Similar To The Christian Religion And Jesus example essay topic

Was the Christian Savior the Messiah or is there an Alternate History? Jesus Christ! God damn it! Both are common phrases whispered to ones self or shouted aloud to the masses by both believers and unbelievers. Day after day people turn to religion and God to find answers and to seek help with there problems or for other various reasons.

People turn to religion to try and make sense of a world that can often seem too stressful and meaningless, to rise above however with faith; it gives the impression of meaning. It is said He can inspire souls and compel one to engage in acts of justice and mercy in addition to promising eternal life with Him (Bahr vi). One can doubt the chances most believers know of the origin and history of there own religion. Christian believers accept Jesus Christ was the messiah; yet, one can learn history suggests an alternant truth. The Christian savior, Jesus, was born in Nazareth in the month of January.

His mother was Mary, whose mother was Anna. On the birth of Jesus he was visited by three men from Persia on their way to Egypt. Upon the sight of the new born child the Persians gave Him gold and silver and myrrh and frankincense (Gibran 7). He grew up having a normal childhood life and was always a charitable person. In the words from the son of Zebedee, John expounded: "Some of us call Him Jesus the Christ, and some the Word, and others call him the Nazarene, and still others the son of man" (Gibran 42). The time of His birth was during the same time as when Rome ruled the world.

We know that He was born in the period of Emperor Augustus. Historians concluded that if He was born when Herod the Great reigned then Jesus would be restricted to being born: "in or prior to 4 BC" (Bahr 25). The majority of the scripture written involving Jesus only takes place during the last few years of his life with a gap of eighteen years. The bibles text describes graphic accounts of Jesus' interactions with people and miracles he performed to believers. Some of the miracles include healing the blind and healing the paralyzed. Not only did the Christian religion give believers a moral icon to praise but also provided them a set of rules in which to help govern their lives more peacefully.

In addition to guidelines for a lifestyle, Christianity gave promises to a life of eternal happiness with God in heaven. With all of those positive things stated it is easy for one to accept the religion without question and just merely believe with an unquestioning faith. Over the span of the first three centuries Christianity grew rapidly and the new Roman Emperor, Constantine, was certainly aware of this. In 313 AD the empire was only ten percent Christian but by just over a hundred years later nearly all of the empire was converted. When Constantine finally had a united religion he himself proposed the new wordings to include phrases over the relationship of Jesus and His Father in the same way as: "being of the same substance" (Bercot 132). The term Constantine used to represent this phrase was homoousios; a significant factor leading to many early Christian writers using the term to describe the deity of the Son.

However, the term doesn't appear anywhere in scripture (132). Constantine furthermore erased all books by Arius. Anyone found with a book written by Arius would pay the penalty of death. The emperors had hoped by uniting the church there would be less division and fighting; opposite, Christians took up swords and began slaughtering one another over principle differences. The history we have over early Christianity was compiled at the beginning of the fourth century by a Roman historian, named Eusebius.

He accumulated legends, fabrications, and his own imagination to create the early history. All of the following history was forced to base themselves on his questioning claims. The man who converted Paganism and Gnosticism did not himself lead a moral life; in fact, he waited till the last moment before his death to be baptized, so he could live his sinful life and still go to heaven after being forgiven for his sins. He was presented: "as laying the foundation for papacy, where other Christian sects saw it as leading the early church away from simplicity of pure gospel and turning it into an institutional Church" (Arakaki 1). He only made it the Roman religion for his own political gain. Christianity is a hybrid result of fusing between pagan cult and Christianity; consequently, changing the Christian day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.

The first Bible written was made to reinforce the decision of Rome to make Jesus the divine Son of God. Moreover, it is said: "History is indeed written by the victors" (Freke and Gandy 46). One must consider that the building blocks of the Christian society were engineered by a sinner, therefore possibly false. The foundation of the church can be traced to a city of ancient Christian lineage, Rome.

Both St. Paul and St. Peter preached there and St. Paul was executed there. The first list of bishops found in Rome, date back to 160 AD and make St. Paul and St. Peter the founders of the Church of Rome. Peter then made Clement his successor by a transferal of spiritual powers. Before Constantine's conversion, the persecution of the church was extreme. Most of the members of the Church of Rome were martyred by the emperor Valentin ian, but soon Constantine made his conversion to Christianity throughout the empire. The new religion as Knox informed us gave the pope: "an indisputable position" (1).

A common misconception of Paganism is the imagery of an ancient superstition and bloody sacrifices. One most likely knows of some Greek myths involving the Olympian gods and goddesses. On the surface of the religion the Greek worship was superficial consisting of mostly ceremony. The spirituality of the Greek people came from so called underground movements that inspired minds. In the center of the mystery were stories of a dying and resurrecting man of god.

This man of god was known by many different aliases such as: Egypt, Osiris; Greece, Dionysus; Syria, Adonis; Italy, Bacchus; Persia, Mithras. Essentially all of these gods were the same mythical being. The name Osiris-Dionysus is designated to symbolize his universal nature. Each different mythic man from his country had his own set of stories to share his way of being. Similarly, When compared every different god man as mythologist Joseph Campbell stated there all erected from: "the same anatomy" (Freke and Gandy 40). Furthermore, mythic motifs related to Osiris-Dionysus are told as: God made flesh, the savior and "Son of God".

His Father is God and his mother is a mortal virgin. He is born in a cave or humble cowshed on December 25 before three shepherds. He offers his followers the chance to be born again through the rites of baptism. He miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony. He rides triumphantly into town on a donkey while people wave palm leaves to honor him. He dies at Easter time as sacrifice for the sins of the world.

After his death he descends to hell then on the third day he rises from the dead and ascends to heaven in glory. His followers await his return as the judge during the Last Days. His death and resurrection are celebrated by a ritual meal of bread and wine, which symbolize his body and blood. (40-41) The fact that all of these similarities aren't general knowledge is due to the fact that the Roman Empire did everything it could to exterminate all pagan writings. Each one of those motifs sounds strikingly similar to the Christian religion and Jesus, shouldn't one think? A significant factor one should consider is Jesus' relationship with one of his disciples who happened to be a female follower.

Mary Magdalene is in many instances referred to as Jesus' "partner" or "companion" which many interpret from ancient times as "wife". She is mentioned several times throughout the New Testament and was one of the few of His followers present for His crucifixion. She was even instructed to spread the word of His resurrection. There are hints provided in various scripture, lost scriptures, and the Gnostic Gospels that insinuate that the relationship between Mary and Him was more intimate. Mary is probably best known in history as a prostitute after Pope Gregory combined three different Mary's from the gospels into just one, branding Magdalene a whore.

This could be the logic of one; or perhaps one could believe that she really was a prostitute, and Jesus simply forgave her to further illustrate Christianity's great forgiveness. Either way one takes it there is no way to get around the fact she was a close follower of Him. The author of The Prophet and Jesus: Son of Man, Kahlil Gibran, gave a vivid description between Mary and Him: Upon their first conversation they speak of how they both feel affection for one another. Mary describes the way Jesus looks at her this way, "And He looked at me, and His night-eyes saw me as no man had seen me. And suddenly I was as if naked, and I way shy". Mary is a women who has been with many men but Jesus tells her of his love, "You have many lovers, and yet I alone love.

Other men love themselves in your nearness. I love you in your self. (12) The fact concerning whether or not Jesus and Mary were intimate should be apparent that they were in fact "partners". The chief outcome after one is enriched with knowledge is to establish his or her own opinion and questions over the subject. Some people just grow up there entire lives without ever questioning what they were taught to believe in; that the way they were raised in there family is the only right way to look at it. For instance, Christian believers accept Jesus Christ was the messiah; yet, history suggests an alternate truth.

Throughout the world as a whole there are many different religions but one should not believe unbelievers are going to hell. One should seek to learn more of other cultures and history to better understand each other and remember to: "let us observe truth, but only when truth is mad manifest unto us" (Gibran 75).

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