The following is a quote from the 2000 Encyclopędia Britannica, Volume 11 ; page 390.
"During the later periods of Roman history, sun worship gained in importance and ultimately led to what has been called a 'solar monotheism.' Nearly all the gods of the period were possessed of Solar qualities, and both Christ and Mithra acquired the traits of solar deities. The feast of Sol and Victus (open unconquered Sun) on December 25th was celebrated with great joy, and eventually this date was taken over by the Christians as Christmas, the birthday of Christ."
Notice how it says "both Christ and Mithra acquired the traits of solar deities?" Pardon me, but do any alarm bells go off here?
The Christians were apparently trying to get more converts so they tried to make the Messiah more like the idols found in sun worship---all under the guise of making Him more attractive to pagans.
They even brought various elements of the December 25th "feast of the unconquered sun" into their worship by saying that December 25th was actually the Messiah's birthday. This is the origin of Christmas and this is why we have various pagan-rooted traditions accompanying this holiday.
When it comes to things like this, the real question for me is "who converted who?" Do we imitate the world to bring the world to the Messiah? Absolutely not. You don't win the world by imitating the world; you win the world by imitating Yahushua the Messiah!
It seems to me that true believers should be teaching the unbelievers the true way of Yahweh rather than the unbelievers teaching believers these pagan customs and practices. But Christians of former times not only learned these heathen ways, they also incorporated them into their worship.
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