"The 'Wisdom of Solomon'—generally dated to the mid-first century BC—presents that a 'righteous man' whose 'soul is blameless,' yet is mistreated 'with insult and torture' and wrongly condemned to a 'shameful death' (2:19-22; compare Mark 15:29-32), is in fact a 'Son of God' (2:13, 2:16, 2:18, 5:5) who will be resurrected and crowned by God, while those who despise him will be condemned. This lesson certainly predates Christianity, which makes this another example of how Jewish values were primed for accepting the story of Jesus."
-----
From: Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier.
@ChristianityExposed
-----
From: Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier.
@ChristianityExposed
We Have No Evidence
We have no evidence that an historical Jesus even existed, until decades after his death. We have no bodies, no tombs, no physical remains, no letters, no engravings—nothing that counts as evidence. The oldest existing Bible dates from the year 350; as we move backward in time from there, our confidence in the actual text diminishes significantly. Expert consensus is that the four Gospels date to the years 70 to 95 AD, and Paul’s letters to 50 to 70 AD.
Between the years zero and 93 AD we have absolutely no independent, corroborating evidence for such things as the Bethlehem star, any of Jesus’ 36 miracles, any of the apostles’ miracles, or any of the Christian-specific events depicted in the New Testament. Josephus’ brief reference in 93 is the first independent confirmation of the mere existence of a Christian movement, followed by Tacitus and Pliny around the year 115.
-----
From: The Jesus Hoax by David Skrbina.
@ChristianityExposed
We have no evidence that an historical Jesus even existed, until decades after his death. We have no bodies, no tombs, no physical remains, no letters, no engravings—nothing that counts as evidence. The oldest existing Bible dates from the year 350; as we move backward in time from there, our confidence in the actual text diminishes significantly. Expert consensus is that the four Gospels date to the years 70 to 95 AD, and Paul’s letters to 50 to 70 AD.
Between the years zero and 93 AD we have absolutely no independent, corroborating evidence for such things as the Bethlehem star, any of Jesus’ 36 miracles, any of the apostles’ miracles, or any of the Christian-specific events depicted in the New Testament. Josephus’ brief reference in 93 is the first independent confirmation of the mere existence of a Christian movement, followed by Tacitus and Pliny around the year 115.
-----
From: The Jesus Hoax by David Skrbina.
@ChristianityExposed
"The entire world has already become filled with the mention of Mashiach [the Jewish Messiah], Torah [Jewish scriptures], and mitzvot [Jewish law]. Ultimately, all the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth and that Ishmaelite who arose after him [Muhammad] will only serve to prepare the way for Mashiach's coming and the improvement of the entire world, motivating the nations to serve [the Jewish] God together."
— Maimonides (The Mishneh Torah)
The most influential Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar of all time, Maimonides, praising Christianity and Islam for spreading Jewish prophecies, Jewish scriptures, Jewish law, and the universal worship of the Jewish God across the non-Jewish nations.
@ChristianityExposed
— Maimonides (The Mishneh Torah)
The most influential Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar of all time, Maimonides, praising Christianity and Islam for spreading Jewish prophecies, Jewish scriptures, Jewish law, and the universal worship of the Jewish God across the non-Jewish nations.
@ChristianityExposed
Paul the Apostle, whose letters formed the foundation of Christianity—despite never even having met Jesus—admitting that he was "indeed a Jew".
@ChristianityExposed
@ChristianityExposed
Why Should We Not Worship Gods?
Whatever the outcome of the debate over the form of God and the importance of images, the Christians are the losers, since they worship neither a god nor even a demon, but a dead man! Moreover, why should we not worship gods?
If it is accepted that all of nature—everything in the world—operates according to the will of God and that nothing works contrary to his purposes, then it must also be accepted that the angels, the demons, heroes—everything in the universe—are subject to the will of the great God who rules over all.
This being the case, it would be appropriate for each man who worships God also to honor the being who exercises his allotted responsibilities at God's pleasure, since that being must have been licensed to do what he does by God. A man who honors what belongs to God does not offend God, since all belongs to him.
-----
From: On the True Doctrine by Celsus (ca. 178 CE).
@ChristianityExposed
Whatever the outcome of the debate over the form of God and the importance of images, the Christians are the losers, since they worship neither a god nor even a demon, but a dead man! Moreover, why should we not worship gods?
If it is accepted that all of nature—everything in the world—operates according to the will of God and that nothing works contrary to his purposes, then it must also be accepted that the angels, the demons, heroes—everything in the universe—are subject to the will of the great God who rules over all.
This being the case, it would be appropriate for each man who worships God also to honor the being who exercises his allotted responsibilities at God's pleasure, since that being must have been licensed to do what he does by God. A man who honors what belongs to God does not offend God, since all belongs to him.
-----
From: On the True Doctrine by Celsus (ca. 178 CE).
@ChristianityExposed
A Fulfillment Of Biblical Prophecy
"White evangelicals, most of whom are proud Republicans, have the strongest views of Israelis. A whopping 86% of white evangelicals said they felt warmly toward Israelis—more than any other Christian group. The survey found that 70% of white evangelicals believe God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people."
"'It's important to their theological narrative,' said Arielle Levites, research assistant professor at George Washington University, referring to white evangelicals. Many evangelicals view the creation of Israel in 1948 as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would usher in Jesus' return, although the survey did not ask about this."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
"White evangelicals, most of whom are proud Republicans, have the strongest views of Israelis. A whopping 86% of white evangelicals said they felt warmly toward Israelis—more than any other Christian group. The survey found that 70% of white evangelicals believe God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people."
"'It's important to their theological narrative,' said Arielle Levites, research assistant professor at George Washington University, referring to white evangelicals. Many evangelicals view the creation of Israel in 1948 as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would usher in Jesus' return, although the survey did not ask about this."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
"Norway's Olaf Haraldsson, known as Olaf the Stout and later Saint Olaf, converted in France after a glorious career as a pagan Viking, which included leading the destruction of London Bridge in 1010. Returning to Norway as a Christian, he became king in 1016 and was thereafter a zealous evangelizer for the new faith. He burned down the farms of all who resisted conversion and crippled recalcitrant pagans. Reason, bribery, miracles, force—Olaf employed every method available to convert his people."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
A History That Never Happened
There is a problem with the names 'Jerusalem' and 'Israel'. Their derivation tells a history that is completely at odds with the Bible. The word Israel means 'fighter for El' who was a Canaanite god. Jerusalem is named after another Canaanite god called Shalem. But according to the Bible, the Canaanites were the deadly enemies of the Israelites. What is going on here? The answer is simple but shocking.
All the evidence now points to the Israelites being indigenous inhabitants of Canaan. The Biblical story that they arrived in Palestine from Egypt is a myth. The Israelites did not come from somewhere else, they were already there. This view is now widely shared by scholars. One modern archaeologist states: "The Israelites never were in Egypt. They never came from abroad. The whole chain is broken. It is not an historical one. It is a later legendary reconstruction of a history that never happened."
-----
From: The Laughing Jesus by Tim Freke.
@ChristianityExposed
There is a problem with the names 'Jerusalem' and 'Israel'. Their derivation tells a history that is completely at odds with the Bible. The word Israel means 'fighter for El' who was a Canaanite god. Jerusalem is named after another Canaanite god called Shalem. But according to the Bible, the Canaanites were the deadly enemies of the Israelites. What is going on here? The answer is simple but shocking.
All the evidence now points to the Israelites being indigenous inhabitants of Canaan. The Biblical story that they arrived in Palestine from Egypt is a myth. The Israelites did not come from somewhere else, they were already there. This view is now widely shared by scholars. One modern archaeologist states: "The Israelites never were in Egypt. They never came from abroad. The whole chain is broken. It is not an historical one. It is a later legendary reconstruction of a history that never happened."
-----
From: The Laughing Jesus by Tim Freke.
@ChristianityExposed
"Matthew’s and John’s Gospels end with Jesus still on Earth. Mark’s Gospel originally ended at chapter 16, verse 8, with the terrified women fleeing the empty tomb, with no ascension story at all. Verses 9-20 with the ascension account were added much later. So we are dependent on the author of Acts and Luke—who is the same person. Incredibly, the account of the ascension ultimately boils down to just one person—who by his own admission (Luke 1:1-2) wasn’t even there."
-----
From: Nailed by David Fitzgerald.
@ChristianityExposed
-----
From: Nailed by David Fitzgerald.
@ChristianityExposed
"Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature is sin! What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned."
— Friedrich Nietzsche (Daybreak)
@ChristianityExposed
— Friedrich Nietzsche (Daybreak)
@ChristianityExposed
Heretics Deserve Death
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism. In the Summa Theologiae, he wrote:
"With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death."
That Thomas specifically says that heretics "deserve ... death" is related to his theology, according to which all sinners have no intrinsic right to life (Romans 6:23). For Jews, Thomas argues for toleration of both their persons and their religious rites.
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism. In the Summa Theologiae, he wrote:
"With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death."
That Thomas specifically says that heretics "deserve ... death" is related to his theology, according to which all sinners have no intrinsic right to life (Romans 6:23). For Jews, Thomas argues for toleration of both their persons and their religious rites.
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
We have accomplished what we have accomplished in spite of Christianity, not because of it. Our competence derives from our European blood, not from their Jewish scriptures.
@ChristianityExposed
@ChristianityExposed
"What could be sillier than what the Christians call wisdom! The god of the Jews, their great lawgiver (say the Christians) made a mistake. Why do you so grudgingly worship this Creator, you hypocrites, when he promised the Jews everything—that he would make their race prosper, that he would raise them up from the dead in their own flesh and blood—this same God who inspired the prophets?"
-----
From: On the True Doctrine by Celsus (ca. 178 CE).
@ChristianityExposed
-----
From: On the True Doctrine by Celsus (ca. 178 CE).
@ChristianityExposed
"The story of Moses, with its many miracles, has all the hallmarks of a myth. The account of Moses' birth is a retelling of the myth of the birth of Sargon the Great, the king of Akkad, which is known in a number of variations from the early sixth century BCE. Like Moses, the child Sargon is 'set in a basket of rushes' and 'cast into the river', from which he is later rescued by an influential woman. These probably all go back to Egyptian stories which tell of Osiris confined in a chest and thrown in the Nile."
-----
From: The Laughing Jesus by Tim Freke.
@ChristianityExposed
-----
From: The Laughing Jesus by Tim Freke.
@ChristianityExposed
A Censorship Rampage
Christians went on a censorship rampage and destroyed as much evidence as they could in the name of "piety", ravaging Pagan temples, murdering their priests, burning libraries and torturing and slaughtering nonbelievers and believers alike by the millions.
Christian structures were built upon the ruins of the Pagan temples, such as in the case of the Vatican, which was founded upon the remains of a complex dedicated to the sun god Mithra.
Indeed, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome stands an obelisk moved from Egypt by Emperor Caligula, who placed it in his circus, after which it was later transported during the 16th century AD/CE to the Piazza San Pietro, eventually serving as the gnomon of a sundial.
-----
From: Christ in Egypt by Acharya S.
@ChristianityExposed
Christians went on a censorship rampage and destroyed as much evidence as they could in the name of "piety", ravaging Pagan temples, murdering their priests, burning libraries and torturing and slaughtering nonbelievers and believers alike by the millions.
Christian structures were built upon the ruins of the Pagan temples, such as in the case of the Vatican, which was founded upon the remains of a complex dedicated to the sun god Mithra.
Indeed, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome stands an obelisk moved from Egypt by Emperor Caligula, who placed it in his circus, after which it was later transported during the 16th century AD/CE to the Piazza San Pietro, eventually serving as the gnomon of a sundial.
-----
From: Christ in Egypt by Acharya S.
@ChristianityExposed
A Pack Of Lies
After years of painstaking research we concluded that the traditional history of Christianity was at best hopelessly inaccurate and at worst a pack of lies. Christianity was not the cult of a first-century Messiah, but a Jewish adaptation of the ancient Pagan Mystery religion. We even ventured an informed guess as to who may have authored the original Jesus myth—a sect of mystical Jews called the Therapeutae.
Jewish philosopher Philo, himself known as 'the Pythagorean', describes the Therapeutae as practising 'the contemplative life', which was a way of describing Pythagoreans. He tells us their wisdom stems from Greece. Philo's description of the Therapeutae was written before the time that Jesus is supposed to have been teaching, so he is clearly not writing about disciples of an historical Messiah. The Therapeutae did not follow Jesus. They created him.
-----
From: Jesus and the Lost Goddess by Tim Freke.
@ChristianityExposed
After years of painstaking research we concluded that the traditional history of Christianity was at best hopelessly inaccurate and at worst a pack of lies. Christianity was not the cult of a first-century Messiah, but a Jewish adaptation of the ancient Pagan Mystery religion. We even ventured an informed guess as to who may have authored the original Jesus myth—a sect of mystical Jews called the Therapeutae.
Jewish philosopher Philo, himself known as 'the Pythagorean', describes the Therapeutae as practising 'the contemplative life', which was a way of describing Pythagoreans. He tells us their wisdom stems from Greece. Philo's description of the Therapeutae was written before the time that Jesus is supposed to have been teaching, so he is clearly not writing about disciples of an historical Messiah. The Therapeutae did not follow Jesus. They created him.
-----
From: Jesus and the Lost Goddess by Tim Freke.
@ChristianityExposed
"In terms of religious identity, Paul is representative of the Jews who produced the writings that now make up the New Testament. They were, to be sure, Jews who believed in Jesus. They thought of Jesus as the realization of classical Jewish hopes."
-----
From: Paul Was Not a Christian by Pamela Eisenbaum.
@ChristianityExposed
-----
From: Paul Was Not a Christian by Pamela Eisenbaum.
@ChristianityExposed
The Ultimate Jewish Messiah
Christianity started as a messianic Jewish sect. Most of Jesus's teachings were intelligible and acceptable in terms of Second Temple Judaism; what set the followers of Jesus apart from other Jews was their faith in Jesus as the resurrected messiah.
While ancient Judaism acknowledged multiple messiahs, the two most relevant being the Messiah ben Joseph and the traditional Messiah ben David, Christianity acknowledges only one ultimate Messiah. Jesus would have been viewed by many as one or both.
According to Larry Hurtado, "the Christology and devotional stance that Paul affirmed was not a departure from or a transcending of a supposedly monochrome Jewish messianism, but, instead, a distinctive expression within a variegated body of Jewish messianic hopes."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
Christianity started as a messianic Jewish sect. Most of Jesus's teachings were intelligible and acceptable in terms of Second Temple Judaism; what set the followers of Jesus apart from other Jews was their faith in Jesus as the resurrected messiah.
While ancient Judaism acknowledged multiple messiahs, the two most relevant being the Messiah ben Joseph and the traditional Messiah ben David, Christianity acknowledges only one ultimate Messiah. Jesus would have been viewed by many as one or both.
According to Larry Hurtado, "the Christology and devotional stance that Paul affirmed was not a departure from or a transcending of a supposedly monochrome Jewish messianism, but, instead, a distinctive expression within a variegated body of Jewish messianic hopes."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
The Butcher Of Saxons
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated.
In all, 18 campaigns were fought. They resulted in the incorporation of Saxony into the Frankish realm and their forcible conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity.
Charlemagne issued a number of decrees designed to break Saxon resistance and to inflict capital punishment on anyone observing heathen practices. His severe and uncompromising position earned him the title "butcher of Saxons."
In 785, he issued the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, which asserted, "If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated.
In all, 18 campaigns were fought. They resulted in the incorporation of Saxony into the Frankish realm and their forcible conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity.
Charlemagne issued a number of decrees designed to break Saxon resistance and to inflict capital punishment on anyone observing heathen practices. His severe and uncompromising position earned him the title "butcher of Saxons."
In 785, he issued the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, which asserted, "If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death."
-----
Full article here.
@ChristianityExposed
The Divinity Of Nature
The native religion of heathen Germany saw the earth as a place of the Gods. Its mysteries and symbols were referable to a worship of nature; all the phenomena of the universe were informed by divinity. Christianity reversed this view; nature, ceasing to bear die impress of the divine, became diabolized. Christianity turned these earthly pagan Gods into devils and repudiated all that was of the earth.
Characterized by a deistic denial of the divinity of nature, Christianity is hostile to human nature. It provides the basis for political despotism insofar as it grants a special authority on what is right and just to a few who are said to be nearer the divine, and it represses the healthy expression of the body and the sensuous admiration of beauty. Priests are then a ready ally of political authority, while all people are alienated from their original nature.
-----
From: Religion and Philosophy in Germany by Heinrich Heine.
@ChristianityExposed
The native religion of heathen Germany saw the earth as a place of the Gods. Its mysteries and symbols were referable to a worship of nature; all the phenomena of the universe were informed by divinity. Christianity reversed this view; nature, ceasing to bear die impress of the divine, became diabolized. Christianity turned these earthly pagan Gods into devils and repudiated all that was of the earth.
Characterized by a deistic denial of the divinity of nature, Christianity is hostile to human nature. It provides the basis for political despotism insofar as it grants a special authority on what is right and just to a few who are said to be nearer the divine, and it represses the healthy expression of the body and the sensuous admiration of beauty. Priests are then a ready ally of political authority, while all people are alienated from their original nature.
-----
From: Religion and Philosophy in Germany by Heinrich Heine.
@ChristianityExposed