Wednesday, April 26, 2006

well, 3/5 exams.. one later today and one on saturday. Although I vowed to devote so much time to studying, unfortunately that is not the case seeing as I don't know how to study and I love procrastinating, always have! hehehe.. but exams seem to be going okay and if i screw up next year, i always have next year to redeem myself. Anyways... the reason Im posting is because of this. Im studying Ancient Roman and came across Early Christians. Some startling points were made and really made me ponder. In the Roman Empire, Christians were considered nuisances and even persecuted by beasts. Apparently they were a threat to society. But the thing is, many aspects of the practice of Christianity itself seemed to be 'borrowed' from other beliefs.

Like:
- After life: cults of Issus and Dionysus also had this
- Asceticism: live a plain and humble life was also practiced by Stoics
- Monotheism: most cults practiced this so Christianity wasn't special
- Cosmpolitanism: anyone could be a Christian, but then anyone could be come a Stoic

plus:
- in the cult of Serapis, the god was ritually killed in the autumn and rose again after 3 days
- in the cult of Mithras, the god is born in a cave on Dec. 25 and visited by a shepherd
- participants of this cult took bread and wine..

reading this, i recalled my cousin telling me that Dec. 25 itself was not the birth of Jesus but rather Winter Solstice which is confirmed by my studies in Astronomy. Da Vinci Code tells me that most of our practices are derived from pagan worship and even the Sabbath is on SUNday. I was disturbed and distraught this morning. So I called my dad.

My dad listened as I told him what I found out. And he was said this. It doesn't matter how we practice or what we do to worship, it all comes down to the Bible. Anytime you read something like this, compare it to the Bible. We partake in the bread and wine because it symbolizes Christ. God told us to do it so we will. It might have been a ritual in those days but because Christ did it, so we will do. It doesn't matter what we do, but it ultimately comes down to the fact that Christ died FOR us, and rose again. We have salvation from it. Everything else doesn't matter. Plain and Simple. I love it. it all comes down to faith
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if there was a tree with a lot of lemons, you'd be the biggest lemon
9:54 AM