That's great. Thanks razzelflabben.
I hope you don't mind if I switch things slightly, then. From the other thread, I got to reading about the parrallels between Horus and Jesus. Horus was an Egyptian god whose story was told in the centuries before and during Jesus' time and the writing of the gospels.
The Religious Tolerance website has a good comparison of the life of Jesus and that of Horus. People seem to think that the fact that the Horus story is almost identical to that of Jesus that it means the gospels are just a copy of that story. I see why they would think that but I think that is blasphemy and I want an answer to how they can be so similar. Have you studied this and can you help?
For example, Horus is conceived by a virgin mother called Meri and born on the 25th December with a foster father of royal decent, having been announced to his mother by an angel.
Horus' birth is heralded by a star in the sky and announced by angels, witnessed by shepherds. The baby Horus is then visited by 3 solar deities. Herut then tries to kill him during his infancy. He is baptised at the age of 30 by Anup the Baptist who is then beheaded.
He is then tempted by the Egyptian version of Satan, "Set" on a mountain in the desert. Horus resists the temptation.
Horus has 12 disciples, walks on water, heals the sick, restores sight to the blind, gives a sermon on the mount and casts out demons.
Horus is transfigured on a mountain, crucified along with 2 thieves and then buried in a tomb.
Horus then decends into Hell before being resurrected and discovered by women before reigning for 1,000 years in the millennium.
How are we supposed to read the parrallels? is this something you have studied? I'd love your help.
God Bless.
I have not studied Horus individually. I have studied some other religious, in fact, one of my favorite college courses was non western religion. I really enjoyed it and would recommend a study into it. What I can tell you from the study of other religions is this, many have similar stories of everything from the messiah or savior of it's people to the creation of the world. it is common. I personally think there are two main reasons for this as far as history and human nature are concerned 1. truth is hard to escape. We can escape parts of truth, but if we abandon all truth then deception is much harder to pull off. So if we leave parts attached, parts of truth, then the deception is much easier. (more on that in a moment, as to which is truth, etc.) 2. When something works, human nature wants to copy it and make it theirs so they can succeed too.
The short version of why the biblical Jesus is more "believable" is this, keep in mind this is the short version. The biblical Jesus goes back to the OT and the beliefs of the OT, they are so closely connected that it is impossible to pull them apart though many try to. This means that Jewdism, aka, OT turned NT beliefs is the oldest religious beliefs known to man. Now some will argue that other religions are, however, Jewdism, extends all the way back to the earliest people, that of adam/eve/seth/cain/abel, etc. and extends into the early Egyptian, Summerna, etc. histories.
In addition, we have archealogicall evidences that suggest that the bible is accurate in it's historical accounts. (again, remove traditions from the reading).
To further verify the truthfulness of the Biblical God, we look at the things the bible says are truths for life, that is, the teachings of the bible.
We add prophecies and prophesies fulfilled
Testing the scriptures, for accuracy both in principals and in history
And finally, we have our own experiences that show lives changed, hearts transformed, strength, love, joy, peace where there should be none (all things that God says are evidence of Him) and the case for the God of the bible as being truth is pretty strong.
I also might add, that Gen. is a beautiful argument for why the gods of the ancient people are false gods, but it requires us to study Gen. for what it says, not for the traditions that we are taught it says. For example, when we see what gods the early people believed in, we realize that Gen. talks about creating the sun. (example not the entirety of the study) So how, can the sun be a god if God, the great I AM created the sun? This is the type of poletic (not sure the spelling, spelling isn't my major, neither is typing in case you couldn't tell by now
) we see in Gen. an argument for who God is. Now this does not in any way mean that God did not create the world, but to the contrary. What is obvious in Gen. is that it is not written as a scientific treatise of the creation of the world. So we have to then look at what it is written like (those clues again) and find it is written as a polimic, an argument for why the God of the bible is the truth and not all the other gods the people wanted to worship.
Wow, and that is the short version. Look, we have been attending a new church where many there were talking about how "knowledgable" my husband and I were of the bible. I want to take a moment to tell you what we told them. You are just as knowledgable as we are, you just don't know it yet. All we have done is study and seek God above all else. It has led us to an understanding of God and the bible that few today even aspire to. We are all scholars of the Word today, it is not hidden from us as it was in the days of old. As such, we need to use that new freedom, that new "right" to study to show ourselves approved, a workman that needeth not be ashamed. You can't do that if all you ever do is read. Study, reference, cross reference, memorize, do word studies, look at translation problems, look for consistency in the word, it is all there, at your very finger tips, just waiting to open up a whole new world for you, and me. What a tremendous gift from our Lord.
Sorry that sounded preachy, didn't mean for it to, just meant to encourage you and everyone else here to study the word and learn it, learn what God intends and who He really is, not who you have been taught He is or who you want Him to be. Sorry for the tangent.