2. Jesus started his career by trying to become a Jewish prophet. The initial times are marked by his words which seek audience only in Jews. It was only when Jews considered him dangerous enough to bring Roman ire on Israel that he turned his attention to Gentiles.
3. Gentiles were the pagans of Israel/ Palestine of those times. And this change of audience in attention from Jews (monotheistic people) to Gentiles (pagan people) has its marks on the character of Christianity, mainly in the things that it borrowed from both cultures.
4. From Messiah to Savior
"Jesus himself was converted from a Messiah into a Saviour, into God's First Begotten Son, the Intermediary between God and man. This indeed was a great leap and a great promotion from the humble figure of a Jewish Messiah."
5. Jesus's story is sold as a unique happening in the history of mankind. But that’s false. When Christianity was born there were too many saviors around. Mithras, a Persian god, famous in Roman Empire had a story too similar to Jesus. (All quotes are Shri Ram Swarup’s words)
6. "Mithras was born on or very near the 25th of December, of a Virgin Mother and in a cave; after he was buried he rose from the tomb; he had twelve disciples and the members of his order were admitted with the ceremony of baptism; he was also called a Saviour."
7. There was another Babylonian Sun-god, Baal had rituals associated with him which enacted a passion play resembling to actual life of Jesus. All these gods predated Jesus. So it seems, the entire biography of Jesus was a cultural ensemble played by the Church.
8. Many scholars have thus claimed that Jesus never existed and even if he did, he was born and died like a Jewish prophet, killed by Romans for revolting against their authority. All the ‘savior’ claims, virgin birth, resurrection etc. are copied from other gods of Western Asia.
9. One might wonder how is Christianity to blame if it stole many of its rituals from pagan sects. The answer lies in the particular cocktail that Christianity created from its borrowings. The lethality of the combination comes from Christianity’s Jewish roots.
10. For all the virgin births, resurrections and cult behaviors, none of the pagan sects ‘hated other gods’, sects and religions. It is this ‘hatred of other gods’ is what distinguishes the monotheistic religions from everyone else. Shri Ram Swarup calls it – Misotheosy.
11. Misotheosy – literally meaning – the hatred of gods – is what made Christianity what it is. For it meant that it was not just proud of its own beliefs; it hated the gods and beliefs of others’ so much it wanted to end them as ‘false beliefs’ and ‘devil worship’.
12. "Christianity borrowed from Judaism its scripture, its prophets, its belief in a special people and a special covenant, and above all its jealous God, its hatred for 'other' Gods, and consequently its proverbial hatred of mankind - misotheosy is the parent of misanthropy."
13. The cocktail was brewing:
a) Hatred of other gods – Misotheosy
b) Denial of other gods’ existence – Monotheism
c) Concept of mediator to God – Prophetism
d) God’s chosen people – Unique Destiny
e) Man is born sinner – Original Sin
f) Jesus as God’s son – Only Begotten Son
14. Thus all the features which make Christianity dangerous, violent and intolerant come from the mother of prophetic monotheism – Judaism. Christianity added many things of its own, like the idea of Jesus as God’s Only Begotten Son. And the idea of conversion.
15. All its cultural accoutrements come from pagan sources, which are of course distorted to fit the monotheistic bill. It is also telling because most monotheisms are pure ideas without cultural embellishments, which they always have to steal from other cultures.
16. There was another lethal Judaic idea that Christianity borrowed – Atonement. In pagan sects, one can attain powers by sacrificing animals in a proper ritual. In Jewish religion this was distorted where one had to sacrifice one’s own first born like Abraham & Isaac.
17. It is said that God in his mercy accepts substitutes. But Christianity came up with a brilliant idea in case of substitute. They said that since man’s sin is eternal, the atonement has also to be eternal. And who better to do it than God’s Only Begotten Son – Jesus?
18. "The cross is central to Christianity. All before leads up to it and all after looks back to it. After making sin into a formidable dogma, its remission is made simple enough - just baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”
19. “Sin is no more a problem for the followers of Jesus.” This was a fundamental break from the past. Previously some form of the idea of karma always existed. You had to reap the results of your actions. Now it was not so.
20. One could commit as many sins as one wanted. He just had to ‘believe’ in Christ by converting to Christianity. And Jesus would have already washed his sins retroactively in the past for any sin that he commits in future! Never before had such an idea struck anyone!
21. Before Christianity people were judged on the base of their actions. With this Atonement thing, it all changed. Now people were judged on the basis of their belief, since action meant nothing if there was no ‘correct belief’. Coming threads will delve more into this.
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@mariawirth1 Some points that you keep making Maria Ji.
