Easter. What's with all the plastic eggs, chocolate rabbits & such?

[Rick O'Shez]

Anyway the Church invented chocolate to stop people thinking about sex. It works pretty well mostly.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

dollar stores the best

Chocolate eggs are a real rip-off anyway....I must remember to visit the supermarkets next week to buy up some cheap unsold stock!

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Yep, that is exactly true....except that you are talking about Christendom, not Christianity. Please don't confuse them.

Christianity as well. The only thing that shoukd be in christianity is 1. The church (assembly of like believers Not what anti church people call a building) 2. Having a church, Christ is present. (More than one gathers in His name, He is present) 3. scripture as to know who he is and what He taught.

And a relationship based on living his life, death, and resurrection and nothing more.

Jesus style wasnt complicated.

He didnt have a structured ceremony to see peopl baptised into the assembly of Christ. Yey, we do since it keeps organization rather than disorganized planing.

He never went door to door to evangelize yet today people do so to spread His word. Seems like the intention is important.

If it we tried to mimic biblical teaches we are faaar from it.

Id day if the Christian was painting the eggs for Christ, theres a problem. If he did s for his kids there isnt

 

[oldbadger]

OldBadger is in his late 90s, so Mrs Badger is so relatively youthful, that she's dang near jail bait.

If she put the right bunny outfit on, and moved just so, she might be too exciting. ............. = Widow Badger!

 

[Revoltingest]

Easter has origins in.....

 

[Revoltingest]

If she put the right bunny outfit on, and moved just so, she might be too exciting. ............. = Widow Badger!

 

[oldbadger]

Oh dear........... I need an aspirin...........
...........

 

[Shadow Wolf]

What's with the plastic decorations, candy animals, and so on?

 

[Rick O'Shez]

.....aspirin...........
...........

Is that your code for viagra?

 

[JayJayDee]

I thought it was supposed to be about chocolate eggs and bunnies?
Where'd this bloodied chap on a cross come from?
Oh, noooooooo don't tell me that Easter is influenced by a monotheist redemptive/salvation celebration!
Why do heathen lands decorate with churches and crosses and such?

Another good point. Where did the cross come from? It isn't in the Bible. The implement used to put Christ to death was an ordinary "stauros"....an upright stake or pole used to impale people. The Romans used a variety of configurations in their torture stakes. There is no mention of a cross at all. There was a small piece of timber at their feet, making it possible for their victims to push themselves up in order to breathe so that the agony lasted as long as possible. When the Romans were done enjoying the suffering, they broke the legs of their victims so that suffocation would soon follow.

It was prophesied that not a bone of the Messiah would be broken and it came true. The legs of the other two victims were broken but when it came to Jesus, they found that he had already expired. Testing it out, they thrust a spear into his side to make sure that he was dead.

 

[JayJayDee]

Probably for the fun of it. Jesus didnt have spot lights and drama shows in His day, but Churches still use them in sermon amd on holidays. I see no confliction with painting eggs. Its not intended outside of the joy of secular related easter. Nothing more.

If Jesus was here, wonder if Hed paint and egg or two knowing he was doing it for fun.

Since there was to be no mixing of true and false worship, I don't think Jesus would have a bar of any of it.

2 Cor 6:14-18 does not leave us in any doubt about this fusing of true and false religion......"Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? 15 Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Beʹli·al (the devil)? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: “I will reside among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 “‘Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in.’” 18 “‘And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.”

A complete 'separation' from spiritually "unclean" religious practices is required of God's worshippers and always has been.
Israel was punished most severely for adopting the ways of the pagan nations around them, so I believe that those who continue to accept pagan beliefs and practices adopted by Christendom centuries ago, no matter how harmless they seem, will fulfill Jesus' words at the judgment...."I never knew you! Get away from me you workers of lawlessness" (Matt 7:21-23)

"Never" means "not ever" so Jesus has "never" recognised the fusion religion that took shape in the early centuries that even today masquerades as Christianity......it never stayed true to his teachings. Christendom is the "weeds" of Jesus parable. (Matt13:24-30, 36-43)

 

[outhouse]

The implement used to put Christ to death was an ordinary "stauros"....an upright stake or pole used to impale people.

Unsubstantiated rhetoric

There is no mention of a cross at all.

There is shortly after his death.

But not on a pole.


The current state of studies is that it was a T shape. But it is most plausible, not certain.


Your error is your certainty.

 

[JayJayDee]

I would argue that both have immense pagan influence. Nothing is created in a vacuum, after all, and there will be undoubted mixing of ideas & faiths over literally two thousand years.

Yes but the mixing of faiths goes back much further than that. This is why the "city" Babylon the great is pictured as a harlot fit for destruction in John's Revelation. She "has a kingdom over the kings of the earth" influencing nations and kingdoms down through time. The 'greater Babylon' is a mirror of her namesake, original Babylon....the springboard for all false religious concepts. The common thread of 'Babylonish' teachings is seen in all faiths, including Christendom....but missing from Christianity.

These beliefs include a multiplicity or trinity of gods....belief in an immortal soul....and a hell of eternal fiery torment for the wicked. Religious icons and idols are also seen universally. Symbols such as the cross have been around for millennia and have no connection to Christianity at all. Its original connection was seen as a fertility emblem, symbolising intercourse....so a truly disgusting symbol to be used in connection with the death of God's son.

Any wonder God has an accounting with mankind for how they have contaminated his worship and abandoned his truth.
No excuse will be accepted because we are not ignorant any more. We can all make informed choices about who and how to worship.....or even of we will worship at all. We all have free will.

 

[JayJayDee]

Unsubstantiated rhetoric

"According to Greek scholar W. E. Vine, staurosʹ “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroō, to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross.”

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary says that the word staurosʹ “properly signified astake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling a piece of ground.” The dictionary continues: “Even amongst the Romans the crux (Latin, from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole.” Thus, it is not surprising that The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Certain it is, at any rate, that the cross originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened at its upper end.”

There is another Greek word, xyʹlon, that Bible writers used to describe the instrument of Jesus’ execution. A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the Englishand Greek New Testament defines xyʹlon as “a piece of timber, a wooden stake.” It goes on to say that like staurosʹ, xyʹlon “was simply an upright pale or stake to which the Romans nailed those who were thus said to be crucified.”

In line with this, we note that the King James Version reads at Acts 5:30: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree [xyʹlon].” Other versions, though rendering staurosʹ as “cross,” also translate xyʹlon as “tree.” At Acts 13:29, The Jerusalem Bible says of Jesus: “When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree [xyʹlon] and buried him.”

In view of the basic meaning of the Greek words staurosʹ and xyʹlon, the CriticalLexiconandConcordance, quoted above, observes: “Both words disagree with the modern idea of a cross, with which we have become familiarised by pictures.” In other words, what the Gospel writers described using the word staurosʹ was nothing like what people today call a cross. Appropriately, therefore, the NewWorldTranslationoftheHolyScriptures uses the expression “torture stake” at Matthew 27:40-42 and in other places where the word staurosʹ appears. Similarly, theCompleteJewishBible uses the expression “execution stake.” (2011 WT)

There is shortly after his death.

But not on a pole.

The current state of studies is that it was a T shape. But it is most plausible, not certain.

Your error is your certainty.

You really should do some research. There is no word for "cross" in the Bible. The cross has very grubby origins.

 

[Nietzsche]

Yes but the mixing of faiths goes back much further than that. This is why the "city" Babylon the great is pictured as a harlot fit for destruction in John's Revelation. She "has a kingdom over the kings of the earth" influencing nations and kingdoms down through time. The 'greater Babylon' is a mirror of her namesake, original Babylon....the springboard for all false religious concepts. The common thread of 'Babylonish' teachings is seen in all faiths, including Christendom....but missing from Christianity.

These beliefs include a multiplicity or trinity of gods....belief in an immortal soul....and a hell of eternal fiery torment for the wicked. Religious icons and idols are also seen universally.

Any wonder God has an accounting with mankind for how they have contaminated his worship and abandoned his truth.
No excuse will be accepted because we are not ignorant any more. We can all make informed choices about who and how to worship.....or even of we will worship at all. We all have free will.

That's almost comical levels of conspiracy-theory theology.

Symbols such as the cross have been around for millennia and have no connection to Christianity at all. Its original connection was seen as a fertility emblem, symbolising intercourse....so a truly disgusting symbol to be used in connection with the death of God's son.

And a long hard shaft with a man's hands(and arms) wrapped around it is somehow less phallic than a crux commissa or immissa?

 

[Nietzsche]

"According to Greek scholar W. E. Vine, staurosʹ “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroō, to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross.”

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary says that the word staurosʹ “properly signified astake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling a piece of ground.” The dictionary continues: “Even amongst the Romans the crux (Latin, from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole.” Thus, it is not surprising that The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Certain it is, at any rate, that the cross originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened at its upper end.”

There is another Greek word, xyʹlon, that Bible writers used to describe the instrument of Jesus’ execution. A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the Englishand Greek New Testament defines xyʹlon as “a piece of timber, a wooden stake.” It goes on to say that like staurosʹ, xyʹlon “was simply an upright pale or stake to which the Romans nailed those who were thus said to be crucified.”

In line with this, we note that the King James Version reads at Acts 5:30: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree [xyʹlon].” Other versions, though rendering staurosʹ as “cross,” also translate xyʹlon as “tree.” At Acts 13:29, The Jerusalem Bible says of Jesus: “When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree [xyʹlon] and buried him.”

In view of the basic meaning of the Greek words staurosʹ and xyʹlon, the CriticalLexiconandConcordance, quoted above, observes: “Both words disagree with the modern idea of a cross, with which we have become familiarised by pictures.” In other words, what the Gospel writers described using the word staurosʹ was nothing like what people today call a cross. Appropriately, therefore, the NewWorldTranslationoftheHolyScriptures uses the expression “torture stake” at Matthew 27:40-42 and in other places where the word staurosʹ appears. Similarly, theCompleteJewishBible uses the expression “execution stake.” (2011 WT)




You really should do some research. There is no word for "cross" in the Bible. The cross has very grubby origins.

You know that we've got depictions of both styles of "t/T" shaped crosses that predate Jesus, right? And that the earliest known depiction of Jesus during the punishment is a bit of graffiti dated to a handful of decades after the event was claimed to have occurred?

 

[JayJayDee]

That's almost comical levels of conspiracy-theory theology.

LOL The Bible is the story of the biggest conspiracy in the history of the world.

And a long hard shaft with a man's hands(and arms) wrapped around it is somehow less phallic than a crux commissa or immissa?

You are missing the point. It's the fact that an image is made at all, let alone something as blatantly disgusting as a cross, given its origins. Look at Egyptian art and see the ankh cross that was a symbol of male and female genetlia. Its connection to sex worship is clearly established. Israel fell victim to it as well.

All obelisks are phallic symbols but you already knew that...right?
There is one in the middle of the Babylonian sun wheel in St Peter's square.

 

[Nietzsche]

LOL The Bible is the story of the biggest conspiracy in the history of the world.

Well at least you don't deny the absurdity of it.

You are missing the point. It's the fact that an image is made at all, let alone something as blatantly disgusting as a cross, given its origins. Look at Egyptian art and see the ankh cross that was a symbol of male and female genetlia. Its connection to sex worship is clearly established. Israel fell victim to it as well.

All obelisks are phallic symbols but you already knew that...right?
There is one in the middle of the Babylonian sun wheel in St Peter's square.

They can be. Not all of them are. There are a limited number of shapes you know, and you'll see symbols repeated throughout world cultures. The Swastika might be the best example, you can find it in every part of the world. Native Americans, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, remote parts of Africa & Australasia..

But that's besides the point. The fact of the matter is that all evidence we have of Roman Crucifixions, both before & after the Nazarene, are of either comissa or imissa(and a handful of other crossbeam-styles). Never a pole or stake.

 

[jeager106]

That's almost comical levels of conspiracy-theory theology.


And a long hard shaft with a man's hands(and arms) wrapped around it is somehow less phallic than a crux commissa or immissa?

If you were to seriously research the contamination of the early chruch you would see the blending of pagan worship started
as early as the 2nd century A.D. then really got dirty in the 3rd century.
Were it not so serious, this decpetion of mankind then I would say it were comical.
This corruption of the true "church" which isn't a building but the people, is the greatest conspiracy this world has
ever known. Well, " known" may not be the right word here........this world SHOULD have known is better.
I must venture a personal opinion: It takes a lot of courage, lots of digging, fact facing, and understanding to finally SEE and recognize where the deception is, then find the truth and accpet it in the face of the world hawking how wrong you are.
Wonder what the root causes were for adultering God's message to begin with?

 

[Nietzsche]

If you were to seriously research the contamination of the early chruch you would see the blending of pagan worship started
as early as the 2nd century A.D. then really got dirty in the 3rd century.
Were it not so serious, this decpetion of mankind then I would say it were comical.
This corruption of the true "church" which isn't a building but the people, is the greatest conspiracy this world has
ever known. Well, " known" may not be the right word here........this world SHOULD have known is better.
I must venture a personal opinion: It takes a lot of courage, lots of digging, fact facing, and understanding to finally SEE and recognize where the deception is, then find the truth and accpet it in the face of the world hawking how wrong you are.
Wonder what the root causes were for adultering God's message to begin with?

Perhaps because there is/was no greater or divine truth within Christianity to begin with? The adoption of various pagan traditions are likely the only reason Christianity has lasted at all. If it didn't adopt those facets, the people would've likely stayed with the faiths they had before. Christianity, Jesus and the Apostles would've been a footnote in history-books concerning how Rome governed Palestine and dealt with a short-lived fracturing of Judaism.