The Truth About Jesus : Is He a Myth?: IllustratedMangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch)
Religion
The Truth About Jesus : Is He a Myth?: Illustrated
Mangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch)
Jesus Christ -- Historicity; Rationalism
In further confirmation of our position, it may be said that the
models which the Pagans set up for emulation were men like themselves,
only nobler. The models which the Orientals set up for imitation, on
the other hand, were supernatural beings, or men who were supposed to
possess supernatural powers. The great men for the Oriental are men
who can work miracles, who possess magical powers, who possess secrets
and can know how to influence the deity,--Moses, Joshua, David,
Joseph, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul,--all demi-divinities. The Pagans, on the
other hand, selected natural men, men like themselves, who had earned
the admiration of their fellows. Let me quote to you Plutarch's
eloquent sentence relative to this subject: "Whenever we begin an
enterprise or take possession of a charge, or experience a calamity,
we place before our eyes the examples of the greatest men of our own
or of bygone ages, and we ask ourselves how Plato, or Epaminondas,
or Lycurgus, or Agesilaus, would have acted. Looking into these
personages, as into a faithful mirror, we can remedy our defects in
word or deed."
The Westminster Catechism, which in its essentials is a resume of our
Asiatic religion, emphasizes the doctrine of the fall of man, of which
the Pagan world knew nothing, and refused to believe it until priests
succeeded in dominating the mind of Europe: "The catechism following
the Scripture teaches that...we are not only a disinherited family,
but we are personally depraved and demoralized." * Goodness! the
Oriental imagination, abused by slavery, cannot rid itself of the idea
of being disinherited, turned out into the cold, orphaned and smitten
with moral sores from head to foot. To the Pagan, such a description
of man would have been the acme of absurdity. Again: "It (the fall)
affirms that he (man) is all wrong, in all things and all the time."
** If this was comforting news to the Asiatic, the Pagan world would
have rejected the idea as unworthy of men in their senses. Once more:
"All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his
wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life and
to the pains of hell forever." *** And this is the Gospel we have
imported from Asia!
* Westminster Catechism, Comments.
** Westminster Catechism, Comments.
*** Westminster Catechism, Comments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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