Why is much of christianity mixed with paganism?

Question

Take Christmas and Easter.

Answer 1

That's what happened when the pristine teachings of a religion are compromised for say, worldly gains. It happened as a result of the Christian Roman Emperor Constantine's efforts to attract pagan Romans to Christianity the easy way. So, he and the early church fathers just mix and blend the pagan traditions and the original Christian traditions altogether, most notably during the Council of Nicaea, hence Christmas and Easter.

God knows best.

Peace and Love.

Answer 2

Roman emperor Constantine murdered all those who refused to worship the new Christianity he was creating. He made Christianity into a state religion and made Jesus the latest incarnation of their pagan sun-god. The Christianity that exists today is in fact counterfeit to the real thing, this is why every scripture found relating to it is nothing like the modern day Christianity. All of these silly superstitions like a heaven being in the sky, hell underground and purgatory all originate from the carnal man worshiping everything under the sun and the inability to understand that the scriptures are suppose to be turned within.

One would think that Christians would investigate their religion to see the many corruptions and its use for political gain in the distant past. But no, they fail to exercise their intellect and will continue in ignorance until things are forced upon then. They are slaves to a pagan religion and so are Buddhists, Muslims etc. But the religions themselves didn't start out that way. Its just the fact when things become institutionalized they are quickly corrupted. This is why the more pure scriptures were hidden away and only shared with those who had a grasp of higher realities.

Peace

Aza

Answer 3

Many government rulers wanted to gain the approval of Christians, so they incorporated some of their customs with those of the nations. Such as...

The birth of Christ with the festival of Saturnilia. Of course, the early Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ, but rather the memorial of his death on Nissan 14.

Easter: The Encyclopædia Britannica comments: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians.”—(1910), Vol. VIII, p. 828.

The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: “A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.”—(1913), Vol. V, p. 227.

In the book The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, we read: “What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, . . . as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. . . . Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now.”—(New York, 1943), pp. 103, 107, 108; compare Jeremiah 7:18.

Answer 4

Quite simply, when Chrisitanity was introduced, it was much more palatable when the pagan traditions people were already familiar with were mixed with Christine doctrine.

And all religions were mixed with paganism, not just Christianity. For example the traditions of walking around the Kabala practiced during the Hajj, predates Mohammad and Islam. Women covering up predates the so called edict of Allah to be modest. This was normal practice in Arabic culture long before Mohammad..

Answer 5

Because the early christian church was in an ideological battle with paganism, and the only way they could win was to take onboard some of the pagan ideas. To do this they took some of the pagan festivals and chistianised them, so that people could still celebrate them, even under the guise of christianity.

Answer 6

the reason is that Christianity was created by the Romans( hint: roman catholic), who up until the bible was created, were pagan. The roman nobles(emperors, counsel) knew that since the roman gods were 'dying' and most of the common people were following this new wave of religion decide to join the common people to keep their power over them. This is where the new testament was born, along with holidays that were carved out of pagan holidays (Christmas=yuletide) (Easter=celebration of the earth spirits=mother earth). Much thinking from early priests were influenced by pagan beliefs.

Answer 7

Because as Christianity moved into pagan lands, it was easier to adapt the customs to Christianity than to erase them entirely. The same thing happened with other religions through the years: look at the Greek and Roman gods as well as other near East religions.

The history channel does some good things on this topic, by holiday.

http://www.history.com/historyoftheholidays/

Answer 8

When the romans first made christianity the common religion of the empire, they wanted to unify the different cultures and peoples with it.

Remember theres power and money in the masses united.

Because so very many religions and belief systems were based on the the mark of winter, and the begining of spring, and many other seasons, it was easier to replace those holidays and festivals with new ones based on the christian belief system.

Thus christmas and easter.

Answer 9

Google Constatine for your answer. The Roman Emperor who became "Christian" A lot of "pagans" entered christianity because it was now the "in" thing to be and in Constatines day they mingled pagan traditions with those of the church to make church more interesting for the pagans.

Answer 10

Because it was easier to convert the Pagans into Christianity if you twisted their holidays to fit Christianity.