In analyzing the major events of anything there always seems to be a tipping point in which some action results in the bringing in a new concept or a new dynamic to affect a change in the critical thinking or direction that particular philosophy (idea – concept) will take. This happened with Christianity and can be easily documented!
What Christianity was to eventually become as it evolved throughout the centuries owes its foundation not on Jesus (pbh) but on a church father named Justin Martyr. He started the ball rolling as it were towards the glorification of and reinterpretation of one Jesus of Nazareth.
The battle for unwrapping the ‘Christian Mystery’ was between two major factions. On one side were the regular players and on the other side were the Gnostics. These individual groups were vying with each other to gain control of the ‘Way’ or to make sense of the ‘new kid in town’ (Christianity) which was the concept of how to lead a successful and purposeful life to gain an advantage in the Hereafter and also to muscle in on the good things in life like acknowledgement, respect, and financial/political success.
Various ideas went floating around about who the person of Jesus (pbh) was and what it meant to the human race. Would the life and times of Jesus end up on the junk heap of failed or minor philosophies or was there something that could be gained by having a big block of converts?
Before the second century, Christianity was a minor movement that was really dwarfed by Judaism and Paganism. In fact, Christianity was an amalgamation of various ideas all competing for growth potential across various opposing sects which was intended to lend its founders some strength (power) within the Roman Empire. Who in politics listens to the voices of the few over the clamor of the many?
Fame and fortune are also perks to be gained but that would follow if Christianity could stabilize itself into a workable and friendly philosophy subject to less criticism and a more helpful buoyancy by the State. That doesn’t happen in the absence of a mass number of people as victory apparently goes to the many and not the few.
Nothing was going to liberate Christianity when the founder (Jesus of Nazareth) remained as a mere football to be bounced around back and forth between two major, powerful groups (Gnostics and the philosopher group) and other regional heretical, but smaller groups. In order to move forward that little tiff had to be settled!
Enter our icebreaker Justin Martyr who was to play a very historical, strategic role in making Christianity the world’s largest and easiest to join religion. Nowadays as things have morphed further and further into the bizarre area, just raise your hands skyward and confess with your mouth a slogan or two and BINGO! You are saved for what really counts in life which is the Hereafter so one can go and get on with life without boring practices.
Simplicity sometimes trumps complexity but in reality most often than not what one gets is a good dose of being on the short end of the stick. Meaning, a fool and his money are soon parted or ‘there is a sucker born every minute’ (a saying that is sometimes attributed to P.T. Barnum). That means that if it is too good to be true, then it probably is!
What did Justin Martyr actually do? He came into prominence by reinventing the wheel againin solving what he thought was the big sticking point for Christian Theology in that he (to his opinion anyway) proved that Jesus (pbh) was crucified on a wooden cross in the year 147/148 C E. He did this by a neat trick of using logic in the form of getting Jewish and Roman official’s opinions on the notion that Jesus was killed by hanging on a cross! This! After more than 115 years after the event!
To the Jews that was of major importance so they didn’t have to have another Jewish sect to do battle with. For the Roman officials, well they were in control of the Empire and they brought a kind of science and a way of life that created a certain order and stability. They also kept good records.
Hence, this was not difficult due to the agendas of those various parties – one priding itself on getting rid of blasphemer (Jesus) who in the eyes of some tried to overthrow the standard Jewish line and the other party who prided itself on taking good down-to-earth records as in seeing is believing!
That outcome proved fatal for the Gnostics because ‘theory’ can’t replace supposed hardcore facts!
Well nothing is instantaneous but Justin Martyr got a victory on two fronts: one front was telling the Gnostics that they and their ‘theories’ were all wet and number two would come much later and that was to make Christianity an easy philosophy to follow as easy as it was to take a drink of water.
He could accomplish this by taking the massive pagan presence in the Roman Empire and present them with a very familiar alternative. Changing religious philosophies in the middle of the stream is nerve racking and downright difficult but jumping from one ideology to another very similar one is more or less a piece of cake.
To do this feat of magic, Martyr had a plan of appeal that made the pagans feel good but somehow inadequate. You see the pagans, according to Justin Martyr had the right idea (how brilliant they really were) in the first place. That means a lot of credit should go to disbelievers historically speaking. The idea of a sacrificial god-man was absolutely 100% correct according to pagan legend!
This meant that it showed a brilliant foresight of theirs of things to come; a prediction or semi-prophecy of what will actually occur and what really was unveiled with the coming not of a legend but of a real, touchable, flesh and blood, historical walking and talking and most importantly real-life figure in Jesus the Christ.
Paganism should be proud of having honorable foresight into the dynamics of a savior-god-man who was willing to abandon life for their sake. In this way, they were favored above the nations, blessed beyond their wildest dreams and chosen to be the favored of the favorites of the ‘gods’. In this case the big god himself whom the pagans tagged as Jupiter!
So changing crafts (religious thinking) in the middle of the stream actually becomes less traumatic and even spiritually and philosophically more sound than going around in the old ways waiting for a miracle to happen that, in fact, already happened!
Fortunately, we have this church father’s appraisal on record! And this led to several things:
- An easy bridge for pagans to switch from the old ways to the new way.
- A kind of backhand compliment showing that they actually were on the correct highway after all.
- Joining something that would not require them to set up their ancestors of pagan delights to be total idiots but kind of like pioneers to self-righteousness.
- A real live poster boy (Jesus) who was not a dim or fanciful legend but a real existing character that was not only historical but contemporary.
We have a modern day example to follow. Some churches don’t want to go forth and preach ‘Blessed are the poor (in spirit) for they shall inherit the Kingdom of GOD’ {which is in Heaven and not of this Earth} (Matthew (5:3) but rather would preach what is called the ‘Prosperity Gospel’.
One doesn’t have to feel ashamed by making a lot of loot and enjoying the good things in life because a successful person is a saved person as long as he believes in a certain kind of Jesus (pbh). So, if you are blessed, you will be prosperous money- wise. This goes against what Jesus (pbh) actually taught but that doesn’t seem to be bothersome to those who love money.
The Prosperity Gospel is mainly about self-glorification or ‘wealth for self’ and is in reality an antithesis of the real message proclaimed by Jesus (pbh) which has been so twisted out of context that the devils are rollicking all over themselves.
Now we know these things stated about Justin Martyr are factual because they are recorded and also they make logical sense in showing the actions of various peoples time and time again. After all, water tends to, by its very nature, seek out the lowest possible place. In other words, water, in its natural setting, tends to run downhill.
Things just don’t happen overnight but slowly and surely things were going to happen! One thing was for sure. Now that Martyr had just about proven Christ’s death on the cross, he could hold the whip hand over the Gnostics. Next, Christianity could now branch out and have a growth potential that could outpace old paganism and Judaism hands down.
This wasn’t going to happen overnight but over the decades Christianity got a big push from being a scrub bush sect to getting kudos from Emperor Constantine in less than two centuries and being named as a core belief of the smart and rapidly growing sect and thus a great approved philosophy enhanced by Roman political bosses.
People might want to know if this can be historically proved. Yes, it can and one verse in the New Testament will show a prophecy so devastating that it becomes so telling and uncanny about what the results of the ‘whore of Babylon’ could produce.
This verse is accredited to Peter but since he couldn’t read or write anything complicated due to being an illiterate, one naturally would turn to his secretary who would be able to give a general viewpoint as to the ‘future situation’.
And consider that the longsuffering of our lord {master} is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the {particular and peculiar} wisdom given to him, has written to you,
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the {other writings} Scriptures.
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior {as a true guide} Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever {in the heavens}. Amen. 2Peter (3:15-18)
The above Biblical quote shows prophecy in action. Paul and his way of doing business would end up confusing the weak at heart and mind and therefore, a false god was born. An example of this was the Nicaean Creed, which when established, cemented the idea of a triune god-thing called the Trinity.
By asking one’s self why a person has to go and prove that Jesus (pbh) was actually crucified over one-hundred and fifteen years after the supposed fact (ordinarily an exercise in foolishness like trying to prove that the Moon is not made of green cheese) shows an embattled concept tied up in tangled knots.
Secondly, the appeal to pagans to join the new kid on the block (Christianity) by giving the pagans a ‘you were on the right track all along bit’ shows only an affinity with that accursed philosophy. This we get from Justin Martyr’s own writing and it will be a lynch pin for future skullduggery:
In Justin Martyr’s First Apology chapter 21 he states: “When we say that the Word, Jesus Christ the first born of GOD were produced without sexual union, and that he was crucified and died and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound NOTHING NEW OR DIFFERENT FROM WHAT YOU {pagans} BELIEVE REGARDING THOSE WHOM YOU CONSIDER SONS OF JUPITER”.
Those are his words adding up to a claim that Christians and lowlife pagans were actually brothers-in-arms is somewhat telling! Anyway, it provides a springboard for the growth of a philosophy that kept on morphing into what is commonly called today as ‘radical born again Christianity’.
And that type of Christianity has wound its way through various nations and in some places has taken over regular Christian viewpoints and values to supplant them with various corrupt philosophies.
Because ‘The State’ was to be placated and not abused, Christianity eventually, with the backing of the State, was going to give the Jews a good going over and make stubborn pagans think twice on how and what to worship. As in all things, this became an evolving affair and didn’t occur overnight.
Eventually, this led to the Crusades as it appeared to be unbearable to have the ‘heathen’ living next door so to speak. Punk the Jews and slay the Saracens (Muslims) became the goal of the march to superiority or as the march to righteousness was unleashed. The Church reigned supreme.
Being top heavy and petty would not last and eventually empires kept evolving and the Church which had once reigned supreme over kings finally became subservient to them. However, the devil is active on all fronts and history has shown that various factions have vied for the honor of being puffed up like a balloon having no real substance except in causing major disasters for the people.
Because the devil is active on all fronts, the gross misrepresentation of what the prophets had stood for can be seen in all cultures claiming to be representatives of the Abrahamic Traditions. We see corrupt philosophies, for example, coming from organizations claiming some type of superior, moral high-ground such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, the Taliban and other offbeat, destructive sects not based on the correct understanding of their founder.
Abu Hurairah stated that the Prophet (pbh) said: The Jews were split up into seventy-one or seventy-two sects, and the Christians were split up into seventy-one or seventy-two sects, and my community will be split up into seventy-three sects. (Sunan Abu Dawud)
Yet no faith will the greater part of mankind have, however ardently you do desire it.
And no reward do you {O Muhammad} ask of them for this: it is no less than a Message for ALL creatures. Quran (12:103-104)
So, in truth, there is no need to plaster Christianity or any of the Abrahamic Faiths as a failure but only to re-evaluate the situations causing such tragic events to occur and why and how they occurred.
Failure to learn from past mistakes or to spot the ‘pimple on the spotless skin’ may lead to the cheapening of the original message. This is exactly what happens when ‘ENTROPY’ (see the writing on Entropy) occurs and this is a peculiar phenomenon of this place called Earth and another reason for the recycling of souls on this planet whatever that may entail.
The mechanisms for this process cannot be totally understood by any human inhabitants of Earth but the ONE GOD is PATIENT, LOVING, full of GRACE and MERCY as well as JUST and TOTALLY FAIR. This being the case, the believer is asked quite simply in Islam to ‘put your trust in ALLAH’ while asking for Guidance and a Firm footing on doing what is right.
This also explains the ‘glory’ of the Christ-soul as he put himself totally under the WILL of his CREATOR and he, as our adam, overcame the trappings of this planet to become in the fullness of time that soul to be anointed as the Messiah.
The similitude of Jesus before ALLAH is as that of Adam; HE created him from dust, then said to him: “Be”. And he was.
The truth (comes) from your LORD alone; so be not of those who doubt. Quran (3:59-60)
So he became man (entered Earth’s environs not as a plant or an animal (which is a ridiculous notion but needs to be mentioned but as a human being as we also do) and as a man he took on flesh as we also do (for we are not unembodied spirits going around like ghosts but placed in the womb by the angels in charge of this affair (hadith of the 120 days the soul is placed in the growing fetus)).
And by this correct understanding, we can sail our boats (our lives) as it were safely past the rocky shoals that have derailed many a soul looking for fantastic deviations and twisted meanings in order to gain a selfish advantage over mankind.
This selfish advantage then would elevate our egos and place us as ‘gods’ among mankind and that is WRONG, FALSE AND LEADS TO ALL SORTS OF EVIL PRACTICES YIELDING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IN ITS WAKE AND A CLEAR RECORD FOR THOSE WHO ARE BOUND AND DETERMINED TO RUSH TO THE HELL-FIRE!
So we can go back to our Pauline-like expression and be warned against the evil practice of giving partners to the ONE AND ONLY GOD! That is, beware of scriptural interpretation (from self or others) ‘which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the {other writings} Scriptures’ leading the careless soul to forge lies and mistreat others resulting in a shameful punishment in the Hell-Fire.
