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Special Portuguese Spanish    

Year 7 - N° 313 – May 26, 2013

DAVILSON SILVA
davsilva.sp@gmail.com
São Caetano do Sul, SP (Brasil)
 

Translation
Renata Rinaldini - renatarinaldini@hotmail.com

 
 

Davilson Silva

The mythological Christ and Paul’s contradictions


Theologians see in Jesus Christ a pre-existing deity who became mortal, and not as a mortal transformed into a deity according to the doctrine of Arius (280/336). The apostle Paul would have sustained the first idea, i.e., of the pre-existing and mortal deity.

According to the thinking of some historians, Paul, so that Rome would more easily accept the teachings of Jesus, levelled it to the deities from there. They say that the Apostle of the Gentiles deified and mythologized the Nazarene Master to satisfy the interests of the patricians, as he, Paul, was a Roman citizen.

Paul placed him at the same level of other gods belonging to much older beliefs, besides make Master Jesus equal to the Roman gods and those full of mysteries and secret cults, that belonged to Egypt, India, Persia, Greece and others. This opinion comes from those who admit only the historical Jesus, as the speculative historian Michael Baigent, the storyteller Richard Leigh and the writer-journalist Henry Lincoln, authors of the book “Holy Blood, Holy Grail”, a bestseller book with 17 editions in England. 

Concept of divinity through the ages 

There was a tendency to consider "God" as any remarkable person in the ancient world. Orientals, Greeks and Romans deified their figures. Because of this tradition, they conceived Jesus as God himself. The concept of divinity, over the centuries, has evolved from more primitive forms, originating from the tribes of a distant historical period until the dogmatic religious definitions.

Historically, it is not known when the first primitive groups conceived and began to worship these symbols which were full of special powers, designed into the image and likeness of man.

It is not known at what time the idea arose. The first conceptions have appeared in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, expressed by a human feeling of a bond with planet Earth, with nature, with the cycles and fertility. The more modern idea of gods, is said to come from Sumerian, Vedic and Egyptian religions existing around 3600 BC.

It was common to have certain men as children of some deity. Someone who stood out from the rest due to his wisdom and moral primacy was therefore considered one of these deities, according to the thought at the time; a consequence of a deity’s union with a female human being. The collection of Greco-Roman myths filled with extraordinary feelings of magnitude for their politicians, warriors and philosophers, presenting such conscious personalities as sons of gods of quite human intellect, emotions and desires; often, holders of power and who consider themselves supreme authorities and made to be obeyed, imposing their laws. 

Refutations and caveats 

It is said that Christ is neither based on logic nor on science. In the case of the theologians of Christianity, Christ mythologized by Paul has no logic through the incoherence of the statement in which he and the Father would be only one person, given that the Doctrine or the Mystery of the Holy Trinity was copied from Buddhism, Hinduism, Druidism, Cal-deism, Scandinavian and Egyptian mythology; all without scientific basis, because of the supposed origin without intercourse followed by pregnancy, its ovular phase, embryonic and foetal development until birth.

It is affirmed that Paul would have been largely responsible for the deification of Jesus of Nazareth in letters and sermons. Scholars of evangelical texts believe that Paul included Jesus in a number of male personifications of deities superior to men.  There is a passage that seems to allude to this in Romans chapter 9, verse 5, in which Paul calls Jesus "Blessed God forever", yet one cannot categorically state that the apostle has meant that Jesus is God Himself according to our thought.

In our understanding, Paul never said that Jesus was God, but also this other passage suggests something which is similar to that above: "God blessed forever" (1st Corinthians, 8, 5). This supposed apotheosis of the Master would be more likely to have come from John the Evangelist than from Paul (John, one of the main leaders of early Christianity, along with James, the brother of Jesus).    More credence was in fact given to that idea by the Evangelist, in "The father and I are one" (John 10, 30), and in chapter 14, verse 9,  which reads "whoever sees me sees the Father . "

It is in these two mentioned passages of John that literalists claim the divinity of Jesus. The curious thing is that they do not consider the passage further along where John says: "Holy Father, keep them in thy name, you gave me, that they may be one even as we." Note that in the passage of John, 17: 11-2,  where the Master deifies the apostles. Jesus never claimed to be God. The title to which He repeatedly attributed to himself was the Son of Man. This saying appears 80 times in the Gospels: 30 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark, 26 times in Luke; 10 in John. Seldom did Jesus self-proclaim to be the "Son of God". The disciples and others called Him so. The expression "Son of God" does not necessarily mean God Himself as it is inferred by the Evangelist, chapter 1, verse 2: "To all who received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."

Incidentally, Krishna was also called the "Son of God". This central figure of Hinduism, considered the Second Person of the Trinity, according to Hindu scriptures, and just like Christ, he is "the only saviour of the world", "the creator verb." According to the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna was miraculously born from a virgin birth, from the womb of Devaki, his earthly mother, as happened with the mother of Jesus, Mary of Nazareth; they both "conceived without sin." Krishna was transfigured, and was still viewed as the Messiah and the "word of God"; the author of many miraculous cures, declaring himself "the way, truth and life": I am the way [...], I am life [...], I am myself the light of truth [...]. "

Jesus was a human being like any other on this planet. He, according to the Spiritist Doctrine, represents the purest being seen in this world, the most perfect as a guide and model for incarnate and discarnate spirits caught on planet Earth. According to Allan Kardec’s concept, Jesus is the kind of moral purity to which humanity can aspire, and the doctrine taught by Jesus is the purest expression of the divine law. In fact, others figures have taught what Jesus taught, but because the dominant feelings were still too worldly, they made ​​us confuse divine laws with human laws. However a Spirit of the magnitude of a Jesus of Nazareth was not reincarnated, rather incarnated on Earth, but came here and taught how to do good, by exemplifying it; here is the difference.

Conclusion 

As we have seen, due to the deification of people who were judged special in the ancient world, , the apostles and Master Jesus were also seen as deities. Paul and John probably wished to project Jesus as a divinity, amongst other things. We are in agreement with the aforementioned honourable authors; that the Christ of the Christianity of the theologians is nothing more that an utopian figure.

Neither Paul nor John, from our point of view, have responsibility for the deification of Jesus of Nazareth. Ancient and modern Theologians have a responsibility: the ancient, by taking advantage of the ambiguous thought about Jesus; and the modern ones, through the defence of former colleagues on this thought that befits the dogma of the infamous trilogy and the likes to which they cling.

Spiritists, far from seeing Jesus as a nursemaid, a kamikaze, rather see in him the loving, friend and intelligent Master; the Brother who is most perfect in virtues; a spirit of high spiritual hierarchy, who came into the world to teach us, especially how to love God, and not  how to fear God.

Jesus is a God ... And why not! Of course! He is according to what John, Paul, Thomas (John, 20, 28) and superior spirits thought, because nobody better than Jesus deserves that title, with all due respect to the other objects of worship of the ancient civilizations.

And making our own the words of a former Protestant pastor, the most honourable Jaime Andrade, about Jesus: He was, indeed, the most perfect of creatures that ever trod this planet, the whole fullness of deity was bodily manifested in Him (Paul to the Colossians, 2, 9), as no other man presented the most sublime wisdom and virtue.

It is in this way that sincere spiritists really think and follow Jesus, taking him as an example in their day-to-day, especially respecting all religions without offending, slandering or condemning anyone. Those who do so, certainly go against the teachings of Jesus and they are only Christians on their lips.

 

 


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