S
SellOut
Guest
I find it difficult to understand where a young Christian gets his/her footing these days. To choose just one very basic conundrum (there are many from which to choose):
A fundamental difficulty for the Church lies in the fact that the central Christian myth predates Jesus Christ. The outline of Christs story is as ancient as man This is not a case of similarities; were talking about total interchangeability. So close was the story of Mithra (or Mithras), another cult popular in the Roman Empire, that the Church Fathers identified it as the work of the devil intended deliberately to parody the story of Christ. The fact that the cult of Mithra existed long before the Christian Messiah did not faze these resourceful individuals they simply claimed that the devil was a sly old fox who had gone backwards in time to plant a man who would discredit the obvious originality of the story of Christ. Here are just some of the ancient figures who were considered gods, who all predate Christ:
Gautama Buddha: born of the virgin Maya around 600 BC.
Dionysus: Greek god, born of a virgin in a stable, turned water into wine.
Quirrnus: An early Roman savior, born of a virgin.
Attis: born of the virgin Nama in Phrygia around 200 BC.
Indra: born of a virgin in Tibet around 700 BC.
Adonis: Babylonian god born of the virgin Ishtar.
Krishna: Hindu deity born of the virgin Devaki in around 1200 BC.
Zoroaster: born of a virgin 1500 1200 BC.
Mithra: born to a virgin in a stable on 25 December around 600 BC. His resurrection was celebrated at Easter.
It seems that over the centuries quite a lot of innocent young ladies were giving birth to children of the gods!
The cult of Mithra is particularly awkward for Christians who do not subscribe to the satanic time-traveler theory. Mithraism is a Syrian offspring of the more ancient Persian cult of Zoroaster, which was introduced into the Roman Empire about 67 BC. Its doctrines included baptism, a sacramental meal, belief in immortality, a savior god who died and rose again to act as a mediator between man and god, a resurrection, a last judgement and heaven and hell. Interestingly candles, incense and bells are used in ceremonies. Its devotees recognized the divinity of the Emperor and were relaxed about coexisting alongside other cults, but it was finally absorbed by the much less tolerant Christians.
As we will show later the true Jesus sect, the Jerusalem Church, had lacked most of these pagan trappings; these were much later Roman additions to create a hybrid theology that would meet the needs of the widest possible number of citizens. If the plebeians had to have their superstitions, the Romans reasoned, why not have one that was state controlled?
But for a tiny twist of fate in the later years of the Roman Empire, nice families would today be driving off to Sunday worship with Mithra loves you stickers in their car windows.
Another essential problem is the true name of Christ. Most people are aware that the name Jesus Christ is a later Greek title, but they do not often wonder to think what the man-gods true name was. The name that he was born with is not known for sure, but it is possible he was known in his lifetime as Yehoshua, meaning Yahweh delivers and equating in modern terms to something like the one that will bring victory. In the form that we would recognise today, it would translate to Joshua
From the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the faith called Christianity had started to part company with its Jewish origins and soon all sight of the hero called Yehoshua was lost in foreign myths and legends. Old pagan stories were piled into a story of the man who tried to be the savior king of his people. In Rome the legends of Romulus and Remus was retold with two new lesser gods, the great saints Peter and Paul.
The sun god Sol had his birthday on 25th December and this date was thought to be suitable for Jesus birthday too, so that the great gods could be celebrated on the same feast day.
The Sabbath was moved from Saturday to the sun gods day, Sunday and the symbol of the sun found its way behind the heads of the divine and the saintly in the form of the halo.
A further problem for mainline Christianity is the belief that Jesus was the offspring of a magical mating of Yahweh and Mary. As we have seen this god-and-woman union is an ancient necessity for the parentage of all would-be man-gods in Middle Eastern cultures.
Pope Leo X (the pope who dubbed King Henry VIII the defender of the faith), is on record as saying:
It has served us well, this myth of Christ.
Above from: The Hiram Key Knight and Lomas.
Personally I always had an issue with the seemingly obvious conclusion that if God indeed exists, and is the 'Prime Mover' as it were: all things emanating from him, then evil, too, must logically come from God.
"One of the most vexing theological issues, then as now, is the problem of evil. If God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful then how can there be evil in the world? How can the source of perfect goodness be the source of badness, or even allow it?
Because of original sin, mankind is rightly doomed to physical death and eternal suffering. The only way out of the latter is Gods merciful grace, which he may grant or withhold as He, and only He, sees fit. So free will, at least when it comes to sin and salvation, is a diabolical illusion.
As if this werent already depressing enough, it turns out that since God is omniscient, He already knows long before youre born whether or not Hes going to save you.
Of course, this brings us back to square one. How could a benevolent God predestine most of the human race to hellfire? Or, to take the problem to its root, why did God make Adam and Eve capable of sin in the first place?"
Michael Macrone A Little Knowledge.
Also this is troubling support for the theory if you are on The Big Man's team:
Samuel 16:14-23 (King James Version)
14But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. Samuel 16:14-23
15And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
16Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.
17And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
18Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.
19Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.
20And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul.
21And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.
22And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight.
23And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
Please do not be off hand by banning me and deleting this as I am not here to "TROLL" (or whatever the vernacular is). I have serious questions as to why anyone could seriously contemplate being a Christian at this information saturated stage in time. Please do not answer with the following responses either as I deem them to be patently insufficient: faith is the answer (I will have faith in what is plausible) God gave you free will (which in some irrevocably daft way is meant to explain why a completely pure entity was to give birth to evil)...
A fundamental difficulty for the Church lies in the fact that the central Christian myth predates Jesus Christ. The outline of Christs story is as ancient as man This is not a case of similarities; were talking about total interchangeability. So close was the story of Mithra (or Mithras), another cult popular in the Roman Empire, that the Church Fathers identified it as the work of the devil intended deliberately to parody the story of Christ. The fact that the cult of Mithra existed long before the Christian Messiah did not faze these resourceful individuals they simply claimed that the devil was a sly old fox who had gone backwards in time to plant a man who would discredit the obvious originality of the story of Christ. Here are just some of the ancient figures who were considered gods, who all predate Christ:
Gautama Buddha: born of the virgin Maya around 600 BC.
Dionysus: Greek god, born of a virgin in a stable, turned water into wine.
Quirrnus: An early Roman savior, born of a virgin.
Attis: born of the virgin Nama in Phrygia around 200 BC.
Indra: born of a virgin in Tibet around 700 BC.
Adonis: Babylonian god born of the virgin Ishtar.
Krishna: Hindu deity born of the virgin Devaki in around 1200 BC.
Zoroaster: born of a virgin 1500 1200 BC.
Mithra: born to a virgin in a stable on 25 December around 600 BC. His resurrection was celebrated at Easter.
It seems that over the centuries quite a lot of innocent young ladies were giving birth to children of the gods!
The cult of Mithra is particularly awkward for Christians who do not subscribe to the satanic time-traveler theory. Mithraism is a Syrian offspring of the more ancient Persian cult of Zoroaster, which was introduced into the Roman Empire about 67 BC. Its doctrines included baptism, a sacramental meal, belief in immortality, a savior god who died and rose again to act as a mediator between man and god, a resurrection, a last judgement and heaven and hell. Interestingly candles, incense and bells are used in ceremonies. Its devotees recognized the divinity of the Emperor and were relaxed about coexisting alongside other cults, but it was finally absorbed by the much less tolerant Christians.
As we will show later the true Jesus sect, the Jerusalem Church, had lacked most of these pagan trappings; these were much later Roman additions to create a hybrid theology that would meet the needs of the widest possible number of citizens. If the plebeians had to have their superstitions, the Romans reasoned, why not have one that was state controlled?
But for a tiny twist of fate in the later years of the Roman Empire, nice families would today be driving off to Sunday worship with Mithra loves you stickers in their car windows.
Another essential problem is the true name of Christ. Most people are aware that the name Jesus Christ is a later Greek title, but they do not often wonder to think what the man-gods true name was. The name that he was born with is not known for sure, but it is possible he was known in his lifetime as Yehoshua, meaning Yahweh delivers and equating in modern terms to something like the one that will bring victory. In the form that we would recognise today, it would translate to Joshua
From the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the faith called Christianity had started to part company with its Jewish origins and soon all sight of the hero called Yehoshua was lost in foreign myths and legends. Old pagan stories were piled into a story of the man who tried to be the savior king of his people. In Rome the legends of Romulus and Remus was retold with two new lesser gods, the great saints Peter and Paul.
The sun god Sol had his birthday on 25th December and this date was thought to be suitable for Jesus birthday too, so that the great gods could be celebrated on the same feast day.
The Sabbath was moved from Saturday to the sun gods day, Sunday and the symbol of the sun found its way behind the heads of the divine and the saintly in the form of the halo.
A further problem for mainline Christianity is the belief that Jesus was the offspring of a magical mating of Yahweh and Mary. As we have seen this god-and-woman union is an ancient necessity for the parentage of all would-be man-gods in Middle Eastern cultures.
Pope Leo X (the pope who dubbed King Henry VIII the defender of the faith), is on record as saying:
It has served us well, this myth of Christ.
Above from: The Hiram Key Knight and Lomas.
Personally I always had an issue with the seemingly obvious conclusion that if God indeed exists, and is the 'Prime Mover' as it were: all things emanating from him, then evil, too, must logically come from God.
"One of the most vexing theological issues, then as now, is the problem of evil. If God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful then how can there be evil in the world? How can the source of perfect goodness be the source of badness, or even allow it?
Because of original sin, mankind is rightly doomed to physical death and eternal suffering. The only way out of the latter is Gods merciful grace, which he may grant or withhold as He, and only He, sees fit. So free will, at least when it comes to sin and salvation, is a diabolical illusion.
As if this werent already depressing enough, it turns out that since God is omniscient, He already knows long before youre born whether or not Hes going to save you.
Of course, this brings us back to square one. How could a benevolent God predestine most of the human race to hellfire? Or, to take the problem to its root, why did God make Adam and Eve capable of sin in the first place?"
Michael Macrone A Little Knowledge.
Also this is troubling support for the theory if you are on The Big Man's team:
Samuel 16:14-23 (King James Version)
14But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. Samuel 16:14-23
15And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
16Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.
17And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
18Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.
19Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.
20And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul.
21And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.
22And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight.
23And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
Please do not be off hand by banning me and deleting this as I am not here to "TROLL" (or whatever the vernacular is). I have serious questions as to why anyone could seriously contemplate being a Christian at this information saturated stage in time. Please do not answer with the following responses either as I deem them to be patently insufficient: faith is the answer (I will have faith in what is plausible) God gave you free will (which in some irrevocably daft way is meant to explain why a completely pure entity was to give birth to evil)...
