If any of you enjoy funny antics than maybe you might have read or seen the video clip of an old Abbot and Costella called “Who’s on First.” Well it’s a hilarious case of bizarre misunderstanding and wild frustration on the part of both the speaker, and the listener. But you know something that is very similar just not as funny? Is the ever present criticism that Christianity is copied from other pagan religions of the past. So this week’s blog we will take a look at one form of this Chicken and Egg Paradox (yes, that’s a real philosophical term).

  The charge is that early Christianity, in trying to have a relevant role in society, took their major tenants of the character of God and Jesus and copied the essence of early pagan gods from Egypt to Greece. This couldn’t be further from the truth and we will analyze why, but first, let’s look at the charge itself. Why is the charge even leveled at Christianity? It’s leveled as a crude form of Ad Hominem. Ad hominen is the logical fallacy of attacking or criticizing the PERSON rather than the ARGUMENT. In this case, attacking the reputation of Christianity in hopes of neutralizing any strengths of it. If the argument can be made that Christianity and it’s beliefs are nothing more than mere knockoffs of the provenly-false pagan religions of the day well, then can we even take Christianity at its word? The answer critics want you to rationally come to is an obvious no.

  Secondly, as students of Scripture and Apologetics, we CAN NOT be put on the defensive by being forced to defend a false presupposition. It is no different than in a June 2003 session of Congress Congresswoman Diane Watson of California leveled a charge at Republicans seeking a budget resolution that they are causing seniors to resort to “…eating dog food rather than regular food because they have to pay the cost of these expensive drugs.”. If you’ve ever wondered what the term HYPERBOLE means, well there you go! People know that Republicans in Congress were not making elderly people eat dog food to be able to save money to get medicines. But it was used to invoke a feeling of anger and indignation towards Ms. Watsons opponents, rather than understanding the argument. By being forced to confront inaccurate or false accusations makes the Christian waste precious time in rebuttals than in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ! So by leveling this accusation against Christians the accuser has now stymied the believers case to truly yearning people. Understand this argument for what it is: an accusatory tactic used to make Christians argue over unnecessary points instead of Sharing Christ. So why do we need to study this at all then? Simple: so you can know how to use the facts to ignore these accusations and bring the conversation back instead to the supremecy of Christ and His salvation.

An example for arguments sake is that Jesus is a Jewish knock off of Horus. To understand this let’s look briefly at who Horus was in Egyptian mythology.  Horus was the Egyptian god of the sun and sky. He was the son of the goddess Isis who conceived after her husband, the god Osiris, died. He fault with his evil brother Set, who then was conquered by Horus and Horus ascended to the sky to become a god. The story is similar when you look at the Roman story of Perseus. Should we be worried that these pre-Christ stories resemble the Biblical account of Jesus? Absolutely not. Heres why.  Two passages detail the story of Christ thousands, and hundreds of years before Christ. In Genesis 3:15 there is the prophecy of Eve’s seed, which is Jesus’s winning and “crushing” Satan. Then in Isaiah we have the prophecy of the Virgin Birth in 7:14. So combining those two it’s not a stretch at all to see where Satan has made a  counterfeit of God’s plan to bedazzle a fallen world with. 

  Whether Greeks borrowing from the Egyptians or the Romans from the Greeks. The mythology and idolatry is similar but lacks one key ingredient to show any validity and it is this: Prophetic Fulfillment. The gods and goddesses of old mythology may tell some weird and intricate stories, but that’s all they are. Born out of sinful imagination  and desires these tales tickle the fancy and seduce the minds of man to fill that hole in their heart, but that’s it. The true faith of Jehovah God of the Bible has historical, archeological, and contemporaneous support to it’s authority. Not to mention the roughly 2,000 fulfilled prophecies. That’s a staggering difference between the two camps. Jesus Christ is God come to man, to redeem His lost creation back to Him.

  Now, for a side study, if you want to know who did combine pagan elements with Christianity you’d have to look at the first century Gnostics. They believed in a gnostic dualism. which is for a later study! But rest assured, critics have no standing to say Christianity is a knock-off of pagan religions. Jehovah God is sovereign, and above any false god man may make up. So as a believer be ready to give an answer of the hope that lieth in you (1 Peter 3:15-17) because its TRUE, its not made up or copied!

So keep studying, keep defending the faith, and pointing others to the one true Savior, Jesus Christ instead of arguing over unnecessaryaccusations! Until next week: keep studying!