A MAN CALLED JESUS CHRIST

August 29, 2010 By Stephen Ellis

There are very few people in this world that have never heard of Jesus Christ. The religion of Christianity has more followers than any other. Yet, very few of even the most ardent Christians know anything about Jesus Christ except what has been written in religious histories (The New Testament). It is important to understand that religious histories are not noted for their accuracy. If you read the Koran, the Mongolian Bible, the Zoroastrian Bible, the Greek or Russian Orthodox Bibles, etc, you will get a completely different picture of the man we call Jesus Christ and of the times in which he ostensibly lived.

If you believe most scholars and historians, they will tell you that a man named Jesus Christ never existed! The central character in “The Greatest Story Ever Told”…the baby born in the manger in Bethlehem, found by the three wise men, was not given the name Jesus or Jesus Christ. If you choose to believe the “Greatest Story…”, the baby would have been born “Joshua” son of “Joseph”. In those days, only the wealthiest or most prominent families used a first and a last name, and the name of the mother was, most often, omitted.

So then, where did the name Jesus Christ originate?

Again, according to most scholars and historians, the name came from two Greek words , “Jesus Christos” which, translated to English, mean “Holy Savior”.

The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, Chapter 14, verse 7, states that a Messiah of the Lord will be born on Earth…and his name will be Immanuel. Belief that a Messiah would soon be born to save the world was rampant in the Middle East. Many religious leaders claimed to be the prophet of the coming Messiah. Their groups of followers believed in the coming of a Holy Savior…and thus identified themselves as “Christians”. Religious leaders of the day such as John the Baptist, Paul the Rabbi, Peter the Fisherman, Matthew, Thomas, etc. all claimed to be prophets of the coming Messiah. The belief of their followers was so strong that several of these groups lasted for hundreds of years.

But the numbers of followers grew fewer as time passed. The groups calling themselves “Christians” were weak and spread-out throughout the Mediterranean area.

Like many minority groups they became the subjects of bigotry and were often used by the wealthy for entertainment by putting them in an arena with hungry lions.

Shortly before 300 AD a minor incident took place that changed the history of the world. A teen-age Roman soldier called “Constantine” was wounded in battle and thought he was going to die. Like his father and most Roman soldiers he was a worshiper of the Sun God “Ra”. Constantine asked his father if there was not some Religion that would forgive him for having killed so many others in battle. His father brought back two people calling themselves “Christians”. They were gentile people and told Constantine that if he accepted the concept that a Messiah was coming, all his sins would be forgiven. Constantine did not die and he never forgot the promise of those two Christians.

History tells us that Constantine became the most powerful Emperor in the Roman Empire, but that his throne was always in danger from assassins. Even his own son tried to kill Constantine and claim his throne. So Constantine developed a plan: Rather than allow his Senate, soldiers or other claimants to his throne to challenge his power, Constantine decided to make some non-violent people the heir to his throne…and he remembered the Christians.

There was a problem: There were about ten different groups calling themselves “Christians”, but they each believed in a different prophet. So Constantine ordered his armies to pick up the leaders of each group and had them meet in Nicaea, France in 326 AD. Constantine made them a proposition: Get together! Unite your beliefs! Agree to one and only one prophet or symbol of your religion and Constantine would make Christians the most powerful group in the Roman Empire. Fail to do this and Constantine would “look the other way” when Christians were persecuted.

The Christian groups at Nicaea could not agree that one of the prophets they believed in would be ranked above any of the other groups’ prophets, so after weeks of haggling, they all agreed that they would create a brand new prophet and all of the current prophets they followed would become the disciples of the new leader.

Even better: they had all been expecting a Messiah for more than three hundred years. What if He had come and had not been recognized? To give the united Christians strength in their beliefs, they decided that he must have come…326 years earlier. They didn’t have a name or an identity for Him, so they met in conference and created Him.

There was no problem in giving the new Messiah a name, Jesus Christ. But, to be credible, there had to be a history to back-up their claim. So, in the name of each of their prophets, a book was written telling of the wonders of the Messiah and documenting the miracles attributed to him. So, in Nicaea in 326 AD, the “New Testament” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told” were born.

Constantine helped the Christians and ordered that all histories of Rome being written from that day forward included mention of the new Holy Savior. They gave him a birth date of December 25 (because that’s what they believed was the date when days started to get longer…we now know the date to be December 22nd). Since the son of God could not be born to a normal woman, they fashioned the idea of the Immaculate Conception.

Constantine could not change the histories that were already written and well-read by Romans. For example, “The Governance of Judea Palestina Jordana”, written by the then Roman Governor of the territory, Pontius Pilate, could not be changed. Scholars often note that Pilate never mentions a Jesus Christ or a Joshua, son of Joseph, in his written history. Pilate does talk about Peter, Paul, John, Thomas, etc. Histories written after 326 AD not only mention Jesus but say that Pilate was the one who ordered Jesus’ crucifixion.

Constantine’s plan worked. Constantine lived to a ripe old age and died a natural death. Christians became the most powerful religious force in Rome and were given the key jobs of teaching schools and religion throughout Rome. Constantine provided the funds to build churches and imposed an additional tax on all Roman citizens who did not accept Christianity.

At least, that’s what he scholars say.

Do you have an opinion? Write me at stebre@aol.com or visit my website at yourparanormalcenter.com. Stephen Ellis