In each blog, I often reference many different topics that I've already covered (or will soon cover), and maybe you've missed. Please review my blogs to read more...
CLICK HERE! for an index to previous blogs.
___________________________
There are many more stories from Egyptian mythology such as the Egyptian heaven in which the "righteous" could be passengers on the "The Boat of Millions of Years" riding with the sun god Ra, or select another option in the "Field of Reeds", etc.
I won't go into the details of these stories here. It would take up too much valuable space. You can Google those stories and read for yourself.
All of these Egyptian myths are the pagan doctrines which have seeped into the doctrines of Christendom... never ending punishment, immortal souls, heavens and hells, judgments at death, mansions in the sky where we, in our "physical" bodies will enjoy never ending life, etc.
These ideals have come down to us in many cultures. For example, the American Indians looked forward to their "Happy Hunting Grounds" which is similar to what Christians believe Heaven will be like.
It's all an attempt to hang on to the "PHYSICAL", the FLESH rather than believing what Scripture tells us:
1 Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the kingdom of God...
We WILL NOT be enjoying Heaven in our physical bodies... we will be raised from the dead with Spiritual bodies:
1 Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
It is not the "resurrection of dead bodies"... nowhere in Scripture will you read that. It is the "resurrection of the dead" - that's US who have died, or will die before the Return of Christ.
1 Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead.
Dead PEOPLE will be resurrected into new Spiritual bodies.
Jesus took on several different forms for the sake of those He appeared to after His resurrection.
Mary thought He was the gardener. The men going to Emmaus didn't know who they walked with. At the seaside the apostles knew it must be Jesus, but they didn't dare ask; and once He appeared in the body in which He was crucified so that the Apostles would know for sure that it is He.
Mummies, Bodies, and Flesh
Egyptians mummified their bodies for the express purpose of preserving those bodies forever. It was essential to them that they have physical bodies in the hereafter. Poor people, who couldn't afford the mummification process, could substitute little figurines to take the place of their body.
The wealthiest, such as Pharaohs, built huge pyramids that are now referred to as "resurrection machines".
They did not realize that apart from God's Spirit the body cannot exist independently. Without the breath of God (His Spirit) no body can live, and no soul exists.
Man only becomes an individual, a living soul, when a physical body (of the dust of the ground) is breathed into by the Spirit of God. Then, and only then, does man become a living soul (our personal ego).
When we die, the body returns to the dust of the ground and God's Spirit returns to Him. I'll get into this in more depth in my blog "Body, Soul, and Spirit".
________________________
This whole "immortality of the soul" and even the concept of "eternity" comes straight from Egyptian mythology!
"Eternity" is not a Hebrew, Greek, nor English word... it stems from the Latin word aevum.
Aevum is defined as: "lifetime, life, age, mankind living at a particular time".
From Aevum comes it's adjective aeternus which in turn is translated into our English word eternal.
This concept of never-ending, or endlessness, comes directly from Egyptian myths and is transferred to our Bibles today through the translation of the Catholic Vulgate (Latin) Bible (KJV).
This doctrine of "eternity" started with the Egyptians, was borrowed by the Greeks, passed on to the Romans, and finally found it's way into the Roman Catholic Church!
They are the ones who decided to hold on to these pagan beliefs as a means to hold power over the people by use of this fearful Egyptian doctrine!
The Latin word aevum never meant endlessness!
This concept was built into our doctrines intentionally!
Jer 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn NOT the way of the heathen...
Deu 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Lev 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I ABHORRED them.
Lev 18:3 After the doings of the land of EGYPT, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye NOT do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye NOT do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
_____________________
Why would they do that?
None of these things were taught in the Law of Moses so where did the Jews of Jesus' day learn these pagan doctrines?
They didn't learn these pagan ideals from Moses. He was adopted by an Egyptian princess (Ex 2:5-10) and was skilled in ALL their ways:
Act 7:22 And Moses was learned in ALL THE WISDOM of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Don't forget - the Jews also lived in slavery under the Egyptians for quite a while so they knew full well of the Egyptian mythology.
Joseph Henry Thayer was a Biblical Scholar of the 1800's. He has an impressive resume which you can read about on Wikipedia if you'd like.
Here is an excerpt from Thayer's "Doctrine of Eternal Punishment"...
"Any one at all familiar with the writings of the ancient Greeks or Romans, cannot fail to not see how often it is admitted by them that the national religions were the INVENTIONS of the legislator and the priest, for the purpose of governing and restraining the common people. Hence, all the early lawgivers claim to have had communications with the gods, who aided them in the preparation of their codes.
The object of this SACRED FRAUD was to impress the minds of the multitude with religious awe, and command a more ready obedience on their part. Hence Augustine says, in his 'City of God,' 'This seems to have been done on no other account, but as it was the business of princes, out of their wisdom and civil prudence, TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE IN THEIR RELIGION; princes, under the name of religion, persuaded the people to believe those things [to be] true, which THEY THEMSELVES KNEW TO BE IDLE FABLES; by this means, for their own ease in government, tying them the more closely to civil society,' B.iV 32."
Thayer is not the only one who has clearly come to see the fraudulent origins of today's religious doctrines.
From Bishop Warburton (1698-1779)
"Hence, they [priests and lawyers] enforced the belief of a future state of reward and punishments by every sort of contrivance."
It was the Egyptian priests and legislators that invented these "destructive heresies" and the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, all capitalized on this inexpensive method of controlling the populace... what better way to do so than through fear of their religious and civil leaders?
Greek and Roman lawyers, philosophers, and priests, acknowledge their indebtedness to Egypt in this respect, and freely credit her with the original invention of the fables and terrors of the invisible world; though it must be allowed that they have improved somewhat upon the hints given, and shown a wonderful inventive faculty of their own (paraphrased from some of Thayer's material).
So, how did they keep the populace in line? By filling their heads with visions of eternal torture in fire if they didn't obey every desire of their religious and civil leaders.
Jer 50:6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray...
Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy FALSELY, and the priests BEAR RULE by THEIR means; and my people LOVE TO HAVE IT SO...
1Co 10:11-12 Now ALL these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for OUR ADMONITION, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
You may still be asking yourself...
"Did the Church really learn these pagan heresies from Egypt?"
Isa 30:1-3 WOE to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but NOT OF ME; and that cover with a covering [Heb: devise a plan, weave a web], but NOT of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
That walk to go down into EGYPT, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt YOUR CONFUSION.
Isa 30:9-11 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
More, from Thayer's "Doctrine of Endless Punishment"...
"Greeks and Romans, Lawgivers and Philosophers, acknowledge their indebtedness to her in this respect, and freely credit her with the original invention of the fables and terrors of the invisible world; though it must be allowed that they have improved somewhat upon the hints given, and shown a wonderful inventive faculty of their own.
These records of the ancient Greeks, confirmed by the monuments as illustrated by modern scholars, open to us the origin of the doctrines of a judgment after death, and of future endless rewards and punishments, for the good or evil deeds of this life. From the Egyptians it passed, with suitable modifications, to the Greeks and Romans. Diodorus himself clearly shows that the fables of the Acherusian lake, of Hecate, Cerberus, Charon, and the Styx, have their original in these Egyptian ceremonies and doctrines.
And Professor Stuart, in a note to Greppo's Essay on Hieroglyphics, accepts the statement of Spineto, that the Amenti of the Egyptians originated the classic fables of Hades and Tartarus, Charon, Pluto, the judges of hell, the dog Cerberus, the Chimeras, Harpies, Gorgons, Furies, "and other such unnatural and horrible things with which the Greeks and Romans peopled their fantastic hell."
The whole thing is designed for effect, to influence the multitudes, to restrain their passions, and to aid the magistrate and ruler in keeping them subject to authority.
It is the invention of priests and lawmakers, who take this as the easiest method of governing the people. They claim the "right divine" to govern; claim that their laws originate with the gods, as we have shown above; and that, therefore, the gods will visit on all offenders the terrors and tortures of the damned.
Through the joint cunning of priest and legislator, of church and state, mutually supporting each the other, we have all the stupendous frauds and falsehoods respecting the invisible world.
Historians Acknowledge
Polybius - (c. 200 - c. 118 BC) - Greek historian covering the period 264-164 BC in detail.
"Since the multitude is ever fickle, full of lawless desires, irrational passions and violence, there is no other way to keep them in order but by the fear and terror of the invisible world; on which account our ancestors seem to me to have acted judiciously, when they contrived to bring into the popular belief these notions of the gods, and of the infernal regions." B. vi 56.
Some of these excerpts are from my personal notes copied from 30+ years of studying... some of these notes are direct copies of various sources - I do not claim to have authored every word of this... it's just a mass collection I've tucked away over the years for my own personal studies... I didn't consider a bibliography at the time I directly copied small excerpts from various authors. Also, any emphasis (underlines, bold text, all CAPS, etc.) noted above was only meant to capture my personal attention as I studied...
CLICK HERE! for an index to previous blogs.
___________________________
There are many more stories from Egyptian mythology such as the Egyptian heaven in which the "righteous" could be passengers on the "The Boat of Millions of Years" riding with the sun god Ra, or select another option in the "Field of Reeds", etc.
I won't go into the details of these stories here. It would take up too much valuable space. You can Google those stories and read for yourself.
All of these Egyptian myths are the pagan doctrines which have seeped into the doctrines of Christendom... never ending punishment, immortal souls, heavens and hells, judgments at death, mansions in the sky where we, in our "physical" bodies will enjoy never ending life, etc.
These ideals have come down to us in many cultures. For example, the American Indians looked forward to their "Happy Hunting Grounds" which is similar to what Christians believe Heaven will be like.
It's all an attempt to hang on to the "PHYSICAL", the FLESH rather than believing what Scripture tells us:
1 Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the kingdom of God...
We WILL NOT be enjoying Heaven in our physical bodies... we will be raised from the dead with Spiritual bodies:
1 Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
It is not the "resurrection of dead bodies"... nowhere in Scripture will you read that. It is the "resurrection of the dead" - that's US who have died, or will die before the Return of Christ.
1 Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead.
Dead PEOPLE will be resurrected into new Spiritual bodies.
Jesus took on several different forms for the sake of those He appeared to after His resurrection.
Mary thought He was the gardener. The men going to Emmaus didn't know who they walked with. At the seaside the apostles knew it must be Jesus, but they didn't dare ask; and once He appeared in the body in which He was crucified so that the Apostles would know for sure that it is He.
Mummies, Bodies, and Flesh
Egyptians mummified their bodies for the express purpose of preserving those bodies forever. It was essential to them that they have physical bodies in the hereafter. Poor people, who couldn't afford the mummification process, could substitute little figurines to take the place of their body.
The wealthiest, such as Pharaohs, built huge pyramids that are now referred to as "resurrection machines".
They did not realize that apart from God's Spirit the body cannot exist independently. Without the breath of God (His Spirit) no body can live, and no soul exists.
Man only becomes an individual, a living soul, when a physical body (of the dust of the ground) is breathed into by the Spirit of God. Then, and only then, does man become a living soul (our personal ego).
When we die, the body returns to the dust of the ground and God's Spirit returns to Him. I'll get into this in more depth in my blog "Body, Soul, and Spirit".
________________________
This whole "immortality of the soul" and even the concept of "eternity" comes straight from Egyptian mythology!
"Eternity" is not a Hebrew, Greek, nor English word... it stems from the Latin word aevum.
Aevum is defined as: "lifetime, life, age, mankind living at a particular time".
From Aevum comes it's adjective aeternus which in turn is translated into our English word eternal.
This concept of never-ending, or endlessness, comes directly from Egyptian myths and is transferred to our Bibles today through the translation of the Catholic Vulgate (Latin) Bible (KJV).
This doctrine of "eternity" started with the Egyptians, was borrowed by the Greeks, passed on to the Romans, and finally found it's way into the Roman Catholic Church!
They are the ones who decided to hold on to these pagan beliefs as a means to hold power over the people by use of this fearful Egyptian doctrine!
The Latin word aevum never meant endlessness!
This concept was built into our doctrines intentionally!
Jer 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn NOT the way of the heathen...
Deu 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Lev 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I ABHORRED them.
Lev 18:3 After the doings of the land of EGYPT, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye NOT do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye NOT do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
_____________________
Why would they do that?
None of these things were taught in the Law of Moses so where did the Jews of Jesus' day learn these pagan doctrines?
They didn't learn these pagan ideals from Moses. He was adopted by an Egyptian princess (Ex 2:5-10) and was skilled in ALL their ways:
Act 7:22 And Moses was learned in ALL THE WISDOM of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Don't forget - the Jews also lived in slavery under the Egyptians for quite a while so they knew full well of the Egyptian mythology.
Joseph Henry Thayer was a Biblical Scholar of the 1800's. He has an impressive resume which you can read about on Wikipedia if you'd like.
Here is an excerpt from Thayer's "Doctrine of Eternal Punishment"...
"Any one at all familiar with the writings of the ancient Greeks or Romans, cannot fail to not see how often it is admitted by them that the national religions were the INVENTIONS of the legislator and the priest, for the purpose of governing and restraining the common people. Hence, all the early lawgivers claim to have had communications with the gods, who aided them in the preparation of their codes.
The object of this SACRED FRAUD was to impress the minds of the multitude with religious awe, and command a more ready obedience on their part. Hence Augustine says, in his 'City of God,' 'This seems to have been done on no other account, but as it was the business of princes, out of their wisdom and civil prudence, TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE IN THEIR RELIGION; princes, under the name of religion, persuaded the people to believe those things [to be] true, which THEY THEMSELVES KNEW TO BE IDLE FABLES; by this means, for their own ease in government, tying them the more closely to civil society,' B.iV 32."
Thayer is not the only one who has clearly come to see the fraudulent origins of today's religious doctrines.
From Bishop Warburton (1698-1779)
"Hence, they [priests and lawyers] enforced the belief of a future state of reward and punishments by every sort of contrivance."
It was the Egyptian priests and legislators that invented these "destructive heresies" and the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, all capitalized on this inexpensive method of controlling the populace... what better way to do so than through fear of their religious and civil leaders?
Greek and Roman lawyers, philosophers, and priests, acknowledge their indebtedness to Egypt in this respect, and freely credit her with the original invention of the fables and terrors of the invisible world; though it must be allowed that they have improved somewhat upon the hints given, and shown a wonderful inventive faculty of their own (paraphrased from some of Thayer's material).
So, how did they keep the populace in line? By filling their heads with visions of eternal torture in fire if they didn't obey every desire of their religious and civil leaders.
Jer 50:6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray...
Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy FALSELY, and the priests BEAR RULE by THEIR means; and my people LOVE TO HAVE IT SO...
1Co 10:11-12 Now ALL these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for OUR ADMONITION, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
You may still be asking yourself...
"Did the Church really learn these pagan heresies from Egypt?"
Isa 30:1-3 WOE to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but NOT OF ME; and that cover with a covering [Heb: devise a plan, weave a web], but NOT of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
That walk to go down into EGYPT, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt YOUR CONFUSION.
Isa 30:9-11 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
More, from Thayer's "Doctrine of Endless Punishment"...
"Greeks and Romans, Lawgivers and Philosophers, acknowledge their indebtedness to her in this respect, and freely credit her with the original invention of the fables and terrors of the invisible world; though it must be allowed that they have improved somewhat upon the hints given, and shown a wonderful inventive faculty of their own.
These records of the ancient Greeks, confirmed by the monuments as illustrated by modern scholars, open to us the origin of the doctrines of a judgment after death, and of future endless rewards and punishments, for the good or evil deeds of this life. From the Egyptians it passed, with suitable modifications, to the Greeks and Romans. Diodorus himself clearly shows that the fables of the Acherusian lake, of Hecate, Cerberus, Charon, and the Styx, have their original in these Egyptian ceremonies and doctrines.
And Professor Stuart, in a note to Greppo's Essay on Hieroglyphics, accepts the statement of Spineto, that the Amenti of the Egyptians originated the classic fables of Hades and Tartarus, Charon, Pluto, the judges of hell, the dog Cerberus, the Chimeras, Harpies, Gorgons, Furies, "and other such unnatural and horrible things with which the Greeks and Romans peopled their fantastic hell."
The whole thing is designed for effect, to influence the multitudes, to restrain their passions, and to aid the magistrate and ruler in keeping them subject to authority.
It is the invention of priests and lawmakers, who take this as the easiest method of governing the people. They claim the "right divine" to govern; claim that their laws originate with the gods, as we have shown above; and that, therefore, the gods will visit on all offenders the terrors and tortures of the damned.
Through the joint cunning of priest and legislator, of church and state, mutually supporting each the other, we have all the stupendous frauds and falsehoods respecting the invisible world.
Historians Acknowledge
Polybius - (c. 200 - c. 118 BC) - Greek historian covering the period 264-164 BC in detail.
"Since the multitude is ever fickle, full of lawless desires, irrational passions and violence, there is no other way to keep them in order but by the fear and terror of the invisible world; on which account our ancestors seem to me to have acted judiciously, when they contrived to bring into the popular belief these notions of the gods, and of the infernal regions." B. vi 56.
Dionysius Halicarnassus - (c. 60 - after 7 BC) - Greek historian who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus
"a most efficacious means of governing an ignorant and barbarous populace."Hist., I 19.
Strabo - (64 BC - c. 24 AD) - Greek historian during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire
"The multitude are restrained from vice by the punishments the gods are said to inflict upon offenders, and by those terrors and threatenings which certain dreadful words and monstrous forms imprint upon their minds... For it is impossible to govern the crowd of women, and all the common rabble, by philosophical reasoning, and lead them to piety, holiness and virtue - but this must be done by superstition, or the fear of the gods, by means of fables and wonders; for the thunder, the aegis, the trident, the torches (of the Furies,) the dragons, & c., are all fables, as is also all the ancient theology. These things the legislators used as scarecrows to terrify the childish multitude." Geog., B. I
"Plato and the Brahmins of India invented fables concerning the future judgments of hell" (Hades.)
Timaeus Locrus - ?
"For as we sometimes cure the body with unwholesome remedies, when such as are most wholesome produce no effect, so we restrain those minds with false relations, which will not be persuaded by the truth. There is a necessity, therefore, of instilling the dread of those foreign torments: as that the soul changes its habitation; that the coward is ignominiously thrust into the body of a woman; the murderer imprisoned within the form of a savage beast; the vain and inconstant changed into birds, and the slothful and ignorant into fishes."
Plato, in his commentary on Timaeus, fully endorses what he says concerning the "fabulous invention" of these foreign torments.
Chrysippus - (c. 279 - c. 206 BC) - Greek philosopher who blames Plato for attempting to deter men from wrong by frightful stories of future punishments.
"Plato himself is exceedingly inconsistent, sometimes adopting, even in his serious discourses, the fables of the poets, and at other times rejecting them as utterly false, and giving too frightful views of the invisible world. Sometimes, he argues, on social grounds, that they are necessary to restrain bad men from wickedness and crime, and then again he protests against them on political grounds, as intimidating the citizens, and making cowards of the soldiers, who, believing these things, are afraid of death, and do not therefore fight well. But all this shows in what light he regarded them; not as truths, certainly, but as fictions, convenient in some cases, but difficult to manage in others."
Seneca - (54 BC - c. 39 AD) - Lived during the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula
"Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, & c., are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors." Sextus Empiricus calls them "poetic fables of hell;" and Cicero speaks of them as "silly absurdities and fables" (ineptiis ac fabulis.)
Aristotle - (384-322 BC) - Greek Philosopher and Scientist
"It has been handed down in mythical form from earliest times to posterity, that there are gods, and that the divine (Deity) compasses all nature. All beside this has been added, after the mythical style, for the purpose of persuading the multitude, and for the interests of the laws, and the advantage of the state."Neander's Church Hist., I, p. 7.
Augustine - (354 - 430 AD) - North African Theologian and Philosopher, recognized as a saint in the Catholic church
"This seems to have been done on no other account, but as it was the business of princes, out of their wisdom and civil prudence, to DECEIVE THE PEOPLE IN THEIR RELIGION; princes, under the name of religion, persuaded the people to believe those things true, which they themselves KNEW TO BE IDLE FABLES; by this means, for their own ease in government, tying them the more closely to civil society." (All CAPS emphasis is mine.)
I could comment, but I really don't think I have much to add... it's easy to see how the puppet masters can easily control the strings of the puppet through fear.
This is EXACTLY why the Roman Catholic Church continued in these pagan beliefs originating in Egypt.
As history had proved, it was (and STILL IS) an effective means of controlling the populace.
"a most efficacious means of governing an ignorant and barbarous populace."Hist., I 19.
Strabo - (64 BC - c. 24 AD) - Greek historian during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire
"The multitude are restrained from vice by the punishments the gods are said to inflict upon offenders, and by those terrors and threatenings which certain dreadful words and monstrous forms imprint upon their minds... For it is impossible to govern the crowd of women, and all the common rabble, by philosophical reasoning, and lead them to piety, holiness and virtue - but this must be done by superstition, or the fear of the gods, by means of fables and wonders; for the thunder, the aegis, the trident, the torches (of the Furies,) the dragons, & c., are all fables, as is also all the ancient theology. These things the legislators used as scarecrows to terrify the childish multitude." Geog., B. I
"Plato and the Brahmins of India invented fables concerning the future judgments of hell" (Hades.)
Timaeus Locrus - ?
"For as we sometimes cure the body with unwholesome remedies, when such as are most wholesome produce no effect, so we restrain those minds with false relations, which will not be persuaded by the truth. There is a necessity, therefore, of instilling the dread of those foreign torments: as that the soul changes its habitation; that the coward is ignominiously thrust into the body of a woman; the murderer imprisoned within the form of a savage beast; the vain and inconstant changed into birds, and the slothful and ignorant into fishes."
Plato, in his commentary on Timaeus, fully endorses what he says concerning the "fabulous invention" of these foreign torments.
Chrysippus - (c. 279 - c. 206 BC) - Greek philosopher who blames Plato for attempting to deter men from wrong by frightful stories of future punishments.
"Plato himself is exceedingly inconsistent, sometimes adopting, even in his serious discourses, the fables of the poets, and at other times rejecting them as utterly false, and giving too frightful views of the invisible world. Sometimes, he argues, on social grounds, that they are necessary to restrain bad men from wickedness and crime, and then again he protests against them on political grounds, as intimidating the citizens, and making cowards of the soldiers, who, believing these things, are afraid of death, and do not therefore fight well. But all this shows in what light he regarded them; not as truths, certainly, but as fictions, convenient in some cases, but difficult to manage in others."
Seneca - (54 BC - c. 39 AD) - Lived during the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula
"Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, & c., are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors." Sextus Empiricus calls them "poetic fables of hell;" and Cicero speaks of them as "silly absurdities and fables" (ineptiis ac fabulis.)
Aristotle - (384-322 BC) - Greek Philosopher and Scientist
"It has been handed down in mythical form from earliest times to posterity, that there are gods, and that the divine (Deity) compasses all nature. All beside this has been added, after the mythical style, for the purpose of persuading the multitude, and for the interests of the laws, and the advantage of the state."Neander's Church Hist., I, p. 7.
Augustine - (354 - 430 AD) - North African Theologian and Philosopher, recognized as a saint in the Catholic church
"This seems to have been done on no other account, but as it was the business of princes, out of their wisdom and civil prudence, to DECEIVE THE PEOPLE IN THEIR RELIGION; princes, under the name of religion, persuaded the people to believe those things true, which they themselves KNEW TO BE IDLE FABLES; by this means, for their own ease in government, tying them the more closely to civil society." (All CAPS emphasis is mine.)
I could comment, but I really don't think I have much to add... it's easy to see how the puppet masters can easily control the strings of the puppet through fear.
This is EXACTLY why the Roman Catholic Church continued in these pagan beliefs originating in Egypt.
As history had proved, it was (and STILL IS) an effective means of controlling the populace.
Some of these excerpts are from my personal notes copied from 30+ years of studying... some of these notes are direct copies of various sources - I do not claim to have authored every word of this... it's just a mass collection I've tucked away over the years for my own personal studies... I didn't consider a bibliography at the time I directly copied small excerpts from various authors. Also, any emphasis (underlines, bold text, all CAPS, etc.) noted above was only meant to capture my personal attention as I studied...
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