How did Christianity become mixed with polytheistic beliefs? (Part 2) In the name of Allah, the Most High, the Merciful. Despite the element of atheism in the words of Durant, which is something that he is known for, and which is apparent in his claim that the idea of eternal reward or punishment came from the Egyptians, tracing the origins of deviant idolatry in Christianity is no longer a secret, and he is not the only one who has researched them. In his book Christianity and Idolatry, Robertson states that Mithraism, which is a religion of Persian origin, flourished in Persia approximately six centuries before the birth of Christ, and it reached Rome around the year 70 CE, where it spread throughout the Roman lands. Then it reached Britain and spread to a number of British cities. What concerns us here about this religion is that it says: - That Mithras, after whom it is named, was an intermediary between God and man (for a similar doctrine in Christianity, see Acts 4:12). - He was born in a cave or in a corner of the earth (cf. Luke 2:8) - His birthday was December 25 (which is the day celebrated by the Christians as the day when Jesus was born) - He had twelve disciples (cf. Matthew 10:1) - He died to save the world (cf. I Corinthians 15:3) - He was buried but he came back to life (cf. I Corinthians 15:4) - He ascended to heaven in front of his disciples (cf. Acts 1:9) - He was called “Saviour” (cf. Titus 2:13) - Among his attributes is that he is like a peaceful lamb (cf. John 1:29) - The “Divine supper” was held in his memory every year (cf. I Corinthians 11:23-25) - One of his symbols was baptism - Sunday was sacred to them The French Orientalist Leon Joteh, in his book “An Introduction to Islamic philosophy” is of the view that the origin of the Christian trinity is to be found in Greek philosophy, specifically in the ideas of modern Platonism, which took the basis of the idea of trinity as a view of the Creator of the universe from Plato, then developed it to a great extent, so that the resemblance between this idea and Christianity became greater. So (in their view) the Creator, the One Who is absolutely perfect, appointed two intermediaries between him and mankind, who emanated from Him, and were also part of Him at the same time, meaning that they are contained in His essence. These two entities are reasoning and divine spirit. Then he said: The marriage of Jewish belief and Greek philosophy did not only produce philosophy, rather it produced a religion too, namely Christianity which imbibed many ideas from the Greeks. The Christian concept of divinity is taken from the same source as modern Platonism. Hence you see many similarities between the two, although they may vary in some details. They are both based on a belief in trinity, in which the three “persons” are one. This is what the American writer Draper refers to: Idolatry and polytheism entered Christianity through the influence of the hypocrites who occupied positions of influence and high positions in the Roman state by pretending to be Christians, but they never cared about religion and were not sincere at all. Similarly Constantine had spent his life in darkness and evil, and he did not follow the commands of the church except for a short while at the end of his life. (p. 337) {TO BE CONTINUED INSHAA ALLAH}
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 08:33:53 +0000
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