Jews and Muslims both say the Trinity concept is pure Polytheism ?

Question

How Did Pagan Customs Mix into Christmas and Easter?
It began hundreds of years ago, when the Church changed the Bible. . .


The "New Testament": Pagan revenge

Between G-d's own miracles and the Jewish teaching of His Word, the pagan priesthoods of Egypt, Greece, and Rome were steadily losing their power over the gentile populations. They decided to fight back by creating a new religion, one that would claim to be the fulfillment of the Hebrew "Old Testament," yet would bring back the pagan lies in a new disguise.

Thus the "New Testament" was written, in Greek rather than Hebrew, and attached to the original Hebrew scriptures to try to change their meaning back toward paganism.

The "New Testament" tried to change G-d from One, as in the Hebrew scriptures, into a "trinity" as in Egyptian cults or the eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. It described Jesus as G-d in a human body, like the pagans always described Pharoah and other wicked kings. It declared G-d's Law to be a "curse" that no one can truly obey, announced that there must be a "mediator" between G-d and man, and pretended that salvation could now be achieved outside the Law.

To blind the gentile nations, the "New Testament" also warned people not to learn from the Jews, declaring that Israel no longer possessed the true, complete Word of G-d.

In the Bible, the book of Daniel warned of an evil power--a false religion--that would believe in the true "G-d of fortresses... plus a god its fathers did not know." This religion would "speak bizarre words about the Most High, wear out the holy ones (the Jews), and plan to change the festivals and the religious Law."7 The Christian Church has indeed replaced Passover with Easter (the pagan holiday of Astarte and Ishtar) and Hanukah with Christmas (the pagan winter holiday).

Since then, Christian paganism has expanded to include Christmas trees, Easter eggs, and so forth.

http://www.noahide.com/paganism.htm


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Answer 1

The trinity was a pagan concept that existed in several 1st and 2nd century religions in the Roman empire.
It was brought into early Christianity by Tertullian.

Answer 2

The church didn't "change" the bible--and even if it did, it's all made-up stuff, anyway. One fictional story is just as good as another; it's not like they're altering fact.
When Christianity was starting out, it needed to incorporate familiar rituals and holidays into its new religion in order to gain followers. Besides occurring around the winter solstice and pagan celebrations thereof, there was also a Roman holiday held around that time. That's why Christmas is celebrated in December. People need the comfort of the familiar.
I personally have never understood the need for a god with three parts. The holy spirit in particular seems rather useless. But, again, could be trying to poach people from polytheistic religions.

Answer 3

Much of the Jewish faith is based in early Mesopotamian mythology. The Jewish laws are descended from the Code of Hammurabi with their own monotheistic twist. The stories of the flood and creation all have roots in earlier myths. All Judeo-Christian mythology has roots in Pagan mythology. And that is a historically verifiable fact.

As to the accusation of Polytheism and the Trinity, most believe the Trinity to be three Facets of a single being, thus technically remaining monotheistic. Some of the newer Protestant sects have actually changed that doctrine and set the Trinity as three separate individuals with one purpose, blatantly meeting the definition of polytheistic while denying being so.

Answer 4

The doctrine of the trinity in the OT is not so much declared as intimated. Most of the OT message seems to be about the unity of God. The trinity is there, however:
In the plural names of God example: Elohim.
The personal pronouns used by God Genesis 1:26, 11:7, Isaiah 6:8.
The "Angel of the Lord" (Genesis 16 and 18).
The work of the Holy Spirit Genesis 1:2, Judges 6:34.
Why don't YOU come back to God, It seems to be you lost in a profitless argument, with no scripture to prove anything!
Each season is still the same season. God has set them uplike this. Plus you hate holidays?

Answer 5

Any good christian studies the old testament as much as the new, and all the writers of the new testament (not to mention Jesus himself) were jewish. Nowhere does it say not read the old testament. It says that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, not the end of it. The trinity is not three God's. That is a shameful misunderstanding touted by people who have not read the bible, or have not paid careful attention to the OLD TESTAMENT. Father son and holy spirit are one, as your eyes , mouth and hands are all one you. Read Genesis and you will find God referring to himself in the plural. You will find the hebrews of the old testament understood that they were waiting for God to come to them in the form of a human. You will find that everything in the new was prophesied in the old. If you read your history you will find that the new testament was written in greek, latin and arabic because these were the languages spoken at the time. Latin,because the roman empire was in control of the holy land, greek because that was the language used in writing along with latin, and arabic because that was the language of the common people. Matthew mark and john were written in the common language, Luke and The Pauline letters in Latin and greek because they were learned men ( and in the case of paul, a jewish roman citizen.) Please do youself a favor and learn the facts from reliable sources. Go out there and read, and pay attention to WHO writes what you read,and what their alterior motives may be. As for the pagan links to christmas and easter, etc...These were not instated by the bible. Remember, these people were jews and you will find them practicing jewish holidays into the new testament. God gave us the bible and PEOPLE screwed it up.

Answer 6

The Israelites were not always monothiestic, They made a covenant with Yahweh agreeing to worship him and him alone. Even the 10 commandments delivered on Mt. Sinai take the exsistence of other Gods for granted: "There shall be no strange gods for you before my face."
I suggest you read 'A history of God - The 4000 - Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam' by Karen Armstrong

Answer 7

Why stop at the Trinity? What about the saints and the Virgin Mary? They are worshiped as well. But to be fair this polytheism and idolatry are limited to the Catholic sect of Christianity.

Then again, how can you bring criticism on any religion when you can't even spell the word "god"? It's easy: G-O-D. Try it.

Answer 8

Religion -- like all other aspects of society such as language, politics, technology, economy, art, architecture, fashion, music, etc. -- will blend with its surrounding cultures and change over time. Naturally, Christians, Pagans, Jews, Muslims, et al. are going to interract with one another and borrow each other's ideas and beliefs (and rarely deliberately).

But getting back to the original question... I think the problem is that people have different views as to the definition of "monotheistic." In the most conservative definition of the word, we could describe a monotheistic religion as including only one separate self-contained supernatural being, with a singular will and conciousness. Very few religions would fall into this category. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we could broadly interpret monotheism to say that there are many beings in many forms on many planes of existence, but that all life is part of a greater whole -- a universal collective conciousness of a sort. This could easily include almost ANY religion that you could think of. So Christianity falls somewhere in the middle.

The official dogma of Catholicism (I won't bother addressing each Protestant demonination due to the fact that there are far too many to discuss) is that the Trinity is COLLECTIVELY God. Father (Yahweh), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit (Shekinah) are all variations on a being which has existed since the beginning of time. One could loosely compare this to multiple personalities, or more broadly to the different aspects of the human psyche (id, ego, superego) or voices in transaction analisis (parent, child, adult). The distinction came when one third of God occupied temporary human form, but the Son, although not yet in human form prior to his "birth," did exist from the beginning of time. This belief was formalized by the Council of Nicea, and differred considerably from the Arian Christians of that era who considered Jesus to be a "creation" of God (as opposed to God himself), and thus, were indeed considered to be polytheistic.

As for the other supernatural beings in Catholicism (Satan, angels, demons, saints), these are NOT defined as gods, but another class of being entirely -- created by God just like the rest of us, but not out of earthly materials. So, if your definition of "god" is any supernatural being, or any separately identifiable aspect of a greater whole, then many Christian sects are indeed polytheistic. If you define "god" ONLY as a creator, timeless and uncreated, then Christianity falls under the (broader) definition of monotheism.

Of course, the former interpretation renders the original argument by Jews and Muslims obsolete, because Muslims also believe in the existence of Satan. And beings in addition to Yahweh (e.g. Shekinah, Satan, Lilith) were part of the Jewish faith in ancient times, and have remained so in some modern Jewish sects.

Finally, some may define "monotheism" not as BELIEVING in only one god, but rather the WORSHIP of only one god. By that definition, all Christians could be considered monotheists, because although they acknowledge the existence of other beings such as Satan or angels, and although they respect and even venerate the saints, the only being actually said to be "worshipped" is Jesus himself. I have spoken with many Christians who have widely differring views as to whether or not the Pagan gods exist. But the one common thread is that even if a Christian believes, for example, that Zeus really exists, he does not worship him in any way.

So is Christianity monotheistic or polytheistic? Is the Trinity one God or three? Are angels, demons, saints and Pagan gods real according to the Christian theology? This all depends on how you define the terms "monothestic" and "god," and which Christian sect is being discussed. In other words, the answer is... yes and no.

Answer 9

Makes total sense. FYI the winter holiday is Yule or Saturnalia. There are more similarities between faiths then difference. No one is ever willing to see that there is common ground to meet on. They are too busy trying to be right.

Answer 10

"Jesus' birth would have been before the year 3 BC/BCE" -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_christ

"the popular choice of 5 BC for the year of Jesus' birth would place 25 Kislev at November 25." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus#Year_of_birth

It's funny how a lot of scholars now place Jesus (AS) as being born BEFORE December 25, in the year of 1 CE.