This is a very brief comment on the video which bear the same title as this article. I encourage you to view Jaclyn Glen’s video. The content is nothing new to me and it is likely not new to some of you, too. Below are just a few quotations offered as a sampling of the video content. My apologies if I have erred in my transcription of the audio recording.
She has a “mountain of evidence against the Christian version of God.”
“There’s no such thing as hell, really, until you get to the New Testament.”
“The Bible was written by people that are influenced by the biases of the time period that they lived in.”
“There are so many stories, mythological stories before Jesus that had almost the same exact story line that he had.”
She states that these stories and myths about gods share various elements in common including the virgin birth, son of god, gifts of myrrh, brought salvation to people, died as a martyr, - some on a cross, and rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and that story is not unique to Jesus.
Horus, Krishna, Mithra: “The point is these three gods had so much in common with the story of Jesus. All came before him and it seems like nobody knows about this. I didn’t know it until quite recently.”
“How could you possibly credit it (Christianity) as being original and believe it completely?”
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First, I appreciate your sincere, even if unoriginal charges, concerning Jesus and the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Second, I appreciate that you see and have noted the many similarities between the gods Horus, Krishna and Mithra, and Jesus. I do not intend to refute every point in your video and I will limit my comments to a brief and general response.
You are correct on a particular point which I (quite unoriginal) have long made about Jesus. He was not original in his message. People in different cultures and different times had been exposed to the same message prior to the appearance of Jesus in the world. This has never been much of a point, even if some saints in Christ get hung up in their futile attempts to deny and distance Jesus from these particulars, of contention or dismay for many other (myself, included) saints.
A couple of things which you state, but of which you do not seem to catch the significance and the implications. Namely, that 1) the beliefs and claims of followers of Horus, Krishna and Mithra (and I am aware there are others) were limited to a particular people, time and place. Yes, it can well be argued there may be a billion followers of Krishna, but this is not due to a wide dissemination and embrace of his message outside of India as much as the great numbers of the indigenous population of India.
The 2) faith that is in Christ Jesus (note: Although I do not have a problem with people’s use of the term “Christianity” I have no use for it as it is the world’s corruption of a message written for all to read.) began among a people who for the most part despised and rejected Jesus. Although it began among the Jews and the message of Jesus as written by his disciples was in Greek (the dominant language of the world at the time) it was never claimed nor has it ever been viewed as the religion of the Jews or the Greeks. Unlike the message of Horus, Krishna and Mithra whose message and followers was limited to a particular people, (regardless of number) culture and time; the faith that is in Jesus was never and has never been limited or restricted to a people, culture or time. Have you considered how this element of disdain for Jesus versus the deities whom you mention? In our present time the world can see a prime example of the same limited phenomenon which characterizes these gods in the faith of Islam as practiced predominantly by Arabs in the Arabic language. Interesting side note: Arabs insist that converts to Islam learn Arabic. This is in sharp contrast with the faith that is in Jesus because there was never, even in the first century, any insistence for the disciples of Jesus to learn Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic.
So, what is the single point in the message of the New Testament concerning Jesus which despite it being similar with Horus, Krishna and Mithra sets Jesus apart? It is the resurrection; a vital point which much like the similarities by which you are fascinated you have, to understate it, overlooked its significance and implications. Lets put aside for the moment (much like you put aside various particulars concerning alleged contradictions in the Bible) the awareness and measures taken by state and hostile religious authorities concerning the event of the resurrection BEFORE it happened and AFTER it happened.
There is a question for everyone after the haze and dust has cleared from their minds and from before their eyes. It is all about similarities which every disciple of Horus, Krishna, Mithra, Jesus and every theist and atheist human being, plant and animal share in common. The similarity which we all is life and death.
None of us remembers the moment or day of our birth. We are told where and when and to whom we were born. However, death is an appointment which everyone of us shares in common with every human being (-1) since the beginning of time. Our death is no less real merely because we read about it from different and ancient or even questionable sources as something which we share in common with those who have gone on before us. Even if we don’t read or hear about someone else’s death we need look no further than others around us including plants and animals.
So, does it seem insignificant that the claims and reality of the resurrection of Jesus were not a private secret known only to a select few? Is it possible that there are implications concerning that resurrection and if so, what are those implications? How is that what was as common and similar as the resurrection among the deities of Horus, Krishna and Mithra was grasped by people, even while being being rejected, though not denied by adversaries, of different languages, cultures and times unlike any of those prior to Jesus?
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