No, Christianity did not copy ideas from pagan myths or other religions. Generally, the criticism is that there were religions that were older than Christianity that had similar concepts, such as a virgin birth, God becoming flesh, resurrection from the dead, etc. But, similarities don’t mean that Christianity was copied from other religions any more than similarities in two different paintings mean that one was copied from another.

Christianity is derived largely out of the Old Testament Scriptures which contain the themes that are found in the New Testament. If one religion is older than another and, as the critics maintain, that which is new was borrowed from that which is older, then we would have to conclude that many religions borrowed from Judaism because the Old Testament, which was written between 400 and 1600 BC, was before them. Take a look at the following chart.

As you can see from the above chart, Christianity is in agreement with the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures. Many of the books of the Old Testament were written hundreds and hundreds of years before such religions as Mithraism. So, can we conclude that Mithraism borrowed from the Old Testament? Neither should we think that the New Testament borrowed from pagan mythology. The more obvious and demonstrable source of Christianity’s teachings is the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, a source every Christian would cheerfully admit!

Furthermore, if the critics want to accuse Christianity of borrowing from pagan religions, then they need to establish their case. Simply making an assertion doesn’t prove it is true. But since the Old Testament clearly shows New Testament themes, and the New Testament open cites the Old Testament as its source, we can conclude that Christianity did not copy from pagan religions. It fulfilled the Old Testament.