EZEKIEL
and YHWH’s
Judgment
for the
Good News
PEOPLE
VOLUME XXXIII
Christian History
EZEKIEL and YHWH’s
Judgment for the
Good News People
Volume XXXIII--Christian History
by
an unworthy servant
And you shall know the truth,
and the truth will make you free.
(John 8:32)
Common Law Copyright, 2003 2005 CE, an unworthy servant, Calder, Idaho. The author claims his Right of exclusive ownership and control of this publication, the fruit of his labor, as a matter of Intellectual Property protected by the Laws of YHWH and as guaranteed by the US Constitution for the United States. Permission is granted to quote provided appropriate credit is cited together with the Publisher’s web site name and postal mailing address––WWW.AgeEnd.Com PO Box 473, Calder, ID 83808, USA.
Contents
Volume XXXIII--Christian History
CHAPTER PAGE
- Cover Page 1
- Title Page 2
- Contents 3
- Publisher’s Preface 5
Part AAAAA--Christian History
526 History of Christian Sun Worship I 6
527 History of Christian Sun Worship II 19
528 History of Christian Sun Worship III 27
529 History of Christian Sun Worship IV 38
530 History of Christian Sun Worship V 49
Part BBBBB--Grecian Sun Worship
531 Greek Philosophy or the Scriptures? 62
532 Christian Greek Sun Worship I 74
533 Christian Greek Sun Worship II 87
534 Christian Greek Sun Worship III 96
535 Christian Greek Sun Worship IV 110
536 Three Bad Spirits 116
Part CCCCC--A Case Study
537 Jehovah’s Witnesses 127
Part DDDDD--An Overview of the Christian Problem
538 The Great Historic Mysteries 140
539 The Great Historic Deceptive Frauds I 151
540 The Great Historic Deceptive Frauds II 160
SHEERIT YISRAEL
PO Box 473
Calder, Idaho 83808, USA
Publisher’s Preface
Greetings! The following presentation is volume thirty-three of a 36-volume production of some 6,000 pages on “Ezekiel and YHWH’s Judgment for the Good News People,” all of which is on the Internet at the www.AgeEnd.com web site.
This overall effort provides an interpretation of the Good News message in the New Testament, its linkage to the book of Ezekiel, and an application of both to the age-end prophecies relating to certain nations and peoples now out in the world. In order for this single volume to be understood and comprehended, it is imperative that the study be read from its beginning--from page one of volume one.
Anyone trying to read this volume or the study’s 6,000 pages at any mid-point will end up in a state of confusion without having read and digested the preceding material. It is crucially important that this work be read in sequence from its beginning--otherwise, the reader will almost certainly end up missing the essence of the message!
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For further information on obtaining this study in 18 computer floppy disks (IBM-formatted, high density, 2HD, 1.44 MB, 3 1/2 inches); in a single CD-Rom; or in hard copies (when the Internet or a compatible computer is not available); please write the publisher at the above address and send a stamped, self-addressed, long (legal-size), return envelope.
With a CD-Rom or computer floppy disks, the study is readable on Macintosh (systems 5.0 and later) or IBM/compatible (with Microsoft Word-Windows) personal computers. May The Great CREATOR and SOVEREIGN OF THE UNIVERSE bless you as you study His word to learn His will and to obey Him. Shalom (peace) to you and yours!
an unworthy servant, Hanukkah 2003 CE
Chapter 526--History of Christian Sun Worship I
Mystery Babylon, The Whore and Mother of Harlots
A preceding chapter herein briefly mentioned the Apostle Yohanan’s vision about a symbolic woman named “Mystery Babylon” (Rev 17:1-18). This influential woman sits on seven mountains (Rev 17:9)--which just happens to be an important attribute of the city of Rome (“The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia,” p. 738).
In fact, NT scholar Bart D. Ehrman has a picture in “The New Testament A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings” (p. 437) of a fascinating coin minted in 71 CE with a woman sitting on the seven hills of Rome. Obviously, this coin lends considerable clarification of what the Revelation had in mind.
As outlined heretofore, that word “mystery” (which is a secret symbol or sign) appears (in Rev 17:5, 7) to identify this woman and link her to some very bad, false worship. Specifically, it identifies sun worship by the sign and symbol of sun worship (yes, Sunday worship is the woman’s sign, just as the Seventh day Sabbath is a sign for YHWH’s people, as proven herein--Ex 31:13-17; Ezek 20:12, 20).
Many students of the Word are acutely aware of this woman’s existence and what all she has done in terms of control over the earth and the slaughtering of believers over the ages. So there is no reason to go into these things at this time. Suffice to say, this woman is an extremely bad one.
A study of her attributes and accomplishments, in tandem with a review of world history for the last 2,000 years, makes it abundantly clear that this Babylonian woman has clear linkage to the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant Christians have been well aware of this connection for at least 500 years. They have often written about it in very plain language.
In the early days of the Protestant Reformation, when thousands of Protestants were being tortured and executed at the hands of Rome, martyrs would testify of this fact (of Rome’s identification) at their trials and as they were burned alive on the stakes (per “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” and other early Protestant writings as well).
Since modern Protestants have this historic past available to them for study and contemplation, one has to stop and ponder how in the world that they would lose sight of it in the context of the current ecumenical movement (as described elsewhere herein). Moreover, this pathetic history of Rome, as seen by Yohanan, brings out a couple of other interesting points which even Protestants have failed to recognize.
Harlot Daughter Churches
First, please observe that this whore woman has whore daughters. The one thing that must be said about Protestant Christianity is that it came out of Rome. This writer can think of no Christian Church that does not link to Rome (directly, indirectly or by descent).
Apparently, they all do. She was and is the mother church of all of Christianity (to evidently even include the Eastern Orthodox groups to some extent, though they would argue otherwise).
In effect, what Yohanan was beholding was not then just the whore religious church (riding the beast [Rev 17:3], which includes its various economic, monetary, political, social, etc systems as well--as described in this work); but in fact, he was beholding an entire harlot, sun worship system (even as divided as it has been over the last 400-500 years, in the context of religious freedom).
One should not be so naive and stupid enough to suppose that Rome and her harlot Protestant daughters (in the form of the World Council of Churches and various ecumenical groups) are ever lurking in the background over “all” affairs of this world.
The May 7, 1997, “European” reported that the Vatican had requested observer status at the World Trade Organization (which oversees the international commercial and economic systems) in Geneva so that the Pope could keep watch over it. The Roman Church has always been political and totally involved in everything that the world’s people are doing.
While the Protestant Reformation provided a temporary setback to her vast, secular powers, it certainly did not end them. In the old days, the Vatican chose and crowned (by the Pope) the secular heads of Europe (the kings). She still operates behind the scenes and pulls strings constantly in the democratic political arenas to have her way.
And here in the age end, the daughter churches (Protestants) are rapidly returning to their mother in the form of the previously mentioned ecumenical movement--as students of truth are well aware. So, very quickly, this huge sun worship system will become united once more into one mass under the leadership of the Pope.
The deadly wound imposed upon the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation is being healed here in the early 21st century. Things are coming together for a one world religion--as outlined in a preceding chapter.
The Amalekites, Revisited
Many people wish to condemn and criticize to no end the Illuminati and other internationalists who effectively own the West in today’s capitalist culture. These fools totally ignore the reality that these parasites have been allowed into power and maintain their positions of wealth because Christendom allows it. Christians control the West--which is correctly called the Christian West.
Therefore, even this system of evil exists with Christian authority, blessings and wishes (and quite often, Christianity, in some form, shares in the money plunder by these evil people).
Many of these parasites in the Christian West (but not all of them) are Amalek-Edomite bankers/masters (who were assessed in former chapters). Amalekite bankers/masters are in virtual control in the United States and White British Commonwealth. Their roots and experience go back 2,500-2,600 years ago to the system set up and established by Nebuchadnezzar to effect his sun worshipping world government.
Nothing has changed in the last 2,500-2,600 years. The Amalek-Edomites learned about international banking, commercialism and internationalism, either in sun worshipping Babylon, or from the Jews (probably Kenite and/or Canaanite Jews) who did learn of it there and brought it back to Palestine. Now, these Amalekites have proceeded to move on and gain power in the secular sun worship world.
And tragically, for history, these same Edomite parasites and non-Edomite sun worshippers are all still around, doing the same things today--just as they were in ancient Babylon. The history of the sun worship religion supporting and allowing this false system will be addressed in succeeding comments.
Cain, Revisited
The previously described false sun worship could go all of the way back to Cain, noted earlier, as possibly being the original Zoroaster. Consequently, it seems to be quite old. Darrell W. Conder quoted an ancient Jewish legend that Cain became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He taught men to rebel and to wage war (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 5).
Moreover, Kain taught them to make idols of gold, silver, pearls and precious gems and taught them his own Satanic religion, using magic, which he called the mysteries of the sun, moon, and the heavens (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 5). By the terms of this thinking, Cain would have been the first agency (after Satan, in his work in the Garden of Eden) to teach sun worship to the Adam kind.
Stephen’s Remarks Revisited
Some former attention was also devoted to the remarks made by Stephen in the NT when he was on trial for his life. He made mention of the fact that The MOST HIGH had abandoned (given up) the House of Yisrael “to worship the host of heaven” (because of her sins--Acts 7:42). The host of heaven is defined as including the sun, moon and stars (Deut 4:19; 17:3).
As written by Moshe, it would appear that The MOST HIGH turned the sun, moon and stars over to the heathen peoples for them to worship at a very early time (Deut 4:13-19). In fact, C. J. Koster, in the “Final Reformation” (p. 5), quotes the “Good News Bible” as saying “the sun, the moon, and the stars... Elohim has given these to all other peoples (in contrast to Yisrael) for them to worship” (Deut 4:19).
The rebellion of Kain and his likely turn to early sun worship may have prompted The ELOHIM to just abandon the people following in those wicked ways of Cain. Certainly, if it didn’t happen with Cain, it happened just after the flood with the rebel Nimrod, previously discussed. Perhaps that is the background for Deuteronomy 4:19. In any case, it is a most fantastic revelation.
Assuredly, it means that there was to be a religious differentiation between the ultimate people of Yisrael, as opposed to the peoples of other nations and classifications. The true worship of The MOST HIGH, in the context of the Hebrew faith outlined in the Scriptures, is for Israelites. Conversely, non Israelites have been given the sun, moon and stars to worship--perhaps from the time of Cain and/or later Nimrod.
Question, is it conceivable that with Christianity, The SUPREME “changed” His mind on this decision which He apparently made in earlier ages? It’s highly unlikely.
Of course, much of the so-called civilized world, certainly from Noah’s time to Stephen’s time, had indeed worshipped principally the sun god and his consort, the moon goddess. In a state of rebellion against YHWH’s pronouncement, the House of Yisrael was to follow suit.
House of Yehudah Not Included
In the context of Stephen’s critical remarks, just outlined, the House of Yehudah was not included. This is a most revealing text when one reviews the history of Yisrael. Actually, it was initially and primarily the House of Yisrael, which grossly adopted outright sun worship in the days of the incredibly wicked King Achav (I Kg 16:30-32).
Achav very quickly popularized the worship of the sun god Baal and Baal’s consort, the moon goddess Astarte/Ashtoreth (known as Ishtar to the Babylonians, Isis to the Egyptians and Eostre/Eastre/Easter to the Anglo Saxons--per Maurice Cannay’s “An Encyclopedia of Religions” and Funk and Wagnalls’ “Standard Desk Dictionary,” as outlined before).
This pagan sun worship persisted in the House of Yisrael to her removal by the Assyrians, c700 BCE (and actually on even to our time in 2003 CE, in the context of Christianity). It is also true that evil, depraved sun worship became entrenched in the House of Yehudah for a period before the Babylonian conquest, as well, despite the efforts of kings like Hizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu to stomp it out.
Incidentally, this situation was evidently brought out by Yirmeyahu. In his condemnation of Jerusalem (before the exile), he noted the evils of the people in worshipping the host of heavens (Jer 8:2, see also Jer 10). Thus, while it was factually true that sun worship gained a foothold in the divided House of Yehudah (along with Yisrael), the reality remains that the Babylonian exile eventually appears to have cleaned up much of it.
Yehudah Changed
After the exile, the practices and customs of sun worship (so prevalent in the Houses of Yisrael and Yehudah, in the divided kingdom days) never seemed to be a question in Yehudah. True, the Jews were a proud, vain, wicked lot in the NT writings, but sun worship did not seem to be their problem or an issue of any significance with them after the exile, as opposed to before the Babylonian captivity.
Assuredly, the 70 years of Babylonian captivity not only helped remove much or all of the wicked sun worship from Yehudah, but it made the people considerably more conscious of the Sabbaths, which were signs for the people to know The ELOHIM (they took the Sabbaths to heart and became very dedicated on them--perhaps even more so than was the Scriptural position).
Second Temple Judaism, whatever its shortcomings were, was a far cry different reality than its sun worship predecessors in both Yehudah and Yisrael, before Nebuchadnezzar and the Jewish exile.
But the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians was to be a type, sign or example of what was to later fall upon the sinning House of Yisrael peoples (Ezek 4:3). Thus, Yirmeyahu (Jer 8:2) was one more prophet to link this false, sun worship to the House of Yisrael in the age end. In other words, the House of Yisrael will go through the same motion which Yehudah went through with her exile.
This coming conquest of Yisrael will do for the Israelites what the Babylonian exile did for Yehudah. It will get rid of the sun worship present (in the form of Christianity) and the surviving Israelite people in the millennium will take to heart (in the New/Renewed Covenant) the importance of the Tanakh Sabbaths and festivals.
The situation prevailing in Yehudah, in the days of Ezra and Nechemyah, was an ante-type of what is to come with Yisrael.
Sun Worship Was The Norm
With the fact that the House of Yisrael was given over to the practice of sun worship, as was the earlier non-Israelite, civilized, Adamic nations (Deut 4:19), it is important to understand that it means that the entire Western civilization for the last 2,700 years has been locked in evil sun worship.
Obviously, these House of Yisrael people in Stephen’s time of the first century CE were then practicing sun worshippers (just like they are currently).
Of course, the student of truth can spend some time researching the question of the sun worship religion and culture and find from the available historical records that the so-called Adam kind has pretty well been sun worshippers for perhaps much of the last 6,000 years. By the way, some records are available on this issue in the world today, although one must work hard to find them.
While records from the pre-flood era are largely in question (except for the Tanakh), one can find secular records from the time of Nimrod on and particularly from early Babylon which reflect the pervasiveness of ancient sun worship in the entire civilized world of Adam for the last 4,400 years.
Yes, the ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans were all sun worshippers, as noted before.
In Stephen’s day, and during the age of the Apostolic Assembly, Europe, the British Isles, North Africa and most of Asia were all sun worshippers, although operating under different names among the different cultures and peoples (Baal worship in Phoenicia, Mithra in Persia, Rae and Osiris in Egypt, Serapis in Alexandria, Zeus in Greece, Chrishna in Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor and the East, etc. Druid sun worship became the norm in Britain).
Beyond the significant presence of sun worship among the Adam kind, it must be observed that sun worship was also present among the uncivilized behemah and chaiyah humanoids, but to a substantially lesser degree. As discussed in prior chapters, these non Adamic peoples were more prone to follow extremely primitive religions--like the worship of sticks, stones, animals and dead ancestors.
To whatever extent these primitive peoples came into contact with sun worshipping Adamites, they began to adopt some of the sun worship practices of the Adam kind and incorporate them into their primitive religions.
This phenomenon especially occurred with the chaiyah humanoids, where their religions were substantially more advanced into sun worship than what one finds among the more backward and primitive behemah humanoids.
The Role of Constantine I
This background then takes the student of truth to the age of Constantine I in the early fourth century CE. By the time that Constantine arrived on the world scene, Christianity was already an established religion; but not a global, ruling religion. It was one faith among many, then found in existence--not only in Rome, but throughout the Roman Empire.
Perhaps when Constantine came to Rome, Christianity was significantly persecuted and oppressed by the state (starting with Nero, as alleged in numerous early Christian writings)--likely because of the deeds of its founders (to be profiled in the following chapters) and because Christianity has always been quite active politically to create problems for the secular leadership and state, as elsewhere discussed herein.
With this propensity for politics, the Christians inevitably invited persecution (until church and state were later effectively merged into one organism under Constantine).
In comments on “The Capital of the World,” Chuck Missler wrote that the three centuries preceding Constantine (under the emperors Nero to Diocletian) were years of Christian persecution which drove the church underground (but interestingly enough, more Christians were killed by Christians [to force uniformity] in the first 100 years after the Council of Nicea in 325 CE than the prior 300 years under pagan Rome--Jul-Sep 2003 “Petah Tikvah,” p. 8).
However, by 313 CE, Christians numbered about one-half of the empire’s population, despite being underground (Mar 1998 “Personal Update,” p. 5). Consequently, this was the situation all over the civilized Roman Empire when Constantine I came to power as emperor in late c312 CE with his military victory at Milvian Bridge in Italy.
Hence, before Constantine’s seizure of power, Christianity was not a significant religion of any importance from the standpoint of rulership over the state, despite the large numbers of Christians living in the empire.
The Diversity, Revisited
Preceding chapters discussed the great diversity in Christianity in those early formative years in the first, second and third centuries CE. As was pointed out in those presentations, the early Christian Church (before the arrival of Constantine) was a can of worms and Pandora’s box of many divisions and differences and much confusion.
The Christian world was not just one Christianity and one Christian Church. It was a world of many “Christianities” and many different Christian entities--all separate and divided, and all vying for power and persuasion over the people (much like the condition found in Christendom in the 20th and early 21st centuries).
Per the scholarship of Dr Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina and others, the holders of these many different and divergent views worked hard at putting their particular positions over--even to the point of preparing forged documents or altering existing documents (as described in former chapters).
So the Christian world which Constantine took over had a host of divergent and different Christian Churches, all vying for power and persuasion over people. Yet, despite these many differences, the resulting Babylonian confusion, and the (alleged) persecution from the state, Christendom was present and in some numbers in much of the empire.
Constantine and his Cross
Just before the famous battle at Milvian Bridge, as cited above, the conquering Constantine allegedly saw a cross in the sky and words telling him to conquer and kill his enemies under the sign of that cross. With his victory, Christianity and the heathen cross gained immediate credibility and popularity.
Incidentally, Darrell W. Conder quotes a popular pagan representation of this cross event (from Gibbons) which reported that Constantine had a vision of the sun-god Mithra or Apollo on the eve of his victory and not a Christian cross at all (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 215).
This is very plausible because the cross has always been a sun image from antiquity. Consequently, it matters not one iota of exactly what Constantine saw or if he even saw anything at all. The Christian sign of the cross was a sun worship sign which was already known and respected by the sun worshipper Constantine at once.
Incidentally, these remarks on Constantine need some further comment. While Constantine I was a Roman by citizenship and a sun worshipper by religious faith, he most likely was an Israelite of the lost tribes of Yisrael in the flesh (possibly even a fleshly Yehudahite), just as was true with the Roman centurions, as discussed previously.
Constantine I was assuredly one of the great ante-types of the coming age end Beast man (Constantine II), who also might be a racial Yehudahite (perhaps a miscegenated Yehudi) and an Israelite of the lost tribes.
In a quotation from “Babylon Mystery Religion,” the above cited Jul-Sep 2003 “Petah Tikvah” (p. 8) noted that in one year following the Catholic Council of Nicea, the so-called Christian leader Constantine had his own son (Crispus) put to death; and still later, he suffocated his wife Fausta in an overheated bath. So Constantine could be very brutal and cruel.
Catholicism Became a World Religion of Power
Hence, for one of the most important problems Constantine faced, as he embarked on his path of making Christendom a popular world enterprise, he had to deal with the Christian divisions and diversity.
He and his Christian Church colleagues undertook the task of making all of the Christian Churches into one coherent and unified organism (which was the original goal and effort of Simon Magus in the beginning, to be discussed in some detail in the succeeding chapters).
With the benefit of the several church councils and the power of the Christian sword, these unification efforts were achieved, as will be demonstrated in comments to follow.
Next, with Constantine’s accession to power, he made Roman Catholic Christianity a world ruling religion when he de facto married church and state in the Roman Empire (c 312-325 CE). Theodosius II (378-398 CE) made the church-state connection the official, legal position of the empire during his reign.
At some point in this time frame (when the religious church was married to the secular state/when the woman started riding the beast, per Rev 17:3), an ante-typical fulfillment of the great tribulation was to start and last for the next 1,260 years. Furthermore, it might be that an ante-typical fulfillment also commenced of the 1,290 days/years of having the abomination of desolation set up.
Perhaps, this marriage of church and state was a sample (or ante-type) of the ultimate abomination of desolation. It could be that these 1,260 and 1,290-year prophecies were to last until the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I of Britain and/or perhaps as late as the time of Oliver Cromwell (1648 and the peace of Westphalia).
Darrell W. Conder quoted a Catholic scholar and priest named Dr John F. Sullivan, who wrote about the times that his church availed herself of rites and ceremonies adopted from pagans so that the church and her clergy could be all things to all people, in order that they might gain all for “Christ” (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 146).
Simultaneously, the church began her process of completely transforming herself into a total sun worship religion by adopting many of the remaining sun worship practices and customs of the old sun worship cults. Actually, this process facilitated the outreach to the pagan sun worshippers; since, all of a sudden, they could be good Christians--all the while that they could continue to practice their old sun worship customs.
Almost from the beginning of this new religious state (of the developing Holy Roman Empire), the ruling powers began to enforce Christian Catholicism on the masses under threat of death (this helped to eliminate the diversity and differences). They either accepted the ruling Catholic Church or they were dead. Of course, most quickly became Christians and accepted the power of Rome.
Constantine’s Actions
On March 7, 321 CE, Constantine issued his famous Sunday edict which established the venerable day of the sun (Sunday) as a mandatory rest day throughout the empire, in defiance of the Scriptural command to work that day (per the code of Justinian, Book 3, Title 12, Law 3, in Corpus Juris Civilis, v. 2, p. 108).
This law was easy to impose on the empire because all of the old sun worshipping cults worshipped on Sunday, as noted earlier. To mention again Gerald L Berry, in “Religions of the World” (p. 56)--he wrote that “Since Mithra was a sun-god, Sunday was automatically sacred to him--the ‘Lord’s Day’ --long before Christ. On December 25th...there were elaborate rituals and celebrations.”
Since Mithra is a variant of Krishna (“Mystery Babylon and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Time,” p. 38), it is clear that both Sunday and Christmas are important to Chrishnaism (which evolved into Christianity).
As outlined previously, Constantine oversaw the establishment of the solemnity of Easter as a Christian festival at the expense of the Scriptural Passover which was effectively abolished in Christendom in 325 CE at the Council of Nicea.
In “Fossilized Customs” (p. 13), the formerly quoted Lew White takes the view that many of the pagan customs came into the Christian Church as a result of this Council of Nicea. In fact, White argues that the nominative title Catholic or Universal became attached to the Roman Christian Church at Nicea.
White must be incorrect here because Ignatius of Antioch used the phrase “Catholic Church” for the Christian Church as early as 100 CE (“The Oxford Companion to the Bible,” p. 122). Since the word catholic means universal, the better option here is that Simon Magus used it for the church at its beginnings in Rome (c42-67 CE, to be established in later comments).
And Later
Per a former remark, Constantine’s successors in about 364 CE (or possibly in 336 CE) passed an edict at the Council of Laodicea, prohibiting rest on the Seventh day Sabbath (Canon 29 from Bishop Hefele’s “History of the Councils”).
Actually, this late date is a possible date for the official start of the 1,260 years of great tribulation and perhaps the 1,290 years of the set up of the abomination of desolation (although the case can also be made for these events to occur during the work of Theodosius II, as cited above).
Though Christianity was an obvious, Sunday keeping religion from her inception, it is evident that she had not completely adopted all of the sun worship features which she would eventually adopt after the rise to power of Constantine and the effective marriage of church and state.
Thus, the Councils of Nicea and Laodicea and others further imposed more sun worship customs over the years. Consequently, the truth has been that Christianity has adopted more and more of the practices of sun worship over the years, instead of getting rid of them over time.
Now, For a Twist
Previous chapters herein have discussed at some length the calendar problem within worldly Christianity and the work of various groups (like the Holy Roller, Sardis and Christian Identity elements) to go out of their way to try to incorporate some ridiculous and stupid calendar alterations into their worship and faith.
Attention was directed at the thinking of Christian Identity preacher Peter Peters and his theories in support of a solar calendar and his ideas of five annual sabbaths (on the Passover, as calculated on a count from the spring equinox; and alleged sabbaths on or near the two solstices and two equinoxes).
In terms of the Holy Roller captain of the ship in NE Washington, he keeps the Scriptural festivals on a solar basis and blames the Jews for the change of the Seventh day Sabbath to Sunday.
Both of these Christian leaders were discussed at length earlier. There is no need to completely repeat those remarks. But what is important to note is that both of these men blame the Jews and allow or imply that the Jews somehow influenced Constantine the Great to alter the calendar and the Scriptural festivals in someway.
As pointed out earlier, it is absolutely amazing and enough to blow a sane person’s mind, but these Jew haters come along and launch an attack upon Constantine and the early Catholic Church (which were admittedly very profoundly evil) and then blame the Jews and Judaism for all of the evil present with Constantine and the early Catholic Church.
The Jews are simply not responsible for the gross wickedness, sin and paganism found in Christianity. The people who led the way in this depravity were all Christians--who were Judaism haters. They were sun worshippers and their theology was always predicated upon historic sun worship.
The Jews are responsible for a lot of things. But they are not responsible for the sun worship now present in Christianity.
Historical Views
One of the interesting features about this transformation with Constantine and later is that it has been recognized and reported on in the literature and writings of the Western Christian civilization for centuries. Most writers, who have chosen to write upon this subject, have decided to cast this transition in the context of a merging of “true” Christianity with paganism and/or with the old sun worship theologies.
In “Come Out of Her My People” (p. 2-3), C. J. Koster wrote about this phenomenon and quoted several sources outlining this so-called historical merging. From the “Oxford Classical Dictionary” (p. 233), Koster found that “Constantine combined veneration for the ‘Unconquered Sun my companion’ with that of Christ.”
Koster quoted Franz Cumont’s “Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism” (p. 288) which said that “The vague deism of Constantine strove to reconcile the opposition of helioatry (sun worship) and Christianity.”
Quoting Legge’s “Forerunner and Rivals of Christianity” (p. 118-119), C. J. said that early philosophers like Pliny and Macrobius declared the Sun to be the one supreme god concealed behind the innumerable lesser deities of the Greco-Roman pantheon and that even Christianity could not hold out against the flood (of these gods/religions). Thus, the Catholic Church compromised with the beliefs of the sun cults.
From John Ferguson’s “The Religions of the Roman Empire” (p. 56), Koster noted that “Constantine’s god was a fusion of the Unconquered Sun and Christ the Victorious.” The writer of “Come Out of Her My People” (p. 3) himself concluded that there was a merging or “assimilation of Sun-worship with the New Testament Belief.”
Writer George H. McKnight was quoted by Darrell W. Conder as saying that when paganism was superseded by Christianity, the older religion was by no means obliterated (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 181).
Conder also quoted E. J. Waggoner that when Christianity prevailed over the pagans, it worshipped in the same temples, with the same rites to a certain extent and actually abrogated the local worship of one of the multitudinous deities of paganism (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 181).
To demonstrate the accuracy of Waggoner’s remarks, Conder noted a whole array of former pagan temples that became Christian Churches. For example, the Parthenon in Athens became a church of the Virgin Mary, the temple of Theseus became a church devoted to St. George and so forth (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 181).
It Didn’t Start With Constantine
Regarding the above comments from different sources, it should be noted that the prevailing modern view seems to be that Christianity was or is the religion of the Scriptures and was thus pure and good before Constantine’s time. But then, in the 4th century CE, Constantine came along and corrupted it into the Catholic Church by merging it with the old sun worship cults.
The writer of this study at hand has a different view. Christianity, in the 1st to 4th centuries (CE), always seemed to have been a mixture of some good and much bad. It always had a lot of sun worship theology present (from day one).
In the Jan-Feb 2000 “Intelligence Newsletter” (p. 4), Christian defender Earl Jones quoted author Sir James Frazer who said that “By the year 200 A.D., Christianity, as taught by Jesus Christ, had all but disappeared. The question we must ask ourselves is how did this happen?”
Both Frazer and Jones are on the right track (though neither of them probably knew it). The original faith taught by YESHUA admittedly was gone by 200 CE. Actually, the evidence is that the original faith never was found in Christendom. So Frazer’s question can be answered in a unique way. This and succeeding chapters herein will assess it.
In the vein of truth, Christianity historically was a sun worship faith (from day one)--much like the old sun cults and other false, pagan religions in the Western civilization. It never was a force for good that followed the teachings of The MESSIAH.
It always was a sun worship faith (although there may be a few good teachings in Christendom with some Scriptural support). The only thing that happened under Constantine (in 313 CE) is that it grew much worse in outright sun worship.
Most of Man’s Religions Seem to Have Some Good
Most of man’s religions have “some” good in them. They are not all, totally, 100% bad in all respects (i.e. even today, the sun worshipping Mormons are noted for teaching against tobacco and caffeine and practicing “some” good deeds toward each other). This was true with the old sun cults which taught a lot of humanism--some of which might appear to be good, to the extent that it conforms to YAH’s laws.
The same is true with most of the other worldly religions--like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism and so forth. All of these religions are not totally bad. All of them teach, preach and advocate various forms of humanism and for people to do good deeds for other people.
It’s just that with the advent of the sun worshipper Constantine, the merging of any remaining truth with pagan sun worship took a pronounced acceleration with the result that the surviving Christian religion (and culture) was even more identifiable as a sun worship faith. There’s not much good left today in sun worship Christianity.
Chapter 527--History of Christian Sun Worship II
Early Christianity Under Simon Magus
So, if Christendom cannot be traced to the Scriptures (Old or New Testaments), and if it was in existence in Rome for about three centuries before Constantine I arrived on the scene to make it a world religion (as suggested in the previously cited comments by Chuck Missler and others), questions must inevitably be raised about where, when and how Roman Christianity came into being at its first inception.
For these answers, one must turn to the previously mentioned Simon Magus of Samaria (Acts 8:5-24). Per Clement of Rome (to be later addressed), Simon’s parents were Antonius and Rachael, a Samaritan (“Simon Magus,” p. 31). Simon had lived in a Samaritan village called “Gittha” and came to Rome during the reign of the emperor Claudius, 41-54 CE (“Simon Magus,” p. 24, 29)
If there was a clandestine merger or combining of sun worship and the so-called true faith of the Scriptures, as there was during NT times, then that merger, assimilation and/or combining started happening in the first century CE, evidently by Simon Magus, perhaps as early as c42 CE (after Simon relocated to Rome from Samaria), and continuing by Magus up to c64-67 CE in Rome (when Magus was killed).
Before leaving Palestine, Simon gained one of his most important disciples (and his personal whore) in the form of a woman prostitute named Helen who came from Tyre (“Simon Magus,” p. 8). Thus, she was likely an Edomite Phoenician. A former chapter mentioned both Simon and Helen in the sense that his followers made statutes of them to worship (does this sound like Gee-Zeus and Mary?).
Though Magus seemingly organized his formal Catholic Christian Church in Rome (c50 CE, per Darrell W. Conder in “Mystery Babylon and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Time,” but more likely by 42 CE), it might be possible that he visited Pergamos after leaving Samaria and before reaching Rome.
Pergamos was one of the apparent centers of the Babylonian Mysteries in the first century BCE and early part of the first century CE (Rev 2:13).
As a minimum, Simon visited Alexandria before reaching Rome where he perfected his studies in magic and where he studied under John, a Hemero-baptist (“Simon Magus,” p. 31). At an early time (evidently before he even arrived in Rome), Magus was accused of being a murderer, an occult worker and a magician who could call up demons to do his bidding (ibid, p. 33).
The historic Irenaeus (in “Against Heresies,” i, 16, in the “Ante-Nicene Fathers”) wrote that Simon appeared among the Jews as the Son; in Samaria as the Father; and among other nations as the Holy Spirit. Thus, it would seem to be that the Catholic theories on the Unscriptural trinity may have started with Simon Magus, himself.
The Mysteries
Since the Roman Church was merged with so many of the Babylonian Mysteries, it appears that Simon had these teachings on the Mysteries at a very early time and was responsible for promoting them in developing Christianity, as will shortly be proven.
There is an alternative view on where Simon became indoctrinated in the Mystery Religions. In “Mystery Babylon and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Time” (p. 131-132), Darrell W. Conder suggests that the Mystery Religions had a hold on the Samaritans in the first century CE.
Conder quotes Dr James Hastings’ “Bible Dictionary” that “Samaria was a country in which a sort of bastard Judaism came into contact with the old Syrian and Phoenician religions and the newer Hellenic paganism. All of these different elements are present in Simon’s system.”
Hastings also goes on to confirm that the Samaritans did indeed hold the religious beliefs of the sun and moon, and the worship of Baal and Astarte (“Mystery Babylon The Great,” p. 206). Yes, they were sun worshippers--just like modern Christians.
In terms of a background on this amalgamation of religions, it started when the Assyrians settled peoples from five nations in old Samaria--Babylon, Cuthah (which probably supplied most of the people, per quotes from Josephus and “Pesikta De-Rab Kahana”), Ava, Hamath and Sepharvaim (II Kgs 17:24). These persons brought with them their own respective religions/gods from the five nations (II Kg 17:29).
Fairly soon, a priest from the former House of Yisrael came and taught them his religion--which surely consisted of a blend or mixture of the old Hebrew faith with the Baal sun worship that was common in the House of Yisrael (II Kg 17:27-28).
As cited earlier, at least one evil priest of Yehudah took up with the Samaritans in the days of Nechemyah (Neh 13:27-28). Later, more apostate Jews settled in Samaria in the time of Alexander the Great (“Josephus, The Essential Writings,” p. 200).
Also, as mentioned earlier, the Ethiopian book of Enoch (v. 72) and other sources indicate some presence of Amalek-Edomites (with their very warped worship of Satan/Lucifer) among the Samaritans in the early days following the Jewish return to Palestine from the Babylonian exile.
Furthermore, previous remarks mentioned the writings of Ben Sira, Shimon Yeshua, who said that he abhorred the Edomites (perhaps around 190 BCE). He laid out his hatred against them and the Philistines in the sense of a comparison or link with “the foolish people who dwell in Sichem” in Samaria (Ecclus 1:25-26, quoted in “A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ,” v. I, p. 7, division 2).
Per the earlier discussion, it is unclear what Ben Sira meant (only a comparison or something else)? But it might be correct to interpret his words as allowing for some evil Edomites and (remnants of the) Philistines inhabiting Shechem of Samaria in his day. Hence, it is possible that he knew of some Edomites and Philistines in Samaria. Obviously the Samaritans had a pathetic blend of many religions as well as some teachings about the true Hebrew faith.
Writer Colin Deal of Rutherford College, NC actually suggests that this condition explains the spiritual aspects of the six men/husbands involved with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:18 (Deal makes it that the five husbands were the gods that the pagans brought with them to Samaria, and that the sixth man was the Jewish faith which the Samaritans acquired, but without a covenant/marriage relationship).
This theory by Deal is interesting and could have some merit, though this writer believes that the mixed Samaritans may have had more than five religions in their mixture (although this five could represent five forms of the sun god--for example, possibly Baal/Bel, Marduk, Chrishna, Mithra and Zeus). Surely, this mess was mixed with some aspects of the true Hebrew faith (thus, an ante-type of Christianity).
This background gains some credence when viewed from the perspective that the woman of Samaria was allegorically Christianity and that the NT Samaritans were allegorically Christians. These connections have been briefly allowed in earlier comments and will be described more fully in later presentations. Certainly, there is much symbolism present with the woman and the Samaritans.
Simon Was Informed
From this material, Darrell Conder concluded that Simon Magus had a basic knowledge of the Mysteries and its mixture with other faiths when he lived in Samaria (as is true with Christendom). This mix was only enhanced by Simon on his visit to Egypt (and/or Pergamos). When he came to Rome, he would have found fertile ground to propagate his version of this Samaritan mixture of religions.
Otherwise, the previously cited Eric V. Snow quoted various authorities to show that Simon Magus was likely the leader of the Dositheans, an unorthodox, possibly Gnostic-influenced, Samaritan group that continued to play a role in Samaritan history (article on “Is Christianity a Fraud? Round Two,” p. 45).
The very fact that the apostles even had some dialogue and contact with Simon (Acts 8:5-25) suggests that they must have initially believed that he was a religious Jew and a racial Israelite, although he was correctly not an Israelite at all. His ancestry will be assessed shortly in succeeding remarks. At least, Simon must have been holding himself out to be a Jew and may have tried to pose as a racial Israelite.
His later colors developed showing that he had a bad spirit--making it questionable to what extent he could have been a religious Jew, if at all. In any case, Simon surely had a basic exposure to Judaism and likely absorbed some of it. It is also manifest that with his contact with the apostles, he gained some further knowledge of the Messianic aspects of the Nazarene sect of Judaism.
With his additional extensive training and understanding of the sun worship Mysteries, he had the intellectual knowledge and comprehension to merge all of these different and conflicting beliefs into a completely new theology. Thus, this linkage could explain why the Mysteries quickly became entrenched in early Catholicism, to be assessed shortly herein.
G. R. S. Mead, Revisited
Some years ago, a man named G. R. S. Mead made a comprehensive survey of Simon Magus which he published in a book entitled “Simon Magus” (as has been quoted above and in former chapters). To assess the life of Magus, Mead addressed three sources--the New Testament (Acts 8), the Christian Church fathers and traditional knowledge (mainly from Clement of Rome).
As discussed in an earlier chapter, either Simon himself or some of his disciples wrote some of the early Christian writings (it is unclear which ones). But since Simon Magus was often confused with both Peter (correctly Kefa) and Paul (correctly Shaul), it is possible that some of their writings could have had his touch. As a minimum, he was a Gnostic and probably did do some editing and altering of the Greek New Testament.
Importantly, Simon soon started his own religion--probably in Palestine and certainly upon leaving Palestine (which grew into the Catholic Christian Church, as will be shortly established). Mead (p. 22) says that he sought to steal away disciples (from other religious faiths) by the use of magic and deception (proselytizing has been the story of Christianity, from day one).
His followers were called Simonians at an early time (evidently, initially in Samaria, where he seems to have started his religious work and where he commenced collecting followers, both before and after he left Samaria). Per Justin Martyr, c141 CE, Simon Magus and his Simonian followers in Rome were called Christians (to be discussed later herein).
Mead (p. 39) adds that almost all of the Samaritans became Simonians or followers of Simon Magus. Whether this conversion of Samaria happened before Simon left or later, as his new religion began its world-wide evangelistic campaign, is unclear. But in time, it appears that many of the Samaritans did indeed become Catholic Christian Simonians (but not all--since the old Samaritan faith continued with a presence there).
While he was intimate with Helen, it appears that Simon actually went to some trouble to keep that fact a secret from his followers (Mead, p. 25). Perhaps this situation with Simon was to pave the way for the later Catholic priests to be celibate; whereas some of them have had their own whores (like John Paul II) or have been queers (as many of them are faggots in the modern Roman Catholic Church, as proven earlier).
More on Simon
Based upon the early writings which mention Simon, it would appear that he personally had either some likeness to or at least identification with the sun god Zeus (Mead, p. 26, 74). Clearly, the long haired Zeus look meant that Simon would have also looked like the long haired Serapis, a Zeus counterpart of Alexandria.
Furthermore, there is some question about who all Simon may have pretended to be. Apparently, there are some records suggesting that at one time he claimed to be the Palestinian “Jesus,” plus being Shimon Kefa (to be assessed later). Also, it might be that he tried to connect himself to the long haired Chrishna and/or Apollonius in some fashion (discussed earlier and to be broached in some detail shortly).
Because of the Scriptural strong stand against long haired men, discussed earlier, it is a certainly that if Magus had long hair, he grew it after his encounter with the Apostolic Assembly people in Acts 8. If he had had long hair then, he would have had to cut it to even attempt to fool the Messianic people. Long hair would have condemned him as a fraud at once and severed any possibility of linkage to the Apostolic Assembly.
As a minimum, he believed in a plurality of gods (Mead, p. 34) which was to later form the basis of the Christian trinity (in fact, the previously cited Colin Deal, quoting Irenaeus, charges that Simon Magus was the person who introduced the “triune god concept” --presumably to his followers).
Finally, to repeat an idea expressed in previous comments, the point was made that Simon taught that many of the narrations of the Scriptures were allegorical. He was opposed to the dead-letter interpretation of the Word (Mead, p. 80). With this background, it is no wonder that Christians can read so much nonsense into the Book, all the while that they ignore its literal words.
Otherwise, Simon Magus’ presence and work in Rome have been acknowledged and described by a whole host of historians, writers and scholars over the years. Numbers of prominent Christians and historians have written at length about Simon Magus and his presence in Rome as early as the time of Claudius (41-54 CE)--like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Epiphanius and Jerome.
Were it not for the bold insistence (via tradition and not factual proof) of the Roman Catholic Church people that their church was founded by the Apostle Shimon Kefa (whom the Greek NT calls Petros [or Simon Peter in the KJV]), the view of history would have quickly connected the Universal Church to Simon Magus. Thereafter, no one would have had to later dispute the prevailing Catholic tradition.
Regardless, there is much historical information on Simon Magus in Rome which can be sought out and studied (as was done by Mead, above, and by others). In “Mystery Babylon The Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth” (p. 204-212), Darrell W. Conder offers an outstanding outline on the history of Magus in Rome.
Conder’s position in his book was that there were “two” Christian Churches in Rome. One was the proper NT type, actually founded in Rome by the Apostle Shaul (Rom 1:15; 15:19-23). The second and bad Christian (Catholic) Church was founded around the same time by Simon Magus. Per Conder, the Apostle Shimon Kefa was never in Rome and had no role to play in the establishment of either of these entities.
In the “Wine of Roman Babylon” (p. 7), Mary E. Walsh also argues that the Scriptures reveal two churches--one true and one a counterfeit. Mary’s remarks focus on the Roman Catholic Church as being the false counterfeit church. Though she doesn’t name the Seventh-day Adventist faith as the true one, it is obvious that she is writing from that perspective since her book was published by that church.
While Ms. Walsh has it right that the Roman Catholic Church is a counterfeit and is bad (actually, a sun worship group and mother of harlots--the Protestant Churches), there is little good in the Seventh-day Adventists (other than that they keep the Sabbath, distinguish between clean and unclean meats and observe a few of the commandments relating to man’s duties to each other, like prohibiting stealing, lying, adultery, murder, etc).
This writer would agree with Mr. Conder that Simon Magus started his version of Christianity in Rome, but would disagree with him that there was a second (good) Christian Church in Rome (though Conder later changed his ideas on this theory). If there was a second Christian Church in Rome, it apparently was one of the Chrishna Christian Churches (as will be shortly discussed below). The religion of the OT and/or the NT was not Christianity and never has been in the historical framework.
Many Protestant Christians insist on trying to believe that there was a good, early, Christian Church, which was contaminated by Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church in the fourth century CE (as outlined earlier herein). This is not true at all. Christianity was a pagan, sun worship faith from day one. It never was a good organization or faith.
Assuredly, Christendom never ever represented anything from the Scriptures. The Apostolic Assembly was not Christian and never had been. It was a Messianic Jewish group known as the Nazarene sect of the Hillel Pharisees of the Jews.
More on Simon In Rome
With training in Samaria and Egypt (and perhaps Pergamos) in the Mysteries, Simon Magus was right at home in Rome with the presence of the Babylonian Mysteries in the existing Mithraism and other sun worship cults.
Importantly, Darrell Conder reports that the earlier sun god Mithra was called “the Peter” (“Mystery Babylon and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Time,” p. 26, 34, quoting Barbara G. Walker’s “The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets,” p. 663) who bore the keys of the kingdom of heaven as a part of the Egyptian Mysteries, as briefly touched upon in a prior chapter.
Also, Conder quotes Hippolytus (from Legge’s “Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity”), 3rd century CE, that Simon wrote a book called “The Great Announcement,” which equated “Jesus Christ” with the sun, moon and pagan gods--Dionysus, Adonis and Attis (“Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth”).
Thus, with the introduction of his book in Rome, Simon quickly became known as “the Peter, or interpreter of the Mysteries” (ibid, p. 206, “Mystery Babylon and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Time,” p. 49, 141). Please note that this word “Peter” was not a name, but was a title in the context of the sun worship Mystery religions. This title had been obviously known and used among the old sun worship cults (like Mithra) by the time Simon Magus received it/adopted it.
Capitalizing upon his book’s success, Simon quickly organized his own brand of the Mysteries and incorporated major portions of the then existing sun worship beliefs into his fresh brand of sun worship and quite naturally applied the name Christian to his new, Roman, Universal (Catholic) Church (as deduced from comments by “Encyclopedia Britannica,” to be shortly discussed).
Thus, Simon drew upon several sources for his eventual Catholic Christian Church. He initially left Samaria with some knowledge of Judaism, the Nazarene faith of the Apostolic Assembly, Gnosticism and the Mystery religions then practiced in Samaria. In Egypt (and/or Pergamos), he added more from Gnosticism and the sun worship Mysteries to the mix. In Rome, he incorporated some ideas from Mithraism which was very popular in Italy.
Next, Magus clearly added a huge portion of Chrishnaism’s brotherhood of man and Christian humanism to his concoction--perhaps while in Egypt, Pergamos or Rome. These Chrishna beliefs must have impressed Simon, as he adopted them extensively for his own church. This motion will be assessed in some detail in comments to follow.
In mentioning the strong influence of Chrishnaism upon Simon’s church, it must be noted that Chrishnaism was strongest in the East, where also Greek sun worship prevailed. It is interesting that the older, Greek, sun worship faiths had much in common with Chrishnaism (especially in humanism and the brotherhood of man). Some believe that Hinduism (including Chrishnaism) came out of the Greek sun cults.
Using Jewish Writings
At some point in time, Simon and/or his immediate followers commenced a process of using various Jewish writings as documentary source documents for developing Catholicism (either in Greek translations or Simon and/or his assistants translated and altered them from Hebrew and Aramaic into a Greek format to suit their own purposes).
If the Septuagint (or at least, the Septuagint Pentateuch) was in existence, Simon surely started using it (after all, the OT does provide a history of the world and Adam which could have served Simon as a basis for what was happening in the first century CE). Because the Jews were maintaining the OT in a Hebrew format, there were obvious limitations upon what all Simon could have altered in the Greek OT.
But he would have had far more freedom with other writings. In the first century, there was a host of Apocrypha and NT period writings in existence. Many of these were absorbed and used by Simon and his crowd over the years. Clearly, in the sense of documentation for his church, these writings would have been useful. Above all else, the distorted and/or altered NT writings would support his Chrishna Christian ideas.
Those writings, not in Greek, were assuredly translated into Greek to serve the Greek religiously oriented faith Simon was generating. Once any of these writings were in possession by Simon and/or his people, they could, of course, alter them at will to serve their own purposes.
The historical record and evidence is massive that Simon, himself, and/or his immediate successors, took possession of the Scriptures almost from the beginning to use to propagate their new faith. In saying this, the point must be made that in terms of the OT, the prevailing Gnostic beliefs would have nullified any aspect of obedience to it. But Simon’s work must have possessed it as a part of its body of literature.
Finally, in their greatest work of deception, Simon and his helpers/successors chose to model their faith around YESHUA The MESSIAH of Palestine, Who might have been a known figure in some religious circles of the Roman Empire from c30 to 70 CE. Certainly, the work of the Apostolic Assembly was known and its success must have impressed Simon (starting from his run-in with Shimon Kefa in Samaria in c31 CE).
At some point in time, Simon Magus the Peter became the Apostle Simon Peter who was supposed to be Shimon Kefa of the NT. Whether Simon started this belief personally or not is unclear. The better option is that once both Shimon Kefa and Simon Magus were dead, this linkage could have been more easily accomplished by Simon’s immediate followers in Rome--after 67 CE.
This seizure of the Scriptures should not surprise anyone. It is a well known fact of history and reality that one religious group may use writings of another group or even attach some importance to religious people of other groups. For example, the Muslims not only respect the OT, Avraham and the OT prophets, but they claim that YESHUA of the NT was a mighty prophet of Allah.
The same reasoning applies to the factions of Hinduism (including Chrishnaism). Many of these Eastern religions have accorded respect and support for the Jewish Scriptures and personalities (including YESHUA of the NT). But in all of these instances, YESHUA became just one more of the polytheistic gods of these pagan religions and not A Unique PERSON (as He was).
Chapter 528--History of Christian Sun Worship III
More on the Chrishna Christians
Since the previously discussed, effeminate, long haired Apollonius of Tyana was already an established first century teacher of Chrishnaism, which was being promoted as Christianity in the Roman Empire (especially in the East), something moved Simon Magus to apply the name Christian to his work. Therefore, Simon was not singular in using the name “Christian” for his Roman Catholic followers.
Clearly, the historical record shows that the work of Apollonius was very successful in creating many Christian (a follower of the sun god “Chrishna, Christos or Christ”) believers and groups in the first century in portions of the Roman Empire in a loose, poorly supervised confederation (where the different groups had local autonomy)--particularly in its Eastern leg, to include Greece, Syria and Asia Minor.
But the evidence is massive that there was an absence of a powerful, central, dictatorial authority (as envisioned by Simon for his Catholic Church) in the Chrishna Christian Churches in the East, as founded by the effeminate, long haired Apollonius of Tyana.
Possibly, it was this situation in the East which gave rise to the huge number of different Christian groups and beliefs in the second and third centuries CE, as discussed in previous chapters.
A former chapter quoted writer Jim Myers who said that by the year 170 CE, there were over twenty different forms of Christianity in the Roman world and that they collectively held a diverse body of doctrines. The works of Dr Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina were cited to demonstrate that indeed the pre-Constantine Christian world was a mass of diversity and confusion.
James D. G. Dunn
An article by Jeffery L. Sheler on the “Days of the Martyrs,” in the Apr 16, 2001, “US News & World Report” (p. 44-45) offered some incisive findings on the diffusion problem in early Christianity.
Sheler quoted Karen King of the Harvard Divinity School on the conclusions from the Nag Hammadi texts (mentioned elsewhere herein) and the previously quoted James D. G. Dunn, a theology professor at the University of Durham, England.
King said that the ancient Nag Hammadi writings declare “a much more diverse Christianity than we had ever suspected.” King went on to suggest that some early Christian writings revealed that the death of the Christian “Jesus” offered no “saving” value at all to some Christian communities and that they “were not looking for his return.”
Dunn offered his conclusions on the Christian Church in the second and third centuries CE by charging that its most important shortcoming was the “failure to realize that the biggest heresy of all is the insistence that there is only one ecclesiastical obedience, only one orthodoxy.”
Therefore, it would seem that Dunn recognizes that primitive Christianity (in the first century CE) was very diverse with many different beliefs and practices--some of which came to be called heresies in later centuries (as was broached in previous chapters herein), like Gnosticism, Montanism (of the second century--when certain Christians claimed to be prophets with messages from heaven), Monarchianism (of the second and third centuries--which denied the “divinity of Jesus”), Arianism (of the fourth century--which claimed that “Jesus could not be God”), etc (Apr 16, 2001, “US News & World Report,” p. 44).
Incidentally, when Constantine took power over Rome and began to use the Catholic Christian Church to glue his empire together, he and his Roman Catholic colleagues started to work at once to get rid of all of the diversity (as noted earlier). The church quickly began establishing an orthodoxy of only one way. Everything else was labeled as heresies (which invited the death penalty for adherents).