The Church deliberately celebrated on days the locals already did, and used some of their ways of doing so. It's worthwhile to understand why:
in Judaism, anything unclean touching anything clean makes it unclean. The exact opposite in Christianity: anything unclean is purified by touching anything clean.
This is deep! Simple, yet powerful. And hinges on Christ's Resurrection from the dead.
Add this to your thinking and it will help many things make more sense.
Your bit about Mary is what RC (Roman Catholicism) teaches as the "immaculate conception." You probably know that. I don't adhere to that or any other RC doctrine. It's significant that Christmas began well before Rome split off from the rest of the Church, rebelliously. All 5 original churches agreed they couldn't "develop doctrine" without being in agreement with all 5. Rome abandoned that. The other 4 maintain it, to this day.
The other 4 are now EO, Eastern Orthodox. You might find it interesting to explore their theology to see where it differs from RC. It's a record of what RC made up after going off on its own. I've never even been to an EO parish, but it is easier to find one in the US now. I had a great chance to explore EO theology by discussing with native Greek speakers, one of which was doing his PhD thesis on the earliest liturgies. Yes, church services were originally liturgical. That blew my mind
There are celebrations every day for many different reasons. I get your point, it originated from elsewhere and we made it our own, but it’s just made up and is used to represent the birth of Christ, by using a tree as symbol! I don’t know for sure whether it’s a good thing to celebrate it or not, I just know it makes tons of money for the multinational corporations, and it isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Bible.
I come from a family of and am a Orthodox Christian, in my opinion RC was designed to subvert Christianity and control it because there was no other way for them to stop its effect on humanity. It’s full of garbage that is meant to bastardize the Word of God and control it’s perception of it. Why would anyone look to some random guy who is as flawed and sinful in nature as everyone else to interpret God’s will? That’s beyond my comprehension. It’s a big scam imo.
Yeah the Pope was kinda the final straw, long before the great schism became official. I still wouldn't say Christmas originated anywhere else, only that European (and later US) culture camouflaged it too much. The EO tradition is starkly different. I hope to be able to experience that liturgy sometime.
Marian devotion is different from the immaculate conception, which wasn't invented until over a thousand years later. RC even ditched the harrowing of hell.
No sir, not exactly. Papal infallibility was invoked on Mary's immaculate conception relatively recently but the understanding of her preservation from sin goes back to the Church Fathers and the 1st century. Granted the doctrine matured over time, but it never changed in essence. Infallibility was invoked on the issue because, even after centuries of consistent church teaching people kept becoming heretics on this issue.
If what you're learning about the Roman Catholic Church is coming from the Orthodox side, maybe you should read what the Catholic Church itself has said about these things
Back to the point:
Christmas is not a pagan holiday.
The Church deliberately celebrated on days the locals already did, and used some of their ways of doing so. It's worthwhile to understand why:
in Judaism, anything unclean touching anything clean makes it unclean. The exact opposite in Christianity: anything unclean is purified by touching anything clean.
This is deep! Simple, yet powerful. And hinges on Christ's Resurrection from the dead.
Add this to your thinking and it will help many things make more sense.
Your bit about Mary is what RC (Roman Catholicism) teaches as the "immaculate conception." You probably know that. I don't adhere to that or any other RC doctrine. It's significant that Christmas began well before Rome split off from the rest of the Church, rebelliously. All 5 original churches agreed they couldn't "develop doctrine" without being in agreement with all 5. Rome abandoned that. The other 4 maintain it, to this day.
The other 4 are now EO, Eastern Orthodox. You might find it interesting to explore their theology to see where it differs from RC. It's a record of what RC made up after going off on its own. I've never even been to an EO parish, but it is easier to find one in the US now. I had a great chance to explore EO theology by discussing with native Greek speakers, one of which was doing his PhD thesis on the earliest liturgies. Yes, church services were originally liturgical. That blew my mind
What denomination do you belong to now, if I might ask?
There are celebrations every day for many different reasons. I get your point, it originated from elsewhere and we made it our own, but it’s just made up and is used to represent the birth of Christ, by using a tree as symbol! I don’t know for sure whether it’s a good thing to celebrate it or not, I just know it makes tons of money for the multinational corporations, and it isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Bible.
I come from a family of and am a Orthodox Christian, in my opinion RC was designed to subvert Christianity and control it because there was no other way for them to stop its effect on humanity. It’s full of garbage that is meant to bastardize the Word of God and control it’s perception of it. Why would anyone look to some random guy who is as flawed and sinful in nature as everyone else to interpret God’s will? That’s beyond my comprehension. It’s a big scam imo.
Yeah the Pope was kinda the final straw, long before the great schism became official. I still wouldn't say Christmas originated anywhere else, only that European (and later US) culture camouflaged it too much. The EO tradition is starkly different. I hope to be able to experience that liturgy sometime.
Mary is sinless, but not by her own merit but by the intervention of God. Marian devotion, like liturgy, also goes back to the beginning
Marian devotion is different from the immaculate conception, which wasn't invented until over a thousand years later. RC even ditched the harrowing of hell.
No sir, not exactly. Papal infallibility was invoked on Mary's immaculate conception relatively recently but the understanding of her preservation from sin goes back to the Church Fathers and the 1st century. Granted the doctrine matured over time, but it never changed in essence. Infallibility was invoked on the issue because, even after centuries of consistent church teaching people kept becoming heretics on this issue.
If what you're learning about the Roman Catholic Church is coming from the Orthodox side, maybe you should read what the Catholic Church itself has said about these things
Rather like learning about Hitler by reading his Generals after the war.
Preservation from sin is not immaculate conception.