A few times, when trying to undermine the credibility of Jesus, Atheists have brought to my attention the similarities between mythological gods and Jesus. These similarities would include: Born of a virgin, died for the world, did miracles, etc. The similar gods mentioned are Oriris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Mithra. There's probably more.
That's not the part that worries me. The part that worries me is that it's said that the written miracles of these gods were written before the New Testament. This concerns me because obviously that would mean that the story of Jesus was copied from stories of Pagan gods.
If someone can help me find a sound answer to this, I would much appreciate it because it's a pretty major concern to the validity to the Christian faith and I want to know how to respond to Atheists that bring this up.
Thanks,
Lecrae
Emal i received when asked abt the same question
Dear,
You obviously have listened to "Zeitgeist." Am I correct?
This video is deceiving millions for sure. You are not suggesting (I hope) that I can explain this video and its theories in an email.
Zeitgeist is a long and involved topic. The man obviously hates the very idea of a real God, an inspired Bible, and a Messiah who died for our sins
Let me just say this for your present spiritual dilemma: There is NO solid documentation regarding the many outlandish statements regarding Jesus being merely the resurrection of much earlier myths of the Egyptians, Babylonians, etc.
The Zeitgeist movie makes these claims about the Egyptian god Horus:
• He was born on December 25 of a virgin (Isis Mary)
• A star in the East proclaimed his arrival
• Three kings came to adore the new-born “savior”
• He became a prodigious teacher at age 12
• At age 30 he was “baptized” and began a “ministry”
• Horus had twelve “disciples”
• Horus was betrayed
• He was crucified
• He was buried for three days
• He was resurrected after three days
But when we look for historical documentation for any of the above ten supposed similarities between Horus and and Jesus, they can't be found. I spent a long time writing my Lake of Fire Installment on: "The Origin of Everlasting Torment." I studied
Egyptian history and the Egyptian gods. I even purchased several advanced books
on Egyptology.
Historically,
the birth of Horus is put sometime in October-November, not Dec. 25th. And since Jesus wasn't either born on Dec. 25, this wouldn't be a parallel anyway.
There is no "star in the east" which proclaimed the birth of Horus.
As for the "three kings" who came to adore the "new-born savior," it is an embarrassment to Joseph's scholarship seeing that he has squalled the traditional nativity scene of Christendom, not being aware that the wise men came into THE HOUSE to see the young BOY, years after His birth.
There is no historical record of Horus becoming a great teacher at age 12.
There is no record in Egypt that Horus was "baptized" and then began a ministry.
Horus had four demi-gods as they are called, for friends, but not twelve disciples.
Maybe Horus was betrayed. Thousands of historical figures have been betrayed, but I know of no historical documentation that says Horus was betrayed.
Zeitgeist puts the birth and death of Horus at around 3000 BC, yet crucifixion was unknown until many many centuries later.
Horus was cut up into fourteen pieces by his enemies, and spread on the Nile River, but I have never seen where he was buried for three days. Likewise, there is nothing to substantiate the he was 'resurrected" after three days.
It is also claimed that Horus was born of a virgin mother Isis-Mary in a cave manger, etc. Actually Isis was married to Osiris and was not a virgin. Isis of Egypt did have the title "Mr-ee" which means "beloved," given to her, but that's a far stretch from saying her "name was Mary." And as for the "cave manger," Jesus wasn't born in a cave, and Horus was born in a swamp.
There are also many other claims of similarities between Horus and Jesus, but NOT ONE of them is substantiated by any story, myth, or history in Egypt. Can you now begin to see how many distortions of the truth are presented in the rest of this Zeitgeist deception?
Such unscriptural doctrines as "Everlasting Torment" in some fiery hellhole of pain and suffering, actually do come from places like Egypt. But the Scriptures know nothing of such a teaching. It has been forced into some Bibles (like the King James, NIV, etc.), but certainly not all translations. Examples that do not carry the words "eternal," "hell," etc., would be, The Concordant Literal Old and New Testaments, Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, Young's Literal Bible, The Emphatic Diaglott, etc.
Look: Here's what I would tell a person who tells me that he fears death because when he puts his head under water for more than a minute, he can't breath, and panics. My advice? DON'T PUT YOUR HEAD UNDER WATER!! Don't read faith-destroying
material. These deceivers and smart and they are clever, and they understand human nature. They know how to deceive. We need to heed the admonition of the apostle
Paul: "Neither give place to the Devil" (Ephesians 4:27).
God be with you,
Ray