From
The Gospel Truth
by Alexander S. Holub
The Bible is the product of a rather arbitrary and dubious process of compilation performed by men, designed to put forth the particular point of view of these men - Alexander Holub (The Gospel Truth)
Earliest Christians
Probably the earliest actual religious "Christians" were of the Judean religious beliefs of about the first quarter of the first century, but most likely it developed quite a bit earlier as a philosophy. The fact is, that the first ten "bishops" of the Jerusalem Church were all circumcised.

Early Christians went to the synagogue. They celebrated all of the holy high days and festivals including the Day of Atonement. In essence, what this means is that they did not believe, as later Christians did, that Jesus' death atoned for sins at all.

They observed all of the Mosaic laws, dietary laws, purity laws, and so on.

Three Messiahs
They had several differences in regards the traditional Judean thought. First of all, these early Christians apparently believed that the Messiah had already come and gone.

We must remember that according to the messianic tradition there were three messiahs who were to come: the kingly messiahs from the line of David; the warrior messiah from the line of Joseph; and the suffering messiah. The latte was certainly not divine, nor was he the Son of Yahweh.

Coming Apocalypse
The early Christians (especially Gentile Christians) believed that the end of the world  was imminent. This is seen in many of the Christian writings such as the Epistles and there are even more references in several of the gospels.

Supremacy of the Priest
...every early on and especially in gentile Christianity, they believed ignorance, blind obedience to the priests and organization to be virtuous.

Intolerance
The early Christians were, in fact, extremely intolerant. They criticized and persecuted others for their religious practices and beliefs.

Pagan Observations
It was a fact well-known at the time that the Pagan writings promoted abstinence , wisdom and justice. The Christians, though, ascribed these writings to Satan and Satan-worshipers. Many Pagan writers saw nothing in early Christian philosophy that was truly beautiful or worthy. It was filled with seriousness, fear and impiety. Many saw the Christians leading a warped and dishonorable life of lethargy and confusion.

Suitable for Gentiles
When Christianity went out to the gentiles, because it was making no gains in the ranks of the Judeans, it had to be changed to fit the audience...the Mediterranean area was ruled by Rome. Consequently, it was important that the appeal was to a Romanized audience. Additionally, at this time the Mystery Religions were extremely popular and it had to also have that appeal.

In order to have a god that appealed to the Pagans it was necessary to make the Christian god comparable to Pagan gods.

Christian Lunacy
From 100 to 300 AD, Christianity was a small unimportant sect looked at wit disdain due to their intolerance of others...Christian doctrines had gained credence only with a public unable to tell truth from nonsense. The thrust of Christianity was to the ignorant, depraved, slaves , children, women and the old.

Church Fathers
The three Church Fathers given credit for the founding of Christianity were Ireneus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian.

All of the arguments and assertions were inconsistent, lacking in critical thinking and supporting data, and were weak and intellectually inferior to the Pagans.

These early Christian fathers were seen with quite a bit of derision in the beginning centuries of this era. They were superstitious and neither intelligent or versed in philosophical argumentation...the thrust of their preaching was to the lower classes, the uneducated, the children and elderly.

It was Ireneus who set out to create a Christian canon in response to the canon of the Gnostic Marcion of Sinope (c. 170 AD). It was later left to Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, and the Council of Laodicea (365) to compile the list of books for the canon which were to be used in the Christian scriptures. This was eventually ratified at the Council of Hippo in 393 and again at the Council of Carthage in 397. Prior to Ireneus' response to Marcion, the Christians used the Septuagint (Greek) version of the Hebrew scriptures.

It was not until around 180 AD when Ireneus compiled the books with which we are familiar to be the essential canon for the orthodox canon, and it was not until more than two centuries later that these books were finally approved of as the actual "word of God" for Christians.

  • Note: Ireneus set to work on his canon in rage at Marcion. Very holy to be sure. The origins of Christianity are drenched in ire and hostility, with one group deeply antithetical to another. If the Bible contains the actual word of God, why did Christians fragment into dozens of denominations? Moreover, Ireneus openly admitted making changes to the texts in his canon. (He downplayed and excised Gnostic elements in many texts, especially in John.) Again, as with Paul, Marcion and Constantine, we have one man unilaterally deciding what is canonical and what isn't, then demanding the world accept it all without question as the word of God.

Trinity
It was not until the third century that the doctrine of the Trinity, an essential Pagan belief, was incorporated into Christian thought.

Miracles?
Pagan, who were members of Mystery Schools, were well versed in the manipulations and tricks that were used. So they were extremely skeptical about "miracles." This obviously caused the performing Christians to be outraged and the Pagans would be accused of all sorts of things and condemned to hell.

The Essenes
The Essenes were a breakaway bunch of Sadducees.

Rabbi
Refers to Pharisee priests.

Pharisees
The Pharisees regarded themselves as the upholders of the authentic Judean tradition. It was the Pharisees who instigated communal education with the synagogue in each community as the place of education. The Pharisees were respected by the common people not only for their upholding of the Torah but also for their piety and wisdom. They were no the hypocrites as portrayed in the Christian scriptures.

Elohim
The first term to represent God as the creator in the Hebrew scriptures is Elohim...especially important because it is a plural term. Literally it means gods and goddesses.

El Shaddai
History, as well as the scriptures, records that the first god worshiped by the Hebrews was not Yahweh at all but El Shaddai.

Early Jewish Scriptures
In all of this copying and recopying, no one knows what the original texts (c. 700 BC) looked like or said. There are indications that they were very similar to Pagan literature of the time, and may have included the names of Pagan gods throughout.

From around 400 BC there were at least three different versions of the Hebrew scriptures: the Masoretic, Aramaic, and Ashuritic are versions of the same material...It was not until the beginning of this current era that the Masoretic Texts were decided upon as being the correct "Word of God" by a group of rabbis in Jerusalem.

The Persian Solomon
The Solomon story most likely came from an older Persian legend...In the Persian legends was the story of a wise ruler named Suliman ibn Doud ("Solomon the son of David") who was credited with great wisdom.

Egyptian Messiah
...the Biblical messiah concept is derived from the Egyptian (and Arabic) Mahadi (savior) idea. In fact, many verses dealing with the messiah are copied verbatim from the Egyptian and modified so that they mesh quite nicely with the Persian and Babylonian savior concepts, thus creating the idea of the messiah with which many are familiar.

The stories of Job, Ruth, Esther and Daniel are totally or in part taken from Babylonian myths and legends.

Syria and Israel
For many years in the Middle East, archaeologists have been unearthing libraries of cuneiform tablets. They have in their possession several hundred tablets which date prior to 2700 BC and are Syrian in origin. They link Israelis and Syrians as a common people with a common language and mythology.

The Israeli government is adamant about not letting these tablets be translated and published. In fact, they have gone so far as having placed a bill in front of parliament which would require an orthodox rabbi to be present at every archaeological dig to instruct on what can and cannot be removed.

  • Note; Readers who have perused my pages on Comyns Beaumont and L. A. Waddell, etc, will know why this Syrian connection has to be denied and suppressed. Modern historians are attempting to deny any link between ancient Israel and the Canaanites, in an attempt to obscure the truth about Judaism's pagan origins. (Here for more...)

God the Evil One
There was no Satan to bring the natural disasters which were described. It was God. It was God also who when displeased with someone simply "removed" him by taking his life. So it was propitious to worship this deity in order not to anger him in any way.

  • Note: This makes sense, and is proven by way of the deluge. It is God alone who unleashed it and later promised never to visit humankind with any kind of catastrophe again. Where was Satan in all this. Indeed, most of the destructive events mention in Scripture are the work of Yahweh, not Satan.

False Prophecies
It is interesting to note that there are false prophecies in the Bible...Since there are false prophecies in the Scriptures, then it must be concluded that the Bible as a prophecy of God is invalid.

  • Note: Starting on page forty three, Holub goes on to prove this point beyond all doubt, by listing many statements made by various Biblical figures and prophets about events that either didn't come to pass or which were false in other ways. That these faux pas exist, even a single one, disproves the claim of Biblical infallibility made by Christians the world over. They obviously pay attention only to parts which qualify their subjective outlooks, not parts which utterly contradict their central beliefs and claims. As I state repeatedly, no external criticisms are necessary to compromise Christianity as a religion. There is enough nonsense and contradiction within the scriptures themselves to highlight.

The Hebrew scriptures make a very strong point that all prophecy that comes from God and every prophet that God "raises up" is 100 percent accurate, otherwise it is false prophecy, and the prophet is a false prophet...If any prophet has as few as one incorrect prediction, then he is not of God, and any other prophecies cannot be believed.
There were three versions of the Hebrew Bible, and four "schools" with differing accounts which were collated and included in the one document that became the Bible. In 400 BC, the prophet Ezra collected all the versions around and recompiled them into a new book. This was the first Hebrew version, translated from the Aramaic. Ezra's version had many changes. The changes made by Ezra to suit himself are quite discernible. This is odd, given that the central command was that no part of the Bible should be changed. Early Hebrew was almost as difficult to read as the harder Aramaic. It had no vowels, punctuation or paragraphs.
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Early Christianity could easily be termed the poor man's mystery religion - A. S. Holub
Not Much Substance
The major texts that everyone has had to go by are the Gospels and they recount no more than 18 hours of the life of an individual, and even much of that can be disputed.

Mythmongering
One of the most popular techniques used for centuries was that of using an historical setting and placing fictitious characters in it. The reverse was also done: placing historical characters in mythological settings.

Fear is the Key
One of the main selling points of early Christianity was that it preached the end of the world as imminent. This helped to induce fear and anxiety into the unaware and ignorant  individual, and, hence,  gain followers.

Paul's Religion
Traditionally, Christians have been led to believe that Jesus was responsible for the teachings of Christianity. If this were true, the Gospels would have been written before the Epistles and the Epistles of Paul would not overshadow the Gospels.

Throughout the Epistles Paul states that what he is preaching is his version of the Gospel. He never mentions the Gospels which were included in the canon of the Scriptures, nor does he mention anything actually said by Jesus.

  • Note: It is interesting that Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul (or Saul as he was originally known) was the headquarters of the Cult of Mithras. It was also the center of the followers of the great sage Apollonius of Tyana. Is it a coincidence that Paul is a name not dissimilar from Apollonius? As a boy Paul had been enamored by the life story of the sage. Since Apollonius wrote over sixty books, it is likely that Paul at some time in his career gained access to them, finding them filled with numerous fantastical accounts he could use in his campaign - the formation of a new largely Gnostic-toned solar cult. (Given that Paul was none other than Josephus Flavius, chronicler and historian of Jewish history, the scenario is even more plausible.) Indeed, there's not a miracle attributed to Jesus that was not first performed by Apollonius.

Road to Damascus
The only problem is that there are three detailed accounts of this story and they all differ.

Marcion
The first Christians to compile a teaching canon where the Marcionite Gnostics.

Gnosticism
If you look at the teachings of Jesus, you will notice that they are all in allegory and parable, the main teaching method of the Gnostics.

Almost as soon as original Christianity went out to the gentiles Gnosticism spread widely. In reality, the majority of Christian proselyting was Gnostic, and their philosophy and influence are seen as far away as India and China.

  • Note: Modern Christians compulsively deny the Gnostic roots of their religion. It's just one more act of deceptiveness among so many, and is easily proven. For this reason the Church sought for decades to suppress the Dead Sea Scrolls and other texts from groups such as the Essenes and Mandeans, etc, indicating that Jesus (and John the Baptist) were definitely members of highly Gnostic Jewish sects. Indeed, some texts refer to Jesus as the "wicked priest," while John was the so-called "teacher of righteousness." The Dead Sea Scrolls, unearthed in 1948, were suppressed for over forty years. (See the works of Hershel Shanks, Barbara Thiering, Elaine Pagels, Gilles Quispel and Hans Jonas, etc.)

The Gnostics were a part of early Christianity and Gnosticism existed before Christianity.

There is the distinct possibility that the earliest Gospels, and maybe even the Epistles, were written by Gnostic sects. There are literally hundreds of Gnostic ideas expressed and very strongly emphasized in the Gospels and Epistles.

Book of John
...it is known that the Book of John was written after 115 AD. It was used by the Valentinian Gnostics for many years prior to its induction into the accepted canon of Ireneus. Consequently, the Book of John is a Gnostic work and it shows to have been greatly influenced by Philo Judeus.

  • Note: Because of this another safer version, largely purged of Gnostic elements, was later hurriedly concocted, probably written by Bishop Ireneus himself, the self-appointed persecutor of the Gnostics. The Church asserts that the later version was written by Leucius, a follower of John. (Starting on page 111, Holub lists many of the discrepancies and inconsistencies between the four gospels.)
The so-called Holy Kiss is yet one more element appropriated from Gnosticism, which preceded the advent of Christianity. The Christian attempt to downplay Gnosticism's role is wholly untenable. It is believed by some experts that the four gospels may have been written by members of Gnostic sects. This goes for other canonical works.
Forty Days Alone in the Wilderness
A problem has long been overlooked in this Gospel. When Jesus went into the desert for 40 days, there is a relatively detailed description of his temptation. There is also a rather detailed description of what happened to Jesus when he was praying in the garden before he was arrested. The question is, who saw it in order to report it with such detail?

...the writers of the Gospels claimed to be eye-witnesses to all of these events. These two events in particular were witnessed by no one. How could they have been reported?

Church Councils
Virtually everything that Christians profess to believe about Jesus was decided upon by councils of the Catholic Church. Very little was brought in from tradition and literally nothing came in from historical data.

The stories of the Gospels were written long after the supposed events, and no one knows who wrote them.

Origen the Mythmonger
...it was not until later that Origen began to write that the symbols of Christianity: heaven, hell, resurrection, and the second coming were to be taken literally.

Council of Nicea
The first major council of the Church was the Council of Nicea. It was convened by the Emperor Constantine on May 20, 325. Its purposes were fourfold:

  1. To organize all of Christianity into one philosophy
  2. To heal the growing rift between eastern and western Christians
  3. To reorganize the Roman Empire
  4. To organize the books of the Scriptures into a basic canon

Hesus Krishna
One of the main philosophical questions encounters was that of who to worship. It was not known whether the worship should be of a deity like the Hindu Krishna or the Druidic Hesus, or both under the title of Hesus-Krishna...1,730 bishops were against it, 318 were for it.

Being that the union was Constantine's brainstorm, the army was brought in and those opposing the union were forcibly removed. So, the name Jesus Christ became the name to be used in the chosen books of the Christian scriptures.

  • Note: Here we see that Jesus was indeed based on the irish Hesus. The name can also be rendered Esus, Esa, Isa and Iesa, etc. This name was also that of Horus, known as Iusa to the Egyptians, a god also originally based on the Western antetype. In Ireland he went by the name Iesa Crios, to emphasize that he was a solar deity associated with the seasonal cycle and round of the zodiac. He is identical to Dion-Esus, Orpheus, and so on. Hesus was the original wounded or "crucified" god, shedding his blood to fertilize the land. He was the great "carpenter" god whose sacred tree was the oak. So as we see it was the supreme god of the Druids or Arya who served as the basis for the Christian Jesus. No wonder he was chosen by Emperor Constantine and his bishops who certainly saw themselves as the chiefs of the new order of Druids. (See my Irish Origins of Civilization books and site for more on this.)

The Crucified Jesus
The crucified lamb was used to represent the Christ until 692 AD. Then at the fifth Council of Constantinople a man was placed on the cross and the lamb removed.

  • Note: It wasn't until the sixth century that the Jesus figure was first portrayed with a beard. Before this he was depicted as a youth, patterned after Adonis, Tammuz and Horus, etc. (Starting on page 163, Holub provides a list of the major Christian councils and what was decided at each in terms of the content of the Scriptures.)

Constantine the Murderer
Constantine was baptized on his deathbed. This was after years of countless murders of people in order to hold onto his throne.

  • Note: Constantine did not make Christianity the official state religion. He merely allowed it to be worshiped among the other more important solar-based religions and sects thriving throughout the empire, the most important of which was Sol Invictus, to which Constantine himself belonged, to his dying day. Christianity's success was based entirely on material profit. Converting to Christianity meant receiving sizable financial reimbursement from the emperor, not to mention other social gifts, awards and privileges. Constantine converted only on his death bed, because he was promised that by doing so he'd be forgiven for all his heinous sins. He also wanted to galvanize his empire and undermine rivals. Constantine established what we know as the Papacy, creating the office of the Bishop of Rome,  who went by the title "Vicar of Christ." Numerous pagan sites, shrines and temples were handed over to Christians for demolition. In their place the Christians raised their churches and cathedrals. This pattern of deliberate desecration occurred throughout the world. (Starting on page 170, Holub cites 43 additional reasons why Constantine favored Christianity over other doctrines.)