judaism christianity and islam are typically grouped together under the same umbrella of abrahamic religion this video is going to show that far from being a religion in the monotheistic lineage of abraham christianity in fact has its origin in pagan cults christianity has the doctrine of the trinity in which god is said to manifest as three persons the father son and holy spirit let's compare this concept of three related divinities to different pagan religions the ancient egyptians had the trinity of our moon ray antar an egyptian hymn reads all gods are three our moon ray antar babylonians worship the trinity of nana shamash and ishtar hinduism has the concept of trimuti in which the supreme god brahman is said to manifest as the three forms brahma vishnu and shiva the hindu text padma purana states he who is the eternal god became the three gods brahma vishnu and shiva the greeks had the goddess hekate whom they described as triple headed and goddess of the triple ways the romans venerated diana as diva triformis which means three formed goddess a roman poet wrote all three formed goddess to thee i dedicate the pine tree northwestern european tribes worshiped a group of three female deities known as matrone which means matrons [Music] persians had the triad ahura mazda mithra and anahita an ancient royal inscription reads may ahura mazda anahita and mithra protect me and my building against evil we can see that this concept of three related divinities is an ancient phenomenon which has been present in different pagan religions throughout the world it's important to point out that the christian trinity differs in its finer details when compared to these other cults however this basic concept of three related divinities is common to all of them and is fundamentally pagan the greek philosopher aristotle had this to say about the mystical significance of the number three just as the pythagoreans say the whole and all things are delimited by the three for end middle and beginning have the number of the whole which is that of the triad wherefore we use this number also in the worship of the gods taking it from nature as a law of it in christianity jesus is the incarnate son of god who is said to possess two natures one divine and one human this idea of a god man hybrid is fundamentally pagan greco-roman religions were filled with tales of gods procreating with human women and begetting god men for example the chief god in the greek pantheon zeus visited the human woman danny in the form of golden rain and fathered perseus a god man hercules also the son of zeus is another example of a god-man the new testament states that the role of the incarnate son of god is to be the savior of mankind the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world the belief that gods became incarnate as men and acted as universal saviors was also common in paganism perhaps the best known example is the roman dictator julius caesar an ancient inscription has this to say about him descendant of aries and aphrodite the god who has become manifest and universal savior of human life here julius caesar is said to be a manifestation of the gods and the savior of mankind another direct parallel can be found in the gospel of mark the beginning of the good news about jesus the messiah the son of god this statement that jesus the son of god is the beginning of the good news is also mirrored by another roman dictator augustus the birthday of the god has been for the whole world the beginning of good news concerning him the concept of a human being who is a divine son of god the savior of mankind and good news was a sort of template that was applied to people of great power and authority we've seen that the history of paganism is littered with such examples and the christian conception of jesus was just another incarnate god in a long line of incarnate gods that had preceded him the early christian apologist justin martyr considered a saint in the catholic church admitted that christianity had borrowed its concept of divine sonship from pagans when we say that the word jesus christ the firstborn of god was produced without sexual union and that he was crucified and died and rose again and ascended to heaven we propound nothing new or different from what you pagans believe regarding those whom you consider sons of jupiter the gospel of matthew states that jesus foretold he would die and rise again after a period of three days and three nights for as jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish saw the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth very early on churches taught that during his three-day and three-night absence jesus descended into hell the apostles creed is an early statement of christian belief it states i believe in jesus christ his only son our lord was crucified died and was buried he descended into hell the third day he arose again from the dead these beliefs mirror an ancient sumerian myth about the goddess inanna which states from the great heaven inanna set her mind on the great below inanna abandoned heaven abandoned earth and ascended to the underworld after three days and three nights had passed thusla inanna arise the gospel of matthew also tells us that something extraordinary happened when jesus died at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom the earth shook the rocks split and the tombs broke open the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life they came out of the tombs after jesus's resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people now none of the other gospels mention this astonishing incident of the walking dead only matthew reports it let's compare the accounts of matthew and mark regarding the death of jesus notice that even though mark's account is virtually identical to that of matthew mark does not mention the rising of the dead saints if such a miraculous event really happened then there will be no rational reason for mark to omit it from his gospel consider that the apostle paul had the perfect opportunity to mention this story when he was preaching to an audience that was skeptical about life after death but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead paul could have easily proven that there is life after death by mentioning the numerous resurrections that took place when the dead saints walked the streets of jerusalem he did not mention anything about such an event because it never happened flavius josephus was a first century historian who was born in jerusalem even though he was a prolific writer and documented much about the city he also failed to mention anything about this most public of miracles even conservative christian scholarship rejects the historicity of this event the new testament scholar mike lacona stated that this story is a strange report and literary special effects the theologian william lane craig stated that probably only a few conservative scholars would treat the story as historical if matthew's story of the walking dead is an invention then from where did he get his inspiration for such a tale it just happens to be present among pagan cultures the ancient greek celebrated a three-day festival known as anthesteria during which it was believed that the dead came back to life and walked among the living in the cities the roman poet virgil wrote that when julius caesar was assassinated phantoms of an earthly palla were seen in the falling darkness the gospel of john narrates to us the following conversation between jesus and his disciples this bread is my flesh which i will give for the life of the world whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise them up at the last day for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and i in them here jesus instituted the ritualistic consumption of bread and wine said to represent his flesh and blood note the great importance that is placed on the ritual it was claimed to bestow eternal life all of this has precedent in the ancient egyptian cult of osiris osiris was believed to be the god of the dead and the god of resurrection the body of osiris was represented by bread the valley gives you bread from the burial of her father osiris your loaves are osiris the blood of osiris was represented by wine my blood is drunk even my redness you are wine you are not twine but the guts of osiris the ritualistic consumption of osiris in the form of bread and wine was believed to allow one to partake in the nature of osiris and be granted life your eyes are open by the earth your limbs are gathered raise yourself up when the great bread and this wine like water were given to him the bread and wine ritual is performed in churches to the present day as a way of commemorating jesus's resurrection back to life in christianity the symbol of the resurrection is the cross most christians assume that its design is based on the t-shaped roman torture instrument however the bible itself does not precisely describe the shape of the cross it merely states it was made of wood or timber you may be wondering where its design originated from like the bread and wine eating ritual the cross also happens to have a parallel in ancient egyptian religion compare the christian cross to the egyptian ankh their resemblance is not just in shape but also in meaning as egyptian hieroglyphics use the symbol to represent the word for life here the egyptian god horus is bringing a dead pharaoh back to life using the ankh we can see that the ankh and christian cross are both linked to resurrection the early christian historian socrates scholasticus recorded a fascinating argument between christians and egyptian pagans who both laid claim to the cross when the temple of serapis was torn down and laid bare they were found in it engraven on stones certain characters which they call hieroglyphics having the forms of crosses both the christians and pagans on seeing them appropriated and applied them to their respective religions for the christians claimed this character as peculiarly theirs but the pagans allege that it might a pertain to christ and serapis in common [Music] just how did the original message of jesus transform from the pure monotheism of the old testament into the paganistic religion of christianity today did early christians get together and agree upon a secret agenda to corrupt the religion and the masses just went along with it there is no need to resort to conspiracy theories to understand what actually happened when there are multiple ideologies in a geographic area you often find that there is an exchange of ideas with the dominant ideology prevailing in the exchange this is known as syncretism the people who allow changes to creep into religion are not necessarily doing it with an evil intention it may come about due to pressure from society or ruling authorities it may even seem natural to adopt certain beliefs and practices if culturally that is what a people are used to historically this is what happened with christianity jewish people were the initial target audience of the evangelism of jesus and his disciples however they largely rejected jesus as the messiah jesus only gained a sizable following after he ascended to heaven when the apostle paul started evangelizing to gentiles i.e non-jews paul preached a modified version of the message of jesus that was stripped of its jewish elements such as circumcision and keeping the sabbath this watered-down version appealed to gentiles who started to embrace paul's teachings in large numbers culminating in the pagan roman empire adopting christianity as its official state religion several centuries after jesus so we need to understand the mindset of the gentiles who first received paul's message in order to understand how paganism crept into christianity when jewish people heard stories about jesus performing amazing miracles they would have understood him in the same context as the likes of moses and the other israelite prophets who were all granted signs and wonders by god however such stories about jesus would have been interpreted very differently by pagan gentiles this is illustrated in the new testament book of acts which informs us in lystra they sat a man who was lame he had been that way from birth and had never walked paul looked directly at him saw that he had faith to be healed and called out stand up on your feet at that the man jumped up and began to walk when the crowd saw what paul had done they shouted in the lyconian language that gods have come down to us in human form we can see that the pagan gentile peoples to whom paul was preaching were in the habit of idolizing human beings with this in mind it's easy to appreciate why gentiles from a pagan background would idolize jesus upon hearing stories about the miracles of jesus they would naturally interpret him in the same light as the greco-roman gods they were used to the early church emerged in both a jewish and gentile world and so christians had to reconcile the pure monotheism they had inherited from judaism with the polytheism there derived from paganism gregory of nisa is a 4th century bishop who is venerated as a saint in the roman catholic and eastern orthodox churches he wrote for the truth passes in the mean between these two conceptions destroying each heresy and yet accepting what is useful to it from each the jewish dogma is destroyed by the acceptance of the word and by belief in the spirit while the polytheistic era of the greek school is made to vanish by the unity of the nature abrogating this imagination of plurality here gregory of nisa acknowledged that the christian conception of god is neither purely the polytheism of the greeks nor purely the monotheism of the jews but rather a mixture of both the quran declares that those christians who deify jesus are imitating pagans of old here the quran demonstrates remarkable insight by pointing out that christian beliefs about jesus originate from past pagan religions the message of islam like christianity was also delivered to a pagan audience but unlike christianity islam's monotheism was untainted and remains pure to this day even rabbis acknowledge this fact because they permit jewish people to pray in muslim places of worship in the situation where no synagogue is available rabbi maimonides a leading authority in jewish law wrote the following with regards to the islamic concept of god these ishmaelites are not idol worshipers in the least and paganism has long since cut off from their mouths and their hearts and they worship the singular god properly and without any blemish by comparison jewish people are forbidden from even setting foot inside churches rabbi maimonides had this to say about christianity know that this christian nation with all their many different sects are all idol worshipers and all their holidays are forbidden and we deal with them regarding religious issues as we would pagans the kaaba is situated in saudi arabia and represents the holiest site on earth for muslims today it contains neither idols nor images but before the advent of islam the pagan arabs housed numerous idols inside the kaaba so central was the kaaba to idolatry that pagans from all over arabia would make pilgrimage there in the short span of just 23 years islam managed to completely eliminate all traces of idolatry taking people away from their worship of carved images to the worship of the one true god of abraham when it comes to preserving the purity of monotheism just how did islam succeed where christianity failed the quran takes into account the psychology of its audience which is demonstrated in its use of language when god defines the relationship between himself and mankind he avoids terms like father when referring to himself and sons of god when referring to human beings such language can be easily misunderstood especially in the minds of those who come from a background of idolatry and are used to interpreting such language literally the quran also outlines its doctrines clearly with god describing his nature in such a way that it is impossible to get it confused with polytheism [Music] god revealed the quran in order to rescue mankind from the polytheism that we are drowning in the quran restores the original monotheistic message of jesus who is not part of a trinity but rather a human messenger and the messiah [Music] foreign to learn more about the true message of jesus please download your free copy of the book jesus man messenger messiah from the link below