The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors Part 4

In the case of Christ, it will be recollected, the star did not appear till after his birth. But here the star is the author and agent of the conception.

According to Ranking's "History of the Moguls," page 178, Tamerlane's mother (of Bermuda) professedly conceived by having had s.e.xual intercourse with "the G.o.d of Day." The mother of Ghengis Khan, of Tartary, "being too modest to claim that she was the mother of the son of G.o.d, said only that he was the _son of the sun_." (History of Mogul, page 65.)

Both Julis and Osiris of Egypt are spoken of by some authors as having been honored with a divine immaculate conception--the former being the son of the beautiful virgin Cronis Celestine, and "begotten by the Father of all G.o.ds."

Both Budha and Chrishna, of India, are reported as having been immaculately conceived. The mother of the latter (G.o.d) was (as the Hindoo Holy Book declares) overshadowed by the Supreme G.o.d, Brahma, while the spirit-author of the conception (that is, the Holy Ghost) was Naraan. The mother of Apollonius of Cappadocia, who was cotemporary with Jesus Christ (according to his history by Philostratus)--and his (Apollonius') disciple Damis testifies to the same effect gave birth to this G.o.d and rival Savior of Jesus Christ, by having been previously "overshadowed" by the supreme G.o.d Proteus. For the corporeal existence and earthly career of Augustus Caesar, the world has ostensibly to acknowledge itself indebted to the "overshadowing" influence and generating power of Jove, by whose divine influence he was immaculously conceived in the temple of Apollo, according to the statement of Nimrod, his biographer. The virgin mother s.h.i.+ng-Mon of China furnishes another case of immaculate conception. Possessing a sensibility too lofty and too refined to descend to the ordinary routine of the world, she gave birth to the G.o.d Yu from previous conception by a water lily. This case, with respect to the degree of procreative delicacy and refinement evinced, may be cla.s.sed with that of Juno of Greece. Here it may be noted as a curious circ.u.mstance, that several of the virgin mothers of G.o.ds and great men are specifically represented as going ten months between conception and delivery. The mothers of Hercules, Sakia, Guatama, Scipio, Arion, Solomon and Jesus Christ may be mentioned as samples of this character. This tradition probably grew out of the established belief in the ten sacred cycles which const.i.tute the great prospective and portentous millennial epoch, as described in Chapter x.x.x. Arion, mentioned above, is represented as being both miraculously and immaculously conceived by the G.o.ds in the citadel of Byrsa.

In view of the foregoing facts, drawn from accredited histories, the reader will readily concede that the tradition of the miraculous conceptions of G.o.ds (sons of G.o.d), Saviors and Messiahs was very prevalent in the world at a very ancient period of time, and long before the mother of Jesus was "overshadowed by the Most High." Indeed, says Mr. Higgins, "the belief in the immaculate conception extended to every nation in the world." And Grote, referring to Greece, makes the remarkable declaration, that "the furtive pregnancy of young women, often by a G.o.d, is one of the most frequently recurring incidents in the legendary narratives of the country." And we find that both the prevalency and great antiquity of the doctrine of the immaculate conception among the heathen is conceded by Christian writers themselves (of former ages) in their attempts to find arguments and commendatory precedents to justify their own belief in the doctrine. For proof of this, we need only cite the Christian writer Mr. Bailey, who remarks, "What I have said of St. Augustine is applicable also to Origen and Lactanius, who have endeavored to persuade us of the immaculate virginity of the mother of Jesus Christ by the example of similar events stored by the heathen." Here we have several Christian authorities cited by another writer, also a Christian, for placing the doctrine of the immaculate conception among the heathen legends in ages long anterior to Christ.

With respect to the degree of credence to be attached to the story of the immaculate conception of the mother of Jesus, it need only be observed that there was no other person concerned in the transaction but herself who could possess positive, absolute knowledge of the parentage.

And she, let it be noted, settles the matter forever, by virtually affirming that Joseph was his father in the declaration addressed to Jesus when she found him in the temple, "_I and thy father_ have sought thee sorrowing." (Luke ii. 48.) No one will dispute that the father here spoken of was Joseph, which amounts to a positive declaration by the mother, that Joseph was Jesus' father.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND MIRACULOUS BIRTH OF THE CHRISTIAN SAVIOR.

The following considerations exhibit some of the numerous absurdities involved in the story of the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ.

1. The evangelical narratives show that Christ himself did not claim to have a miraculous birth. He did not once allude to such an event; while if, as Christians claim, it is the princ.i.p.al evidence of his deitys.h.i.+p, he certainly would have done so.

2. His paternal genealogy, as made out by Matthew and Luke, completely disproves the story of his miraculous conception by a virgin. For they both trace his lineage through Joseph, which they could not do only on the a.s.sumption that Joseph was his father. This, of course, disproves his sires.h.i.+p by the Holy Ghost, ergo, the miraculous conception. It is the lineage and parentage of Joseph, and not Mary, that is given in tracing back his ancestry to the royal household--a fact which completely overthrows the story of his miraculous birth.

3. And the fact that his _own disciple_ (Philip) declared him to be the _son of Joseph_, and that several texts show that it was the current impression, is still further confirmation of the conclusion.

4. We find the story of the immaculate conception resting entirely upon the slender foundation comprised in the legends of an angel and a dream.

We are told that Mary got it by an angel, and Joseph by a dream. And through these sources we have the whole groundwork and foundation of the story of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

5. It should be noticed that we have neither Joseph's nor Mary's report of these things, but only Matthew and Luke's version of the affair.

And we are not informed that either of them ever saw or conversed with Joseph or Mary on the subject. It is probable they got it from Dame Rumor, with her thousand tongues.

6. If Christ were a miraculously born G.o.d, is it possible his mother would have reproved him for misconduct when she found him in the temple, as she must have known his character?

7. If Mary was miraculously conceived, why was the important secret kept so long from Joseph? Why did she keep the "wool drawn over his eyes"

till an angel had to be sent from heaven to let him into the secret?

8. If she were a virtuously-minded woman, why did she thus attempt to deceive him?

9. Why did not G.o.d inform Joseph by "inspiration" instead of employing the roundabout way of sending an angel to do it?

10. We are told that "Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost." But as we are not informed who found it out, or who made the discovery, or how it was made, is it not thus left in a very suspicious aspect?

11. As the whole affair seems to have been based on dreams, and was carried on through dreams, and has no better foundation than dreams, why should we consider it ent.i.tled to any better credit than similar stories found in works on heathen mythology?

12. And would it not prove that Christianity is rather a dreamy religion?

13. Should not the astounding and incredible report of the birth of a G.o.d be based on a better foundation than that of dreams and angels and the legends of oriental mythology, to ent.i.tle it to the belief of an intelligent and scientific age?

14. Or can any man of science entertain for a moment the superlative solecism of an Infinite G.o.d by any special act "overshadowing" a finite human female, especially as modern science teaches us that G.o.d is both male and female, and as much one as the other?

15. As history teaches us the ancient orientalists believed that s.e.xual commerce is sinful and contaminating to the child thus begotten and born, and hence had their incarnate G.o.ds sent into the world through human virgins, can any unbiased mind resist the conviction that this is the source of the origin of the story of Christ's immaculate conception?

16. And finally, if it were necessary for Christ to come into the world in such a way as to avoid the impure channel of human conception and parturition, why did he not descend directly from heaven in person? Why could he not "descend on the clouds" by his first advent, as the bible says he will do when he makes his second advent?

17. Would not this course have furnished a hundred fold more convincing proof and demonstration of his divine power and divine attributes than the ridiculous story and inscrutable mystery of the divine conception, which is not susceptible of either investigation or proof?

CHAPTER V. VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN G.o.dS

THE report in authentic history of a case of a virtuous woman giving birth to a child with the usual form, and possessing the usual characteristics of a human being, and who should testify she had no male partner in the conception, might in an age of miracles and ignorance of natural law, be believed with implicit credulity. But in an age of intelligence, when the keys of science have unlocked the sacred shrines and hallowed vaults of sacerdotal mysteries, and modern researches of history have laid bare the fact that most ancient religious countries abound in reports of this character, a profound and general skepticism must be the result, and a total rejection of their truth by all men of science and historic intelligence.

Many are the cases noted in history of young maidens claiming a paternity for their male offspring by a G.o.d.

In Greece it became so common that the reigning king issued an edict, decreeing the death of all young women who should offer such an insult to deity as to lay to him the charge of begetting their children. The virgin Alcmene furnishes a case of a young woman claiming G.o.d as the father of her offspring, when she brought forth the divine Redeemer Alcides, 1280 years B. C. And Ceres, the virgin mother of Osiris, claimed that he was begotten by the "father of all G.o.ds." Mr. Kenrick tells us the likeness of this virgin mother, with the divine child in her arms, may now be seen represented in sculpture on some of the ancient, ruined temples of that ruined empire. And Mr. Higgins makes the broad declaration that "the wors.h.i.+p of this virgin mother, with her G.o.d-begotten child, prevailed everywhere." This author also quotes Mr.

Riquord as saying, this son of G.o.d "was exhibited in effigy, lying in a manger, in the same manner the infant Jesus was afterward laid in the cave at Bethlehem." Mr. Higgins further testifies that the wors.h.i.+p of this virgin G.o.d-mother (that is, the G.o.d and the mother) is of very ancient date and universal prevalence in all the eastern countries, as is proved by sculptured figures bearing the marks of great age.

In corroboration of this statement we might cite many cases, if our s.p.a.ce would permit, from the religious records of India, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Mexico, Thibet, etc. Maia, mother of Sakia and Yasoda of Chrishna; Celestine, mother of the crucified Zulis; Chimalman, mother of Quex-alcote; Semele, mother of the Egyptian Bacchus, and Minerva, mother of the Grecian Bacchus; Prudence, mother of Hercules; Alcmene, mother of Alcides; s.h.i.+ng-Mon, mother-of Yu, and Mayence, mother of Hesus, were all as confidently believed to be pure, holy and chaste virgins, while giving birth to these G.o.ds, sons of G.o.d, Saviors and sin-atoning Mediators, as was Mary, mother of Jesus, and long before her time.

Mr. Higgins remarks that the mother was still held to be a virgin, even after she had given birth to other children besides the deity-begotten bantling, which furnishes another striking parallel to the history of Mary, as she was still called a virgin after she had given birth to Jesus and his brothers James and John. And it is an incident worth noticing here, that, in the case of Mayence, virgin-mother of the G.o.d-sired Hesus of the Druids, the ancient traditions of the country, more than two thousand years old, represent her body as being enveloped in light, and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, corresponding exactly to the apocalyptic figure described by the mystagogue, St. John, in the twelfth chapter of his Revelation. She is also represented with her foot on the head of a serpent, according to Davie's "Universal Etymology." (Vide the case of the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head, Gen. iii. 15.)

Auguste Nichols tells us, in his "Philosophical Essays on Christianity,"

that Io is called, in Eschylus, "the Chaste Virgin," and her son "the Son of G.o.d." (For other similar cases, see Guigne's History of the Huns.) Gonzales informs us he found on an ancient temple in India the Latin inscription _Patiuro virginis_, "the virgin about to bring forth."

And similar inscriptions have been found on pagan temples in the country of the ancient Gauls. (For proof, see Riquord's Theology of the Ancient Gauls, Chapter X.) "He who hath ears to hear, let him hear," and treasure up these facts. According to Chinese history there were two beings--Tien and Chang-Ti--wors.h.i.+ped in that country as G.o.ds more than twenty-five hundred years ago, born of virgins "who knew no man." The mother of the mighty and the almighty G.o.d Hercules, we are told, "knew only Jove."

If history and tradition, then, are to be credited, G.o.d had many "well beloved sons," born of pious and holy virgins, besides Jesus Christ. And some of them are represented as being his "only begotten," and others his "first begotten," sons. And all these cases appear to be equally as well authenticated as the story of Jesus Christ. All stand upon a level, the same kind and the same amount of evidence being offered in each case.

Here we will note it as a curious circ.u.mstance, that several of the above-named Saviors are represented as being black, Jesus Christ included with this number.

There is as much evidence that the Christian Savior was a black man, or at least a dark man, as there is of his being the son of the Virgin Mary, or that he once lived and moved upon the earth. And that evidence is the testimony of his disciples, who had nearly as good an opportunity of knowing what his complexion was as the evangelists, who omit to say anything about it. In the pictures and portraits of Christ by the early Christians, he is uniformly represented as being black. And to make this the more certain, the red tinge is given to the lips; and the only text in the Christian bible quoted by orthodox Christians, as describing his complexion, represents it as being black. Solomon's declaration, "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem" (Sol. i. 5), is often cited as referring to Christ. According to the bible itself, then, Jesus Christ was a black man.

Let us suppose that, at some future time, he makes his second advent to the earth, as some Christians antic.i.p.ate he will do, and that he comes in the character of a sable Messiah, how would he be received by our negro-hating Christians, of sensitive olfactory nerves? Would they wors.h.i.+p a negro G.o.d? Let us imagine he enters one of our fas.h.i.+onable churches, with his "rough and ready" linsey-woolsey, seamless garment on, made of wild sea-gra.s.s, thus presenting a very forbidding appearance, and what would be the result? Would the s.e.xton show him to a seat? Would he not rather point to the door, and exclaim, "Get out of here; no place here for n.i.g.g.e.rs?" What a ludicrous series of ideas is thus suggested by the thought that Jesus Christ was a "darkey."

And the tradition of divine Saviors being born of undefiled and undeflowered virgins has an astronomical chapter we must not omit to notice. The virgin, with her G.o.d-begotten child, was pictured imaginarily in the heavens from time immemorial. They are represented on the Hindoo zodiac, at least three thousand years old, and on the ancient Egyptian planispheres. And if you will examine "Burritt's Geography of the Heavens," you will find the infant G.o.d-son (the sun) is represented as being born into a new year on the 25th of December (the very date a.s.signed for Christ's birth), and may be seen rising over the eastern horizon, out of Mary, Maria, or Mare (the Latin for _sea_), with the infant G.o.d in her arms, being heralded and preceded by a bright star, which rises immediately preceding the virgin and her child, thus suggesting the text, "We have seen his star in the east, and have come to wors.h.i.+p him." (Matt. ii.8.) Such facts led the learned Alphonso to exclaim, "The adventures of Jesus Christ are all depicted among the stars."

And such facts fasten the conviction on our mind that the stories of G.o.ds cohabiting with young maids or virgins, and begetting other G.o.ds, is of astrological origin--the story of Jesus Christ included. A critical research shows that astronomy and religion were interblended, interwoven, and confounded together at a very early period of time, so indissolubly, that it now becomes impossible to separate them.

CHAPTER VI. STARS POINT OUT THE TIME AND THE SAVIORS' BIRTH-PLACE

PROFUSION of evidence is furnished at every step along the devious pathway of sacred history, tending to show that all the systems of wors.h.i.+p which have existed in the past have had a dip in "the halo of the heavenly orbs," and hence s.h.i.+ne with a light derived from that source.

We find the stars acting directly a conspicuous part at the births of several of the Saviors, besides figuring in some cases by marking important events in their subsequent history.

Mr. Higgins remarks that "Among the ancients there seems to have been a very general idea that the arrival of G.o.ds and great personages who were expected to come, would be announced by a star." And the cases of Abraham, Caesar, Pythagoras, Yu, Chrishna, and Christ, may be cited in proof of this declaration. A star figured either before or at the birth of each, according to their respective histories.

And it is a historical fact that should be noted here that the practice of calculating nativities by the stars was in vogue in the era and country of Christ's birth, and had been for a long period previously in various countries. "We have seen his star in the east, and have come to wors.h.i.+p him." (Matt. ii. i.) Now mark, here, it was not _the star_, nor _a star_, but "_his star_;" thus disclosing its unmistakable astrological features. Mr. Faber (in his "Origin of Idolatry," vol. ii.