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To: AnalogReigns; mamelukesabre; Trillian; agrace; 1010RD; calex59; TheOldLady; killermosquito; ...
The date maybe. As far as I am aware of, there is no pagan religion which includes anything like the story of Jesus' resurrection or of any spirit-world deity assuming a mortal body for 33 years or anything like that.

Pagan religions were basically astral. They included idolatry and the use of oracles, which were similar to the Jewish prophets in the way they operated, but the things they worshiped were basically things they saw in the sky, mainly the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Jewish and Christian religion includes several stories about people being seen after their deaths, including the story of Jesus himself, Lazasrus, and the prophet Samuel. All of those tales are similar; the person was seen for some period of time, the senses of the people who saw them were totally fooled in that the experience was utterly indistinguishable from their having returned in real human bodies, but they did not stick around for years or marry and have kids or start businesses. Those stories involve paranormal things, but not magical or supernatural things nor anything violating physical or mathematical laws. Again to my knowledge, pagan religions never included anything like that.

If you want violations of physical, mathematical, and probabilistic and statistical laws in wholesale lots, you need to be talking to the evolutionites, they specialize in that sort of thing. Evolution requires an infinite sequence of probabilistic miracles. The Bible includes a finite number of "miracles" which is probably about 20 - 50, and none of those stories involve any violations of basic laws.

12 posted on 04/21/2011 5:51:51 PM PDT by wendy1946
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To: wendy1946
The Bible includes a finite number of "miracles" which is probably about 20 - 50, and none of those stories involve any violations of basic laws.

First off, your 20-50 is entirely inaccurate from the Bible Scriptures, if you care to study the entire Old Testament and New Testament and all the Old Testament prophecies regarding Christ / Messiah, just the dating alone regarding Messiah call for divine intervention / control of human events to accurately meet such dates.

No violation of basic laws : take one, the virgin birth of Christ...no violation of basic laws you say. False presupposition. And there are many more in the Bible that defy basic laws.

13 posted on 04/21/2011 6:12:10 PM PDT by bibletruth
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To: wendy1946

the easter bunny, easter eggs, and easter baskets have nothing to do with christianity. Christmas trees, reindeer, snowmen, mistletoe, christmas wreaths, holly, eggnog, christmas stockings, and christmas presents have nothing to do with christianity either. Even snow has nothing to do with christianity. Don’t even get me started on halloween.


15 posted on 04/21/2011 6:18:13 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: wendy1946
The holiday is a merging of pagan and Christian stuff. The name comes from Ishtar, the Babylonian Mother of Heaven and nature/fertility goddess. In ancient mythology she had a son (or lover, in some versions) named Tamuz, who was the sun god. One day Tamuz was out hunting and was killed by a wild boar. Ishtar then went down to the underworld to try to get him back. The ruler of the underworld said he could go back to the upper realms for half the year, but he must return to the underworld for the other half. Thus, the ancient peoples believed that spring and summer marked the time when Ishtar and Tammuz were out (longer days, nature flourishing), and fall and winter marked the time that Tammuz had to go back to the underworld and Ishtar went to get him (short days). That is why in the winter women would mourn for Tammuz. We see this in Ezekiel 8:14:

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz.

And in spring, people would celebrate the return of Ishtar and Tammuz around the time of the Spring equinox. That is why the celebration of Easter is based on the timing of the equinox and not based on when Passover happens. Also, many things associated with Easter have very pagan roots. The eggs and bunnies were fertility symbols associated with Ishtar, and ham is traditionally eaten at Easter to remember the boar that had killed Tammuz. God does not like religious syncretism, the mixing of pagan stuff with His worship.

In Deuteronomy 12 He says:

The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, 30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates.

34 posted on 04/22/2011 10:15:32 AM PDT by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis (Want to make $$$? It's easy! Use FR as a platform to pimp your blog for hits!!!)
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To: wendy1946

http://www.uncouth.net/2008/07/08/of-history-resurrection-and-the-number-three/


40 posted on 04/22/2011 5:34:53 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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