Olympics, Bacchus, Mithraism, old religions?

Q: Olympics, Bacchus, Mithraism, old religions? 

Q: Sorry to bring up the Olympics opening debatchury and blasphemy against Christ again, but I’ve seen a lot of posts about Christians not sure how to address this issue, because non Christians say we "stole concepts from other pantheons."

 In this case, Greek mythology. So the argument is Christianity is newer than Greek mythology and other religions so that makes it less real. In my mind, identifying oneself as a Christian is not the same as understanding that God created the entire universe. Adam and Even were believers in God, but did not label themselves as Christians since that term came later. But also we dont have records of their life beyond that situation.

So my question is, when faced with arguments from non believers or those questioning their faith that everything else in the world (religions like Islam, Greek mythology etc) are "older than Christianity" what would be the best response or should I even respond? Is there a book or resource I could use rather than googling, [which gives false and liberal results], the dates of these things vs the Dead Sea scrolls etc or just leaving it to my faith that God always has been? I’ve been reflecting on Mathew 5:11 this evening so I know a lot of this persecution is to be expected as as a believer, but sometimes I feel at a lost in how to respond or feel about it all. Thank you 

A: Heres what I say... [in longer form]:

Christianity has been the faith from Eden at Creation. The Messiah was promised to humanity right there by [Jesus] God himself right after Adam and Eve sinned. The Hebrew/Jewish word used in Moses books of this Savior -is Messiah. That word in Greek - is Christ. 

The Samaritan [half Jew] lady at the well pointed the town to him [in orig language] declaring she "has for sure found the Messiah." 

So Christianity in its true form has been the only religion since Eden. YHWH [God] our Creator is as Scripture declates: The only true and living God. It also says there are none other besides him and never will be. Thus these "gods"/other religions that started some time after Cain & onwards are just false religions with pretend gods [idolatry] - (made up imaginations in fallen mens minds that they prefer over the true God)... in order to live in and love their sin instead of run to God for restoration; forgiveness, gain a right standing with Him, and to have the old nature put to death & recieve righteousness nature. The righteous in the OT were covered by Jesus blood. Not because of the Egypt passover, that was temporary. All believers of OT time were saved because from eternity passed Jesus was coming to be the propitiation for humanity and the OT people looked forward "towards" His coming [to the cross] and believed God's promise. Those since His arrival as Jesus and since he finished/completed that promise via the cross, death & resurrection, believers "look back" at what was accomplished and believe. But it was a done deal in eternity [outside time] from God's perspective. 

God now calls all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel. Jesus the God Man even declared it in Mark 1:15. 

Flee God's wrath by running to Jesus for salvation, peace with God and eternal life. From being a fugitive hunted by death & judgment to a redeemed on who has a restored relationship with God and become an adopted child of God who will forever be with Him. Do so today. NeedGod.com

Further points: 

“Christianity” started in the garden when God told Eve her seed would crush the serpents head and the serpent seed would bruise his heel. God then performed a sacrifice with animals to "cover" them. Blood sacrifice. This points to what all of Scripture says which culminates in the real deal arriving to shed blood for humanity- Jesus.

We later see Cain's sacrifice wasnt accepted by God. Because it wasnt the required animal sacrifice to shed blood. The slain animals symbolically took the sins of the person and they traded places until the Real Messiah would come. Man sinned so man's blood shed [death] is required. Only a perfect One could do that since we are already sinners. This is why Jesus was required to be the sacrifice to one time [for all believers] bring about the forgiveness of sins. 

CS Lewis explained that the ancient myths contained some truth of God's existence. It is hardwired into the human condition. Thats because while made in His image we are fallen. Broken. We live in a distorted reality until God restores us [thru Jesus, at salvation]. He transforms us into a new creation. 

All the religions created after the time in Eden actually only "distorted" the original truth to serve their (sinful self focused) purposes [as broken damaged would]. Think Nimrod and Semairamis and how they used tiny pieces of original truth to make up Tammuz worship. Just like Satan in Eden. Thus all false religion originates with and is led by Satan. All of it [then and till now]. 

Some claim Jesus is patterned after Tammuz worship 🙄. But that is ridiculous, yet people just don’t go investigate all the way back - because they love sin and dont want to find out they're wrong. It will convict them and remind them theyre accountable to God. So they cling to lies their hope is in the lie. So... Tammuz worship is just idolatry -taking the original story told in the garden and twisting it to suit human goals. That is what Satan does- he counterfeits. So it’s not surprising most ancient cultures have some components of a Messiah focused/Christianity; because it all started with God and his plan to create and then save us. Just like most ancient cultures have some type of “flood story” .. because there was a Flood. The thing is since Christianity IS true … if you dig you’ll always find the answer. People don’t dig far enough as noted cuz they want to believe the lie (they prefer). 

So the claims of these unsaved people are just a fallacy, Ad Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, meaning "after this therefore from this". A good example is the claim that Christianity evolved out of Mithraism, or the Greek Mystery religions.... or that Christianity came from Hinduism. Then there has been since the early 2000 the claims that Christianity originated from the Bacchus or any number of links to the ancient pagan world. The not so stunning truth is that most of the borrowing can be attributed to another logical fallacy, the "hasty generalization," some examples-

Sweeping Generalization: This is like the bigger, worse cousin of hasty generalization. It applies a general rule to a specific case where it should not apply.

Post Hoc Fallacy: This one assumes that if something happens before an event, it must have caused that event. Also known as post hoc ergo propter hoc.

False Dichotomy: This fallacy happens when you limit options to only two when more choices are available.

Straw Man Fallacy: Here, someone distorts or exaggerates another person's argument to make it easier to attack.

Islam was 8th century. Mohammad declared himself a prophet to the Arab speaking world. Greek and Roman gods are myth without historical human evidence. Jesus is an historical person whose life and death are recorded in multiple ways. Whether He was God wrapped in flesh and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of the world, seems to be the debate. Thats knocked down because even Jewish historian Josephus spoke of Jesus in this way and other non Christian history too. Top Atheists today dont even claim he didnt exist. They just say he was only a human teacher. But thats debunked as soon as you investigate. Whether an atheist, muslim, hindu or anyone examines that they find he is God and not just a god but THE only true and living God [of the triune Godhead]. 

There is nothing older than the Bible in terms of the TRUTH it contends. 

Other religions only MIMIC,.. but don’t possess. This teaching/doctrine is revealed even within the pages of Scripture themselves.

Since food was involved in the "Last Supper," and food was involved in the ceremonies of Mithraism the correlation implies that Christianity finds it origin in Mithraism... Yet correlation doesn't of necessity imply anything other than that there are similarities. Correlation in this case would be a fallacious argument, because the "Last Supper finds its origin in the Jewish Passover and is representative of Christ's sacrificial death on the Cross on the atonement for sin on our behalf, since it takes place during the season of Passover.

The Old Testament 'is older'. And the Old Testament is all about Jesus.

God tells us in Scripture: God breathed and the world was created. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. God was and is the first.

Christians have never stolen concepts from pagans. Unless you're taking new agers, cults, and Catholics [again false religions]. 

Just cuz it's younger on the world timeline doesn't mean anything. Demons had limited awareness of the future and buffered the past with copies of Christ who had not yet come, seeding doubt like this. They believed since before the world was created, and still did when God was among us as Jesus the God Man, he still believes today and knows his day of judgment is coming. He just wants to take as many humans with him to eternal Hell as possible. But the truth is that God will save everyone he plans to. He is Soverign. 

We just need to know the Bible, proclaim its truths, and the Gospel, and faithfully become more Christ like until he brings us to Heaven in eternity.