews go by Old Testament and Christians technically go by the whole bible.

Ok Thanks for clarifying. I actually knew that, but I honestly don't know a lot of Jews so it kind of escaped my memory.
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