Kersey Graves
Rival Claims Of The Saviors
From “The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You To Read”
Editor
Tim C. Leedom
It is claimed by the disciples of Jesus Christ that he was of
supernatural and divine origin; that he had a human being for a
mother, and a God for his father; that, although he was woman-conceived, he was Deity begotten, and molded in the human form, but
comprehending in essence a full measure of the infinite Godhead,
thus making him half human and half divine in his sublunary origin.
It is claimed that he was full and perfect God, and perfect man;
and while he was God, he was also the son of God, and as such was
sent down by his father to save a fallen and guilty world; and that
thus his mission pertained to the whole human race; and his inspired
seers are made to declare that ultimately every nation, tongue,
kindred, and people under heaven will acknowledge allegiance to
his government, and concede his right to reign and rule the world;
that “every knee must bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
But we do not find that this prophecy has ever been or is likely to
be fulfilled. We do not observe that this claim to the infinite deityship
of Jesus Christ has been or is likely to be universally conceded. On
the contrary, it is found that by a portion, and a large portion of the
people of even those nations now called Christian, this claim has
been steadily and unswervingly controverted, through the whole
line of history, stretching through the nearly two thousand years
which have elapsed since his advent to earth.
Even some of those who are represented to have been personally
acquainted with him – aye! some of his own brethren in the flesh,
children in the same household, children of the same mother – had
the temerity to question the tenableness of his claim to a divine
emanation. And when we extend our researches to other countries,
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we find this claim, so far from being conceded, is denied and
contested by whole nations upon other grounds. It is met and
confronted by rival claims.
Upon this ground hundreds of millions of the established
believers in divine revelation – hundreds of millions of believers in
the divine character and origin of religion – reject the pretensions set
up for Jesus Christ. They admit both a God and a Savior, but do not
accept Jesus of Nazareth as being either. They admit a Messiah, but
not the Messiah; these nations contend that the title is misplaced
which makes “the man Christ Jesus” the Savior of the world. They
claim to have been honored with the birth of the true Savior among
them, and defend this claim upon the ground of priority of date.
They aver that the advents of their Messiahs were long prior to that
of the Christians, and that this circumstance adjudicates for them a
superiority of claim as to having had the true Messiah born upon
their soil.
It is argued that, as the story of the incarnation of the Christians’
Savior is of more recent date than those of these oriental and ancient
religions (as is conceded by Christians themselves), the origin of the
former is thus indicated and foreshadowed as being an outgrowth
from, if not a plagiarism upon the latter – a borrowed copy, of which
the pagan stories furnish the original. Here, then, we observe a
rivalship of claims, as to which of the remarkable personages who
have figured in the world as Saviors, Messiahs, and Sons of God, in
different ages and different countries, can be considered the true
Savior and “sent of God;” or whether all should be, or the claims of
all rejected.
For researches into oriental history reveal the remarkable fact that
stories of incarnate Gods answering to and resembling the
miraculous character of Jesus Christ have been prevalent in most if
not all the principal religious heathen nations of antiquity; and the
accounts and narrations of some of these deific incarnations bear
such a striking resemblance to that of the Christian Savior – not only
in their general features, but in some cases in the most minute details,
from the legend of the immaculate conception to that of the
crucifixion, and subsequent ascension into heaven – that one might
almost be mistaken for the other.
More than twenty claims of this kind – claims of beings invested
with divine honor (deified) – have come forward and presented
themselves at the bar of the world, with their credentials, to contest
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the verdict of Christendom, in having proclaimed Jesus Christ, “the
only son, and sent of God:” twenty Messiahs, Saviors, and Sons of
God, according to history or tradition, have, in past times, descended
from heaven, and taken upon themselves the form of men, clothing
themselves with human flesh, and furnishing incontestable evidence
of a divine origin, by various miracles, marvelous works, and superlative virtues; and finally these twenty Jesus Christs (accepting their
character for the name) laid the foundation for the salvation of the
world, and ascended back to heaven.
1. Chrishna of Hindostan.
2. Budha Sakia of India.
3. Salivahana of Bermuda.
4. Zulis, or Zhule, also Osiris and
Orus, of Egypt.
5. Odin of the Scandinavians.
6. Crite of Chaldea.
7. Zoroaster and Mithra of Persia.
8. Baal and Taut, ” the only
Begotten of God,” of Phoenecia.
9. Indra of Tibet.
10. Bali of Afghanistan.
11. Jao of Nepal.
12. Wittoba of the Bilingonese.
13. Thammuz of Syria.
14. Atys of Phrygia.
15. Xamolxis of Thrace.
16. Zoar of the Bonzes.
17. Adad of Assyria.
18. Deva Tat, and Sammonocadam
of Siam.
19. Alcides of Thebes.
20. Mikado of the Sintoos.
21. Beddru of Japan.
22 Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillah,
of the Druids.
23. Thor, son of Odin, of the Gauls.
24. Cadmus of Greece.
25. Hil and Feta of the Mandaites.
26. Gentaut and Quexalcote of Mexico.
27. Universal Monarch of the
Sibyls.
28. Ischy of the island of
Formosa.
29. Divine Teacher of Plato.
30. Holy One of Xaca.
31. Fohi and Tien of China.
32. Adonis, son of the virgin Io
of Greece.
33. Ixion and Quirinus of Rome.
34. Prometheus of Caucasus.
35. Mohamud, or Mahomet, of Arabia.
These have all received divine honors, have nearly all been worshipped as Gods, or sons of God; were mostly incarnated as Christs,
Saviors, Messiahs, or Mediators; not a few of them were reputedly
born of virgins; some of them .filling a character almost identical with
that ascribed by the Christians’ bible to Jesus Christ; many of them,
like him, are reported to have been crucified; and all of them, taken
together, furnish a prototype and parallel for nearly every important
incident and wonder-inciting miracle, doctrine and precept
recorded in the New Testament, of the Christians’ Savior. Surely,
with so many Saviors the world cannot, or should not, be lost.
And now, upon the heel of this question, we find another formidable query to be met and answered, viz.: was he (Christ) the only
Savior, seeing that a multitude of similar claims are now upon our
council-board to be disposed of ?
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We shall, however, leave the theologians of the various religious
schools to adjust and settle this difficulty among themselves. We
shall leave them to settle the question as best they can as to whether
Jesus Christ was the only son and sent of God – “the only begotten
of the Father,” as John declares him to be Gohn 1:14) – in view of the
fact that long prior to his time various personages, in different
nations, were invested with the title “Son of God,” and have left
behind them similar proofs and credentials of the justness of their
claims to such a title, if being essentially alike- as we shall prove and
demonstrate them to be – can make their claims similar.
We shall present an array of facts and historical proofs, drawn
from numerous histories and the Holy Scriptures and bibles appertaining to these various Saviors, which include a history of their lives
and doctrines, that will go to show that in nearly all their leading
features, and mostly even in their details, they are strikingly similar.
A comparison, or parallel view, extended through their sacred
histories, so as to include an exhibition presented in parallels of the
teachings of their respective bibles, would make it clearly manifest
that, with respect to nearly every important thought, deed, word,
action, doctrine, principle, precept, tenet, ritual, ordinance or
ceremony, and even the various important characters or personages,
who figure in their religious dramas as Saviors, prophets, apostles,
angels, devils, demons, exalted or fallen genii – in a word, nearly
every miraculous or marvelous story, moral precept, or tenet of
religious faith, noticed in either the Old or New Testament Scriptures
of Christendom – from the Jewish cosmogony, or story of creation
in Genesis, to the last legendary tale in St. John’s ” Arabian Nights”
(alias the Apocalypse) -there is to be found an anti type for, or outline
of, somewhere in the sacred records or bibles of the oriental heathen
nations, making equal if not higher pretention to a divine emanation
and divine inspiration.
This is admitted by all historians, even the most orthodox, to be
of much more ancient date; for while Christians only claim, for the
earthly advent of their Savior and the birth of their religion, a period
less than nineteen hundred years in the past, on the contrary, most
ofthe deific or divine incarnations of the heathen and their respective
religions are, by the concurrent and united verdict of all history,
assigned a date several hundred or several thousand years earlier,
thus leaving the inference patent that so far as there has been any
borrowing or transfer of materials from one system to another,
Christianity has been the borrower.
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And as nearly the whole outline and constituent parts of the
Christian system are found scattered through these older systems,
the query is at once sprung as to whether Christianity did not derive
its materials from these sources – that is, from heathenism, instead
of from high heaven – as it claims.
As far back as 1200 B. C ., sacred records were extant and traditions
were current, in the East, which taught that the heathen Savior
(Virishna) was:
• Immaculately conceived and born of a spotless virgin, “who
had never known man.”
• That the author of, or agent in, the conception, was a spirit or
ghost (of course a Holy Ghost).
• That he was threatened in early infancy with death by the ruling
tyrant, Cansa.
• That his parents had, consequently, to flee with him to Gokul
for safety.
• That all the young male children under two years of age were
slain by an order issued by Cansa, similar to that of Herod in
Judea.
• That angels and shepherds attended his birth.
• That it occurred in accordance with previous prophecy.
• That he was presented at birth with frankincense, myrrh, &c.
• That he was saluted and worshipped as “the Savior of men,”
according to the report of the late Christian Missionary Hue.
• That he led a life of humility and practical moral usefulness.
• That he wrought various astounding miracles, such as healing
the sick, restoring sight to the blind, casting out devils, raising
the dead to life, &c.
• That he was finally put to death upon the cross (i. e., crucified)
between two thieves.
• After which he descended to hell, rose from the dead, and
ascended back to heaven “in the sight of all men,” as his biblical
history declares.
The New York Correspondent, published in 1828, furnishes us the
following brief history of an ancient Chinese God, known as Beddou:
All the Eastern writers agree in placing the birth of Beddou
1027 B. C. The doctrines of this Deity prevailed over Japan,
China, and Ceylon. According to the sacred tenets of his
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religion, ‘God is incessantly rendering himself incarnate,’ but his
greatest and most solemn incarnation was three thousand years
ago, in the province of Cashmere, under the name of Fot, or
Beddou. He was believed to have sprung from the right intercostal of a virgin of the royal blood, who, when she became a
mother, did not the less continue to be a virgin; that the king of
the country, uneasy at his birth, was desirous to put him to
death, and hence caused all the males that were born at the same
period to be put to death, and also that, being saved by
shepherds, he lived in the desert to the age of thirty years, at
which time he opened his commission, preaching the doctrines
of truth, and casting out devils; that he performed a multitude
of the most astonishing miracles, spent his life fasting, and in the
severest mortifications, and at his death bequeathed to his disciples the volume in which the principles of his religion are
contained.
Here, it will be observed, are some very striking counterparts to
the miraculous incidents found related in the Gospel history of Jesus
Christ. And no less analogous is the no less well-authenticated story
of Quexalcote of Mexico, which the Rev. Mr. Maurice concedes to
be, and Lord Kingsborough and Niebuhr (in his history of Rome)
prove to be much older than the Gospel account of Jesus Christ.
According to Maurice’s “Ind. Ant.,” Humboldt’s “Researches in
Mexico,” Lord Kingsborough’s “Mexican Ant.,” and other works,
the incarnate God Quexalcote was born (about 300 B. C.) of a spotless
virgin, by the name Chimalman, and led a life of the deepest humility
and piety; retired to a wilderness, fasted forty days, was worshipped
as a God, and was finally crucified between two thieves; after which
he was buried and descended into hell, but rose again the third day.
The following is a part of Lord Kingsborough’ s testimony in the
case: “The temptation of Quexalcote, the fast of forty days ordained
by the Mexican ritual, the cup with which he was presented to drink
(on the cross), the reed which was his sign, the ‘Morning Star,’ which
he is designated, the ‘Teoteepall, or Divine Stone,’ which was laid on
his altar, and which was likewise an object of adoration, – all these
circumstances, connected with many others relating to Quexalcote
of Mexico, but which are here omitted, are very curious and
mysterious.”
Again “Quexalcote is represented, in the painting of Codex Borgianus, as nailed to the cross.” One plate in this work represents him
as being crucified in the heavens, one as being crucified between two
thieves. Sometimes he is represented as being nailed to the cross, and
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speaks of his burial, descent into hell, and his resurrection; while the
account of his immaculate conception and miraculous birth are
found in a work called “Codex Vaticanus.”
Other parallel incidents could be cited, if we had space for them,
appertaining to the history of this Mexican God. And parallels might
also be constructed upon the histories of other ancient Gods, -as that
of Sakia of India, Salivahana of Bermuda, Hesus, or Eros, of the Celtic
Druids, Mithra of Persia, and Hil and Feta of the Mandaites.
We will close with the testimony of a French philosopher, Bagin,
on the subject of deific incarnations. He says, “The most ancient
histories are those of Gods who became incarnate in order to govern
mankind. All those fables are the same in spirit, and sprang up
everywhere from confused ideas, which have universally prevailed
among mankind, – that Gods formerly descended upon earth.”
Now, we ask the Christian reader,
What does all this mean? How are you going to sustain the
declaration that Jesus Christ was the only son and sent of God,
in view of these historic facts? Where are the superior credentials
of his claim? How will you prove the miraculous portion of his
history to be real and the others false?
We boldly say it cannot be done. Please answer these questions,
or relinquish your doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ.
· ————·
Kersey Graves, The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors, Truth Seeker Co.,
New York, 1875. This is an excerpt from his book, which is still in print.
Available from Health Research, Mokelumne Hill, CA 95245.
EDITOR’S COMMENT: This article reflects the same problems,
short falls and fallacies for which the Christian crucification story is
guilty. It is also another example of composite literature.
The original true believers were taking mythology and materializing it into symbols that represent their saviors
