?The chalice that held the blood of Christ? it speaks, in fact, of Mary Magdalene?the female womb that carried Jesus? royal bloodline?behold the greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but he was a father.? (Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code p.249)
The Da Vinci Code claims: Was Jesus married, and also a father?
?Mary Magdalene was pregnant at the time of the crucifixion. For the safety of Christ?s unborn child, she had no choice but to flee the Holy Land. With the help of Jesus? trusted uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. Mary Magdalene secretly traveled to France, then known as Gaul. There she found safe refuge in the Jewish community. It was here in France that she gave birth to a daughter. Her name was Sarah.? ( The Da Vinci Code p.255)
?The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.?
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History’s version of the events:
Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus and the first to see the resurrected Lord (John 19). This Mary was of the city of Magdala, a wealthy city. She was healed by Jesus and became one of his supporters (Lk 8:2, 3). The scriptures never said she was a prostitute and it wasn?t Peter who authored the rumor, but Pope Gregory the Great 5 centuries years later.
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She was his wife. The Christian concept that Jesus was God and therefore he was untouchable by anybody is nonsense, because as a Jew he would have had to conform to Jewish tradition at that time?and Jewish tradition said that the male had to marry and have children. And he was also heir to the throne of David. It would have been incumbent on him to produce another heir to keep the bloodline going. Had he not been married and done that, he couldn?t have been the heir to the throne.
And Mary Magdalene came from a very important family?far more important than the Christian gospels tells us. And it probably was an arranged marriage by the two families to promote the aristocracy because Jesus was certainly an aristocrat, not just a humble carpenter
Truth,
You are coming from the perspective that Jesus was not divine and just a man. If Jesus was divine he wouldn’t need a bloodline.
I have a question to for you. Jesus was born from a virgin , if that doesn’t make you a divine being then what does? If Jesus was divine why would he need to follow the Jewish laws. Jesus was born to set us from all the Jewish old testament laws.
Re: Leah – virgin birth.
His vigin birth was a miracle. That wouldn’t make him divine. The miracles He performed, and then his rising from the dead, these were indications of his divinity. But you can’t prove it. You either believe it, or you don’t.
Re: Truth – Jesus’s blood line.
He was decendent from David through the Virgin Mary. He would not have been in line for the throne of Isriel. By his own words, his kingdom was not of this world.
And again, whether he married Mary Magdalene or not, it has no reflection on his divinity. If he is divine, then he needs no blood line, and if he isn’t, then there is very little significance to his blood line.
Jesus’ kingdom is not here on earth. Even his deciples had a hard time understanding that he didn’t come here to wear royal robes and cut down his enemies. Jesus is the promised savior from the old testament. There are many decendents of the bloodline of the house of David. Because of Gods promises Jesus was born of the house of David through the virgin Mary. Mary had other children James and Martha who too have contributed to the house of David but their father was Joseph.
Jesus preached peace and love. He said that whatever you do to the least of men you have done to him.
If you really want to know more about Jesus start in Genesis and end in Revelations. I am sure you will get the overall synopsis. Either you believe in the Holy word “the two edged sword” or you don’t. Isn’t it easy to see that you can only do Holy battle against evil with the armour of the real truth, “the word”.
Alan,
I think we are on the same page. I was just trying to make the point that Jesus was divine and not just a mortal man.
Mary, Jesus’ mother was a wonderful woman, blessed of God, a virgin, but she was not sinless. She was born with original sin just like the rest of us. In fact, In Luke 1:46-47, also called Mary’s Song, she acknowledges her need for a Savior. “My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
Mary went on to have other children. The Bible says Jesus’ brothers were named James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. His sisters were mentioned but not their names. Sister’s is plural so we know Jesus had at least 2 sisters. As Jesus hung from the cross, He spoke to John who was standing there with Mary, Jesus’mother and Jesus told John to look after her…to take her as his mother. Wonder why he didn’t think to provide for Mary Magdeline if she was His wife..or His children? Why would he begin a marriage and family only to leave them alone. I’m beginning to think Dan Brown has an “axe to grind” with Jesus. If Dan were to believe in the diety of Christ, that would make him responsible and accountable for his sins. It’s much easier to deify self and reject the authenticity of a God-man, then there is no condemnation.
Rosie, I see that you are very well armoured with the word.
The Bible says that Jesus will come and destroy the anti Christ with a shout.
The truth will set us free!
Thank you for the additional information.
The Bible story of Jesus is a contradictory and confusing account. The Bible shows that this Jesus fellow spoke and taught many absurd and foolish things, and often believed he was having a conversation with devils. If one will read the entire Bible, one will find tales of ignorance, murder, sexual perversions, mass insanity, idiotic laws, and even cannibalism and human sacrifice. It staggers the imagination how anyone in his right mind could read the Bible and believe that it was written by a wise, just, and loving god. Christians have found biblical scriptures telling them to burn people at the stake, to justify slavery, to oppress and persecute others, and to kill and commit war in the name of their god. Unfortunately, there are some even today who would have us return to the teachings and laws found in the Bible.
We are taught in our culture that Jesus is the divine hero, but other cultures have different saviors. Religious beliefs are a function of the culture in which one lives. If we had been reared in a different culture, we would have heard the story of a different savior, instead of the Jesus story. Upon comparing the stories of the different saviors, one finds that the similarities are so striking, it is beyond a doubt that they are more than just a coincidence.
Jesus is a myth just like all the other saviors and gods of old. Atheism is the clear and rational alternative to the confusion, fear, and superstition that are offered by religion. Atheism encourages freedom of thought and inquiry, while religion by its very nature has to encourage unquestioning obedience and blind faith in doctrines. Belief in god myths has brought misery, suppression of thought and inquiry, fear, and has promoted ignorance. The human race no longer needs these myths of old. Just as little children grow up and learn the truth about the existence of the tooth fairy, the human race needs to mature and learn the truth about the existence of god.
the Bible did not assume anything like its present form until the fourth century. The Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Protestant canons were not adopted until modern times. The Bible was recognized as a collection of independent writings. The Council of Trent (1563) determined the Roman Catholic, Protestants denounce the Catholic Bible as a “popish imposture.” The Greek Catholics at the Council of Jerusalem in 1672 finally accepted the book of Revelation. Their Bible contains several books not in the Roman canon. The Westminster Assembly in 1647 approved the list of sixty-six books composing the authorized version, the one most used in America. Our Bible, therefore, is less than 300 years old.
because I cannot keep it back, because I have nothing better to say than the truth, or what I hold to be the truth. But why seek truths that are not pleasant? We cannot help it. No man can suppress the truth. Truth finds a crack or crevice to crop out of; it bobs up to the surface and all the volume and weight of waters can not keep it down. Truth prevails! Life, death, truth — behold, these three no power can keep back. And since we are doomed to know the truth, let us cultivate a love for it. It is of no avail to cry over lost illusions, to long for vanished dreams, or to call to the departing gods to come back. It may be pleasant to play with toys and dolls all our life, but evidently we are not meant to remain Children always. The time comes when we must put away childish things and obey the summons of truth, stern and high. A people who fear the truth can never be a free people. If what I will say is the truth, do you know of any good reason why I should not say it? And if for prudential reasons I should sometimes hold back the truth, how would you know when I am telling what I believe to be the truth, and when I am holding it back for reasons of policy?
The truth, however unwelcome, is not injurious; it is error which raises false hopes, which destroys, degrades and pollutes, and which, sooner or later, must be abandoned. Was it not Spencer, whom Darwin called “our great philosopher,” who said, “Repulsive as is its aspect, the hard fact which dissipates a cherished illusion is presently found to contain the germ of a more salutary belief?” Spain is decaying today because her teachers, for policy’s sake, are withholding the disagreeable truth from the people. Holy water and sainted bones can give a nation illusions and dreams, but never, — strength.
A difficult subject is in the nature of a challenge to the mind. One difficult task attempted is worth a thousand commonplace efforts completed. The majority of people avoid the difficult and fear danger. But he who would progress must even court danger. Political and religious liberty were discovered through peril and struggle. The world owes its emancipation to human daring. Had Columbus feared danger, America might have slept for another thousand years.
I have a difficult subject in hand. It is also a delicate one. But I am determined not only to know, if it is possible, the whole truth about Jesus, but also to communicate that truth to others. Some people can keep their minds shut. I cannot; I must share my intellectual life with the world. If I lived a thousand years ago, I might have collapsed at the sight of the burning stake, but I feel sure I would have deserved the stake.
People say to me, sometimes, Why do you not confine yourself to moral and religious exhortation, such as, ‘Be kind, do good, love one another, etc.’?” But there is more of a moral tonic in the open and candid discussion of a subject like the one in hand, than in a multitude of platitudes. We feel our moral fiber stiffen into force and purpose under the inspiration of a peril dared for the advancement of truth.
“Tell us what you believe,” is one of the requests frequently addressed to me. I never deliver a lecture in which I do not, either directly or indirectly, give full and free expression to my faith in everything that is worthy of faith. If I do not believe in dogma, it is because I believe in freedom. If I do not believe in one inspired book, it is because I believe that all truth and only truth is inspired. If I do not ask the gods to help us, it is because I believe in human help, so much more real than supernatural help. If I do not believe in standing still, it is because I believe in progress. If I am not attracted by the vision of a distant heaven, it is because I believe in human happiness, now and here. If I do not say “Lord, Lord!” to Jesus, it is because I bow my head to a greater Power than Jesus, to a more efficient Savior than he has ever been — Science!
“Oh, he tears down, but does not build up,” is another criticism about my work. it is not true. No preacher or priest is more constructive. To build up their churches and maintain their creeds the priests pulled down and destroyed the magnificent civilization of Greece and Rome, plunging Europe into the dark and sterile ages which lasted over a thousand years. When Galileo waved his hands for joy because he believed be had enriched humanity with a new truth and extended the sphere of knowledge, what did the church do to him? It conspired to destroy him. It shut him up in a dungeon! Clapping truth into jail; gagging the mouth of the student — is that building up or tearing down? When Bruno lighted a new torch to increase the light of the world what was his reward? The stake! During all the ages that the church had the power to police the world, every time a thinker raised his head he was clubbed to death. Do you think it is kind of us — does it square with our sense of justice to call the priest constructive, and the scientists and philosophers who have helped people to their feet — helped them to self-government in politics, and to self-help in life, — destructive? Count your rights — political, religious, social, intellectual — and tell me which of them was conquered for you by the priest.
“He is irreverent,” is still another hasty criticism I have heard advanced against the rationalist. I wish to tell you something. But first let us be impersonal. The epithets “irreverent,” “blasphemer,” “atheist,” and “infidel,” are flung at a man, not from pity, but from envy. Not having the courage or the industry of our neighbor who works like a busy bee in the world of men and books, searching with the sweat of his brow for the real bread of life, wetting the open page before him with his tears, pushing into the “wee” hours of the night his quest, animated by the fairest of all loves, the love of truth, — we ease our own indolent conscience by calling him names. We pretend that it is not because we are too lazy or too selfish to work as hard or think as freely as he does, but because we do not want to be as irreverent as he is that we keep the windows of our minds shut. To excuse our own mediocrity we call the man who tries to get out of the rut a “blasphemer.” And so we ask the world to praise our indifference as a great virtue, and to denounce the conscientious toil and thought of another, as “blasphemy.”
the most impossible utterances are put in Jesus’ mouth. He is made to say: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do.” No man who makes such a promise can keep it. It is not sayings like the above that can prove a man a God. Has Jesus kept his promise? Does he give his people everything, or “whatsoever” they ask of him? But, it is answered, “Jesus only meant to say that he would give whatever he himself considered good for his friends to have.” Indeed! Is that the way to crawl out of a contract? If that is what he meant, why did he say something else? Could he not have said just what he meant, in the first place? Would it not have been fairer not to have given his friends any occasion for false expectations? Better to promise a little and do more, than to promise everything and do nothing. But to say that Jesus really entered into any such agreement is to throw doubt upon his existence. Such a character is too wild to be real. Only a mythical Jesus could virtually hand over the government of the universe to courtier who have petitions to press upon his attention. Moreover, if Jesus could keep his promise, there would be today no misery in the world, no orphans, no childless mothers no shipwrecks, no floods, no famines, no disease, no crippled children, no insanity, no wars, no crime, no wrong! Have not a thousand, thousand prayers been offered in Jesus’ name against every evil which has ploughed the face of our earth? Have these prayers been answered? Then why is there discontent in the world? Can the followers of Jesus move mountains, drink deadly poisons, touch serpents, or work greater miracles than are ascribed to Jesus, as it was promised that they would do? How many self- deluded prophets these extravagant claims have produced! And who can number the bitter disappointments caused by such
Stories of gods born of virgins are to be found in nearly every age and country. There have been many virgin mothers, and Mary with her child is but a recent version of a very old and universal myth. In China and India, in Babylonia and Egypt, in Greece and Rome, “divine” beings selected from among the daughters of men the purest and most beautiful to serve them as a means of entrance into the world of mortals. Wishing to take upon themselves the human form, while retaining at the same time their “divinity,” this compromise — of an earthly mother with a “divine” father — was effected. In the form of a swan Jupiter approached Leda, as in the guise of a dove, or a Paracletug, Jehovah “overshadowed” Mary.
A nymph bathing in a river in China is touched by a lotus plant, and the divine Fohi is born.
In Siam, a wandering sunbeam caresses a girl in her teens, and the great and wonderful deliverer, Codom, is born. In the life of Buddha we read that he descended on his mother Maya, “in likeness as the heavenly queen, and entered her womb,” and was born from her right side, to save the world.” [Stories of Virgin Births. Reference: Lord Macartney. Voyage dans 'interview de la Chine et en Tartarie. Vol. I p. 48. See also Les Vierges Meres et les Naissance Miraculeuse. P. Saintyves. p. 19, etc.] In Greece, the young god Apollo visits a fair maid of Athens, and a Plato is ushered into the world.
In ancient Mexico, as well as in Babylonia, and in modern Corea, as in modern Palestine, as in the legends of all lands, virgins gave birth and became divine mothers. But the real home of virgin births is the land of the Nile. Eighteen hundred years before Christ, we find carved on one of the walls of the great temple of Luxor a picture of the annunciation, conception and birth of King Amunothph III, an almost exact copy of the annunciation, conception and birth of the Christian God. Of course no one will think of maintaining that the Egyptians borrowed the idea from the Catholics nearly two thousand years before the Christian era. “The story in the Gospel of Luke, the first and second chapters is,” says Malvert, “a reproduction, ‘point by point,’ of the story in stone of the miraculous birth of Amunothph.” [Science and Religion. p. 96.]
Sharpe in his Egyptian Mythology, page 19, gives the following description of the, Luxor picture, quoted by G.W. Foote in his ‘Bible Romances,’ page 126: “In this picture we have the annunciation, the conception, the birth and the adoration, as described in the first and second chapters of Luke’s Gospel.” Massey gives a more minute description of the Luxor picture. “The first scene on the left hand shows the god Taht, the divine Wolrd or Loges, in the act of hailing the virgin queen, announcing to her that she is to give birth to a son. In the second scene the god Kneph (assisted by Hathor) gives life to her. This is the Holy Ghost, or Spirit that causes conception. … Next the mother is seated on the midwife’s stool, and the child is supported in the hands of one of the nurses. The fourth scene is that of the adoration. Here the child is enthroned, receiving homage from the gods and gifts from men.” [Natural Geneses. Massey, Vol. II, p. 398.] The picture on the wall of the Luxor temple, then, is one of the sources to which the anonymous writers of the Gospels went for their miraculous story. It is no wonder they suppressed their own identity as well as the source from which they borrowed their material.
Not only the idea of a virgin mother, but all the other miraculous events, such as the stable cradle, the guiding star, the massacre of the children, the flight to Egypt, and the resurrection and bodily ascension toward the clouds, have not only been borrowed, but are even scarcely altered in the New Testament story of Jesus.
That the early Christians borrowed the legend of Jesus from earthly sources is too evident to be even questioned. Gerald Massey in his great work on Egyptian origins demonstrates the identity of Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Isis, the mother of Horus. He says: “The most ancient, goldbedizened, smoke-stained Byzantine pictures of the virgin and child represent the mythical mother as Isis, and not as a human mother of Nazareth. [Vol. II, p. 487.] Science and research have made this fact so certain that, on the one hand ignorance, and on the other interest only, can continue to claim inspiration for the authors of the undated and unsigned fragmentary documents which pass for the Word of God. If, then, Jesus is stripped of all the borrowed legends and miracles of which he is the subject; and if we also take away from him all the teachings which collected from Jewish and Pagan sources have been attributed to him — what will be left of him? That the ideas put in his mouth have been culled and compiled from other sources is as demonstrable as the Pagan origin of the legends related of him.
Nearly every one of the dogmas and ceremonies in the Christian cult were borrowed from other and older religions. The resurrection myth, the ascension, the eucharist, baptism, worship by kneeling or prostration, the folding of the hands on the breast, the ringing of bells and the burning of incense, the vestments and vessels used in church, the candles, “holy” water, — even the word Mass, were all adopted and adapted by the Christians from the religions of the ancients. The Trinity is as much Pagan, as much Indian or Buddhist, as it is Christian. The idea of a Son of God is as old as ‘the oldest cult. The sun is the son of heaven in all primitive faiths. The physical sun becomes in the course of evolution, the Son of Righteousness, or the Son of God, and heaven is personified as the Father on High. The halo around the head of Jesus, the horns of the older deities, the rays of light radiating from the heads of Hindu and Pagan gods are incontrovertible evidence that all gods were at one time — the sun in heaven.
I was quite surprised when I read “the truth”s comments, so please indulge me as I respond point-by-point to what he/she wrote:
“The Bible shows that this Jesus fellow spoke and taught many absurd and foolish things”
Such as? Even most of those who cannot accept that Jesus is God accept Jesus as a “great teacher” (even if that position is untenable). Which statements of Jesus do you consider “absurd” or “foolish”?
“If one will read the entire Bible, one will find tales of ignorance, murder, sexual perversions … It staggers the imagination how anyone in his right mind could read the Bible and believe that it was written by a wise, just, and loving god.”
We shouldn’t confuse what the Bible *records* with what it *endorses*. There are many things that the Bible tells us about that it does not at all endorse. There are indeed stories of murder, sexual perversions, etc, but clearly these things are not encouraged. If a newspaper reports on a rape that occurred, they are not endorsing the rape.
“Christians have found biblical scriptures telling them to burn people at the stake, to justify slavery, to oppress and persecute others, and to kill and commit war”
Mankind doesn’t need to misread the Bible in order to commit atrocities; communism showed us that quite graphically. Here’s a useful example: Imagine a police officer is found to be corrupt. He steals, fabricates evidence, abuses people, is racist, etc. Now, from this can we conclude that all police officers are evil, and/or we should eliminate the entire police force? Certainly not. This one person would not only be acting entirely opposite to how police officers should act by definition (and thus should not be truly considered a police officer at all) they also are not indicative of the vast majority of police officers who provide a necessary service. The same principle can be applied to Christians; I don’t deny that Christians have unfortunately committed some heinous acts, but that does not invalidate the truth of the gospel message.
“Atheism encourages freedom of thought and inquiry, while religion by its very nature has to encourage unquestioning obedience and blind faith in doctrines.”
No one here encourages “blind faith”. Unlike most religions, Christianity is firmly routed in history, and the claim that Christians promote faith against all rationality is false. I came from an atheist background and accepted Christ after a long period of careful investigation. I did not throw my brain away when I became Christian because there was no need to.
“Jesus is a myth just like all the other saviors and gods of old.”
Christianity is different from other faiths in three major ways: The historical reliability of the Bible, the person of Jesus Christ, and salvation by grace through faith alone. Of course there will be parallels to the old “saviors” and “gods of old”, but a) This is to be expected to some extent since they deal with similar subject matter, b) Does not prove any copying occured, c) The similarities are often overblown or simply false (ex. Mithras), d) The old myths were not rooted in history as the Bible is.
“Just as little children grow up and learn the truth about the existence of the tooth fairy, the human race needs to mature and learn the truth about the existence of god.”
This sort of argument is designed to provoke an emotional reaction; surely there are good philosophical arguments for God’s existence (Kalam argument, argument from design, ontological argument, and many more), so comparing the tooth fairy to God is, well, “absurd and foolish”.
“the Bible did not assume anything like its present form until the fourth century.”
Sorry, this statement is not accurate. The Muratorian Fragment, for example, from the mid-2nd century, lists almost all of the accepted biblical texts as canonical. You are correct that the Bible was indeed recognized as a collection of independent writings. The different letters and writings that make up the New Testament are “occational literature”, for example Paul wrote a letter to the Romans to discuss specific issues. Its too long to go into detail here, but suffice to say that the canon of the new testament was not decided “300 years ago”, and was not “collated” by Constantine as stated in The Da Vinci Code. The fact that Greek Catholics accepted the book of Revelation relatively recently only confirms that the early church was correct in accepting it to begin with. The Gospels were included in the NT because (among other reasons) they were the earliest gospel documents that had been in use in the church for quite some time; so-called “gnostic gospels” such as those used to suggest Jesus was married (trying to bring this back to the original topic of this blog entry heh) were written at least 50 years later than the gospels found in the NT, and hence were largely and rightly ignored by the early church.
Sorry for the long reply, but I felt certain issues raised here should not go unchallenged.
One additional note, since “the truth”s last post was added before I completed my reply:
“The physical sun becomes in the course of evolution, the Son of Righteousness, or the Son of God, and heaven is personified as the Father on High. The halo around the head of Jesus, the horns of the older deities, the rays of light radiating from the heads of Hindu and Pagan gods are incontrovertible evidence that all gods were at one time ? the sun in heaven.”
Sun -> Son? Only in English I’m afraid. The “halo around the head of Jesus”? I don’t remember that from the Bible.
“Nearly every one of the dogmas and ceremonies in the Christian cult were borrowed from other and older religions.”
First of all, my point in my original reply still stands; see points a) to d) in my post above. Moreover, notice that most of the similarities are, when you stop to look at them, stretching quite a bit. For example: “A nymph bathing in a river in China is touched by a lotus plant, and the divine Fohi is born.” This is the virgin birth? It’d take quite an imagination to stretch it that far.
Another idea to ponder: IF the gospel stories about Jesus are true, then perhaps some of these early mythical stories are indicative of the hunger & thirst of humankind for a greater truth that was just out of their perception. As the prophets of the Old Testament had a yearning that they could not quite grasp, perhaps some of these ancient stories reflect the vague understanding of those who perceived a small piece of the truth that was yet to be fully revealed: A yearning that was fulfilled in Jesus Himself. :)
When we have a God for a teacher, the highest and surest virtue is unconditional acquiescence. Judaism, Mohaemmedanism and Christianity, in giving us a God for a teacher, have taken away from us the liberty to think for ourselves. Each one of these three religions makes unconditional obedience the price of the salvation it offers, but do you know what other word in the English language unconditional obedience is a synonym of? — Silence! A dumb world, a tongue-tied humanity alone can be saved! The good man is the man on his knees with his mouth in the dust. But silence is sterility! Silence is slavery! Think, then, of the character of a religion which makes free speech, free thought, a crime —
Without belief in Jesus, the Christian religion loses all justification for its existence. As such, it becomes of vital importance to examine what is claimed about the Biblical Jesus and to evaluate these claims. Compounding this ideological importance, recent events in theology like the Jesus Seminar have put into question the deeds of the Biblical Jesus.
What exactly does the Bible claim that Jesus did? The most striking feature of Jesus’ life is the incredible scope of the miracles he is said to have participated in. He is claimed to have turned water into wine and materialized loaves and fishes to feed thousands after thousands, to have walked on water and tamed the storm, exorcised demons and cured the masses, and raised the dead; and he was publicly judged, crucified, and resurrected (for a complete list with verses, see The Miracles of Jesus Christ). He was born of a virgin, was entombed and rose from the dead after three days, and ascended to Heaven.
One problem of these claims is that they are far from original. All of Jesus’ attributes and miracles were already present in earlier myths. Mithraism, a religion that co-existed with Christianity but began much earlier, is the best example of this. Mithra was born of a virgin, his birth was celebrated on December 25th, performed miracles with 12 disciples, held a last supper, resurrected after three days on the spring equinox, and ascended to Heaven.
Also, Zoroaster, Horus, Krishna (member of the Hindu trinity), Bacchus, Prometheus, Indra, and a great deal of other deities or legendary characters were born by virgin birth and shared many other attributes with Jesus. Empedocles was reported as preaching, curing illnesses, controlling the storms, and raising the dead. Dionysus had a last supper. Bacchus turned water into wine. Osiris died and was resurrected. And so on and so forth. In fact, some early Christians condemned the idea of the crucifixion because it was considered pagan !
These other myths are a strong indication of the origins of the Jesus myth, if it is indeed a myth. But if Jesus did exist, then these claims would be irrelevant. Therefore we must examine the evidence.
But the problem here is that there is no evidence. No contemporary evidence (let alone credible contemporary evidence) has ever been proposed for the existence of Jesus.
Even the Gospels are widely admitted to having been written after Jesus’ death. According to the evidence we have within the text itself, the earliest gospel – the Gospel of Mark – was probably written between 70 and 75 CE, although Catholic sources claim the date was closer to 50 CE. Either way, it was clearly written after Jesus died, supposedly 33 CE.
As for historical sources, only one of them is reported to have been written during the first century – Josephus’ “Antiquities”, in 90-95 CE. His two short mentions of a man named Jesus who had disciples and did good works are under heavy controversy, and recently, the discovery of the probable original of “Antiquities” shows that one of the two passages was an interpolation. Even if all these objections are false, Josephus cannot be a contemporary source.
Thallus is also reported as having talked about the crucifixion of Jesus, but this is only known second-hand, and critics claim that he said nothing about Jesus.
Such a deafening silence on the existence of any other historical figures would be extremely suspicious. In the case of an earth-shaking messiah who raised the dead and fed the multitudes, clearly we should find masses of testimonies and evidence, but we find none. It is clearly an argument for the non-existence of Jesus.
But the clinching evidence is that even Christian leaders considered Jesus purely as a mythical figure and did not know anything about his life.
“In the first half century of Christian correspondence, including letters attributed to Paul and other epistles under names like Peter, James and John, the Gospel story cannot be found. When these writers speak of their divine Christ, echoes of Jesus of Nazareth are virtually inaudible, including details of a life and ministry, the circumstances of his death, the attribution of any teachings to him. God himself is often identified as the source of Christian ethics. No one speaks of miracles performed by Jesus, his apocalyptic predictions, his views on any of the great issues of the time. The very fact that he preached in person is never mentioned, his appointment of apostles or his directive to carry the message to the nations of the world is never appealed to. No one looks back to Jesus? life and ministry as the genesis of the Christian movement, or as the pivot point of salvation history.”
may I add that Paul himself didn’t know about the virgin birth. In Romans 1:1-3, he claims that Jesus was the son of Joseph, who was established as a descendant of David.
Considering all these facts, the truth is clear: there never was a Jesus who did these miracles and was resurrected. Jesus started as a myth and later became an object of worship. Regardless of whether we believe in God or not, the religion of Christianity, insofar as it is based on the existence of Jesus, is pure historical absurdity. The doctrine of Jesus’ existence is a Big Lie (i.e. an absurdity repeated again and again to enforce belief).
Here is a short list of writers and historians who lived within the same century as the Jesus myth. Remember that of all these, only one (Josephus) is said to have written anything about it, and it is decried by most scholars as an interpolation :
Caius Suetonius, Josephus, Philo-Jud?us, Seneca, Pliny Elder, Arrian, Petronius, Dion Pruseus, Paterculus, Juvenal, Martial, Persius, Plutarch, Pliny Younger, Tacitus, Justus of Tiberius, Apollonius, Quintilian, Lucanus, Epictetus, Hermogones, Silius Italicus, Statius, Ptolemy, Appian, Phlegon, Ph?drus, Valerius Maximus, Lucian, Pausanias, Florus Lucius, Quintius Curtius, Aulus Gellius, Dio Chrysostom, Columella Valerius Flaccus, Damis, Favorinus, Lysias, Pomponius Mela, Appion of Alexandria, Theon of Smyrna, Justus of Tiberias
Obviously “the truth” enjoys hearing his own voice. His posts above are a mix of halftruths and outright misinformation. A few examples:
“the Gospel story cannot be found” in Paul’s letters
Sorry “the truth” but this is not correct, but I’m glad “the truth” brought this up. Let’s see what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
Sounds like the Gospel story can be found in Paul after all. :) Scholars have identified this passage as being an early church creed, dated back to only a few years after Jesus’ death.
“may I add that Paul himself didn?t know about the virgin birth”
Since Paul didn’t mention it, he didn’t know about it? Paul as “the truth” noted was writing occational literature, not a list of Christian doctrine. He was responding to questions or needs within the early church; apparently Jesus’ virgin birth was not a big issue with them. Besides, Paul insinuates the vigrin birth in his writing, such as in Romans 8:3. Finally, Paul “resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1Cor2:2) so his focus was on the resurrection, not Jesus’ birth.
“Here is a short list of writers and historians who lived within the same century as the Jesus myth … only one (Josephus) is said to have written anything about it”
First of all, this statement is false. Tacitus (who is on “the truth”s list) wrote about Christ and early Christians in the first century when describing how Nero used Christians as scapegoats for a fire in Rome. There are also other examples of early references. Secondly, there is no reason for most of the people on “the truth”s list to mention Jesus; why would those writing history for Rome mention the leader of what was, at the time, a relatively small religious group that was no fan of the historian’s Roman leaders?
I could go on, but these posts are already much too long, not to mention veering totally off-topic. I’d rather give others a chance to talk. But I emplore those reading this not to be distracted by “the truth”s smokescreens and investigate this for yourself. The vast majority of historians (Christian and secular) agree Jesus lived. The question is, was Jesus merely a man, or God come to Earth?
Jesus is a myth so he wasnt married,..on topic…for ya…lol
Boy, “truth” you contradict yourself. You say there is no evidence of “Jesus The Christ” yet you quote information you have collected on him.
It appears that you are bound to try and discredit him.
Jesus had made it thus far with Christian chruch’s in every neighborhood.
“The real truth” is in the holy bible and it is what makes christians “free”.
You obviously have never had a relationship with Jesus.
Maybe you’re aggressivily working for the other side.
There is still time to be saved, all you have to do is believe.
Jesus made it simple even for a little child to understand.
You must ask for forgivness in order to be forgiven. I am sure you know of John “chapter three, verse sixteen”. Jesus is not a myth, he is alive and well, and living with us.
this was a very good article it ansered most of my questions…but to emily below me…im sorry to say that i do not believe whatsoever that we can trust everyhing the bible has said….im not saying it is a lie…just do not discredit any theorys because it it is not in the bibel its very narrow mimded and foolish to do so..
lola u are soo right
It is one thing to doubt the word and another to insert outrages theories based upon bias opinions. You don’t need to look very hard in the Bible to find the truth in just what Jesus said alone. {Generally printed in red.)
Amen, Augustus. The Truth will set you free and you will be free indeed! How awesome to feel safe and secure in the promises of God’s Word. How comforting not to have to wonder or be confused, but to have the wonderful assurance of your eternal destination through Jesus Christ. As I have read through the various intellectual and sophisticated comments, I still see within the words…a sense of longing for the truth because God has created us in His image and placed in us a God-shaped vacuum that ONLY He can fill. The searching for truth will go on until you come to the “real” truth…Jesus Christ. How do I know this? He changed my life. I’m not the person I used to be, praise God. He rescued me and gave me a whole new purpose for living. He will do that for anyone who truly seeks Him.
Firstly: Jesus expressively was if he was .. no ?god? but human being
Joh 8:40 (NRSV)
40 but now you are trying to kill me (Jesus), a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
I (Jesus) was human being. This ?- precisely this ? is what the ?god? of Christian ? sect says about himself. That is what the instigator of Christians? sect says about himself if scruples of his are strong enough to keep him to the truths!
Here, he differs between human being (himself) and god. Once more, his scruples are establishing its place. In this case, he keeps to the truths instead of playing an impostor and living delusion of grandeur to the full, viz, palming himself off as ?god? on the victims of his deceits. What honest one sincerely ever could contest that at least in the beginning Yehoshua-ben-Pandera (aka: Jesus ?Christ?) suffered from scruples committing his crime of posing as ?god??
One should think it over: Millions of individuals are tormented, tortured and massacred by Christians because they say that this instigator of Christian organized crime (?religion?), i.e., Yehoshua-ben-Pandera (aka: Jesus ?Christ?) was a human being.
Hey Truth
I am just wondering from what view point you come from. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Heaven? If you believe in these two things in your understanding how can you get to Heaven?
Your arguement has been against Jesus being a Saviour, so I am just wondering what your stance is on God.
Just curious truth, what bible do you quote from? We don’t seem to be on the same page.
Life’s just an accident and so are you. You can find short term reasons for living like you’re here because your parents wanted to have children, etc., but ultimately you’re just an accident and so are your parents. Life is one big accident. You serve no purpose, you’ll cause no lasting effect, and in the grand scheme of things your life is utterly meaningless. Without a Creator in the beginning, there was nobody around to put you here on purpose which means you aren’t here for a reason. It’s that simple.
Our worth is ultimately subjective. You might think you’re worth something but someone else might think you’re worthless, and as long as there’s no transcendent Assessor to have the final say, no one’s ultimately right or wrong. In fact, there’s really no such thing as right or wrong.
MY STANCE IS absolute truth is a logical necessity,
there are some religious orientations (atheistic humanists, for example) who argue against the existence of absolute truth. Humanism’s exclusion of God necessitates moral relativism. Humanist John Dewey (1859-1952), co-author and signer of the Humanist Manifesto 1 (1933), declared, “There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes.” Humanists believe one should do, as one feels is right. hope that answers your?
Yes, it does. I personally could not live in your world. To have no purpose, no direction, no Heaven seems very meaningless to me. Is there anything good, any joy in the world you live Truth?
I believe that there has to be a moral code that people should live by instead of doing what feels right or else we would live in total anarchy.
Do you believe we need a moral code to live by Truth?
Truth, I’ve never read someone type those words so clearly. Thank you for sharing. I wonder, do you ever wish life wasn’t like you believe it to be? Is there a part of you that wants there to be more to both life and death, or are you content in the way things are? Your words facinate me.
the bible on a whole is silly and racist
The Bible always mentioned leprosy in the context of the skin turning white because of a disease or in relationship to some specific wrongdoing.
Leviticus 13:2 states:
“When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy. Then he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the sons of the priest”.
Verse 4: If the bright spot be WHITE in the skin of his flesh, the priest shall shut up him that has the plague seven days.
Verse 6: And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and behold, if the plague be somewhat DARK, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab; and he shall wash his clothes and be clean”.
In the 2nd and 4th verse a bright or white spot in the skin is mentioned. A bright spot means a spot that is lighter than the regular dark brown / black skin. Moses said in the sixth verse: “And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day, and behold if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean…”
This is because the skin is getting darker like his original skin tone. A black skinned man or woman with these spots covering some part of their body is a partial leper. However, once the plague of the whiteness has covered his entire body from his head to his feet, the leper is clean. He has completely changed his color like the albino. The people who had this form of leprosy in the bible CAN BE classified as albino, and these albinos are the only white skinned Hebrews that existed in ancient times. They were the minority. If Israel was a white skinned people in biblical times, why does The Bible only speak of them as TURNING WHITE OR BECOMING WHITE WITH LEPROSY (in reference to their skin color). Read 2nd Kings 5:27
if the Hebrews were a white-skinned people, as we have been led to believe, the Canaanite who were familiar with both the Hebrews and Egyptians would have acknowledged them both by saying, “THIS IS A GRIEVOUS MOURNING TO THE EGYPTIANS AND HEBREWS.” The scripture goes on to say that the Canaanite named the place where they saw this great mourning for a HEBREW Abel Mizraim which means the meadow of Egypt/Mizraim or Mourning of the Egyptians.
Now let’s go to the most famous story, of the Hebrews sojourn in Egypt, which would be the story of Moses. Many years after the death of Joseph, His brothers and all that generation that entered Egypt during the time he was viceroy. The Hebrew population in Egypt grew tremendously. Because of this, they were no longer looked upon as friendly neighbors. In fact, the Egyptians considered them hostile enemies and enslaved them. (Other ethnic groups were enslaved by the Egyptians during this time also.
silly book of lies…How can the Bible be written by people, yet be the Word of God?
not live in my world…imagine for a moment that there is no God……………………….
That we are just here. That we come into being and pass away and the rest of the human race after us carries our memories and in some cases our genes.
Is that such a bad thing? Do we cease to have meaning? Cease to love one another any less. Cease to struggle? Cease to care.
Or do we start to just live moment by moment and understand that our actions,
our words, our deeds are of our own making and therefore our responsibility.
Be remembered for what you do here. The reward is your life and the world you create and the memories and positve change your life causes.Don’t wait for the next life or heaven. Create it here!
Look at the world around you. There are many things that are wrong and need to change. Stop blaming God for them. Don’t expect divine intervention. We are the ones that inhabit this planet it is our responsibility.
Believe in yourself and the power you have to create change in the world around you. Start small, change happens person by person.
Begin the revolution, Begin believing that you are the God that lives inside you and imagine that perfect part of yourself in others.
I don’t believe in religions. Because I don’t need them. I don’t need someone imaginary to tell me what to do.
i was out of town and
My cab driver was telling me that he was attending a program at his church. It’s about spirituality and such. Some of the topics he mentioned are generation curses, how husbands should behave, how girls or women should behave, and that coming forward, confessing would have to relinquish those bonds so that the blessings that god gave will go through instead of coming upon a stumbling block. Well more or less these are the words that me mentioned. Also, he mentioned that some people are so touched, they cried, they felt relieved upon confessing their sins.
Religion is one of the element that bonds the society, that helped shaped the society to civilisation status. Religion is also one of the very element that also discriminates, practices favouritism, prejudice, injustice.
What discrimination ? What injustices? What favouritism? Why are most if not all the religions against homosexuality? Why are most if not all the religions have this strict taboo on sex making? Why are most if not all the religions do not believe in contraceptives? Why are most if not all the religions believe that sacrificing yourselves is good? These are all methods, judgements, passed down from a gazillion years of probably from someone, who somehow believe these are bad, because of certain conditions. And why is that many people still believe that men has one rib bone less in believing that that missing rib bone is to form a woman. For goodness sake, do an x-ray and you’ll not find one single missing rib bone unless you were involved in an accident. So these are very general views.
How do you define a religion? There are so many different religions, and each of them has their own god. Our so called heaven must have been filled with these gods ! So no, again I don’t believe in religion, but I believe in justifying my acts to the right reasons of doing something.
What I do believe in is my own mind, myself. I’m not above all, neither do I know all answers, neither am I a famous prophet neither am I someone prominent. But I am indeed someone prominent for myself. And that, alone, the very fact that everyone needs, is that you are just the only thing you need for yourself.
A lot of people are told that their gods will forgive them if they just confess their sins, or pray at least 5 times a day, or pray as much as you can before or after something you’ve done. These don’t work for me. Nah, it’s like telling your child that if he brushes his teeth before he sleeps, he won’t get monsters under his bed.
Why? When someone confesses, they have come to terms with themselves to try to accept what they’ve done. And thus you brought relief to your subconscious, giving you less nightmares. Those so-called burden on your shoulders are just yourself worrying about what other people might think of you, what’s the consequences and such.
A lot of people try to fit into a certain group. I don’t find that difficult, because either I care, and I try best to get the conversations right and such, or I don’t care and just leave, and rather be happy with myself. :)
So all the little petty things in your life are really just up to yourself. You don’t need someone of higher power. You just need to be yourself. You can ignore or hurt someone but who cares? You’ll be the one who lose a friend but if you don’t really care, no one is going to care either. The only reason we don’t go around insulting everyone is so that we don’t want to be murdered suddenly. If we die, people who love us would miss our very existence. And that’s why we don’t simply do something stupid. We should be educated enough by now, to see all this transparently.
Because of all these norms, and all these differences that I have compared to most of my friends, and my family, I have learned so much about myself. And I am definitely glad and happy that I know who myself is, in terms that I know I don’t need anyone to tell me what am I made of, where do I belong after I die, or I should do this while I’m still young and stuff.
I am who I am. That’s all I need from myself.
I am sorry Truth I can not believe what you believe. I believe that God loves me and has a plan for my life. He sent his son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for my sins. I know God has a plan for your life and loves you too Truth.
We are called to help one another and I can “create postive change” by sharing the message of Jesus Christ with others. In fact Truth, I don’t agree with anything you say but because Jesus died on the cross for my sins and loves me, I can love you too! No matter what you say will change that.
That is the cool thing about my God, I don’t have to do anything to be loved and wanted. My relationship with God is not about religion but about faith and I believe in the Triune God. I will be praying for you Truth.
Good way to put it Leah! ‘Truth’, I just want to agree with what Leah already said. You talk about different religions, but my relationship with a personal God isn’t about a religion at all, but about a relationship. That’s what makes Christianity so different. It isn’t a list of do’s and don’ts and maybe something good will happen to us. Instead it is just as Leah said, that God loves me just the way I am , and Jesus is His provision for the payment of my sin which is what separates me from having that personal relationship with the all powerful Triune God of the universe. All I have to do is accept His free gift…..and make it my own! But having said all this, I do really appreciate you taking the time to post on this blog ‘Truth’….and look forward to reading more of your posts. And who knows, someday you may feel differently and want to know more about a relationship with a personal God.
you think this way cause it was taught to u …look for truth in what was taught to u …is all im saying…many of u dont know the religion u practice..Christianity
let?s look @ Christ Himself. In the Word, we are given accounts of the kind of company Jesus met with and the people He called. Who did He call? Who did He invest most of His time? With “good people?”
After all, that is what we would expect right about now. If Christ were here today, many of us would expect Him to be in the company of “good people.” Many of us would look for Him right alongside Billy Graham and Matt Redman. Why shouldn?t He be with them? They are good, Christian folks, as you are! Of course, you all think Jesus would want to hang out with you. But let?s take a look at who Christ did call and hang out with. A tax collector. An adulteress. A traitor. Fishermen. A coward. This group does not exactly look like an unshakeable foundation for the Kingdom of God, but as we look closer, we see that that is precisely why He chose and used them.
They were losers.
Because they were not good enough, only He could be. Their own miserable condition forced them to build on something larger and stronger than themselves. It?s sad how we have fallen into the Pharisaical trap of thinking Christianity is for good people, like u. This is a myth. Christianity is not for good people; it never has been. Somewhere, somehow we got confused into thinking Christianity is not for losers. This has had two rather large negative effects.
First of all, many people have turned away from Christ and the church because they feel they are not good enough. They are painfully aware of their own inadequacy, and, in many cases, Christians only intensify their awareness. Thus they turn away, for they reason that they are not good enough to be Christians. What they fail to see is that “not being good enough” is the very first prerequisite to being a Christian. If you are good enough to be a Christian, then you need not become one. Indeed, you cannot. The essence of the Christian faith is that we fall short. We cannot bridge the gap–the gaping chasm between man and God. Only He can bridge it. We must realize that, and embrace it as a foundational truth in both theology and practice. Our righteousness truly is nothing more than filthy rags.
The second effect this myth has had is that it breaks down any differentiation between Christianity and other religions. If Christianity is for good people, than it is nothing more than just another religion. There is nothing to set it apart from belief systems like Hinduism and Islam. In religion, you get what you deserve. True Christian teaching stakes the radical claim that the opposite is true! The Christian does not get the punishment that he deserves, instead he receives that which he does not deserve! Christianity stands in stark contrast to all other religions because of this. Grace and karma are like black and white. However, if our Christianity is based on the myth that it is a belief system for good people, then the grace which we profess is not grace at all, but karma in disguise. It is true that Christianity is not a religion. But man has and is able to turn it into one. We must be wary of that.
But true Christianity is for failures. People who screw up and know it. People who embrace grace at the risk of abusing it. People who are as shifty and unstable as the sand ? and thus need a Rock on which to build.
It?s for losers.
Hi again Truth,
Actually I don’t just believe it because it was taught to me. In fact I grew up in a home where my mother believed in a personal God and my father didn’t! So I had no pressure to believe anything. Instead, when I was a science major in university(and yes I did graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Chemistry), I decided to check it out for myself,and started reading and researching everything I could get my hands on. Even in science there were so many holes in the things my professors were teaching at gospel truth. So I kept on searching….it was at the end of all of this that I made the decision that either Jesus Christ was who He said He was, and wanted to make a difference in my life, or all of history was a lie, since the date is given in years, AD…Anno Domini….in the year of the Lord.
Years later I went back again and researched again from a scientific viewpoint about some of the things taught in the Bible, and again I decided without a shadow of a doubt that my personal faith wasn’t based on a lie, or a fantasy, but on truth. I challenge you to do the same Truth…..check it out!
Still today in America
religion controls the minds and limits the thinking of the Christian patriot movement
which has seen through many other smokescreens and identified many aspects of the
Brotherhood conspiracy. What they cannot face, however, is that their own religion is a
massive part of that conspiracy.
That is not to condemn all people who call themselves Christian. There are many who
express a loving spirituality through their Christian beliefs. I am talking of the institution
of Christianity and its arrogant indoctrination and imposition of its desperately limited
vision of life which has created a mind-prison for literally billions of people over almost
2,000 years. All the world?s major religions, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam,
came out of the very same region of the Middle and Near East from which the Aryan
race and the reptile crossbreeds emerged after the cataclysm of perhaps 7,000 years ago.
These religions were designed to imprison the mind and engulf the emotions with fear
and guilt. They were usually based on some ?saviour-god? figure like Jesus or
Mohammed and only by believing in them and following their dictates can we find
?God? and be saved. That is precisely what the Babylonian priests said about Nimrod
when the blueprint for control-by-religion was being moulded in Babylon. Those who
refuse to believe this hogwash are condemned to stoke the fires of hell for all eternity.
Staggeringly, billions upon billions have fallen for this scam over thousands of years,
and still do. That?s fine if they want to give their minds and their lives away, but many
insist that everyone else must do the same and that?s not fine.
The ancients,
therefore, said that the Sun was ?born? on December 25th. The Christian Christmas is
merely a renamed Pagan festival, as indeed are all Christian festivals. Easter is another.
About March 25th, the old fixed date for Easter, the Sun enters the astrological sign of
Aries the ram or the lamb. At this time the ancients used to sacrifice lambs because they
believed this would appease the gods, most notably the Sun god, and ensure abundant
harvests. In other words they believed that the blood of the lamb would mean that their
sins would be forgiven.
In ancient Babylon, Tammuz, the son of Queen Semiramis, was said to have been
crucified with a lamb at his feet and placed in a cave. When a rock was rolled away from
the cave?s entrance three days later, his body had disappeared. I?ve definitely heard that
somewhere before.
The ancients also symbolised the Sun as a baby in December, a youth
at Easter, a strapping, immensely strong, man in the summer, an ageing man losing his
power in the autumn, and an old man by the winter solstice. The modern depiction of
Old Father Time is a version of this. They also symbolised the Sun as having long golden
hair (sun rays) which got shorter as he lost his power in the months of autumn.
Now look
again at the Old Testament story of Samson -Sam-sun. He was incredibly strong and had
long hair, but he lost his power when his hair was cut. The problems started when he
entered the House of Delilah – the astrological house of Virgo, the virgin, through which
the Sun passes as autumn approaches. Summoning his last burst of power, Sam-the-Sun,
pushes down the two pillars, which are classic Brotherhood symbolism going back at
least to ancient Egypt and are still used by the Freemasons today. Samson is Sam Sun – a
symbolic story of the Sun?s annual cycle. There wasn?t any such person. In Hebrew,
Samson means I understand, the God of the Sun.
To the orthodox Christian, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who died so our
sins could be forgiven. But you will find exactly the same claims for a stream of ?gods?
in the ancient world long before the name of ?Jesus? was even heard of. Indeed, we
know his name wasn?t Jesus because that?s a Greek translation of a Hebrew name. The
term Son of God would seem to originate at least as far back as the Aryan Gothic kings
of Cilicia who took the title ?Son of the Sun God?, a tradition adopted by the Pharaohs
of Egypt.
1 To many in the New Age, Jesus is Sananda, a high initiate of some spiritual
hierarchy who incarnated to infuse the Earth with the ?Christ? energy. Or, depending on
who you talk to, he was an extraterrestrial on a similar mission.
To others he was
claiming to be the King of the ?Jews? by right of his King David bloodline.
But did
Jesus actually exist? Did Moses, Solomon and King David exist? I would say
categorically no. There is no credible evidence for the existence of any of them outside
the biblical texts and they are certainly not credible. So where did they come from?
The Old Testament
In 721 BC, it appears that Israel was overrun by the Assyrians and the Israelites or
Canaanites were taken into captivity. However, the tribes known by official history as
Judah and Benjamin, survived for more than a hundred years after that, before they
were conquered and captured by our friends, the Babylonians,
in around 586 BC. It was
in Babylon, that ancient capital city of the Aryan priesthood and hierarchy, that
the Hebrew priests, the Levites, began to create a manufactured history which obscured
the truth of what really happened. I mean, ask yourself, is a Brotherhood who arranged
for the destruction of ancient knowledge and libraries all over the world going to write
down the true history in their texts
or are they going to produce the version they want
the people to believe? During and after their stay in Babylon, with its wealth of
inherited knowledge and stories from Sumer, the Levites mixed truth, often symbolic
truth, with fantasies and this concoction became the foundations of the Old Testament.
The so-called Israelites did not write these texts or agree with what they said. Even if
you accept they even existed, the Israelites had long dispersed by the time the Levites
inked their pens. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, which together make up the
?Jewish? Torah, were all written by the Levites or under their supervision during or after
their period in Babylon. This bunch of human sacrificing, blood drinking fanatics and
black magicians, who you would not trust to tell you the time, compiled the law which
Jewish people to this day are supposed to follow. Likewise many Christian fanatics
quote this stuff as the word of God! It is not the word of God, it is the word of the
Levites under the direction of the Babylonian
Brotherhood. The Sumerian Tablets prove beyond question that Genesis was a much
edited and condensed version of Sumer records. The Sumerian story of Edin became the
Levite?s biblical Garden of Eden. Remember the story of ?Moses? being found in the
bulrushes by the Egyptian princess? The same tale was told by the Sumerians-
Babylonians about King Sargon the Elder. The story of Moses is make-believe, as is the
Egyptian ?captivity?, the Exodus, at least in the form described, and also the creation of
the 12 tribes via Jacob.
These texts were written by the Levites,
Their stories are symbolic and coded for initiates to
understand and the masses to take literally. According to the Levites, Moses was given
his laws and commandments by God on top of a mountain. Again and again we see the
symbol of mountains. One reason for this is that the top of a mountain is closer to their
symbol of God – the Sun. Mount Sion means Sun Mountain. The Sun rising over the
eastern mountains is still a major Brotherhood symbol today. The story of the Israelites
and Jews is largely a fantasy – the veil behind which the truth has been hidden. No-one
has been ?had? more comprehensively over these thousands of years than the people
who have considered themselves Jewish. They have been terrorised, used and
manipulated in the most merciless and grotesque fashion by their hierarchy to advance
an Agenda which the Jewish people in general have not even begun to identify. There is
no greater example of this manipulation than the way the reptilian bloodlines like the
?Jewish? Rothschilds funded and supported the Nazis and allowed the rank and file
Jewish people to reap the unspeakable consequences. The Levite story of Exodus is a
smokescreen to hide the fact that the ?Hebrew? knowledge was stolen from the Egyptian
mystery schools after they were infiltrated by the Babylonian Brotherhood.
study
“the truth”, I appreciate you taking the time to post. But with all due respect, if you are going to quote something, please indicate that it is a quote and don’t make it seem like it’s your own work. What you posted above about the supposed “racism” of the Bible (I honestly don’t see how those passages indicate racism, but whatever) was cut and pasted directly from another website. I’ve noticed this other times as well. In the future please at least give the URL where you are getting the information from. This blog is intended for personal discussion, not just cut and pasting entire posts from other sites.
“But true Christianity is for failures. People who screw up and know it. People who embrace grace at the risk of abusing it. People who are as shifty and unstable as the sand ? and thus need a Rock on which to build.
It?s for losers.”
Here’s another example of quoting part of an article without acknowledging it. For those interested, the full article is available here:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god_article.php?id=1085
I agree with the quote in a sense though. Christians recognize that we are not perfect … everyone DOES screw up. Which means that ultimately relying on only ourselves and nothing else is basically a guarantee of failure ;)
“the truth” says that we should “Be remembered for what you do here. The reward is your life and the world you create and the memories and positve change your life causes.Don?t wait for the next life or heaven. Create it here!” Some athesists believe that by removing God from the equation, they can somehow make the world better. What I think they sometimes fail to realize is that if this life is all there is, the vast majority of the people in the world are basically screwed and have no hope. Only through God can many of these people have hope. What could we say to comfort someone in pain without God? The best you can do is tell them the pain will be over soon and they’ll cease to exist. Why care if we’re “remembered” after we die if we cease to exist?
A life without God is necessarily one of relativism and no ultimate purpose. Even Bertrand Russell (famous atheist philospher) admits that from an atheist perspective despair is (I mean, should logically be) the ultimate consequence of atheist thinking. Like “the truth” suggests, we should study; and for the record, I don’t blindly believe in Christianity, I grew up in an agnostic/atheist home and came to Christ through a period of careful thought and discovery. Here is an interesting article written by Dustin Shramek. I hope the reader of this post and “the truth” take the time to read this link and consider if living without God is really a viable worldview:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8449/atheism.html
OK, a little quiz. Who am I talking about?
He was born to a virgin by immaculate conception through the intervention of a holy
spirit. This fulfilled an ancient prophecy. When he was born the ruling tyrant wanted to kill
him. His parents had to flee to safety. All male children under the age of two were slain by
the ruler as he sought to kill the child. Angels and shepherds were at his birth and he was
given gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. He was worshipped as the saviour of men and
led a moral and humble life. He performed miracles which included healing the sick, giving
sight to the blind, casting out devils and raising the dead. He was put to death on the cross
between two thieves. He descended to hell and rose from the dead to ascend back to
heaven.21
Sounds exactly like Jesus doesn?t it? But it?s not. That is how they described the Eastern
saviour god known as Virishna 1,200 years before Jesus is claimed to have been born. If you
want a saviour god who died so our sins could be forgiven, take your pick from the ancient
world because there are a stream of them, A race that came out of the Near East and the Caucasus Mountains. Here are just some of the
?Son of God? heroes who play the lead role in stories which mirror those attributed to Jesus
and almost all were worshipped long before Jesus was even heard of:
Khrishna of Hindostan; Buddha Sakia of India; Salivahana of Bermuda; Osiris and Horus
of Egypt; Odin of Scandinavia; Crite of Chaldea; Zoroaster of Persia; Baal and Taut of
Phoenicia; Indra of Tibet; Bali of Afghanistan; Jao of Nepal; Wittoba of Bilingonese;
Tammuz of Syria and Babylon; Attis of Phrygia; Xamolxis of Thrace; Zoar of the
Bonzes; Adad of Assyria; Deva Tat and Sammonocadam of Siam; Alcides of Thebes;
Mikado of the Sintoos; Beddru of Japan; Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillahm, of the Druids;
Thor, son of Odin, of the Gauls; Cadmus of Greece; Hil and Feta of Mandaites; Gentaut
and Quetzalcoatl of Mexico; Universal Monarch of the Sibyls; Ischy of Formosa; Divine
Teacher of Plato; Holy One of Xaca; Fohi and Tien of China; Adonis, son of virgin lo, of
Greece; Ixion and Quirinus of Rome; Prometheus of the Caucasus; and Mohammed or
Mahomet, of Arabia.22
All but a few of those ?sons of God? or ?prophets?, and the mind-prison religions founded
in their names, come from the very lands occupied or influenced by peoples emerging from
the Near East and the Caucasus. The lands of the Aryans and reptile-Aryans. Other ?sons of
God? included Mithra or Mithras, the pre-Christian Roman-Persian god, and in Greece and
Asia Minor they had Dionysus and Bacchus. These were sons of God who died so our sins
could be forgiven, born of a virgin mother, and their birthdays were on… December 25th!
Mithra was crucified, but raised from the dead on March 25th – Easter! Mithran initiations
took place in caves adorned with the signs of Capricorn and Cancer, symbolic of the winter
SO THE TRUTH IS RIGHT
Hey Truth
Did I ever say that I was good. I am just like everyone else in this world, sinful. Only through Jesus’s blood shed on the cross can I be made perfect again. I really don’t think God discriminated he loves everyone no matter what wealth you have, what job you have. If Jesus was here he would be my friend because we wants to be.
Truth you assume because that all Christians live a perfect life. Check out the lifestories channel on http://www.thelife.com and you will read tons of people who had a hard life but still proclaim that Jesus is God.
Again, “the truth” (or, in this case, “WHO CARES”, they are indeed the same person) copies and pastes from a website without giving proper credit. Please, if you are going to quote something, at least indicate it is a quote. With regards to these “savior gods”, some points to consider:
- Things that are similar do not prove copying occurred. There are often similarities between religions, because they deal with many of the same subjects, but this does not prove that copying occurred.
- Jesus Christ was a real person who lived in history, and whose life and deeds were recorded in a historical manner, unlike all of the mythical “gods” listed above.
- The similarities given are often stretched and overblown. For example, the Bible does not list December 25th as the date Jesus was born; in fact, this was a much later tradition, so this is a red herring, it is not applicable. Another example, the dying/rising “gods” of the old pagan stories were based on the yearly crop cycle, and never died & resurrected once and for all, and never as atonement for men’s sins. So the comparison is strained at best.
- For a full discussion of the issues related to Mithras (probably the most commonly claimed Christian influence) see this site (pretty much the same applies for the other “gods” listed in the earlier thread):
http://tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html
- In many cases (such as with Mithras) there is no evidence for similar beliefs until AFTER Christianity was well established, so Christian beliefs are just as likely to have been copied, if indeed any “copying” occurred. Mithras worshipers existed BC; but the similarity of beliefs cannot be proven until the late 1st century at earliest.
Again, another smokescreen filled with halftruths. Getting bogged down in the trees can sometimes lead people to miss the forest: Read the gospels of Jesus for yourself and you will see how unique and incredible the person of Jesus is.
Thanks for your great posts Emzee!! I really appreciate you taking the time to address some of these accusations and halftruths! Not all of us even know where to start to research them so it is awesome to read your posts!
Amen, Deebee, excellent job, Emmzee. It sure takes more faith to believe we just “happened”…by accident. So many revered scientists today believe in “intelligent design” after studying the human body alone..so complex. It’s amazing how many atheistic scientists have converted to Christianity after years of believing evolution as a fact. The “facts” speak for themselves if you look deep enough. “the Truth”…just so you know, I have been praying for you. May I suggest…as a challenge…that you pick up a copy of “A Case For Christ” by noted author and former atheist, Lee Strobel or “More Than A Carpenter” by Josh McDowell and even better yet..Josh’s new best-seller, “Evidence”. God bless you.
Great suggestions for books Rosie! They are all excellent!
oops…Title of Josh’s new book is “Evidence That Demands a Verdict”, sorry about that.
emmzee…cutting an paste ..your funny….Intellect scares u
Most Christians can not understand what the real bible said because they didn?t read Latin
Read the gospels of Jesus
for yourself and you will see how unique and incredible the person of Jesus is.
you say
if u read the lies over and over u will believe the mess you read
what is incredible about the Bible is not its divine authorship. it’s that such a concoction of contradictory nonsense could be believed by anyone to have been written by an omniscient god. To do so, one would first have to not read the book, which is the practice of most Christians; or, if one does read it, dump in the trash can one’s rational intelligence — to become a fool for god, in other words.
the burden of proof does not rest upon the skeptic in this matter. As always is the case, the burden of proof weighs upon those who assert that some thing or some process exists. If someone claims that he never has to shave because every morning before he can get to the bathroom he is assaulted by a six-foot rabbit with extremely sharp teeth who trims his whiskers better than a razor – if someone makes such a claim, no skeptic need worry about constructing a disproof. Unless evidence for the claim is produced, the skeptic can treat the claim as false. This is nothing more than sane, every-day practice.
Let us consider the so-called biblical evidence first. Despite the claims of Christian apologists, there is absolutely nothing in the Old Testament (OT) that is of relevance to our question, apart from the possible fact that some prophets may have thought that an “anointed one” (a rescuer king or priest) would once again assume the leadership of the Jewish world. All of the many examples of OT “predictions” of Jesus are so silly that one need only look them up to see their irrelevance.
there is no good reason to suppose their where eye-witness accounts of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. At a minimum, this forces us to examine the gospels to see if their contents are even compatible with the notion that they were written by eye-witnesses. We cannot even assume that each of the gospels had but one author or redactor.
A real eye-witness would have begun with a verse reading, “Now, boys and girls, I’m gonna tell you the story of Jesus the Messiah the way it really happened…” The story would be a unique creation. It is significant that it is only these two gospels that purport to tell anything of Jesus’ birth, childhood, or ancestry. Both can be dismissed as unreliable without further cause. We can know nothing of this Jesus’ childhood or origin!
pray for yourselfs not me
Rosie
May I suggest?as a challenge?that you pick up a bible and read it all the way thru