How did Christianity kill longstanding paganism in Europe?

[sooda]

Were the Dead Sea scrolls scripture? Were they printed on a printing press? What form did the Scriptures have when Jesus walked the earth? The apostles used the scriptures freely when they were preaching.....

The Catholic church took the Bible away from the people and burned at the stake anyone who dared to posses one. But when it was time, God took it from the church and put the Bible back into the hands of the people.
Whom he used to do that is irrelevant. It is his word, not their.

The Church did not punish or torture anyone for owning Bibles.

Did the CATHOLIC CHURCH punish/torture people for owning Bibles?

The Bible was on scrolls and parchments during the early centuries of Christianity. No one had a "Bible". In the Middle Ages, each Bible was written by hand. Most people were, at best, only functionally literate. That is partially why they used stained glass windows and art to tell the Bible story.


Any writings were done by hand on scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls—comprising more than 800 documents made of animal skin, papyrus and even forged copper.

They were very precious and very few people could afford a copy.

 

[ChristineM]

Easter and Christmas are thoroughly Christian celebrations. Some of the imagery that has come to be associated with them in Western countries in the previous few centuries (Easter eggs, Christmas trees) is not.

Easter is borrowed from the northern european pagan celebration of the coming of spring, dedicated to the goddess Eostre

Christmas is taken from the various pagan mid winter celebrations of yule, saturnalia and solstice.

Probable adopted by christianity as a way to entice more pagans in to the christian church with the line "join our club and you wont need to give up your traditions"

 

[Augustus]

Easter is borrowed from the northern european pagan celebration of the coming of spring, dedicated to the goddess Eostre

Only if one is quite credulous and uninterested in actual history rather than what they want to believe is true.

It's only called Easter (or similar) in English and German, Pascha and derivatives are more common including in Greek and Latin which derives from Pesach (passover). Pascha had been celebrated for many centuries before the name Easter appears.

So unless we assume Early Christianity was a Northern European religion based around the English/German language, this tenuous link makes no sense.

That the name may derive from this in a small number of languages spoken in a region that was of pretty much zero importance to Early Christianity, obviously doesn't mean the celebration itself developed for this reason.

 

[Cooky]

Oh, but the priests and the scribes could read and the people still got the wrong message....didn't they?
If they understood scripture and they were the ones responsible for teaching their flock the truth about baptism, why did the people get such a twisted interpretation of it? Teachers have double accountability.



That is not the way I heard it. The Catholic Church wanted complete custody of the bible so that there was no one who could question their interpretation of things or their doctrines adopted from pagan sources. It would have disempowered them to have dissension in their ranks and it was so easy to put "heretics" to the fire, especially after torturing a confession out of them.



So why do most Bible translations not contain the apocryphal books if the Holy Scriptures were "protected" by the RC church?
If the church had stuck to the scriptures then Mary would never have been elevated above the status that the Bible gave her as simply the mother of Jesus. She could never have become "the Mother of God" if there was no trinity. Teachings about hellfire could never have been presented to scare the people into submission or face the consequences. Baptism would never have been seen as a meaningless ritual carried out as some kind of 'spiritual insurance policy'. I don't think most people have any idea how much the church deviated from the teachings of the Christ whilst adopting all manner of false religious concepts from their neighbors. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) No one seemed to care.....or was it that there was no who cared left to utter a protest?



The last people on earth I would trust with my eternal future would be the Roman Catholic church. It seems to me that whatever Christ taught, the RC church taught the opposite.

Sorry....but you are welcome to them.

Essentially, it's worthless debating with you because whenever I raise points you just ignore them and jump to another attack.

It's sad how people become brainwashed with hatred by what their elders tell them... Yet claim to be "bible" believing.

 

[Cooky]

Luke 9:50

...End your hatred for your brothers.

 

[Shiranui117]

Maybe you could be so kind as to give us some of the facts.

I would encourage you to read the writings of Sts. Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius of Alexandria, Polycarp, Hippolytus of Rome, and Cyprian of Carthage. All these people lived before the Council of Nicaea, and we have many of their extant writings. St. Ignatius of Antioch died in the year 105 AD, St. Justin Martyr died around 150, St. Irenaeus of Lyons around 180 AD, St. Hippolytus was around the same time, and Clement, Origen and Cyprian lived in the 200's. These all voiced belief in the Trinity. St. Ignatius of Antioch was a personal student of St. John the Apostle, and he was the second or third bishop of Antioch, with St. Peter being the first. St. Clement of Rome was one of the first bishops of Rome, being named in the Book of Acts as a traveling companion of St. Paul. St. Irenaeus learned from Polycarp, who was a student of St. John. Many of them outright express the dogma of the Trinity, especially Sts. Irenaeus, Cyprian of Carthage and St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

You can find their writings freely available online at newadvent.org/fathers, or on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library in volumes edited by Philip Schaff (Browse by Author (S) - Christian Classics Ethereal Library).

 

[Cooky]

I would encourage you to read the writings of Sts. Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius of Alexandria, Polycarp, Hippolytus of Rome, and Cyprian of Carthage. All these people lived before the Council of Nicaea, and we have many of their extant writings. St. Ignatius of Antioch died in the year 105 AD, St. Justin Martyr died around 150, St. Irenaeus of Lyons around 180 AD, St. Hippolytus was around the same time, and Clement, Origen and Cyprian lived in the 200's. These all voiced belief in the Trinity. St. Ignatius of Antioch was a personal student of St. John the Apostle, and he was the second or third bishop of Antioch, with St. Peter being the first. St. Clement of Rome was one of the first bishops of Rome, being named in the Book of Acts as a traveling companion of St. Paul. St. Irenaeus learned from Polycarp, who was a student of St. John. Many of them outright express the dogma of the Trinity, especially Sts. Irenaeus, Cyprian of Carthage and St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

You can find their writings freely available online at newadvent.org/fathers, or on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library in volumes edited by Philip Schaff (Browse by Author (S) - Christian Classics Ethereal Library).

Excellent resources. Thank you.

 

[David1967]

What was the driving force or motivation for Europe to mostly come to Jesus following the fall of Rome?

Some converted by choice others by force.

How did Christ eventually hook European culture which was widespread pagan/polytheistic for thousands of years?

I dont think Europe was completely "hooked". For example, just look at the Pagan influence within "Christian" holidays like Easter (Eostre) and Christmas. Or the Pagan influences that remained in the Catholic church substituting many gods with many saints and the female goddess figure with Mary. etc. and etc.

 

[David1967]

It's ironic that the Catholic Church would be founded in Rome since Rome herself crucified Christ.

Yes, but don't forget who the Romans were trying to pacify by carrying out that execution. Remember, Rome didn't care what religion a people were so long as they didn't cause them problems.

 

[Quintessence]

@Jonathan Bailey

If you really want to learn about this topic, head to your local public library. If they don't have a good book by a scholarly authority or two in their collection, you can interlibrary loan one.

It's been many years since I've read it, but God against the Gods is a good one to scope out and is common in such library collections. I honestly don't recall much of it anymore beyond the fact that the rise of Christianity was basically a historical fluke and invented religious intolerance.

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

You make it sound so simple, when in actuality, it is much more complex than that.

...things happened. Terrible heresies occured, some even including self-starvation as a means to martyrdom. Others included re-scripting of bibles.

Many of those heretic sects believed they were "bible believing" Christians too. Luckily for us all, the Catholic Church squashed those beliefs many generations ago. Thousands of years worth of generations, all put to the test of time. I can only imagine the number of sects and denominations that existed only to fade away -they must be in the tens of thousands. Some of which we know were very self destructive.

...So we probably shouldn't be so quick to place the non-Catholic Christians of yesterday on a pedestal, until we've come to realize who they actually were, and what they did.

Spoken like a true Catholic. The religion that used the pagan Constantine to force people to accept their false ideas or face death. Most of the Catholic religion is based on paganism. The true Bible believers were killed or forced into hiding.

 

[Woberts]

The true Bible believers were killed or forced into hiding.

Where they then forced others to convert or face death. You could use so many other arguments for the destruction of catholicism. Try to use one that doesn't make you a hypocrite, eh?

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

Where they then forced others to convert or face death. You could use so many other arguments for the destruction of catholicism. Try to use one that doesn't make you a hypocrite, eh?

I said nothing about the destruction of Catholicism. And I can assure true Christians never killed anyone to advance their beliefs or forced anyone to convert. Can you give examples?

 

[Cooky]

Spoken like a true Catholic. The religion that used the pagan Constantine to force people to accept their false ideas or face death. Most of the Catholic religion is based on paganism. The true Bible believers were killed or forced into hiding.

What accounts do you have of these so called "bible believers" being killed or forced into hiding? Who were they..? What were their names?

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

What accounts do you have of these so called "bible believers" being killed or forced into hiding? Who were they..? What were their names?

Sorry, I asked first.

 

[Cooky]

Sorry, I asked first.

You asked me nothing.

 

[Pete in Panama]

...How did Christ eventually hook European culture which was widespread pagan/polytheistic for thousands of years?...

Another question we may want to ask is how did the Celts change so much of Christianity so as to draw them into Celtic traditions? Like, ask anyone what's the biggest day of the Christians, and the answers usually Yuletide Noel Christmas --holidays many deem pagan traditions as they appear nowhere in the scriptures.

Celt religious traditions began mixing into Christianity from the beginning; Paul's New Testament letter to the Galatians is where the Celts got the early Christians to forget about circumcision. We also know that prehistoric burials suggested that the Celts believed in life after death before the Jews did. Something else we know is that Celtic languages trace their roots to Indo-European groups at a time when --and in Hindu influenced areas where-- Abraham grew up and first moved into Canaan. In fact, some historians argue that Celtic religion is more similar to the Hinduism (one God appearing many diverse ways) than the Greco-Roman polytheism (many distinct gods w/ similarities).

Bottom line is that imho it's a lot easier to see the Celts & Christians merging than either joining w/ the Romans. But somehow they did..

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

You asked me nothing.

Great, and I answered nothing.

 

[Cooky]

Great, and I answered nothing.

Of course you answered nothing, as you have little knowledge on the topic.

 

[Cooky]

Protestants these days must realize that Catholics believe Sola Scriptura is a fallacy based on copied traits from other religions.

Christianity was never meant to be a "faith of the book". It was meant to be a living faith. That's Why there existed Gnostics from the beginning. Our Eastern brothers had the desert fathers.

...In fact, the Catholic Church may have been first to lead in the direction of being "of the book", being they published it, but the Protestants seem to have run to the hills with it. They've gone too far.