¿ACASO ES JESÚS EL MODELO SACRIFICIAL DE LA PASCUA?
Por: J.N Robles Olarte
En realidad no tiene sentido alguno el que tomemos como tipo el sacrificio de un ser humano cualquiera para compararlo con el sacrificio de la Pascua Hebrea.
Sabemos por Éxodo 12 que la Pascua no sirvió como sacrificio por los pecados de nadie sino, más bien, fue y es una conmemoración del éxodo del pueblo Hebreo de Egipto. Y aún cuando el cordero sacrificado, por parte de todo grupo familiar, su sangre se usó, más bien, para marcar las puertas de las casas de los Hebreos, y que la misma no sirvió nunca como una expiación de pecados cometidos. Esa actitud sólo sirvió como una señal para que el Ángel de la Muerte pasara por alto todo hogar que estuviese señalado con la sangre del cordero sacrificado y librar, así, de la muerte, a todo primogénito masculino de los hijos de los Hebreos.
Tal sangre no sirvió, en realidad, como expiación explícita para beneficiar a los primogénitos ya mencionados. Más bien podríamos poner como tipo de sacrificio la muerte del Galileo con la fiesta del Yom Kippur o Día de Expiación donde se lleva a efecto un sacrificio por los pecados del pueblo. Pero surge un problema con ésta comparación ya que de acuerdo a Levítico 16:10,21/22, el animal escogido no se sacrifica sino más bien se lleva vivo al desierto.
Otro problema que encaran los Cristianos, seguidores del hombre de Galileo, es el hecho que, de acuerdo a las profesias de la antigua Israel, se supone que el Mesias o Masiach Hebreo habría de completar su misión y que no moriría. Y eso fue lo que le sucedió a Jesús, no completó su misión y murió. Los seguidores del Galileo, que claman que él fue el Mesías de Israel, tienen ahora que vérsela con la desconcertante e ignominiosa muerte a manos de los paganos de Roma. De esta forma los Cristianos lo correlacionan con la muerte y sacrificio del cordero en la Pascua Hebrea.
Este zapateo alrededor de las Escrituras Hebreas es con el propósito de legitimizar la muerte del Jesús de Galilea como el verdadero Mesías o Mashiach de las Sagradas Escrituras y ello, en verdad, no puede, de ninguna forma, negar la clara y transparente lección que vemos en Levítico, y es que el Día de Expiación y la sangre derramada de los corderos no es un prerrequisito para la expiación de pecado alguno. Observemos y tengamos en cuenta que la sangre derramada es de animales y no de ser humano alguno¡
¿En que lugar se originó la idea de que alguien puede servir de expiación por los pecados de una o varias personas? Debiera ser absolutamente claro que tal noción y práctica surgió en la antigua Mesopotamia, dentro de la Religión de los Misterios de Babilonia Lo que si es cierto es que una persona inocente no debe ni puede ser muerta en lugar del verdadero culpable y ello no es consistente con lo que las Escrituras Hebreas enseñan.
Después del pecado cometido por el pueblo Hebreo en la erección y posterior adoración del Becerro de Oro, el Todopoderoso de Israel se ofendió grandemente y Su intención fue el aniquilar y destruir totalmente a Su pueblo Israel. Es aquí cuando Moisés se ofrece, voluntariamente, a morir en lugar de Su nación. Y ¿cuál fue la reacción del Todopoderoso y Creador de Israel ante tal oferta? Leamos:
“Y ahora Padre, si perdonares su pecado (¡esta bien!), más si no bórrame a mí, Te lo ruego, de Tu libro que has escrito. Pero el Eterno Creador respondió a Moisés: ‼ Al que haya pecado contra Mí, a éste borraré de Mi libro ‼(Éxodo 32:32-33)”
A todo lo largo de las Escrituras Hebreas el Creador de Israel nos dice y enseña que ninguna persona puede morir por los pecados de otro. Leamos otras Escrituras para mayor prueba:
“Antes bien, cada uno morirá por su propia iniquidad: todo aquél que coma el agráz, él mismo sufrirá la dentera.”(Jeremías 31:29(30))
“No han de ser muertos los padres por los hijos, ni los hijos han de ser muertos por los padres, sino que cada hombre o mujer ha de ser muerto por su propio pecado.”(Deuteronomio 24:16).
“El alma que pecare, ésa morirá: el hijo no cargará con la iniquidad del padre, ni el padre cargará con la iniquidad del hijo; la justicia del justo estará sobre él, y la maldad del malo sobre él estará.”(Ezequiel 18:20)
“El que justifica al culpable, y el que condena al inocente, ambos a dos son ABOMINACIÓN para el Eterno Creador.”(Proverbios 17:15)
Nota: Éste versículo en particular, como el que sigue, debiera ser leído y releído por todo aquél que desee agradar al Creador del universo!
“…ninguno de ellos (incluido el Galileo) podrá de manera alguna redimir al hermano, ni dar al Eterno Creador su propio rescate.”((Salmos 49:8(7))
A diferencia del Testamento Griego o Nuevo Testamento, las Escrituras Hebreas del Todopoderoso y Soberano de Abraham, Isaac y Jacob enseñan que todos y cada uno de nosotros somos responsables de nuestras acciones y pecados. SOLO NOSOTROS DEBEMOS RESPONDER Y PAGAR EL PRECIO QUE HAYAMOS GENERADO CON NUESTRA MALA CONDUCTA. Ningún “salvador” nacido de virgen alguna y que procede de la mitología Babilónica puede contradecir las claras enseñanzas e instrucciones dadas por el Todopoderoso de Israel.
Ahora usted, querido lector, se encara con la “pregunta del millón” y ella es ¿ por qué dos teologías son evidentes cuando se comparan las Escrituras Hebreas con el Nuevo Testamento?
Los ministros “cristianos” han danzado alrededor de ésta pregunta por más de dos mil años, pero nunca han podido dar una respuesta correcta. Ahora, si en verdad Jesús de Galilea vino como el sacrificio final y expiación de todos los pecados del mundo, ¿ por qué las Escrituras Hebreas (Antiguo Testamento) proclaman con claridad meridiana que se habrá de construir un Tercer Templo donde se reinstaurarán los sacrificios durante la Era Mesiánica?
Ciertamente que la gran mayoría de los cristianos ignoran las profesias en razón de que sus respectivos ministros o sacerdotes las han evitado engañosamente en sus prédicas, y que a continuación se trascriben:
“Yo también traeré a ellos a Mi santo monte. Y los haré gozosos en Mi casa de oración; sus holocaustos y sus sacrificios serán ACEPTOS sobre Mi altar, porque Mi casa será llamada “casa de oración” para TODOS los pueblos.”(Isaías 56:7).
“Desde allende los ríos de Etiopía, Mis adoradores, la hija de Mis dispersos Me los traerán (las naciones) como ofrendas. En aquél día no serás abochornada a causa de todas tus obras, con las cuales te rebelaste contra Mí; porque entonces habré quitado de en medio de ti tus orgullosos fanfarrones; y no volverás a ensoberbecerte en Mi santo monte.”(Sofonías 3:10/11)
“Todo el ganado menor de Quedar será juntado para ti, los carneros de Navayoth serán para tu servicio; subirán como ofrenda grata sobre Mi altar; y glorificaré la casa de Mi gloria.”(Isaías 60:7)
“Y celebraré con ellos un PACTO DE PAZ, será un pacto ETERNO con ellos; y los estableceré, y los multiplicaré, y pondré Mi santuario en medio de ellos para siempre.”(Ezequiel 37:26)
“…pues se sentará (el Mensajero del Eterno Creador) como acrisolador y purificador de la plata; y purificará como el oro y la plata, para que presenten al Eterno Creador ofrenda de justicia. Entonces la ofrenda de Judá y de Jerusalén será grata al Eterno Creador, como en los días de la antigüedad y como en los años de remotos tiempos.”(Malaquías 3:3/4)
Y el factor decisivo lo tenemos acá :
“Y la obligación del príncipe será proveer los holocaustos y la ofrenda vegetal y las libaciones en las fiestas, y en los novilunios, y en los Sábados, en todas las Fiestas Solemnes de la casa de Israel. Él ofrecerá (el príncipe) la ofrenda por el pecado, y la ofrenda vegetal, y el holocausto, y los sacrificios pacíficos, para hacer expiación por la casa de Israel.”(Ezequiel 45:17)
Vemos así que, aparentemente, la alegada muerte del Galileo no fue una expiación por los pecados y para todos los tiempos. Y si lo fue, ¿entonces por qué existe la necesidad de regresar a los sacrificios y ofrendas en la futura Era Mesiánica?
Confirmamos de ésta forma que lo que Hebreos 9:22 nos dice es una falacia elaborada para desvirtuar la verdad!
El clamor “cristiano” de que sólo con “derramamiento de sangre” se obtiene expiación de los pecados nos demuestra que no están ni han estado familiarizados con la misericordia y compasión del verdadero Creador y Soberano Creador del universo. Él tiene la habilidad de acercarse a nosotros con amor y perdonarnos absolutamente sin que nadie tenga que derramar una gota de su sangre.
“¿Quién es un Creador semejante a Ti que perdonas la iniquidad y pasa por alto la transgresión del Resto de Tu herencia? No retiene Él para siempre Su ira, porque se deleita en la misericordia.”(Miquéas 7:18)
Es increíble, pero ciertas, las palabras anteriores; ello contrasta terriblemente con las palabras del hombre de Galilea que podemos leer en Mateo 10:14 (Biblia de Jerusalén),
“No penséis que he venido a traer paz a la tierra. No he venido a traer paz , sino espada.”
Y eso, exactamente, es lo que se ha estado haciendo por todas las iglesias, creación del hombre, en éste planeta tierra desde tiempos inmemoriales.
Para todos aquellos que puedan aceptar la verdad hay una promesa maravillosa validada por la misma Palabra del Eterno Creador,
“…si entonces se humillare Mi pueblo, que es llamado según Mi nombre, y oraran y buscaran Mi rostro, y se convirtieren de sus malos caminos, Yo también oiré desde el cielo, y perdonaré (sin necesidad de sacrificio humano alguno) su pecado y sanaré su tierra.”( 2 Crónicas 7:14)
Las citas Bíblicas se han tomado de la Biblia o Tanakh, editada por ediciones Sigal de Buenos Aires, Argentina, y traducida al Castellano por León Dujovne, Manasés Konstantynowski y Moisés Konstantynowski, Edición de 1998.
El tema original tratado es uno que se denomina “Does Israel`s Creator require Blood to Atone for Sin? que ha sido adaptado y traducido por J.N.Robles Olarte
miércoles, 10 de octubre de 2007
martes, 9 de octubre de 2007
Horrores Cristianos – El Oscurantismo Edad Media Historia Medieval
EL REINO DEL CRISTIANISMO
La Edad Media es el periodo que comprende el tiempo entre el fin de la Era Antigua en el siglo V hasta el Renacimiento en el siglo XIV. Este periodo fueron los tiempos cuando el cristianismo gobernó casi sin ninguna restricción en Europa. La mayor parte de esta Era se denomina el Oscurantismo. El historiador Joseph McCabe dijo en los anos '20:
"Nadie excepto un experto lee hoy en día un libro escrito entre los anos 420 y 1100 de nuestra Era; si eso no es oscurantismo, que será?"
J.McCabe, Las Mentiras y Falacias de la Enciclopedia Británica.
Pero al contrario , hasta textos de la antiguedad NO cristianos son leídos hoy en día, por ejemplo los textos y los poemas de autores Greco Romanos como Homero, Ovid, Tacitus, Cicero, y Seneca. Los estudiantes de matemáticas y ciencias naturales de hoy estudian por lo menos un ano los principios de las matemáticas y la geometría como fueron establecidos por primera vez por los antiguos filósofos griegos como Arquimedes, Euclides, Thales y muchos otros.
La Edad Media fue la Era que vio la creación de los Cruzados, La Santa Inquisición , y el odio contra los judíos como nunca se había visto ante sen la historia humana. Ninguna otra civilización en la historia fabrico tanta variedad de métodos de tortura y ejecución. Cuando la Edad Media finalmente se transformó en historia, el mundo cristiano creo las terribles Cacerías de Brujas que llegaron a su cúspide al principio de la Edad Moderna hasta fines del siglo XVIII. Las ilustraciones presentadas aquí cubren el periodo de las cruzadas hasta el principio de las cacerías de brujas.
Recuerde que puede hacer click sobre la imagen para ver los detalles. Se los recomiendo.
Las fotos detalladas miden alrededor de 6M por lo tanto necesitara una coneccion super rapida.
Jerusalen, Ciudad Santa
(c.Musées Nationaux, Chateau de Versailles)
La primera conquista de Jerusalem ocurre el 7/15/1099 mas de 60,000 victimas (judíos, musulmanes, hombres, mujeres, niños). [WW37-40]
En la palabras de un testigo: "Allí [en frente del Templo de Salomón] hubo tal carnicería que nuestra gente estaba hasta los tobillos de la sangre de nuestros enemigos", y después de eso "felices y llorando de gozo nuestra gente marcho hacia la tumba de nuestro Salvador, para honrarlo y pagarle nuestra deuda de gratitud."
El Arzobispo de Tyre, testigo ocular relata: Era imposible mirar al vasto numero de muertos sin horrorizarse; por todos lados habían tirados fragmentos de cuerpos humanos, y hasta el mismo piso estaba cubierto de la sangre de los muertos. No era solamente el espectáculo de cuerpos sin cabeza y extremidades mutiladas tiradas por todas direcciones que inspiraba el terror a todos los que miraban ello; mas horripilante aun era ver a los victoriosos mismos chorreando de sangre de pie a cabeza, una omnipotente estampa que inspiraba el terror a todos los que los veían. Se reporta que dentro del Templo mismo murieron alrededor de 10,000 infieles." [TG79]
El cronista cristiano Eckehard de Aura escribió que "hasta durante el siguiente verano todo aire de Palestina continuaba contaminado del olor a descomposición". Un MILLÓN de victimas en la primera cruzada solamente. [WW41]
Es la voluntad de Dios!
Con el grito de "Deus lo vult" (es la voluntad de Dios!) y sabiendo que Cristo estaba a su lado, los cruzados cristianos medievales marcaron la historia humana para siempre cometiendo las mas viles atrocidades, matando hombres, mujeres y niños, moros y judíos por igual. Se estima que el día que Jerusalem fue conquistada por los cristianos 70,000 victimas pagaron con sus vidas el "glorioso" echo. El Santo Patrono de los Cruzados era San Jacobo, Exterminador de Arabes o el Patrón Santiago, como lo llamarían los españoles a su Santo Exterminador después del descubrimiento de América, asegurando de esta forma la continuación de las atrocidades a través de las Eras.
San Luis Rey
(c. Chateau de Versailles)
San Luis Rey de Francia, conocido también por los historiadores como el Rey Luis IX de Francia. Este Santo y Monarca ataco con igual frecuencia y ferocidad a los herejes, paganos y barones rebeldes. Literalmente no dejo oponente con cabeza. ¿Para que se le podría rezar a este Santo? Se los dejos a su discreción.
Note los herejes vestidos a rayas siendo eliminados por el Santo. Durante el oscurantismo las rayas pasaron a ser indeseables en la vestimenta después que estos herejes las usaran. De allí se origino la costumbre de vestir a los prisioneros en trajes a rayas.
Asesinos de Cristo
Judíos (tome nota del "sombrero de la verguenza" que eran forzados a usar) son torturados a 'confesar' el asesinato ritualístico de Simón de Trento. Mas tarde serian quemados vivos por los cristianos.
Placa anónima, 1415 [MS153]
El Justo Juicio
Unos pocos ejemplos de castigos comunes durante el Oscurantismo Cristiano.
Arriba: Ejecución por incineración, estrangulación y sumersión.
Medio: Un convicto es enceguecido , otro lacerado (para sacarle las víceras) y otro pierde sus orejas . En frente de la mesa otro convicto es preparado para ser descuartizado sobre la rueda (dibujada muy pequeña). Este procedimiento era sobrevivido por algunos aunque les rompía todos los huesos.
Abajo: Latigazos, decapitación y un tercer hombre pierde sus manos.
Placa anónima, siglo XVI [RI]
El Arte de los Perversos
Dos brujas son quemadas vivas, otra es decapitada (atrás). El monstruo en la parte superior izquierda personifica a Satanás llevándose el alma de las brujas.
Text: "Ein erschröckliche geschicht/ so zu Derneburg in der Graffschafft Reinsteyn/ am Harrz gelegen/ von dreyen zauberinn/ vnnd zweyen Maßen (?)/ in erstlichen tagen des Monats Octobris Im 1555. Iare ergangen ist."
Traduccion: "Una historia horrible, como ocurrio en Derneburg/ en el Harz/ tres brujas/ medidas fuertes (indescriptible)/como tomo lugar en los primeros dias de Octubre de 1555."
Placa contemporanea [RI]
miércoles, 3 de octubre de 2007
CORAZON CANSADO
Duerme, duerme, deja de respirar un momento
para poder descansar.
Abre tu mente,
has un espacio en tu alma para un nuevo ideal,
descansa solo el tiempo te hará razonar.
Abre tus ojos y el viento te dará paz,
deja pasar un instante de plena tranquilidad,
imagina que te acompañan un cielo azul,
hojas verdes, flores de todos colores,
sueña que soñar no te hará mal,
solo te alejará de tu realidad,
luego abre y verás claridad
verás tu mundo ideal.
¡Despierta deja de soñar!
Vuelve a tu realidad y trata de mejorar
todo aquello que puedas salvar.
El secreto esta en el aire
y en la tranquilidad.
* Autora: Amanda (Chile) *
By Robert Adams
Article first published in
New Dawn Magazine No 71, March 2002
When I first spoke to a close Christian friend of mine about the publishing of Tony Bushby’s The Bible Fraud, her reaction was one that many Christians have expressed, and one that made me aghast. She didn’t want the book available because it would "persuade them away from the Bible and the word of God." Further discussions with her and many other Christians around the world about The Bible Fraud all result in the Bible being quoted as the ultimate reference for the apparent "words of God," and therefore the basis for their arguments. The problem lies in that they believe the Bible is infallible.
If we examine the oldest known Bible to date, the "Sinai Bible" housed in the British Museum (I believe that, during his many years of research, Tony had a private viewing of this priceless book), we find a staggering 14,800 differences from today’s Bible and yet it still remains the word of God?
As Tony points out, the history of our ’genuine’ Bibles is a convoluted one. Firstly we cannot be sure that we have the full version as it was originally intended. In 1415 the Church of Rome took an extraordinary step to destroy all knowledge of two second century Jewish books that it said contained the true name of Jesus Christ. The Antipope Benedict XIII firstly singled out for condemnation a secret Latin treatise called "Mar Yesu" and then issued instructions to destroy all copies of the book of Elxai. The Rabbinic fraternity once held the destroyed manuscripts with great reverence for they were comprehensive original records reporting the life of Rabbi Jesus.
Later, Pope Alexander VI ordered all copies of the Talmud destroyed, with the Spanish Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada (1420-98) responsible for the elimination of 6,000 volumes at Salamanca alone.
Solomon Romano (1554) also burnt many thousands of Hebrew scrolls and, in 1559, every Hebrew book in the city of Prague was confiscated. The mass destruction of Jewish books included hundreds of copies of the Old Testament and caused the irretrievable loss of many original handwritten documents.
The oldest text of the Old Testament that survived, before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was said to be the Bodleian Codex (Oxford), which was dated to circa 1100 AD. In an attempt by the church to remove damaging Rabbinic information about Jesus Christ from the face of the earth, the Inquisition burnt 12,000 volumes of the Talmud.
In 1607, forty-seven men (some records say fifty four) took two years and nine months to re-write the Bible and make it ready for press. It was, by the order of King James, issued with a set of personal ’rules’ the translators were to follow. Upon its completion in 1609, it was handed over to the King James for his final approval. However,
"It was self evident that James was not competent to check their work and edit it, so he passed the manuscripts onto the greatest genius of all time... Sir Francis Bacon"
The first English language manuscripts of the Bible remained in Bacon’s possession for nearly a year. During that time ... "he hammered the various styles of the translators into the unity, rhythm, and music of Shakespearean prose, wrote the prefaces and created the whole scheme of the Authorized Version. At the completion of the editing, King James ordered a ’dedication to the King’ to be drawn up and included in the opening pages. He also wanted the phrase ’Appointed to be read in the churches’ to appear on the title page.
The King James Bible is considered by many today to be the ’original’ Bible and therefore ’genuine’ and all later revisions simply counterfeits forged by ’higher critics’. Others think the King James Bible is ’authentic’ and ’authorized’ and presents the original words of the authors as translated into English from the ’original’ Greek texts. However, as Tony points out, the ’original’ Greek text was not written until around the mid fourth century and was a revised edition of writings compiled decades earlier in Aramaic and Hebrew. Those earlier documents no longer exist and the Bibles we have today are five linguistic removes from the first bibles written. What was written in the ’original originals’ is quite unknown. It is important to remember that the words ’authorized ’ and ’original ’, as applied to the Bible do not mean ’genuine’, ’authentic’ or ’true’.
By the early third century, it became well noted that a problem was occurring in politics! In 251AD, the number of Presbyter’s (roving orator or priest) writings had increased dramatically and bitter arguments raged between opposing factions about their conflicting stories. According to Presbyter Albius Theodoret (circa 255), there were "more than two hundred" variant gospels in use in his time. In 313, groups of Presbyters and Biscops (Bishops) violently clashed over the variations in their writings and "altar was set against altar" in competing for an audience and territory.
When Emperor Constantine conquered the East in 324, he sent his Spanish religious advisor, Osius of Cordoba, to Alexandria with letters to several Biscops exhorting them to make peace among their own. But the mission failed and Constantine, probably at the suggestions of Osius, then issued a decree commanding all Presbyters and their subordinates "be mounted on asses, mules and horses belonging to the public and travel to the city of Nicaea" in the Roman province of Bithymia, the country of Asia. The Presbyters were instructed by the Emperor to bring with them the manuscripts from which they orated to the rabble (that’s us!) "wrapped and bound in leather".
Constantine saw in this developing system of belief the opportunity to make a combined state religion and protect it by law. The first general church council was thus convened and the year was 325.
On 21 June 325 DC, the day of the Summer Solstice, (and under those cult conditions) a total of 2048 "presbyters, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes and exorcists" gathered at Nicaea to decide what Christianity really was, what it would be, what writings were to be used and who was to be it’s God.
Ancient church evidence established that a new ’god’ was to be approved by the Roman Emperor and an earlier attempt (circa 210) to deify either Judas Khrestus or his twin brother Rabbi Jesus (or somebody else) had been ’declined’.
Therefore, as late as 325, the Christian religion did not have an official god.
After a long and bitter debate, a vote was finally taken and it was with a majority show of hands that Judas Khrestus and Rabbi Jesus both became God (161votes for and 157 votes against). The Emperor effectively joined elements of the two individual life stories of the twin brothers into a singular creation. The doctrine of the Celtic / British church of the west was democratically attached to the Presbyters stories of the east.
A deification ceremony was then performed ’Apotheosis’. Thus the deified ones were then called ’saviours’ and looked upon as gods. Temples, altars, and images with attributes of divinity were then erected and public holidays proclaimed on their birthdays.
Following the original example set by the deification of Caesar, their funerals were dramatized as the scene of their resurrection and immortality. All these godly attributes passed as a legal right to Emperor Constantine’s new deity, Jesus Christ.
The Emperor then instructed Bishop Eusebius to compile a uniform collection of new writings "bound together as one" using the stories from the large collection of Presbyters as his reference source. Eusebius was to arrange for the production of "fifty sumptuous copies ... to be written on parchment in a legible manner, and in a convenient portable form, by professional scribes thoroughly accomplished in the art". This was the first mention of finished copies of a Christian ’New Testament’ in the history of mankind.
As one can imagine, to condense the real life of the Jesus Christ, the Church and His teachings with supporting evidence into a short article is very difficult. It is therefore wise for those who wish to have supportable evidence to read and study Tony Bushby’s epic work, The Bible Fraud, along with it’s detailed blood lines (family trees) and over 869 references. (see www.thebiblefraud.com)
However, attempting to summarize what Tony has written..... in 325 AD, the first Christian council was called at Nicaea to bring the stories of twin brothers, Jesus ’the Rabbi’ and Judas Khrestus into one deity that we now know as Jesus Christ. Tony says they were not born of virgin birth but to Nabatean Arab Mariamne Herod (now known as the Virgin Mary) and fathered by Tiberius ben Panthera, a Roman Centurion.
The brothers were raised in the Essene community and became Khrists of their faith. Rabbi Jesus later was initiated in Egypt at the highest of levels similar to the 33rd degree of Freemasonry of which many Prime ministers and Presidents around the world today are members. He then later married three wives, one of whom we know as a Mary Magdalene, a Druidic Princess, stole the Torah from the temple and moved to Lud, now London.
Tony believes the reason Jesus stole the Torah was that he said it contained "a very special secret", which he was going to reveal that secret to the world. He was stoned to death and the Torah taken from him before he could.
The elder brother, Judas Khrestus, with his "Khrestian" followers conspired to take the throne of Rome, his royal birthright, and was captured, tried, and was sentenced to be crucified. (The "Khrestians" and the Essenic army, the Nazarenes, would today be likened to terrorists.) At the trial, Judas exercised his royal birthright to have a replacement in Simon of Cyrene (Luke 23:41) and then was sold as a slave to live out his days as a carpenter in India.
Rabbi Jesus spent a considerable amount of time at the Palace of the British in Rome and sometime around 48 AD, he left for Egypt to pursue his greatest esoteric goal. The spiritual knowledge from his secret education in the Essene and Druid movements was soon to be elevated to the highest level possible - initiation into the innermost rite of the Egyptian temples.
It was probable that Rabbi Jesus’ earlier initiation into both the Essene and Druid schools played a major part in his acceptance into the Egyptian school. The Druids could claim a very early origin and the essence of their wisdom was also that of the Essenes. In the case of the Essenes, it is possible to show that their movement was specifically established to preserve secret information, for they knew and used the sacred writing of the Initiates. The full meaning of the point being made by Bushby is that in the case of all Secret Schools, the inner and ultimate Mystery was revealed only to a High Initiate.
Those who were initiated into the Ancient mysteries took a solemn oath never to reveal what had passed within the sacred walls. Every year only a comparatively few Egyptian initiations were conducted, and the number of persons who knew their secrets was never at any time large. The initiations always took place with the onset of darkness and the candidate was entranced for periods of varying length, depending upon the level of the degree for which he had entered.
The first initiatory step involved a forty-day procedure that basically involved purification, not only in physical form, but dissolving all tendencies to evil thoughts, purifying the mind as well. It appears that he would have fasted, alternatively on vegetables, juices and very special herbal concoctions.
The New Testament recorded that this happened to Rabbi Jesus who "was led into the desert.... and he fasted forty days and forty nights" (Matt. 4:1-2).
This trial period involved more than just fasting. During the forty days and nights’ ordeal, Tony says the candidate was required to study astronomical charts to supplement his skills in astronomy and memorize charts of the heavens. They were also given a particular ritual from which to memorize certain passwords, secret signs and handclasps, skills that are still practiced to this day in Freemasonry.
These initiations were not limited to Egypt. The ancient civilizations inherited these Mysteries from a remote antiquity and they constituted part of a primitive revelation from the gods to the human race. Almost every people of pre-Christian times possessed its institution and tradition of the mysteries. The Romans, the Druids of Britain, the Greeks, the Cretans, the Syrians, the Hindus, the Persians, the Maya and the American Indians, among others, had corresponding temples and rites with a system of graduated illuminations for the initiates.
The modern world knows little of these ancient rites yet they were conducted in a huge variety of buildings the world over.
The ’Towers’ that are found throughout the East in Asia were directly connected with the Mystery-initiations. The candidates for initiation were placed in them for three days and three nights, whenever there was no temple with a subterranean crypt close at hand.
In this aspect of the initiatory procedure, Tony points out a direct Gospel parallel with Rabbi Jesus saying, "After three days I shall rise again", for he knew the finishing process he was to undertake would take three days being a symbol of the period of time required to complete a condition of development. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts speak of an initiate as ’twice-born’, and he was permitted to add to his name the words ’he who has renewed his life’, so that on some ancient tomb-inscriptions archaeologists still discover these phases descriptive of the spiritual status of the deceased person.
So little did the later Gospel writers understand the initiatory process that they never perceived they were developing a story that included a Rabbi’s (and Arch Druid of Britain) experience in an Egyptian Mystery School.
St Agustin (c. 380) asserted that it was generally known in church circles that Rabbi Jesus had been initiated in Egypt, and that "he wrote books concerning magic". In the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Jews brought the same accusation before Pontius Pilate, "Did we not tell you he was a magician?" Celsus (c. 178) spoke of the same charge. In the Clementine Recognitions, the accusation was brought against Rabbi Jesus that he did not perform any miracles but practiced magic and carried about with him the figure of a seated skeleton.
Jewish tradition invariably asserted that Rabbi Jesus learned ’magic’ in Egypt. Bushby says the kernel of this persistent accusation may perhaps be reduced to the simple historical element that Rabbi Jesus went to Egypt and returned with far wider and more enlightened views than those of his former religious associates.
Now, I’m sure that many of you are having trouble grasping some of the ideas presented in this article and I congratulate you on taking the effort to read this far. We all need to demand our local Church, the Church scholars, theologians and media make an open examination of the evidence compiled in Tony Bushby’s The Bible Fraud. It may rattle some core beliefs but what is more important to you . the truth or what sits comfortably because it’s what you’ve known all you life?
I leave you with a quote from one of the conspirators
"How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us."
Pope Leo X (1513-1521)
sábado, 29 de septiembre de 2007
Baptism
by Walt Baucum, March 2004
The Question
Why does the Christian world practice the rite of water baptism when no mention of it is found in the Hebrew Scriptures [“Old” Testament]? Darrell Conder, whose research and comments regarding this timely subject challenges the reader to look more closely at it, says this: “‘Moreover, the fundamental narrative that inspires the New Testament, the story of Jesus, could be understood as mythic in character.’ The ‘Mystery Religions’ had a great influence on Christianity: “Far more problematic is the question of how far the Greco-Roman mysteries influenced the early Christian community, not only in terminology but also in the rites that secured salvation with Christ.’
“Speaking of baptism and the Eucharist (bread and wine), they note that the question of its connection to the Mysteries ‘has still not been resolved.’”
Conder cites other sources and authors who advocate a connection between pagan myths and the origins of Christianity. He mentions The Original Jesus: the Buddhist Sources of Christianity, by Drs. Elmar Gruber and Holger Kersten, and The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, by Dr. Hyam Maccoby.
The Christians accuse the pagans of borrowing from Christianity and base their assertions on the argument that the earliest surviving writings of paganism [Mithraism, etc.] date only from the second century. This is countered with the argument that the earliest surviving Gospel accounts date from the fourth century.
Roman Catholicism’s version of the beginning of baptism is also indefinite. “The most important theology of baptism is Paul’s. He took it from the Hellenistic missionary communities and ‘corrected it at decisive points to coincide with his cross-centered Christology and his eschatological reservation (the “not-yet”).’”
Then we see some who teach that although most of Christianity is definitely steeped in paganism, their own particular brand of Christianity is not, but which itself also includes water baptism.
Repentance and obedience to our Creator and Father, not Christianity’s teaching of water baptism and Jesus’ blood sacrifice, appear to be the requirements for salvation set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Because of so many differences between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek-inspired “New” Testament, and because water baptism is a main tenet of the NT but no mention of it exists in the “OT,” we need to ask the question, “Is water baptism one of God’s requirements for salvation, or for anything?”
A Physical Sign of Obedience
Without going into great depth, we find that circumcision is clearly required of the male descendants of Abraham. Paul, of course, changed this requirement in the Greek NT, if one accepts it as inspired. Also, many people believe, and objective research shows, that the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples, including those of Scandinavia, West Europe, and North America are the very descendants of ancient Israel. Whether we can accept this or not, these are the nations that base their beliefs on the Judeo-Christian system.
One day, if indeed the Hebrew Scriptures [OT] are inspired, the instructions or laws given to Israel will extend to the entire world. All nations will have unity and understanding and pure truth in the worship of their Creator. All nations will be required to keep the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and the dietary laws. The Gentile nations will learn to worship the God of Israel in truth and pure understanding, and they will be required to show an outward physical sign that they have entered into the covenant with God to love and obey Him with all their hearts. This outward physical sign is clearly shown in the Hebrew Scriptures to be circumcision of the foreskin. There is no example in all of Scripture commanding water baptism as this sign of obedience. Just as circumcision was and is commanded of Israelites in the past and today, so will it undoubtedly continue to be commanded in their (and ultimately the entire world’s) future.
Our main concern, then, must be why this Entity, Who proclaims in a first-person statement in Malachi 3:6, “… I am the Elohim, I change not,” changed it, if indeed He did change it.
A Close Look at Water Baptism
Since the New Testament is believed by some to be a fairytale created by Paul, and later capitalized on by the “Apostolic Fathers” (early Catholics), and which is a mix of Mithraism and Zoroastrianism [which would have replaced Christianity had not Christianity been declared the official State religion of Rome by Constantine], and with some Judaism thrown in to appeal to both Jews and Gentiles, we will begin this study by looking at its early heathen practices. We quote again from Essential Catholicism.
“One of the questions often debated by scholars is whether Paul was influenced in his theology of baptism by the mystery religions, such as Cybele’s, which were so popular at that time and taught that one could share in the fate of the cult deity by participating in certain mysterious rites. Certain NT passages, it is true, do reflect this influence (‘You have been buried with him, when you were baptized; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him….’)”
Baptismal Regeneration. “There are professed Protestants who hold the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration; but the Word of God knows nothing of it [italics added]. The Scriptural account of baptism is, not that it communicates the new birth, but that it is the appointed means of signifying and sealing that new birth where it already exists. In this respect, baptism stands on the very same ground as circumcision.”
Continuing, the author quotes NT Mark 16:16, “He that believes, and is baptized, shall be saved,” and to make the point that if one’s faith is genuine, it is evidence of a regenerated nature [a new heart]. It is only on the profession of that faith and regeneration [in the case of an adult] that one is admitted to baptism. God may, or may not, as He sees fit, give the new heart before, at, or after baptism.
We will not here discuss Paul’s presumptive substitution of God’s commanded circumcision with the known and well-entrenched pagan rite of baptism, but Hislop confirmed the Roman church’s doctrine of baptismal regeneration as essentially Babylonian. The mere fact of baptizing people, without any instruction whatsoever, is in the “most complete ignorance of the truths of Christianity.” Although Hislop makes the point that baptism without faith and knowledge is incorrect, he himself still believed in this heathen rite.
Twice-born. In the present writer’s previous belief system, use of such expressions relating to baptism were, “Look how dirty the water is; you must have had tons of sins to wash away”; also, “I’m a new person in Christ; I’m only (X) years old [counting the years from one’s baptism].” This latter saying goes along with baptismal regeneration and was crucial to the Babylonian “twice-born” belief. “The Brahmins make it their distinguishing boast that they are ‘twice-born’ men, and that, as such, they are sure of eternal happiness. Now, the same was the case in Babylon, and there the new birth was conferred by baptism. In certain sacred rites of the heathen, says Tertullian, especially referring to the worship of Isis and Mithra, the mode of initiation is by baptism. The term ‘initiation’ clearly shows that it was to the Mysteries of these divinities he referred. This baptism was by immersion…he who passed through the purifying waters, and other necessary penances…was then admitted to the knowledge of the Mysteries.”
Hislop mentions that our own ancestors, the pagan worshippers of Odin, and also the Aztecs in Mexico [see Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico, p. 185], washed [i.e., “to wash and to purify”] in the same manner. Midwives were used for the rite in Mexico. “As baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, Rome also authorizes midwives to administer baptism. In Mexico, the midwife seems to have been a ‘priestess.’
“In the Romish ceremony of baptism, the first thing the priest does is to exorcise the devil out of the child [here talking specifically about child baptism] to be baptized in these words, ‘Depart from him, thou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter.’ In the NT there is not the slightest hint of any such exorcism accompanying Christian baptism. It is purely pagan.”
The dove. In the Babylonian Mysteries, the dove also was associated with baptism [see NT John 1:32; Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10]. “According to the Chaldean doctrine, Semiramis, the wife of Ninus or Nimrod, when exalted to divinity under the name of the Queen of Heaven, came, as we have seen, to be worshipped as Juno, the ‘Dove’—in other words, the Holy Spirit incarnate…under the name of Astarte, she was said to have come forth from the wondrous egg that was found floating on the waters of the Euphrates. Now Manilius tells what induced her to take refuge in these waters. ‘Venus plunged into the Babylonian waters to shun the fury of the snake-footed Typhon.’ When Venus Urania, or Dione, the ‘Heavenly Dove,’ plunged in deep distress into these waters of Babylon, it was neither more nor less than saying that the Holy Ghost incarnate in deep tribulation entered these waters, and that on purpose that these waters might be fit, not only by the temporary abode of the Messiah in the midst of them, but by the Spirit’s efficacy thus imparted to them, for giving new life and regeneration, by baptism, to the worshipers of the Chaldean Madonna.
“We have evidence that the purifying virtue of the waters, which in pagan esteem had such efficacy in cleansing from guilt and regenerating the soul, was derived in part from the passing of the mediatorial god, the sun-god and god of fire, through these waters during his humiliation and sojourn in the midst of them; and that the Papacy retains the very custom which had sprung up from that persuasion. So far as heathenism is concerned, “…[Potter and Athenaeus said] ‘Every person who came to the solemn sacrifices [of the Greeks] was purified by water.’”
“Now the Holy ghost was idolatrously worshipped in Babylon under the form of a ‘Dove.’”
Modern Attempts to Explain the Similarities
Roman Catholicism, most if not all of Rome’s daughter “Protestant” churches, and apparently Alexander Hislop too, claim that such similarities and beliefs in ancient times were either copied from the true “religion,” or else they anticipated the future “Messiah-ship of Jesus. However, we cannot see the fine lines of difference. “Mediator,” “dove,” “Messiah,” “purifying,” “new life,” “baptism,” and “regeneration” are terms that applied to the false religion of the ancient Babylonians. Why would someone Who proclaims, “…I change not,” suddenly change and replace His known methods of circumcision, repentance, and obedience with this pagan and idolatrous rite?
Anointing with oil. This rite, “anointing with oil” after baptism in order to “receive the Holy Spirit,” is another example of borrowing.
“Coming out of the water…the candidate…was anointed with the oil of thanksgiving and was then dried and dressed. When all were baptized, they were presented to the assembly, and the bishop laid his hand upon them and invoked the grace of the Holy Spirit upon them. He then anointed each on the forehead as he touched his or her head, saying, ‘I anoint thee with the holy oil in God the Father Almighty and Christ Jesus and the Holy Ghost.’”
“The worshippers of Nimrod and his queen were looked upon as regenerated and purged from sin by baptism.” Confirmation [anointing with chrism (consecrated oil used in baptism and other rites)] as a distinct sacrament in the Roman church was a slow process, taking 800 years from the Roman initiation rites to Thomas Aquinas in 1274, and thousands from the time of Semiramis and Nimrod, from whom it originated.
Some argue that confirmation as a separate sacrament is found in Acts 8:4-17, but this passage merely testifies to the organic growth of the church from its source community, in Jerusalem, where “the spirit was first given.” Others argue for Acts 19:1-7, where Paul baptized some disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus, laid hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came down on them. But the real point of this was to show that “baptism in the name of Jesus confers the Holy Spirit.”
In a futile attempt to find historical precedent for the Episcopal rite of confirmation, Thomas Aquinas used a collection of spurious material called the Isidorian, or False, Decretals—ninth-century forgeries he thought were actual records of the early church. He derived the rite of confirmation from the bogus “Letters to the Spanish Bishops,” supposedly written by Miltiades, an early fourth-century pope.
The only difference here is that his own anointing was with olive oil, whereas the Babylonians anointed with water that “…was consecrated by putting into it a burning torch taken from the altar.”
This burning torch was the symbol of the god of fire and, “…by the light of this torch, so indispensable for consecrating ‘the holy water,’ we may see whence came one great part of the purifying virtue of ‘the water of the loud resounding sea,’ which was held to be so efficacious in purging away the guilt and stain of sin—even from the sun-god having taken refuge in its waters. Now this very same method is used in the Romish Church for consecrating the water for baptism.
“As Rome keeps up the remembrance of the fire-god passing through the waters and giving virtue to them, so when it speaks of the ‘Holy Ghost suffering for us in baptism,’ it in like manner commemorates the part which Paganism assigned to the Babylonian goddess when she plunged into the waters.”
Infant Baptism
By the second century CE, infant baptism became accepted by some, but not by all people. Augustine’s answer as to why infants should be baptized evolved into its more common acceptance. He said that the sin of Adam was transmitted to all his descendants through the act of procreation, and the stain of this sin could be removed only by baptism. Those who died without baptism, he said, would be damned.
Paul, the true founder of orthodox Christianity, “…laid down the basic orthodox doctrines: hope of high rank in heaven for the pure; avoidance of women and sexuality; separation of body and soul. ‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other’ (Galatians 5:17). Women were no longer participants in sacred mysteries according to Paul. The church must be entirely patriarchal; women were forbidden to teach or preach in it. Paul also laid the guilt of original sin on woman alone, absolving man from responsibility: ‘Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression’ (1 Timothy 2:11-14).
“Paul’s antipathy toward women and sexuality leads to a suspicion that his esoteric doctrine was linked with the early Christian practice of voluntary castration, recommended by Jesus for ‘the kingdom of heaven’s sake’ (Matthew 19:12). In Paul’s day, Rome revered the self-castrated god Attis….”
A Catholic Church council in 418 determined that every human child is born demonic because of its sexual conception, therefore damned unless baptized. In the infant’s baptismal rite, the Catholic priest addresses the baby, “‘I exorcise thee, thou unclean spirit…Hear thy doom, O Devil accursed, Satan accursed.’ The exorcism is euphemistically described as ‘a means to remove impediments to grace resulting from the effects of original sin and the power of Satan over fallen nature.’ But it is obvious from the folk belief, still widespread, that the church’s teaching was that every newborn infant before baptism belonged to the devil. St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin laid the foundation for this idea, and Tertullian said every baby is born evil; its soul is ‘unclean’ and ‘actively sinful’ before baptism. Medieval theologians held that any infant still in the womb is doomed to eternal damnation. Priests refused to baptize a child within forty days of its birth, for both mother and infant were considered impure (hence too dangerous for priests to touch) during that period.”
Within a century after Augustine, infant baptism became the norm, and in the Council of Florence (1438-45), the custom was given the force of law. Parents now were obliged to have their infants baptized shortly after birth. It was at this same time that sprinkling replaced full immersion.
Some Christians do not believe in infant baptism, but still claim baptism’s beginnings as being a replacement of the “Old Testament” command of circumcision. “From the time of Abraham onwards, the Jew [he means Israelite] had felt it a solemn religious obligation to claim for his sons from their earliest infancy the same covenant relation with God as he himself stood in. There was sufficient parallelism between baptism and circumcision (cf. Col. 2:11) for the Jewish-Christian father to expect the baptism of his children to follow his own as a matter of course…to the mind of Jew and Gentile alike, the baptism of infants and children yet unable to supply the conditions for themselves was so natural, that St. Luke records so simply that when Lydia believed, she was baptized ‘with her household’; when the Philippian jailor believed, he was baptized, and all those belonging to him. If there were children in these households, these children were baptized on the ground of the faith of their parents; if there were no children, then the principle took a still wider extension, which includes children; for it was the servants or slaves of the household who were ‘added to the Church’ by baptism on the ground of their master’s faith.”
The problem here is that circumcision of eight-day-old Israelite children was a direct command from God, as a sign of their being His, whereas baptism was a pagan rite thousands of years old by the time of its introduction into Christianity by Paul. We see no “parallelism” between circumcision and baptism.
Bokenkotter says that, “Theologically, the grounds for insisting on infant baptism no longer seem valid…historical studies show that in the early Church, adult baptism was the norm…moreover, [its] practice has helped to create the situation of a Church composed formally of a large, inert mass of nominal Christians who have little understanding of what it means to be a member of a Christian community…definitely diminishes the credibility of the Church’s claim to be, in the words of Vatican II, ‘a sacrament or sign of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind.’”
So here we have non-Catholic Christians berating Catholics for one aspect of baptism, that of infant baptism, when both are just as guilty for their derivation of the rite of baptism itself from earliest paganism.
Origin of Baptism
The Bible Almanac (p. 541) says that baptism was a common event of Christian worship in Paul’s time, but that Christians were not the first to use baptism. “Jews baptized their gentile converts, some Jewish sects practiced baptism as a symbol of purification, and John the Baptist made baptism an important part of his ministry.”
However, prior to the “New Testament,” no Scriptural source [OT] is given for the comment, “Jews baptized their gentile converts.”
The statement by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:2, “And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,” is NT terminology to “legitimize” a pagan rite, thereby continuing an ongoing attempt to subject NT “theology” into the [OT] Hebrew Scriptures.
“Baptism was everywhere the rite of initiation into the church, mainly by immersion; although there is definite mention, 120 A.D., of baptism by pouring water upon the head, indicating that it was already a custom.”
“Baptism: from the Greek baptizein, to dip. Originally, it referred to dyeing fabric, but came to be used by Pagans for initiation ceremonies, using water or blood in sprinkling. The true Hebrew word is TEVILA, where a person is immersed in a body of water, called a MIKVAH. It also signifies repentance, and it is the most important event in one’s life in the conversion of a Gentile, to become engrafted into Yisrael. It is a covenant sign to obey [YHWH], and identifies the convert with the death and burial of [Jesus?], and is the death and burial of one’s mind of the flesh. Rising up from the water of Tevila, a convert is identified with the resurrection, and walks in obedience, enabled to obey by the Spirit. [Jesus?] gave us His example.”
“Moreover, the reference [on NT day of Pentecost] to baptism is held to show that this rite now became the entry rite to the new Christian religion, taking the place occupied by circumcision in the Jewish religion…Peter’s use of baptism was simply a continuation of the practice of Jesus and John the Baptist: not an induction into a new religion, but symbolic of a return to God in preparation for the great event of the Messianic kingdom—in this case to be inaugurated by the reappearance of Jesus, expected in the near future.”
The only “possible” reference to the pagan rite of baptism in the Hebrew Scriptures is in Leviticus 15:22: “And whosoever touches anything that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the even.”
This is mentioned in The Bible Almanac, p. 404, under Ritual bath. “Priests washed various cult objects in this basin [pictured] to achieve ceremonial purity. The early Hebrews considered cleanliness to be both a physical and a moral attribute. Diseased people and the objects they touched were considered unclean (Lev. 15:22).”
Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary, (1925, 1947), p. 73, says, “It is well known that ablution or bathing was common in most ancient nations as a preparation for prayers and sacrifice or as expiatory of sin. Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the rite or ordinance by which persons are admitted into the Church of Christ. The command to baptize was co-extensive with the command to preach the gospel. All nations were to be evangelized; and they were to be made disciples, admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, by baptism.
Hislop stated, “It is well known that regeneration by baptism is a fundamental article of Rome, yea, that it stands at the very threshold of the Roman system.”
Conclusion
To repeat, “The most important theology of baptism is Paul’s. He took it from the Hellenistic missionary communities and ‘corrected’ it at decisive points to coincide with his cross-centered Christology….” These “Hellenistic [pagan Greek] missionary communities” derived their beliefs directly from the Mystery Religion of Babylon and Egypt. The same “religion” wound up in Rome. Paul, the probable founder of “Christianity,” was an earnest admirer of Roman culture. He had Romanized his name from Saul to Paul, and, in Acts 22:27, even claimed himself to be a Roman.
It is apparent that water baptism is a purely Christian rite borrowed from the Babylonian Mystery Religion, not from purification rites of the ancient Hebrews. Neither is there any evidence or justification whatsoever that it “replaced” circumcision as outlined in the OT.
by Walt Baucum, March 2004
The Question
Why does the Christian world practice the rite of water baptism when no mention of it is found in the Hebrew Scriptures [“Old” Testament]? Darrell Conder, whose research and comments regarding this timely subject challenges the reader to look more closely at it, says this: “‘Moreover, the fundamental narrative that inspires the New Testament, the story of Jesus, could be understood as mythic in character.’ The ‘Mystery Religions’ had a great influence on Christianity: “Far more problematic is the question of how far the Greco-Roman mysteries influenced the early Christian community, not only in terminology but also in the rites that secured salvation with Christ.’
“Speaking of baptism and the Eucharist (bread and wine), they note that the question of its connection to the Mysteries ‘has still not been resolved.’”
Conder cites other sources and authors who advocate a connection between pagan myths and the origins of Christianity. He mentions The Original Jesus: the Buddhist Sources of Christianity, by Drs. Elmar Gruber and Holger Kersten, and The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, by Dr. Hyam Maccoby.
The Christians accuse the pagans of borrowing from Christianity and base their assertions on the argument that the earliest surviving writings of paganism [Mithraism, etc.] date only from the second century. This is countered with the argument that the earliest surviving Gospel accounts date from the fourth century.
Roman Catholicism’s version of the beginning of baptism is also indefinite. “The most important theology of baptism is Paul’s. He took it from the Hellenistic missionary communities and ‘corrected it at decisive points to coincide with his cross-centered Christology and his eschatological reservation (the “not-yet”).’”
Then we see some who teach that although most of Christianity is definitely steeped in paganism, their own particular brand of Christianity is not, but which itself also includes water baptism.
Repentance and obedience to our Creator and Father, not Christianity’s teaching of water baptism and Jesus’ blood sacrifice, appear to be the requirements for salvation set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Because of so many differences between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek-inspired “New” Testament, and because water baptism is a main tenet of the NT but no mention of it exists in the “OT,” we need to ask the question, “Is water baptism one of God’s requirements for salvation, or for anything?”
A Physical Sign of Obedience
Without going into great depth, we find that circumcision is clearly required of the male descendants of Abraham. Paul, of course, changed this requirement in the Greek NT, if one accepts it as inspired. Also, many people believe, and objective research shows, that the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples, including those of Scandinavia, West Europe, and North America are the very descendants of ancient Israel. Whether we can accept this or not, these are the nations that base their beliefs on the Judeo-Christian system.
One day, if indeed the Hebrew Scriptures [OT] are inspired, the instructions or laws given to Israel will extend to the entire world. All nations will have unity and understanding and pure truth in the worship of their Creator. All nations will be required to keep the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and the dietary laws. The Gentile nations will learn to worship the God of Israel in truth and pure understanding, and they will be required to show an outward physical sign that they have entered into the covenant with God to love and obey Him with all their hearts. This outward physical sign is clearly shown in the Hebrew Scriptures to be circumcision of the foreskin. There is no example in all of Scripture commanding water baptism as this sign of obedience. Just as circumcision was and is commanded of Israelites in the past and today, so will it undoubtedly continue to be commanded in their (and ultimately the entire world’s) future.
Our main concern, then, must be why this Entity, Who proclaims in a first-person statement in Malachi 3:6, “… I am the Elohim, I change not,” changed it, if indeed He did change it.
A Close Look at Water Baptism
Since the New Testament is believed by some to be a fairytale created by Paul, and later capitalized on by the “Apostolic Fathers” (early Catholics), and which is a mix of Mithraism and Zoroastrianism [which would have replaced Christianity had not Christianity been declared the official State religion of Rome by Constantine], and with some Judaism thrown in to appeal to both Jews and Gentiles, we will begin this study by looking at its early heathen practices. We quote again from Essential Catholicism.
“One of the questions often debated by scholars is whether Paul was influenced in his theology of baptism by the mystery religions, such as Cybele’s, which were so popular at that time and taught that one could share in the fate of the cult deity by participating in certain mysterious rites. Certain NT passages, it is true, do reflect this influence (‘You have been buried with him, when you were baptized; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him….’)”
Baptismal Regeneration. “There are professed Protestants who hold the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration; but the Word of God knows nothing of it [italics added]. The Scriptural account of baptism is, not that it communicates the new birth, but that it is the appointed means of signifying and sealing that new birth where it already exists. In this respect, baptism stands on the very same ground as circumcision.”
Continuing, the author quotes NT Mark 16:16, “He that believes, and is baptized, shall be saved,” and to make the point that if one’s faith is genuine, it is evidence of a regenerated nature [a new heart]. It is only on the profession of that faith and regeneration [in the case of an adult] that one is admitted to baptism. God may, or may not, as He sees fit, give the new heart before, at, or after baptism.
We will not here discuss Paul’s presumptive substitution of God’s commanded circumcision with the known and well-entrenched pagan rite of baptism, but Hislop confirmed the Roman church’s doctrine of baptismal regeneration as essentially Babylonian. The mere fact of baptizing people, without any instruction whatsoever, is in the “most complete ignorance of the truths of Christianity.” Although Hislop makes the point that baptism without faith and knowledge is incorrect, he himself still believed in this heathen rite.
Twice-born. In the present writer’s previous belief system, use of such expressions relating to baptism were, “Look how dirty the water is; you must have had tons of sins to wash away”; also, “I’m a new person in Christ; I’m only (X) years old [counting the years from one’s baptism].” This latter saying goes along with baptismal regeneration and was crucial to the Babylonian “twice-born” belief. “The Brahmins make it their distinguishing boast that they are ‘twice-born’ men, and that, as such, they are sure of eternal happiness. Now, the same was the case in Babylon, and there the new birth was conferred by baptism. In certain sacred rites of the heathen, says Tertullian, especially referring to the worship of Isis and Mithra, the mode of initiation is by baptism. The term ‘initiation’ clearly shows that it was to the Mysteries of these divinities he referred. This baptism was by immersion…he who passed through the purifying waters, and other necessary penances…was then admitted to the knowledge of the Mysteries.”
Hislop mentions that our own ancestors, the pagan worshippers of Odin, and also the Aztecs in Mexico [see Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico, p. 185], washed [i.e., “to wash and to purify”] in the same manner. Midwives were used for the rite in Mexico. “As baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, Rome also authorizes midwives to administer baptism. In Mexico, the midwife seems to have been a ‘priestess.’
“In the Romish ceremony of baptism, the first thing the priest does is to exorcise the devil out of the child [here talking specifically about child baptism] to be baptized in these words, ‘Depart from him, thou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter.’ In the NT there is not the slightest hint of any such exorcism accompanying Christian baptism. It is purely pagan.”
The dove. In the Babylonian Mysteries, the dove also was associated with baptism [see NT John 1:32; Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10]. “According to the Chaldean doctrine, Semiramis, the wife of Ninus or Nimrod, when exalted to divinity under the name of the Queen of Heaven, came, as we have seen, to be worshipped as Juno, the ‘Dove’—in other words, the Holy Spirit incarnate…under the name of Astarte, she was said to have come forth from the wondrous egg that was found floating on the waters of the Euphrates. Now Manilius tells what induced her to take refuge in these waters. ‘Venus plunged into the Babylonian waters to shun the fury of the snake-footed Typhon.’ When Venus Urania, or Dione, the ‘Heavenly Dove,’ plunged in deep distress into these waters of Babylon, it was neither more nor less than saying that the Holy Ghost incarnate in deep tribulation entered these waters, and that on purpose that these waters might be fit, not only by the temporary abode of the Messiah in the midst of them, but by the Spirit’s efficacy thus imparted to them, for giving new life and regeneration, by baptism, to the worshipers of the Chaldean Madonna.
“We have evidence that the purifying virtue of the waters, which in pagan esteem had such efficacy in cleansing from guilt and regenerating the soul, was derived in part from the passing of the mediatorial god, the sun-god and god of fire, through these waters during his humiliation and sojourn in the midst of them; and that the Papacy retains the very custom which had sprung up from that persuasion. So far as heathenism is concerned, “…[Potter and Athenaeus said] ‘Every person who came to the solemn sacrifices [of the Greeks] was purified by water.’”
“Now the Holy ghost was idolatrously worshipped in Babylon under the form of a ‘Dove.’”
Modern Attempts to Explain the Similarities
Roman Catholicism, most if not all of Rome’s daughter “Protestant” churches, and apparently Alexander Hislop too, claim that such similarities and beliefs in ancient times were either copied from the true “religion,” or else they anticipated the future “Messiah-ship of Jesus. However, we cannot see the fine lines of difference. “Mediator,” “dove,” “Messiah,” “purifying,” “new life,” “baptism,” and “regeneration” are terms that applied to the false religion of the ancient Babylonians. Why would someone Who proclaims, “…I change not,” suddenly change and replace His known methods of circumcision, repentance, and obedience with this pagan and idolatrous rite?
Anointing with oil. This rite, “anointing with oil” after baptism in order to “receive the Holy Spirit,” is another example of borrowing.
“Coming out of the water…the candidate…was anointed with the oil of thanksgiving and was then dried and dressed. When all were baptized, they were presented to the assembly, and the bishop laid his hand upon them and invoked the grace of the Holy Spirit upon them. He then anointed each on the forehead as he touched his or her head, saying, ‘I anoint thee with the holy oil in God the Father Almighty and Christ Jesus and the Holy Ghost.’”
“The worshippers of Nimrod and his queen were looked upon as regenerated and purged from sin by baptism.” Confirmation [anointing with chrism (consecrated oil used in baptism and other rites)] as a distinct sacrament in the Roman church was a slow process, taking 800 years from the Roman initiation rites to Thomas Aquinas in 1274, and thousands from the time of Semiramis and Nimrod, from whom it originated.
Some argue that confirmation as a separate sacrament is found in Acts 8:4-17, but this passage merely testifies to the organic growth of the church from its source community, in Jerusalem, where “the spirit was first given.” Others argue for Acts 19:1-7, where Paul baptized some disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus, laid hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came down on them. But the real point of this was to show that “baptism in the name of Jesus confers the Holy Spirit.”
In a futile attempt to find historical precedent for the Episcopal rite of confirmation, Thomas Aquinas used a collection of spurious material called the Isidorian, or False, Decretals—ninth-century forgeries he thought were actual records of the early church. He derived the rite of confirmation from the bogus “Letters to the Spanish Bishops,” supposedly written by Miltiades, an early fourth-century pope.
The only difference here is that his own anointing was with olive oil, whereas the Babylonians anointed with water that “…was consecrated by putting into it a burning torch taken from the altar.”
This burning torch was the symbol of the god of fire and, “…by the light of this torch, so indispensable for consecrating ‘the holy water,’ we may see whence came one great part of the purifying virtue of ‘the water of the loud resounding sea,’ which was held to be so efficacious in purging away the guilt and stain of sin—even from the sun-god having taken refuge in its waters. Now this very same method is used in the Romish Church for consecrating the water for baptism.
“As Rome keeps up the remembrance of the fire-god passing through the waters and giving virtue to them, so when it speaks of the ‘Holy Ghost suffering for us in baptism,’ it in like manner commemorates the part which Paganism assigned to the Babylonian goddess when she plunged into the waters.”
Infant Baptism
By the second century CE, infant baptism became accepted by some, but not by all people. Augustine’s answer as to why infants should be baptized evolved into its more common acceptance. He said that the sin of Adam was transmitted to all his descendants through the act of procreation, and the stain of this sin could be removed only by baptism. Those who died without baptism, he said, would be damned.
Paul, the true founder of orthodox Christianity, “…laid down the basic orthodox doctrines: hope of high rank in heaven for the pure; avoidance of women and sexuality; separation of body and soul. ‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other’ (Galatians 5:17). Women were no longer participants in sacred mysteries according to Paul. The church must be entirely patriarchal; women were forbidden to teach or preach in it. Paul also laid the guilt of original sin on woman alone, absolving man from responsibility: ‘Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression’ (1 Timothy 2:11-14).
“Paul’s antipathy toward women and sexuality leads to a suspicion that his esoteric doctrine was linked with the early Christian practice of voluntary castration, recommended by Jesus for ‘the kingdom of heaven’s sake’ (Matthew 19:12). In Paul’s day, Rome revered the self-castrated god Attis….”
A Catholic Church council in 418 determined that every human child is born demonic because of its sexual conception, therefore damned unless baptized. In the infant’s baptismal rite, the Catholic priest addresses the baby, “‘I exorcise thee, thou unclean spirit…Hear thy doom, O Devil accursed, Satan accursed.’ The exorcism is euphemistically described as ‘a means to remove impediments to grace resulting from the effects of original sin and the power of Satan over fallen nature.’ But it is obvious from the folk belief, still widespread, that the church’s teaching was that every newborn infant before baptism belonged to the devil. St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin laid the foundation for this idea, and Tertullian said every baby is born evil; its soul is ‘unclean’ and ‘actively sinful’ before baptism. Medieval theologians held that any infant still in the womb is doomed to eternal damnation. Priests refused to baptize a child within forty days of its birth, for both mother and infant were considered impure (hence too dangerous for priests to touch) during that period.”
Within a century after Augustine, infant baptism became the norm, and in the Council of Florence (1438-45), the custom was given the force of law. Parents now were obliged to have their infants baptized shortly after birth. It was at this same time that sprinkling replaced full immersion.
Some Christians do not believe in infant baptism, but still claim baptism’s beginnings as being a replacement of the “Old Testament” command of circumcision. “From the time of Abraham onwards, the Jew [he means Israelite] had felt it a solemn religious obligation to claim for his sons from their earliest infancy the same covenant relation with God as he himself stood in. There was sufficient parallelism between baptism and circumcision (cf. Col. 2:11) for the Jewish-Christian father to expect the baptism of his children to follow his own as a matter of course…to the mind of Jew and Gentile alike, the baptism of infants and children yet unable to supply the conditions for themselves was so natural, that St. Luke records so simply that when Lydia believed, she was baptized ‘with her household’; when the Philippian jailor believed, he was baptized, and all those belonging to him. If there were children in these households, these children were baptized on the ground of the faith of their parents; if there were no children, then the principle took a still wider extension, which includes children; for it was the servants or slaves of the household who were ‘added to the Church’ by baptism on the ground of their master’s faith.”
The problem here is that circumcision of eight-day-old Israelite children was a direct command from God, as a sign of their being His, whereas baptism was a pagan rite thousands of years old by the time of its introduction into Christianity by Paul. We see no “parallelism” between circumcision and baptism.
Bokenkotter says that, “Theologically, the grounds for insisting on infant baptism no longer seem valid…historical studies show that in the early Church, adult baptism was the norm…moreover, [its] practice has helped to create the situation of a Church composed formally of a large, inert mass of nominal Christians who have little understanding of what it means to be a member of a Christian community…definitely diminishes the credibility of the Church’s claim to be, in the words of Vatican II, ‘a sacrament or sign of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind.’”
So here we have non-Catholic Christians berating Catholics for one aspect of baptism, that of infant baptism, when both are just as guilty for their derivation of the rite of baptism itself from earliest paganism.
Origin of Baptism
The Bible Almanac (p. 541) says that baptism was a common event of Christian worship in Paul’s time, but that Christians were not the first to use baptism. “Jews baptized their gentile converts, some Jewish sects practiced baptism as a symbol of purification, and John the Baptist made baptism an important part of his ministry.”
However, prior to the “New Testament,” no Scriptural source [OT] is given for the comment, “Jews baptized their gentile converts.”
The statement by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:2, “And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,” is NT terminology to “legitimize” a pagan rite, thereby continuing an ongoing attempt to subject NT “theology” into the [OT] Hebrew Scriptures.
“Baptism was everywhere the rite of initiation into the church, mainly by immersion; although there is definite mention, 120 A.D., of baptism by pouring water upon the head, indicating that it was already a custom.”
“Baptism: from the Greek baptizein, to dip. Originally, it referred to dyeing fabric, but came to be used by Pagans for initiation ceremonies, using water or blood in sprinkling. The true Hebrew word is TEVILA, where a person is immersed in a body of water, called a MIKVAH. It also signifies repentance, and it is the most important event in one’s life in the conversion of a Gentile, to become engrafted into Yisrael. It is a covenant sign to obey [YHWH], and identifies the convert with the death and burial of [Jesus?], and is the death and burial of one’s mind of the flesh. Rising up from the water of Tevila, a convert is identified with the resurrection, and walks in obedience, enabled to obey by the Spirit. [Jesus?] gave us His example.”
“Moreover, the reference [on NT day of Pentecost] to baptism is held to show that this rite now became the entry rite to the new Christian religion, taking the place occupied by circumcision in the Jewish religion…Peter’s use of baptism was simply a continuation of the practice of Jesus and John the Baptist: not an induction into a new religion, but symbolic of a return to God in preparation for the great event of the Messianic kingdom—in this case to be inaugurated by the reappearance of Jesus, expected in the near future.”
The only “possible” reference to the pagan rite of baptism in the Hebrew Scriptures is in Leviticus 15:22: “And whosoever touches anything that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the even.”
This is mentioned in The Bible Almanac, p. 404, under Ritual bath. “Priests washed various cult objects in this basin [pictured] to achieve ceremonial purity. The early Hebrews considered cleanliness to be both a physical and a moral attribute. Diseased people and the objects they touched were considered unclean (Lev. 15:22).”
Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary, (1925, 1947), p. 73, says, “It is well known that ablution or bathing was common in most ancient nations as a preparation for prayers and sacrifice or as expiatory of sin. Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the rite or ordinance by which persons are admitted into the Church of Christ. The command to baptize was co-extensive with the command to preach the gospel. All nations were to be evangelized; and they were to be made disciples, admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, by baptism.
Hislop stated, “It is well known that regeneration by baptism is a fundamental article of Rome, yea, that it stands at the very threshold of the Roman system.”
Conclusion
To repeat, “The most important theology of baptism is Paul’s. He took it from the Hellenistic missionary communities and ‘corrected’ it at decisive points to coincide with his cross-centered Christology….” These “Hellenistic [pagan Greek] missionary communities” derived their beliefs directly from the Mystery Religion of Babylon and Egypt. The same “religion” wound up in Rome. Paul, the probable founder of “Christianity,” was an earnest admirer of Roman culture. He had Romanized his name from Saul to Paul, and, in Acts 22:27, even claimed himself to be a Roman.
It is apparent that water baptism is a purely Christian rite borrowed from the Babylonian Mystery Religion, not from purification rites of the ancient Hebrews. Neither is there any evidence or justification whatsoever that it “replaced” circumcision as outlined in the OT.
sábado, 22 de septiembre de 2007
LOS HOYOS NEGROS DE NUESTRO CIELO
Nueva York, 05 de septiembre de 2001.
Gracias a un nuevo y potente telescopio de rayos X, se ha encontrado evidencia casi irrefutable de la existencia de un descomunal agujero negro en el centro de nuestra galaxia, según un grupo de astrónomos. Los científicos coinciden generalmente en que casi todas las galaxias giran en torno a un agujero negro. Ya se había calculado que el centro de nuestra galaxia, la Vía Láctea, contenía algo muy denso y masivo, y la mayoría de los expertos creía que se trataba de un agujero negro.
Los hoyos negros son cuerpos celestes extremadamente densos. Su gravedad es tan poderosa que ni siquiera la luz puede escapar de ella, por lo que son invisibles para los telescopios convencionales.
Para estudiarlos, los astrónomos observan las estrellas y gases que se arremolinan alrededor del centro de un hoyo negro, antes de caer en su núcleo invisible como agua por desagüe. Antes de caer allí, la materia se amontona como troncos estancados en un río. Allí se calienta y genera rayos X.
En el nuevo estudio, dirigido por Frederick Baganoff del Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, los científicos usaron el telescopio de rayos X Chandra de la NASA, para observar el brillo de los rayos X producido donde suponen que se encuentra el borde del hoyo negro. La clara imagen de tal brillo recién obtenida por los científicos es la primera en su tipo.
El brillo aumentó y menguó durante un periodo de 10 minutos, el tiempo que tomó a la luz el viaje por unos 150 millones de kilómetros, alrededor del borde del hoyo negro. Eso significa que el objeto, presuntamente un hoyo negro, es bastante pequeño si se consideran las dimensiones de otros objetos en el espacio. La masa que contiene dentro de su área es unos 2.6 millones de veces mayor a la del sol. El supuesto hoyo negro está situado a unos 24 mil años luz de la Tierra.
Los científicos también detectaron enormes lóbulos de gas supercaliente, que en la fotografía aparecen como burbujas rojas. Es probable que los lóbulos sean restos de enormes explosiones ocurridas cerca del agujero negro en los últimos 10.000 años.
Los agujeros negros son monstruosos succionadores de materia en el espacio, que atraen cualquier cosa de manera tan fuerte que nada, incluso la luz, puede escapar de la succión. Por esa razón, nadie ha visto jamás un agujero negro, pero los astrónomos saben de su existencia al observar lo que sucede a su alrededor.
Richard Mushotzky, astrónomo del Centro Goddard de Vuelos Espaciales de la NASA, en Greenbelt, Maryland, dijo que los nuevos descubrimientos impulsan las evidencias previas sobre la existencia de un hoyo negro en el centro de la Vía Láctea. El estudio será publicado en la edición del jueves de la revista Nature.
El poderoso telescopio Chandra, que utiliza cuatro espejos cilíndricos, fue lanzado a órbita hace dos años. Los rayos X son absorbidos por la atmósfera y no pueden ser detectados por telescopios en la Tierra. Los científicos creen que existen miles de millones de hoyos negros en el universo, incluidos muchos que son miles de veces más masivos y luminosos que el objeto detectado en el centro de la Vía Láctea.
By Robert Adams
Article first published in
New Dawn Magazine No 71, March 2002
When I first spoke to a close Christian friend of mine about the publishing of Tony Bushby’s The Bible Fraud, her reaction was one that many Christians have expressed, and one that made me aghast. She didn’t want the book available because it would "persuade them away from the Bible and the word of God." Further discussions with her and many other Christians around the world about The Bible Fraud all result in the Bible being quoted as the ultimate reference for the apparent "words of God," and therefore the basis for their arguments. The problem lies in that they believe the Bible is infallible.
If we examine the oldest known Bible to date, the "Sinai Bible" housed in the British Museum (I believe that, during his many years of research, Tony had a private viewing of this priceless book), we find a staggering 14,800 differences from today’s Bible and yet it still remains the word of God?
As Tony points out, the history of our ’genuine’ Bibles is a convoluted one. Firstly we cannot be sure that we have the full version as it was originally intended. In 1415 the Church of Rome took an extraordinary step to destroy all knowledge of two second century Jewish books that it said contained the true name of Jesus Christ. The Antipope Benedict XIII firstly singled out for condemnation a secret Latin treatise called "Mar Yesu" and then issued instructions to destroy all copies of the book of Elxai. The Rabbinic fraternity once held the destroyed manuscripts with great reverence for they were comprehensive original records reporting the life of Rabbi Jesus.
Later, Pope Alexander VI ordered all copies of the Talmud destroyed, with the Spanish Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada (1420-98) responsible for the elimination of 6,000 volumes at Salamanca alone.
Solomon Romano (1554) also burnt many thousands of Hebrew scrolls and, in 1559, every Hebrew book in the city of Prague was confiscated. The mass destruction of Jewish books included hundreds of copies of the Old Testament and caused the irretrievable loss of many original handwritten documents.
The oldest text of the Old Testament that survived, before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was said to be the Bodleian Codex (Oxford), which was dated to circa 1100 AD. In an attempt by the church to remove damaging Rabbinic information about Jesus Christ from the face of the earth, the Inquisition burnt 12,000 volumes of the Talmud.
In 1607, forty-seven men (some records say fifty four) took two years and nine months to re-write the Bible and make it ready for press. It was, by the order of King James, issued with a set of personal ’rules’ the translators were to follow. Upon its completion in 1609, it was handed over to the King James for his final approval. However,
"It was self evident that James was not competent to check their work and edit it, so he passed the manuscripts onto the greatest genius of all time... Sir Francis Bacon"
The first English language manuscripts of the Bible remained in Bacon’s possession for nearly a year. During that time ... "he hammered the various styles of the translators into the unity, rhythm, and music of Shakespearean prose, wrote the prefaces and created the whole scheme of the Authorized Version. At the completion of the editing, King James ordered a ’dedication to the King’ to be drawn up and included in the opening pages. He also wanted the phrase ’Appointed to be read in the churches’ to appear on the title page.
The King James Bible is considered by many today to be the ’original’ Bible and therefore ’genuine’ and all later revisions simply counterfeits forged by ’higher critics’. Others think the King James Bible is ’authentic’ and ’authorized’ and presents the original words of the authors as translated into English from the ’original’ Greek texts. However, as Tony points out, the ’original’ Greek text was not written until around the mid fourth century and was a revised edition of writings compiled decades earlier in Aramaic and Hebrew. Those earlier documents no longer exist and the Bibles we have today are five linguistic removes from the first bibles written. What was written in the ’original originals’ is quite unknown. It is important to remember that the words ’authorized ’ and ’original ’, as applied to the Bible do not mean ’genuine’, ’authentic’ or ’true’.
By the early third century, it became well noted that a problem was occurring in politics! In 251AD, the number of Presbyter’s (roving orator or priest) writings had increased dramatically and bitter arguments raged between opposing factions about their conflicting stories. According to Presbyter Albius Theodoret (circa 255), there were "more than two hundred" variant gospels in use in his time. In 313, groups of Presbyters and Biscops (Bishops) violently clashed over the variations in their writings and "altar was set against altar" in competing for an audience and territory.
When Emperor Constantine conquered the East in 324, he sent his Spanish religious advisor, Osius of Cordoba, to Alexandria with letters to several Biscops exhorting them to make peace among their own. But the mission failed and Constantine, probably at the suggestions of Osius, then issued a decree commanding all Presbyters and their subordinates "be mounted on asses, mules and horses belonging to the public and travel to the city of Nicaea" in the Roman province of Bithymia, the country of Asia. The Presbyters were instructed by the Emperor to bring with them the manuscripts from which they orated to the rabble (that’s us!) "wrapped and bound in leather".
Constantine saw in this developing system of belief the opportunity to make a combined state religion and protect it by law. The first general church council was thus convened and the year was 325.
On 21 June 325 DC, the day of the Summer Solstice, (and under those cult conditions) a total of 2048 "presbyters, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes and exorcists" gathered at Nicaea to decide what Christianity really was, what it would be, what writings were to be used and who was to be it’s God.
Ancient church evidence established that a new ’god’ was to be approved by the Roman Emperor and an earlier attempt (circa 210) to deify either Judas Khrestus or his twin brother Rabbi Jesus (or somebody else) had been ’declined’.
Therefore, as late as 325, the Christian religion did not have an official god.
After a long and bitter debate, a vote was finally taken and it was with a majority show of hands that Judas Khrestus and Rabbi Jesus both became God (161votes for and 157 votes against). The Emperor effectively joined elements of the two individual life stories of the twin brothers into a singular creation. The doctrine of the Celtic / British church of the west was democratically attached to the Presbyters stories of the east.
A deification ceremony was then performed ’Apotheosis’. Thus the deified ones were then called ’saviours’ and looked upon as gods. Temples, altars, and images with attributes of divinity were then erected and public holidays proclaimed on their birthdays.
Following the original example set by the deification of Caesar, their funerals were dramatized as the scene of their resurrection and immortality. All these godly attributes passed as a legal right to Emperor Constantine’s new deity, Jesus Christ.
The Emperor then instructed Bishop Eusebius to compile a uniform collection of new writings "bound together as one" using the stories from the large collection of Presbyters as his reference source. Eusebius was to arrange for the production of "fifty sumptuous copies ... to be written on parchment in a legible manner, and in a convenient portable form, by professional scribes thoroughly accomplished in the art". This was the first mention of finished copies of a Christian ’New Testament’ in the history of mankind.
As one can imagine, to condense the real life of the Jesus Christ, the Church and His teachings with supporting evidence into a short article is very difficult. It is therefore wise for those who wish to have supportable evidence to read and study Tony Bushby’s epic work, The Bible Fraud, along with it’s detailed blood lines (family trees) and over 869 references. (see www.thebiblefraud.com)
However, attempting to summarize what Tony has written..... in 325 AD, the first Christian council was called at Nicaea to bring the stories of twin brothers, Jesus ’the Rabbi’ and Judas Khrestus into one deity that we now know as Jesus Christ. Tony says they were not born of virgin birth but to Nabatean Arab Mariamne Herod (now known as the Virgin Mary) and fathered by Tiberius ben Panthera, a Roman Centurion.
The brothers were raised in the Essene community and became Khrists of their faith. Rabbi Jesus later was initiated in Egypt at the highest of levels similar to the 33rd degree of Freemasonry of which many Prime ministers and Presidents around the world today are members. He then later married three wives, one of whom we know as a Mary Magdalene, a Druidic Princess, stole the Torah from the temple and moved to Lud, now London.
Tony believes the reason Jesus stole the Torah was that he said it contained "a very special secret", which he was going to reveal that secret to the world. He was stoned to death and the Torah taken from him before he could.
The elder brother, Judas Khrestus, with his "Khrestian" followers conspired to take the throne of Rome, his royal birthright, and was captured, tried, and was sentenced to be crucified. (The "Khrestians" and the Essenic army, the Nazarenes, would today be likened to terrorists.) At the trial, Judas exercised his royal birthright to have a replacement in Simon of Cyrene (Luke 23:41) and then was sold as a slave to live out his days as a carpenter in India.
Rabbi Jesus spent a considerable amount of time at the Palace of the British in Rome and sometime around 48 AD, he left for Egypt to pursue his greatest esoteric goal. The spiritual knowledge from his secret education in the Essene and Druid movements was soon to be elevated to the highest level possible - initiation into the innermost rite of the Egyptian temples.
It was probable that Rabbi Jesus’ earlier initiation into both the Essene and Druid schools played a major part in his acceptance into the Egyptian school. The Druids could claim a very early origin and the essence of their wisdom was also that of the Essenes. In the case of the Essenes, it is possible to show that their movement was specifically established to preserve secret information, for they knew and used the sacred writing of the Initiates. The full meaning of the point being made by Bushby is that in the case of all Secret Schools, the inner and ultimate Mystery was revealed only to a High Initiate.
Those who were initiated into the Ancient mysteries took a solemn oath never to reveal what had passed within the sacred walls. Every year only a comparatively few Egyptian initiations were conducted, and the number of persons who knew their secrets was never at any time large. The initiations always took place with the onset of darkness and the candidate was entranced for periods of varying length, depending upon the level of the degree for which he had entered.
The first initiatory step involved a forty-day procedure that basically involved purification, not only in physical form, but dissolving all tendencies to evil thoughts, purifying the mind as well. It appears that he would have fasted, alternatively on vegetables, juices and very special herbal concoctions.
The New Testament recorded that this happened to Rabbi Jesus who "was led into the desert.... and he fasted forty days and forty nights" (Matt. 4:1-2).
This trial period involved more than just fasting. During the forty days and nights’ ordeal, Tony says the candidate was required to study astronomical charts to supplement his skills in astronomy and memorize charts of the heavens. They were also given a particular ritual from which to memorize certain passwords, secret signs and handclasps, skills that are still practiced to this day in Freemasonry.
These initiations were not limited to Egypt. The ancient civilizations inherited these Mysteries from a remote antiquity and they constituted part of a primitive revelation from the gods to the human race. Almost every people of pre-Christian times possessed its institution and tradition of the mysteries. The Romans, the Druids of Britain, the Greeks, the Cretans, the Syrians, the Hindus, the Persians, the Maya and the American Indians, among others, had corresponding temples and rites with a system of graduated illuminations for the initiates.
The modern world knows little of these ancient rites yet they were conducted in a huge variety of buildings the world over.
The ’Towers’ that are found throughout the East in Asia were directly connected with the Mystery-initiations. The candidates for initiation were placed in them for three days and three nights, whenever there was no temple with a subterranean crypt close at hand.
In this aspect of the initiatory procedure, Tony points out a direct Gospel parallel with Rabbi Jesus saying, "After three days I shall rise again", for he knew the finishing process he was to undertake would take three days being a symbol of the period of time required to complete a condition of development. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts speak of an initiate as ’twice-born’, and he was permitted to add to his name the words ’he who has renewed his life’, so that on some ancient tomb-inscriptions archaeologists still discover these phases descriptive of the spiritual status of the deceased person.
So little did the later Gospel writers understand the initiatory process that they never perceived they were developing a story that included a Rabbi’s (and Arch Druid of Britain) experience in an Egyptian Mystery School.
St Austin (c. 380) asserted that it was generally known in church circles that Rabbi Jesus had been initiated in Egypt, and that "he wrote books concerning magic". In the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Jews brought the same accusation before Pontius Pilate, "Did we not tell you he was a magician?" Celsus (c. 178) spoke of the same charge. In the Clementine Recognitions, the accusation was brought against Rabbi Jesus that he did not perform any miracles but practiced magic and carried about with him the figure of a seated skeleton.
Jewish tradition invariably asserted that Rabbi Jesus learned ’magic’ in Egypt. Bushby says the kernel of this persistent accusation may perhaps be reduced to the simple historical element that Rabbi Jesus went to Egypt and returned with far wider and more enlightened views than those of his former religious associates.
Now, I’m sure that many of you are having trouble grasping some of the ideas presented in this article and I congratulate you on taking the effort to read this far. We all need to demand our local Church, the Church scholars, theologians and media make an open examination of the evidence compiled in Tony Bushby’s The Bible Fraud. It may rattle some core beliefs but what is more important to you . the truth or what sits comfortably because it’s what you’ve known all you life?
I leave you with a quote from one of the conspirators
"How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us."
Pope Leo X (1513-1521)
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