Origin of the Cross is from Paganism

[CherubRam]

The word Cross
Homeric and classical Greek
In Homeric and classical Greek, stauros meant an upright stake, pole, or piece of paling, upon which anything might be hung.
In the literature of that time, it never means two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, but always one piece alone.

Koine Greek
In Koine Greek, the form of Greek used between about 300 BC and AD 300, the word σταυρός (Stauros) was used to denote a structure on which the Romans executed criminals. In the writings of the Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), Plutarch and Lucian – non-Christian writers, of whom only Lucian makes clear the shape of the device – the word stauros is generally translated as "stake."

Crucify Cross Stake

Stauroo
stauroó: to stake out.

Original Word: σταυρόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: stauroó
Phonetic Spelling: (stow-ro'-o)
Definition: To fix to a stake; fig: To destroy, or mortify.

Stauros
stauros: an upright stake.

Original Word: σταυρός, οῦ, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: stauros
Phonetic Spelling: (stow-ros')
Definition: a stake.

Origin of the word crux. Latin for: stake, scaffold, or cross, used in executions or torment.
The English term "cross" is derived from the Latin word crux. From about 1635 to 1645 AD.

Labarum
An upright pole with cross section to display a standard such as a flag, banner, or emblem.

Word Origin
From Late Latin, and of obscure origin
This standard was known by the name "labarum"—a word the etymology of which is very uncertain. The etymology of the word is unclear. Some derive it from Latin /labāre/ "to totter, or to waver." The labarum was also used to hold the ancient Babylonian sky-god emblem.

Patibulum
It is a establish fact that the two-beamed cross was in existence in the time of Yahshua, and that the word crux was used to refer to it. The crux was composed of two main pieces: The stipes, which is the upright pole, and the patibulum attached to it. The patibulum is the cross beam.

Stipe
Stipe is an upright support.

From Latin stipes "log, post, tree trunk"

Stauros
Stauros (σταυρός) is the Greek word for stake or post.

And so the mark of forgiveness is a single (mark, line, pole, post, stake,) whereas the cross is the mark of the (beast / nation.)

The cross is a pagan symbol that was used in Egypt for thousands of years before Christ was born into this world. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the cross symbol about 600 years after Christ was hanged on a stake. The early Christians of North Africa also rejected the cross after Tertullian condemned it.

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

 

[Mr GLee]

The word Cross
Homeric and classical Greek
In Homeric and classical Greek, stauros meant an upright stake, pole, or piece of paling, upon which anything might be hung.
In the literature of that time, it never means two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, but always one piece alone.

Koine Greek
In Koine Greek, the form of Greek used between about 300 BC and AD 300, the word σταυρός (Stauros) was used to denote a structure on which the Romans executed criminals. In the writings of the Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), Plutarch and Lucian – non-Christian writers, of whom only Lucian makes clear the shape of the device – the word stauros is generally translated as "stake."

Crucify Cross Stake

Stauroo
stauroó: to stake out.

Original Word: σταυρόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: stauroó
Phonetic Spelling: (stow-ro'-o)
Definition: To fix to a stake; fig: To destroy, or mortify.

Stauros
stauros: an upright stake.

Original Word: σταυρός, οῦ, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: stauros
Phonetic Spelling: (stow-ros')
Definition: a stake.

Origin of the word crux. Latin for: stake, scaffold, or cross, used in executions or torment.
The English term "cross" is derived from the Latin word crux. From about 1635 to 1645 AD.

Labarum
An upright pole with cross section to display a standard such as a flag, banner, or emblem.

Word Origin
From Late Latin, and of obscure origin
This standard was known by the name "labarum"—a word the etymology of which is very uncertain. The etymology of the word is unclear. Some derive it from Latin /labāre/ "to totter, or to waver." The labarum was also used to hold the ancient Babylonian sky-god emblem.

Patibulum
It is a establish fact that the two-beamed cross was in existence in the time of Yahshua, and that the word crux was used to refer to it. The crux was composed of two main pieces: The stipes, which is the upright pole, and the patibulum attached to it. The patibulum is the cross beam.

Stipe
Stipe is an upright support.

From Latin stipes "log, post, tree trunk"

Stauros
Stauros (σταυρός) is the Greek word for stake or post.

And so the mark of forgiveness is a single (mark, line, pole, post, stake,) whereas the cross is the mark of the (beast / nation.)

The cross is a pagan symbol that was used in Egypt for thousands of years before Christ was born into this world. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the cross symbol about 600 years after Christ was hanged on a stake. The early Christians of North Africa also rejected the cross after Tertullian condemned it.

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

Pagans crucified the enemy by hanging them on a cross. They were considered a curse .

 

[CherubRam]

Pagans crucified the enemy by hanging them on a cross. They were considered a curse .

The Romans used different methods of hanging, not just one. The Messiah to come was to be hung on a (stake or pole.)

 

[CherubRam]

Stauros (σταυρός) is a Greek word for a stake. A army stauros is a "LINE" of defense.

The words "cross" and "crucify" are mistranslations, a "later rendering," of the Greek words stauros and stauroo. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, STAUROS denotes, primarily, an upright pole or stake. The shape of the two-beamed cross had its origin in ancient Chaldea and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz. In the third century A.D., pagans were received into the apostate ecclesiastical system and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols.

According to The Companion Bible, crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian Sun-god. The evidence is complete; the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, not on two pieces of timber placed at an angle.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, in the Egyptian churches the cross was a pagan symbol of life borrowed by the Christians and interpreted in the pagan manner.

According to Greek dictionaries and lexicons, the primary meaning of stauros is an upright pale, pole, or stake. The secondary meaning of "cross" is admitted to be a "later" rendering. In spite of the evidence, almost all common versions of the Scriptures persist with the Latin Vulgate's crux (meaning cross) as the rendering of the Greek stauros.

The most accepted reason for the "cross" being brought into Messianic worship is Constantine's famous vision of "the cross superimposed on the sun" in A.D. 312. What he saw is nowhere to be found in Scripture. Even after his so-called "conversion," his coins showed an even-armed cross as a symbol for the Sun-god. Many scholars have doubted the "conversion" of Constantine because of the wicked deeds that he did afterwards.

After Constantine had the "vision of the cross," he promoted another variety of the cross, the Chi-Rho or Labarum. This has been explained as representing the first letters of the name Christos (CH and R, or, in Greek, X and P). The identical symbols were found as inscriptions on rock, dating from ca. 2500 B.C., being interpreted as "a combination of the two Sun-symbols." Another proof of its pagan origin is that the identical symbol was found on a coin of Ptolemeus III from 247-222 B.C.

According to An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols, the labarum was also an emblem of the Chaldean sky-god. Emperor Constantine adopted the labarum as the imperial ensign. According to Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols, the symbol was in use long before Christianity. Chi probably stood for Great Fire or Sun. Rho probably stood for Pater or Patah (Father). The word labarum yields "everlasting Father Sun."

 

[EarlyActs]

What did Gal 3 say when it quoted the OT?

 

[Mr GLee]

What did Gal 3 say when it quoted the OT?

I would offer.

The word tree is used from foundation, Genesis, to represent Christ .It was hidden or vailed .

The focus is on hanging breaking ones neck (Capital punishment )and not so much the instrument . Hang meaning "a curtain" or "vail" The vail was rent judgement was made

Using the tribe of Dan to represent the power of the father of lies bringing false prophecy that deceives the rider and he falls backward and breaks neck ,

Genesis 49:16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

2 Samuel 18:9-10 And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak.

Genesis 40:19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.

John 18:6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

1 Samuel 4:18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

Genesis 27:40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

Exodus 34:20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall

Deuteronomy 31:27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?

 

[CherubRam]

What did Gal 3 say when it quoted the OT?

???

Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

 

[CrowCross]

Hey CherubRam isn't legalism fun???

 

[EarlyActs]

???

Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Gal 3 should be the most read NT chapter, but it is most ignored, including you.

"Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree." Quoting Dt 27. I highly doubt that a law from the Torah would use a pagan practice. It was simply a form of punishment.

 

[CherubRam]

Gal 3 should be the most read NT chapter, but it is most ignored, including you.

"Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree." Quoting Dt 27. I highly doubt that a law from the Torah would use a pagan practice. It was simply a form of punishment.

Weasel words.

 

[EarlyActs]

Weasel words.

Please explain.

 

[Josheb]

The origin of the cross is from pagainsm

...............................The cross is a pagan symbol that was used in Egypt for thousands of years before Christ was born into this world..............................................................

So what?

 

[Josheb]

Looking for something to read: https://christianforum.boards.net/board/2/subjects-board

Are you Michael, the author of those posts?

And so the mark of forgiveness is a single (mark, line, pole, post, stake,) whereas the cross is the mark of the (beast / nation.)

Utter nonsense.


Several of the assertions made in this op are factually incorrect. The Greek word "stauros," for example, denotatively means a cross. Connotatively it meant any pole, bare or with accouterments, but the distinction is moot because the Romans often left poles sticking up out of the ground for the sake of convenience. It's much easier to tie or nail a person to an already-standing pole than to make a new pole and dig a new hole and install the pole into the hole securely enough to hang a person on it than it is to redo everything every time a criminal has to be killed. The includes those criminals who were first fastened to a beam to be hauled up on the already-standing pole. Crosses, both as devices for capital punishment and symbols with a plethora of meanings have been used by many cultures around the globe (including some Native American tribes) throughout human history. If the argument is intended to be because a cross is pagan, then Christianity is pagan or pure Christianity should not use paganisms then those are utterly logically fallacious arguments, and sophomoric foolishness.

The op is wrong (and, btw, Tertullian became a Montanist, not a Gnostic).

 

[Arial]

The cross is a pagan symbol that was used in Egypt for thousands of years before Christ was born into this world. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the cross symbol about 600 years after Christ was hanged on a stake. The early Christians of North Africa also rejected the cross after Tertullian condemned it.

That's funny and also illogical reasoning to reach an erroneous conclusion.

Pagans also had covenants.

Pagans also offered sacrifice to their many gods.

These things existed long before God established a covenant with Israel for the purpose of redemption.

These things existed long before God instituted animal sacrifices in the worship of him, with the covenant community.

Does that make God a pagan god? Does that make the Christian's worship of God pagan?

How exactly was Christ hanged on that stake? Draw me a picture or describe the process in detail.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for

You are right. Christian's do not venerate or wish for crosses. But if I am correct in assuming from past posts that you deny the eternal existence of Christ and his deity. I would not, best not include yourself in that "we".

You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods.

This is not even remotely a part of Christianity. To continue to suggest that it is, could get you into trouble.

Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

Not in Protestantism. You are confusing Catholicism with Christianity.

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession.

The roots of Christianity are in the person of Christ and the teachings found in the Protestant NT.

 

[CherubRam]

Please explain.

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

Tertullian​

Roman Christian theologian and writer (c. 155 – c. 220)​

Tertullian was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism.

 

[CherubRam]

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

Tertullian​

Roman Christian theologian and writer (c. 155 – c. 220)​

Tertullian was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism.

Are you Michael, the author of those posts?

Utter nonsense.


Several of the assertions made in this op are factually incorrect. The Greek word "stauros," for example, denotatively means a cross. Connotatively it meant any pole, bare or with accouterments, but the distinction is moot because the Romans often left poles sticking up out of the ground for the sake of convenience. It's much easier to tie or nail a person to an already-standing pole than to make a new pole and dig a new hole and install the pole into the hole securely enough to hang a person on it than it is to redo everything every time a criminal has to be killed. The includes those criminals who were first fastened to a beam to be hauled up on the already-standing pole. Crosses, both as devices for capital punishment and symbols with a plethora of meanings have been used by many cultures around the globe (including some Native American tribes) throughout human history. If the argument is intended to be because a cross is pagan, then Christianity is pagan or pure Christianity should not use paganisms then those are utterly logically fallacious arguments, and sophomoric foolishness.

The op is wrong (and, btw, Tertullian became a Montanist, not a Gnostic).

Cross Stake Pole



The two Greek words in question are stauros (pronounced Stou-ros or stavros) and xylon (pronounced ksee-lon). Here's what Greek scholars say about those two words:

Strong’s Greek Dictionary:
4716. Stauros
"A stake or post (as set upright), i.e. (specially), a pole or cross (as an instrument of capital punishment) Appears 28 times in the NT."
The Anchor Bible Dictionary defines "Crucifixion" as:
The act of nailing or binding a living victim or sometimes a dead person to a cross or stake (stauros or skolops) or a tree (xylon)"
The New Catholic Encyclopaedia:
"Crucifixion developed from a method of execution by which the victim was fastened to an upright stake either by impaling him on it or by tying him to it with thongs..."
Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines "Crucifixion" as:
"The method of torture and execution used by the Romans to put Christ to death. At a crucifixion the victim usually was nailed or tied to a wooden stake and left to die..."
Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words:
"Stauros denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such, malefactors were nailed for execution..."
A Dictionary of the Bible, Dealing With Its Language, Literature And Contents, Including the Biblical Theology, in New Testament usage:
"[Stauros] means properly a stake…"

Hastings' Dictionary Of The Bible states:
"The Greek term rendered 'cross' in the English NT is stauros, which has a wider application than we ordinarily give to 'cross,' being used of a single stake or upright beam as well as of a cross composed of two beams."
The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980
"The Greek word for 'cross' (stauros) means primarily an upright stake or beam, and secondarily a stake used as an instrument for punishment and execution. It is used in this latter sense in the New Testament."
The Catholic Encyclopaedia
"The cross originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened at its upper end."
The Classic Greek Dictionary, Greek-English and English-Greek:
"'stauros': ...an upright pale, stake or pole; in plural, a palisade."
The Companion Bible, Appendix 162:
"In the Greek N.T. two words are used for 'the cross' on which the Lord was put to death: 1. The word stauros; which denotes an upright pale or stake, to which the criminals were nailed for execution. 2. The word xylon, which generally denotes a piece of a dead log of wood, or timber, for fuel or for any other purpose. It is not like dendron, which is used of a living, or green tree, as in Matt.21: 8; Rev.7: 1, 3; 8:7; 9: 4, &c. As this latter word xylon is used interchangeably with stauros it shows us the meaning of each is exactly the same. The verb stauroo means to drive stakes. Our English word 'cross' is the translation of the Latin crux; but the Greek stauros no more means a crux than the word 'stick' means a 'crutch'. Homer uses the word stauros of an ordinary pole or stake, or a simple piece of timber.[footnote, Iliad xxiv.453. Odyssey xiv.11] And this is the meaning and usage of the word throughout the Greek classics. It never means two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, but of always one piece alone. Hence the use of the word xylon (No.2 above) in connection with the manner of our Lord's death and rendered 'tree' in Acts 5:30."

 

[Josheb]

Cross Stake Pole

Argumentum ad nauseam is worthless. The op is mistaken and mistaken in several places. You should study the matter more and question your sources as much at east as my post is questioned. For example, Vines confused "denotes" with connotes. Most of those sources do not discriminate between denotative and connotative. If you do study this, you will also find a stauros could also refer to a pole that was used to impale a person (not hung upon). Biased readers could, therefore, criticize Christianity using that definition, arguing because a stauros was used as an impaling object Christians have perverted the Greek and formed heretical doctrines by doing so. The argument presented in this op is different only in that it uses a selected definition and Catholic doctrine wot argue a false cause fallacy. Paganisms did not cause Christian doctrine or practice. That argument is just dumb.


I asked you a question you did not answer: So what? Let's say, for the sake of the argument, this op is correct. So what? Why are you posting this? What is the undisclosed purpose of this op? What, exactly, specifically, explicitly are you trying to say but not actually saying? (a lie of omission is still a lie)

.

 

[CherubRam]

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

Tertullian​

Roman Christian theologian and writer (c. 155 – c. 220)​

Tertullian was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism.

 

[Josheb]

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

I think the source for that should be checked because that's from Marcus Minucius Felix, not Tertullian. No, he does not imply Christians borrowed from the sun god. What he implies is that the true cross should be understood, not the perverse alternatives found in paganism (like Sol Invictus, which was in its fledgling state when Tertullian and Felix began writing to address that problem). Either you've bought into the incompetent teachings of others, or your biases have blinded you. Christians are not venerating wooden crosses. We venerate the one who died on a cross, the hanging that was prophesied long before crucifixion was ever put into practice (Deuteronomy was written circa 1400 BC, but hanging people on poles/crosses did not start for another half-millennium). No Christian is consecrating any gods other than the one true God. Felix is explicitly addressing "camps," camps that embrace heresies, not Christian orthodoxy.

In his tome, "Ad Nationes," (see chapters 10, 12, and 13) Tertulian addressed the accusation Christians worship a cross, the wooden cross, the wood of the corss with the following....

"As for him who affirms that we are the priesthood of a cross, we shall claim him as our co-religionist. A cross is, in its material, a sign of wood; among yourselves also the object of worship is a wooden figure. Only, while with you the figure is a human one, with us the wood is its own figure. Never mind for the present what is the shape, provided the material is the same: the form, too, is of no importance, if so be it be the actual body of a god. If, however, there arises a question of difference on this point what, (let me ask,) is the difference between the Athenian Pallas, or the Pharian Ceres, and wood formed into a cross, when each is represented by a rough stock, without form, and by the merest rudiment of a statue of unformed wood? Every piece of timber which is fixed in the ground in an erect position is a part of a cross, and indeed the greater portion of its mass. But an entire cross is attributed to us, with its transverse beam, of course, and its projecting seat. Now you have the less to excuse you, for you dedicate to religion only a mutilated imperfect piece of wood, while others consecrate to the sacred purpose a complete structure. The truth, however, after all is, that your religion is all cross, as I shall show. You are indeed unaware that your gods in their origin have proceeded from this hated cross. Now, every image, whether carved out of wood or stone, or molten in metal, or produced out of any other richer material, must needs have had plastic hands engaged in its formation. Well, then, this modeller, before he did anything else, hit upon the form of a wooden cross, because even our own body assumes as its natural position the latent and concealed outline of a cross. Since the head rises upwards, and the back takes a straight direction, and the shoulders project laterally, if you simply place a man with his arms and hands outstretched, you will make the general outline of a cross. Starting, then, from this rudimental form and prop, as it were, he applies a covering of clay, and so gradually completes the limbs, and forms the body, and covers the cross within with the shape which he meant to impress upon the clay; then from this design, with the help of compasses and leaden moulds, he has got all ready for his image which is to be brought out into marble, or clay, or whatever the material be of which he has determined to make his god. (This, then, is the process, after the cross-shaped frame, the clay; after the clay, the god. In a well-understood routine, the cross passes into a god through the clayey medium. The cross then you consecrate, and from it the consecrated (deity) begins to derive his origin. By way of example, let us take the case of a tree which grows up into a system of branches and foliage, and is a reproduction of its own kind, whether it springs from the kernel of an olive, or the stone of a peach, or a grain of pepper which has been duly tempered under ground. Now, if you transplant it, or take a cutting off its branches for another plant, to what will you attribute what is produced by the propagation? Will it not be to the grain, or the stone, or the kernel? Because, as the third stage is attributable to the second, and the second in like manner to the first, so the third will have to be referred to the first, through the second as the mean. We need not stay any longer in the discussion of this point, since by a natural law every kind of produce throughout nature refers back its growth to its original source; and just as the product is comprised in its primal cause, so does that cause agree in character with the thing produced. Since, then, in the production of your gods, you worship the cross which originates them, here will be the original kernel and grain, from which are propagated the wooden materials of your idolatrous images. Examples are not far to seek. Your victories you celebrate with religious ceremony as deities; and they are the more august in proportion to the joy they bring you. The frames on which you hang up your trophies must be crosses these are, as it were, the very core of your pageants. Thus, in your victories, the religion of your camp makes even crosses objects of worship; your standards it adores, your standards are the sanction of its oaths; your standards it prefers before Jupiter himself. But all that parade of images, and that display of pure gold, are (as so many) necklaces of the crosses. In like manner also, in the banners and ensigns, which your soldiers guard with no less sacred care, you have the streamers (and) vestments of your crosses. You are ashamed, I suppose, to worship unadorned and simple crosses."​

There is the cross venerated in Christianity, and there is the cross venerated by those who worship other deities, and the two crosses are NOT the same. You screwed up. This op is wrong.

"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this? Do not many among you, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping the heavenly bodies likewise, move your lips in the direction of the sunrise? It is you, at all events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its day, in preference to the preceding day as the most suitable in the week for either an entire abstinence from the bath, or for its postponement until the evening, or for taking rest and for banqueting. By resorting to these customs, you deliberately deviate from your own religious rites to those of strangers. For the Jewish feasts on the Sabbath and the Purification, and Jewish also are the ceremonies of the lamps, and the fasts of unleavened bread, and the littoral prayers, all which institutions and practices are of course foreign from your gods. Wherefore, that I may return from this digression, you who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us. We are not far off from your Saturn and your days of rest."[/i]​

His point being that those who worship other gods should come to Christ, the true God, and cease their worship of false deities.

Tertullian

Roman Christian theologian and writer (c. 155 – c. 220)​

Tertullian was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism.

Yes, and it was the heresy of idolatry he was addressing, not the truth Jesus died on a cross. You've failed to understand that (or bought into Church-dividing fools who quote mined Tertullian so others could be misled).



As the gospel spread it took captive every thought that set itself up against Christ. It overthrew and assimilated as its own many of the paganisms used by the lost. A sort of spiritual Darwinism where the fittest survived and the lesser gods and their religious practiced either died or were sovereignly brought to submission in Christ.

 

[Mr GLee]

Tertullian confessed that pagans worshiped crucified saviors by hanging them on a cross.

"Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it."

The pagan roots of Christianity are indicated by his confession. Tertullian was a Christian who later became a Gnostic. He implies that Pagan Christians borrowed the sun-god myth.

Tertullian​

Roman Christian theologian and writer (c. 155 – c. 220)​

Tertullian was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism.

I would ask. What does dead Tertullian occasionally called thee one and only Church Father have to do with rightly dividing the word of God

He is not included as a patron saint (3,500 and rising) .Can't have two Holy Father's as venerable disembodied spirit gods. Peter and Tertullian.
In that way believers are call no man on earth Holy Father, Holy See .Holy Papa .Holy apostle of Rome

One is our in visible Holy Father in heaven. He is alone the one good teaching master

We are warned of the antichrists (another teaching authroity) other than sola scriptura

Tertullian followed after a queen mother of heaven that some named Mary. Therefore blaspheming the Holy name of Christ .Making the grace of Christ without effect.

They also teach the false doctrine of "apostolic succession ".Venerable puffed up dying mankind called a law of the fathers oral traditions of dying mankind that lord it over the faith (understanding) of the non vereable pew warmers or show time observers

The first of the three days and nights propmised demonstration of the work of the lamb slain from the six days the Father did work. Three different reasons. The father bruising the heel of the Son of man Jesus and the Father strengthening him to bear it (the power of the Father) jesus said not as I will (no power).

The prophecy of the dynamic dual (unseen Father with the son of man Jesus seen dying mankind. . two working as if one .It began in the garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane meaning oil press olive tree to represent the tree of life the way back into the garden .

The bloodless demonstration fulfilling the prophecy of the work of two .

Three times sufferings unto death .Jesus in agony awoke the apostles for strength .Three time the father put them to sleep . Then they move to the hill (Skull) the bloody demonstration. The promised sign to all the nations of the world. In a hope the parable would draw them to the source of faith (as it is writen sola scriptura )

Gethsemane fulfilled (bruised heel) prophecy for the believer .The bloody as sign to those who believe not (no faith) Appearing to them as if the work sufferings was accredited to the Satan inspired crowd ..

In that way ding mankind loves to see the blood as proof and is why I believe Christ said; when he sees the blood used to represent the Power of His Holy Spirit .Exodus 12:13 Exodus 12:23

Then the third demonstration the tomb (the demonstration of Christ's faithful labor of His love). . . not seen with the eye .

The Bloody circummsion (vail rent) the favorite of the world.

All three demonstrations of a finished 6 day work, working as if one. Three in parables denotes the end of a matter.