Quote:
Originally Posted by awareness
"The Faith?" What a nebulous conception, with no solid or stable definition.
So since I'm accused of not backing up what I say, I present two with one stone. Here's a quote from an early church father, both a man of the faith, and who realized that the Jesus story was like the stories of the Greek pantheon (this is one quote from among many):
"And if we assert that the Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary generation, let this, as said above, be no extraordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury is the angelic word of God. But if any one objects that He was crucified, in this also He is on a par with those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now enumerated.
And if we even affirm that He was born of a virgin, accept this in common with what you accept of Perseus. And in that we say that He made whole the lame, the paralytic, and those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar to the deeds said to have been done by Aesculapius.". - Justin Martyr's First Apology, chapter 21
Also, you say Jesus affirmed the OT. He also affirmed the Greek system as well :
Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell [Greek=Hades]shall not prevail against it.
Hades was not a place in the Greek pantheon. Hades was the god of the dead. And the dead were said to go to the house of Hades, where a gate held the dead in.
So what Jesus was saying was, the gates of the god Hades will not hold his "called out ones" ; that death will not hold them.
Thus even Jesus reached back into the Greek pantheon, to make his point about the church.
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And you make some important points. First, God created man, all men. Since all men have a relationship with the creator, why wouldn't they have pieces to the puzzle of this mystery?
Second, yes Jesus referred to Hades, and the gates of Hades. Therefore I don't see why looking into who and what Hades is can be an issue with Christians. Faith in the word of the Lord is showing appreciation for the word, studying the word of Jesus is showing appreciation.
Third, if we look at the children of Zeus we can see that one was a real headache of epic proportions, not unlike this thread.
