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WHY IS THE "JESUS STORY"IDENTICAL TO THE STORIES OFOTHER RELIGIONS AND THEIR "GOD-MEN"?
During the early years of my study into a "Jewish Jesus" as I was finding the "JesusStory" repeated when studying the lives of the other "god-men" found in otherreligions I was perplexed to see that the "Jesus Story" was duplicated in the lives of Attis, Dionysus, Osiris, Mithra, etc.
I was not happy to find that there are manydozens of events in the gospels that are very similar, or identical, toincidents which appeared centuries before, in the stories of Paganhero/saviors.
These "god-men" were worshiped by the priesthood and laity of Mediterranean and Middle East religions. I reasoned that there had to be a commonlink between them. Then answer would come in a few months as
futher studyindicated that Jesus and the other God-men are personifications of theSun
. I found upon doing the necessary studies that the Ancients formulated theirMythology (Religion) after astronomical phenomena. They saw this as the best wayto connect with the Creator God. This was done by patterning their religious ritualsin accordance with the most visible and observable aspects of God's creation, theCosmos. The Ancients saw the universe and their immediate environment, as well asthe capacities embodied within their own intellect, trustworthy representations of the Creator God. The Universe (terrestrial and celestial) appeared to our ancestorsas the only authentic image of the Father. The Cosmos was undoubtedly HisHandiwork and we, the human creation, were likewise the Handiwork of theAlmighty.
The ancients personified the elements of the Cosmos andrecorded the movements of the stars and planets as personified deities anddemons.
Thus we should expect and do find that the collection of fableswhich make up the majority of the Bible are actually various dramas of Solar Mythology.
Of course I include the Gospels in such a statement as I foundthem as well to be little more than solar mythology personified in the life of a "JesusChrist".
The fact that so many saviors were alleged to have been born onthe same day of the year, under the same and similar circumstances indifferent parts of the world throughout history, indicates a commonmythology. All these saviors, including Jesus, can be referred to as solar gods because their births, lives and deaths can be correlated to the transitcycles of the sun.
Running upon this information as an adult and a graduate of aSeminary and currently pastoring a large congregation took my breath away as youcan imagine and made me do some serious reflection for some time in my life as towhat I was to do in light of now possessing this knowledge.
I came to realize why I had not found this information up to then in my life. Irealized upon study that
Spirituality in ancient times from the Mediterraneanregion was composed of two components:
•
The Outer Mysteries:
These mysteries consisted of Pagan beliefs, practices,and dogmas which were widely proclaimed and taught to the
generalpublic
. Knowledge of these has been preserved in historical records. By"Outer Mysteries" I refer to are those such as found in the Roman Empirearound the middle East before and during the early current era. Examplesinclude the Eleusinian Mysteries, Gnosticism, Mithraism andPythagoreanism. These "Outer Mysteries" comprise of a series of outermysteries and public rituals. Sometimes these would be public holidays,sometimes they would cause regular social upheavals (leading to the Romanssuppressing various mystery religions). The Egyptians had a similarstructure with cults, many had public parades and displays. These outermysteries are superficial, attention-seeking methods employed by religions toattract recruits who are interested, beguiled or intrigued by the symbolismused during them. Each Outer Mystery tradition had exoteric OuterMysteries, consisting of myths which were common knowledge and ritualswhich were open to anyone who wanted to participate.
I liken normativeChristianity today to be one of many manifestations of these "Outer Mysteries" where a "literal" interpretation of history and texts are thestandard ways of interpreting these religious teachings inheriteddown through history. It is within these "Outer Mysteries" that thehidden meanings once known by the Ancients hierophants andinitiates have been forgotten today.
Frequently, the "Outer Mysteries" would comprise of re-enactments of basic astrological stories of the fall and rise of thesun, and of stars as personified in the form of gods and godmen.
This re-enactment of the rise and fall of stars, like the Sun following the Summersolstice and the Autumn equinox, began in Egypt. The world's earliest report of adramatic production comes from the banks of the Nile. It is in the form of a stonetablet preserved in a German museum and contains the sketchy description of one,I-kher-nefert (or Ikhernofret), a representative of the Egyptian king, of the parts heplayed in a performance of the world's first recorded "Passion" Play somewherearound the year 2000 B.C. This Egyptian Passion bears a notable resemblance to thePassion Plays of the twentieth century concerning the Christ. Its purpose isobviously the same as that of the one at Ober-Ammergau, or the Tyrolean, or thePersian Passion Play of Hussein . . . the principal object, as always, being to
keepvivid in the minds of the faithful the sufferings and triumph of a god. Theplay closes with the resurrection of Osiris as a god and the foreshadowingto all the faithful of their own final resurrection. This original passion playis copied today not only in the "Jesus Story" but in the passion plays abouthis life and death.
History records for us a rather popular one which is the threeday mourning on theWinter Solsticeof the death of the sun, followed by a rejoice at
it's birth as the days begin to get longer around the 25th of December. The OuterMysteries would be public displays of mourning then rejoicing, and the Initiates,once moving into the "Inner Mysteries" would then be taught what it all means, likehow today many Christians parents will teach their children about the 'real meaningof Easter' which is the equivalent of an Inner Mystery part, whereas the Easter eggs,chocolate eggs, and festivities are the Outer Mystery and the part for publicconsumption that yet hides the hidden meanings behind the public presentation of the "diluted version".
•
The Inner Mysteries:
There were also esoteric "Inner Mysteries", whichwere a sacred secret known only to those who had undergone a powerfulprocess of initiation. These teachings were revealed only to those who hadbeen initiated into the Pagan religions.
Initiates of the Inner Mysterieshad the mystical meaning of the rituals and myths of the Outer Mysteries revealed to them, a process which brought about personaltransformation and spiritual enlightenment
. The initiates learned forexample that Osiris-Dionysus, Attis, Mithra, etc., were not a historicalpersons in the first place but an allegory of higher Divine precepts expressedthrough the medium of personification and allegro. These legends of "gods"and "godmen" were simple "spiritual allegories encoding spiritualteachings" that go to a higher level of understanding that just a plainhistorical understanding (Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, The JesusMysteries: Was the 'original Jesus' a Pagan god?, Acacia Press, (1999).
A religion was a Mystery Religion if only the initiates were allowed to
know thekeys with which to decode the Outer Mysteries.
It is an early religious methodto take theological concepts and encode them into stories, legends, and myths,creating characters and events which need to be "decoded" in order to see what thestoryline actually means. Not knowing the key would be like reading Cinderalla orSnow White and the 7 Dwarfs and attempting to interpret it literally!
We havedone the same thing with the "Jesus Story"
. The keys, the innerunderstanding, allowed initiates to see what the story was really saying. Such storieswere created to be fascinating, a little compelling, so that certain types of peoplewould be attracted to the group through the symbolism used in the story, eventhough they don't actually know the inner meaning.Late in the 4th century CE, Christianity was established as the state religion. Paganswere given the choice of converting to Christianity, being exterminated or beingexiled. Their temples were either stolen for use as Christian churches, or destroyed.
Eventually, detailed knowledge of the inner mysteries was lost
. The core of the Outer and Inner mysteries was a mythical, male entity who was part god andpart human -- often referred to as a "god-man."
His origin however came fromthe personification of the Sun and its path through the Zodiac andconstellations and it was this "knowledge" which was reserved for the"Inner Mysteries".
The biographies of these god-men were consistent from religionto religion because they were taken from the same Sun which the Ancients observed
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The only evil that exists is mankinds own thoughts. Nothing can harm humans that we can't see but our own thoughts. When you learn to control your own thoughts and only think, speak and believe in positive things and nothing else your life will improve and you will see there is no evil that tempts you or is out to get you. As long as people believe in evil they will always have something to blame
The bible is an allegorical narrative about the unfolding of the soul and how life works and has nothing to do with history. That is why so many identical stories exist. They all say the same thing when they symbolical key is discovered for each story. Mankind has skewed the real meaning by making the bible about men and not about each and every human being that exists. The bible was written in sy
The "Hebrew" chronology of the O.T. is 100% accurate. The chronology of the other religions is garbled. Leave the rest.
Your story tries to be persuasive, but it's full of holes... first of all... who are you? how can i trust you? who asures me that you are a reliable person?. Second, you talk a lot of old cultures and mythology, but never reveal sources of your "investigation". Third, you talk about the date of birth of Jesus, if you were a pastor as you say, and had studied you Seminary, you would know that this date you are referring is not even an aproximation about his birth date, maybe a mistake in early history.. i don't know or the influences of pagan cultures but only in giving that date... a date that is not in the Bible... So that point is meaningless ... i think you didn't make any serious research, and i doubt that you are (were) some kind of pastor... if you want to discuss these ... i am open to hear from you... bye
Tak what you will and leave the rest!