Monicathree:
Hi all!
I never usually watch protestant TV, but I accidentally caught this guy. I stopped because he was showing a picture of St. Peter. He started pretty much making the Pagan comparisons. He was talking about Osiris and Son and all these ancient cultures showing a mother and son icon. Also, he said that St. Peter’s statue was just an old statue of Jupiter renamed. He also was talking about different gods whose supposed birthday’s were Dec. 25th.
I have read the Catholic Answers reply to the Pagan accusation, but any other ideas or refutations out there?
Peace
If your Michael Rood is the one who owns “The Nazirite Site”, I think
this page from it answers your question…
I’m reminded of a quip of Chesterton’s to the effect that the Church fell into apostasy on the day of Pentecost
That “pagan origin or pagan parallel” type of objection is immensely destructive, because there were “pagan” Psalms, prayers, feasts, and much, much, more: “pagan” Redeemers, Saviours, Lords, and so on; so the logic which rejects the Blessed Trinity or the Mass as a (supposedly) Babylonian or Egyptian error, also undermines the Person and work of Christ; and even the contents of the Bible. (Inspiration is not a doctrine found among Christians and Jews alone.)
The only way to avoid all contact with allegedly Babylonian or Egyptian error, is to avoid Christianity, the NT, the OT, prayer, and belief in God. IOW - become an atheist.
And avoid: medicine, the wheel, furnaces, canals, writing, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, sculpture, accountancy, beer, architecture, cities, and just about anything else that makes life bearable - Egypt and Babylonia have both been immensely influential on later civilisations. It is next to impossible to avoid being influenced by these two great civilisations, however distantly - or as some seem to think, being defiled by them.
FWIW, this “objection from Babylonian or Egyptian origin” is based on ideas about Babylonia which are not much more than fantasy. This can scarcely be emphasised too much. If you come across webpages or books saying “Nimrod founded Babylon’s religion” or “Catholicism came from Babylon” or “Easter is called after the goddess Ishtar” or “The Assyrians believed in the Trinity” or some such thing - ignore it; it’s all demonstrably untrue, so no Christian should be disturbed by it at all.
For a book by two authors who know what they are talking about, read
this instead - or any of the other books on the page. The reviews say what needs to be said. ##