Hey Fredi:
Your noise indicates the anger and frustration in your makeup. Were you born without a father figure in the household. You don't need to be so darn belligerent with Khadija in selling your point. OK read the following and state your stand----
Mithraic Cult or Christianity
Mithra was a Persian savior, whose cult was the leading
rival of Christianity in Rome, and
more successful than Christianity for the first four centuries of the
�Christian� era. In 307 A.D., the
emperor officially designated Mithra �Protector of the Empire.� (See, Francis Legge, Forerunners and the
Rivals of Christianity at 2, 271; S. Angus, The Mystery-Religions at 168) Christians copied many details of the
Mithraic mystery-religion, explaining the resemblance later with their favorite
argument, that the devil had anticipated the true faith by imitating it before
Christ�s birth. Some resemblances
between the two are so close that even St. Augustine
declared the priests of Mithra worshipped the same deity as he did. (See, Salomon Reinach, Orpheus at 73)
Mithra was born on December 25, called �Birthday of the
Unconquered Sun,� which was finally taken over by Christians in the 4th century
A.D. as the birthday of Christ. (See,
John Holland Smith, The Death of Classical Paganism at 146; John Campbell, The
Mythic Image at 33) Some said Mithra
sprang from an incestuous union between the sun god and his own mother, just as
Jesus, who was God, was born of the Mother of God. Some claimed Mithra�s mother was a mortal
virgin. Others said Mithra had no
mother, but was miraculously born of a female Rock, fertilized by the Heavenly
Father�s phallic lightning. (See, Amaury
de Riencourt, Sex and Power in History at 135)
Mithra�s birth was witnessed by shepherds and by Magi (wisemen)
who brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock. (See, Homer Smith, Man and His Gods at 129;
S.H. Hooke, The Siege Perilous at 85; Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra at
131) Mithra performed the usual
assortment of miracles: raising the dead, healing the sick, making the blind
see and the lame walk, casting out devils.
As a Peter (son of Petra) he
carried keys to the kingdom of heaven.
(See, Homer Smith, Man and His Gods at 129) His triumph and ascension to heaven were
celebrated at the spring equinox (Easter), when the sun rises toward its
apogee.
Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a Last Supper
with his twelve disciples, who represented the twelve signs of the zodiac. In memory of this, his worshippers partook of
a sacramental meal of bread marked with a cross. (See, S.H. Hooke, The Siege Perilous at 89;
Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra at 160)
This was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments, the models for the
Christians� seven sacraments. (See, E.O.
James, The Ancient Gods at 250) It was
called mizd, latin missa, English mass.
Mithra�s image was buried in a rock tomb, the same scared cave that
represented his mother�s womb. He was
withdrawn from it and said to live again.
(See, Homer Smith, Man and His Gods at 130, 201)
Like early Christianity, Mithraism was an ascetic,
anti-female religion. Its priesthood
consisted of celibate men only. (See,
Francis Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity at 2, 261). Women were forbidden to enter Mithraic temples. (See, Wolfgang Lederer, The Fear of Women at
36). The women of Mithraic families had
nothing to do with the men�s cult, but attended services of the Great Mother in
their own temples of Isis, Diana or Juno.
(See, S. Angus, The Mystery-Religions at 205) Anahita was the Mother of Waters, traditional
spouse of the solar god whom she bore, loved and swallowed up. She was identified with the Anatolian Great
Goddess Ma. Mithra was naturally coupled
with her, as her opposite, a spirit of fire, light and the sun. (See, Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in
Roman Paganism at 54, 65). Her �element,� water, overwhelmed the world in the
primordial flood, when one man built an ark and saved himself, together with
his cattle, according to Mithraic myth.
(See, Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra at 138).
What began in water would end in fire, according to the
Mithraic eschatology. The great battle
between the forces of light and darkness in the Last Days would destroy the
earth with its upheavals and burnings.
Virtuous ones who followed the teachings of the Mithraic priesthood
would join the spirits of light and be saved.
Sinful ones who followed other teachings would be cast into hell with
Ahriman and the fallen angels. The
Christian notion of salvation was almost wholly a product of this Persian
eschatology, adopted by Semitic eremites and sun-cultists like the Essenes, and
by Roman military men who thought the rigid discipline and vivid battle-imagery
of Mithraism appropriate for warriors.
Under emperors like Julian and Commodus, Mithra became the supreme
patron of Roman armies. (See, Franz
Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra at 87-89)
After extensive contact with Mithraism, Christians also
began to describe themselves as soldiers for Christ; to call their savior Light
of the World, Helios the Rising Sun and the Sun of Righteousness; to celebrate
their feasts on Sun-day rather than the Jewish Sabbath; to claim their savior�s
death was marked by an eclipse of the sun; and to adopt the seven Mithraic sacraments. Like Mithraists, Christians practiced baptism
to ascend after death through the planetary spheres to the highest heaven,
while the wicked (unbaptized) would be dragged down into darkness. (See, Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra
at 144-45)
Mithra�s cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by
Christians in 376 A.D. (See, John
Holland Smith, The Death of Classical Paganism at 146). Christian bishops of Rome
pre-empted even the Mithraic high priest�s title of Pater Patrum, which became
Papa, or Pope. (See, Homer Smith, Man
and His Gods at 252). Mithraism entered
into many doctrines of Manichean Christianity and continued to influence its
old rival for over a thousand years.
(See, Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism at 154) The Mithraic festival of Epiphany, marking
the arrival of sun-priests or Magi at the Savior�s birthplace, was adopted by
the Christian church only as late as 813 A.D.
(See, H. Pomeroy Brewster, Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church
at 55).
Tweet
Emperor Constantine was a Heretic
Topic Options
Mishmish wrote: