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Horus, Jesus, and Egyptian Mythology: Separating Fact from Fiction

...l powers, she temporarily revived Osiris, and during this brief period, she conceived Horus without engaging in sexual intercourse by taking the form of a bird and hovered over Osiris' reassembled body, receiving his “seed” and becoming pregnant with Horus. Afterward, Osiris died again and descended to the underworld, where he became the god of the afterlife. This miraculous conception has led some people to draw comparisons between the birth of Horus and the virgin birth of Jesus, although once you consider how Horus was conceived, it becomes clear that there are no real similarities at all. There's also no connection to December 25th with Horus. Horus' Mi...

Lent Day 26: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 51-60

...way refreshed and restored. On arriving at the the cells of the other monks, Anthony rejoiced in seeing their earnestness and was also happy to find that his sister had become the leader of the nuns in her old age. During this time, Anthony gave some teaching to the monks and hermits who were living there which were his guidelines for his discipline: Believe on the Lord and love Him; keep yourselves from filthy thoughts and fleshly pleasures, and as it is written in the Proverbs, be not deceived "by the fullness of the belly." Pray continually; avoid vainglory; sing psalms before sleep and on awaking; hold in your heart the commandments of Scripture; be mi...

Does Christmas have pagan origins?

...ll-established before this point in time, as Christians had been celebrating Easter (or Pascha) and Pentecost pretty much since the birth of the Church. If the apostle has erased all devotion absolutely of “seasons, days, months and years”, why do we celebrate Easter by an annual rotation in the first month? Why in the fifty ensuing days do we spend our time in all exultation? Why do we … [fast on] the Preparation Day [i.e. Good Friday]? — Tertullian, 213 AD We can see from at least the second century, Christians had fixed times of the year which were kept for certain celebrations around the resurrection, Passover and Pentecost — celebrations whi...

The Coming of Jesus: The Olivet Discourse – Part 1

...prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. (cf. Matthew 23:34-36) Jesus bluntly tells them that basically the Pharisees are hypocrites, and are partakers in the slaughter of God's holy prophets, even if they weren't alive at the time since they built tombs for them and proclaimed that they wouldn't have aided in the killing of the prophets – all the while plotting to kill Jesus who was regarded as a prophet by the people. Now because of this, Jesus says that his generation would have the c...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part Two)

...rences to shed some light on the meaning of these phrases which we can examine below: Ezekiel 20:46–48Mortal, set your face toward the south, preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb; say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched. So, in our first example, Ezekiel was obviously not prophesying that the forests of Negeb wo...

Was there death before the Fall?

...Eve that she wouldn't die by eating from the Tree of Knowledge - except that they did indeed die because they could no longer attain immortality; they stayed mortal as punishment. After they ate the forbidden fruit, God 'evicted' them from the Garden in case they "might reach out [their] hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Gen 3:22) - but if they were already immortal then this would surely be of no concern to God. Their sin separated them from God as they would now not live forever with him (Ezk 18:4; Ezk 18:20). The concept of a spiritual aspect to people that is separate from the physical body seems to come in later, or is...