That was hysterical! Thanks for sharing!!


Well, not really.

Mithra
Sun God of Ancient Persia
Born December 25th
Visited (at birth) by Magi Offering Gifts
Born of a Virgin
Known as "The Good Shepherd" and "Messiah"
Practiced Baptism
Performed Miracles
Had 12 Disciples
Preached about Heaven and Hell
Worshiped on Sunday's
Died and was Buried in a Tomb for 3 Days, then was Resurrected
His Resurrection was Celebrated Every Year

He may have even been crucified, I can't remember for sure.

And he existed 600 years before Jesus Christ was even born.

 

Mithraism and Christianity
Further information: Christianity and Paganism, Christianised rituals, and Jesus and comparative mythology
Evaluation of the relationship of early Christianity with Mithraism has traditionally been based on the polemical testimonies of the 2nd century Church fathers, such as Justin's accusations that the Mithraists were diabolically imitating the Christians.[22] This led to a picture of rivalry between the two religions, which Ernest Renan set forth in his 1882 The Origins of Christianity by saying "if the growth of Christianity had been arrested by some mortal malady, the world would have been Mithraic,"[23] Although as remarked above, little was actually known about Mithras in 1882.

Martin (1989) characterizes the rivalry between 3rd century Mithraism and Christianity in Rome as primarily one for real estate in the public areas of urban Rome.[24]



The Jewish faith provided no precedent for pictorial representation on which the Early Christians could base their imagery. Consequently early Christian scenes tend to make use of pagan imagery.

According to Franz Cumont, after the triumph of the church over paganism, artists continued to make use of stock images originally devised for Mithras in order to depict the new and unfamiliar stories of the bible. The way in which Mithras was depicted shooting arrows at rocks causing fountains to spring up was adapted to represent the biblical story of Moses striking Mount Horeb with his staff to release drinking water, according to Cumont. Likewise the Heavens, the Earth, the Ocean, the Sun, the Moon, the Planets, signs of the Zodiac, the Winds, the Seasons, and the Elements appear on sarcophagi, mosaics, and miniatures in the fourth to fifth centuries using the same sort of iconography used for Mithras earlier. The "strangehold of the workshop" meant that the first Christian artworks were heavily based on pagan art, and "a few alterations in costume and attitude transformed a pagan scene into a Christian picture".[25]

 

Interesting! I knew that the story of Jesus Christ was pretty much copied from the story of Mithras, but I didn't know the early Christians stole the artwork as well!

 

Jesus as a Reincarnation of Mithra

The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version. Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior came from. Mithra, as the sun god of ancient Persia, had the following karmic similarities with Jesus:

Identical Life Experiences

1) Mithra was born on December 25th as an offspring of the Sun. Next to the gods Ormuzd and Ahrimanes, Mithra held the highest rank among the gods of ancient Persia. He was represented as a beautiful youth and a Mediator. Reverend J. W. Lake states: "Mithras is spiritual light contending with spiritual darkness, and through his labors the kingdom of darkness shall be lit with heaven's own light; the Eternal will receive all things back into his favor, the world will be redeemed to God. The impure are to be purified, and the evil made good, through the mediation of Mithras, the reconciler of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Mithras is the Good, his name is Love. In relation to the Eternal he is the source of grace, in relation to man he is the life-giver and mediator" (Plato, Philo, and Paul, p. 15).

2) He was considered a great traveling teacher and masters. He had twelve companions as Jesus had twelve disciples. Mithras also performed miracles.

3) Mithra was called "the good shepherd, "the way, the truth and the light, redeemer, savior, Messiah." He was identified with both the lion and the lamb.

4) The International Encyclopedia states: "Mithras seems to have owed his prominence to the belief that he was the source of life, and could also redeem the souls of the dead into the better world ... The ceremonies included a sort of baptism to remove sins, anointing, and a sacred meal of bread and water, while a consecrated wine, believed to possess wonderful power, played a prominent part."

5) Chambers Encyclopedia says: "The most important of his many festivals was his birthday, celebrated on the 25th of December, the day subsequently fixed -- against all evidence -- as the birthday of Christ. The worship of Mithras early found its way into Rome, and the mysteries of Mithras, which fell in the spring equinox, were famous even among the many Roman festivals. The ceremonies observed in the initiation to these mysteries -- symbolical of the struggle between Ahriman and Ormuzd (the Good and the Evil) -- were of the most extraordinary and to a certain degree even dangerous character. Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance of sacred formulas, were among the inauguration acts."

6) Prof. Franz Cumont, of the University of Ghent, writes as follows concerning the religion of Mithra and the religion of Christ: "The sectaries of the Persian god, like the Christians', purified themselves by baptism, received by a species of confirmation the power necessary to combat the spirit of evil; and expected from a Lord's supper salvation of body and soul. Like the latter, they also held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the 25th of December.... They both preached a categorical system of ethics, regarded asceticism as meritorious and counted among their principal virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones, situated in the upper regions, and of a Hell, peopled by demons, situated in the bowels of the Earth. They both placed a flood at the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their condition, a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe" (The Mysteries of Mithras, pp. 190, 191).

7) Reverend Charles Biggs stated: "The disciples of Mithra formed an organized church, with a developed hierarchy. They possessed the ideas of Mediation, Atonement, and a Savior, who is human and yet divine, and not only the idea, but a doctrine of the future life. They had a Eucharist, and a Baptism, and other curious analogies might be pointed out between their system and the church of Christ (The Christian Platonists, p. 240).

cont...

 

cont...

8) In the catacombs at Rome was preserved a relic of the old Mithraic worship. It was a picture of the infant Mithra seated in the lap of his virgin mother, while on their knees before him were Persian Magi adoring him and offering gifts.

9) He was buried in a tomb and after three days he rose again. His resurrection was celebrated every year.

10) McClintock and Strong wrote: "In modern times Christian writers have been induced to look favorably upon the assertion that some of our ecclesiastical usages (e.g., the institution of the Christmas festival) originated in the cultus of Mithraism. Some writers who refuse to accept the Christian religion as of supernatural origin, have even gone so far as to institute a close comparison with the founder of Christianity; and Dupuis and others, going even beyond this, have not hesitated to pronounce the Gospel simply a branch of Mithraism" (Art. "Mithra").

11) Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected. His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day." The Mithra religion had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper."

12) The Christian Father Manes, founder of the heretical sect known as Manicheans, believed that Christ and Mithra were one. His teaching, according to Mosheim, was as follows: "Christ is that glorious intelligence which the Persians called Mithras ... His residence is in the sun" (Ecclesiastical History, 3rd century, Part 2, ch. 5).

"I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths." - Mithraic saying
"I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright morning star." - Jesus, (Rev. 22:16)

 

But all that you wrote was just stories written by man. I don't believe any of it. sound familiar?

 

Chris
We don't agree on much. But that there is just plain funny!!!

Tumba

 

I already told you; I'm an atheist; I don't believe it either! I was just pointing out that Jesus Christ is not unique. In fact, odds are pretty good he wasn't even real.

 

Even if he were not real, the story of him changed the world.
It all started in Athens

 

I won't deny that for a minute, either. Christianity has had numerous profound effects, both good and bad, on the world. It's just kinda too bad they couldn't make up a unique story, instead of copying that of someone elses God.

 

Form follows function.
That is why all the stories of religion parallel. There is much more than the story itself, as it is to teach people a better way of life.

 

PKRWUD
I respect your knowledge of the Bible and would like to ask some questions and get sincere responces.
I get a little confused by my understanding of the worship of images. Will you explain the difference of the Oldtestament view, and the fact Christians worship images.
Don't mis-understand my question as an attack on anyone. I'm just curious about it in general. IMO It takes a person of much deeper faith to not need the images. But I am a supporter of Christ as the mesiah as opposed to ~ lets just say Mahamed just for comparison.
I'm trying to ask this question in an un-biased form because that is the way I like to study Faith.
Maybe I should say that is the way my study started, and I try to keep it that way.

 

That's an excellent question! It's a topic I haven't really devoted any time to, but I will be happy to share with you what I understand, and my opinion on the subject.

The understanding that the worshiping of idols was forbidden wasn't exclusive to the Old Testament. It was mentioned in Matthew, Corinthians, and Colossians as well. I know that in the early years of Christianity, while Christians were still being persecuted, the use of symbols became a way of identifying themselves to others without drawing unnecessary attention. I also know that the use of images that depicted stories from the Bible became popular while trying to lure the illiterate populous into their fold. At face value, neither of those necessarily break the rule because they were used for identification and education, not to be worshiped themselves.

There have been times when different Christian sects went about intentionally destroying icons and idols they found in other churches and places of worship because they took the second commandment literally, but the Catholics objected to this. They themselves found the use of statues, icons and idols very convenient, and used them to extend beyond their reach. Put a statue in a town center, and people will give thought to the church every time they see it. At some point in time (I don't remember the date, or the title of the event or document that resulted from it, so I can't even look it up, but I believe it was before 900A.D.), the Catholic church basically overturned the second commandment, and condemned the destruction of statues and idols, as long as they were used for Christianity. Their logic was that the Bible only says that no idols shall be made of God because no one ever saw God, and didn't know what he looked like, but since they contend that Jesus Christ was in fact God, that we now did know what he looked like, so it was okay to make statues and idols, and to worship them. It's a bit of a stretch, and IMO, nothing more than a political move to expand their authority, but it took root, and has flourished today.

I don't know if that helps with your question or not, like I said, I'm really not very well educated on the subject, but that's the best I can explain it, the way I understand things.

 

A very insightful thought is what I was wanting, and that you delivered very well.. Thank you, and I would like to ask you some questions in the future. As I said I like to study the differences of religion, as well as the similarities.
Again
Thank you.

 

Who worships images? I most certainly don't. In the 2nd commandment it is not to worship idols. Catholics didn't end that. I know of no cathlics that worship idols. Can you give me any examples?