Crosses, Trees, Tithes, and Unclean Meats

Did early Christians have crosses or similar icons? Is the word cross actually in the inspired original text of the New Testament? What about the word crucify or crucifixion? Did early Christians teach that Jesus was impaled on a tree? What did Peter, Polycarp, and Melito write? What about the influence of the pagan sun god worshiping Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena. What did Eastern Orthodox Bishop Timothy Kallistos Ware say was the "triumph of orthodoxy" in 843 related to the "Seventh Ecumenical Council"? What about "staurograms"? What about funerary symbols like X and +: were they related to the cross or millenarianism according to scholars like the Roman Catholic priest Bellarmino Bagatti? Did the Paterenes and Cathari claim the cross was the "mark of the Beast"? What about the late Sir Isaac Newton? Did the Catholic priest Hudeche point to a 'chi-rho' cross (which looks like an ancient Egyptian angk) as a possible mark of the Beast? Do Roman Catholic prophetic writings state that cross bearers will persecute and kill those that will not be marked with a red cross on their foreheads? What about the Latin Tiburtine Sibyl? Were Christmas trees why Roman Catholics called Protestantism the "Tannebaum religion"? Was December 25th celebrated by pagans as "Natalis invicti solis"? Was the demonically influenced Gregory Thaumaturgus a factor in 'Marian cults' that arose in the third century? Has he, along with Constantine, been credited with allowing pagan worship practices and symbols to increase church membership according the the19th century Cardinal John Newman? Should Christians keep Valentine's Day? Does Valens have any possible connection to Nimrod of Genesis 10:8-10)? Should ministers were reverse collars and special clothing adopted from pagan priests of Mithra? Is tithing biblical? What about multiple tithes? What are the three biblical tithes for? Did early Christians and faithful Sabbath-keepers avoid eating unclean meat throughout history? What are ramifications of "be you holy because God is holy"?

Much of this information is also covered in the free online book titled "Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God differs from Protestantism" URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/protestant-ccog-differences.pdf