It's a shame that it became such a perjorative term.
Orthodox Christianity has a much different view of 'Paganism'. They look at it as how God related to Human Beings before the Incarnation.
Orthodox missionaries, rather than condemning everything 'Pagan' as 'of the devil', looked for what was good and true in pre-Christian forms of spiritually and for prefigurations of what Christ came to fulfill.
This was a much more successful form of evangelization!
Oh, and Calvin got this whole idea of predestination entirely wrong. If he had had the opportunity to read the writings of the early fathers of the Church rather than trying to interpret the Scriptures on his own, he wouldn't have had this problem.
It's absolutely absurd to think that some are predestined for salvation and that others are predestined for damnation!
You, yourself have experienced the damage that such a mistaken idea can cause!
For the first thousand years of the Church's history, the Apostle's Doctrine on this and every other article of faith was perfectly clear. (It was only in 1065, when the church in Rome stepped away from Orthodoxy, that these misunderstandings began, only to be further complicated by the 'Protestant Reformation' 500 yrs later...)
EVERYONE is predestined for salvation. God fully intends for everyone to be saved. The only question is will we exercise our complete freedom of will to choose what God intends for us or will we choose 'other' than what God intends?
Had your pastors recognized this crucial difference, they would have helped you to learn how to choose rightly when faced with each crossroad in your life! (Something that your 'Pagan' beliefs probably did a better job of assisting you with!)
Fascinating! Yes, it was quite dreadful and could stand correcting!
What is interesting is that I'm now reading Neoplatonism and can see how and why Christianity scooped that up. Sorting out all these threads is a challenge!
'Pagan' quite simply means, 'pre-christian'.
It's a shame that it became such a perjorative term.
Orthodox Christianity has a much different view of 'Paganism'. They look at it as how God related to Human Beings before the Incarnation.
Orthodox missionaries, rather than condemning everything 'Pagan' as 'of the devil', looked for what was good and true in pre-Christian forms of spiritually and for prefigurations of what Christ came to fulfill.
This was a much more successful form of evangelization!
Oh, and Calvin got this whole idea of predestination entirely wrong. If he had had the opportunity to read the writings of the early fathers of the Church rather than trying to interpret the Scriptures on his own, he wouldn't have had this problem.
It's absolutely absurd to think that some are predestined for salvation and that others are predestined for damnation!
You, yourself have experienced the damage that such a mistaken idea can cause!
For the first thousand years of the Church's history, the Apostle's Doctrine on this and every other article of faith was perfectly clear. (It was only in 1065, when the church in Rome stepped away from Orthodoxy, that these misunderstandings began, only to be further complicated by the 'Protestant Reformation' 500 yrs later...)
EVERYONE is predestined for salvation. God fully intends for everyone to be saved. The only question is will we exercise our complete freedom of will to choose what God intends for us or will we choose 'other' than what God intends?
Had your pastors recognized this crucial difference, they would have helped you to learn how to choose rightly when faced with each crossroad in your life! (Something that your 'Pagan' beliefs probably did a better job of assisting you with!)
All the best to you!
Fascinating! Yes, it was quite dreadful and could stand correcting!
What is interesting is that I'm now reading Neoplatonism and can see how and why Christianity scooped that up. Sorting out all these threads is a challenge!