Posted on 01/03/2010 6:03:31 AM PST by GonzoII
But why is New Year’s January 1st and why do we call this 2010? The answers are very Catholic and Christian. I would like to elaborate a bit on what Deacon Curtis began a few days ago as we explore the relgious roots of what is perceived by most to be a very secular holiday.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.adw.org ...
They got the Bible from us.
They got the calendar from us.
“They got the calendar from us.”
From the article: “As far as we know, the AD system was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in 525, as an outcome of his work on calculating the date of Easter. It was especially at the time of Charlemagne (8th Century) that the AD dating system become widespread in Western Europe. However, the calculations as to the exact year of Christ’s birth were not perfect and today, by surveying history and the data of Scripture it now seems rather more certain that Christ was born closer to what we call today 3 – 6 BC.”
Sounds like you screwed the calendar up. Didn’t do all that well on the canon, either...
You wrote:
“Sounds like you screwed the calendar up.”
I don’t see you abandoning it.
“Didn’t do all that well on the canon, either...”
The Holy Spirit did just fine, thanks.
So sad that with all the evidence everyone has available now they csn’t figure out the man made religion they are practicing that says Good Friday to Easter Sunday is 3 days.
The TRUTH is Screaming at us and we fight against it. Just like Essau we despise our birthright.
Sheesh!
I’ll just post the links!
www.carm.org/bible-difficulties/matthew-mark/how-long-was-jesus-dead-tomb
This whole entire argument is so full of holes it’s like the sieve that Yahweh promised to put Abraham’s seed into and shake amongst the nations so that all the nations could be blessed. First of all there were TWO Sabbaths Passover week THEREFORE TWO PREPARATION DAYS. Dying on Friday and Resurrection on Sunday is STILL
not 3 days or 3 nights. Yahshua does not LIE!!!!! Haven’t you got that much figured out. If He says it but man says something different, who are you going to believe?
They won’t listen Vlad.
You wrote:
” Yahshua does not LIE!!!!!”
No, He doesn’t. What He did do was use Jewish convention like any Jew would.
“Haven’t you got that much figured out.”
ladyL, if your posts are anything to judge by then I have sooooo much figured out.
“If He says it but man says something different, who are you going to believe?”
God. That’s why I don’t believe you.
I know. Reason is not a Protestant thing apparently.
He never said Easter, which is the pagan holyday to worship ISHTAR the fertility goddess. He never said CHRISTMAS, which is the pagan holyday to worship Mithra, the Sun god.
Look that up in any Encyclopedia. Then go back and study the true Holy days that God gave His people to follow throughout all the generations. Read Lev. 23
Uhmmm, hold on to your ignorance or become enlightened?
What a choice.
LOL! I am a Lutheran, and use reason! :)
My apologies! :)
The worship of Mithra (or Mithros) started after the first century AD. In fact reading some of the early church writings, they accuse the followers of Mithros of stealing some practices from the Church.
Celebration of Easter is more often known as Pascha in the non English or German world (Passover). Easter is not related to Ishtar, as the germans never really worship Ishtar. It comes from the old Easter services being held at dawn facing east in which the high point was the rise of the sun and celebration of the Resurrection.
I suggest you open up an actual history book.
You wrote:
“He never said Easter, which is the pagan holyday to worship ISHTAR the fertility goddess.”
No. 1) Easter was originally about the worship of a Germanic goddess, not a Mesopotamian one. 2) So what if Christ didn’t mention it? 3) Early Protestants knew there was nothing wrong with the use of the word Easter (check Acts 12:4 in the KJV). We use pagan names for every day of the week. I don’t see any anti-Catholics getting upset about that.
“He never said CHRISTMAS, which is the pagan holyday to worship Mithra, the Sun god.”
No. Dec. 25th was that day. So, Christians, to keep their members from straying into pagan celebrations decided to celebrate Christ’s birthday on the same day. That became known as Christmas. The German scholar, Manfred Clauss, in his book The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, even includes a quote from a monk in late antiquity that mentions exactly that. Anti-Catholics, however, usually know nothing about scholarship.
“Look that up in any Encyclopedia. Then go back and study the true Holy days that God gave His people to follow throughout all the generations. Read Lev. 23”
I already know about the Jewish holidays. I am not bound by Jewish observances since Christ released us from the Mosaic and kosher laws.
“Uhmmm, hold on to your ignorance or become enlightened?
What a choice.”
I made the choice years ago - that’s why I’m not a Protestant. Wish you knew what you were talking about.
With respect to the question of Easter and Christmas, these debates actually started in the 2nd century as evidenced by the writings of St. Irenaeus in circa 180 AD who writes about Pope Victor and his arguments with a certain group in the East over when Easter should be celebrated. Eventually, the Council of Nicea in 325 would use the method used by the Church of Rome to do so. Back to how the Liturgical calander came to be.
First, The Roman pagan feast to the Unconquered Sun was not instituted until 274 AD and by that time, orthodox Catholics in the West had already been trying to come up with the date of CHristmas going back to the late 2nd century when St. Hippolytus of Rome, writing around 205 AD noted that December 25 was a likely date of Christ Birth. This was because the CHurch first tried to fix the date of Pasch/Easter [again, which can be documented in the writings of St. Irenaus and the disputes between Rome and certain Christians in Asia-Minor], which the Church throught was 25 March to April 6, using the Roman Julian Solar Calander, which was the equivalent dates to the Jewish Nissan Calander, which based on it, the likely dates of CHrist death would have been in either 30 AD or 33 AD since those were the only 2 days that Passover occurred on a Friday.
So, based on Christ Death as being between 25 March to April 6, the Church picked up on the tradition that a prophet’s Death coincided with his conception [Tertullian is one writer who attests to this tradition in the period 150 AD to 207 AD], thus the Feast of the Annuniciation was set on March 25, which was the date the Latin Church set as being his Death [later studies of the calander would put the date likely at 29 March, since the calcuations of the Julian/later Gregorian calanders have shown that 29 March 30 or 33 AD would have been a Friday, not 25 March]. THus, using this methodology, Christmas would fall on December 25 in the West and January 6 in the Eastern Church, using the March 25 to April 6 [12 day period] and moving it 9 months after.
In the Eastern Church, St. John Chrystostom reasoned 12/25 based on the following {see David Bennett article at http://www.ancient-future.net/christmasdate.html) excerpt cited in the following 2 paragraphs.:
Luke 1 says Zechariah was performing priestly duty in the Temple when an angel told his wife Elizabeth she would bear John the Baptist. During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary learned about her conception of Jesus and visited Elizabeth “with haste.”
The 24 classes of Jewish priests served one week in the Temple, and Zechariah was in the eighth class. Rabbinical tradition fixed the class on duty when the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and, calculating backward from that, Zechariah’s class would have been serving Oct. 2-9 in 5 B.C. So Mary’s conception visit six months later might have occurred the following March and Jesus’ birth nine months afterward.
Thus, the writing of the great orthodox theologian of the Eastern Church again shows that Christians were not just following some pagan holiday. Now, when the pagan emperor Aurelius set 25 December as the feast of the unconquered Sun God, Christians just said this feast is the feast of the Son of God as the light of the world coming to quench the darkness, hence the timing of Christmas based on it being the darkest time of the year in that part of the world has significance as the Cosmos points to the coming of Christ as the Light extinquishing the darkness and thus the prophecy of Malichi 3:20 “Sun of Justice/Righeousness” is fullfilled in the person of Christ and his incarnation.
So while the Church eventually universally settled on 25 December as the feat of the Nativity of Christ, it was not necessarily set to compete against the pagan feast, instituted in 274 AD. Rather, it was to show the pagans that the Cosmos points to Christ. As Pope Benedict in his great book “The Spirit of Liturgy” (p.108) notes by citing ST. Jerome “Even creation approves of our preaching. Up to this day the dark days increase, but from this day the darkness decreases..The light advances while the darkness retreats”
So Christians setting the birth of Christ in the Winter on 25 December allowed them to point out to the pagan Romans that Christ is true “Sun of Justice” prophesized in Malichi 3:20 and that he is “the Word was God....the light of the human race, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it....The True light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world...And the word became Flesh” (c.f. John 1:1-14; which was the Gospel text read in Christmas Mass’s in the afternoon around the Catholic world) pointing to the deep theological and Liturgical reasons why the Church, in addition to the Biblical and theologicl scholarship of the Early Church Fathers [ST. Hippolytus and ST. John Christostyom], chose 25 December as the date of Christ birth. Relatedly, the CHurch celebrates the birth of John the Baptist on 25 June for the reason “he must increase and I must decrease” (c.f. John 3:30) as from the begginning of Summer, the longest day of the year, the days are getting shorter pointing to the coming of Christ.
So, the “fundalmentalist the world is flat types” can think what they want, but the reasons for 25 December as Christmas and the date for Pasch/Easter reflect both theological study by the early Church and in fact reflect in visible ways [i.e. in the Cosmos and in the signs of the earth] the theological realities about Christ bith and his death and resurrection.
Regards
First of all, the Leviticus holy days are not Jewish holy days God says they are HIS feast days:
(Lev 23:2 KJV) Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
We were released from Moses Law but not Yahweh’s Law, which is written on our hearts. The holy feast days are Sabbaths and as such, then fall under the 4th Commandment of Yahweh’s Law therefore we are to keep them.
You wrote:
“First of all, the Leviticus holy days are not Jewish holy days God says they are HIS feast days:”
They’re Jewish feasts: “Speak onto the children of ISREAL...”
“We were released from Moses Law but not Yahweh’s Law, which is written on our hearts. The holy feast days are Sabbaths and as such, then fall under the 4th Commandment of Yahweh’s Law therefore we are to keep them.”
No. A sabbath is part of God’s law for us. Jewish feasts are not. Rest is part of the Natural Law. Specific annual feasts are not.
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