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Roots of
Christianity
The story of Jesus bears a striking resemblance to many savior cults of antiquity, including the pagan mystery religions as well as Greek and Roman mythology. In the third century BC, many Greeks worshipped Hercules, who was believed to have been born of the union of Zeus and a human mother, was put on Earth to undergo various trials, died, descended to Hades for 3 days, and then was resurrected to sit at the right hand of Zeus on Mt. Olympus. Similiarly, the "man-god" of the pagan mystery religions (Osiris in Egypt , Dionysus in Greece , Attis in Asia Minor , Adonis in Syria , Bacchus in Italy , and Mithras in Persia) has much in common with the story of Jesus, sharing characteristics like: their father is god and mother is a mortal virgin, they offer their followers the chance to be born again through the rites of baptism, they die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and are resurrected after 3 days. And the resurrection of these "man-gods", including the most recent incarnate, Jesus, is always closely associated with the winter solstice, which is around Dec. 21st. Why the winter solstice? Because this is when the length of the day begins to get longer again - every year. For the ancients, this time of year represented the triumph of light over darkness and it was of critical importance to their crops. And the significance of the resurrection after 3 days? Every year after the winter solstice, the path of the sun appears to stop moving. The sun's path gets a little bit lower in the sky each day until the solstice around December 21st, but before starting to move higher again, it appears to pause. The length of this pause is about 3 days to human senses. Hence the rebirth of light on December 25th. It is understandable that the ancients would develop this tradition around the movement of the sun, something of utmost importance to them, and that the "man gods" of the many mystery religions, including Jesus, died and were resurrected at this time of year. And some of these stories are so ancient they can be traced back to pyramid texts written over 4,500 years ago. The story of Jesus is part of a continuity of revelation that is thousands of years old. These similiarities were even noted during the early centuries. Celsus, a philosopher who lived during the 2nd century, wrote of the similiarities. Celsus was a critic of the Church, but even early Christian leaders, including Iraneaus, St. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Firmicus Maternus, acknowledged the similiarities between the story of Jesus and pagan mystery religions. They responded with claims of "diabolical mimicry", that the Devil had actually plagiarized Christianity in anticipation of the coming Christ. Obviously many Christians find all this troubling. Do some research. Check it out for yourself.
Formation of the New
Testament canon The teachings of Jesus are clearly a good thing. If we would truely appreciate them, wouldn't we just leave it at that? Why make claims about Jesus regarding things we really don't know? Why not just take these teachings and live by them? Why isn't that enough? Clearly there are other interests involved here. If we take a close, objective look at the history of Christianity we find that the teachings of Jesus have, to borrow Benjamin Franklin's terminology, "received various corrupting Changes." How this happened is well documented. Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon in the second century, was concerned that the followers of Jesus were so fragmented, and that there were so many different perspectives and interpretations of Jesus' teachings. He concluded that, in order to unify the Church, only four gospels should be read and taught, since afterall, there were "four corners to the universe", and "four principal winds". Ireneaus coined the term "orthodox" ("straight thinking") to describe his interpretation of Jesus' teachings, and "heterodox" ("thinking otherwise") to describe Gnostic interpretations, which had a very different idea about who Jesus was and what he taught. In 325 AD, Roman Emporer Constantine called together several hundred quarreling Christian Bishops to attempt to resolve the theological controversy over the nature of God and Christ. This meeting was called the Council of Nicaea. One of the outcomes of this council was the adoption of a universal statement of Christian faith known as the Nicene Creed, which established the divinity of Jesus Christ. After being in session for an entire month, the council promulgated on June 19 the Nicene Creed. Ammendments were made at the second Ecumenical Council in 381 AD. The Council of Ephesus in 431 AD declared that the text of the Nicene Creed decreed at the First and Second Councils to be complete and forbade any additional changes (addition or deletion) to it. The new creed of the Church was enforced by the State. Church leaders who would not adopt the newly established doctrine were anathematized and excommunicated. Imperial edicts were ordered. In 367 AD, Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, issued a decree banning all scriptures not explicitly approved by the central church authorities. All books that conflicted with the newly established doctrine were burned. Concealment of such books was punishable by death. Constantine's motive behind the creation of the Nicene Creed was to solidify his political position. He thus sought to unite society under Christianity by making it the state religion. He believed that the "one God, one religion"mentality would consolidate his claim of "one Empire, one Emperor". Christianity became well established in Rome under the Emperor Theodosius (378-395 CE). The worship of the old pagan gods was prohibited. Thus we see organized religion being used as a political tool, as it still is today. Christians who refused to accept the Nicene Creed founded at the Council of Nicaea were banished or otherwise silenced. Constantine, who later murdered his wife Fausta and son Crispus, put off being baptized until he was on his deathbed, thinking this would ensure that all his sins would be purged just before he died, guaranteeing his place in heaven. The Nicene Creed remained a very powerful force through the middle ages and the modern era, and even maintains alot of power to this day. But in 1945, Egyptian peasants discovered an urn while digging in a cave in the upper Nile Valley, near the town of Nag Hammadi. The urn contained 52 texts which have proved to be a treasure trove for scholars and historians, as it contained many of the banned Gnostic gospels but not a single copy of a gospel now in the New Testament canon. These writings, which were read alongside the writings now in the New Testament canon by early Christians, show Jesus in a very different light than what we are accustomed to from reading the Bible. These manuscripts reflect the reality of a highly fractured church whose various factions had radically different ideas about who Jesus was. In the Gospel of Thomas for example, Jesus is not portrayed as divinity as he is in the New Testament. Jesus tells Thomas that they have both received their being from the same source. And for Gnostics, self-awareness is of utmost importance. Indeed for them, self-awareness is knowledge of God. The Gnostics emphasize spiritual awareness, looking inward for answers, free- thought, etc... In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, her will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all." ... "When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty." ... "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." One would think that these writings would also be a treasure trove to all Christians, and that anyone who really cared about Jesus' teachings would be very anxious to get their hands on a copy, that they might learn something new about their savior. But since the Nag Hammadi discovery in 1945 many Christians are reluctant to accept the teachings, even refusing to consider them. It appears a great many Christians today are simply unable to accept the notion that they may have received some bad information, or that they might not have received all of the information, as if such a thing were unheard of. This is because church authorities today, like earlier church authorities, are actively denouncing the Gnostic gospels as heresy. They don't want Christians to be free thinkers, even if Jesus advocated precisely that. Church authorities would much rather be able to control the minds of their membership. Anyone who really cared about the teachings of Jesus would want to learn more about them, all of them. But orthodox Christianity encourages people not to think so much as to simply accept Church dogma. Is dogma what Jesus advocated? Or is this precisely what he stood against? Is this what got him killed? Is this the part of his teachings that was systematically subjugated back in the early centuries of the Church, and ultimately kept out of the canon? Was Jesus' encouraging free thought a threat to the Church authorities? Did they want a movement of free thinkers to emerge? Since Jesus advocated free thought, the story would have to be changed. Would history need to be rewritten? It would. In fact, many gospels would have to be done away with - banished - outlawed - burned. Today, many Biblical scholars and historians believe that the Gospel of Thomas must be included as an authentic fifth gospel, alongside the canonical quartet of John and the 3 synoptics. It is one thing to disagree with the ideas in the Gnostic gospels, and to present arguments as to why they are not valid or true. Is is completely different to refuse to even consider them. This attitude is as instructive as any. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty." ... "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." Jesus of Nazareth (from the Gospel of Thomas)
"This is my simple religion.
There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our
own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is
kindness." Dalai Lama
"Believe nothing, no matter where
you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it
agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." Buddha |