How to practice 'Christianity' the way it is meant to be?

[Dinami]

Christian holidays i.e Christmas and Easter is actually from Pagan traditions - which also lost its true meanings.

I feel so lost and have no idea how to actually do it the proper way. Like, since Yeshua came and improved the laws that were being followed and did not mean to create a whole new religion but made it better. Are we meant to be following and keeping the Jewish laws and all that was given to Moses too but improved by Yeshua? Because didn't he do that too? Didn't he keep all the laws and observances? Are we meant to follow Church tradition or what is actually in the scriptures? When im reading I find it so wrong that what i'm being taught is not actually what God has wanted us to to do. I'm really confused on how to do this?

Someone explain please

 

[Pegg]

Christian holidays i.e Christmas and Easter is actually from Pagan traditions - which also lost its true meanings.

I feel so lost and have no idea how to actually do it the proper way. Like, since Yeshua came and improved the laws that were being followed and did not mean to create a whole new religion but made it better. Are we meant to be following and keeping the Jewish laws and all that was given to Moses too but improved by Yeshua? Because didn't he do that too? Didn't he keep all the laws and observances? Are we meant to follow Church tradition or what is actually in the scriptures? When im reading I find it so wrong that what i'm being taught is not actually what God has wanted us to to do. I'm really confused on how to do this?

Someone explain please

Jesus was a Jew, so yes, he kept the law of Moses. That law is found in the Hebrew scriptures.
Did christians need to keep the law of Moses? Yes and No. Yes because the law of moses contained the righteous standards of God. Naturally God wants people to live by his laws and standards and uphold his righteousness. And you cant follow Christ without upholding the same righteous moral standards that he lived by.

But Christians did not need to be adherents of the Mosaic law to live by those standards. Do you need to live by the mosaic law to live a moral life? No. Many people live morally upright lives without the mosaic law.

The fact of the matter is that the law of moses was an absolute law. If a law was broken, punishment was administered....including the death penalty for certain crimes. But Jesus came to relieve mankind of such a death penalty. This is why christians stopped adhering to the mosaic law as a whole. They were set free from the punishments of the mosaic law....when they sinned, they could gain forgiveness of their sins through Jesus sacrifice. They did not need to go to the temple to offer a blood sacrifice because Jesus was their sacrifice for their sins perpetually.



So, if you want to know how to follow Christ, you need to read the bible, read the scriptures and learn what God requires. You wont learn such things from church traditions....you can only learn such things from the bible. So read the bible, apply it and put faith in Christ. This is what Christianity is about.

 

[Gaura Priya]

Christian holidays i.e Christmas and Easter is actually from Pagan traditions - which also lost its true meanings.

I feel so lost and have no idea how to actually do it the proper way. Like, since Yeshua came and improved the laws that were being followed and did not mean to create a whole new religion but made it better. Are we meant to be following and keeping the Jewish laws and all that was given to Moses too but improved by Yeshua? Because didn't he do that too? Didn't he keep all the laws and observances? Are we meant to follow Church tradition or what is actually in the scriptures? When im reading I find it so wrong that what i'm being taught is not actually what God has wanted us to to do. I'm really confused on how to do this?

Someone explain please

Just try to be a good person. You yourself know the Greatest Commandment of Christ,

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
And he said unto him, Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment.

And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets."


-- Matthew 22:36-40 (ASV, with Tetragrammaton)

​

If celebrating Christmas or Easter helps remind you of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection, then do so. If they do not help you, then eschew them. If the Sabbath was made for people, and not people for the Sabbath, then these holy days, in evocation of the seasons, also can teach Christian values.


It is rather unfortunate that the Christian meanings have been lost, but we can ourselves be good examples of what it means to be like Christ.


Some believe that Christ still followed Jewish laws and customs, and many Christians (such as 'Messianic Jews') do so.



Others celebrate Christmas and Easter as Christian cultural icons, and follow their Christian symbolisms (The Christian Holy Days have been long part of Christian tradition, so as to fit the entire year to have significance in the Christ-narrative).



Other Christians eschew them both and other Christian holy days, and follow a mixture of the last two things mentioned above.


So ultimately, do what you feel is right, and let others worship how they will. God knows our internal faith and external actions, and not necessarily what hymn we should sing, or praise & worship song, or which denomination has the right interpretation of Christianity!


God bless!

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Some Christian Holidays certainly fall close to old pagan celebrations.
However The fall of Christian "Holy Days" is mostly coincidental or even convenient in terms of the years cycle.
The Birth, life. death and resurrecting Of Jesus is remembered and celebrated in sequence throughout the year.

Cycles of celebration have been followed by religions from time immemorial.
It would be had to come up with a calendar of worship that did not coincide at some points with other past religions.

 

[Shiranui117]

Christian holidays i.e Christmas and Easter is actually from Pagan traditions - which also lost its true meanings.

Pascha is not from Pagan traditions. Pascha is purely the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, and it has no connection whatsoever to the Germanic pagan holiday "Eostre" celebrated at the spring equinox.

I feel so lost and have no idea how to actually do it the proper way. Like, since Yeshua came and improved the laws that were being followed and did not mean to create a whole new religion but made it better. Are we meant to be following and keeping the Jewish laws and all that was given to Moses too but improved by Yeshua?

We are not to keep the physical law; i.e. the law of circumcision, of clean vs. unclean, sacrifices, etc. All of those were meant to teach the Jews certain things; for example, the sacrifices were a foreshadowing of Christ's Crucifixion. Clean vs. unclean is symbolic of both righteousness vs. sin (still something we need to be worried about, but we don't worry about clean vs. unclean anymore) and the separation of the Jews from the Gentiles, which God brought about in order to give us the Messiah, Jesus Christ, but is now irrelevant, because Christ has broken down the barriers between peoples. There is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, but all are one in Christ Jesus.

We have the spiritual Law to follow, but not the physical law which does nothing for our salvation.

Because didn't he do that too? Didn't he keep all the laws and observances?

He did, in order to fulfill the L/law in Himself.

Are we meant to follow Church tradition or what is actually in the scriptures? When im reading I find it so wrong that what i'm being taught is not actually what God has wanted us to to do. I'm really confused on how to do this?

Someone explain please

We are to follow the Church Tradition AND the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are a PART OF the Church Tradition.

If I may ask, who has told you that what you've been taught in the Orthodox Church is wrong?

Hope this helps! Peace and God bless!

 

[McBell]

How to practice 'Christianity' the way it is meant to be?

Seems to me the very first step is to find out what it is meant to be.

No doubt you will be offered many many different opinions as to which way it is meant to be.
How does one determine which of those many many different ways presented is the way it is meant to be?

 

[ChristineES]

Christianity is about love: Loving God, loving your neighbors, loving your siblings in Jesus, loving your enemies. Jesus had other commandments, anyone can read these commandments. I have a feeling that God doesn't really mind about celebrations- I doubt he meant for us to always be dreary.

 

[dantech]

Christian holidays i.e Christmas and Easter is actually from Pagan traditions - which also lost its true meanings.

I feel so lost and have no idea how to actually do it the proper way. Like, since Yeshua came and improved the laws that were being followed and did not mean to create a whole new religion but made it better. Are we meant to be following and keeping the Jewish laws and all that was given to Moses too but improved by Yeshua? Because didn't he do that too? Didn't he keep all the laws and observances? Are we meant to follow Church tradition or what is actually in the scriptures? When im reading I find it so wrong that what i'm being taught is not actually what God has wanted us to to do. I'm really confused on how to do this?

Someone explain please

What laws did Jesus improve?