Banyak orang Kristen terlanjur mempercayai bahwa tanggal 25 Desember yang dirayakan sebagai hari kelahiran Yesus Kristus adalah hari penyembahan dewa Matahari Romawi atau hari saturnalia Romawi. Apakah benar demikian adanya? Apakah benar Kepausan Romawi di abad-abad pertama menetapkan tanggal 25 Desember semata-mata demi memurnikan hari penyembahan Dewa Matahari (Sol Invictus) dengan kelahiran Matahari Sejati Yesus Kristus?
Begini ceritanya, menurut beberapa ahli sejarah kalender baik dari kalangan gereja maupun para astronom ternyata setelah mengkaji dokumen-dokumen lama Gereja menyatakan bahwa tanggal 25 Desember itu adalah HASIL PERHITUNGAN dari penanggalan KRISTEN KOPTIK MESIR yang menggunakan tarikh atau penanggalan berdasarkan bintang. Karena Gereja Koptik Mesir pada zaman Romawi menjadi gereja yang teraniaya, maka tarikh Koptik yang ditandai dengan peredaran bintang Sirius, disebut dengan Tahun Kesyahidan (Anno Martyri), yang tidak termasuk tahun syamsiah (matahari) ataupun qamariyah (bulan), tetapi disebut tahun kawakibiyah (tahun bintang). Bintang Sirius adalah bintang yang paling terang dalam beberapa jenis bintang yang dikenal dalam sejarah Mesir kuno.
Karena pada masa Yesus lahir dan hidup, Mesir termasuk yang sudah lebih dulu maju dalam soal ilmu perbintangan. Kita ambil contoh 3 orang Majusi yang berhasil menjumpai bayi Yesus karena mengikuti peredaran bintang. Karena masyarakat Mesir cukup maju dan agama Kristen sudah menyebar sampai ke sana (dhi Tradisi Kristen Orthodox Koptik) maka otomatis pihak kepausan Romawi di abad 3 dan 4 menerjemahkan hasil penanggalan mereka ke formula KALENDER JULIAN. Hasilnya di dapat adalah tanggal 25 Desember. Kebetulan tanggal ini BERTEPATAN dengan hari penyembahan dewa Matahari. Dengan demikian, hari kelahiran Yesus tersebut secara teknik penyebaran agama Kristen waktu itu sangat cocok buat kaum pagan agar mereka mau memeluk agama Kristen. Hari kelahiran Yesus seakan-akan menjadi MATAHARI SEJATI dimana YESUS ini semacam DEWA atau TUHAN yang jauh lebih sakti dan berkuasa dari masyarakat pagan yang menyembah Sol Invictus. Jadi semacam gimmick marketing-nya orang-orang Kristen jaman dulu supaya mereka dapat mengkristenkan kaum kafir atau pagan.
Silahkan lihat artikel penanggalan bintang Sirius di http://www.halexandria.org/dward108.htm; http://www.andrewfanous.com/CopticCorner/CopticCalendar.htm; http://www.copticchurch.net/easter.html
Rgds,
Leonard T. Panjaitan
Senin, 21 September 2009
Sabtu, 12 September 2009
Pengentasan Kemiskinan: Kaukus Gabungan Kristen dan Muslim
Ending Poverty: a Joint Muslim-Christian Cause
Vatican's Message for End of Ramadan Invites Cooperation
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Muslims and Christians should be united in overcoming poverty, since impoverishment is something addressed in precepts held dear by people of both faiths, according to the Holy See.
In a message released today for the end of the month of Ramadan, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue encouraged Muslims and Christians to unite in this common goal.
The message was signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Celata, president and secretary of the council, respectively.
"We all know that poverty has the power to humiliate and to engender intolerable sufferings; it is often a source of isolation, anger, even hatred and the desire for revenge," the Vatican document observed.
The statement goes on to assert that poverty "can provoke hostile actions using any available means, even seeking to justify them on religious grounds, or seizing another man’s wealth, together with his peace and security, in the name of an alleged 'divine justice.'"
This is what makes "tackling poverty" a necessity in confronting "the phenomena of extremism and violence," the message affirmed.
Embrace and combat
The pontifical council document referenced Benedict XVI's message for this year's World Day of Peace in affirming that there is a poverty to be rejected and a poverty to be embraced.
"The poverty to be combated is before the eyes of everyone," the message explained: "hunger, lack of clean water, limited medical care and inadequate shelter, insufficient educational and cultural systems, illiteracy, not to mention also the existence of new forms of poverty [...] marginalization, as well as affective, moral and spiritual poverty."
But the poverty that should be embraced, the statement noted, involves a "style of life which is simple and essential, avoiding waste and respecting the environment and the goodness of creation."
"This poverty can also be, at least at certain times during the year, that of frugality and fasting," the message added. "It is the poverty which we choose which predisposes us to go beyond ourselves, expanding the heart."
In this context, Cardinal Tauran and Archbishop Celata conclude by expressing an invitation: "The poor question us, they challenge us, but above all they invite us to cooperate in a noble cause: overcoming poverty!"
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Muslims and Christians should be united in overcoming poverty, since impoverishment is something addressed in precepts held dear by people of both faiths, according to the Holy See.
In a message released today for the end of the month of Ramadan, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue encouraged Muslims and Christians to unite in this common goal.
The message was signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Celata, president and secretary of the council, respectively.
"We all know that poverty has the power to humiliate and to engender intolerable sufferings; it is often a source of isolation, anger, even hatred and the desire for revenge," the Vatican document observed.
The statement goes on to assert that poverty "can provoke hostile actions using any available means, even seeking to justify them on religious grounds, or seizing another man’s wealth, together with his peace and security, in the name of an alleged 'divine justice.'"
This is what makes "tackling poverty" a necessity in confronting "the phenomena of extremism and violence," the message affirmed.
Embrace and combat
The pontifical council document referenced Benedict XVI's message for this year's World Day of Peace in affirming that there is a poverty to be rejected and a poverty to be embraced.
"The poverty to be combated is before the eyes of everyone," the message explained: "hunger, lack of clean water, limited medical care and inadequate shelter, insufficient educational and cultural systems, illiteracy, not to mention also the existence of new forms of poverty [...] marginalization, as well as affective, moral and spiritual poverty."
But the poverty that should be embraced, the statement noted, involves a "style of life which is simple and essential, avoiding waste and respecting the environment and the goodness of creation."
"This poverty can also be, at least at certain times during the year, that of frugality and fasting," the message added. "It is the poverty which we choose which predisposes us to go beyond ourselves, expanding the heart."
In this context, Cardinal Tauran and Archbishop Celata conclude by expressing an invitation: "The poor question us, they challenge us, but above all they invite us to cooperate in a noble cause: overcoming poverty!"
Konferensi Gereja Orthodox: Pergumulan Rohani dalam Tradisi Orthodox
Conference Affirms Christian Call to Battle
Catholic, Orthodox Leaders Send Messages of Support
MAGNANO, Italy, SEPT. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- An international conference in the Bose Monastic Community, located outside Magnano, is underlining the importance of the Christian struggle to dominate one's passions and egoism.
This idea of "spiritual combat" is something that Benedict XVI is urging Christians to cultivate, in his message to the 17th annual International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality currently under way.
The meeting, involving Catholics, Lutherans and Orthodox, is focused on the theme "Spiritual Struggle in the Orthodox Tradition."
The conference, which began Wednesday and ends Saturday, is important in advancing Christian ecumenical dialogue, the Pope affirmed in a Sep. 4 statement to the participants.
This idea was also emphasized by the patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow, who sent similar messages to the congress.
Bartholomew I, Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, said that these meetings enrich "academic and ecumenical discourse" and are "ample evidence of the unique contribution of monasticism to ecumenical relations among Christian confessions."
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia stated, "In the world we see an uninterrupted struggle between the forces of good and evil," in which it seems that the latter "were never as strong as today."
He continued, "When we see how the contemporary world takes what is black to be white, when deceit appears as truth, and what in the whole of human history was considered sin now no longer is, we understand that the very foundations of the moral and spiritual health of society are threatened."
Temptation
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, sent a message to the congress to underline the "present importance" of the spiritual struggle, "perhaps more than in the past."
He added, "Both in private life as well as in society we are bombarded by many temptations which take us away from our relationship with the Lord."
This "spiritual struggle against evil" takes place in the heart of every man, said Prior Enzo Bianchi, head of the monastic community, during the opening of the symposium.
He asserted that this struggle "stems from man's fear of death."
Bianchi explained, "Moved by the fear of death, man wants to continue his life by any means; he wants to possess for himself the goods of the earth, he wants to dominate others," believing that in this way "he ensures for himself an abundant life, and justifies all behavior directed to obtaining it, even at the cost of harming others or himself."
Hence, the prior said, it is in the heart "that the return to God can begin," either in "conversion, or succumbing to the seduction of sin and the slavery of idolatry."
He concluded, "It is a very hard struggle to try to have a united heart, able to collaborate with the new life wrought in us by the Father, through faith in Christ, dead and risen, in the power of the Holy Spirit: But it is precisely to this fundamental battle that the Christian is called."
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MAGNANO, Italy, SEPT. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- An international conference in the Bose Monastic Community, located outside Magnano, is underlining the importance of the Christian struggle to dominate one's passions and egoism.
This idea of "spiritual combat" is something that Benedict XVI is urging Christians to cultivate, in his message to the 17th annual International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality currently under way.
The meeting, involving Catholics, Lutherans and Orthodox, is focused on the theme "Spiritual Struggle in the Orthodox Tradition."
The conference, which began Wednesday and ends Saturday, is important in advancing Christian ecumenical dialogue, the Pope affirmed in a Sep. 4 statement to the participants.
This idea was also emphasized by the patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow, who sent similar messages to the congress.
Bartholomew I, Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, said that these meetings enrich "academic and ecumenical discourse" and are "ample evidence of the unique contribution of monasticism to ecumenical relations among Christian confessions."
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia stated, "In the world we see an uninterrupted struggle between the forces of good and evil," in which it seems that the latter "were never as strong as today."
He continued, "When we see how the contemporary world takes what is black to be white, when deceit appears as truth, and what in the whole of human history was considered sin now no longer is, we understand that the very foundations of the moral and spiritual health of society are threatened."
Temptation
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, sent a message to the congress to underline the "present importance" of the spiritual struggle, "perhaps more than in the past."
He added, "Both in private life as well as in society we are bombarded by many temptations which take us away from our relationship with the Lord."
This "spiritual struggle against evil" takes place in the heart of every man, said Prior Enzo Bianchi, head of the monastic community, during the opening of the symposium.
He asserted that this struggle "stems from man's fear of death."
Bianchi explained, "Moved by the fear of death, man wants to continue his life by any means; he wants to possess for himself the goods of the earth, he wants to dominate others," believing that in this way "he ensures for himself an abundant life, and justifies all behavior directed to obtaining it, even at the cost of harming others or himself."
Hence, the prior said, it is in the heart "that the return to God can begin," either in "conversion, or succumbing to the seduction of sin and the slavery of idolatry."
He concluded, "It is a very hard struggle to try to have a united heart, able to collaborate with the new life wrought in us by the Father, through faith in Christ, dead and risen, in the power of the Holy Spirit: But it is precisely to this fundamental battle that the Christian is called."
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On the Net:
International Ecumenical Conference: http://www.monasterodibose.it/index.php/content/category/19/252/528/lang,en/
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