3. That some religious nations had three Cycular periods of different
lengths, representing three orders and degrees of miraculous births.
In India the length of the first or shorter Cycle was thirty days,
the length of one moon or month. Every change of the moon marked an
important event in their religious history. Each change was supposed to
denote the birth of some angel or celestial being known as an Eon.
The second Cycular period was of six hundred years' duration, and
was founded on a text of the sacred book of India, known as the Surya
Sidhanta, which declares "the equinoctial point moves eastward one
degree in thirty times twenty years" (thirty times twenty being 600). At
every occurrence of this equinoctial change hightened by an eclipse of
the sun or moon, or some other wonder-exciting phenomenon, a God was
supposed to be born. Such a marvelous and terror-inspiring event, in
the apprehensions of the credulous and superstitious populace of an
unscientific age, could not be designed for anything less than the birth
of a God or Divine Savior. Their theology teaches that such was the
wickedness of man, that a God had to descend from heaven, and suffer and
die for the people, in some way, every six hundred years.
And this period was announced by the God's causing a collision of the
sun and moon, or some other terror-exciting phenomena in the heavens
above or the earth beneath. When one of these six hundred Cycular
periods was about to expire, and another commence, every remarkable
phenomenon in the heavens was watched and interpreted as being connected
with it. And some person born at that period, who exhibited any
remarkable or extraordinary trait of character, was certain to be
promoted to the Godhead, as being miraculously born and brought forth
for the special occasion. He was the Avatar Savior or Messiah for that
Cycle. There were two extraordinary events to be accounted for--one was
the display of unusual and terror-exciting phenomena in the heavens, and
the other the birth of extraordinary men on earth. And it was natural
for an ignorant age to associate them together, and make one aid in
accounting for the other. And as these celestial phenomena were only
witnessed at intervals distant apart, the thought naturally arose, and
the conclusion was easily established, that they came periodically, and
for the special purpose of heralding the birth of a God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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