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                               The Sacrificial God man 
                                  Ammond Shadowcraft 
 
              How did the Christian mythos arise? Where did it come from? 
               
              The Christian myth is almost totally Pagan in origin. I used to 
              thinkthat anythingoutside theJudeo/Christian/Moslem BeliefSystem or
          worldview was Pagan. Such is not the case. 
               
                      Thetwomain featuresofthe CBSarethe EucharistandSacrifice of
          a God man. These two features were well known and well loved by Pagan 
          mystery cults centuries before the Christian Cults integrated them 
          into the Gospels. 
               
              The Eucharist goes way back into history and is based upon the 
          ritual consumption of the God man. Osiris, Dionysus, Attis and many 
          others were ritually consumed. The practice dates back to prehistory 
          when a human sacrifice was identified with the God (perhaps a 
          Vegetative God) and was sacrificed and eaten. Over the ages human
          sacrifice was found detestable. Animals were then substituted and 
          sacrificed as the ritual identifier of the God which was then followed 
          by grain offerings, breads shaped into the form of the God, sometimes 
          in the shapes of natural items (sun, moon, etc.). 
               
              The mythos of the Jewish Christ integrated this practice into it's 
          mysteries. There is strong reason for this. For some 200 plus years 
          before the time recorded for Jesus the Greeks and their mystery cults 
          invaded and changed Israel for all time. A war was instituted to 
              diminish or wipeout theHellenizing influence. Partof theHellenizing
          influence was an effort to update or change the Jewish religion to 
          something more applicable to the times. After the Maccabbees War the 
          Hellenizing cultist were driven underground; right to the heart of the 
          Jewish mystical culture. Hence the Greek influence upon the myth of 
          Jesus.
 
              The sacrifice of the God man (Jesus, Attis, Adonis, Osiris) was a
          well known and well loved feature also. In fact it was necessary to
          have a willing sacrifice before a Eucharist could be performed. When
          the sacrifice was not willing the legs and sometimes arms of the
          sacrifice were broken to make it look like the sacrifice was willing
          (not struggling against the sacrificers). Jesus was a willing
          sacrifice.
 
              Images of Attis (Tammuz/Dummuzi) were nailed or impaled upon a pine
          tree. The Jews knew this and wrote "Cursed is he who hangs upon a 
          tree." A goat was substituted for a boy in sacrifice to Dionysus at 
          Potniae and a hart for a virgin at Laodicea. King Athamas had been 
          called upon to sacrifice his first born son by the Delphic Oracle, 
          Melenloas sacrificed two children in Egypt when stayed by contrary 
          winds; three Persian boys were offered up at the battle of Salamis. It 
              was only inthe time of Hadrianthat the annualhuman sacrifice toZeus
         was abolished at Salamis in Cyprus. The God man Jesus was hung upon a 
              tree;he was also thelamb of God.As such the sacrificeand Eucharist 
        of the God man Jesus is purely Pagan in origin.  
                      
 
                                                                              686
 
              Part of the older Pagan sacrifices was in the King sacrificing his 
          only begotten son. Jesus was the only begotten son of the King of 
          Israel, sacrificed to take away the sins of the world. This practice 
          was overturned in the myth of Abraham and Issac when it was found 
              detestable andinjurious to thetribe or kingdom.Yet the Godman Jesus
            wassacrificed in the flesh.This was done to appealto the underground 
        Greek mystery cults who had much in common with the Jewish Christian 
          Cultist. 
       
              "During centuries of this evolution, the Jewish people tasted many 
              times thebitterness ofdespair and theprofound doubt denouncedby the
         last of the prophets. In periods when many went openly over to
          Hellenism, it could not be but the ancient rites of the Semitic 
          race were revived, as some are declared to have been in earlier times 
              oftrouble. Among therites of expiationand propitiation, nonestood  
       traditionally higher than the sacrifice of the king, or the king's son. 
          The Jews saw such an act performed for them, as it were, when the 
          Romans under Anthony, at Herod's wish, scourged, crucified [lit. bound 
          to stake], and beheaded Antigonous, the last of the Asmonean priest 
          kings in 37 B.C." _Pagan_Christs_ page 44,45 by J. M. Robertson 
               
                      ThemodeofsacrificewaspredeterminedbypreviousPagan doctrine.
          The type of sacrifice was also predetermined by Pagan doctrine. Both 
          the sacrifice of the king, and the king's son were incorporated into 
              the Gospel myth.The God man Jesusis both the Kingof the Jews andthe
         son of God, the king of Israel.  
               
              As stated before the sacrifice of the king or king's son was found 
          injurious to the state. Before animal and grain sacrifices, criminals 
          and prisoners of war were substituted. Yet the criminal had to be 
          identified with the king. This was done by putting royal robes on the 
          sacrifice and parading the sacrifice around, calling it the king. 
 
              "The number three was of mystic significance in many parts of the
          East. The Dravidians of India sacrificed three victims to the Sun-god. 
              Inwestern as ineastern Asia, thenumber three wouldhave its votaries
         in respect of trinitartian concepts as well as the primary notions of 
              'the heavens,the earth,and theunderworld.' Traditionally,the Syrian
         rite called for a royal victim. The substitution of a criminal for the 
          king or kings son was repugnant, however, to the higher doctrine that 
              thevictim be unblemished.To solve thisproblem oneof the malefactors
            was distinguished fromthe other criminalsby a ritual ofmock-crowning 
        and robing in the spirit of 'sympathetic magic'. By parading him as 
          king, and calling the others what indeed they were, it was possible to 
          attain the semblance of a truly august sacrifice." _Pagan_Christs_, by 
          J.M. Robertson page 45 
       
              There is nothing in this mythos that did not originate in other 
          cultures. 
               
              "We can only conclude that the death ritual of the Christian creed 
          was framed in a pagan environment and embodies some of the most 
          widespread ideas of Pagan religion. the two aspects in which the 
          historic Christ is typically presented to his worshipers, those of his 
          infancy and death, are typically Pagan." _Pagan_Christs_ by J.M 
          Roberts, page 52.    
 
              What about the man Jesus then? Was he divine? Did he exist? Is/was 
 
                                                                              687
 
          he the Savior? 
               
              Most, if not all, of the Christian Belief System is Pagan in 
          origin.  It is indeed hard to force oneself to believe that Jesus is 
          the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God when such titles were readily 
          copied from Pagan doctrine. Perhaps the only item not borrowed from 
          Pagan sources was the Messiah concept. That, of course, was taken from 
          the Jewish hysteria of the time. In the siege of Jerusalem in 72 C.E. 
              there were some18 Messiahs insideJerusalem alone. Neitherthe Godman
         Jesus nor the self proclaimed militant messiahs saved Jerusalem. Such
          was the measure of hysterical superstition upon the nation of Israel.
 
              "There is not a conception associated with Christ that is not
          common to some or all of the Savior cults of antiquity. The title 
          Savior was given in Judaism to Yahweh; among the Greeks to Zeus, 
          Heilos, Artemis, Dionysus, Hercales, the Dioscurui, Ceybele and 
          Aesculapius. It is the essential conception of Osiris. So, too, Osiris 
          taketh away sin, is the judge of the dead and of the last judgment. 
          Dionysus, the Lord of the UnderWorld and primarily a god of feasting 
          ('the Son of Man commeth eating and drinking'), comes to be conceived 
          as the Soul of the World and the inspirer of chastity and self 
              purification.[J. M. Robertson maybe referring toAttis here.] From  
      the Mysteries of Dionysus and Isis comes the proclamation of the easy 
          'yoke'. Christ not only works the Dionysiac miracle, but calls himself 
          the 'true vine.'" 
               
              "Like Christ, and like Adonis and Attis, Osiris and Dionysus also 
          suffer and die and rise again. To become one with them is the mystical 
          passion of their worshippers. They are all alike in that their 
          mysteries give immortality. From Mithraism Christ takes the symbolic 
          keys of heaven and hell and assumes the function of the virgin-born 
          Saoshyant, the destroyer of the Evil One. Like Mithra, Merodach, and 
          the Egyptian Khousu, he is the Mediator; like Khousu, Horus and 
          Merodach, he is one of a trinity, like Horus he is grouped with a 
              Divine Mother;like Khousu heis joined tothe Logos; andlike Merodach
         he is associated with the Holy Spirit, one of whose symbols is fire."
 
              "In fundamentals, therefore, Christism is but paganism reshaped. It
          is only the economic and doctrinal evolution of the system--the first
              determined byJewish practice andRoman environment, the secondby    
          Greek thought--that constitutesnew phenomena in religious history."    
       _Pagan__Christs_ by J.M. Robertson pages 52,53
 
              No religion develops in a vacuum. All religions are influenced not
          only by it's predecessors but by the contemporaries of the time also.
          Such is the nature of Christism yesterday and today.
 
              Now about Jesus the man, did he exist? I think not. All the
          teaching of Jesus can be attributed to other sources and grafted over
          the Gospel myth. Nothing he said was substantially different in any way
          from previous sayings. Jesus was not a man but a contrived myth.
 
                                                                              688
 
              "The Christian myth grew by absorbing details from pagan cults. The
          birth story is similar to many nativity myths in the pagan world. The 
          Christ had to have a Virgin for a mother. Like the image of the 
              child-godin the cultof Dionysus, hewas pictured inswaddling clothes
         in a basket manger. He was born in a stable like Horus--the stable 
          temple of the Virgin Goddess, Isis, Queen of Heaven. Again , like 
          Dionysus, he turned water into wine, like Aesculapius, he raised men 
          from the dead and gave sight to the blind; and like Attis and Adonis, 
          he is mourned and rejoiced over by women. His resurrection took place, 
          like that of Mithra, from a rock tomb." 
               
              The man Jesus did not exist. There are however sources that speak 
          of others seeing him. These were secondhand sources. No direct 
              observations were made. Atone time oranother we haveall had avision
         of Deity in our minds. Such is the sight of Jesus, a mental image. 
               
              What of the Gospels then? They are passion plays designed to be 
          read or acted out in front of an audience. Passion plays were a common 
          feature of pagan religion. Looking at the Gospels themselves one finds 
              a choppilywritten, scene byscene, display of thelife of theGod man.
          Only the important aspects of his life are described. The minor events 
          and influences of the life of Jesus are not recorded, which leaves one 
          to think that the Gospels are indeed a play. 
 
              "When we turn from the reputed teaching of Jesus to the story of 
          his career, the presumption is that it has a factual basis is so 
              slenderas to benegligible. The Churchfound it sodifficult to settle
            the date ofits alleged founder's birththat the Christian erawas made 
          to begin someyears before the year which chronologistslatter inferred  
       on the strength of other documents. The nativity was placed at the 
          winter solstice, thus coinciding with the birthday of the Sun-god. And 
          the date for the crucifixion was made to vary from year to year to 
          conform to the astronomical principle which fixed the Jewish Passover. 
          [The Passover is moon based, an already familiar pagan method of 
              cyclic, monthly dating.]In between thebirth anddeath of Jesus,there
            is analmost total absence ofinformation except about thebrief period 
        of his ministry. Of his life between the ages of twelve and thirty we 
          know nothing. There are not even any myths. It is impossible to 
          establish with any accuracy the duration of the ministry from the 
          Gospels. According to the tradition it lasted one year, which suggests 
          that it was either based on the formula 'the acceptable year of the 
          Lord', or on the myth of the Sun-god." _Pagan_Christs_ by J.M. 
          Robertson, page 68 
 
                                                                              689
 


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