Christians, how do you explain these differences?

Question

The very roots of your beliefs are Judaism and yet the differences are astounding. Here are just a few...

Immortal soul

Eternal torment in h**l

Sunday worship

Celebration of Christmas and Easter

Do you realize that these beliefs are not Judaic at all but rather can be traced back to pagan beliefs and holy days?

Answer 1

Tell me one pagan religion that celebrates the birth are resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Or do you simply mean that they happen to have some feast day on the same date??  If so, so what?

Answer 2

I think most Christians believe Christianity should replace Judaism. Judaism is not relevant anymore, specially in this time of history. They should convert to Christianity period.

Answer 3

Simple - mainstream Christianity is another "false religion". Sincere maybe, but a product of S

Answer 4

Thank you, I have been wanting to ask this and I don't want to because I don't want mean people to answer.

Answer 5

You can't pick and choose what you read in the bible.  They have to either take it all or take none of it.  Pagan or not.  

Answer 6

You can keep your "proof texts". Isolated verses can be used to attempt to prove almost anything.

The Jews knew only what little God revealed to them through the prophets, and they couldn't even follow that.

Jesus Christ completed Gods revelation, along with the Holy Spirit, and that's where all authentic Christian beliefs and practices came from.

The Church converted the pagans. It wasn't the other way around, much as some people would like to think.

Answer 7

The key to these errors falls at the feet of Contantine wanted to distance himself from the messianics and the jews !!! The harm has been as follows for the christian world:

1. We are accused of copying from the pagans !!!

2. We don't follow the biblical feast days !!!

3. No saturday sabbath !!!

4. Unintentional inherited anti-semitism !!!

5. Inherited guilt trip and we have been tricked syndrome !!!

6. That historical blurb has spred christianity at the unnecessary loss of jewish lives !!!

7. In the last century has created unbelief !!!

CAN WE CORRECT ALL OF THAT THIS CENTURY !!!

Answer 8

Mistranslations ?

Answer 9

would you trace that for us please!

Answer 10

You are right.  As a Christian, I know what you mean and I do not believe in those things above as they are not real biblical teachings.  Most have pagan beginnings.  

I want to give write down scriptures to prove what you say is true but it would be so long that no one would read it.  Maybe ask one of those at a time.  Thanks!



Not all Christians believe in those things above that you mentioned such as immortal soul, Christmas and so forth.  Being a Christian doesn't mean you believe in those things.  It  just means to follow Christ, his teachings.

You forgot one, The Trinity is also a pagan based belief and is not biblical.

Answer 11

I don't see where these differences are "bad". There is no reason to have fear or hate because someone has a different belief system.

Many Christians don't believe in eternal torment in h**l. Some Rabbis do for those like Hitler and Pharaoh. Sunday, Christmas and Easter are Pagan. It doesn't bother me. I can trace my ancestry back to "pagans". Culture has a way of staying with population. I would explain the differences are simple. Christians are not Jews, Jews are not Christians.  

Answer 12

Many people are surprised to find that the term immortal soul appears nowhere in the Bible. The Hebrew word translated "soul" in the Old Testament is nephesh, which simply means "a breathing creature."

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 describes sheol as a place of unconsciousness: "For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished ..." No one wrote more about this subject than the apostle Paul. He describes death as "sleep" (1 Corinthians 15:51-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The Sunday thing has been beaten to death at R&S, so I'll skip it, except to say that personally I believe scripture supports Saturday, but that we should not judge one another on the day we keep.

Christmas and Easter - these holidays are the very thing that got me looking into the "roots" of Christianity and turned my husband from Calvinist to a happy, non-denominational man. :-)

Both holidays are laid out in scripture, but it's space-consuming, so I'm going to link them. There are two sites for each. Short answer to your question would be the differences come from poor translations.

Answer 13

Immortal soul

In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person.230 But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him,231 that by which he is most especially in God's image: "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man.

Eternal torment in h**l

c. Para. 1033: We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" (1 Jn 3:14-15). Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren (Cf. Mt 25:31-46). To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "h**l." Para. 1035: The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of h**l and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into h**l, where they suffer the punishments of h**l, "eternal fire" (Cf. DS 76: 409; 411; 801; 858; 1002; 1351; 1575; Paul VI, CPG § 12). The chief punishment of h**l is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

Sunday worship

     This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.103

The day of the Resurrection: the new creation

2174

    Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week."104 Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath,105 it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica)—Sunday:

        We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.106

Sunday—fulfillment of the sabbath

Celebration of Christmas and Easter

Easter is based on Passover.  It's supposed to be Paschal, but, people call it Easter instead

As for Christmas, nobody knows the exact date of Jesus' birth.

In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold. This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery.

As to why they picked a pagan holiday, I am guessing it was for ease of conversion, replacing one practice with another.