Bennoah1@airmail.netFew today would doubt that a Supreme Creator is responsible for the creation of the stars and the sun and the whole universe. That being so it never seemed to bother me that one who was especially fond of this present universe and looks to the stars for insight is charged with being a sinner according to Christian dogmas and doctrines. Growing up in the Christian Church I was consistently taught that astrology is wrong and against what the bible teaches.
Answer for yourself: Is this the truth? Well that is totally false and a lie. In fact the bible teaches the opposite, Astro-theology plays a very big role in Christianity.
Webster's Dictionary of 1828 defines the word "Astro-theology" as a “theology founded on the observation of the celestial bodies.”
The crux of our study in this website is the determination if the depiction of "Jesus Christ" as recorded in the New Testament is a real historical person or if this depiction of him is just a myth. Until the evidence is collected, seen, and scrutinized personally by you then the final answer to this question remains elusive to the inquirer. Modern scholarship today is responsible for bringing this question to the forefront. Many biblical and historical scholars are saying today that the "Jesus Story" is a myth. When I first ran across such an idea in my studies after Seminary I totally dismissed this idea but this notion surfaced over and over in my continued studies during my Pastorate. Finally I had to tackle this problem and the evidences that I discovered are presented in this website for the benefit of the student of Christianity today.
Answer for yourself: What did the early Christians believe about "Jesus Christ"? Is it what we have come to believe today as taught by Western and Roman and Protestant Christianity? Let me say outright that most of you will not know about the things which will be discussed in this letter as this information will be new and challenging to most.
Answer for yourself: Why is that? Because as I have stated before in our other websites, you have been brainwashed into thinking that Astrology is bad and evil. Few know what the Bible says about Astrology; instead they are more familiar with hearsay and what they have heard preached in sermons.
Answer for yourself: What does the bible say about astrology let alone astronomy? We need to look into this as we begin our study.
Most Christians have been taught to take the bible literally, and word for word. Simply said we are "Greek" and taught since childhood to take everything "literally". Few ever realize that the Biblical writer and even the Ancients before them taught in "allegory" and "simile" often and we approach these "allegories" conditioned to interpret them "literally" when reading and studying the New Testament. Thankfully today there are some Christians who realize that the bible is not to be taken this way, at least not all of it.
Answer for yourself: But what does the bible say about it’s own stories. Paul gives us a clue about one bible story.
Gal 4:22-25 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. (KJV)
Now it is clear that Paul is saying that this story is NOT about historical people. He just admits that they are really representative of two covenants. This is definitely the case with Paul as we shall see later on if we study the early Gnostic influence among the earliest Jewish and Gentile Christians. Modern scholarship today has brought to the attention of serious students of Scripture that instead of the traditional "received tradition" regarding the Apostle Paul that Paul was a Gnostic. For those who say he was not simply don't know what they are speaking about and devoid of proper understanding of Gnosticism as well as the Gnostic influences in Paul's writings concerning "the Christ within". We need say right up front that these Gnostics did not believe in taking the bible in a literal sense.
Answer for yourself: Could this be the reason why in reading the New Testament that we find so many contradictions with Paul’s letters since we know Rome was responsible in writing many later "theological epistles" in the name of a long-dead Paul and these "roman forgeries" were intended to be understood and interpreted "literally" when the earliest 7 authentic epistles of Paul were written to be understood "allegorically"? Is Rome responsible for changing the meaning of "the Christ" as held by the earliest Jewish and Gentile Gnostic believers in "the Christ"? When one begins to look into these questions the answers that come help sort out the "Jesus Puzzle" that has concerned and perplexed scholars and students of Scripture for hundreds of years. It is only in this century with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Library in Egypt have the answers been easier to obtain and the information concerning these problems are readily available to any today; they only need know the need to look into such issues.
Answer for yourself: Is it possible that many other things we read in the Bible and the New Testament are meant to be understood as "allegories" and we have been mistakenly taught to interpret them "literally"? Could it be possible that the depiction of the "Jesus Story" was at one time understood "allegorically" by the earliest Christian "believers" of the First Century and only later reinterpreted "literally" through the design of Rome and the early Greek Church Fathers like Ignatius, Justin, and Irenaeus?
An allegory is a symbolic representation of one thing by another. Many of the Scriptures are allegorical in nature - certain physical people, places, things or events of an earlier time have an ultimate spiritual application in the present or future. While allegorical interpretation does have correct and legitimate usage, its self-centered approach is actually more ancient than Christianity, having originated with the pagan mystics, and then adopted by some Jewish and Christian "thinkers." According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition:
"Allegorical interpretation is a hermeneutical (interpretive) method used to uncover hidden or symbolic meanings of a Biblical text. Rooted in the techniques developed by Greek thinkers who attempted to overcome the problems posed by literal interpretations of ancient Greek myths, the allegorical method was further developed by Jewish scholars, such as Philo of Alexandria in the 1st century AD, and Christian thinkers, such as Clement and Origen of Alexandria in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Though other methods were often used, the allegorical method was dominant until late medieval times. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century rejected, for the most part, the allegorical method and returned to the more literal interpretation of the Bible."
Let it be understood that "allegorical interpretation" refers to an explanation of a Scripture passage which is based upon the supposition that its author, whether God or man, intended something "other" than what is literally expressed. Two modes of Allegorical Interpretation are found dealing with the Bible:
Answer for yourself: Why is this reference to Egypt so important? One of the earliest advanced civilizations, Ancient Egypt, had a rich religious tradition which permeated every aspect of society. As in most early cultures, the patterns and behaviors of the sky led to the creation of a number of myths to explain the astronomical phenomena and explain the Divine Truths that the Egyptian Priests understood from such observations. For the Egyptians, the practice of astronomy went beyond legend: huge temples and pyramids were built to have a certain astronomical orientation and which likewise express "theological concepts" which we find "blurred" in Judeo-Christianity today. Although many of the religious aspects of Egyptian life were known for centuries, it was not until recently that a number of archaeoastronomers attempted to find out how important astronomy really was in ancient Egypt.
This reference to Egypt will be very important as our study continues for we shall see how the personification of the Sun, Constellations, and Stars and their paths in the Heavens will be the foundation for the later "allegories" that expressed Divine Truths that were later "literalized" by Rome in their depiction of the "Jesus Story" we find in the New Testament.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice in the above definition that until the 16th century Biblical interpretation was basically "allegorical"? Could this mean that the writers of Bible let alone the New Testament meant that their writings be understood "allegorically" and not "literally"? What are the implications of this when we consider "Jesus Christ"? Could the "literal depiction" of "Jesus Christ" be an allegory expressing Divine Concepts and Divine Truths that only later came to be understood "literally" as if a real historical person? If the earliest Gnostic Jewish and Gentile believers, let alone Paul, never taught a "historical Jesus Christ" as we have come to understand today then how correct is our understanding of Jesus today? What are the implications regarding idolatry since this "Jesus" of the New Testament was made "God" at the Council of Nicea?
Answer for yourself: What have famous Church Fathers said on this issue?
Basically this is exactly what the modern day Christians have done. We simply don't know today what the Ancients and earliest Christians, both Jewish and Gentile, knew and believed about "Jesus Christ" way back then. It would shock most Christians today to know that what they have been taught about "Jesus Christ" is 180 degrees diametrically opposite to what the earliest "believers" understood and believed about "the Christ Jesus". We take so much of the bible literally today when it was not to be taken that way nor intended to be taken "literally" by the writers of these spiritual documents. I will prove this in this website as we trace the movement of the Sun through the Zodiac as well as look at other "Solar" and "Lunar" events and see how the Ancients understood and interpreted them and how this understanding, once understood only allegorically as expressing Divine truth, was much later "literalized" and found expression in the life and events that are the very being of the "Jesus Story" we find in the New Testament".
"Impossible" I hear the typical Christian say; well you better get strapped in for a bumpy flight for the evidence is irrefutable once you see it.
It has been said that: “The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun.”- Thomas Paine
Answer for yourself: Could this charge somehow be true and we not know it?
This is a most serious charge against Christianity as most know it and if such a charge can be shown to have validity then one should be honest enough before God to begin a serious investigation in his religious beliefs in order to separate truth from fiction.
Basically there is very little historical evidence for the existence for a historical "Jesus Christ" outside of the one book given to us by Rome which is the New Testament. Mentions of him by contemporary authors are both ambiguous and modern scholarship at best and has shown them to be forgeries by modern scholarship today. Likewise modern scholarship has shown that the Gospels themselves are written about a hundred years after his death and are again forgeries and not written early or by the presumed authors cited by Church tradition. This brings the "Jesus Story" into question and many want the truth of the matter concerning just who is this "Jesus Christ" we read about in the Roman New Testament.
The writings of early Christians also verify that Christ was perceived by the Pagans as a typical sun god, an idea that came to fruition in the works of French scholar Charles Dupuis at the end of the 18th century, when he wrote his multivolume Origine de tous les cultes. Dupuis was followed by Count Volney, another brilliant French mythicist, and the floodgates opened, with the German School of biblical criticism kicking into full gear, the Dutch throwing their hats into the arena, and the British making a tremendous impact that is likely responsible for the extremely low rate of church attendance in Britain today. Particularly notable among the British were Godfrey Higgins, Rev. Robert Taylor, Gerald Massey and J.M. Robertson, although Higgins was apparently a "sincere Christian" and not a mythicist in the strictest sense of the word. The German school culminated in the excellent works of Arthur Drews, while the French also produced Couchoud and Dujardin. The mythicists made such inroads that by the end of the 19th century the Right Reverend J.P. Lundy acknowledged the bulk of their arguments as truthful - up to the point where they claimed Christ to be a myth. Lundy was not at all alone in his acknowledgment of the Pagan origins of Christianity; indeed, some decades later Christian apologist Sir Arthur Weigall composed his work The Paganism in Our Christianity, in which he repeatedly admitted the unoriginality of the Christian fable.
Coupled with the above scholarship by such respected men of great study is the fact that the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, appear nowhere in the historical/literary record until the end of the second century, despite the claims and wishful thinking of Christian proponents, many of whom, unbelievably, still maintain that these gospels were written by the apostles/disciples themselves and are "eyewitness accounts." These apologist assertions are simply wrong, as has been demonstrated repeatedly over the centuries by the ablest of scholars and scientists, many of whom were Christians.
It has always mystified believers and assorted other historicizers that the story of Jesus Christ appears in no contemporary historical record. Of at least 40 writers of the first several decades of the Christian era, including philosophers and historians, not one mentions Christ, Christians or Christianity. With such a suspicious development concerning a man who "supposedly shook up the world," apologists have been forced to resort to a few pitiful and inadequate "references" in non-Christian sources dating to decades later. Herbert Cutner, in his Jesus-God, Man or Myth: An Examination of the Evidence, provides an astute analysis of the purported references to Jesus in secular literature, including supposed Jewish "testimony" such as the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus and the Talmud. In the first place, the authors of these texts are not witnesses at all, having lived many decades to centuries after the supposed advent of Christ. Secondly, it is evident that (non-Christian) Jews of the second century had no clue as to any "historical" Jesus.
Answer for yourself: So who was this "Jesus" back then? If there is great doubt that he was not a historical person as we have been led to believe and interpret the passages in the New Testament then is it possible that the "Jesus Story" is but an allegory of the path of the Sun through the Heavens and the Zodiac? Was "Jesus Christ" understood by the Ancients by other names as they viewed the Heavens and the movements of God's Cosmos? Is it remotely possible, and can we prove today, that the earliest Christians, themselves Gnostics, understood the "Jesus Story" as an allegory for the path of the Sun through the Zodiac?
If one has the courage to study and examine the absence of evidence for a historical Jesus Christ as well as the forgery of the New Testament by Rome then one quickly sees the truth concerning the "Jesus Story" in the New Testament. Having established for yourself that there is no evidence of a "historical Jesus," Cutner and many writers representing modern scholarship proceeds to Christian mythology which lies at the center of the debate, reiterating the solar-mythos, with its virgin birth and so many other motifs found within Christianity. Regarding astrology or astrotheology and biblical stories and rituals, Cutner remarks:
"...Nearly all the solar deities had a Virgin for a mother... The birthday of Jesus, like that of Mithra and other solar gods, was about December 25, and his twelve Apostles certainly correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. When Jesus (who was the Sun of Righteousness) was crucified, the Sun naturally died; it was eclipsed. And of course, Jesus rose with the Sun on the day of the Sun. It would have been out of the question for him to rise on any other day - say on Moon-day. Every detail of the Sun Myth, says R.A. Proctor, the famous writer on astronomy, is worked into the record of the Galilean teacher. It could hardly have been otherwise" (Herbert Cutner, in his Jesus-God, Man or Myth: An Examination of the Evidence, p. 144).
As an ordained Pastor and Seminary graduate who is guilty of studying too much it saddens me to admit that after 16 yeas of intense scholarly study that my Christian faith and the "Jesus Story" of the New Testament is nothing more than a symbolic representation of the Sun, a solar deity, the Sun personified and its movements through the Cosmos chronicled as the events of a supposed historical person.
Let us look at one example before we tackle the articles on this website. Christianity celebrates December the 25th as the birth date of their savior god, Jesus Christ. However, what remains widely unknown to adherents of the faith is that this time of year, and specifically, the 25th has been a time of year honored and revered since the beginning of recorded history. December twenty fifth marks the time of the winter solstice, and there have been numerous savior gods throughout history, who were said to have been born on or near the 25th of December. These savior gods, Mithra, Dionysus, Bacchus, Horus, Krishna, etc. were not actual people who came to the Earth, they are mythological personifications of the sun, presented or personified as actual people. The name of the Phoenician solar god "Bacchus" literally means, "the sun personified." It is no different with Jesus of Nazareth, Christ is nothing more than a symbolic representation of the sun, a solar deity, the sun personified. As with countless cultures that came before Christianity, "the Christ" has been represented as an actual man who came to Earth to atone for the sins of mankind. I realize the reaction this stirs in Christians, and I can almost hear the threats of eternal damnation for saying this, but Christ is nothing more than a mythological, non-existent god-man. The depiction of Jesus in the Roman New Testament is a fantasy, and just as the dozens of savior gods that came before him, he has been represented as an actual person, and the solar symbolism surrounding the contrived events attributed to his life have been taken literally, the esoteric meanings lost and distorted along the way.
During the time of the winter solstice, the ancients that paid adoration to the sun claimed that from the 22nd of December to the 25th, the sun had died for three days. This is because on the 22nd, the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky, stays there for about three days, and then on the 25th, it begins its journey northward again. For this reason, the ancient cultures that celebrated the solstice said that on the 25th, the sun was "born again." This is also the reason that so many savior gods were said to have been born on the 25th of December. The days begin to get longer again at the time of the winter solstice, and at the spring equinox, the sun is resurrected. (Easter.) What a coincidence, that many of the savior gods that came centuries before Jesus, were also said to have been resurrected at the time of the spring equinox. Actually, It's not a coincidence at all, when you understand that the vast majority of the world's religions are based upon the most ancient living science, astrology. The "holy bible" is a giant book of astrotheology, mythology, legend and parable, and the words "holy bible" are derived from the words helio bibilia, which means "sun book!" One common misconception is that the ancients worshipped the sun as God, when in truth; the people of antiquity saw the sun as a symbolic representation of God. God's SUN. The light of the world. The son of God is the SUN of God personified!
There have been literally dozens of crucified savior gods that supposedly came to Earth, far before Christ, that have the same, if not stunningly similar attributes and stories of their lives and death, such as; being born of a virgin, having 12 disciples, being crucified as an atonement for mankind's sins, dying and rising in 3 days, changing water to wine, healing the sick, teaching in parables, being born in a cave or manger, and on and on it goes. Among those savior gods are:
This list could literally go on and on. The idea of a crucified savior god, born of a virgin, incarnating on Earth to redeem mankind is an ancient motif, it is an old story, stretching back into the farthest recesses of ancient history. It all began with the Ancients and their observation of the Sun and the Cosmos.
Answer for yourself: Why are all the savior gods born of a virgin? This is symbolic representation of the astrological sign of Virgo. Most ancient calendars began the first month in Virgo; hence the sun is born of a virgin, Virgo the virgin. The ancients devised measuring tools to keep track of the sun's heavenly journey. They divided the year into 4 groups of 3 and each was given a heavenly symbol. This became known as the Mazzaroth, or Zodiac. This is why so many of the savior gods were said to have 12 disciples, the 12 helpers are symbolic representations of the zodiac signs! The symbol used to represent the division of the year was the cross, and the sign of the cross can be found far back in the ancient world, well before Christianity was ever heard of.
We could write off one or two of the savior gods that came before Christ as coincidence, but when you study the origins of religions and comparative religions, and discover that it occurs over and over, again and again, the truth becomes obvious. There is so much solar symbolism in the bible that literally volumes could be written about the subject, and have been. The sad fact that growing up in this Western Hemisphere where Christianity is dominant few ever hear the truth about the "Jesus Story".
Well if you are ever to be convinced that what I have said is the truth and "nothing but the truth so help me God" then you must study and examine the evidence for yourself; only in doing so will you ever come to know the truth about the "Jesus Story" for yourself. As Christians and followers of "the Christ" we have been led into gross idolatry by the worship of Jesus as God in Christianity today. Such worship of Jesus let alone praying in his name or singing worship songs to him instead of the Creator is gross sin as defined by the Jewish and Hebrew Scriptures and as taught by Moses. If the Divine Truth concerning "the Christ within" which Gnostics like Paul taught had remained as "allegory" then we would not have a problem but Rome would not have it; they had a literal god-man Emperor on the throne of Rome and needed a Divine Book giving them authority for such worship of a god-man in the form of their Emperor so they made one to rival the Jewish Tanakh and we call it the New Testament today. Rome took the allegory and made it "literal" by forging the life of "the Christ within" as a historical person and passed it off as the Jewish Messiah to an unsuspecting Gentile world. Unknown to you the concept of the "Messiah" originated with Egypt and was know to the world long before the Jewish nation. It is for certain most who read our articles don't wish to be in “sin” let alone die ignorantly as idolators; therefore this information is critical and necessary if one is ever to repent of such false beliefs we inherited from Rome. You can thank an antisemitic Rome for baptizing you in idolatry before God.
A small article of this size cannot possibly do justice to such a complex and verbose subject as we have at hand but I hope to “break the egg” so to speak to help our readers begin to scrutinize the subject matter at hand in more detail by their personal study. Let's closely examine the original, conceptual foundations of the Christian faith, and then decide what to do with the serious “charge” made at the beginning of the article; that the Christian faith today is nothing but an evolution of “sun” worship transfigured into “Son” worship. Again I wish to reiterate the seriousness of such a charge if it can be proven.
It is to such evidences we turn presently. But first we need to look at what the Bible actually says about astrology and astronomy. We turn to this next and see again that Christianity has taught us wrong. Rome surely did not want you to ever study astrology and astronomy for if you did you would see the lie behind the "Jesus Story" Rome sold the world in their New Testament.