Please Help Me

[jbg9]

Let me start by saying that I know I am posting this in the wrong forum, but I get an error message when I try to post in the appropriate one. If a moderator has a moment, please move it to the forum you see fit.

***

Alright... where to start...

Well, today my faith was severely shaken we I learned of a pagan religion known as Mithraism. It was a popular religion in the Roman Empire in the centuries before Christ. You see, the problem came when I learned that this religion includes a messiah named Mithra. Mithra was born of a virgin birth on December 25th. Mithra had 12 disciples. Mithra performed miracles. Mithra was crucified and died for the sins of his people. He was then resurrected on a Sunday.

You see my problem? Do you see how my faith was shaken? I might go as far as say that today was the worst day of my life. I felt physically sick all day.

Could someone PLEASE help me? Could someone please explain to me how our beliefs can still be valid, when it would appear that they are a mere copy of an ancient pagan religion? I am dying here.. please help me.

 

[cyberlizard]

put your mind at ease click this link and read carefully

http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html

Steve

that aside much of what we accept of christs birthday and easter and the like is non-biblical just tradition

 

[KarrieTex]

Let me start by saying that I know I am posting this in the wrong forum, but I get an error message when I try to post in the appropriate one. If a moderator has a moment, please move it to the forum you see fit.

***

Alright... where to start...

Well, today my faith was severely shaken we I learned of a pagan religion known as Mithraism. It was a popular religion in the Roman Empire in the centuries before Christ. You see, the problem came when I learned that this religion includes a messiah named Mithra. Mithra was born of a virgin birth on December 25th. Mithra had 12 disciples. Mithra performed miracles. Mithra was crucified and died for the sins of his people. He was then resurrected on a Sunday.

You see my problem? Do you see how my faith was shaken? I might go as far as say that today was the worst day of my life. I felt physically sick all day.

Could someone PLEASE help me? Could someone please explain to me how our beliefs can still be valid, when it would appear that they are a mere copy of an ancient pagan religion? I am dying here.. please help me.

Two things... Christ's birth was foretold even before this pagan faith came into being. Satan is great at taking the Truth and twisting it. Christ wasn't born on Dec 25. In fact there is great evidence that He was born in the fall, which in my thinking makes this pagan thought even more suspect.


No worries...trust in Him and the Truth will be there for you to see.

 

[jbg9]

Thank you... that really helped.

 

[thereselittleflower]

These claims about Mithra POSTdate Christ . . in other words, they are imitating Christ, and come AFTER Christ.

There are no records of these things being believed about Mithra from before Christ that I have been able to find.

.

 

[Stinker]

The New Testament's proof is circumstantial. However, that is not a bad thing at all. People are found guilty or not guilty upon circumstantial evidence. I think God made it like this for a reason.

I have found my faith made stronger by objectively looking into the ancient religions that the skeptics claim the Christians borrowed from. Even if some of their teachings were incorporated into the the Bible, this still does not make the morality taught in the New Testament the morality the creator does not want us to hold to. God surely does.

 

[LLWHA]

that aside much of what we accept of christs birthday and easter and the like is non-biblical just tradition

Yes and anti Christ and very evil.

The traditions of the devil.

 

[LLWHA]

Two things... Christ's birth was foretold even before this pagan faith came into being. Satan is great at taking the Truth and twisting it. Christ wasn't born on Dec 25. In fact there is great evidence that He was born in the fall, which in my thinking makes this pagan thought even more suspect.


No worries...trust in Him and the Truth will be there for you to see.

The Lamb of God was born in the spring. Think.

God does not do things that are anti God. The Lamb of God could not be born in the fall or winter.

Jesus was born at or around passover and was murdered at about the same time of year.

 

[gwynedd1]

Let me start by saying that I know I am posting this in the wrong forum, but I get an error message when I try to post in the appropriate one. If a moderator has a moment, please move it to the forum you see fit.

***

Alright... where to start...

Well, today my faith was severely shaken we I learned of a pagan religion known as Mithraism. It was a popular religion in the Roman Empire in the centuries before Christ. You see, the problem came when I learned that this religion includes a messiah named Mithra. Mithra was born of a virgin birth on December 25th. Mithra had 12 disciples. Mithra performed miracles. Mithra was crucified and died for the sins of his people. He was then resurrected on a Sunday.

You see my problem? Do you see how my faith was shaken? I might go as far as say that today was the worst day of my life. I felt physically sick all day.

Could someone PLEASE help me? Could someone please explain to me how our beliefs can still be valid, when it would appear that they are a mere copy of an ancient pagan religion? I am dying here.. please help me.

Hello jbg9,

Some of this has been explained but many pagan cults were influenced by Christianity. Gnosticism heresy was quite rampant. Sabetian is a cross between Judaism and Christianity. Mormons, JWs etc are just the recent ones. We have had plenty of heresy, Arianism was another rather stubborn problem at one time for example. Now if this were to predate it that would be a little more of substance

he worship of Mithra, the Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Known as Mithras in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries [SIZE=-1]AD[/SIZE], this deity was honoured as the patron of loyalty to the emperor. After the acceptance of Christianity by the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century, Mithraism rapidly declined.
...

There is little notice of the Persian god in the Roman world until the beginning of the 2nd century, but, from the year [SIZE=-1]AD[/SIZE] 136 onward, there are hundreds of dedicatory inscriptions to Mithra. This renewal of interest is not easily explained. The most plausible hypothesis seems to be that Roman Mithraism was practically a new creation, wrought by a religious genius who may have lived as late as c. [SIZE=-1]AD[/SIZE] 100 and who gave the old traditional Persian ceremonies a new Platonic interpretation that enabled Mithraism to become acceptable to the Roman world.

-Britannica

 

[davidoffinland]

From Finland.

I went through similar things 6-8 years ago but it was not denying but more of not really knowing or studying these topics for myself...the virgin birth...deity and humanity of Messiah, etc.. I was just taking it for granted that many of these scholars knew what they were saying, and many of these were liberal.

Then I started to study the 1st Ct Jewish/Christian thinking of their day instead of the critical theological approach to this issues. I must say, "I am more rooted in these issues and orthodox (not Eastern) in my biblical approach now." I thank G-D for this time.

In Him, david.

 

[JonF]

Let me start by saying that I know I am posting this in the wrong forum, but I get an error message when I try to post in the appropriate one. If a moderator has a moment, please move it to the forum you see fit.

***

Alright... where to start...

Well, today my faith was severely shaken we I learned of a pagan religion known as Mithraism. It was a popular religion in the Roman Empire in the centuries before Christ. You see, the problem came when I learned that this religion includes a messiah named Mithra. Mithra was born of a virgin birth on December 25th. Mithra had 12 disciples. Mithra performed miracles. Mithra was crucified and died for the sins of his people. He was then resurrected on a Sunday.

You see my problem? Do you see how my faith was shaken? I might go as far as say that today was the worst day of my life. I felt physically sick all day.

Could someone PLEASE help me? Could someone please explain to me how our beliefs can still be valid, when it would appear that they are a mere copy of an ancient pagan religion? I am dying here.. please help me.

Mithra is a very different type of “messiah” than Christ is. Christ probably wasn’t actually born on Dec 25. 12 disciples is probably a statically anomaly. Most pagan deities perform miracles. Being born of a virgin is an OT prophecy, so Christianity pre-dates Mithraism on this. The crucified thing was probably an assimilation from Christianity.

 

[elhajj33]

francis bacon once said: a little science takes a man away from God, a little more brings him back. Keep reading, and researching and you'll be just fine.

 

[slamminsam]

francis bacon once said: a little science takes a man away from God, a little more brings him back. Keep reading, and researching and you'll be just fine.

Well said!
The folks in the Origins forums might need to see this-it's turned into an atheists' club.

satan loves to copy, doesn't he?
I'm glad you asked about mithraism-it's important to reveal the truth about such things.