In this Special Edition on my Genesology Truth Blog, I turn things over to Rev. Craig Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div., in a reprint of his deep study of Ancient Man and His Fear of Darkness. The Origin For All World Religions. This is a very deep and intense read. You will find it fascinating, no doubt. That is, if you're looking for answers as I am. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did the first time I had read it. These are his words, his research, his discernment.
ANCIENT MAN AND HIS FEAR OF DARKNESS:
THE ORIGIN FOR ALL WORLD RELIGIONS?
Archeology is our friend because according to the best understanding we have gleaned from the available ancient records, life for our ancient forefathers was a mixture of wonder and fear. Each day, just finding food to sustain one's family without falling prey to what you hunted and becoming a meal yourself for the roaming predatory animals, was a life and death struggle. As if that was not enough primitive mankind had to battle the elements, in particular winter, for his survival and this was a test of his endurance and skill to survive.
It was from these sparse, distressful conditions of the human race that the Ancient's long history of the search for God, his Creator, and meaning of life has come. From the beginning, man's' profound questions concerning his origins and how he was created and by Whom demanded answers. When no clear answer were forthcoming from the universe, man turned inward, and developed his own based upon what he saw above and around him. Keep in mind that all the theological teachings of the Western World were developed in the Northern Hemisphere. The study of this Subject, man's search for his origin and his Creator, is properly called - "Astro-Theology" or, "The Worship of the Heavens".
The Ancient's understanding of his origins and his Creator is the first, original, and therefore the oldest, and most esteemed tale on Earth! It did not take ancient man very long to decide that in his world of wonder and fear that his single greatest enemy to be feared was the darkness of night, and all the unknown dangers that came with it. Simply stated, man's first enemy was darkness.
Understanding this one fact alone, people can readily see why the greatest and most trustworthy friend the human race could ever have was by far, heaven's greatest gift to the world.
Answer for yourself: And what was ancient man's greatest friend and gift from God? It was the Sun that eliminated the threat of darkness that was man's greatest enemy.
Armed with this important truth we can now begin to unriddle the hidden mysteries that lay behind Christianity as well as the vast majority of earth's religions. It is the oldest and greatest story ever told; namely, the salvation of mankind by God through His Sun.
Modern-day Christianity has often belittled our ancient ancestors and falsely accused them of being no more than ignorant worshippers of the Sun. The hard facts of the matter is that this accusation is a blatant lie. Understand that no people of the ancient world believed the "Sun" to be "God". In reality every Ancient culture and nation on Earth have all used the Sun as the most logically appropriate symbol to represent the Glory of the unseen Creator of the heavens. I used to accept this premise until I began to study for myself and you can't imagine my surprise and amazement as I studied the Ancients and found that they not only did not literally worship this "orb" of Heaven as many Christian writers had depicted but they had a much greater possession of knowledge of the world and the Cosmos than mankind today.
That's right; almost impossible to believe until you see this for yourself. I found that the ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system, called the Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation given to mankind. As such it regarded the human body as a prison house of the soul, which could be liberated from its bodily impediments, through the discipline of the Arts and Sciences, and advanced from the level of a mortal to that of a God. This was the notion of the sumum bonum or greatest good, to which all men must aspire, and it became the basis of all ethical concepts. The Egyptian Mystery System was also a Secret Order, and membership was gained by initiation and a pledge of secrecy. The teaching was graded and delivered orally to the Neophyte and hierophant; and under these circumstances of secrecy, the Egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teaching, and forbade their Initiates from writing what they had learnt. In the article that follows I will began to explain this "secret wisdom" of the Inner Mysteries that was withheld from the layman and is yet kept from them today primarily because over time this secret legacy has been lost only to be recovered through the efforts of Champollion, a French Egyptologist, who is acknowledged as the father of modern Egyptology.
He achieved many things during his short career, but he is best known for his work on the Rosetta Stone. It was his deciphering of the hieroglyphics contained on the Stone that laid the foundations for Egyptian archaeology and this paved the way to restoring not only this earliest salvation message of God to mankind as taught by the Egyptian Priesthoods but explains and reveals the background of the various "Jesus Stories" as collected down through history in the depictions of the many solar gods. So it is time to not only set the record straight regarding the Ancients' understanding of the Sun and its role in their "religions" but expose Christianity for what it is; namely, the literalization of the personified Sun in its path through the Heavens and Zodiac in the person of "Jesus Christ". It is to these issues we now turn.
THE ETERNAL CONFLICT OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS:
Paul records for us in one of his epistles:
1 Cor 15:14-15 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. (KJV)
Gal 4:19 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (KJV)
It goes without saying that the above two verses often confuse the reader because it appears that one verse speaks of a historical Christ Jesus and the other a mystical concept and not a historical person?
Answer for yourself: Who was literally this "Jesus Christ" we read about from the pen of Paul? What does it mean that he is "risen"?
Let's closely examine the original, conceptual foundations of the Christian faith and then decide "...if Christ be not risen. " But for that to happen we have to understand an Ancient concept that generated the world's religions and that being primitive man's fear of the dark. You will understand after you read this article.
Let’s travel back for a moment to about 20,000 B.C.E. or so and try to put ourselves into the place of Ancient mankind. It’s early evening, and the Sun had just set. In this time before sidewalks, streetlights, headlights, and the glow of cities, the moonless night was truly dark, so dark that it was often dangerous to be outside at night. The blackness made it difficult to see the ground, and the dark gave cover to beasts and plunderers that prowled the night. At nighttime, it was very, very dark and until fire was discovered, it was man's most dangerous enemy and threatened his very survival. In the dark cold of night man realized his utter vulnerability to the elements. Each night, mankind was forced to wait for the "Rising of the Sun" to chase away the physical and mental insecurity brought on by the darkness.
Therefore, the morning Sun focused man's attention on his heavenly dependence for his frail, short existence on Earth, and in doing so, you can see how the Sun became the appropriate symbol of the Creator's divine benevolence from Heaven. And as winter progressed Ancient man noticed that it became darker for longer and longer periods of time and much colder. It was inarguably, unremittingly, and unexplainably dark. Watching the Heavens primitive man saw the Sun was fading fast and receding at sunset on the horizon as it set. He feared that his source of "salvation" might stop shining altogether, and might never reappear. Ancient mankind saw the dark as his mortal enemy for it gave cover for all the bad things that could happen to him: attacks from other tribes, the capture of his family, attacks from predator animals, prey to poisonous snakes, injuries sustained by accidents that occur in the dark, etc. All the bad things seemed to happen in the dark. So until the discovery of fire which brought limited light into man's own little world of darkness, primitive man only had the "Great Fire of Day" which served the whole Earth with its heavenly presence.
Answer for yourself: Is this the reason that several thousand years ago mankind said and believed at it says in Deut 4:24, and Heb 12:29 that the God of the Bible was a "Consuming Fire" in heaven? It sure was.
All mankind quickly came to realize that he was attached and bound to a life on Earth, but it was the sky that brought to him his "salvation" and man reasoned that this was the home of his God and Creator. The Heavens above was to the Ancients God's dwelling place. Over time as man created and reasoned his various "theologies" and personified the Sun, the symbol of his God, and its movements in the Heavens it would be a short step to personify the Sun as the "Son" of the Sun and they further reasoned that God's Son/Sun would also reside with his Father "up there in Heaven". It was assumed that God's 'Sun was but a visible representative of the unseen Creator in heaven. So it was said, "When you have seen the Sun, you have seen the Father " or "The Father is glorified in his Sun".
As you can imagine Ancient man had no problem understanding that all life on Earth depended directly on life-giving energy from the Sun because the Sun not only caused the crops to grow and produce a harvest that guaranteed his life and longevity but the light and warmth that it gave mankind was the main factor in his safety and security as explained above. Consequently, all life was lost without the Sun. It followed that God's 'Sun' was nothing less than "mankind's Saviour".
One of the things that amazed me in my study of Egypt was their unbelievable knowledge of Science, Physics, and Astronomy. You have to read it for yourself to see how they understood these disciplines in the way that they did and how the ancients understood the intricacies of the atom and molecules. The Ancients understood energy and since life is energy, and energy from the Sun gave life, they then understood that their own existence was sustained by themselves taking energy into their bodies from the foods that they ate that was again sustained by the Sun. They again reasoned that Sun was giving up its life supporting energy in order that they could live.
Answer for yourself: Is this where we get the concept that God's Sun, or God personified in the Sun, gives His life for us in order that we might live? We sure do.
As you now clearly see the Ancients reasoned that their lives came from and were sustained each day by "Their Saviour... in the form of God's Sun". But this truism only worked as long as the Sun would return each morning to pour out his life for them. Primitive mankind's hope of salvation, both present and future, would be secure only if his "Savior, in the form of the Sun was 'Risen'". This might sound complicated but it is not. The Ancients tracked the Sun, their Savior, across the sky daily and yearly for thousands of years and little escaped their scrutiny. You only have to read the extent and depth of their Astronomy and their records to be amazed and flabbergasted at what they knew and the knowledge they possessed. They knew that if their Sun, their Savior did not rise from his grave of darkness in the dead of Winter then all would be lost for mankind. To understand this you need to understand the schematic that follows.
At the dead of Winter the Sun was noticed to set progressively southward in the horizon and the days progressively possessed less light and warmth. It appeared to the Ancients that the Sun was dying. Ancient mankind reasoned that light was dying; the Sun was dying just as he had seen others of his species die. It was the most scary time for the Ancients. As what we now call mid-December came closer, the days got shorter still. Then came December 21, what we call the Winter solstice, the longest night of the year -- which{short description of image} also meant the shortest day of the year, with Sunlight practically imperceptible after that harrowing dark night. Our prehistoric ancestors wondered how vegetation and animals would survive, how they would they survive without the Sun.
Little wonder that in almost every nation and their recorded histories we find that traditions and ceremonies and customs evolved, some of them not so nice, to propitiate the dark and entice the Sun to come back strong. One element of this frenzy for light, once it was feasible, was bonfires. They kept the dark at bay and illuminated festivities aimed at winning back the Sun. All the world waited patiently for the Son's 'imminent return". They further reasoned that surely the Divine Father and Creator would never leave them at the mercy of this world of darkness. Over the centuries man, through his observations of the Sun and the pattern of its movement, was reassured that the Creator's Heavenly promise concerning his Sun was surely that..."He would come again"...to light their path, and save those lost in the darkness. He was reassured every morning and every year as the cycle of the Sun through the Heavens and the Zodiac seemed to repeat.
Logically, the Ancients reasoned that even if man himself died, as long as the Sun continued to dawn and set each day, life on Earth will continue forever. Therefore, it was said in the Ancient texts that "everlasting life was 'the gift' that the Father gives through his Sun.
Answer for yourself: We have mentioned that the Sun was personified as the "Son". Understanding that these Ancient and eternal and Divine concepts were captured for all time in legend and myth by the Ancients then when we read for example:
John 3:16 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV)
then is it too far of a stretch to see that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten SUN that we may have life everlasting"..on the Earth?
Early mankind not only feared the dark but the manifestations of evil and harm that lurked at every turn in the fearful dark of night. He further reasoned that all evil or harmful deeds were naturally, the..."works of darkness." Let us not forget that anthropomorphism or personification is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. Anthropomorphism in the form of personification consists of creating imaginary persons who are the embodiment of an abstraction such as Darkness, Death, Lust, or War. In our study we are concerned with the personification of Light and Darkness as man's greatest Savior and greatest Adversary. Early man simply personified these forces because it was extremely difficult for them to picture or discuss God or these forces that came from the Creator of all without an anthropomorphic framework. Thus we see the darkness personified as the "Devil":
With the return of the Sun each morning, man felt more secure in his world and therefore, was at peace. Therefore, God's 'Sun' was with his warm rays of life and hope...The Great "Prince of Peace".
Conversely the dark evil of night was ruled by none other than..."Prince of Darkness"
I want to show you something having understood now the personification of forces:
The Dark was Evil
Primitive mankind reasoned it as "Dark"-"Evil"
"D"-"Evil"
the "Devil" ... get it?
You have just seen the origin of one of the biggest theologies known to man ... the Devil which is nothing but darkness personified and we don't know it and we raise millions of dollars to fight an imaginary war in our Churches to fight this Devil and pray against him and fast and bind him over and over again as if he and God are in some mortal combat...which they are not. It seems we have learned nothing and find ourselves at the very same stages of development of primitive man thousands and thousands of years ago. At least the Egyptians understood this as allegory and Christians think it is real today.
Answer for yourself: Did you know that we get our English words 'Good' and 'God' from the German word 'Goth' as in 'Gothic'? Now we see God is Good, and Devil is Evil.
Hopefully you can now see that it is only a short step to see "The Light of God's Sun" equated with the light of truth - and evil equated with darkness. From then on, it was simple to understand... "Light was good and dark was bad".
Answer for yourself: Could this be behind all racism where people hate the darker skinned of mankind? You bet it is!
That being true, then that Great Orb of Day, God's Sun, can rightly say of itself,
John 9:5 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (KJV)
We now have before us two cosmic brothers - one very good, and one very evil.
Answer for yourself: Is the first story of this cosmic brotherhood and struggle found in the story of Osiris and Set and their conflict and struggle that ends with Osiris' death and resurrection (similar to the Sun being raised from the dead once a year)? You bet it is. This conflict between light and darkness is replayed in almost every religion of the world between its saviors and its adversaries. Christianity is not immune to this pattern as well.
One of these forces brings the "truth to light" with the "light of truth". The other is the opposite, or in opposition to the light - "The Opposer"... "The Adversary"..."The Devil"..."The God of this world"..."The Prince of this World of Darkness".
KNOWING THIS, THEN LETS EXAMINE THE "JESUS STORY":
It has been said that: “The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun.”- Thomas Paine
Answer for yourself: Could this be true? How could this be true? How could the Ancients come to worship the Sun? Well you saw that they didn't but rather the Sun represented to them the Creator. But has the "Sun" or the personification of the Sun as the "Son" become part of the Christian sage and gospel and we not know it?
The above quote is a most serious charge against Christianity and if such a charge can be shown to have validity then one should be honest enough before God to begin a serious investigation in his religious beliefs in order to separate truth from fiction.
Well it is for certain most who read our articles don't wish to be in “sin”. A small article of this size cannot possibly do justice to such a complex and verbose subject as we have at hand but I hope to “break the egg” so to speak to help our readers begin to scrutinize the subject matter at hand in more detail by their personal study. Let's closely examine the original, conceptual foundations of the Christian faith, and then decide what to do with the serious “charge” made in the above quote by Thomas Payne; that the Christian faith today is nothing but an evolution of “Sun” worship transfigured into “Son” worship. Again I wish to reiterate the seriousness of such a charge if it can be proven.
IN THE BEGINNING:
But in order to do that, we must go back not 2000 years to the birth of Christ, but 15 to 20,000 years to the birth of modern man. For when one seeks to establish foundations, one must begin at the beginning. We must begin with the Aryan peoples of the world.
Many thousands of years ago, in what we refer to as the "primordial world" of the ancients, human life was a far different experience from that which we enjoy today. While it is true that we have less documentation on that prehistoric world than we have on our own age, enough is known from the ancient writings, many in stone, to paint a rather clear picture of our remote ancestry. If we have learned anything at all, it is this: "That the more we change, the more we stay the same." And nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the history of man's quest for "God", and the ancient religion we still keep holy.
According to the best understanding we have gleaned from the available records, life for our ancient forefathers was a mixture of wonder and fear. Each day, just finding food for one's family without becoming a meal oneself was a life-and-death struggle. It was from these meager, distressful conditions of the human race that our long history of the search for God and meaning of life has come.
Any evolution, at its most accelerated rate, is always agonizingly slow. But from the beginning, man's profound questions demanded answers. When no clear answers were forthcoming from the universe, man turned inward and developed his own. The study of this subject is termed "Astro-Theology" or the “worship of the heavens”.
It did not take ancient man very long to decide that in this world the single greatest enemy to be feared was the darkness of night. Simply stated, man's first enemy was darkness.
With this one fact alone, one can readily understand why the greatest and most trustworthy friend the human race would ever have was heaven's greatest gift to the world . . . the Glorious Rising Orb of Day...the Sun. With this simple truth understood, we can now begin to unravel ascent of man and the origin of the “crucifixion of the Sun”; or should I say the “crucifixion of the Son”. Notice the word-play and stay tuned!
Even before people understood the details of how the Sun worked, they were aware of its supreme importance in their lives. It is no accident that so many ancient religions had as their major god a personification of the Sun. To ancient peoples, it was extremely important to be able to track the motions of the Sun in the sky and predict the coming of the seasons. After all, planting seeds at the wrong time could lead to complete disaster.
WHAT LED TO THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE SUN - AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGIONS?
THEOLOGY OUT OF ASTRONOMY:
To understand the Sun's motions and their effects, it is easier to start by imagining the Earth entirely alone. Without the Sun, it would be night everywhere on the Earth at the same time. The stars would silently wheel by, east to west, as the Earth turned. Looking to the north, we would see the stars moving in slow circles around the circumpolar Pole Star, Polaris. Any particular star would always rise in the same location and set directly opposite. That is, if a star rose in the east at a point 30 degrees from due south, it would set in the west at a point 30 degrees from due south. And that would be it. Nothing else would happen.
The stars would follow the same paths as seen from the Earth, over and over without change. If this were the case then today we would have no "theology" because as you will see the Ancients would interpret the movement of the Sun and stars in the Heavens and give the world not only Divine Truths written by the Creator in the blackboard of sky but over time theologies would develop that would translate these Divine Truths to mankind but also aberrations of them which nullified them as well. To say I have been disillusioned by what I have seen in about 20 years of scholarly study into the origins of my birth faith, Christianity, is an understatement but it is only finally coming to study Egypt thoroughly where I uncovered these Divine Truths in their simplest forms as these Ancient masters saw in the Heavens that I was able to rest and sort this whole "theological mess" out to my satisfaction.
The final puzzle pieces were long in coming but they came finally and when one undertakes a study of our websites then he sees the progression from Ancient Divine Truths once understood "allegorically" in their purest form to the later "literalization" of them by Rome in which these earlier Divine Truths were so altered to not only lose their truest meanings but alternate erroneous meanings substituted for them. Then sadly the truth was lost for mankind and in is place a false revelation taught as the truths of God. Such comparative study will reveal this to the discerning and dedicated student of comparative religion, mythology, astronomy, astrology, Biblical texts and their alterations, Biblical languages, both Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek coupled with a through study of the origin, manipulation, and corruption of the New Testament throughout its evolution over the earliest centuries of the antisemitic Gentile Church.
But back to the issue at hand, the way in which the stars appear to move in the sky, or "apparent motion," is a consequence of the rotation of the Earth. The stars seem to move, but of course it is the Earth that is moving.
But we are not immersed in total and perpetual darkness for the Sun does exist. Now imagine the Earth spinning on its axis, but with the Sun very far off to one side. Half of the Earth will be illuminated at any given time. This, of course, is day. Some of the stars will be hidden by the Sun and we will be unable to see them. As the Earth rotates, the Sun will appear to rise and set along with the unseen stars that it is in front of it.
Again if the Earth were stationary, this would be the whole story and we would have more than likely a "limited" theology but that is not the case. If the earth was stationary the same stars would be blocked all the time, and the Sun would simply rise and set in exactly the same way each day. But we know if we have ever watched the horizon that the Sun does not rise and set in exactly the same place on the horizon every day. We can see that very clearly when looking at the tri-part depiction of the Sun as it sets accordingly with the Summer solstice, Spring and Autumn equinoxes, and the Winter solstice pictured above.
The Earth moves around the Sun. As the Earth moves through the year, the Sun blocks different stars. You may have experienced this{short description of image} phenomenon at the movies when you move your head, and the head of a tall guy in front of you blocks a different part of the movie screen. This is why we see different constellations at different times of the year. Each day the Sun appears to move just a little bit relative to the stars. In a year, it goes completely around and comes back to the starting point. The path it takes is called the Ecliptic. If the Sun's path is observed from the Earth's reference frame, it appears to move around the Earth in a path which is tilted with respect to the spin axis at 23.5°. This path is called the ecliptic. It tells us that the Earth's spin axis is tilted with respect to the plane of the Earth's solar orbit by 23.5°.
The significance of the ecliptic is evident if we examine the Earth's orbit around the Sun. That orbit lies in a plane, flat like a tabletop, called the plane of the ecliptic (or sometimes just "the ecliptic"). In one year, as the Earth completes a full circuit around the Sun (drawing above), the Earth-Sun line and its continuation past Earth sweep the entire plane. Planets seen in the sky are always near the ecliptic, which means that their orbits are never too far from the plane of the ecliptic. They all circle the Sun in sort of a group limited to a certain path and angle around the Sun as drawn out in the Heavens. This is astonishing when you think about this. In other words, the solar system is rather flat, with all its major parts moving in nearly the same plane. Even though the planets move on the celestial sphere, they do not wander all over it but are confined to a narrow strip, dividing it in half. Now we come to the stars.
Stars along that same strip are traditionally divided into the 12 constellations of the zodiac. The name, related to "zoo," comes because most of these constellations are named for animals--Leo the lion, Aries the ram, Scorpio the scorpion, Cancer the crab, Pisces the fish, Capricorn the goat and Taurus the bull. At any time, the Sun is also somewhere on the celestial sphere, and as the Earth turns, it rises and sets the same way as stars do. Like the planets, the Sun, too, moves around the zodiac, making one complete circuit each year. Every month it covers a different constellation of the zodiac, which is the real reason why those constellations are 12 in number. Of course, during that month, this particular constellation is not seen, because the sky near the Sun is too bright for its stars to be seen (except, very briefly, during a total eclipse of the Sun). One can however figure out where the Sun is on the zodiac (as ancient astronomers have done) by noting which is the last constellation of the zodiac to rise ahead of the Sun, or the first to set after it. Obviously, the Sun is somewhere in between. In this manner each month-long period of the year was given its "sign of the zodiac."
Imagine standing in the center of a racetrack. As the cars go around they will appear to trace out a circle. The cars appear to go horizontally. They do not appear to be moving up in the direction of your head or down in the direction of your feet. If you tilt yourself a bit, the cars will appear to be sometimes up and sometimes down. This is exactly what happens with the Earth. The earth is tilted by 23.5 degrees compared to how it travels around the Sun. So, sometimes the Sun appears to be a bit north and sometimes a bit south. Thus, as the year progresses, the Sun appears to set in slightly different locations relative to the horizon. The winter and summer solstices mark the most southern and northern Sunrises respectively, while at the equinoxes the Sun rises and sets exactly in the east and west (see the picture at the top of the article once again).
As the Sun moves along the Ecliptic it appears higher and lower in the skies.
Answer for yourself: Why is this of major importance for us and all later "theologies", myths, and legends created by Ancient mankind?
This has had and still does have a tremendous and huge effect on life on the earth. In the winter, when the Sun is low in the sky, less solar energy falls on a given unit of area on the surface of the earth, and the weather is much colder and the days much darker. Some plants and animals become dormant. Food is not at plentiful and the encroaching darkness was the greatest threat to Ancient mankind as explained above. In the summer, when the Sun is high in the sky, a lot more solar energy falls on a unit of area on the earth, and the weather is much warmer and harvests are plentiful and Ancient mankind experienced his salvation because of the Sun pouring out is life for him in the form of light and heat and photosynthesis that fed him and his family (as well as the animals which was his food).
Plants and animals do not have to compete as strongly for resources, and it is the best time to reproduce. In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for those primitive people who lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable.
{short description of image}The image to the left shows that the seasons are due to the tilt of the Earth, not due to a variation in distance to the Sun. In each of these seasons the Sun played a major role and this was understood by the Ancients during his evolution as a species on this planet. This balance between "light and darkness" was an eternal struggle that spelled either "life" or "death" for primitive mankind. The Sun was the driving force and energy behind all life on the earth and it was understood as such by primitive mankind. As the Sun waned man feared the oncoming darkness and the many threats it brought him and his family as their lives were actually threatened by the loss of the Sun and the daylight and warmth it provided.
This onslaught of darkness following the Summer solstice as the Sun slid southwestward in the sky with its diminishing light and warmth was feared by primitive mankind. Over time this "darkness," mankind's greatest enemy, was captured in legend and myth that paralleled the path of the Sun in the sky. This whole event of the demise of the Sun in the winter with the Sun moving to its eventual shortest daylight and warmth of the year at the Winter solstice was immortalized by primitive mankind and the Ancients in myth and allegory which depicted this tension and battle between the forces of light and darkness. By now you understand that Ancient man saw the darkness as his mortal enemy. In so doing he understood that the darkness was evil. Our theology beings with his understanding of the connection between "evil" and "darkness".
The infatuation with this struggle with "Darkness" will go so far as to motivate men to change the Hebrew Scriptures as we find in the forgery of the Hebrew Scriptures where the word "Lucifer" (the light bringer) is later added when the original Hebrew texts never mention this word.
Of course as you now see the background for all of this was Astronomy and not "theology". It won't be long before "theology" will be birthed from Astronomy. And it does not end here! The battle of the Sun versus the darkness has been immortalized in every dualism known to man presently. Behind every religion in some form or another is this basic paradigm of the struggle of "light" versus "darkness". I want you to know that as long as these allegories and metaphors remained just that, allegories and metaphors of Divine truths witnessed in a "literal" sense by primitive mankind and the Ancients then we don't have a problem as I see it since all knew at one time that this was but allegory of forces of Nature.
THE SEPARATION OF MANKIND - TWO GROUPS EMERGE:
But over time and with the development of various Priesthoods, there developed a diversification of this knowledge into two camps. Realizing that all mankind is not on the same evolutional level and with different capabilities of understanding there developed two different levels of understanding of this eternal struggle of "Darkness" against the "Light". The most highly evolved are far above the least evolved, both in intelligence and character; the capacity to understand and to act varies at every stage. The Priesthoods reasoned that it was useless to give to all the same religious teachings.
Thus developed an "Inner Mystery"{short description of image}and "Outer Mystery" where the Sun was personified in all nations who were seeking after God who was pictured by them as the Sun (the savior of mankind). Those initiated into the "Inner Mysteries" came to know the truth of the personification of the Sun in the legends and myths that they had heard since childhood while those in the "Outer Mysteries" were content with the "literalized" stories of their culture and religion's heroes. It from these "Outer Mysteries" we find today the host of stories of men like Osiris, Attis, Dionysus, Mithra, etc., all solar personifications believed by those in the "Outer Mysteries" to have been real people in antiquity. But those in the "Inner Mysteries" knew better; they knew the truth behind the stories inherited about assumed people like Osiris and Jesus.
The existence of the Sun at the center of almost all world religions is verified by research into comparative religion and the findings indisputably proves that the religions of the world are markedly similar in their main teachings and the symbolism by which they express their leading beliefs. This similarity, amounting in many cases to indistinguishable identity, proves accordingly a common origin for all world religions. This of course is the Sun and its battle against darkness.
Actually, the connection between astronomy and mythology has not gone unnoticed by apologists. I have a few Christian sources that go to great lengths to “disprove” the connection between astrology and Christianity by steering their readers away from the traditional Sun cycle. To admit such a link would be fatal to the vainness of their faith. Now, we are not longer dependent upon the Ancients and their legacy which has come to light with the aid of archeology in these last 200 years for seeing the "Jesus Story" as an allegory of the Sun and its path through the sky but today, thanks to computer technology, we can simulate these biblical events for ourselves and see with positive proof that the Gospel narratives were derived from the stars and movements of the constellations in the sky. We can confirm that the Bible contains nothing more than a series of pagan myths with a different spin.
One quick example if we might. We all most likely know that Jesus' birthday is celebrated on December 25th but few know the actual reason behind it. If you were to study the Winter solstice you will find that it is at this time of the year that "Darkness" has triumphed over the light of the Sun in its annual path across the sky and the Heavens. Primitive man understood he had entered into the darkest and coldest days of the year which also provided the least light and he and his life and the lives of his family were threatened at every corner. His fear of his death was paramount in his mind and life. Coupled with that was his observation that the Sun had been receding the in the sky and he feared the Sun was dying or had died on those three days annually where it remained motionless in the Southwestern horizon as it set in the very same place 3 days in a row. Relieved on the next day, our December 25th, the Sun began to move again but this time backwards as it begins its climb in the sky and Heavens once again and in so doing bringing with it the promise of longer light, warmer temperatures, photosynthesis, and a bountiful harvest to come that ensure man's life and security and existence.
Understanding this scenario then understand the favorite rationale for why Jesus’ birthday is celebrated on December 25th. It has been said that this date of December 25th the early Christian fathers chose as a way of attracting pagan followers. That’s not the whole of it however although partly true. It was chosen because of the path of the Sun in relation to the seasons and the circuit of the Sun through the Zodiac. Upon study you can see for yourself that the entire nativity legend can be seen played out in the sky. Christian mythology is written as if the events that took place in the sky and the Heavens actually took place on earth (but they didn't). Unless one knows to even look for this astronomical and astrological evidence behind what we read in the New Testament then he will read the New Testament his whole life never aware that behind the stories he reads are Ancients stories told which originated in the stars and which were depicted in the lives of make-believe heroes. Sadly we don't know to look for the double meaning in the Bible’s language and without it the astronomical connection can't be seen. But once you become aware of this hidden revelation behind the depiction of Jesus in the "Jesus Story" then you see that the Gospels are laid out according to the zodiacal motifs with Jesus, the personified Sun hero, passing through the four seasons as well as the whole of the 12 houses of the Zodiac:
Answer for yourself: Is this why the "Jesus Story" in the New Testament is called by both Ancient and modern scholars a "solar myth"? Yes it is.
The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5º tilt of the earth's axis. Because the earth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, it points in a fixed direction continuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth is also revolving around the Sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphere is more exposed to the Sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest of the year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun appears high in the sky during summertime and low in the sky during winter. The time of the year when the Sun reaches its maximum elevation occurs on the day with the greatest number of daylight hours. This is called the summer solstice, and is typically Jun. 21 -- the first day of summer. The lowest elevation occurs about Dec. 21 and is the winter solstice -- the first day of winter, when the night time hours are maximum. Almost exactly half-way between the winter and summer solstice is the time of the vernal or spring equinox. It is one of two times during the year when the daytime and nighttime are almost exactly 12 hours long, and very close to being equal to each other.
This personified Sungod, or Sungodman, is born every year on December 25, the Winter solstice, the first day when daylight hours start to increase. In the winter months, the darkness of evil is still in force. As the daylight hours start to increase, he is said to be increasing in strength.
His mission starts on the first day of spring on the Spring equinox when daylight hours equal nighttime hours. Spring is the time of righteousness. Christianity and other religious associate three themes with the vernal equinox:
Conception and pregnancy leading to birth on the winter solstice.
Victory of a god of light (or life, rebirth, resurrection) over the powers of darkness (death). Some religious historians believe that the god-man's death and resurrection legends were first associated with Pagan deities many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans in the Roman Empire.
Ancient Christians and Church Fathers, when confronted with their plagiarism of solar gods, had an alternate explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit Pagan deities with many of the same life experiences as Jesus had. Satan and his demons had done this, in advance of the coming of Christ, in order to confuse humanity.
The descent of the goddess or god into the underworld for a period of three days. This is such a popular theme among religions that mythologists refer to it as "the harrowing of Hell."
He, the personified Sun, is at full strength at the Summer solstice when the Sun is at its highest position in the sky. As the Sun passes over the solstice it descends through the summer months, the dark forces of evil are said to be sapping his strength. The opposition and conflict between the Darkness and the Light only intensify.
When the Sun passes through the Autumnal equinox, the evil forces of darkness are said to be ruling and the Sun continues it decline in the sky onward to its soon coming death at the Winter solstice.
On the three darkest days of the year, the Winter solstice, the Sun is dead from December 21 to 24. His resurrection restarts on December 25, when the Sun starts to ascend again. This Jesus hath God raised [ascended] up, whereof we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:32)
Well that sounds simple but I assure you it is not as simple as it looks. As we gain steam in our study you will be convinced that the "Jesus Story" in the New Testament is the personification of the Sun and its path through the Zodiac as well as the relationship of other constellations and the Sun as they both move in the sky. Understand that Christianity is not immune to this syncretism. After all is said and done we have these troublesome questions:
What are we do do with Jesus?
Was he a real person? Can we interpret him "literally" or should he be understood only "allegorically"?
Was he an expression of an allegory of the path of the Sun and constellations which were later "literalized as a historical person" and given a historical timeline and placed on the pages of the New Testament as a real person?
If it can be proven that the depiction of Jesus as found in the New Testament is little more than the personification of the Sun in its path in the Heavens and the Zodiac as understood originally as only allegory by the Ancients and primitive mankind but later "literalized" as a historical person by Rome in their creation of the New Testament then how are we to then understand "the Christ"?
Has the depiction of Jesus as a historical person in the New Testament and his later identification as God by Constantine and the Council of Nicea (accepted by Christianity) rendered us as idolators? What can we do about this if we come to a place in our studies that we are convinced that the "Jesus Story" is Astronomical allegory later "literalized"?
All of these questions can be answered in the light of modern scholarship but not without a price. This means you must learn and possess the necessary knowledge of this dualism of light versus darkness as understood by the Ancients and which is bequeathed to us today in their oral traditions and writings in order to see how these Ancient undestandings of the workings of the Cosmos were understood by primitive mankind and how they created stories and personified the Sun and forces in the Cosmos in order to explain this working of God within His Universe. The majority of mankind got this knowledge conveyed to them in simple stories but others were privy to the actual Divine revelation behind the story.
These of course were initiates into the Inner Mysteries. Coupled with this is need to understand how these primitive understandings of the Cosmos by Egypt and other nations were understood originally only as allegory and how they were over time "literalized" and how these earlier Divine Truths were lost when they were later "literalized". In so doing then we can clearly see how people, having lost the allegorical understanding of these star-stories, strayed from proper worship and began to worship the "creation instead of the Creator". This has always been man's problem; failing to distinguish the object of his worship. And then we find much, much later how these prior personifications of the Cosmos and forces in Nature were continually "literalized" and incorporated onto the pages of our New Testaments as the "Jesus Story". Only in so doing can we then come to the final answers concerning the complicated truths behind the "Jesus Story" as contained in the New Testament.
“All Indo-Germanic nations have worshipped crucified Saviors and overwhelming proof was obtained that the sun-myths of the ancient Aryans were the origin of the religion in all the countries which were peopled by the Aryans”…Charles Morris. Let us study to show ourselves approved by God. Anyone wanting to look into this subject more thoroughly might read Aryan Sun Myths …The Origin of Religion by Charles Morris, Bible Myths by T.W. Doane, The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Christ Conspiracy by Acharya S., or The Story of Christian Origins by Martin A. Larson.
Bet Emet Ministries
Rev. Craig Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.
THE ORIGIN FOR ALL WORLD RELIGIONS?
Archeology is our friend because according to the best understanding we have gleaned from the available ancient records, life for our ancient forefathers was a mixture of wonder and fear. Each day, just finding food to sustain one's family without falling prey to what you hunted and becoming a meal yourself for the roaming predatory animals, was a life and death struggle. As if that was not enough primitive mankind had to battle the elements, in particular winter, for his survival and this was a test of his endurance and skill to survive.
It was from these sparse, distressful conditions of the human race that the Ancient's long history of the search for God, his Creator, and meaning of life has come. From the beginning, man's' profound questions concerning his origins and how he was created and by Whom demanded answers. When no clear answer were forthcoming from the universe, man turned inward, and developed his own based upon what he saw above and around him. Keep in mind that all the theological teachings of the Western World were developed in the Northern Hemisphere. The study of this Subject, man's search for his origin and his Creator, is properly called - "Astro-Theology" or, "The Worship of the Heavens".
The Ancient's understanding of his origins and his Creator is the first, original, and therefore the oldest, and most esteemed tale on Earth! It did not take ancient man very long to decide that in his world of wonder and fear that his single greatest enemy to be feared was the darkness of night, and all the unknown dangers that came with it. Simply stated, man's first enemy was darkness.
Understanding this one fact alone, people can readily see why the greatest and most trustworthy friend the human race could ever have was by far, heaven's greatest gift to the world.
Answer for yourself: And what was ancient man's greatest friend and gift from God? It was the Sun that eliminated the threat of darkness that was man's greatest enemy.
Armed with this important truth we can now begin to unriddle the hidden mysteries that lay behind Christianity as well as the vast majority of earth's religions. It is the oldest and greatest story ever told; namely, the salvation of mankind by God through His Sun.
Modern-day Christianity has often belittled our ancient ancestors and falsely accused them of being no more than ignorant worshippers of the Sun. The hard facts of the matter is that this accusation is a blatant lie. Understand that no people of the ancient world believed the "Sun" to be "God". In reality every Ancient culture and nation on Earth have all used the Sun as the most logically appropriate symbol to represent the Glory of the unseen Creator of the heavens. I used to accept this premise until I began to study for myself and you can't imagine my surprise and amazement as I studied the Ancients and found that they not only did not literally worship this "orb" of Heaven as many Christian writers had depicted but they had a much greater possession of knowledge of the world and the Cosmos than mankind today.
That's right; almost impossible to believe until you see this for yourself. I found that the ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system, called the Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation given to mankind. As such it regarded the human body as a prison house of the soul, which could be liberated from its bodily impediments, through the discipline of the Arts and Sciences, and advanced from the level of a mortal to that of a God. This was the notion of the sumum bonum or greatest good, to which all men must aspire, and it became the basis of all ethical concepts. The Egyptian Mystery System was also a Secret Order, and membership was gained by initiation and a pledge of secrecy. The teaching was graded and delivered orally to the Neophyte and hierophant; and under these circumstances of secrecy, the Egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teaching, and forbade their Initiates from writing what they had learnt. In the article that follows I will began to explain this "secret wisdom" of the Inner Mysteries that was withheld from the layman and is yet kept from them today primarily because over time this secret legacy has been lost only to be recovered through the efforts of Champollion, a French Egyptologist, who is acknowledged as the father of modern Egyptology.
He achieved many things during his short career, but he is best known for his work on the Rosetta Stone. It was his deciphering of the hieroglyphics contained on the Stone that laid the foundations for Egyptian archaeology and this paved the way to restoring not only this earliest salvation message of God to mankind as taught by the Egyptian Priesthoods but explains and reveals the background of the various "Jesus Stories" as collected down through history in the depictions of the many solar gods. So it is time to not only set the record straight regarding the Ancients' understanding of the Sun and its role in their "religions" but expose Christianity for what it is; namely, the literalization of the personified Sun in its path through the Heavens and Zodiac in the person of "Jesus Christ". It is to these issues we now turn.
THE ETERNAL CONFLICT OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS:
Paul records for us in one of his epistles:
1 Cor 15:14-15 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. (KJV)
Gal 4:19 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (KJV)
It goes without saying that the above two verses often confuse the reader because it appears that one verse speaks of a historical Christ Jesus and the other a mystical concept and not a historical person?
Answer for yourself: Who was literally this "Jesus Christ" we read about from the pen of Paul? What does it mean that he is "risen"?
Let's closely examine the original, conceptual foundations of the Christian faith and then decide "...if Christ be not risen. " But for that to happen we have to understand an Ancient concept that generated the world's religions and that being primitive man's fear of the dark. You will understand after you read this article.
Let’s travel back for a moment to about 20,000 B.C.E. or so and try to put ourselves into the place of Ancient mankind. It’s early evening, and the Sun had just set. In this time before sidewalks, streetlights, headlights, and the glow of cities, the moonless night was truly dark, so dark that it was often dangerous to be outside at night. The blackness made it difficult to see the ground, and the dark gave cover to beasts and plunderers that prowled the night. At nighttime, it was very, very dark and until fire was discovered, it was man's most dangerous enemy and threatened his very survival. In the dark cold of night man realized his utter vulnerability to the elements. Each night, mankind was forced to wait for the "Rising of the Sun" to chase away the physical and mental insecurity brought on by the darkness.
Therefore, the morning Sun focused man's attention on his heavenly dependence for his frail, short existence on Earth, and in doing so, you can see how the Sun became the appropriate symbol of the Creator's divine benevolence from Heaven. And as winter progressed Ancient man noticed that it became darker for longer and longer periods of time and much colder. It was inarguably, unremittingly, and unexplainably dark. Watching the Heavens primitive man saw the Sun was fading fast and receding at sunset on the horizon as it set. He feared that his source of "salvation" might stop shining altogether, and might never reappear. Ancient mankind saw the dark as his mortal enemy for it gave cover for all the bad things that could happen to him: attacks from other tribes, the capture of his family, attacks from predator animals, prey to poisonous snakes, injuries sustained by accidents that occur in the dark, etc. All the bad things seemed to happen in the dark. So until the discovery of fire which brought limited light into man's own little world of darkness, primitive man only had the "Great Fire of Day" which served the whole Earth with its heavenly presence.
Answer for yourself: Is this the reason that several thousand years ago mankind said and believed at it says in Deut 4:24, and Heb 12:29 that the God of the Bible was a "Consuming Fire" in heaven? It sure was.
All mankind quickly came to realize that he was attached and bound to a life on Earth, but it was the sky that brought to him his "salvation" and man reasoned that this was the home of his God and Creator. The Heavens above was to the Ancients God's dwelling place. Over time as man created and reasoned his various "theologies" and personified the Sun, the symbol of his God, and its movements in the Heavens it would be a short step to personify the Sun as the "Son" of the Sun and they further reasoned that God's Son/Sun would also reside with his Father "up there in Heaven". It was assumed that God's 'Sun was but a visible representative of the unseen Creator in heaven. So it was said, "When you have seen the Sun, you have seen the Father " or "The Father is glorified in his Sun".
As you can imagine Ancient man had no problem understanding that all life on Earth depended directly on life-giving energy from the Sun because the Sun not only caused the crops to grow and produce a harvest that guaranteed his life and longevity but the light and warmth that it gave mankind was the main factor in his safety and security as explained above. Consequently, all life was lost without the Sun. It followed that God's 'Sun' was nothing less than "mankind's Saviour".
One of the things that amazed me in my study of Egypt was their unbelievable knowledge of Science, Physics, and Astronomy. You have to read it for yourself to see how they understood these disciplines in the way that they did and how the ancients understood the intricacies of the atom and molecules. The Ancients understood energy and since life is energy, and energy from the Sun gave life, they then understood that their own existence was sustained by themselves taking energy into their bodies from the foods that they ate that was again sustained by the Sun. They again reasoned that Sun was giving up its life supporting energy in order that they could live.
Answer for yourself: Is this where we get the concept that God's Sun, or God personified in the Sun, gives His life for us in order that we might live? We sure do.
As you now clearly see the Ancients reasoned that their lives came from and were sustained each day by "Their Saviour... in the form of God's Sun". But this truism only worked as long as the Sun would return each morning to pour out his life for them. Primitive mankind's hope of salvation, both present and future, would be secure only if his "Savior, in the form of the Sun was 'Risen'". This might sound complicated but it is not. The Ancients tracked the Sun, their Savior, across the sky daily and yearly for thousands of years and little escaped their scrutiny. You only have to read the extent and depth of their Astronomy and their records to be amazed and flabbergasted at what they knew and the knowledge they possessed. They knew that if their Sun, their Savior did not rise from his grave of darkness in the dead of Winter then all would be lost for mankind. To understand this you need to understand the schematic that follows.
At the dead of Winter the Sun was noticed to set progressively southward in the horizon and the days progressively possessed less light and warmth. It appeared to the Ancients that the Sun was dying. Ancient mankind reasoned that light was dying; the Sun was dying just as he had seen others of his species die. It was the most scary time for the Ancients. As what we now call mid-December came closer, the days got shorter still. Then came December 21, what we call the Winter solstice, the longest night of the year -- which{short description of image} also meant the shortest day of the year, with Sunlight practically imperceptible after that harrowing dark night. Our prehistoric ancestors wondered how vegetation and animals would survive, how they would they survive without the Sun.
Little wonder that in almost every nation and their recorded histories we find that traditions and ceremonies and customs evolved, some of them not so nice, to propitiate the dark and entice the Sun to come back strong. One element of this frenzy for light, once it was feasible, was bonfires. They kept the dark at bay and illuminated festivities aimed at winning back the Sun. All the world waited patiently for the Son's 'imminent return". They further reasoned that surely the Divine Father and Creator would never leave them at the mercy of this world of darkness. Over the centuries man, through his observations of the Sun and the pattern of its movement, was reassured that the Creator's Heavenly promise concerning his Sun was surely that..."He would come again"...to light their path, and save those lost in the darkness. He was reassured every morning and every year as the cycle of the Sun through the Heavens and the Zodiac seemed to repeat.
Logically, the Ancients reasoned that even if man himself died, as long as the Sun continued to dawn and set each day, life on Earth will continue forever. Therefore, it was said in the Ancient texts that "everlasting life was 'the gift' that the Father gives through his Sun.
Answer for yourself: We have mentioned that the Sun was personified as the "Son". Understanding that these Ancient and eternal and Divine concepts were captured for all time in legend and myth by the Ancients then when we read for example:
John 3:16 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV)
then is it too far of a stretch to see that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten SUN that we may have life everlasting"..on the Earth?
Early mankind not only feared the dark but the manifestations of evil and harm that lurked at every turn in the fearful dark of night. He further reasoned that all evil or harmful deeds were naturally, the..."works of darkness." Let us not forget that anthropomorphism or personification is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. Anthropomorphism in the form of personification consists of creating imaginary persons who are the embodiment of an abstraction such as Darkness, Death, Lust, or War. In our study we are concerned with the personification of Light and Darkness as man's greatest Savior and greatest Adversary. Early man simply personified these forces because it was extremely difficult for them to picture or discuss God or these forces that came from the Creator of all without an anthropomorphic framework. Thus we see the darkness personified as the "Devil":
With the return of the Sun each morning, man felt more secure in his world and therefore, was at peace. Therefore, God's 'Sun' was with his warm rays of life and hope...The Great "Prince of Peace".
Conversely the dark evil of night was ruled by none other than..."Prince of Darkness"
I want to show you something having understood now the personification of forces:
The Dark was Evil
Primitive mankind reasoned it as "Dark"-"Evil"
"D"-"Evil"
the "Devil" ... get it?
You have just seen the origin of one of the biggest theologies known to man ... the Devil which is nothing but darkness personified and we don't know it and we raise millions of dollars to fight an imaginary war in our Churches to fight this Devil and pray against him and fast and bind him over and over again as if he and God are in some mortal combat...which they are not. It seems we have learned nothing and find ourselves at the very same stages of development of primitive man thousands and thousands of years ago. At least the Egyptians understood this as allegory and Christians think it is real today.
Answer for yourself: Did you know that we get our English words 'Good' and 'God' from the German word 'Goth' as in 'Gothic'? Now we see God is Good, and Devil is Evil.
Hopefully you can now see that it is only a short step to see "The Light of God's Sun" equated with the light of truth - and evil equated with darkness. From then on, it was simple to understand... "Light was good and dark was bad".
Answer for yourself: Could this be behind all racism where people hate the darker skinned of mankind? You bet it is!
That being true, then that Great Orb of Day, God's Sun, can rightly say of itself,
John 9:5 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (KJV)
We now have before us two cosmic brothers - one very good, and one very evil.
Answer for yourself: Is the first story of this cosmic brotherhood and struggle found in the story of Osiris and Set and their conflict and struggle that ends with Osiris' death and resurrection (similar to the Sun being raised from the dead once a year)? You bet it is. This conflict between light and darkness is replayed in almost every religion of the world between its saviors and its adversaries. Christianity is not immune to this pattern as well.
One of these forces brings the "truth to light" with the "light of truth". The other is the opposite, or in opposition to the light - "The Opposer"... "The Adversary"..."The Devil"..."The God of this world"..."The Prince of this World of Darkness".
KNOWING THIS, THEN LETS EXAMINE THE "JESUS STORY":
It has been said that: “The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun.”- Thomas Paine
Answer for yourself: Could this be true? How could this be true? How could the Ancients come to worship the Sun? Well you saw that they didn't but rather the Sun represented to them the Creator. But has the "Sun" or the personification of the Sun as the "Son" become part of the Christian sage and gospel and we not know it?
The above quote is a most serious charge against Christianity and if such a charge can be shown to have validity then one should be honest enough before God to begin a serious investigation in his religious beliefs in order to separate truth from fiction.
Well it is for certain most who read our articles don't wish to be in “sin”. A small article of this size cannot possibly do justice to such a complex and verbose subject as we have at hand but I hope to “break the egg” so to speak to help our readers begin to scrutinize the subject matter at hand in more detail by their personal study. Let's closely examine the original, conceptual foundations of the Christian faith, and then decide what to do with the serious “charge” made in the above quote by Thomas Payne; that the Christian faith today is nothing but an evolution of “Sun” worship transfigured into “Son” worship. Again I wish to reiterate the seriousness of such a charge if it can be proven.
IN THE BEGINNING:
But in order to do that, we must go back not 2000 years to the birth of Christ, but 15 to 20,000 years to the birth of modern man. For when one seeks to establish foundations, one must begin at the beginning. We must begin with the Aryan peoples of the world.
Many thousands of years ago, in what we refer to as the "primordial world" of the ancients, human life was a far different experience from that which we enjoy today. While it is true that we have less documentation on that prehistoric world than we have on our own age, enough is known from the ancient writings, many in stone, to paint a rather clear picture of our remote ancestry. If we have learned anything at all, it is this: "That the more we change, the more we stay the same." And nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the history of man's quest for "God", and the ancient religion we still keep holy.
According to the best understanding we have gleaned from the available records, life for our ancient forefathers was a mixture of wonder and fear. Each day, just finding food for one's family without becoming a meal oneself was a life-and-death struggle. It was from these meager, distressful conditions of the human race that our long history of the search for God and meaning of life has come.
Any evolution, at its most accelerated rate, is always agonizingly slow. But from the beginning, man's profound questions demanded answers. When no clear answers were forthcoming from the universe, man turned inward and developed his own. The study of this subject is termed "Astro-Theology" or the “worship of the heavens”.
It did not take ancient man very long to decide that in this world the single greatest enemy to be feared was the darkness of night. Simply stated, man's first enemy was darkness.
With this one fact alone, one can readily understand why the greatest and most trustworthy friend the human race would ever have was heaven's greatest gift to the world . . . the Glorious Rising Orb of Day...the Sun. With this simple truth understood, we can now begin to unravel ascent of man and the origin of the “crucifixion of the Sun”; or should I say the “crucifixion of the Son”. Notice the word-play and stay tuned!
Even before people understood the details of how the Sun worked, they were aware of its supreme importance in their lives. It is no accident that so many ancient religions had as their major god a personification of the Sun. To ancient peoples, it was extremely important to be able to track the motions of the Sun in the sky and predict the coming of the seasons. After all, planting seeds at the wrong time could lead to complete disaster.
WHAT LED TO THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE SUN - AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGIONS?
THEOLOGY OUT OF ASTRONOMY:
To understand the Sun's motions and their effects, it is easier to start by imagining the Earth entirely alone. Without the Sun, it would be night everywhere on the Earth at the same time. The stars would silently wheel by, east to west, as the Earth turned. Looking to the north, we would see the stars moving in slow circles around the circumpolar Pole Star, Polaris. Any particular star would always rise in the same location and set directly opposite. That is, if a star rose in the east at a point 30 degrees from due south, it would set in the west at a point 30 degrees from due south. And that would be it. Nothing else would happen.
The stars would follow the same paths as seen from the Earth, over and over without change. If this were the case then today we would have no "theology" because as you will see the Ancients would interpret the movement of the Sun and stars in the Heavens and give the world not only Divine Truths written by the Creator in the blackboard of sky but over time theologies would develop that would translate these Divine Truths to mankind but also aberrations of them which nullified them as well. To say I have been disillusioned by what I have seen in about 20 years of scholarly study into the origins of my birth faith, Christianity, is an understatement but it is only finally coming to study Egypt thoroughly where I uncovered these Divine Truths in their simplest forms as these Ancient masters saw in the Heavens that I was able to rest and sort this whole "theological mess" out to my satisfaction.
The final puzzle pieces were long in coming but they came finally and when one undertakes a study of our websites then he sees the progression from Ancient Divine Truths once understood "allegorically" in their purest form to the later "literalization" of them by Rome in which these earlier Divine Truths were so altered to not only lose their truest meanings but alternate erroneous meanings substituted for them. Then sadly the truth was lost for mankind and in is place a false revelation taught as the truths of God. Such comparative study will reveal this to the discerning and dedicated student of comparative religion, mythology, astronomy, astrology, Biblical texts and their alterations, Biblical languages, both Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek coupled with a through study of the origin, manipulation, and corruption of the New Testament throughout its evolution over the earliest centuries of the antisemitic Gentile Church.
But back to the issue at hand, the way in which the stars appear to move in the sky, or "apparent motion," is a consequence of the rotation of the Earth. The stars seem to move, but of course it is the Earth that is moving.
But we are not immersed in total and perpetual darkness for the Sun does exist. Now imagine the Earth spinning on its axis, but with the Sun very far off to one side. Half of the Earth will be illuminated at any given time. This, of course, is day. Some of the stars will be hidden by the Sun and we will be unable to see them. As the Earth rotates, the Sun will appear to rise and set along with the unseen stars that it is in front of it.
Again if the Earth were stationary, this would be the whole story and we would have more than likely a "limited" theology but that is not the case. If the earth was stationary the same stars would be blocked all the time, and the Sun would simply rise and set in exactly the same way each day. But we know if we have ever watched the horizon that the Sun does not rise and set in exactly the same place on the horizon every day. We can see that very clearly when looking at the tri-part depiction of the Sun as it sets accordingly with the Summer solstice, Spring and Autumn equinoxes, and the Winter solstice pictured above.
The Earth moves around the Sun. As the Earth moves through the year, the Sun blocks different stars. You may have experienced this{short description of image} phenomenon at the movies when you move your head, and the head of a tall guy in front of you blocks a different part of the movie screen. This is why we see different constellations at different times of the year. Each day the Sun appears to move just a little bit relative to the stars. In a year, it goes completely around and comes back to the starting point. The path it takes is called the Ecliptic. If the Sun's path is observed from the Earth's reference frame, it appears to move around the Earth in a path which is tilted with respect to the spin axis at 23.5°. This path is called the ecliptic. It tells us that the Earth's spin axis is tilted with respect to the plane of the Earth's solar orbit by 23.5°.
The significance of the ecliptic is evident if we examine the Earth's orbit around the Sun. That orbit lies in a plane, flat like a tabletop, called the plane of the ecliptic (or sometimes just "the ecliptic"). In one year, as the Earth completes a full circuit around the Sun (drawing above), the Earth-Sun line and its continuation past Earth sweep the entire plane. Planets seen in the sky are always near the ecliptic, which means that their orbits are never too far from the plane of the ecliptic. They all circle the Sun in sort of a group limited to a certain path and angle around the Sun as drawn out in the Heavens. This is astonishing when you think about this. In other words, the solar system is rather flat, with all its major parts moving in nearly the same plane. Even though the planets move on the celestial sphere, they do not wander all over it but are confined to a narrow strip, dividing it in half. Now we come to the stars.
Stars along that same strip are traditionally divided into the 12 constellations of the zodiac. The name, related to "zoo," comes because most of these constellations are named for animals--Leo the lion, Aries the ram, Scorpio the scorpion, Cancer the crab, Pisces the fish, Capricorn the goat and Taurus the bull. At any time, the Sun is also somewhere on the celestial sphere, and as the Earth turns, it rises and sets the same way as stars do. Like the planets, the Sun, too, moves around the zodiac, making one complete circuit each year. Every month it covers a different constellation of the zodiac, which is the real reason why those constellations are 12 in number. Of course, during that month, this particular constellation is not seen, because the sky near the Sun is too bright for its stars to be seen (except, very briefly, during a total eclipse of the Sun). One can however figure out where the Sun is on the zodiac (as ancient astronomers have done) by noting which is the last constellation of the zodiac to rise ahead of the Sun, or the first to set after it. Obviously, the Sun is somewhere in between. In this manner each month-long period of the year was given its "sign of the zodiac."
Imagine standing in the center of a racetrack. As the cars go around they will appear to trace out a circle. The cars appear to go horizontally. They do not appear to be moving up in the direction of your head or down in the direction of your feet. If you tilt yourself a bit, the cars will appear to be sometimes up and sometimes down. This is exactly what happens with the Earth. The earth is tilted by 23.5 degrees compared to how it travels around the Sun. So, sometimes the Sun appears to be a bit north and sometimes a bit south. Thus, as the year progresses, the Sun appears to set in slightly different locations relative to the horizon. The winter and summer solstices mark the most southern and northern Sunrises respectively, while at the equinoxes the Sun rises and sets exactly in the east and west (see the picture at the top of the article once again).
As the Sun moves along the Ecliptic it appears higher and lower in the skies.
Answer for yourself: Why is this of major importance for us and all later "theologies", myths, and legends created by Ancient mankind?
This has had and still does have a tremendous and huge effect on life on the earth. In the winter, when the Sun is low in the sky, less solar energy falls on a given unit of area on the surface of the earth, and the weather is much colder and the days much darker. Some plants and animals become dormant. Food is not at plentiful and the encroaching darkness was the greatest threat to Ancient mankind as explained above. In the summer, when the Sun is high in the sky, a lot more solar energy falls on a unit of area on the earth, and the weather is much warmer and harvests are plentiful and Ancient mankind experienced his salvation because of the Sun pouring out is life for him in the form of light and heat and photosynthesis that fed him and his family (as well as the animals which was his food).
Plants and animals do not have to compete as strongly for resources, and it is the best time to reproduce. In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for those primitive people who lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable.
{short description of image}The image to the left shows that the seasons are due to the tilt of the Earth, not due to a variation in distance to the Sun. In each of these seasons the Sun played a major role and this was understood by the Ancients during his evolution as a species on this planet. This balance between "light and darkness" was an eternal struggle that spelled either "life" or "death" for primitive mankind. The Sun was the driving force and energy behind all life on the earth and it was understood as such by primitive mankind. As the Sun waned man feared the oncoming darkness and the many threats it brought him and his family as their lives were actually threatened by the loss of the Sun and the daylight and warmth it provided.
This onslaught of darkness following the Summer solstice as the Sun slid southwestward in the sky with its diminishing light and warmth was feared by primitive mankind. Over time this "darkness," mankind's greatest enemy, was captured in legend and myth that paralleled the path of the Sun in the sky. This whole event of the demise of the Sun in the winter with the Sun moving to its eventual shortest daylight and warmth of the year at the Winter solstice was immortalized by primitive mankind and the Ancients in myth and allegory which depicted this tension and battle between the forces of light and darkness. By now you understand that Ancient man saw the darkness as his mortal enemy. In so doing he understood that the darkness was evil. Our theology beings with his understanding of the connection between "evil" and "darkness".
The infatuation with this struggle with "Darkness" will go so far as to motivate men to change the Hebrew Scriptures as we find in the forgery of the Hebrew Scriptures where the word "Lucifer" (the light bringer) is later added when the original Hebrew texts never mention this word.
Of course as you now see the background for all of this was Astronomy and not "theology". It won't be long before "theology" will be birthed from Astronomy. And it does not end here! The battle of the Sun versus the darkness has been immortalized in every dualism known to man presently. Behind every religion in some form or another is this basic paradigm of the struggle of "light" versus "darkness". I want you to know that as long as these allegories and metaphors remained just that, allegories and metaphors of Divine truths witnessed in a "literal" sense by primitive mankind and the Ancients then we don't have a problem as I see it since all knew at one time that this was but allegory of forces of Nature.
THE SEPARATION OF MANKIND - TWO GROUPS EMERGE:
But over time and with the development of various Priesthoods, there developed a diversification of this knowledge into two camps. Realizing that all mankind is not on the same evolutional level and with different capabilities of understanding there developed two different levels of understanding of this eternal struggle of "Darkness" against the "Light". The most highly evolved are far above the least evolved, both in intelligence and character; the capacity to understand and to act varies at every stage. The Priesthoods reasoned that it was useless to give to all the same religious teachings.
Thus developed an "Inner Mystery"{short description of image}and "Outer Mystery" where the Sun was personified in all nations who were seeking after God who was pictured by them as the Sun (the savior of mankind). Those initiated into the "Inner Mysteries" came to know the truth of the personification of the Sun in the legends and myths that they had heard since childhood while those in the "Outer Mysteries" were content with the "literalized" stories of their culture and religion's heroes. It from these "Outer Mysteries" we find today the host of stories of men like Osiris, Attis, Dionysus, Mithra, etc., all solar personifications believed by those in the "Outer Mysteries" to have been real people in antiquity. But those in the "Inner Mysteries" knew better; they knew the truth behind the stories inherited about assumed people like Osiris and Jesus.
The existence of the Sun at the center of almost all world religions is verified by research into comparative religion and the findings indisputably proves that the religions of the world are markedly similar in their main teachings and the symbolism by which they express their leading beliefs. This similarity, amounting in many cases to indistinguishable identity, proves accordingly a common origin for all world religions. This of course is the Sun and its battle against darkness.
Actually, the connection between astronomy and mythology has not gone unnoticed by apologists. I have a few Christian sources that go to great lengths to “disprove” the connection between astrology and Christianity by steering their readers away from the traditional Sun cycle. To admit such a link would be fatal to the vainness of their faith. Now, we are not longer dependent upon the Ancients and their legacy which has come to light with the aid of archeology in these last 200 years for seeing the "Jesus Story" as an allegory of the Sun and its path through the sky but today, thanks to computer technology, we can simulate these biblical events for ourselves and see with positive proof that the Gospel narratives were derived from the stars and movements of the constellations in the sky. We can confirm that the Bible contains nothing more than a series of pagan myths with a different spin.
One quick example if we might. We all most likely know that Jesus' birthday is celebrated on December 25th but few know the actual reason behind it. If you were to study the Winter solstice you will find that it is at this time of the year that "Darkness" has triumphed over the light of the Sun in its annual path across the sky and the Heavens. Primitive man understood he had entered into the darkest and coldest days of the year which also provided the least light and he and his life and the lives of his family were threatened at every corner. His fear of his death was paramount in his mind and life. Coupled with that was his observation that the Sun had been receding the in the sky and he feared the Sun was dying or had died on those three days annually where it remained motionless in the Southwestern horizon as it set in the very same place 3 days in a row. Relieved on the next day, our December 25th, the Sun began to move again but this time backwards as it begins its climb in the sky and Heavens once again and in so doing bringing with it the promise of longer light, warmer temperatures, photosynthesis, and a bountiful harvest to come that ensure man's life and security and existence.
Understanding this scenario then understand the favorite rationale for why Jesus’ birthday is celebrated on December 25th. It has been said that this date of December 25th the early Christian fathers chose as a way of attracting pagan followers. That’s not the whole of it however although partly true. It was chosen because of the path of the Sun in relation to the seasons and the circuit of the Sun through the Zodiac. Upon study you can see for yourself that the entire nativity legend can be seen played out in the sky. Christian mythology is written as if the events that took place in the sky and the Heavens actually took place on earth (but they didn't). Unless one knows to even look for this astronomical and astrological evidence behind what we read in the New Testament then he will read the New Testament his whole life never aware that behind the stories he reads are Ancients stories told which originated in the stars and which were depicted in the lives of make-believe heroes. Sadly we don't know to look for the double meaning in the Bible’s language and without it the astronomical connection can't be seen. But once you become aware of this hidden revelation behind the depiction of Jesus in the "Jesus Story" then you see that the Gospels are laid out according to the zodiacal motifs with Jesus, the personified Sun hero, passing through the four seasons as well as the whole of the 12 houses of the Zodiac:
Answer for yourself: Is this why the "Jesus Story" in the New Testament is called by both Ancient and modern scholars a "solar myth"? Yes it is.
The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5º tilt of the earth's axis. Because the earth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, it points in a fixed direction continuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth is also revolving around the Sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphere is more exposed to the Sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest of the year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun appears high in the sky during summertime and low in the sky during winter. The time of the year when the Sun reaches its maximum elevation occurs on the day with the greatest number of daylight hours. This is called the summer solstice, and is typically Jun. 21 -- the first day of summer. The lowest elevation occurs about Dec. 21 and is the winter solstice -- the first day of winter, when the night time hours are maximum. Almost exactly half-way between the winter and summer solstice is the time of the vernal or spring equinox. It is one of two times during the year when the daytime and nighttime are almost exactly 12 hours long, and very close to being equal to each other.
This personified Sungod, or Sungodman, is born every year on December 25, the Winter solstice, the first day when daylight hours start to increase. In the winter months, the darkness of evil is still in force. As the daylight hours start to increase, he is said to be increasing in strength.
His mission starts on the first day of spring on the Spring equinox when daylight hours equal nighttime hours. Spring is the time of righteousness. Christianity and other religious associate three themes with the vernal equinox:
Conception and pregnancy leading to birth on the winter solstice.
Victory of a god of light (or life, rebirth, resurrection) over the powers of darkness (death). Some religious historians believe that the god-man's death and resurrection legends were first associated with Pagan deities many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans in the Roman Empire.
Ancient Christians and Church Fathers, when confronted with their plagiarism of solar gods, had an alternate explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit Pagan deities with many of the same life experiences as Jesus had. Satan and his demons had done this, in advance of the coming of Christ, in order to confuse humanity.
The descent of the goddess or god into the underworld for a period of three days. This is such a popular theme among religions that mythologists refer to it as "the harrowing of Hell."
He, the personified Sun, is at full strength at the Summer solstice when the Sun is at its highest position in the sky. As the Sun passes over the solstice it descends through the summer months, the dark forces of evil are said to be sapping his strength. The opposition and conflict between the Darkness and the Light only intensify.
When the Sun passes through the Autumnal equinox, the evil forces of darkness are said to be ruling and the Sun continues it decline in the sky onward to its soon coming death at the Winter solstice.
On the three darkest days of the year, the Winter solstice, the Sun is dead from December 21 to 24. His resurrection restarts on December 25, when the Sun starts to ascend again. This Jesus hath God raised [ascended] up, whereof we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:32)
Well that sounds simple but I assure you it is not as simple as it looks. As we gain steam in our study you will be convinced that the "Jesus Story" in the New Testament is the personification of the Sun and its path through the Zodiac as well as the relationship of other constellations and the Sun as they both move in the sky. Understand that Christianity is not immune to this syncretism. After all is said and done we have these troublesome questions:
What are we do do with Jesus?
Was he a real person? Can we interpret him "literally" or should he be understood only "allegorically"?
Was he an expression of an allegory of the path of the Sun and constellations which were later "literalized as a historical person" and given a historical timeline and placed on the pages of the New Testament as a real person?
If it can be proven that the depiction of Jesus as found in the New Testament is little more than the personification of the Sun in its path in the Heavens and the Zodiac as understood originally as only allegory by the Ancients and primitive mankind but later "literalized" as a historical person by Rome in their creation of the New Testament then how are we to then understand "the Christ"?
Has the depiction of Jesus as a historical person in the New Testament and his later identification as God by Constantine and the Council of Nicea (accepted by Christianity) rendered us as idolators? What can we do about this if we come to a place in our studies that we are convinced that the "Jesus Story" is Astronomical allegory later "literalized"?
All of these questions can be answered in the light of modern scholarship but not without a price. This means you must learn and possess the necessary knowledge of this dualism of light versus darkness as understood by the Ancients and which is bequeathed to us today in their oral traditions and writings in order to see how these Ancient undestandings of the workings of the Cosmos were understood by primitive mankind and how they created stories and personified the Sun and forces in the Cosmos in order to explain this working of God within His Universe. The majority of mankind got this knowledge conveyed to them in simple stories but others were privy to the actual Divine revelation behind the story.
These of course were initiates into the Inner Mysteries. Coupled with this is need to understand how these primitive understandings of the Cosmos by Egypt and other nations were understood originally only as allegory and how they were over time "literalized" and how these earlier Divine Truths were lost when they were later "literalized". In so doing then we can clearly see how people, having lost the allegorical understanding of these star-stories, strayed from proper worship and began to worship the "creation instead of the Creator". This has always been man's problem; failing to distinguish the object of his worship. And then we find much, much later how these prior personifications of the Cosmos and forces in Nature were continually "literalized" and incorporated onto the pages of our New Testaments as the "Jesus Story". Only in so doing can we then come to the final answers concerning the complicated truths behind the "Jesus Story" as contained in the New Testament.
“All Indo-Germanic nations have worshipped crucified Saviors and overwhelming proof was obtained that the sun-myths of the ancient Aryans were the origin of the religion in all the countries which were peopled by the Aryans”…Charles Morris. Let us study to show ourselves approved by God. Anyone wanting to look into this subject more thoroughly might read Aryan Sun Myths …The Origin of Religion by Charles Morris, Bible Myths by T.W. Doane, The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Christ Conspiracy by Acharya S., or The Story of Christian Origins by Martin A. Larson.
Bet Emet Ministries
Rev. Craig Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.