The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version. Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior came from. Mithra, as the sun god of ancient Persia, had the following karmic similarities with Jesus. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html
2006-06-14 07:39:22 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I hope you find this as enlightening as I did. From the teachings of Edgar Cayce, I found the reincarnation information at this website
www.neardeath.com/experiences/origen04.html
Jesus as a reincarnation of Adam:
Jesus as a reincarnation of Melchizedek:
Jesus as a reincarnation of Joseph
Jesus as a reincarnation of Joshua
Jesus as a reincarnation of Buddha
Jesus as a reincarnation of Horus:
Jesus as a reincarnation of Krishna
Jesus as a reincarnation of Mithra
How about that? WOW!
2006-06-14 15:20:52 · update #1
I know for a while it was a close battle between mithraism and christianity.. Your facts are interesting but there's a lot of similarities between ALL religions when you look deep enough.
2006-06-14 08:57:20 · answer #1 · answered by Gevera Bert 6 · 6⤊ 5⤋
A) Mithraism had a following mostly among the soldiers of Rome.
B) Its chief ritual was the baptism by blood which involved putting the supplicant down a pit and cutting the throat of an ox above him so that the blood would flow down and drench him. The common ritual included small wafers of bread, baked w/ox's blood and consumed by the faithful.
C) 600 hundred years is VERY rough. Try 240.
D) By the 2nd century CE, it had all but died out.
E) Messianism and the concept of the sacrificed God predates Persia. See Osiris.
F) All that you have mentioned tells you is that God was dropping hints throughout history so when the real thing came along it wouldn't be quite so strange and off-putting.
2006-06-14 07:46:57 · answer #2 · answered by Granny Annie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
um, catholicism IS a sect of christianity, the oldest one.
protestantism has some flourishes of renaissance thinking in it.
it just depends on where and when the religion originated, and because we are people, we exchange ideas with good a lot, all over the place. so its not a huge leap to see that christianity is similar to a dominant religion of the time.
many of the old mesopotamian religions were also similar, even had similar gods, to the religion of ancient egypt. again, proximity and trade.
2006-06-14 07:47:34 · answer #3 · answered by Aleks 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You may be interested to know that December the 25th is Mithra's birthday, and that day was chosen by the Catholic church to be Christmas. You may also like to know that the book of Jeremiah states that Christmas trees are a pagan symbol (Chapter 10:2-5).
Peace!
2006-06-14 08:06:33 · answer #4 · answered by mmayhew61 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since we have no real way of knowing the answer to your question, one can only say that what you propose is quite possible. There are several more examples of the same sort of "bleed over" from other ancient religions as well. My thought on the matter is the quote from Shakespeare, "That which we call a rose, by any other name smells just as sweet".
2006-06-14 07:48:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
*groan* Not another armchair religious scholar. Yes. to answer this question, early church DID base istelf on many already existing rituals etc., to better assimilate the people.
To the gentleman who says Catholicism isn't christianity, you are incorrect. ALL Protestant faiths fell AWAY from Catholicism. Where as the protestant versions are perhaps a few hundred years old at best, Catholicism was first. Without it, you would not HAVE your version of "christianity." Thanks for playing. Try again.
2006-06-14 07:46:58 · answer #6 · answered by Quietman40 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pleased to inform you that Catholics are indeed Christians. We worship God as He manifest Himself to us in the person of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, 2nd person of the Blessed Trinity.
2006-06-14 07:49:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Satan is an imitator. He deceives people by imitating God. Jesus has nothing to do with the Mithra.
2006-06-14 07:46:53 · answer #8 · answered by Know it all (almost) 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Catholicism is not Christianity, in fact it is far more pagan than anything else. Please compare only Christianity to Christianity.
Funny story; http://homelessheart.com/three_men.htm
2006-06-14 07:42:48 · answer #9 · answered by Don S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋