Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaymoss
Do you not see the irony though? The largest most dominant Christian religion in the world is one that was formed by the very people who nailed Jesus up and then decided to become Christian because they saw the way the world was changing so thought they best get some control. Then indoctrinating some of their Pagan festivals and beliefs, Merry Saturnalia in a couple of months  . I am sure you with your theocratic back ground know all this though |
Christianising pagan practices stands in the very best tradition of Paul. When he visited Athens he observed a pagan shrine dedicated “to an unknown god.” When he later engaged with some of the city’s Epicurean and Stoic philosophers he told them “what you are unknowingly worshipping, this I am declaring to you.” - even your organisation’s highly questionable version of the text admits that (and is what I’ve quoted here - it’s Acts 17:23, New World Translation, 2013 edition). For good measure he rams his point home by quoting Aratus, a Stoic philosopher (verse 28).
The case for a direct link between Saturnalia and Christmas is not quite as strong as some like to claim, but it makes no difference whether it is directly connected or not. Christmas is clearly closely associated with midwinter and therefore sits on top of a whole load of European pagan midwinter observances. My response to that would be: so what? God made the seasons and the moon by which we mark their passing (Psalm 104:19, my paraphrase). If other religions appropriate aspects of creation for their own purposes I see no barrier should I wish to use them turn attention back to God.
Final point, Christianity was very much a minority religion and widely persecuted at the time of Constantine’s profession of faith in Christ and the Christianising of Rome did not go smoothly during his lifetime. There is absolutely no sense in which Constantine was going with the flow; on the contrary he risked a lot by associating himself with Christians, including open revolt, and perhaps for that reason he didn’t submit to baptism until he was practically on his death bed, more than 20 years later. The continuing issuance of coinage in the empire for several years after his conversion, depicting pagan deities is powerful evidence of this - coinage ought to have been under tight control of the emperor, and the existence of pagan coins with Constantine’s head on the obverse and pagan gods on the reverse certainly doesn’t back the idea that the empire was ripe for conversion, which would have to have been the case had the world been changing in the way your organisation has told you.