Re: [seul-edu] May the Winter Solstice now bring you more sunshine, and the Summer Solstice more rest.

[Bill <selinux@home.com>]

On Tuesday 25 December 2001 06:55, you wrote:
> It is now the most high of high holy holidays for us of the
> Christian Faith.  Peace unto all of you, and may your world
> be bright.

Really? Surely you jest.

At the risk of disturbing the decorum of this list, I must object.   
The observance of the solstice and equinox have always been closely 
associated with sun-worship. The pagans themselves provide ample 
evidence of this at http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html .  

Please do not commingle pagan beliefs with Christian teachings any 
worse than they already are. By contrast, the Gordian knot already 
looks like a childs puzzle. 

It is nearly impossible to speak of any firmly held religious belief 
without offending at least one other person, so I ask the other 
subscribers to trust me when I say that I do not mean to assault your 
beliefs, but only wish to defend my own from a near-constant 
dilution. If others wish to see the scriptures through my eyes I am 
only too happy to show them or to arrange for another (geographically 
closer) member of my faith to do so. Otherwise, I am content to let 
you walk your own walk just as I wish to walk mine. It is, however, 
vitally important that you choose wisely. In the quest for 
everlasting life, there are no prizes for "first runner-up".

The observance of two birthdays mentioned in the Bible, (Pharaoh at 
Genesis 40:20-22; Herod at Matthew 14:6-11 and Mark 6:21-28) is also 
of undeniably pagan origin.  Neither Pharoah nor Herod were 
Christians ... in fact, Pharaoh openly opposed God before Jesus' 
birth and then Herod openly opposed Jesus. Interestingly, both 
birthdays resulted in murder. The scriptural record is hardly an 
endorsement of the observance. For a fuller discussion of the topic, 
I urge you to cruise over to:
http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps084.shtml . 

I have NO affiliation with the folks at Gospelcom. They showed up in 
a search on britannica.com Since Gospelcom makes their living selling 
books, I suspect they paid good money for that "coincidence". 

These concepts are not to be (favorably) found in any translation of 
the Bible. In fact, Paul got downright irate at folks for observing 
the old Jewish "days and months and seasons and years" - he lumped 
them in with the "beggarly elementary" things of this world. 
(Galatians 4:10,11) Look in the scriptures for yourself ... please, 
just as the Beroeans did when Paul spoke in their synagogue. (Acts 
17:11) These ideas are a late second / early third century intrusion 
of Greek pagan beliefs ... the "philosophy and empty deception" (Col 
2:8) Paul referred to. They are no part of the Christianity known to 
the Apostles nor any of the thousands of others, including those 
anointed at pentacost, who followed Jesus at that time.

The true Christian, acknowledging Jesus as his King, 
commemorates only the last meal of Jesus. This is the only observance 
he told us to make. (Luke 22:19) 
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14341a.htm 
(Please note that I am not a Catholic ... I simply chose the first 
supporting text that google turned up. There were 425,000 references 
to the search term "Last Supper" and the Catholic Encyclopedia was 
the first in line. Feel free to examine the other 424,999.)

All observances not supported by scripture have some other source. 

Bill


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