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THE PAGAN TRADITIONS IN CHRISTMAS

 

By Stephen Knapp

 

The celebration of Christmas is, of course, supposed to commemorate the birth of Jesus. However, historical evidence shows that Jesus was born in the springtime. Some of the early churches observed the birth in April or May, and some in January. Even today the Eastern Church celebrates Christmas on the seventh of January, while the Western Church celebrates it on December 25. Generally, no one is really sure of what day it was. But the birth of Jesus being held on the 25th of December can be traced back to the time of Emperor Commodus (180‑192 A.D.), but it is earlier attributed to Telesphorus who had influence during the time of Antonins Pius (138‑161 A.D.).

However, other cultures also celebrated the 25th of December. The Persians celebrated it as the birthday of Mithras. The Greeks celebrated it as the birth of Bacchus. Egyptians recognized it as the appearance day of Osiris. The Romans also celebrated the Saturnalia festival by feasting, stopping all business, holding public games, and exchanging gifts. The Scandinavians celebrated it as the birthday of Freyr, son of their god Odin and goddess Frigga. Here, too, there was much merry‑making and exchanging of presents. The early Germans observed it as part of the Winter solstice, called the Yule feast. They spent time in jovial hospitality, made sacrifices, and worshiped their gods and burned the yule‑log on the eve of the 24th. Yule was the old name for the 25th, which came from the word Jul used by the Scandinavians, while Noel in French came from the Hebrew word Nule.

Actually, the whole affair with the Christmas tree, the use of the mistletoe, hanging wreaths of flowers or evergreens on the doors, giving presents and so on, were all a part of the pagan celebration. The gift‑giving we now observe on Christmas is a carry‑over from the early pagan celebrations, and is not something that was started by Christianity. In fact, Tertullian, one of the early Fathers of Christianity, called such practices rank idolatry since it was associated with the Acustoms of the heathen.@ After all, the use of evergreens, Christmas trees, wreaths, etc., have nothing to do with Christianity, but they were used in the old traditions to signify the return of the sun, the longer days, and the regenerative power that was sure to follow the winter solstice. Thus, the 25th of December was a day of celebration and for showing respect to the gods long before the Christians adopted it for their purposes.

Historically, it is known that Jesus was not even born in the winter. So why is the celebration placed on December 25th? The New Schaff‑Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge explains that, Athe date of the festival depended upon the Pagan Brumalia (December 25) following the Saturnalia (December 17‑24), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the >New Sun=. . . The Pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence.@

The same Encyclopedia also reveals that emperor Constantine incorporated Sunday as a day of Christian rest and holiday because Sunday was the pre‑Christian Pagan day of worship.

December is also the time of year when the celebration takes place of Lord Krishna speaking the Bhagavad‑gita at Kuruksetra, called Gita Jayanti. This could mean that Christ=s ASermon on the Mount@ is none other than a reference or similarity to Krishna=s sermon delivered to Arjuna while Krishna was mounted on His chariot. The Bhagavad‑gita is a sermon, given 5,000 years ago, that provides indispensable spiritual guidance to all people, which is also said about Christ=s sermon, said to have taken place on the Mount of Olives.

Ultimately, there is nothing Christian about the Christmas celebrations. Even Christians admit this pagan influence, as pointed out in numerous Christian publications. One such publication is The Plain Truth About Christmas, by the staunch Christian Worldwide Church of God (once addressed at: P. O. Box 6727, Mumbai, 400 052, India). The booklet seems to plead to rid Christianity of its non‑Christian content. It says that Christians tend to Afollow the crowd@ and assume things about Christmas that are not true. Christmas came not from the New Testament or the Bible, nor from the original apostles. AIt gravitated in the fourth century into the Roman church from Paganism.@

The conclusion is that if we took everything non‑Christian out of Christmas, you would have almost nothing left. In fact, some of the most orthodox Christian countries went so far as to place a statute to ban Christmas. In World Vedic Heritage (p. 975‑6) we find that: AA statute passed in 1660 A.D. by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England, USA, prohibiting the observance of Christmas, declared: “Public Notice‑‑the observation of Christmas having been deemed a sacrilege, the exchanging of gifts and greetings, dressing in fine clothing, feasting and similar Satanical practices are hereby forbidden with the offender liable to a fine of five shillings.”

ASimilarly in 17th century England, Christmas celebrations were banned as >Pagan and Papish, Saturnalian and Satanic, idolatrous and leading to idleness.= That term Pagan and Papish is again a clear admission that the Papacy is a pre‑Christian Pagan i.e. Vedic institution.

AJehovah=s Witnesses has declared in the article >Is Christmas Really Pagan?= in its journal titled Awake (December 22, 1981) that >All the standard Encyclopedias and reference‑works agree that the date of Jesus=s birth is unknown and that the church borrowed the date of December 25 from the Romans, along with their customs and festivals.=

AEncyclopedia Americana records: >It is usually held that the day (December 25) was chosen to correspond to Pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter Solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the rebirth of the Sun.=

AThe New Catholic Encyclopaedia notes that >On this day (December 25) as the Sun began its return to northern skies the Pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the birthday of the invincible Sun.=@

From the above references it is obvious that Christmas is being celebrated all over the world on December 25th not because of Christians but in spite of Christians. It would, therefore, be more truthful on their part to admit their participation in pre‑Christian customs.

One of the purposes of the Christians in using the 25th of December was to change the pagan festivals into Christian holidays, and, hopefully, to attract the heathens to Christianity. For example, everyone knows that December twenty‑first is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. For the next three days the length remains the same. But then on December twenty‑fifth the day begins to get longer. So, on this day the people celebrated in a very raucous manner. They took it that the sun‑god was the redeemer and that on account of his birth there was the hope that everyone would be saved. Therefore, when the Christians wanted to establish their Christendom everywhere, they found some opposition to eliminate the birthday of the sun. People had become accustomed to enjoying themselves on that day. Of course, the Christians could not go on celebrating the birthday of the sun‑god; so they simply replaced it with the celebration of the birth of Jesus. In this way, the Christians calculated that the pagans could go on with their celebrations but would simply change the meaning of it. So, Christianity incorporated and helped preserve many of the pagan traditions that were observed on the 25th.

Nowadays, the Christians are supposed to be religious people observing the day of Christ=s birth, but they still celebrate in a very paganish way. They have kept many of the aspects of the pagan celebration that earmarks Christmas day; namely, drunkenness, revelry, spectator events like football, and feasting on slain animals. Each year so many advertisements go up claiming that amongst the best gifts on Christmas include a fifth of liquor or other useless items. So, gradually, Christmas has deteriorated from what was meant to be an observance of a holy day to a mere display of devotion to commercialism.

After all is said and done, anyone can practically see that what is present-day Christianity is a modern adaptation of pre-existing, pagan beliefs and philosophy. Centuries before the time of Jesus, among the Aheathen@ are beliefs in an incarnate God born of a virgin; his descent from heaven or the spiritual domain; astronomical signs indicating his birth; the rejoicing of the angels or devas; the adoration of the magi, shepherds, or local devotees; offerings of precious gifts to the divine child; the slaughter or terrorization of the innocents; temptation by the devil or tests by demons; the performance of miracles; and the death and resurrection or ascension into heaven. These elements can all be found in cultures prior to Christianity.

So what does this mean? From Robert Taylor=s Diegesis (p. 329), Ammonius Saccus, the Greek philosopher and founder of the Neoplatonic school, expressed, AChristianity and Paganism, when rightly understood, differ in no essential points, but had a common origin, and are really one and the same thing.@ This is concurred by the historian Mosheim, who speaks of the Christian church during the second century in the book, Ecclesiastical History (volume One, p. 199), as follows: AThe profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman mysteries, and the extraordinary sanctity that was attributed to them, induced the Christians to give their religion a mystic air, in order to put it upon an equal footing, in point of dignity, with that of the Pagans. For this purpose they gave the name of mysteries to the institutions of the gospel, and decorated, particularly the holy sacrament, with that solemn title. They used, in that sacred institution, as also in that of baptism, several of the terms employed in the heathen mysteries, and proceeded so far at length, as even to adopt some of the rites and ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted.@ Herein we can understand that various terms used in Christian rituals are merely adaptations of those rites from earlier religions.

Another interesting point regarding the pagan influence is within one of the first principles of Christianity: the virgin birth of Jesus from Mary. Chapter 19 of the Koran explains Mary=s pregnancy, which some interpret to mean she was impregnated by an angel of the Lord, said to be Gabriel. But the idea of a virgin birth for a highly revered personality is not exclusive to Christianity. Those who are said to have had a miraculous birth, or were born from a virgin, include Buddha, the Siamese Codom, the Chinese Fo‑hi (said to be born 3468 B.C.), Lao‑tzu (604 B.C.), the Chinese sages Yu and Hau‑ki, as well as Confucius. In India everyone knows of Krishna who was born of a virgin or without the need of any sexual exchange. In Egypt, there is the god Ra, and Horus born of the virgin Isis. Also, Zoroaster of Persia. The Greek Hercules, Bacchus, Amphion, Prometheus, and Perseus are all said to have been fathered by the gods and born of mortal mothers. There are also Romans, such as Romulus, Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, King Cyrus of Persia, Plato, Pythagorus, and others who have the reputation of being born of virgin mothers. So, this was nothing new.

Therefore, in summary, let me say that it has been recognized by many men of the past, such as Bishop Faustas when writing to St. Augustine, Ammonius Saccus the Greek philosopher, the Epicurean philosopher Celsus, Eusebius the historian, and the early Christian writer Justin Martyr, as well as more recent writers, that Christianity does not differ from the old traditions and customs that were called paganism. Nor does Christianity hold anything that was not previously known to the ancients. If anything, through its attitude of exclusivity and general feelings of proud superiority, Christianity has lost the elaborate explanations of the once well known truths and now merely holds hazy reflections of the ancient wisdom. So many Bible stories are interwoven with tales borrowed from neighboring cultures, and numerous Christian rituals and symbols have been taken from previous ancient customs and traditions. So, Christians should look beyond the superficialities of modern Christianity to try and see the real religions and cultures from which it came. And those who follow non-Christian religions should not feel intimidated or worried that they may be on the wrong path. As Saint Augustine said hundreds of years ago: AThe same thing which is now called Christian Religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call Christian the true religion which existed before.@ And to quote T. W. Doane from his book, Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, (page 413), he sums it up as follows:

 

We have seen, then, that the only difference between Christianity and Paganism is that Brahma, Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda), Zeus, Jupiter, etc., are called by another name; Krishna, Buddha, Bacchus, Adonis, Mithras, etc., have been turned into Christ Jesus: Venus= pigeon into the Holy Ghost; Diana, Isis, Devaki, etc., into the Virgin Mary; and the demigods and heroes into saints. The exploits of the one were represented as the miracles of the other. Pagan festivals became Christian holidays, and Pagan temples became Christian Churches.

 

 

A FURTHER LOOK AT PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY

The name pagan means a country man. The name heathen comes from the word heath, which is a common name for a variety of evergreen shrubs that live in swamps or along mountain slopes. Thus, the name heathen simply referred to those who lived in the country near such plants. Therefore, the use of the name heathen or pagan originally was not meant in a condescending way. To be a heathen or pagan simply meant that one followed those indigenous religions that existed prior to Christianity, or that he or she participated in the nature religions, which primarily meant demigod worship, along with worship of a Supreme Deity. So, paganism is simply a reference to following the old remnants of the Vedic Aryan culture. And people throughout pre‑Christian Europe worshiped a variety of spirits and demigods, known by different names according to culture and region. The Romans and Greeks of that time also worshiped demigods. The sun‑god, Mithra, was apparently considered the most exalted of the demigods. Even King Constantine (280‑337 A.D.) was originally a devotee of the sun‑god. His famous vision of the cross that he had while marching on Rome came to him from the sun. In fact, even after he was converted to Christianity, he remained a devotee of the sun‑god, and because of that he continued to hold the Sabbath on Sunday, which traditionally was on Saturday.

According to Jewish tradition, the Sabbath was Saturday when God finished the creation and rested. So, Saturday is the seventh day and Sunday is the first. Therefore, the Seventh Day Adventists, in a kind of protest, changed the Sabbath back to the original day. So even today the Sabbath is celebrated as a kind of pagan carry‑over on the sun=s day. In this way, each day was set aside for different demigods, who are the presiding deities of different planets. Thus, Sunday is for the sun, Monday is for the moon, Tues is the Greek name for Mars, Wednesday is for Mercury, Thursday for Jupiter, Friday for Venus, and Saturday for Saturn.

We can trace many more similarities between Christianity, Judaism, and other cultures. The origin of one of the first stories in the Bible can be traced to Zoroastrianism. In Zoroastrianism we find where the Lord, Ahura Mazda, creates the world in six stages, and then creates the first man and woman and brings them to consciousness with the breath of life. Shortly afterward, Ahriman, the devil, convinces the man and woman to eat of the forbidden fruit, thus bringing sin and death into the world.

In other cases, the Jews, having such little information about their founders, borrowed ideas from the legends of neighboring cultures to make their own heroes look special. For example, the stories of Moses= activities are borrowed from the god Bacchus, who as a baby was found floating in a small boat in the water the way Moses was. Bacchus also emitted rays of light from his forehead, wrote laws on stone, crossed the Red Sea without getting his feet wet, and had armies that were led by pillars of fire. Other similarities can be found in the story of Lord Rama and in the activities of Zoroaster who is said to have lived many years before Moses.

Other customs, such as circumcision, that now most Christians practice, are not exclusively Jewish, but actually came from Egypt. It had been practiced by the Egyptian priests as far back as 4,000 BC, long before there ever was a Jewish tribe.

Baptism is another ceremony that is often considered exclusively Christian. However, this is far from true, as some authorities admit. Reverend J. P. Lundy, who made ancient religions a special study, relates on page 385 of his book, Monumental Christianity, that, AJohn the Baptist simply adopted and practiced the universal custom of sacred bathing for the remission of sins. Christ sanctioned it; the church inherited it from his example.@

So, from where did Baptism come? The fact is that it has been practiced in the form of immersion or by sprinkling for the purification of sins as a common rite in various countries far and wide, for many centuries, in religions that are the least connected. One of the oldest forms of baptism comes from and is found in India. It is here where people, for aeons, have bathed with the intent of spiritual purification in rivers that are considered sacred. Rivers like the Ganges and Yamuna, or sacred lakes and ponds, have long been accepted as sources of spiritual cleansing if one bathes in them with reverence, especially at important times or events. Even today you can visit holy towns along the Ganges where people, young and old, make special endeavors to take a holy bath in the river, in which they plunge three times into the water, or at least sprinkle drops on their heads. This ancient practice has spread all over the world in various forms.

Ancient Persians also practiced baptizing their infants soon after birth, dipping the baby in a vase of water. The old Mithraic initiation ceremonies also included baptism. The Egyptians used baptism as a symbol and rite of spiritual regeneration. Baptism by immersion was also performed by the pagan Greeks, Romans, Mayans, Incas, and, of course, the Essenes and Jews, long before it became a Christian custom.

There are also events and miracles in the life of Jesus that were known to have happened to other special beings, such as Buddha several hundred years earlier. For example, Jesus was supposed to have radiated light after his birth. However, other personalities who also had light shining from them when they were born include Bacchus, Apollo, the first Zoroaster, Moses, and the oldest of which is Krishna. Furthermore, just as Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted by the devil, Buddha also fasted and was tempted by the demon Mara in a more severe manner than Jesus. And just as Jesus told the devil, AGet thee behind me, Satan,@ the Buddha also told Mara, AGet thou away from me.@ However, other personalities from various cultures were also tempted in a similar way, such as Zoroaster of the Persians, and Quetzalcoatl of ancient Mexico.

Actually, Paul was the fanatic who took whatever was known of Jesus and, while misinterpreting Jesus= teachings, made Jesus out to be the incarnation of God, the Messiah, that Jesus never wanted to be. As described in Mark (8.29‑30), when Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, Peter said that he was the Christ. And Jesus charged them that they should tell no man of him. In fact, the term Christ was first used in relation to Jesus by Paul when Paul first started preaching in the city of Antioch. The name Christ was simply the Greek word for Messiah. It was not a person=s name. And the name Jesus was quite common in those days.

Paul was the person who developed Christian theology and ritual and simply wrote in the Epistles his own ideas of Jesus while never referring to what Jesus actually said. Paul also put many threats into the philosophy of Christianity and created an image of a fearsome and jealous God rather than one that was merciful and loving. But, according to Paul=s version of Christianity, salvation was granted by God alone who would save you if you simply became a Christian because Christ had already died on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins. In this way, faith was all that was needed, and faith outweighed the need for good works. This may be a simple and comfortable concept for Christians but is not a true one and was never presented in the real teachings of Jesus. Jesus actually did emphasize the need for good works. So what we really find in Christianity are the teachings of Paul, which in some areas have little to do with what Jesus actually taught.

Paul also accepted Sunday as the day of rest from Mithraism rather than Saturday, the seventh day as found in the Hebraic tradition. Paul also took Easter from Mithraism as the day Jesus rose from the grave. Mithra is said to have died in battle on a Friday and was buried in a rock tomb from which, after three days, he rose on the festive occasion of the spring equinox, called Eastra, the Latin word for Astarte, the earth mother goddess. Interestingly, the 40 days before the spring equinox corresponding to Lent was the period for searching for the renewal of life in that tradition. Furthermore, the celebration for the resurrection of the Greek god Adonis is said to have taken place as late as 386 A.D. in Judea at the same time as the Easter observance of Jesus= resurrection. And the use of dyed Easter eggs was widely known by such people as the Egyptians and Persians who made presents of them, and by the Jews who used them in the Passover feast. These are some of the non‑Christian traditions that became incorporated into the Christian Easter holiday and are still practiced today.

In regard to Jesus= crucifixion, he is supposed to have died and descended into hell, and on the third day rose again. However, if we look at other cultures, many of which are far older than Christianity, this is hardly an isolated event. The Persian Zoroaster, the Egyptian Osiris, Horus, Adonis, Bacchus, Hercules, and the Scandinavian Baldur, and the Mexican Quetzalcoatl all are supposed to have spent three days in hell after their death and then rose again. All these persons also performed many miracles that can be compared to the ones Jesus performed.

The Eucharist of Christianity was also a practice of the ancient Egyptians in commemoration of the death of Osiris. They would eat the sacred cake or wafer after it had been consecrated by a priest, after which it became the veritable flesh of his flesh. The Persian Magi also administered bread and wine in their worship of Mithra. The ancient Pagan Greeks celebrated the sacrament of the Lord=s supper in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine.

A more ancient form of this practice is found in the Vedic culture in which the people and priests would offer opulent foodstuffs to the Deities, and then partake of the remnants as prasadam, which means the Lord=s mercy. The food would be accepted as practically equal to God and extremely purifying and sacred. This custom is still widespread around the world among Vedic followers. From these ceremonies and observances came the practices now seen in the Christian sacrament.

We can easily recognize many more outside influences in Christianity if we take a closer look. For example, one of the basic doctrines of Christianity is the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But the holy trinity existed many years prior to Christianity as an Eastern tradition. The Trinity, as in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is another concept which is far from being of Christian origin. It comes from outside Christianity and from a much earlier source. We find the trinity in many cultures, including the Chinese and Japanese Buddhists (in the form of Fo), the Egyptians (in God=s form represented as the wing, globe and serpent, and in which the second aspect is called the Logos or Word of God), the Greeks (Pythagorus, Heraclitus, and Plato all taught the Trinity in their theological philosophy), Assyrians, Phoenicians, the ancient inhabitants of Siberia, as well as the Maya ( Tezcatlipoca, Huitzlipochtli, and Tlaloc) and Incas. The Scandinavians worshiped Odin, Thor, and Frey. The Druids worshiped Taulac, Fan, and Mollac. The Romans= trinity was God, the Word, and the Spirit. The Persians had a trinity consisting of Ahura Mazda as the creator, Mithras as the son or savior, and Ahriman as the evil one, or destroyer.

The oldest and one of the most prominent forms of the Trinity is the tri-murti (meaning three forms in Sanskrit), which is the Vedic triad consisting of Brahma (the secondary creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer), often worshiped in a three‑in‑one Deity form or separated on individual altars in many temples of India. Even the Vedic form of the one Supreme Being has three forms or expansions as Bhagavan (the Lord=s Supreme Personality, Krishna), Paramatma (the Supersoul that accompanies each individual soul), and Brahman (the spiritual energy or force that emanates from the body of God and pervades everywhere). A variation of that is Lord Vishnu as the universal father, His incarnations as the sons, and His form of the omnipresent Supersoul as the Holy Ghost.

Therefore, long before Christianity, God was worshiped in a Trinity form around the world. The idea of a Trinity is not Christian at all, but a Apagan@ concept. So Christians, namely Paul, may have adopted the Trinity not out of a philosophical choice, but out of necessity to accommodate the majority view. Thus, the trinity was nothing new in the world when Christianity adopted it.

After the Trinity was accepted by the Christians, it was still not until the 2nd century when the Christians claimed Jesus to be the son in their Trinity. This idea is traced back to Justin Martyr who simply stated that he realized this understanding by God=s special favor rather than by using biblical references to verify it. In fact, though it had been proclaimed by Paul, the very idea that Jesus was God in human form, and, therefore, a part of the Trinity, was not settled until 325 A.D. during the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. Controversy had developed in regard to whether there was a time when the Trinity did not exist and whether the Trinity was formed only after the birth of the son, Jesus. Emperor Constantine was forced to summon the Council of Nicaea in hopes of solving this problem. During the council it was resolved that never was there a time when the Son of God did not exist, and those who thought there may have been were anathematized by the Church. They denounced the teachings of Arius, who had taught that the Son of God was a created human being who appeared once only and was secondary to the Father. Thus, by a majority vote, the Church pushed the resolution through and those who did not agree or believe it were expected not to oppose it and to keep their thoughts to themselves.

In fact, it was at this Nicaean Council that all the bishops gathered to discuss what interpretations of Christian theology the Church would teach. This was an attempt to calm the many disputes that had been going on within the Church about its varied teachings. Once this was settled, all other teachings were thrown out and considered heretical, and to teach or follow them was punishable by excommunication or death. To solidify these essential teachings, the Church compiled and edited the New Testament, omitting what was not acceptable and adding new material to justify its viewpoints and fill in what it did not know. Thus, the Church presented itself as the only source of truth and salvation.

Another interesting point regarding pagan influence is that the crucifix or cross and its many variations was not exclusively a Christian symbol. Bishop Colenso explains in his book, The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined (Vol. 6, p. 113), AOf the several varieties of the cross still in vogue, as national and ecclesiastical emblems, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, etc., etc., there is not amongst them the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. They were the common property of the Eastern nations.@

Prior to Christianity, history shows that the cross was an auspicious and mystical symbol amongst ancient Babylonians, Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Druids, and even Laplanders and Scandinavians. For centuries, Indians used the cross in a variety of shapes, most notably as the swastika. For many years the Romans carried a cross with a dark skinned man on it as a standard. The crucifix was also known in ancient Mexico, as discovered by the Spanish monks who first went there. They were told that the Son of God, Quetzalcoatl, died on the cross for the sins of mankind. Even Tertullian, as late as 211 A.D., wrote that the Christians neither adored nor desired crosses, and criticized pagans for doing so and for putting a man on the cross, too. For pagans, a cross was a sign of eternity.

In the first several centuries of Christianity, Jesus was represented as a lamb, or as a shepherd with a lamb over his shoulders. It was not until the 6th synod of Constantinople that it was decided that the symbol of Christianity, which was confirmed by Pope Adrian I, would be represented from that time as a man crucified on the cross. In fact, the earliest instances of any artwork that illustrates Jesus on the cross can be traced back only to the eighth or ninth century. Thus, the Christians adopted the crucifixion as a symbol from the pagans.

In this way, we can see that much of what is still found in Christianity are but aspects of the pagan or pre-Christian cultures that were merely adopted by Christianity. Even its philosophy or teachings, whether from the Old Testament or that which is said to come from Jesus, is of little originality and are based primarily on the Eastern teachings. Thus, it would behoove anyone that if you really want to understand the depths of Christian spirituality, you can get a clearer perception of it by going directly to and learning the teachings of the East, namely the Vedic teachings.

 

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