Post by Zadkiel on Jan 19, 2016 17:40:39 GMT
There is little or no debate among serious scholars that the core elements of what we now call "Christianity" have been heavily plagiarised from prior existing risen sun-god myths as to be virtually indistinguishable from many of them. Of course, first of all there is simply Judaism, which had long talked about and predicted a soon-to-arrive messiah (English: Christ). Ironically, according to them, he still hasn't come.
In his book Forgery in Christianity, Joseph Wheless describes Christian processions carrying images of idols, incense, holy water, holy oil, chants, hymns, liturgies, confessions of sins to priests, revelations by gods to priests, prophecies, sacred writings and holy crafty priesthoods. All these allegedly unique sacrosanct Christian things are age-old pre-Christian pagan traditions clothed in myths and superstitions.
Attis was born of a virgin. He was hanged on a tree, died, rose again and was called "God". Horus was born of the virgin Isis in Egypt before the first royal dynasties. Horus as an infant received gifts from three kings and was crucified on a cross. There are about 200 close parallels of the careers of Horus and Jesus. Adonis (and his alter ego Tammuz) was born of a virgin mother called Ishtar (Easter?), depicted like the "virgin" Mary with her divine child in her arms. Adonis was also regarded as God the Son. The mythology doesn't change much, just the name of the current god.
Likewise, the sun-god Mithras, who was very popular in the Roman Empire around 2000 years ago, was born of a virgin and his birthday was celebrated on 25 December. Magi brought gifts to his birth. His first worshipers were shepherds and he was followed in his travels by twelve companions. Mithras was slain upon a cross to make atonement for humankind and take away the sins of the world. His ascension to heaven was celebrated at the spring equinox (Easter). Just before his departure, Mithras celebrated "a last supper" with his 12 disciples. The Mithrasists observed weekly sabbath days and celebrated the Eucharist by eating wafers marked with a cross. Does any of this sound familiar? The parallels in Mithrasism - perhaps Christianity’s major contemporary and most competitive religion of the first century CE - are actually so striking that had Emperor Constantine not mandated that Mithrasism should be absorbed by Christianity and not vice versa, then we would have seen "Mithras-churches" dotting the landscape today in countries where Christianity is now predominant.
Most well-informed and Christian apologists - even back to the early Church Fathers - admit that the above parallels are true. So why do they still maintain the false claim that Christianity is unique?
In his book Forgery in Christianity, Joseph Wheless describes Christian processions carrying images of idols, incense, holy water, holy oil, chants, hymns, liturgies, confessions of sins to priests, revelations by gods to priests, prophecies, sacred writings and holy crafty priesthoods. All these allegedly unique sacrosanct Christian things are age-old pre-Christian pagan traditions clothed in myths and superstitions.
Attis was born of a virgin. He was hanged on a tree, died, rose again and was called "God". Horus was born of the virgin Isis in Egypt before the first royal dynasties. Horus as an infant received gifts from three kings and was crucified on a cross. There are about 200 close parallels of the careers of Horus and Jesus. Adonis (and his alter ego Tammuz) was born of a virgin mother called Ishtar (Easter?), depicted like the "virgin" Mary with her divine child in her arms. Adonis was also regarded as God the Son. The mythology doesn't change much, just the name of the current god.
Likewise, the sun-god Mithras, who was very popular in the Roman Empire around 2000 years ago, was born of a virgin and his birthday was celebrated on 25 December. Magi brought gifts to his birth. His first worshipers were shepherds and he was followed in his travels by twelve companions. Mithras was slain upon a cross to make atonement for humankind and take away the sins of the world. His ascension to heaven was celebrated at the spring equinox (Easter). Just before his departure, Mithras celebrated "a last supper" with his 12 disciples. The Mithrasists observed weekly sabbath days and celebrated the Eucharist by eating wafers marked with a cross. Does any of this sound familiar? The parallels in Mithrasism - perhaps Christianity’s major contemporary and most competitive religion of the first century CE - are actually so striking that had Emperor Constantine not mandated that Mithrasism should be absorbed by Christianity and not vice versa, then we would have seen "Mithras-churches" dotting the landscape today in countries where Christianity is now predominant.
Most well-informed and Christian apologists - even back to the early Church Fathers - admit that the above parallels are true. So why do they still maintain the false claim that Christianity is unique?
