Thy were almost indistinguishable in how they worshiped God and followed the example of Jesus-you basically couldn’t tell them apart-from most of the practices of the ancient Jews of the day.
What I learned about ChristianityĪnother lesson that no one taught me was what the first century Christians were like. As the popular historian William Manchester wrote of that act, “Christianity was in turn infiltrated, and to a considerable extent subverted, by the paganism it was supposed to destroy” ( A World Lit Only by Fire, page 11). Thing is, Jesus was actually born sometime in the fall. Some 300-plus years after Christ it was adopted and replaced by a totally artificial birthday of sorts set up for Jesus on the 25th. What was truly shocking was this: It wasn’t hard at all to find and read authoritative secular sources that totally confirmed the holiday’s non-biblical, pagan origins! Any competent encyclopedia shows that the Romans celebrated the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. What could be wrong with the happy season of Christmas? Isn't Jesus Christ was supposed to be at the very center of it? When I first read that, I was shocked and more than a little bit offended. One of the profound lessons no one taught me as a youth was that the Christmas season was little more than papered-over paganism. Or did they? What I learned about Christmas Anyone who went to Sunday school knew those answers. And I pretty much didn’t care at the time, since the questions all seemed to be those of the “master of the obvious” type. I didn’t know who the authors of the booklets were. Questions like what happens when you die, what day should you be worshipping God on, what is the reward of the saved. Once visiting a family member, I noticed a stack of religious booklets that asked serious questions about biblical topics that I thought were moot. I grew up in a typical protestant religion, switching to Roman Catholicism while attending college. I’m obviously no celebrity, but it struck me how (unlike the celebrity authors) I did not learn some critical truths of life decades ago in a family setting, particularly those found in the Bible. I was struck by how many books had titles similar to “Fifty things I learned from my dog” or “Life lessons my mother taught me.” They were typically written by famous celebrities. I was recently indulging in one of my favorite things, walking through a bookshop.
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