Forwarded message from "G.Subramaniam" <gsubrec@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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[ From: "G.Subramaniam" <gsubrec@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
[ Subject: Pagan Christs
[ Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004
Links to article
http://home.earthlink.net/~pgwhacker/ChristianOrigins/PaganChrists.html
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/surfeit.htm
Here is a list of Pagan Gods whom the Christians have
copied
Where did the dying-reborn God myth start?
A: Asia minor. The ancient Greeks and Romans inherited
and adapted Gods from ancient Asia Minor (Assyria,
Babylon, Phrygia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, places like
that).
These old-ancient religions were pretty basic Mother
Earth, cycle-of-nature affairs.
You probably won't be surprised to hear Mother Earth
religions had Gods who personified the cycle-of-nature by
dying in the autumn and being reborn in the spring.
We don't know exactly when these dying-reborn Gods began
-- they date back thousands of years, basically fading
into prehistory.
We do know their names, and some of their rituals. And we
can trace the evolution of their ideas to Greece and Rome
--and on to the church in your neighborhood this weekend.
Amazing, huh?
By the time of Jesus of Nazareth, as for centuries
before, the Mediterranean world roiled with a happy
diversity of creeds and rituals. Details varied according
to location and culture, but the general outlines of
these faiths were astoni****ngly similar. Roughly speaking
the ancients' gods:
Were born on or very near our Christmas Day Were born of
a Virgin-Mother Were born in a Cave or Underground
Chamber.
Led a life of toil for Mankind.
Were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer,
Mediator, Savior, Deliverer.
Were however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness. And
descended into Hell or the Underworld.
Rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of
mankind to the Heavenly world.
Founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which
disciples were received by Baptism. Were commemorated by
Eucharistic meals.
Attis
The wor****p of Cybele and Attis dated back centuries in
Phrygia before it was im****ted to Rome in 204 BC.
Roman writers mentioning the religion include: Lucretius
(lived 98 - 54 BC), Catullus (86 -40 BC), Varro (116 - 28
BC), and Dionysus Halicarnasensis (first century BC).
Attis predated Christ. Before and during the years the
Christian Gospels were written (from the reign of
Claudius, AD 41 - 54) the Festival of Joy, celebrated
Attis' death and rebirth was celebrated yearly in Rome.
A Christian writer of the fourth century AD, recounted
ongoing disputes between Pagans and Christians over the
remarkable similarities of the death and resurrection of
their two gods. The Pagans argued that their God was
older and therefore original.
The Christians admitted Christ came later, but claimed
Attis was a work of the devil whose similarity to Christ,
and the fact he predated Christ, were intended to confuse
and mislead men.
This was apparently the stock answer -- the Christian
apologist Tertullian makes the same argument.
Attis was born of the Virgin Nana on December 25th. He
was both the Father and the Divine Son.
The Festival of Joy -- the celebration of Attis' death
and rebirth On March 22 a pine tree was brought to the
sanctuary of Cybele, on it hung the effigy of Attis. The
God was dead. Two days of mourning followed, but when
night fell on the eve of the third day, the wor****ppers
turned to joy. "For suddenly a light shone in the
darkness; the tomb was opened; the God had risen from the
dead...[and the priest] softly whispered in their ears
the glad tidings of salvation. The resurrection of the
God was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they
too would issue triumphant from the corruption of the
grave." [for more see Frazer, Attis, chapter 1]
Attis' wor****pers at a sacramental meal of bread and
wine. The wine represented the God's blood; the bread
became the body of the savoir.
They were baptized in this way: a bull was placed over a
grating, the devotee stood under the grating.
The bull was stabbed with a consecrated spear. "It's hot
reeking blood poured in torrents through the apertures
and was received with devout eagerness by the
wor****per...who had been born again to eternal life and
had washed away his sins in the blood of the bull." [for
more see Frazer, Attis, chapter 1]
Called "the Good Sheppard," the "Most High God," the
"Only Begotten Son" and "Savior."
[In Rome the new birth and the remission of sins by
shedding of bull's blood took place on what is now
Vatican Hill, in our days the site of the great basilica
of St. Peter's]
Mithras
Before Rome. When the Christ myth was new Mithras and
Mithraism were already ancient.
Wor****ped for centuries as God's Messenger of Truth,
Mithras was long revered by the Persians (Zoroastrianism)
and the Indians (see the Vedic literature).
Dating Mithras in Rome. Plutarch (Pompey, 24, 7) and
Servilius (Georgics, 4, 127) say Pompey im****ted
Mithraism into Rome after defeating the Cilician pirates
around 70 BC.
Mithras appears epigraphically in the circles of the
Roman emperor in the first century AD --around the time
the canonical Christian Gospels were written (Corpus
Incscriptionum Latinarum, 6, 732), and statues of the God
were present by 101 AD (Corpus Incscriptionum Latinarum,
6, 718).
As with Attis, Christian apologist Justin (1 Apologia,
66, 4) denounces the devil for having sent a God so
similar to Jesus -- yet preceding him.
Sadly there's a lot we don't know about this faith that
comforted million of souls.
Early Christians established the dominance of their
religion by exterminating Mithras' faithful, razing His
temples, burning His sacred texts.
We do know this:
With twelve disciples he traveled far and wide as a
teacher and illuminator of men.
He was buried in a tomb from which he rose again from the
dead -- an event celebrated yearly with much rejoicing.
Every year in Rome, in the middle of winter, the Son of
God was born one more, putting an end to darkness.
Every year at first minute of December 25th the temple of
Mithras was lit with candles, priests in in white
garments celebrated the birth of the Son of God and boys
burned incense.
Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin
mother. He came from heaven to be born as a man, to
redeem men from their sin. He was know as "Savior," "Son
of God," "Redeemer," and "Lamb of God."
His followers kept the Sabbath holy, eating sacramental
meals in remembrance of Him. The sacred meal of bread and
water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the body and
blood of the sacred bull.
Baptism in the blood of the bull (taurobolum) -- early
Baptism "washed in the blood of the Lamb" -- late Baptism
by water [recorded by the Christian author Tertullian]
Mithraic rituals brought about the transformation and
Salvation of His adherents --an ascent of the soul of the
adherent into the realm of the divine.
-From the wall of a Mithraic temple in Rome: "And thou
hast saved us by shedding the eternal blood."
The great Mithraic festivals celebrated his birth (at the
winter solstice) and his death and resurrection (at the
spring solstice)
Dionysus
The early Christians acknowledged that Dionysus (his
Greek name) / Bacchus (his Latin name) came before Jesus.
How? The Christian Father Justin Martyr, writing in the
100s AD, wrote that the Devil reading the Old Testament
prophesies of the Messiah sent Bacchus early, to trick
men about Jesus:
"The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic
words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and
...having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven."
[Justin Martyr, First Apology, 54]
Born of a Virgin on December 25th, placed in a manger. He
was a traveling teacher who performed many miracles.
Rode in a triumphal procession on an ass. Turned water
into wine.
Followers ate sacred meal that became the body of the
God.
Rose from the dead March 25th.
Identified with the ram and lamb's
Called "King of Kings," "Only Begotten Son," "Savior,"
"Redeemer," "Sin bearer," "Anointed One," the "Alpha and
Omega."
Osiris
He came to fulfill the law.
Called "KRST," the "Anointed One."
Born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave /
manger, with his birth announced by a star and attended
by three wise men.
Earthly father named "Seb" (translates to "Joseph.")
At age 12 he was a child teacher in the Temple and at 30
he was baptized, having disappeared for 18 years.
Baptized in the river Iarutana -- the river Jordan -- by
"Anup the Baptizer," who was beheaded. (Anup translates
to John.)
Traveled widely, taught men and "tamed them by music and
gentleness, not by force of arms" [Plutarch]
Performed miracles, exorcised demons, raised El-Osiris
from the dead.
Walked on water.
Betrayed by Typhon, crucified between two thieves on the
17th day of the month of Athyr.
Buried in a tomb from which he arose on the third day
(19th Athyr) and was resurrected.
His suffering, death, and resurrection celebrated each
year by His disciples on the Vernal Equinox -- Easter.
Called "The Way, the Truth, the Light," "Messiah," "god's
Anointed Son,' the "Son of Man," the "Word made Flesh,"
the "word of truth."
Expected to reign a thousand years.
Asclepius
Asclepius: Believed by the Greeks to have once lived as a
man and raised to a god after death.
He was fathered by a god – Apollo – but with a human
mother (Coronis, a beautiful maiden of Thessaly). He was
raised by the centaur Chiron in a cave and from him
learned the art of healing.
But Asclepius committed the unpardonable sin of raising a
man from the dead, enraging Hades for cheating him of
dead souls. Zeus, afraid that Asclepius might render all
men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt. Apollo
interceded on behalf of his son and persuaded Zeus to
make Asclepius the god of medicine. As an immortal,
Asclepius was able to cure the sick from the realm of the
gods. Certainly, for centuries, sick people went to the
temples dedicated to Asclepius hoping for a cure.
It was said that those who came to Asclepius on crutches
went away dancing happily.
Famous temples of the god were at Pergamum, Epidaurus,
Cos and Rome.
Full participation in the healing program involved
sleeping inside the temple compound – in effect, the
first hospitals – where 'holistic' treatment involved
massage, baths and dream interpretation.
Fortunate individuals did indeed experience a "healing
miracle" and gave testimony to the cure effected by this
Greek god.
The early Christians attacked the cult of Asclepius with
great venom, indicating a close rivalry between the two
cults and a certain embarrassment among Christians
repeatedly being told that Asclepios had already done all
of Jesus' tricks and had done them better.
End of forwarded message from "G.Subramaniam" <gsubrec@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Jai Maharaj
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Om Shanti
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