Skip to main content

How Jesus Became a God

Just like Jesus, Julius Caesar was seen by many people as being a god when he was alive, and by even more people after he died.
 
After he dies in 44 BC, Julius Caesar is also deified as a God by the Roman Senate. And the people had heavenly proof  of the validity of this, which combined the 8 days of light celebrated in Hanukkah  with the star of Bethlehem that hung in the sky like the crown jewel of Christmas. 

At the the first games - which were given on the anniversary of the deification of Julius by his heir Augustus - a comet shown, appearing around the 11th hour for 7 days in succession, and it was believed that this comet was the soul of Caesar which had ascended into heaven. 

Such a "divine" heavenly sign proved that if there is only "one God," then what the vast majority of Romans referred to as Julius Caesar, a heretical sect of Judaism referred to as "Jesus Christ," with the latter having ascended into the heavenly realm less than a generation after the former was widely accepted to have done so.

When Julius's son Octavian becomes Caesar Augustus, he actually encourages this belief, because it means that he - Augustus - is therefore the "son of god."

Hence, with Caesar Augustus, we have the beginning of an "emperor cult," and the practice of worshiping emperors, both dead and living, as gods. 

Thus, Jesus is being called "god" by his followers a single generation after Julius Caesar and his son Augustus are being worshiped as god and the "son of God," by Romans overall.

The New Testament is then written portraying Jesus in this very same light, only 126 years later, around the time of the destruction  of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. Scholars believe that the gospels of the New Testament were written between 65 and 95 AD.  So what was going on in Rome during this time?

Well, by 79 AD, Vespasian is being worshiped as a god, and by 81 AD, Vespasian's son -  who became the first Roman emperor to come to the throne after his own biological father -  is also being worshiped as a god. 

The Roman Senate would vote to deify these men as gods, in the very same way the Catholic Church relies on commissions and congregations to canonize its own heroes as its saints.

And in the same way the Hebrew God - which the Hebrews had always understood to be only one of countless other gods - would become first a "more powerful god" than all the others, and then "the only god," so Jesus would be seen as a "god" in a culture that deified all of its heroes and rulers as gods, and eventually become "the only god."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Christianity is More Unnatural Than Homosexuality

I grew up in a family that is about as homophobic as Phil Robertson and the Westboro Baptists, only they're not quite as boisterous about it; at least not in public anyway. They have also conveniently convinced themselves  that their homophobia is really just their unique Christian ability to "hate the sin, but love the sinner" (even though these very same Christians adamantly refuse to accept that people can "hate Christianity, but love the Christian").  The sexual superiority complex necessarily relied on by such Christians is, of course, blanketed beneath the lambs wool of the Christian humility of serving "God." They interpret their fear of those who are different, in other words, as simply proof of their intimate knowledge and love of God. And the only thing such Christians are more sure about than that their own personal version of "God" exists, is that such a "God" would never want people to be homosexual - no matter how ma...
Post a Comment
Read more
  The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter even by a millimeter the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” James Baldwin   
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Are Republicans Pro Life?

Most people don't realize that the Supreme Court has been in the hands of the Republican party since at least 1970! In fact, even in the landmark case of Roe v Wade that legalized abortion, SCOTUS was inhabited by 6 Republicans and 3 Democrats, and the vote was 7 to 2. One of the reasons is that the Republican Party has absolutely ZERO desire to win on the abortion issue. And that's because abortion gives the GOP a clear focal point with potentially unlimited organizing power. And it's an even simpler message to sell than religion, since we are "pro-life." (if that was true, however, they wouldn't be actively trying to repeal healthcare for up to 30 million Americans, nor would they be so pro-gun, pro-war, pro-death penalty, pro welfare cuts, pro- social security cuts, pro- drone strikes, etc). The Republican party officially became "pro-life" in 1976, thanks to Jesse Helms (R-NC). The only reason no serious challenge was brought within the pa...
Post a Comment
Read more