Is Christianity a borrowed religion?

Question

On this form, I keep reading about how some feel that Christianity is a borrowed religion. They say Christianity was taken from older religions. The stories, Jesus (or Jesus figure), and places are very similar They say that in light of the above, Christianity is not true and borrowed from these older religions.

A few questions:

1. If you are an unbeliever, how or why do you accept these older religions and not Christianity?

2. One of the older religions had to have come first. Which one?

3.Only one of the older religions can be right. This would make all the others false (just as you view Christianity) or borrowed too. They can't all be right and Christianity the only wrong one. Which one is the right one?

4. If these other religions predated Christianity they should have a more firm foundation and a great following. Why haven't we heard much about them?

5. Older should mean more wide spread and members in place before, during that time, and today. Where are their church's or places of worship???? I haven't been all over the world but I know of no such worship centers or people that say they are members of such other religions.

6. One can only conclude that they were found to be false, fables, actually post-dated Christianity, or full of errors and had no following. The Bible speaks of people that worshiped false religions, false prophets, false images, and false gods. Colud these religions be what the Bible is talking about?

7. Is that why these have few or no followers, few or no worship centers, and Christianity has shown them to be just what they are=-false?

--- Now please give a reliable, can offer facts, answer.

Answer 1

1. (doesn't apply to me... I am a believer)

2. Truth is the oldest religion, and has existed since before Adam.  Since then, it has been expressed in many different ways, and recorded in the records of many ancient cultures... hence similarities between mythology of many religions, and the actual events that occurred in the life of Jesus Christ.

3.  No, all religion are "right" or they all stem from the same rightness, and have some of the truth within them... with little added bits of creativity put in that humans have added along the way.  

Adam was a prophet.  He knew, through prophesy, the beginning of the earth to the end of it.  He taught his prophesies to his children.  Then, his children branched off and used his prophecies as the basis of their own version of religion... and their religions changed over time to include more and more philosophies of men, much as modern Christianity has done.

4. Popularity of religion is not necessarily a measure of its truthfulness.  Many factors at play here.  Even if people HAVE the truth, if they do not LIVE by it, their society will eventually disintegrate and destroy itself.  It happens time and time again.

5. More wide spread does not mean more correct.  Many factors at play... remember who is the god of this world, according to your own theology? (satan) Power of corrupt political leaders, money hunger of the rich and powerful, people who stone/kill the prophets, etc.  It all combines to make it rather difficult to maintain clarity of religious truth.  

In Noah's day, only him and his family were righteous.  Yet the whole earth was populated with people.  This argument that truth will be in a majority is not found in the Bible.

6. Yes, they could well be examples of religions that have falseness in them ... however, modern Christianity could be seen as the same... not perfect.  

7. I already pointed out that the Bible never says that the truth will be had by the majority... remember... straight is the gate, narrow is the way, and FEW there be that find it?

Nothing is really as black and white as you might think.  That is why we are called upon to withhold judgment and condemnation of other people (and their religions).  God looks on the heart.  

EDIT:

Considering all the prophecies in the Bible, where prophets came to restore truth to God's people, when they had strayed from it (as they inevitably do) ... it seems to me that the ancient origins of a religion is no measure of its wholeness/completeness/perfection.  

The truth is found amongst living prophets...  The direct connection with God is the means by which any person KNOWS what is true.  Historical records provide evidence, but it is really just speculation, conjecture, and "human understanding" that can't be relied upon absolutely.  Direct revelation is the only sure thing (Prov. 3:5-6), and even that must be gathered bit by bit... and there is still room for error.  I guess that is why humility is an eternal principle.  We could always be wrong.

Answer 2

No. Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who is our God. There has been no religion before a man had a personal relationship with God

Answer 3

1. Define what is a Christian. The word means "little Christ."

2.  Define what is a religion  is ; James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.  

Answer 4

Christianity was borrowed, or more accurately, hijacked from paganism, there are far too many similarities to discount this, many of the Christian holidays, deities, etc have counterparts in pagan tradition, I am listing some examples below.

The name Easter was named after the pagan goddess Ishtar. The food that she ate to keep her immortal was the egg and the animal that was associated with her was the rabbit. I have also noticed that Christian churches to this day will have Easter egg hunts and little do they realize that they are celebrating an old pagan tradition but yet they are Christians and just go on and on about how paganism is evil and should not be practiced but yet they will practice old pagan customs and celebrate pagan holidays themselves.

A lot of Christmas decorations that we put in our homes were pagan traditions as well. The Christmas tree was originally a pagan tradition, candy canes and holly wreaths decorated the pagan temples back in times of ancient Greece before the times of Christ. Don’t get me wrong I have very great respect for the Christian church and I will always defend the pagan faith and the old wisdom of our ancient ancestors, for if it wasn’t for the pagans we never would have had the hanging gardens, the pyramids, the colossus, or Stonehenge. But I really do think that people really need to be aware of what is going on and we all need to be more open minded, liberal in our spiritual beliefs and less hypocritical.

Answer 5

The Church, which consists of all of those of The True Christian Faith, was commissioned by God... and ONLY God decrees who is and who is not, a part of The Body of The Church of which Jesus The Christ is The Head.

There are many individuals and groups who claim to be Christian who are not., but, The Church is from God and God alone.  

\Man invented"religion" is all basicaly from man, though insired in many cases by the forces of evil. And there are many duplications in practices among the man invented "religions.

The proof you seek may only come from God. Those of the Church know The Truth... those who reject God do not and continue to reject all that God offers them... so it is a waste of time and effort for any man to seek to "prove" God to any one.... If they reject God why should we of The Church assume we can convince them...

Answer 6

That's right.  It's borrowed from Buddhism, Hinduism, and a few oldest religions more than 3,000 years ago.

Can you believe that in bible, it said it's 2,000 years?

Let Christians complain whenever they want to.

Answer 7

1. Because Christianity has a flawed Momotheistic principle which does not accept modern science or the existance of other gods by the same evidences that they use for their faith.

2. It is unknown, generally it is believed to have been ancestor worship, anthropologically speaking, which is alive and well today.

3. Not necessarily, in fact, most older religions are henotheistic, recognising the fact that other gods may exist and other religions can be as equally correct for other people.

4. Many of them were wiped out through forced conversion or into hiding. See St. Patrick's casting the Snakes out of Ireland, which one of the popes admitted (Iforget which one) was a slaughter of unbelievers. See the Norse kings who were tortured and killed for not converting, and Charlemagne's belief in conversion by the sword.



5. See earlier statement. Many Greek Polytheists are not allowed to worship in the old temples because of the Greek Orthodox church in Greece.

6. Um, no. See the fact that there are references to other gods in the Bible, such as Baal and Asherah, and we have evidence that many Ancient Sumerian and Egytian religions predated Christianity and Judaism.

7. No, it's because Christianity is a religion that has historically converted with a sword or adopted pagan beliefs in order to convert people--See the Goddess Brigid and the St. Brigid for a good example.

Answer 8

Justa cutting to the chase here....    ...You can borrow a religion, I guess but who would want to?

You cannot borrow Christianity where you have a personal relationship with your Creator, Savior, Friend and Counselor...+ +