Here's what threw me off.
Installment XVI—HELL: Part C
THE SIN OF A MAN BORN BLIND:
"And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:1-2)
What? How, pray tell, could this blind man be responsible for his own blindness when we are plainly told that he was born blind? Not only did the disciples believe the pagan doctrine that the soul is immortal, but they believed that souls could transmigrate from one body to another body.
The idea that the disciples are presenting to Jesus is the pagan doctrine known today as "The transmigration of souls." This doctrine teaches that souls do not just live on, as in "immortal" after death, in some fabled hellhole of eternal torture, or some heaven on a rock in outer space, but rather that at death, the immortal soul migrates to inhabit the body of another person about to born into the world.
Many in the world today continue to believe in reincarnation and the transmigration of souls. There are some pagans who believe that the souls of the dead can also reappear in the life of a pig, snake, nor some other animal.
Seriously, why would Christ’s disciples believe that a man could have sinned before he was ever born?
But what is even more remarkable is the fact that Jesus did not correct them, but rather went along with and acquiesced to their pagan notions. Jesus did not demean their foolish statement or their foolish belief, but countered with:
"Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents…" (John 9:3).
Jesus spoke the truth, for truly this man had not sinned (however, Jesus did not inform them that it would have been impossible for him to sin before he was born). But Jesus did not expose this pagan heresy to His disciples at this time. For what possible reason would Jesus want to keep His own disciples deceived?
BEELZEBUB—Lord of the Flies:
"But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out devils, but by BEELZEBUB the prince of the devils [ruler of the demons]" (Matt. 12:24).
Did Jesus believe in this mythological god of the pagans? Notice how Jesus answered these Pharisees:
"And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?" (Verse 27).
Some might think that Jesus is conceding that He indeed believed in this Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. How foolish. Jesus did not believe that pagan gods were real.
Notice what Strong’s says about Beelzebub:
Beelzeboul beh-el-zeb-ool' Of Chaldee origin (by parody upon [H1176]); dung god; Beelzebul, a name of Satan: - Beelzebub.
The Hebrew #1176 is Baal-Zebub which means "Lord of the fly." And as flies gather around dung, the Jews sarcastically referred to this deity of the Ekronites as the "god of dung," or "the dung god."
Did Jesus really believe that there is such a god as this Beelzebub, god of dung?
Of course He didn’t, but neither did He expose this pagan heresy to the Pharisees either.
REINCARNATION/TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS:
On another occasion:
"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that You are John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets" (Matt. 16:13-14).
Some even thought that He might be John the Baptist, which is really strange, seeing that Jesus was already the same age as John, when John was beheaded.
Did Jesus Christ believe in reincarnation and the transmigration of immortal souls? Where did this teaching come from, and why does Jesus make reference to it? Why didn’t Jesus expose this pagan heresy to His disciples instead of going along with their false statements?
PARABLES - THE RICH MAN IN HELL/HADES:
"And in hell [Gk: ‘hades’] he [the Rich man] lift up his eyes, being in torment, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Luke 16:23).
The Egyptians called their place of punishment in the underworld, amenti. When the Greeks borrowed most of the Egyptian myths surrounding this place called amenti, they called it by the name hades.
Thomas Thayer supports Professor Stuart, Greppo's Essay, and Spineto, that: "The Amenti of the Egyptians originated the classic fables of Hades and Tartarus." (Doctrine of Eternal Punishment, Chapt. 3, P. 7).
Did Jesus believe that when people die, they are consciously alive and tormented in the pagan hell of the Greeks named after their pagan god, hades?
Why would Jesus use pagan religious doctrines and beliefs to teach spiritual truths of God? Haven’t these things deceived the Church and caused the many different denominations of Christendom? Yes, of course they have, and so have all the parables which Jesus taught that virtually no Church understands. The Church does not even understand the few parables that Jesus explained!
How many theologians believe and understand that all the parables are the same parable? Tis true:
"And He [Jesus] said unto them, Know you not this parable? And how then shall you know all parables? (Mark 4:13).
All parables are the same parable. I know: it boggles the mind. It takes the Spirit of God to understand these spiritual teachings.
And just as when Jesus said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," no one understands what He meant until it was fulfilled. Everyone thought he meant the literal physical stone temple rather than His own body.
Likewise, only the "Chosen few" can understand the parables as they are fulfilled in their own lives, generation by generation, until the parables are fulfilled.
The Jews of Jesus’ day learned these pagan teachings referred to above, plus many more, but from where did they learn them? For a fact they did not learn them from Moses, the Prophets, or Hebrew Scriptures. Who taught these pagan doctrines? Can we trace back such doctrines as "the immortality of the soul," "reincarnation," "consciousness and everlasting punishment after death?" Yes, we can.
EGYPT—THE GRANDSON OF NOAH
The Scriptural origin of Egypt is extremely easy to trace, though don’t expect many in the secular world to agree with this:
"The sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen. 10:1).
"And the sons of Ham, Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan" (Gen. 10:6).
STRONG’S HEBREW DICTIONARY:
"H4714 Dual of H4693; Mitsrajim, that is, Upper and Lower Egypt: - Egypt, Egyptians, Mizraim."
There it is: "Mizraim," Noah’s grandson through his son Ham is EGYPT.
Egypt is mentioned from Genesis to Revelation--558 times (more than any other nation excepting Israel). This statistic alone should speak volumes to us regarding the importance of Egypt in God’s plan for humankind. It behooves us to learn more about the nation of Egypt, its history, its culture, and its religion. It has everything to do with understanding the many unscriptural doctrines of the Christian Church.
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
In this Installment on hell, I want to take you back to the beginning of things as far as possible. The main object I have in mind is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the teaching of life immediately following death, the immortality of the soul, and the teaching of a hell wherein the wicked are punished and/or tortured endlessly, are all inventions of the ancient pagans, centuries before the people of Israel began to believe and teach these doctrines, or even before Israel existed.
Peace
Roy