Volconvo Debate Forums - View Single Post

CX_Infidel · Jan 23, 2004, 05:29 pm

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (cheesemage,)
Really though many parts of Christanity was changed during the council of Tripoli(I think this is the name of it), when the Romans adapted Christanity, many things about the religion were changed, Christmas for example is just a renaming of a holiday the Romans had already celebrating Apolo making the transition easier for Romans, thus that is why Christmas is not on Jesus brith (sometime in Spring I think, it is mentioned in the bible somewhere).<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

Xianity was adopted as the religion of the empire when Constantine converted at the beginning of the 4th century (around 312 C.E. or so) long before the Council of Tripoli. You may be thinking of the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. which was convened by Constantine to establish official church doctrine with respect to the Arian heresy. The only things that were established there were Jesus' divinity and his consubstantial relationship to God the Father. These were not new doctrines at the time. Rather the Council of Nicaea represents the first victory of the proto-orthodox faction of Xianity in setting official church doctrine.

Vis-a-vis "Christmas" it is not a renaming of anything. It is the name given to the official observance of Jesus' birth called "Christ's Mass". The early Xians did not uniformally celebrate the birth of Jesus since it is unknown when he was born. Some groups celebrated Jesus' birth concurrently with his baptism by John the Baptizer in the early spring, others celebrated it at different times and some didn't celebrate it at all. When Christmas was finally established as an official church Holy Day there was considerable debate as to when it should be held since there was no preexisting tradition as to the actual date of Jesus' birth (there is no reference in the gospels contrary to your assertion above). It was decided that for the sake of expediency and in an attempt to encourage converts Christ's Mass should celebrated around the same time as other Roman holidays including Saturnalia (Dec 17 - 23 was a harvest festival in honor of Saturn the god of agriculture), The births of Mithras and Sol Invicti were celebrated around the Winter Solstice (Dec 21). December 25th was chosen as the date for Christ's Mass (replacing January 5th) in the 5th century.

Jan 23, 2004, 05:29 pm	#25 (permalink) (top)
CX_Infidel Sedimentary Rock Posts: 4	</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (cheesemage,) Really though many parts of Christanity was changed during the council of Tripoli(I think this is the name of it), when the Romans adapted Christanity, many things about the religion were changed, Christmas for example is just a renaming of a holiday the Romans had already celebrating Apolo making the transition easier for Romans, thus that is why Christmas is not on Jesus brith (sometime in Spring I think, it is mentioned in the bible somewhere).<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'> Xianity was adopted as the religion of the empire when Constantine converted at the beginning of the 4th century (around 312 C.E. or so) long before the Council of Tripoli. You may be thinking of the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. which was convened by Constantine to establish official church doctrine with respect to the Arian heresy. The only things that were established there were Jesus' divinity and his consubstantial relationship to God the Father. These were not new doctrines at the time. Rather the Council of Nicaea represents the first victory of the proto-orthodox faction of Xianity in setting official church doctrine. Vis-a-vis "Christmas" it is not a renaming of anything. It is the name given to the official observance of Jesus' birth called "Christ's Mass". The early Xians did not uniformally celebrate the birth of Jesus since it is unknown when he was born. Some groups celebrated Jesus' birth concurrently with his baptism by John the Baptizer in the early spring, others celebrated it at different times and some didn't celebrate it at all. When Christmas was finally established as an official church Holy Day there was considerable debate as to when it should be held since there was no preexisting tradition as to the actual date of Jesus' birth (there is no reference in the gospels contrary to your assertion above). It was decided that for the sake of expediency and in an attempt to encourage converts Christ's Mass should celebrated around the same time as other Roman holidays including Saturnalia (Dec 17 - 23 was a harvest festival in honor of Saturn the god of agriculture), The births of Mithras and Sol Invicti were celebrated around the Winter Solstice (Dec 21). December 25th was chosen as the date for Christ's Mass (replacing January 5th) in the 5th century.