116. A Short History of Religion - (6)

It is during the rule of the Romans that Jesus (saw), heralded by John the Baptist, renewed the spiritual teaching. Among the first to acknowledge Jesus as one sent by God even while he was a baby were Magai from the East (Matthew 2:1-12). These, research shows were probably Priests from Persia of the religion of Zoroaster, thus showing the connection and continuity of religions. Hebrewism had degenerated. As with religion before him and after him, the Priest class had dominated the people and made a mockery out of religion by exploiting their position to gain power, wealth and prestige for themselves while spreading superstition, exaggerated ritualism, dogmatism and malpractice. They had waxed arrogant and distanced themselves from the common people. Religion became a dead shell without an inner life or spirit. Jesus, therefore, in order to restore religion had to oppose and condemn this corrupt authority and espouse the humble people, in whom the spirit had not yet completely atrophied. It is for this that he was persecuted. He devoted himself to preaching, healing the sick and raising the conscience and dignity of the demoralized people. Some followed him hoping that he would be a political leader who would over throw the Roman power over Israel. But what would be the point if there was no spiritual revival. No doubt the Jews would have fallen victim to some other force as they did several times in their history.

The Hebrew Bible had been translated into Greek (the Septuagint 3rd century B.C.) under the Greek ruler of Egypt, Ptolomy Philedelphus in Alexandria. This was a city founded by Alexander the Great who had conquered Egypt. It became a city of learning, containing a mixture of peoples including Greeks and Jews. This allowed a mingling of Greek and Hebrew ideas. This mixture can be seen in the way the New Testament is written. Most of the teachings of Jesus can be found in the Old Testament and also in the works of such people as the Roman Philosopher Seneca and the Jew of Alexandria, Philo and Hillel. But Jesus differs from the Philosophers in that he lived what he preached and gathered disciples who later also preached and created organized communities. The Essenes, a Jewish sect which devoted themselves to the religious life and kept themselves away from the rest of the Jews, appear to have had the kind of life Jesus spoke about and he might have been a member of it. He was not however, interest in intellectual sophistry, ritualism or the monastic life. He devoted himself to the simple people and avoided the rich and powerful and the scholars who were weighed down by their egos, affectations, habits of thought, feeling and action.

Jesus is said to have come in fulfilment of prophecies in the Old Testament (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:15,18, Acts 3:22). This seems to be part of a general prophecy found in many other religions which promises that in period of spiritual darkness God would send someone to renew the spiritual teaching. Jesus himself forecast this (John 16:.13-15 and Matthew 24:27-30, 17:11) At first his teachings were seen as reformations in Judaism only (Matthew 15:24) but it was taken to other peoples by Paul and this created a separate sect (Matthew 28:19). But the message of Jesus was seen also as a step beyond Hebrewism:-

The teachings of Jesus, though essentially similar to those in the Old Testament and later in the Quran, were formulated differently for the times and place he found himself in. But the Jews had corrupted it by hypocrisy, formalism, superficial interpretation, malpractice and selectivity according to self-interest as the words of Jesus show (Matthew 6:2-16, 23:14-51).

The teachings of Jesus are contained in several Gospels not all contained in what is known as the New Testament. They were written by different people from different points of view, and there are some contradictions between them. However, the gist of his teachings may be summarized as follows:-

Sin had caused spiritual death, it was necessary for his salvation that man should be born again, this time not through the flesh but through the spirit (John 3:5-7). This was symbolized by the ritual of Baptism through which a person entered Christianity. Originally, this consisted of immersion in water, which represents the ground state of matter (Genesis 1:1-2). A person "died to the worldly life of sin" when immersed and emerged as a new born, spiritually purified person. God in His love for mankind had sent a messenger, Jesus (saw) who, because he carried the Spirit and Word of God, was also known as Christ. Those led by the Spirit are symbolically known as "sons of God" (John 10:33-38, Romans 8:14). Though the Gospel writer John regarded Jesus as an incarnation of the Logos (Word), a notion borrowed from Greek Philosophy, Jesus himself claimed that he was sent by God, whom he called Father, to convey His words (John 5:30, 7:16). Though he did say that he was "the way, the truth, and the life" , through whom people could come to God and Eternal life (John 3:15, 17:3), this must be understood as referring not to himself personally but to the Words of God which he was conveying (John 17:12). His mission was to give them the good news (gospel) of the kingdom of God (Matthew 4:23, 9:35), and salvation from destruction in Hell, and to teach them how they could also be guided by the Spirit and become sons of God. (John 1:12) and live life more abundantly (John 10:10). Salvation was to be obtained by accepting and absorbing Christ, the Word and Spirit of God, as represented by Jesus. This was symbolized by the sacrament known as the Eucharist or Holy Communion where the believers eat bread and drink wine, which symbolize the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Jesus was a Prophet, the Messiah, whose coming had been forecast in the Old Testament. He had come to the Jews to fulfil the Law and restore what had been lost. Instead of the outer form, the letter of the Law, which hypocrites tended to follow, God required the spirit of the law to be followed through faith. Instead of obligations and duties based on fear, love was to be the motive. The whole of the Law could be summarized as:-

The aim of life was:-

It is evident from the teaching, however, that this at-onement is not a kind of merger of equals but has the same significance as in Islam i.e. Surrender to God (John 5:30, 7:16, 8:28).

The central theme of Christianity is the enhancement of the tension between the spirit and body, and therefore, good and evil, the ideal and anti-ideal. This created guilt feelings and the incentive to change, but the debilitating effects of guilt could be relieved by the doctrine of forgiveness. As Abraham had sacrificed his son, so God, the Father in heaven was presented as sacrificing His son Jesus in the flesh, for the love of mankind. Jesus was then spiritually resurrected. Human beings, by identifying themselves with Jesus, could also be spiritually resurrected. Baptism and the Eucharist were symbolic acts that facilitated this inner self-identification. A person who disobeyed the moral law as taught by Jesus would feel guilty as a persecutor of Jesus just like those who were accused by Jesus also persecuted him, and this would lead them to obey his teachings. This should also have got rid of the need for substitutes and scapegoats. Though this was true for some Christians, unfortunately, it led progressively to a kind of self-righteousness in which they attributed virtue exclusively to themselves and to complacency where no effort on their part was required. But faith cannot have any meaning if it does not manifest in action.

The emphasis may have been placed on love (Justice and Truth are two other important attributes of God) to counteract the extreme callousness of the Romans. Or, perhaps it is his followers who gave this aspect of his teaching emphasis. A case could be made out to show that he was not as soft, gentle and sentimental as some Christians suppose:-

Jesus vented his anger on the Pharisees (Matthew 23:14-29) and the moneylenders (Matthew 21:12) and the fig tree (Matthew 21:19-21) and put the demons into a herd of swine and drowned them (Matthew 8:28-32).

It is the emphasis on love which must have been the main reason why the faith spread rapidly among the poor, powerless, oppressed and simple. But the fact that it gained an increasing number of adherents also became a temptation for power seekers to employ it for their own benefits. This soon led to the corruption of the religion. Even Paul remarks:-

The true teaching was preserved in the Jerusalem Church, led by James, the brother of Jesus (saw), and later among the Gnostics. It appears that it was later incorporated in the Rosicrucian Order, which also has elements from Egyptian Hermeticism and Jewish Cabbalism, and later influenced Freemasonry. It also survived for a time in the Celtic Church and still exists in some small, little known sects. Most Jews rejected Jesus, preferring to remain in their own worldly ways and desire for political power. They wanted a military leader and the Zealots harassed the Roman authorities, which provoked their wrath. Christianity was, therefore, taken by Paul to the Gentiles. Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed by the Romans in A.D 70 and Jews expelled out of Palestine. However, many of the Jewish and original Christian documents and scrolls were hidden in various places and some have come to light in recent years. They produce a completely different picture of what the original teachings were than those that are presented by the established Churches. The original Christian teaching was in Hebrew, but though Jesus was a Jew whose teachings were meant for the Jews only (Matthew 15:24), it is Greek thought which dominated the culture and the Gospels writers used Greek ideas. Christianity also abandoned the Jewish Law, though Jesus said he had come to fulfill the law not to abolish it, and adopted Roman Law, organization and administration instead. But the use of Greek ideas led to many misunderstandings in Christendom from the very beginning, especially between Paul who never met Jesus and the Apostles chosen by Jesus (e.g. 1Corinthians. 9:20-25). Christianity consists mostly of the adaptations made by Paul - it became a religion about Jesus rather than consisting of the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, Jesus rather than God became central and salvation was regarded as possible only through Jesus. All other religions were regarded as false, the works of Satan, the persecution of which was allowable. As Jesus was loving and had sacrificed himself for mankind, people, in order to obtain salvation, needed to do nothing but believe.

Christianity became particularly suitable for the purposes of Rulers in that it created a docile and passive citizenry. They were required to obey the civil as well as the religious authority, the Church, which controlled all their thinking, motives, actions and their salvation. They were not even allowed to read their own scriptures in case their interpretations differed from that of the Church.. The oppressed and persecuted were required not to retaliate but "turn the other cheek" and to "render unto Caesar the things of Caesar"; their comfort was reward, not in this, but in the next world. This religion was adopted and standardized by the Emperor Constantine as the official religion of the Roman Empire for reasons of political expediency - he did not himself convert to Christianity except, perhaps on his deathbed. He wished to give the State an ideological and moral basis rather than a purely political one based on power or an economic one based on greed. But in order to create religious harmony a synthesis was made between Christianity and existing Paganism, which was to be adapted and absorbed. Pagans were Nature worshippers. They had a god and a goddess, and these were assimilated as Jesus and Mary. The Pagan Spring Festival which celebrated the resurrection of nature in Spring became the Christian Easter celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The Christian Christmas replaced the Pagan Festival of the return of the Sun after winter. Several Pagan rituals were also incorporated. Many of the doctrines of the Church such as the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus and Vicarious atonement appear to have been invented or officially confirmed at this time. All other Christian sects were, thereafter, persecuted as heresies by an increasingly corrupt Church in which a hierarchy of priests sought power, wealth and control over all aspects of life. The main aim became the self-perpetuation of the Church as an institution and its hierarchy. The original teachings of Jesus were ignored or went underground. After initial harmony, Christianity later persecuted Pagans, in particular the Witches whose practice of "magic" caused fear in the superstitious. But as it also attracted many Christians, it probably also threatened Church authority. Today many, unable to accept these invented doctrine of the Church, are abandoning religion altogether or are turning back to Paganism, particularly as city life has created a deep need for communion with nature, and increasing pollution has made ecological matters important. There is also a need for ritual and magic. But modern Paganism tends to be the invention of the new pagans, and as such, useless for communal solidarity, objective purpose or self-transformation.

The essentials of the teachings of the established Church are the following inter-dependent tenets:- That Jesus was the son of God, that he was crucified as a sacrifice and atonement for the original sins of mankind caused by the fall of Adam, and then resurrected and taken physically to heaven; and that God is a Trinity consisting of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. This Trinity appears to have been taken from the Egyptian Osiris, Isis and Horus, where Isis becomes the Holy Ghost. In many Christian paintings Mary with her son Jesus are shown with the disc of the sun behind their head, and this certainly represents Osiris. It is also a representation of Mithra from whose religion Christianity also borrowed. But these doctrines were not universally accepted and are not compatible with some of the so called Apocryphal Gospels which the Church excluded from the Bible, nor with the original doctrine as found in the newly discovered Scrolls. They are not compatible even with some of the teachings as found in the accepted scriptures. According to the gospels Jesus did say that he would be persecuted and killed and would rise on the third day (Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22, 18:33), but he did not teach that salvation depended on this. It is clear from Luke 24:36-45 that Jesus did not die on the Cross, but was seen in the flesh by his disciples who thought he had died. It was faith that had died. Resurrection was a spiritual matter not a physical thing:-

This is also mentioned in the Quran as follows:-

Christianity taught Resurrection rather than Reincarnation. But this, like reincarnation, is taken as a physical event on earth by Christians. The reason for this seems to be that the death or departure of Jesus was a blow to the faith of the early Christians. It became necessary to believe that he was physically resurrected. And this became an example of general resurrection. Though this seems like collapsing the whole series of reincarnations into one, it also differs from the Hindu doctrine in not being a continuous process but something which would take place at a particular time for all mankind (John 5:28-29). It could be argued that because people do not remember their past lives, then as far as they are concerned they were born, live, will die and will be resurrected again at a future date. The problem is that if each person is a separate person then there is not room enough on earth to accommodate all. Apart from this the physical body is constantly changing owing to intake of food, water and air and the excretion of waste. The same materials are cycled through many bodies. It would seem that we cannot define a person as a material body but as a bundle of information. The person religion is speaking about is the conscious person. Jesus speaks about resurrection as a spiritual event in heaven (Matthew 22:30-32. Also see 1Corinthians 15:42-45). The Day of Resurrection can be regarded as the day a person does become aware of his past life.

The death of Jesus does not save and salvation is not obtained without works:-

Jesus was certainly well aware what the term "Yahweh" meant and did not regard himself as God :-

The resurrection story was widely accepted because it provides a kind of explanation and consolation for the existence of suffering. It was probably understood originally as referring to the death and resurrection of faith or Religion when Jesus was apparently killed and then reappeared again. This seems to be confirmed by the words "He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:45). In fact, the emblem of the Cross is much older than Christianity and has another meaning. The Universe contains both order and chaos. It has a direction of development. Man is part of this process and the Spirit (consciousness, conscience and will) he has been given (32:9) bestows responsibilities on him. The cross consists of a horizontal line representing the earth, crossed by a vertical line that represents evolution from below (hell) to above (heaven). Man is symbolically nailed to this. There is a conflict within him between the earthly desires that keep him down and the spiritual ones, which give him the possibility of ascent and the related responsibilities. This applies to all mankind, but it can refer specially to the representative of God on earth, the Prophet or Messenger. He acts on behalf of all mankind in that it is he who brings the reminder of their responsibilities back to mankind and he is also willing to endure hardships and suffer in order to bring this message. Symbolically, one could say that the Spirit of God is nailed to this cross because it is this spirit within man that makes him into a Vicegerent (or Son in Christian terms). The Christian is required to follow Jesus by taking up the cross.

The Quran renders this as follows:-

We see that the Prophecy of Daniel about the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth (Daniel Chapter 2) was not fulfilled in Jesus. This is also indicated in Revelations 12:13-17. Jesus did teach his followers to pray "Thy Kingdom come", but he did not himself establish such a kingdom. It is true that he said:-

This seems to indicate that he thought the Kingdom of God was about to come to the earth. But the following indicates that he was talking about the spiritual experience of some people or about himself and the circle of his followers. He said that his kingdom was not of this world.

However, after his departure or death, his followers appear to have established a religious community on communist principles -

Christianity did succeed in enhancing general conscience and a many compassionate altruistic, charitable and saintly people did arise who lifted up societies towards a more civilized, gentler and humane level. It did not, however, produce any enhanced awareness of nature and objective reality and no scientific revolution occurred. But the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus appears to have had several other consequences:-

(1) The spiritual was completely separated from the physical, and the heavenly from the worldly - Jesus himself had stayed aloof from the life of the flesh and the world. Everything good was attributed to the Spirit and everything evil and disgusting to the flesh and the physical world. This included all bodily functions and the associated excretions, sexual activity, birth and death. This led to much self-loathing, self-negation and many forms of self-mutilation. It also established a great number of dichotomies in thought and in the society, such as the distinction between idealism and materialism, the religious and the secular, the rulers and the workers. The mind and life came to be divided into two compartments, the clean virtuous surface and the hidden darker side, the image presented to the public and the reality of private life. The separation of the mind into the conscious and the sub-conscious was strengthened, and that also allowed the flourishing of all kinds of hypocrisy and self-deception, reducing awareness and self-control.

(2) Christianity also established a church with priests who devoted themselves to the religious life, and monasteries where religious communities withdrew from the world. This left the rest of the people to the worldly life, which, however, the Church was to keep under its control. When as a result, the world plunged into the Dark Ages, it is in these centres that the arts, sciences and institution of civilization were preserved, developed and later, when times changed, spread into the rest of community.

(3) The doctrine that salvation could only be obtained through Jesus made Christianity intolerant. The persecution, abuse, torture, killing and extermination of non-Christians and heretics was seen as not just permissible but a good thing because these people were identified with the flesh and the world which was to be denied.

(4) The inner conflict could be dealt with by vigorous suppression which led to all kinds of psychological malfunctions such as intolerance, fanaticism, mental rigidity, tension, suspicion, irritability - all things which threatened to weaken a person's resolve or stimulate his appetites were to be destroyed. Or it led to numerous secret perversities and depravities. Or it led to a swing, as of a pendulum, to the opposite extreme of unashamed self-indulgence and rejection of all controls, disciplines and authority.

Though Jesus was sent primarily to the Jews to resurrect their dead religion, he was preparing to make the Word of God available to the rest of mankind.

Shortly before his disappearance he is reported to have said to his disciples:- "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:" Matthew 28:19

Note: In this verse Jesus is speaking in the third person about Christ. Matthew 12:39-40 tells us that the wicked ask for a sign, but only sign which will be given is that which resembles that of Jonas who was in belly of a whale for 3 days and 3 nights. The Son of Man would be in the bowels of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights. But this does not seem to apply to Jesus - he is said to have been crucified on Friday and resurrected again on the following Sunday. The man who was released at the request of the crowd instead of Jesus was called Bar-abbas which means "son of God". On the other hand it can be pointed out that when the Prophet Muhammad escaped the persecution of the Meccans he hid in a cave for three days and 3 nights before going on to Medinah from where Islam did spread throughout the world.

The Jewish priesthood felt threatened by the teachings of Jesus which exposed their hypocrisy, and, therefore, plotted to kill him and suppress his teachings. And though they did not succeed, they appear to have succeeded in causing a distortion of his teaching. It could be that Paul, who had not met Jesus, but had been a bitter enemy of the Christians, was sent by the Temple Hierarchy to join the Christians in order to subvert and sabotage the new movement. He did quarrel with some of the other Apostles, and we do not know much of their teachings. Certainly, the idea that man is saved by accepting the death and resurrection of Jesus is contrary to what Jesus taught. Or he may have been misunderstood. Paul and the other apostles knew that salvation requires good deeds based on faith and did not teach the divinity of Jesus or the Trinity.

Though persecuted at first by Jews and Romans, the Roman Emperor Constantine saw Christianity as an aid to power and made it into the official Religion of the Roman Empire, replacing Mithraism. Under his direction the Christian doctrine was standardized and the New Testament as we find it today was created by selecting only some of the many accounts, comments and books which were in existence. These are all by third persons and the authors may not be the ones to whom the books are attributed. There are some contradictions between the accounts. However, this allowed it to spread throughout Europe. Though it tended to convert by absorbing, adapting, and making compromises with pagan ideas and practices that also corrupted it, Christianity had a civilizing effect on Europe. It created monasteries in which learning and civilized values were preserved when the Roman Empire collapsed under barbarian onslaught and the Dark Ages Descended. However, several attempts to revive it were made later by, among others, Charlemagne (Charles the Great of the Franks), Napoleon and Hitler. The creation of a European Union is a more recent attempt to do this.

It is Paul who took Christianity to the Pagans and caused its spread worldwide. This would have been impossible if he had not interpreted the doctrine to suit their mentality.

This verse certainly speaks about a person who, like Jesus, would speak what he heard. It resembles the forecast in Deuteronomy 18:15,18. This is understood as a forecast of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad. Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (Peace be on them all), it seems, form a triad which is indicated in verses such as Matthew 17:2-4 where Jesus is said to have met Moses and Elias. According to some people Muhammad (saw) is Elias who must restore all things before the end (Matthew 17:11 and Malachi 4:5 which is last verse in the Old Testament). Indeed, when Muhammad did come many Jews and Christians did, in fact, recognize that the Prophecy was fulfilled in him and became Muslims, just as previously many Jews had accepted Jesus as the Messiah.

The Word of God would no longer be exclusive to Jews:-

To repeat: Jesus was sent to the Jews in order to restore the Secret Doctrine. But his followers were yet unable to understand everything, and he pointed to the coming of someone else who would "speak as he heard" and would bring them into all truth. The religion of Abraham would become available to all peoples, though the Jews themselves might well be excluded. It is not a question of being a physical descendant of Abraham but of being a spiritual descendant. Jesus, however, could be regarded as having started the process of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth because the coming Prophet would certainly testify to Jesus. According to the Qumran Scrolls the Jews were expecting two Messiahs, a Priestly and a Kingly one, and Jesus fulfilled the priestly role. The kingly one was yet to come.

According to the predictions of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 24, the "Son of Man" (i.e. a Prophet), would return after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. This did take place in AD 70 and after a number of tribulations including famines, disease, wars, earthquakes and the darkening of the sun, moon and stars. The latter may symbolize the fact that the greater and lesser religious authorities no longer gave out any spiritual guidance and enlightenment. But it is also a fact that in the 15th Century there was a massive volcanic explosion which caused so much dust to be thrown into the atmosphere as to produce the obscuration of the sun, moon and stars over most of the world for several years. This caused crops to fail, followed by poverty and disease, migrations of populations, wars, the weakening of formerly strong empires and the rise of new ones. It is the new conditions of life that developed after this which also brought a new Religion in the form of Islam.