The Big Questions About Christianity预览

Was Christianity based on other ancient religions?

This question is one of those myths that gets peddled around, usually by unqualified people who know little about ancient religions or the origins of Christianity.

The accounts of Jesus recorded in the Bible (Luke 1:1-4) are said to be just borrowed and adapted from ancient pagan religions, such as the stories of Osiris, Dionysus, Mithras, and others.

This idea comes from some writers in the nineteenth century, when it was popular in some minority circles to claim the story of Jesus was just a myth. The reality is none of those books were taken seriously by the scholars back then, and they’re not taken seriously today because their claims are entirely baseless.

Only in the recent decade have these ideas been resurrected again, mainly due to wrong information from internet sources that can’t be held to account. These ideas also get a platform through fictional books and movies that don’t claim to be factual. You know how it goes - anyone wanting to trash Christianity takes fictional sources as having some basis in history.

There are certainly some fascinating claims out there, and if you don’t have the facts, it can all look very impressive. I could pick any among dozens of examples, but I’ll pick the Zeitgeist Movie, released in 2007.

There, you’ll find the Egyptian god Horus:

– was born on December 25 of a virgin;

– had his birth proclaimed by a star in the East;

– was adored as a saviour by three kings when he was newly born

– was baptized at age 30 and began his ministry;

– had 12 disciples;

– was betrayed, crucified, then buried for three days; and

– he was then resurrected after three days.

It all sounds very impressive. If you’re a Christian, it might make you wonder what’s going on. If you are biased against Christianity, you might be tempted to uncritically swallow all of this hook, line, and sinker.

If you bother to find out what the ancient Egyptian myths about the god Horus said, you will find that every one of those impressive parallels is actually false. He was never born of a virgin, was never crucified, never rose again, and so on. Every one of them is wrong.

That’s just Horus. People have attempted to find parallels between other ancient gods, like Mithras, Attis, Dionysus, and Ahura Mazda, and they all end up being the same thing. They’re all mainly based on false parallels. Jesus Christ is unique.

If you were to find any parallels, you’d still have the question, “Who copied whom?” because the writings of Christianity already existed and were widely known two or three hundred years before the majority of other religious texts in which we find these ancient myths.

A bit of common sense is a good thing. You can trust the Bible, and you can trust Jesus Christ. He really is unique.

– Eliezer Gonzalez