"Milan" <mtklima@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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"James" <bireda@allvantage.com> wrote in message
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"JoBeth" <dhmranch@albanymo.net>
Re: symbols for religions

I am curious..Just looked up on internet some of the symbols religions
use...why have the Jews accepted the six sided star, when the

and witchcraft already use this symbol?

Hello,

Actually, the Jews who originally were picked by God to be His
servants, the ancient Israelites, did not have such a pagan religious
symbol as the "Star of David" (also called the "Shield of David").
Such things were against the laws of God. It came into use long after
the ancient Israelites were around. As this reference work says:

"The shield of David was coined rather recently. Completely unknown
until the fourteenth century, it appeared then for the first time in a
mystical Hebrew manuscript. Therefore "the shield of David" (always
now wrongly described as "the star of David") is not an indigenous
symbol of Judaism.

...Actually, the star had no link with the ancient Hebrew king but was
part of Celtic magic. Correctly it should be called the star of the
Druids, who used it in their magic fight against the Drudes, the
ghosts of the night." (Webster's World Encyclopedia)

It is a similar thing with the "cross" of Christianity. That pagan
symbol also finds no support in the Holy Scriptures. Yes, 'crosses'
were around long before so-called Christians took it as their symbol.
For example, you can see the cross in ancient pagan Egyptian tombs in
the form of the Egyptian Ankh. (you may even see professed
'Christians' wearing this exact symbol around their necks today)

Many pre-Christian nations used forms of crosses in their idolatrous
worship. Notice this reference work statement:

"Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian
era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in
almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt
have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a
religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian
peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many
cases it was connected with some form of nature worship."
(Encyclopedia Britannica)

Also, if you investigate the places in the Bible where translators
have translated the word "cross", you might be surprised what you
find. The Biblical Greek word that the word "cross" comes from is
"stauros". It means "a stake, an upright pole". Only later did the
word have the added meaning of a crosspiece added to the upright pole.
For example, notice the following:

From "An Expository Dictionary of the New Testament Words" by W.E.
Vine, 1962, p. 256,

"Stauros . . . denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such
malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun [stau·ros'] and
the verb "stauro", to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be
distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross. The
shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as
the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau,
the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands,
including Egypt."

So in summary, the Jewish symbol of today, the "Star of David", is
from pagan symbols. Similarly, the "cross" of professed Christianity
is also from pagan origins. Neither find support is GOD'S WORD, the
Holy Bible.

Interesting points. But Christian mythology is full of elements borrowed
from earlier pagan myths - the virgin birth, the miracles, the worship

a
godman who dies, resurrects, flies away into heaven and brings salvation
to
mankind; initiation by baptism, communion with the gods through a holy
meal
which represented the flesh of the dead god, the Holy Spirit, the
immortality of the soul, etc etc. These were all central elements of

pagan myths that were around centuries before christianity was invented

Paul.

regards
Milan

Good reply, Milan. However, more properly, Paul *re-invented*

He was quite the con-man, as this quote by the historian Will Durant
suggests: "Protestantism was the triumph of Paul over Peter,

is the triumph of Paul over Christ."

Shalom,
Bill