Written by my dear friend and rabbi, Please check out his blog… a fountain of wisdom and clarity…
Birthday of the Sun
The fact that the most prominent holiday in the Christian yearly cycle is pagan in origin is relatively well known. Some Christian leaders argue for an abandonment of this pagan celebration while most observe this holiday and use the time as an opportunity to call attention to the message of Christianity.
Many churchmen justify the adoption of a pagan holiday with the argument that this was simply a historical circumstance. The expanding Church found that so many people were already celebrating this time, so instead of attempting to repress this celebration, the Church converted it from paganism to Christianity. The “conversion” of the holiday was achieved by artificially associating the Christian message with the observance of the holiday. This merger turned the commemoration of the birthday of the sun into a celebration that commemorates the birthday of the “son”.
Are these two celebrations really so different?…
View original post 366 more words
Categories: Christianity
Blogging Theology 
quote:
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants in which energy from sunlight is used to convert carbon dioxide and water into molecules needed for growth. These molecules include sugars, enzymes and chlorophyll.
Light energy is absorbed by the green chemical chlorophyll. This energy allows the production of glucose by the reaction between carbon dioxide and water. Oxygen is also produced as a waste product.
so the sun has benefited humanity by giving its light and “feeding” the food we eat
one could easily turn this item into a heavenly god.
one could easily employ pagan christian arguments and prove that the spirit of god lives in the sun.
but nobody does.
the sun outlives jesus, moses and all the other people who came in the past.
yet nobody turns to the sun.
why then do they turn to a being who eats, drinks and goes to sleep?
LikeLiked by 4 people
Mr. Heathcliff,
Good point.
The creation of God includes the Sun, as well as Jesus.
In their natural state, all things created by God are in subordination to his will. One who willingly submits to the will of the creator is in a state of Islam -Submission to the will of God. In this regard, Jesus was in a state of Islam, as he freely submitted his will to the will of God.
“….nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” Matt. 26:39
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Many churchmen justify the adoption of a pagan holiday with the argument that this was simply a historical circumstance”
!!!!
When a man in the time of the Prophet ﷺ took a vow to slaughter a camel at Buwanah (i.e a place near to Madinah), so he came to the Prophetﷺ and said: I have taken a vow to sacrifice a camel at Buwanah.
The Prophet ﷺ asked him ((Was any pagan festival observed at that place?))
People replied: No.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Fulfil your vow, for a vow to do an act of disobedience to Allah must NOT be fulfilled…”
LikeLike
It is amazing how historically Christians have adopted so many pagan practices into Christianity. Christmas (Winter Solstice, Saturnalia); Easter (spring equinox); the ugly satanic spectacle of Halloween/ All saints day, St. Michael (Fall equinox/Samhain); Candlemas (Imbolc, traditional quarter day) St. John’s Day (summer solstice). Paganistic blood sacrifice (crucifixion) drinking blood, and eating flesh (communion); along with many other paganistic symbology and traditions.
This not only illustrates how there is no firewall in Christianity to guard against this type of alteration, absorption of falsehood, and constant innovation, within Christianity. It also underlines, how Christianity on the whole has never really been concerned so much with preserving the pure truth of God’s message to mankind, but rather with the single minded goal of claiming souls for Christ, by any means necessary….even adopting pagan practices and diluting the truth with falsehood if that serves the ends.
In light of this, it is no wonder that the Bible was altered for likely the same ends as well.
LikeLiked by 3 people
“The day will yet come when everyone and everything rejoices in the worship of the Creator (Psalm 98:7). May it happen soon and in our days.”
And if it were to happen soon and in our days?; the Creator comes to His created through the agency of Messiah, will you treat him as you’ve treated Yeshua?
LikeLike
Giving old concepts a new meaning is common in many religions. For instance it is clear that the Hebrews were heavily influenced by the Canaanites when settling in Israel. Did you know that Canaanite titles of divinity were gradually applied to Yahweh by the Hebrews?
“Thus Ab, “father,” appears in the personal names Abi-el, Abi-jah, and Abi-nadab; ‘Amm, “uncle,” in ‘Ammi-el, Eli’am, and Ithre-‘am; Dod, “uncle,” in Ddd-Yahu; Ah, “brother,” in Ahi-jah, and Ahi-tub; Melek (Molech), “king,” in Ahi-melek, Malki-shua’, and Malki-jah; Adon (Adonis), “lord,” in Adoni-jah, and Adoni-ram; Dan, “judge,” in Dani-el; and Shem, “name,” in Shemu-el (Samuel). In all these cases it is certain that these titles do not designate primitive Semitic, or Canaanite departmental gods, but have become epithets of Yahweh. With the application of these titles to Yahweh attributes of the Canaanite divinities must have been transferred to the conception of his character. ” (from CANAANITE INFLUENCE ON THE RELIGION
OF ISRAEL’ by LEWIS BAYLES PATON; Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut ).
LikeLike
Interesting !
LikeLike
I don’t think that is accurate. for the titles above are all general titles of power superiority and love. God is neither a father nor a judge nor a king. He is what he is. He’s God. We choose to express His majesty in different forms that we can relate to, in appropriate contexts, so what? Perhaps you can say they were influenced as much by childbirth as they were by the Canaanites. They saw a baby, and recognized its fathers power, love and superiority and decided that’s a good way to portray what God seems to us…
That is very different than adapting the holiday worshiping a creature to a holiday worshiping a different creature…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, very interesting.
But at the same time, I think that applying Canaanite epithets to Yahweh is simply a matter of linguistics. We do this all the time, one may call the same one true God “The King” in English, and “Al-Malik” in Arabic.
The last line seems to be a big assumption on the part of the author:
“With the application of these titles to Yahweh attributes of the Canaanite divinities must have been transferred to the conception of his character.”
The usage of Canaanite terms does not necessarily mean that there is some kind of intentional transference of the attributes of an idolatrous God called, “king,” Although I agree this could have occurred inadvertently over time, (i.e. father, son etc.) it is simply a linguistic term which was likely initially adopted to help describe the indescribable Divine entity. It is also possible that these epithets may have been used to communicate the majesty of the One true God of Abraham to the early Canaanites, in a way that they could understand.
Most importantly, this is totally different than adopting the actual pagan festivals, customs, or religions practices and calling it Christian, or adopting a Pagan God and calling it a Saint.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mozer,
We were thinking alike! 🙂
LikeLike
Mozer said : “I don’t think that is accurate. for the titles above are all general titles of power superiority and love. ”
According to the book mentioned above, most of the Canaanite tribal gods, like the nature-gods, had no proper personal names. They were called by titles of kinship or authority, like the human heads of families. Exactly the same titles that later on were given to Yahweh.
LikeLike
And walking around the Kaaba doesn’t have its origins in paganism at all…hypocrites
LikeLike
No! It’s the other way around!
Twaf is an Abrahamic ritual has nothing to do with paganism.
If even don’t believe in what Islam says, then it’s at least that what we claim & what we believe as muslims. However, you admit that christmas is a pagan holiday, yet you have no problem with it.
If christians themselves say it’s a pagan thing, why would you get angry if we say that ?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sam keeps dredging this old false sound bite out of the trash can and throwing it on the table, even though it has been refuted and explained repeatedly.
The rites of Hajj were established by Abraham and Ishmael and consecrated to the worship of the one God. Over the course of many years, theie Ishmaelite descendants back-slided into Idolatry and paganism until the advent Prophet Muhammad who cleansed Kaaba of false idols and re-consecrated it for the worship of the Abrahamic God.
This is comparable to how the some of the descendants of Prophet Noah, backslid into paganism, as the father of Abraham himself, Terah/Azhar who was descended from Noah was a pagan. Abraham rejected idolatry and returned to the pure religion of Noah who preached God’s oneness (Tawheed), much like Prophet Muhammad much later, in turn, returned his people to the pure teaching of Abraham.
It is hypocritical of some Christians to paint the Hajj as a paganistic ritual, simply because the Ishmaelite’s had lost their way and impurely performed the Hajj as pagans. While at the same time they turn a blind eye to a similar example of backsliding in their own Bible, but recognize that it does not reflect poorly on Abraham.
Sometimes a people must experience the darkness of idolatry in order to understand and appreciate the light of God and his message.
LikeLiked by 2 people
paulus, did the hebrews borrow the altar rituals found in the book of leviticus from their neighbours? was it a borrowing or a cultural practice?
did they borrow it and give it a new meaning ?
LikeLike
as Paulus has been such a bad boy he is not permitted to comment till he learns to behave himself
LikeLike
Paulus,
you can argue whatever ridiculous thing you like, and that is what you often do. But I don’t think such an argument would be very strong. The paganistic roots of Christmas are much more profound and well known and documented. But more important than that there is nothing in the Bible which I am aware of which connects the celebration of Christmas to the teaching of Prophet Jesus. There is no verse that states Jesus was born on Dec. 25, nor is there any verse where either Jesus or God himself, sanctions the celebration of Jesus birth (let alone decoration of trees, Christmas carols, candy canes, Santa clause, and on and on).
Whereas, the Hajj is clearly documented in Islamic sources first and foremost of which is Qur’an as connecting back to Abraham.
At least the “Nonsense” (as you call it) that I believe in is documented in my book, where as you just believe in plain old nonsense that not sanctioned or documented by God in your book.
LikeLike
…which is quite natural, since the Hebrews originally were rude nomads while the Canaanites were culturally advanced. From the Canaanites they received the forms of city life and the institutions of city government. From them they learned agriculture and all the other industries of settled society. More from the book mentioned above:
”
All the great celestial powers were wor-
shiped by the Canaanites. Among these were Shemesh, ” the sun,”
whose cult is attested by such place-names as Beth-Shemesh,
‘Ir-Shemesh, ‘En-Shemesh; Yareah, “the moon,” which appears
probably in Yereh6, Jericho; Addu, or Hadad, the storm-god,
often mentioned in the Amarna Letters; Resheph, “the lightning,”
often mentioned in Egyptian texts of the Eighteenth and Nine-
teenth Dynasties; Uru, “light,” in Uru-salim, Jerusalem, and the
personal name Uru-milki in the Amarna Letters.
These divinities had marked individuality, and could not easily
be identified with Yahweh. Accordingly in early Hebrew theology
they were subordinated to him as servants who waited upon him.
They were “the host of heaven,” or the “sons of God,” i.e., beings
of a divine nature but inferior to Yahweh. They were worshiped
by some of the Hebrews down to the Exile, but this was felt to be
deliberate apostasy from Yahweh (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; II Kings
23:5; Jer. 8:2; Job 31:26). Still it is possible that attributes
even of these deities were transferred to him. Particularly is this
true of Hadad, the storm-god, who bears a striking resemblance
to the early Hebrew theophanies of Yahweh in the thunderstorm
(e.g., Judg. 5:4-5; Ps. 18). “
LikeLike
I think that is Rabbi Yisroel Blumenthal’s blog.
I like the way he broke it down:
The heart of Christianity, in all of its manifestations, is the submission towards the aura projected by a certain human being. No one saw that this person create the world and no one saw this person standing as a second person in a triune godhead. These were theories developed by hearts that were already bent in submission to the aura associated with the personality of Jesus.
The worshippers of the sun and the worshippers of the “son” are both engaged in the same type of worship. They are both allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the attributes inherent in a fellow citizen of this universe.
LikeLiked by 3 people
he’s a real scholar a brilliant man..
LikeLiked by 1 person