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Now we come to one of the big players, Constantine! This is the man who established the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church will tell you it was the Church that Jesus "built," but that's pure myth. This is the man who created Christmas and Easter. These two "holidays" were pagan celebrations and practices that were renamed and presented as "Christian." There are tons of historical information about this; anyone willing to spend a little time and effort can find this out for themselves. Here is part of an article posted by Classroom.synonym.com
Pagan culture put its stamp on Christianity (should read Roman Catholic Church) as the religion moved through Europe. The early Christians never bothered to celebrate Jesus' birthday, and it is impossible to know when Jesus was actually born, but the Catholic Church eventually lined up Christmas with a pagan festival. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the solar feast of Natalis Invictus "strongly claims responsibility for our December date. You can see this blending at work on Easter as well, the most important Christian holiday of the year, is also bursting with pagan symbols of fertility, such as eggs and rabbits.
From The Colchester Archaeologist - 25th December: the Roman festival of the sun god Sol Invictus.
Today (25th December) is the day in the later Roman empire when people celebrated the winter solstice and the sun god Sol Invictus's (unconquerable sun) birthday. The day was called 'dies natalis invicti'
I won't get into these historical facts, but I want to point out one practice the early Catholic Church did. If there was a popular god, say a god of farming, Silvanus, the Catholic Church would change the name of the god into a "Christian" name, Isadore, call this god a "saint," and from then on, in the Catholic Church, the former pagan god became Isadore the farmer, the "Patron Saint of Farming." The Roman goddess of motherhood, Latona (Leto to the Greeks") had her name changed to Anne, and she became St Anne, the patron saint of motherhood.
Back to the study. Constantine created the "office" of Cardinal. He created this "office' expressly for the purpose of wealthy and powerful families who had at least one worthless son, a son who would never succeed in the secular world, wasnt cut out for the military, couldn't be trusted to run the family's affairs or businesses and wasn't smart enough to follow an academic life. Of course, this "office" had to be bought by the family.
Constantine referred to the Jews as a "dangerous, abominable sect." He proclaimed the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D., which gave protection to "Christians." However, it didn't offer any protection for the Jews. He assembled the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., which developed the Nicene Creed. The first order of business was to create an "official day" for "Christians to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, which Constantine called Easter, along with Christmas.
In an article from abc.net.au:
Origin of Easter: From pagan festivals and Christianty to bunnies and chocolate eggs. "It turns out Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating the Spring Equinox long before the advent of Christianity. Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times" University of Sydney Professor Carole Cusack said.
Following the advent of Christianty, the Easter period became associate with the resurrection of Jesus. "In the first couple of centuries after Jesus' life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals," Professor Cusack said. Spring festivals with the theme of new life and relief from the cold of winter became connected explicitly to Jesus having conquered death by being resurrected after the crucifixion." "Many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of spring eventually became absorbed within Christianity as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus."
For the hundreds of years until this council, the majority of Gentile believers participated in the Passover! A Jewish festival commanded by God in the Torah!
Now, take heed! Passover had nothing to do with the resurrection of Yeshua! The pagan spring festivals had nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus! The word "Easter" is not in Scripture (Despite some translations inserting it into the text.) So where did the idea of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus come from? Constantine! He made up something new, a man-made tradition! The only thing Yeshua commanded to be a memorial was the Last Supper, known as Communion, Mat 26:26-28, Mk 14:22-24, Lk 22:19-20. Nowhere in Acts do you see the Jewish leaders of "The Way" start a "new festival" to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! It's not in the Gospels or any other part of the N.T.! Just as Christmas is a myth, a man-made tradition that has no Scripture source, the Jewish people did not celebrate birthdays. God never gave a command to celebrate birthdays.
Do you now realize that when you partake of Christmas or Easter, you participate in man-made traditions that come from pagan mythology, pagan practices and pagan festivals that have no sanction from Scripture?
Constantine wrote a letter that was to be spread across the empire:
"When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter...In the first place, it seemed to everyone (at the Council) a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in celebration of this most holy solemnity (trying to equate the Passover with the resurrection of Jesus) , who, polluted wretches, having stained their hands with a nefarious (that the Jews murdered Jesus) crime, are justly blinded in their minds...Let us have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews."
At the Council of Antioch in 345 A.D., "Christians" were banned from celebrating the Passover Seder with Jewish friends or neighbors.
At the Council of Laodicea, 363-364 A.D., "Christians" were banned from participating in the Jewish Sabbath, that they were to rest on the Lord's day.
In 388 A.D., Bishop Ambrose of Milan instigated the burning of a local synagogue. He said that the synagogue was a home of unbelief, a house of impiety, a receptacle of folly, which God Himself had condemned. He said that the Jews were destined to wander the earth to witness the victory of the Church over the synagogue. It was not enough to affirm that the Jews were no longer a part of the Church. The Church must ALSO EXERT THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD UPON THEM.
Can you see why there was such emphasis on using the words "Christian" and "Church?"
John Chrysostom 347-407 A.D. He complained that as late as the fourth century, some "Christians" were still attending Jewish synagogues! He said that Judaism was a disease and Jews were ravenous wolves attacking the flock, that Jews should abandon Judaism and become "Christians." He compared a synagogue to a place worse than a brothel. It was a den of Scoundrels, a temple of demons, a cavern of devils, and a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ. He said that demons dwell in synagogues and in the souls of Jews. That the Jews were only fit to be slaughtered.
British historian Paul Johnson added that Chrysostom's homilies became the pattern for anti-Jewish tirades, twisting key passages in Matthew and John to stir up hatred against the Jewish people.
Do you see how the venom and rhetoric grew worse over the years? These men were the birth of anti-Semitism! These men were read and quoted by the Nazi party!
Gentile believers, not Gentile Christians, stayed true and faithful to Jewish teaching for all of those years! Despite all of the crap the leaders of the Gentile Church kept coming up with! Jesus didn't start the "Church," man did! The "church" is not based on Scripture and never has been! It is a man-made religion of the world!
And what was the attitude 1200 years later? What about that hero of the Reformation, Martin Luther? At first, he was pro-Jewish and sympathetic to the Jewish resistance to the Catholic Church. But, after he broke away from the Catholic Church and started the "Lutheran Church," and the Jewish people didn't swarm to him, he did a 180! And he was vicious against the Jews! He wrote a work entitled "The Jews and their Lies." Here are some excerpts: "Jews are miserable and accursed," "blind, stupid and senseless," "arrogant," "do not permit the Jews to mislead you," "You cannot learn anything from them," " Their synagogues are nothing but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming God are practiced," thieves and robbers," Eject them from the country forever," To save our souls from the Jews, from the devil and eternal death, set fire to their synagogues," I advise that their houses be razed," "Let them have no protection under the law." This is just a tiny bit of what he wrote. You can find this work online.
But even during Martin Luther's day, we still see a Jewish influence on Gentile believers!
All of the effort made to separate the O.T. and the N.T., to create the illusion that Gentile believers were the true faith and had nothing in common with the Jews or the O.T. And that attitude, except for any disassociation with Jewish people, is still alive and well today! I distinctly remember that while a very young child trapped in the Catholic Church, I started to hate the Jews! And this stayed with me until I got into my twenties and started researching the Catholic Church!
End of part 5
Pagan culture put its stamp on Christianity (should read Roman Catholic Church) as the religion moved through Europe. The early Christians never bothered to celebrate Jesus' birthday, and it is impossible to know when Jesus was actually born, but the Catholic Church eventually lined up Christmas with a pagan festival. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the solar feast of Natalis Invictus "strongly claims responsibility for our December date. You can see this blending at work on Easter as well, the most important Christian holiday of the year, is also bursting with pagan symbols of fertility, such as eggs and rabbits.
From The Colchester Archaeologist - 25th December: the Roman festival of the sun god Sol Invictus.
Today (25th December) is the day in the later Roman empire when people celebrated the winter solstice and the sun god Sol Invictus's (unconquerable sun) birthday. The day was called 'dies natalis invicti'
I won't get into these historical facts, but I want to point out one practice the early Catholic Church did. If there was a popular god, say a god of farming, Silvanus, the Catholic Church would change the name of the god into a "Christian" name, Isadore, call this god a "saint," and from then on, in the Catholic Church, the former pagan god became Isadore the farmer, the "Patron Saint of Farming." The Roman goddess of motherhood, Latona (Leto to the Greeks") had her name changed to Anne, and she became St Anne, the patron saint of motherhood.
Back to the study. Constantine created the "office" of Cardinal. He created this "office' expressly for the purpose of wealthy and powerful families who had at least one worthless son, a son who would never succeed in the secular world, wasnt cut out for the military, couldn't be trusted to run the family's affairs or businesses and wasn't smart enough to follow an academic life. Of course, this "office" had to be bought by the family.
Constantine referred to the Jews as a "dangerous, abominable sect." He proclaimed the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D., which gave protection to "Christians." However, it didn't offer any protection for the Jews. He assembled the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., which developed the Nicene Creed. The first order of business was to create an "official day" for "Christians to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, which Constantine called Easter, along with Christmas.
In an article from abc.net.au:
Origin of Easter: From pagan festivals and Christianty to bunnies and chocolate eggs. "It turns out Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating the Spring Equinox long before the advent of Christianity. Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times" University of Sydney Professor Carole Cusack said.
Following the advent of Christianty, the Easter period became associate with the resurrection of Jesus. "In the first couple of centuries after Jesus' life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals," Professor Cusack said. Spring festivals with the theme of new life and relief from the cold of winter became connected explicitly to Jesus having conquered death by being resurrected after the crucifixion." "Many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of spring eventually became absorbed within Christianity as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus."
For the hundreds of years until this council, the majority of Gentile believers participated in the Passover! A Jewish festival commanded by God in the Torah!
Now, take heed! Passover had nothing to do with the resurrection of Yeshua! The pagan spring festivals had nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus! The word "Easter" is not in Scripture (Despite some translations inserting it into the text.) So where did the idea of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus come from? Constantine! He made up something new, a man-made tradition! The only thing Yeshua commanded to be a memorial was the Last Supper, known as Communion, Mat 26:26-28, Mk 14:22-24, Lk 22:19-20. Nowhere in Acts do you see the Jewish leaders of "The Way" start a "new festival" to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! It's not in the Gospels or any other part of the N.T.! Just as Christmas is a myth, a man-made tradition that has no Scripture source, the Jewish people did not celebrate birthdays. God never gave a command to celebrate birthdays.
Do you now realize that when you partake of Christmas or Easter, you participate in man-made traditions that come from pagan mythology, pagan practices and pagan festivals that have no sanction from Scripture?
Constantine wrote a letter that was to be spread across the empire:
"When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter...In the first place, it seemed to everyone (at the Council) a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in celebration of this most holy solemnity (trying to equate the Passover with the resurrection of Jesus) , who, polluted wretches, having stained their hands with a nefarious (that the Jews murdered Jesus) crime, are justly blinded in their minds...Let us have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews."
At the Council of Antioch in 345 A.D., "Christians" were banned from celebrating the Passover Seder with Jewish friends or neighbors.
At the Council of Laodicea, 363-364 A.D., "Christians" were banned from participating in the Jewish Sabbath, that they were to rest on the Lord's day.
In 388 A.D., Bishop Ambrose of Milan instigated the burning of a local synagogue. He said that the synagogue was a home of unbelief, a house of impiety, a receptacle of folly, which God Himself had condemned. He said that the Jews were destined to wander the earth to witness the victory of the Church over the synagogue. It was not enough to affirm that the Jews were no longer a part of the Church. The Church must ALSO EXERT THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD UPON THEM.
Can you see why there was such emphasis on using the words "Christian" and "Church?"
John Chrysostom 347-407 A.D. He complained that as late as the fourth century, some "Christians" were still attending Jewish synagogues! He said that Judaism was a disease and Jews were ravenous wolves attacking the flock, that Jews should abandon Judaism and become "Christians." He compared a synagogue to a place worse than a brothel. It was a den of Scoundrels, a temple of demons, a cavern of devils, and a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ. He said that demons dwell in synagogues and in the souls of Jews. That the Jews were only fit to be slaughtered.
British historian Paul Johnson added that Chrysostom's homilies became the pattern for anti-Jewish tirades, twisting key passages in Matthew and John to stir up hatred against the Jewish people.
Do you see how the venom and rhetoric grew worse over the years? These men were the birth of anti-Semitism! These men were read and quoted by the Nazi party!
Gentile believers, not Gentile Christians, stayed true and faithful to Jewish teaching for all of those years! Despite all of the crap the leaders of the Gentile Church kept coming up with! Jesus didn't start the "Church," man did! The "church" is not based on Scripture and never has been! It is a man-made religion of the world!
And what was the attitude 1200 years later? What about that hero of the Reformation, Martin Luther? At first, he was pro-Jewish and sympathetic to the Jewish resistance to the Catholic Church. But, after he broke away from the Catholic Church and started the "Lutheran Church," and the Jewish people didn't swarm to him, he did a 180! And he was vicious against the Jews! He wrote a work entitled "The Jews and their Lies." Here are some excerpts: "Jews are miserable and accursed," "blind, stupid and senseless," "arrogant," "do not permit the Jews to mislead you," "You cannot learn anything from them," " Their synagogues are nothing but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming God are practiced," thieves and robbers," Eject them from the country forever," To save our souls from the Jews, from the devil and eternal death, set fire to their synagogues," I advise that their houses be razed," "Let them have no protection under the law." This is just a tiny bit of what he wrote. You can find this work online.
But even during Martin Luther's day, we still see a Jewish influence on Gentile believers!
All of the effort made to separate the O.T. and the N.T., to create the illusion that Gentile believers were the true faith and had nothing in common with the Jews or the O.T. And that attitude, except for any disassociation with Jewish people, is still alive and well today! I distinctly remember that while a very young child trapped in the Catholic Church, I started to hate the Jews! And this stayed with me until I got into my twenties and started researching the Catholic Church!
End of part 5
