From time immemorial, the sun has presented the same phenomenon
everywhere. It has the same phases that occur on the same date in each country. The same
effect is created by its rise and its decline. The appearance and disappearance of the
sun, the period when its rays are not scorchingly strong, and the time when it is a
veritable ball of fire sending down heat that is unbearable, are all phenomena that must
create the same notions in the minds of men inhabiting the various corners of the globe.
Religions, therefore, were the same everywhere.
At the time of
Christ’s advent, there were temples without number that were dedicated to gods like
Apollo or Dionysius among the Greeks, Hercules among the Romans, Mithra among the
Persians, Adonis and Attis in Syria and Phrygia, Osiris, Isis and Horus in Egypt, Baal and
Astarte among the Babylonians and Carthaginians, and so on.
These deities
were all sun-gods.
Edward Carpenter
says that of all, or nearly all, of them it was believed that:
1. They were
born on or very near Christmas Day.
2. They were
born of a Virgin Mother.
3. Their
birth took place in a cave or underground chamber.
4. They
struggled and toiled for the good of mankind.
5. They were
known by such names as Mediator, Healer, Light-Bringer, Saviour and Deliverer.
6.
The Powers of Darkness, however,
conquered them.
7. They
descended into Hell or the Underworld.
8. They rose
again from the dead and became the pioneers of mankind to the Heavenly World.
9. They
founded Communions of Saints and Churches to which disciples were received by baptism.
10. They were commemorated
by Eucharistic meals.
It is very easy
to show that all that the Christian church teaches today and that forms an essential part
of Christianity, did NOT come from Jesus. The doctrines that are declared as “necessary
to salvation” were brought into the religion of Jesus by monks and priests some
three hundred years after the time of Christ. These dogmas were not invented by the
clergy, but were ready-made essentials of Paganism, the various ramifications of which
cult spread from Persia to Britain.
Man’s
ingenuity and inventiveness strives continually towards attaining a state of affairs where
he could achieve a satisfactory result without too much exertion on his self. In other
words, being the weakest of creations, man has always tried to adopt the line of least
resistance. The pagan mind, too, functioned along this line. The tendency to shrink from a
religion of action, therefore, was present in primitive man. Feeling his own weakness, he
always strove to shift the responsibility on to the shoulders of another – something
he could do, without any strenuous effort on his part, to propitiate the deity which might
have become angered.
The best and the
easiest way to placate the angry god was by the offering of blood. A willing or unwilling
victim was readily found and his or her blood was religiously spilt on the altar. This
done, he went home in the secure belief that this action pleased the unseen being and that
its wrath is warded off, until some further misfortune or affliction overtakes him.
This, then, has
been the universal belief and it formed the only code of religious conduct of the
barbarous, uncivilized man. As time passed, the dying victim at the altar himself came to
be looked upon as a deity – God Himself that came on the earth to suffer for the sins
of man. It is thus easy to see that the idea of reconciliation by these barbaric methods
became the characteristic feature of every creed that was professed and practised in
countries round about the birth-place of Jesus at the time of his advent.
One of the most
popular cults at that time was MITHRAISM. This creed originated in Persia and flourished
there for about six hundred years. It reached Rome at about 70 B.C., and spread throughout
the Roman Empire, extending even to Great Britain where remains of Mithraic monuments were
found at York, Chester, and other places.
We read in
Robertson’s “PAGAN CHRISTS” (p. 338) that Mithra was believed to be a great
Mediator between God and Man. His birth took place in a cave on December 25th.
He was born of a virgin. He travelled far and wide. He had twelve disciples. He
died in the service of humanity. He was buried, but rose again from the tomb. His
resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicing. His great festivals were the Winter
Solstice and the Vernal Equinox – Christmas and Easter. He was called SAVIOUR, and
sometimes figured as a LAMB. People were initiated into his cult through BAPTISM. Sacramental
feasts were held in his remembrance.
A short account
of the pagan “sons of God” will not be out of place here.
BACCHUS,
sometimes referred to as Dionysius, was born on the 25th December. His mother
was a virgin called Demeter. The world was enveloped in evil, so the God of gods was
beseeched to redeem mankind. The prayer was accepted by Jupiter who declared that his
son would redeem the world from its misery. He promised a LIBERATOR to the earth, and Bacchus came as a Saviour. He
was called the ONLY Begotten Son.
Dr. Frazer in
his book “The Golden Bough” (Chapter 4, p. 229) records Bacchus as saying:
“It is I who guide you; it is I who protect you, and who save you; I who am the Alpha
and Omega.” Bacchus was also a great traveller and brought the gift of wine to
mankind. This brings to mind the miracle of Christ when he converted water into wine at
the marriage feast.
Attis,
the Phrygian god, was born of a virgin named Nana. He was bled to death at the foot of a
pine-tree. His blood renewed the fertility of the earth and thus brought a new life to
humanity. He also rose from the dead. In celebrating his death and resurrection, his image
was fastened to a pine-tree on March 24th, and the day was called the “Day
of Blood”, since on that day the deity was bled to death. The image was then laid in
a tomb with wailing and mourning, but the coming night changed sorrow to joy. The tomb
was found to be empty on the next day, when the festival of the resurrection was
celebrated. These mysteries seem to have included a sacramental meal and a baptism of
blood.
Adonis,
the Syrian god, was also born of a virgin. He was killed, and rose again in the spring. Every
year the maidens wept for Adonis (Ezekiel,
8: 14) and then rejoiced over his resurrection.
Quetzalcoatle,
the Mexican Saviour, was born of a virgin, Chimalman, who had received the message
informing her that she was to become the mother of a son without any association with man,
but through a heavenly messenger. Soon after the departure of the messenger, she conceived
and bore a son – QUETZALCOATLE – a word that means “our beloved Son.”
This offspring of the Heavenly Spirit fasted for forty days and was tempted by Satan. He
was also crucified, at which time the sun was darkened and withheld its light. Prescott
says in his book that his second coming was
looked forward to so eagerly that when Cortez appeared, the Mexicans hailed him as the
returning God.
There are also
many similar stories of Horus, Osiris, Apollo, Attis and Bel. Thus the passion story of
the Lord of Christianity was almost identical with many previous stories of similar
nature. The passion play of Bel, the Babylonian Sun-God, was in existence centuries before
the birth of Jesus. It was a mystery play acted every year in the beginning of spring. The
main features of the play have been deciphered from some tablets discovered from
Babylonian ruins. The tablets disclose very remarkable facts which must be disturbing to
thousands of honest minds in Christendom.
The story of Bel
and the story of Jesus are one and the same, and this not only deprives the evangelical
records of the claims to be genuine, but it convicts them of complete plagiarism!
In the list
below, sixteen saviour-gods are given – from amongst many – who were all
believed by their followers to have died for the sins of the world, together with their
countries of origin and approximate dates:
Being mystified
at the identity of their beliefs with pagan ideas, the early Church Fathers blamed the
Devil for creating mischief. Tertullian, a church historian, said: “The devil, whose
business is to prevent the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the Divine Sacraments in the Mysteries of
Idols.”
Justin Martyr, a
church father, says: “... which things the evil spirit has taught to be done out of
memory in the mysteries and ministrations of Mithra…”
Cortez, the
explorer of Mexico, also complained that the Devil had positively taught to the Mexicans
the same things which God taught to the Christians.
The Devil has
been blamed for many things, but for once a grave injustice has been done to him in that
the Fathers of the Church have accused him of something of which he is innocent and
totally unaware. This is a most convenient way of evading facts and eluding the truth. The
Devil cannot confront the Fathers to defend himself and debate with them the chronological
correctness of their assertion. A brazen anachronism was thus perpetrated by them. Did
paganism borrow from Christianity or did Christianity plagiarize wholesale from paganism?
In the sequence of time: did Christianity come before paganism, or paganism before
Christianity?
The Devil thus
provided an easy and convenient target for venting wrath and abuse resulting from a patent
inability to find a plausible explanation, and from mystification and bewilderment. They
would not be reasonable enough, or gentlemen enough, to admit and acknowledge the fact
that Christianity was a mere rehash of pagan beliefs. This would be a lowering of their
dignity. A scapegoat had to be found. And who could be a better candidate for this
honour than old Lucifer himself?!
The wardens of
the Church in those days never failed to do two things, until Christianity fully triumphed
over the existing creed. They incorporated, on the one hand, almost all of the popular
pagan cults into their faith; on the other hand they took particular care to destroy and
burn the Pagan records and libraries – amongst them that of Alexandria some 50 years
after the death of Constantine – in order to obliterate the origin of the faith so
alien to that of Jesus.
There were
several treatises setting forth the religion of Mithra, but “everyone of these has
been destroyed”, says Robertson in his book, “Pagan Christs” (p.
325), by the care of the Church, and it is remarkable that even the treatise of Firmicus
is mutilated at a passage (V) where he seems to be accusing Christians of following
Mithraic usage. In this respect, Professor Murray says: “The polemic literature of
Christianity is everywhere triumphant; the books of the Pagans have been DESTROYED.”
*
*
*
No country in
the ancient world was without its virgin-born deity. The Pagans had their Christ
everywhere including India and China.
The learned
author of “BIBLE MYTHS” draws clear analogies between Jesus and Buddha. We must
bear in mind that not only does there exist a striking similarity between the teachings of
the two, but some of the parables and precepts that we find in the Gospels had been given
word for word by Buddha, some five hundred years BEFORE Jesus.
The histories of
Buddha and Jesus resemble each other more closely than any other two characters of
antiquity. The following comparison is given by T.W. Doane in his book, “BIBLE MYTHS”,
pages 287-297: