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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 

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         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 

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