PAGAN
GOD – MITHRAS
Before
When
the Christ myth was new Mithras and Mithraism were already ancient. Worshiped
for centuries as God's Messenger of Truth, Mithras was long revered by the Persians
(Zoroastrianism) and the Indians (see the Vedic literature).
Dating Mithras in
Plutarch
(Pompey, 24, 7) and Servilius (Georgics, 4, 127) say Pompey imported
Mithraism into
Surely
there's a lot we don't know about this faith that comforted million of souls.
Early Christians established the dominance of their religion by exterminating
Mithras' faithful, razing His temples, burning His sacred texts. HOWEVER,
We
do know this:
With
twelve
disciples he traveled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of
men.
He
was buried in a tomb
from which he rose
again from the dead―an event celebrated yearly with much
rejoicing.
Every
year in
Every
year at first minute of December 25th the
Mithras
was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother. He came from heaven to be born as
a man, to redeem men from their sin.
He
was known as "Savior," "Son of God," "Redeemer,"
and "Lamb
of God."
His
followers kept the Sabbath holy, eating sacramental meals in remembrance of
Him. The sacred meal of bread and water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the
body
and blood
of the sacred bull.
Baptism in the blood of the bull
(taurobolum)―early Baptism "washed in the blood of the Lamb"―late
Baptism by water [recorded by the Christian author Tertullian] Mithraic rituals
brought about the transformation and Salvation of His adherents―an ascent of the
soul of the adherent into the realm of the divine. From the wall of a Mithraic
temple in Rome: "And thou hast saved us by shedding the eternal blood."
The
great Mithraic festivals celebrated his birth (at the winter solstice) and his
death and resurrection (at the spring solstice)