VIRGIN BIRTH, MIRACLES, HEALINGS, SACRIFICIAL DEATH/RESURRECTION –ALL ARE ANCIENT TRADITIONS FROM OTHER CULTURES: NOT A NEW STORY

I know this part is going to cause heated feelings, but that's why they call me demented!

Long, long, long ago, in a country far away, there was a god who lived among men, who ‘died to save the many’ and rose from the dead after three days, who used ‘sacred water’ for anointing, who is honored in feasting on bread and alcoholic drink. His son was sent as a savior for his people, and his wife is often depicted holding their infant son on her lap. Since the father was dead at the time of his conception, his birth would qualify as ‘miraculous.’ He was believed to be in charge of the Afterlife. He was the Egyptian god Osiris, and worship of him goes back to 3,300 BCE.

Around 1,300 BCE an Egyptian pharaoh called Akhenaten was the first man I know of to proclaim that there is only one god (which he believed to be personified by the sun), which shown down equally on all and was called Aten. This astonishing idea of one god was not welcomed by the priests of the other gods (who were now out of work), and eventually all that Akhenaten had accomplished was erased. There is some speculation (but no proof) that Moses, being raised in the court of the pharaohs, may have gotten the idea of one god from learning about him. This may not be true, as all records of Akhenaten’s reign have been vandalized, but on the other hand, there’s no proof Moses didn’t know of him.

Long, long ago, in a country far away, a man was born through a miracle. He was born in humble surroundings, attended by angels and shepherds. There was a prophecy about his birth that made a nearby king nervous, so the king had a massive number of male infants killed in an attempt to ward off the prophecy. The baby was saved, however, because the father was warned to flee. When the child grew up, he preached to his people, and asked his disciples to forsake all and follow him. Every year the date of his birth is celebrated, and pilgrims still visit his holy sites to obtain special blessings. He preached a message of love, and was believed to be a manifestation of the Divine sent to combat Evil. Does this story sound familiar? In one of the dialects of his people, he was called Krishta. We know him today by the name Krishna, and his story took place around 800 BCE.

Long ago, in a country far away, another man was born miraculously. There was a prophecy that he would be a great leader, and wise men came to visit from all over in his honor. He challenged the religious order of his people, and preached a message of love. He was about 30 years old when he began preaching, and he, too, had disciples. He was tempted by the devil but resisted. Bathing in “sacred waters” became part of the religion he started. He performed miracles such as walking on water and feeding 500 people with basically nothing. After his death, his followers went out into the world as missionaries to share his message of how to live. Is this one any better? This is the story of Siddhārtha Gautama. We known him better by the title of Buddha, and his story took place around 500 BCE.

Around 100 CE, we find the god Mithras in Rome. Very little is known about his devotees, but he had a miraculous birth, offered life after death, was resurrected after death, was honored with ritual feasts where they served chicken, bread and wine, and his birthday was celebrated on December 25th.

There are other correlations too detailed and numerous to go into (and not everyone agrees on the details), but here are a few worth studying:
The Great Flood: see the Hindu Puranic story of Manu, the Greek Deucalion, or the Epic of Gilgamesh’s Utnapishtim (even to the release of a dove).
The Tree of Immortality: from the Epic of Gilgamesh
The Tree of Knowledge: see Norse Mythology for the tree Yggdrasil

And as for that virgin birth...Yeshua himself said that Joseph was his father, by the way(Acts 2:29-30, Acts 13:23, Romans 1:3, Rev. 22:16).

Among those who had miraculous births, died and were resurrected: Horus, Attis, Dionysus, Mithra, Krishna. All were raised from the dead on the third day. It would be unreasonable to suppose that these similarities are just coincidences. The fact is, Christianity appears to be a re-hash of ancient tales in which good triumphs over evil, light over darkness, and where physical laws are temporarily over-written. One school of thought is that the whole mythos is based on astronomy (not astrology), and this actually seems to be more likely than that such mythos have come together from nothing, yet held together over many millennia (and across so many cultures).