Christ vs. Religion

[PGL]

The source of all religion is the natural self of man ‑ the expression of the fallen nature of the flesh exercising dominion over the soul. As evidenced by these verses and by the history of all the religions of the world, the result of this source is always division and confusion. God is not the author of confusion. Who is?


In discussing the world's religions, I am putting them in the same category with pagan religions. The relationship of the world's religions to paganism is a documented historical fact, indeed, the ancestry of both categories of religions can be traced back in origin to the Babylonian worship established by Nimrod. What, then, is the true purpose of religion?


The entire purpose of religion is to externalize spiritual truth: to substitute worthless outward rituals, symbolism, and self‑effort for the truth that can only be apprehended in spirit. There is some "truth" in all religions, but it is truth that has been so distorted and mixed in with falsehood that it becomes not only useless but also deadly. How much we underestimate the subtlety of Satan!


What can be said with respect to the religions of the world is this: Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius and all other such religious figures are still buried in the grave; but Jesus Christ alone is risen from the dead!

 

[RDKirk]

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. -- James 1:27

The Lord Himself has given us through scripture the explicit description of religion for Christians.

To say that there is no religion for Christians is to deny the explicit words of scripture.

 

[icxn]

Religion and ritual in my book is like... wax on, wax off.

 

[ananda]

The entire purpose of religion is to externalize spiritual truth: to substitute worthless outward rituals, symbolism, and self‑effort for the truth that can only be apprehended in spirit ...

As a Buddhist, I practice "ritual" and "symbolism" as a way to transform our own hearts and minds. I know that I am not offering the Buddha anything through the Buddha-rupa (statue); the chanting, bowing, etc. serves to transform myself.

"Self-effort" is pervasive in all learning, and is self-evidently effective.

What can be said with respect to the religions of the world is this: Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius and all other such religious figures are still buried in the grave; but Jesus Christ alone is risen from the dead!

Two problems here:

1. I've never seen Jesus Christ alive;
2. Why is being "risen from the dead" superior to "the grave" or death?

 

[Godistruth1]

The source of all religion is the natural self of man ‑ the expression of the fallen nature of the flesh exercising dominion over the soul. As evidenced by these verses and by the history of all the religions of the world, the result of this source is always division and confusion. God is not the author of confusion. Who is?


In discussing the world's religions, I am putting them in the same category with pagan religions. The relationship of the world's religions to paganism is a documented historical fact, indeed, the ancestry of both categories of religions can be traced back in origin to the Babylonian worship established by Nimrod. What, then, is the true purpose of religion?


The entire purpose of religion is to externalize spiritual truth: to substitute worthless outward rituals, symbolism, and self‑effort for the truth that can only be apprehended in spirit. There is some "truth" in all religions, but it is truth that has been so distorted and mixed in with falsehood that it becomes not only useless but also deadly. How much we underestimate the subtlety of Satan!


What can be said with respect to the religions of the world is this: Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius and all other such religious figures are still buried in the grave; but Jesus Christ alone is risen from the dead!

Catholicism and much of Christianity has been linked to paganism. There have been many pagan gods who died & got resurrected!

 

[Desires Light]

The source of all religion is the natural self of man ‑ the expression of the fallen nature of the flesh exercising dominion over the soul. As evidenced by these verses and by the history of all the religions of the world, the result of this source is always division and confusion. God is not the author of confusion. Who is?


In discussing the world's religions, I am putting them in the same category with pagan religions. The relationship of the world's religions to paganism is a documented historical fact, indeed, the ancestry of both categories of religions can be traced back in origin to the Babylonian worship established by Nimrod. What, then, is the true purpose of religion?


The entire purpose of religion is to externalize spiritual truth: to substitute worthless outward rituals, symbolism, and self‑effort for the truth that can only be apprehended in spirit. There is some "truth" in all religions, but it is truth that has been so distorted and mixed in with falsehood that it becomes not only useless but also deadly. How much we underestimate the subtlety of Satan!


What can be said with respect to the religions of the world is this: Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius and all other such religious figures are still buried in the grave; but Jesus Christ alone is risen from the dead!

Yes, the outwards sign's of holiness that religion seems to emulate is a serious issue. What make's anything holy, the practices of the Church? Or the holiness of God himself?

 

[Anto9us]

I feel Krishna is a LOT older than 400 BC
(I mean, not that I believe he was REAL,
but he was written about in Mahabhrata
and believed in WAY BEFORE 400 BC)

Lord Krishna Birth and Death Time

that site gives this date:

Time of Lord Krishna's Birth
Krishna Birth – 18th July 3228 BCE

 

[Desires Light]

Catholicism and much of Christianity has been linked to paganism. There have been many pagan gods who died & got resurrected!

Nothing ever dies, it just gets changed into something else. We are information collecting organic machines, who's to say that data ever gets lost.

 

[W2L]

Catholicism and much of Christianity has been linked to paganism. There have been many pagan gods who died & got resurrected!
View attachment 230305

The scriptures dont lead anyone into such things. I dont follow any religious ceremony or tradition, i follow love, mercy, and righteousness.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

While a simple and easily digestible idea (the idea that all non Christian religion is rooted in a single predecessor of Babylonian religion) it doesn't make it true. You need to do some serious research to actually establish how Babylonian religion transmitted and then subsequently transmuted itself into the literally countless forms of religious beliefs, those which were informal (animistic faiths, traditional faiths, Tengrism) and those which were formalized (Islam, Roman religion, Buddhism and etc). I think you'll find these religions sprang up separately.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Catholicism and much of Christianity has been linked to paganism. There have been many pagan gods who died & got resurrected!
View attachment 230305

The problem with graphics like these is that the claims cannot be substantiated. Can you for instance provide one primary Egyptian source telling us Horus was born Dec 25 by a virgin?

I know of no sources that substantiate these sorts of claims.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Catholicism and much of Christianity has been linked to paganism. There have been many pagan gods who died & got resurrected!
View attachment 230305

Tiny problem.

Horus was not born on December 25th.
Horus was not born of a virgin.
Horus' birth was not associated with a star in the east.
Horus did not have 12 disciples.
Horus was not crucified.
Horus was not resurrected after three days.

Dionysus was not born on December 25th.
Dionysus was not born of a virgin.
Dionysus was not resurrected.

Attis was not born on December 25th.
Attis was not born of a virgin.
Attis was not crucified.
Attis was not resurected after three days.

Mithra was not born on December 25th.
Mithra was not born of a virgin.
Mithra's birth was not associated with a star in the east.
Mithras did not have 12 disciples.
Mithras was not resurrected.

Krishna was not born of a virgin.
Krishna's birth was not associated with a star in the east.
Krishna was not resurrected.
Krishna was not the son of a carpenter.
Krishna was not called "son of God".

None of these things are accurate of the stories and myths about these figures.

Horus was conceived when Isis copulated with Osiris, after he was reassembled (he was killed and torn apart by Set, his bodily members scattered across Egypt), using a magical phallus.

Dionysus was conceived when Zeus had sex with the mortal Semele, Hera in a jealous outrage had Semele killed, but Zeus protected the unborn Dionysus by taking the child and sewing him into his thigh, Dionysus was then born from Zeus' thigh.

Of the stories connected with Attis, none have him born of a virgin, he is either the son of a Phrygian man named Galaus, or the result of a daimon named Agdistis whose beauty caused the gods such envy that they cut his phallus off, and from where the spilled seed of the disemembered member fell an almond tree grew, in one version the almond tree became Attis and another a river nymph ate an almond from the tree and became pregnant and gave birth to Attis.

Mithras emerged fully formed from solid rock, as a fully grown man. And the supposed 12 disciples? Not so much, Mithras was in his Roman cultus associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

Krishna was the 8th child of his parents, his father Vasudeva and his mother Devaki. Vasudeva was a prince, not a carpenter.

None of them were said to have been crucified and subsequently resurrected three days later.
None of them were said to have been born on December 25th.
None of them were said to have 12 disciples.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

The problem with graphics like these is that the claims cannot be substantiated. Can you for instance provide one primary Egyptian source telling us Horus was born Dec 25 by a virgin?

I know of no sources that substantiate these sorts of claims.

It's nothing more than a baseless internet meme, while it's been a meme longer than the internet's been around, it really only survives today as one.

One can easily investigate these things, for example websites such as this provide primary material, quotes from ancients like Pausanias, Ovid, or Hesiod.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Godistruth1]

Tiny problem.

Horus was not born on December 25th.
Horus was not born of a virgin.
Horus' birth was not associated with a star in the east.
Horus did not have 12 disciples.
Horus was not crucified.
Horus was not resurrected after three days.

Dionysus was not born on December 25th.
Dionysus was not born of a virgin.
Dionysus was not resurrected.

Attis was not born on December 25th.
Attis was not born of a virgin.
Attis was not crucified.
Attis was not resurected after three days.

Mithra was not born on December 25th.
Mithra was not born of a virgin.
Mithra's birth was not associated with a star in the east.
Mithras did not have 12 disciples.
Mithras was not resurrected.

Krishna was not born of a virgin.
Krishna's birth was not associated with a star in the east.
Krishna was not resurrected.
Krishna was not the son of a carpenter.
Krishna was not called "son of God".

None of these things are accurate of the stories and myths about these figures.

Horus was conceived when Isis copulated with Osiris, after he was reassembled (he was killed and torn apart by Set, his bodily members scattered across Egypt), using a magical phallus.

Dionysus was conceived when Zeus had sex with the mortal Semele, Hera in a jealous outrage had Semele killed, but Zeus protected the unborn Dionysus by taking the child and sewing him into his thigh, Dionysus was then born from Zeus' thigh.

Of the stories connected with Attis, none have him born of a virgin, he is either the son of a Phrygian man named Galaus, or the result of a daimon named Agdistis whose beauty caused the gods such envy that they cut his phallus off, and from where the spilled seed of the disemembered member fell an almond tree grew, in one version the almond tree became Attis and another a river nymph ate an almond from the tree and became pregnant and gave birth to Attis.

Mithras emerged fully formed from solid rock, as a fully grown man. And the supposed 12 disciples? Not so much, Mithras was in his Roman cultus associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

Krishna was the 8th child of his parents, his father Vasudeva and his mother Devaki. Vasudeva was a prince, not a carpenter.

None of them were said to have been crucified and subsequently resurrected three days later.
None of them were said to have been born on December 25th.
None of them were said to have 12 disciples.

-CryptoLutheran

I know everything against Christianity is a lie by default ! No need to defend it!

 

[Eloy Craft]

The entire purpose of religion is to externalize spiritual truth:

Ritual is externalized spiritual truth

to substitute worthless outward rituals, symbolism, and self‑effort for the truth that can only be apprehended in spirit.

The intellect apprehends spiritual truth. Truth is abstracted through sensible objects. Sensible objects organized to express truth and receive Spiritual goods is ritual.

Jesus broke the bread and said "do this in memory of me". Jesus asked us to do that ritual in perpetuity,