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Getbig Misc Discussion Boards => Religious Debates & Threads => Topic started by: Butterbean on March 25, 2011, 10:43:41 AM
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According to Tim LaHaye in "Revelation Unveiled" they are.
Interesting list of dates of when certain practices were introduced to the Church below. I knew a lot of these practices were not biblical, and even anti-biblical, but hadn't heard they were base on "Pagan Practices." Anyone else heard this?
(from Revelation Unveiled by Tim LaHaye www.anglefire.com)
"Roman history tells us that Constantine contended for the throne with Maxentius after the death of Galerius. Both Roman history and church tradition indicate that Constantine, already attracted by Christianity, alledgedly saw a vision of a fiery cross in the sky and heard a voice saying "In this sign conquer".
Constantine believed this vision was a message from GOD that if he would embrace the Christian religion, he would be able to conquer his enemies. He accepted the Christian faith and declared himself to be its defender and protector. There are some who accept this as a bona fide conversion on the part of Constantine; however, a careful examination of his life indicates that either he had a poor concept of Christianity or he had never been truly born again by the Spirit of GOD. One commendable thing he did was to order Eusebius, bishop of Rome, to supervise the production of fifty copies of the Holy Scriptures to be used by the churches. Some of these manuscripts comprise our oldest existing copies of GOD's Word.
When Constantine became emperor of Rome, he became the virtual emperor of the Western world. As the self-styled "protector of the Christian faith", he issued an edict of toleration for Christianity and showered many favors on the Christian Church. The government provided money for the operation of the church, and many of the pagan temples were taken over by Christians. To please the emperor, these leaders adopted customs that were paralled to pagan practices. One compromise invariably leads to another, and what seemed at the start to be a great blessing ended up a great curse. During the succeeding three centuries of this period, many anti-Christian practices of pagan origin were adopted, which robbed the church of its fire and its evangelistic fervor.
Pagan Practices Introduced Into the Church
A.D. 300 - Prayers for the dead A.D.
300 - Making sign of the cross A.D.
375 - Worship of saints and angels A.D.
394 - Mass first instituted A.D.
431 - Worship of Mary begun A.D.
500 - Priests began dressing differently than laypeople A.D.
526 - Extreme unction A.D.
593 - Doctrine of Purgatory introduced A.D.
600 - Worship services conducted in Latin A.D.
600 - Prayers directed to Mary
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Continuing the history of the church where we left off in the church of Pergamum, we note the following changes and doctrines that have their source in paganism added to the Church during this period.
A.D. 607 - Boniface III made first Pope
A.D. 709 - Kissing the Pope's foot
A.D. 786 - Worshipping of images and relics
A.D. 850 - Use of "holy water" begun
A.D. 995 - Canonization of dead saints
A.D. 998 - Fasting on Fridays and during Lent
A.D. 1079 - Celibacy of the priesthood
A.D. 1090 - Prayer beads
A.D. 1184 - The Inquisition
A.D. 1190 - Sale of indulgences
A.D. 1215 - Transubstantiation
A.D. 1220 - Adoration of the wafer (Host)
A.D. 1229 - Bible forbidden to laypeople
A.D. 1414 - Cup forbidden to people at Communion
A.D. 1439 - Doctrine of purgatory decreed
A.D. 1439 - Doctrine of seven sacraments affirmed
A.D. 1508 - The Ave Maria approved
A.D. 1534 - Jesuit order founded
A.D. 1545 - Tradition granted equal authority with Bible
A.D. 1546 - Apocryphal books put into Bible
A.D. 1854 - Immaculate conception of Mary
A.D. 1864 - Syllabus of Errors
A.D. 1870 - Infallibility of the Pope declared
A.D. 1930 - Public schools condemned
A.D. 1950 - Assumption of the Virgin Mary
A.D. 1965 - Mary proclaimed Mother of the Church"
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You are correct. Catholicism is nothing more than man's attempt at making it out as though we have more to do with our own salvation than does the author of it, Jesus. Like the Pharisees and Sadducees before them, the Catholic church puts more faith in man made bullshit (read: doctrine) than in faith in God and by extension, the one you call his son, Jesus.
Again, you are correct young lady. The answer to your question was of course, self evident but I wanted you to know I was paying attention.