The Roman Imperial Religion and the Philosophical Jesus

The Roman Imperial Religion and the Philosophical Jesus

Writer: Evangelos D. Kepenes

This is part of the work "Mythological and Utopian religious ideals from the completion of the Apostolic Ministry until today," which was published on www.aionios-diathiki.gr (February 19, 2020, 23:59)

Orthodox Christianity

The Church established by the living God was not a draft of an imperfect religion or a philosophical system that God handed over to the "philosophical fathers" of Orthodoxy to shape it formalistically, to crystallize it dogmatically, and to establish it worldwide with institutional coercion violating the "If any man will come after me" verse. The Church of God was and is "the pillar and ground (= firmament / foundation) of the truth," which the Lord God has acquired for Himself with His own precious blood to declare His praises.

Orthodoxy

"The voice of the fathers" is not "the voice of Jesus or the voice of the Apostles." Those who think that "Orthodoxy" is the continuation of the original apostolic work are wrong. After all, everyone knows that history is written the way the winners and the spiritual overlords want it to be written. "Orthodoxy" is the Eastern part of the schism of the part-Christian, "Catholic," authoritarian religion of the Roman Empire, where its emperor was officially "King of the Romans in Christ," its citizens were "the Chosen People or the New Israel," and its doctrine was "One Religion, One King, One Inhabited Earth," while the dogmatic, ecclesiastical issues were state matters. The state "Catholic Church," as an ally of the Empire's cultural, military and religious imperialism, acquired special privileges that increased its prestige and its property in land and money.

All doctoral dissertations in philosophy and theology come to the conclusion that the Philosophy of late antiquity and the theology of the Orthodox East are inseparably linked. Thus, with the unnatural union of the manifestations of the ancient, earthly Philosophy / Mythology and the apostolic teaching through the Holy Spirit, "Orthodoxy" was dogmatically crystallized. It also replaced the Grace of our Lord and God Jesus Christ with a tradition of mystical, dogmatic theology that has a mythological, "triune god" at the top, with useless Jewish types, with incense burners, with candles, with votive offerings to the "saints," with superstition, and with the veneration of idols and relics. According to their confession, this "triumph" was achieved because the "fathers" simply (!!!) discharged the philosophical "terms" of their time from their philosophical / metaphysical content and recharged them with theology, "a term originally used in the works of Plato and other philosophers with reference to the teaching of Myth."

According to their frank confession, the representatives of the Orthodox, mystical and religious system regard "Ancient Hellenism" as their background, claiming that the ancient Greek philosophers were "in Christ" before Christ, and that their contradictory, theological philosophy was a pedagogue of the Greeks towards Christianity. In fact, Plato was regarded by the "fathers" as a close relative of their religion because, contrary to the views of his classmates on Philosophy / Mythology, he believed that "God" was good and not evil, and that "he created the best possible world because he was good."

They believe that aniconic, non-dualistic Islam (7th c. AD), for which Allah (God) is both Good and Evil, has the same background. Islam is a fusion of rabbinic, kabbalistic Judaism (which believes that the words of the rabbis are the word of God), Judeo-Christianity (with its Gnostic expressions), Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Hermeticism, and the national traditions of Arab Paganism. Islam clearly has a selective affinity with ancient Greek Philosophy, since the Bedouins had conquered Hellenistic areas in the Middle and Near East that influenced the natives philosophically. After all, John of Damascus regards Islam as a form of Christian heresy related to Arianism.

The philosophical Jesus

“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (2 Cor. 11:4)

Ancient Greek religious Philosophy was not static, but was evolutionary and had a conciliatory relationship with the Eastern and African teachings. It sought the truth, but did not find it, because it sought it in the tradition of men and in the elements of this world. Platonists believed that "ideas are real beings" and, similarly to other philosophical trends, they expressed unity and plurality at the same time, "all is one." They used the term "god" as a set of various entities, from the transcendental, cosmic Creator, the Cosmic Soul and its parts (the human souls), to the Olympian gods and other secondary, stellar deities that were intermediate forces of hierarchical structure through which the First God created the perceptible world and communicated with it, bridging the ideal with the perceptible. The ancient Egyptian Hermetic passage quoted below captures the Theological, Philosophical and Mythological concepts in which the Ancients indulged.

Iamblichus, "On the Egyptian Mysteries" VIII, 2 - Ancient Fragments of the Phoenician, Chaldean, Egyptian, Tyrian, Carthaginian, Indian, Persian, and other writers, (By Isaac Preston Cory, ESG. Fellow of Caius Coll. Cambridge - London William Pickering 1832, page 283)

"Before all things that really exist, and before the total principles, there is one god, prior to the first god and king, remaining immoveable in the solitude of his unity (Pythagoras). For neither is the intelligible immixed with him, nor any other thing. He is established, the exemplar of the god who is the father of himself, self-begotten, the only father, and who is truly good (Plato). For he is something greater and the first, the source of all things and the root of all primary intellectual ideas. And out of this one, the self-ruling god radiated himself forth, wherefore he is the father of himself and self-ruling. For he is the first principle and god of gods, a monad out of the one, pre-substantial being, yet the first principle of substance. For from him come substantiality and substance, wherefore he is called the father of substance. For he is pre-substantial being, principle of the intelligible ones, wherefore he is also addressed as the chief of the intelligible ones. These are the most ancient principles of all things, which Hermes [Trismegistus] places first in order, before the ethereal and empyrean gods, and the celestial."

Focusing on the above view of Hermeticism, the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, who attributed Greek Philosophy to the Pentateuch and strongly influenced the formation of the "patristic thought," ranked the "Word" as the superior of the intermediate forces, as a second god, as inferior to the only God (the First One), as an archangel, as the firstborn Son of God, positions that were related to those of the ancient and the Gnostic beliefs.

"And the first power after God the Father and Lord of all is the Word, who is also the Son; and of Him we will, in what follows, relate how He took flesh and became man." (Philosopher Justin, First Apology, chap. 32). "Philo's Speech" was embraced by Justin and other philosophers, apologists and intellectual Christians who, in any case, in their time were initiated in Neoplatonism, which was a mix of Pythagoreanism, Platonic Idealism, Aristotelian theology, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Sorcery and Chaldean theology and theurgy.

As for the Chaldean theology, the unifying concept of "One" that characterized the Babylonian deities had led the Neoplatonic philosophers Plotinus, Iamblichus and Proclus to emphasize the Chaldean oracles that were regarded as the pinnacle of knowledge and wisdom, having the number three (3) as the basis of the Chaldean ontological system for gods and demons.

In his work "Chaldean and Neoplatonic Theology," referring to the "Theology of the Chaldean Oracles," the historian and theologian Katelis Viglas writes:

"The first god of the Chaldean Oracles is the Paternal monad, and it is supposed that he reigns silently from the abyss, from where he created the world with the Power and the Intelligence. The Power is usually equivalent to the Son, the central element, while the Intelligence is equivalent to Hecate. Hecate is the live fire and the Soul of the World, a third god that has an intermediate position, separating and joining the first two hypostases, also called "Once and Twice beyond" (Dionysus was also "Once beyond"). However, from the content of the fragmentary verses of the Chaldean Oracles it can sometimes be inferred that the Intelligence is the second demiurgic god, and then the Power is identified with Hecate. The first triad corresponds to the world of supramundane light, and it is absolutely inconceivable and eternal."

These ideas were in conflict with the Monarchians and other Judeo-Christian groups loyal to Biblical Monotheism. Later on, the "patristic philosophers," having Athanasius as their rapporteur, moved up the intermediate, distinct, second god (the "Word" of Philo, of the Hermeticists and of others), making an ontological equation between the First God (the Only Father) and the Second God (the Son).

Patristic "cooperative diarchy" and its evolution into a "cooperative triarchy"

The prevailing dualistic ideas in antiquity were either competitive, such as the ideas of Zoroastrianism, or non-competitive, such as the ideas of Marcionism. From the dogmatic, philosophical fermentations conducted by the "fathers," a new, "cooperative," dualistic, theological philosophy was born, where the second god (the Son) is "very God of very God" [two (2) Gods], not only born before all time, but also co-eternal, co-equal, consubstantial and super-substantial with the Father.

However, because of "the highest good of the Platonic philosophy," the "Orthodox Christians" had to worship "One God in Trinity" and "Trinity in Unity," but without confounding the persons (the gods) nor separating their substance!!! Besides, the worldview of Pythagoras with the sacred trinity of action, "Father-Mother-Son," from which the universe proceeded, had shown the way.

The "fathers" solved all these problems by discharging the "ancient philosophical terms" from their philosophical / metaphysical content and by recharging them with "theological, patristic content" (as they claim). Then, by adopting the saying of Hermes Trismegistus, "all is one, one is all," they found the solution, and now, according to Athanasius:

"We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons nor separating the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal ... The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal ... So likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, and the Holy Spirit is almighty. And yet there are not three almighties but one almighty. So likewise, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God ... And in this Trinity, none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three persons are co-eternal, and consubstantial."

So, according to Athanasius, there are not three gods. However, according to mythology and the "fathers," the second co-eternal and super-substantial god, the Son, was able to come down to earth and incarnate (he was clothed in a material body given "of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary").

Dionysian worship

However, these theological / philosophical / mythological issues were solved long ago by the worshipers of Dionysus and were explained through hymns (Dionysus Triouchos, Trigonos / thrice-born).

Proclus' Holy hymns to Dionysus {fragments}

Triouchos monad = triadic monad (See: Triune Monad)

John Lydus - "On the Months," 2-6: "That the monad is contemplated in a triad can be understood from the hymns. Proclus, on the "once beyond," writes thus: For the universe, seeing you, a monad containing three, revered you." (Hymn to Dionysus, fragments)

The Orthodox, worshipers of the Philosophical Jesus, having a philosophical dependence on the Ancient religion and not a theological revelation, are unable to utter a Christian speech or write a treatise that is not substantiated by ancient Greek literature and the thoughts of ancient philosophers, whose schools were shut down by them, imposing their dogmatic absoluteness on those of a different religion or doctrine with the help of the institutional death penalty.

The New Religion, connected to the chariot of the Roman state machine, gave birth to Christian religious nationalism, which was used as a tool for the accomplishment of national goals, and the words "Roman" and "Christian" acquired identical meanings similar to the slogan "Greece of Greek Orthodox Christians." Today, the nationalized Churches, such as the Bosnian Church, the Church of Greece, the Church of Russia, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Church of Denmark, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, etc., are diagnosing the "incurable," autoimmune disease of ethno-racialism. This is the same thing that happened to Jewish religious nationalism (Zionism), which did not discern the universality of the spiritual, biblical promises. (Gal. 3:8-14, 26-28)

About Mariolatry

Seeking the earthly and not the heavenly (Col. 3:1), the Orthodox "philosophical theologians" established the worship of artifacts and relics (showing a preference for skulls), as well as Mariolatry with many names. Thus, the sacred revenue and, consequently, the ecclesiastical revenue increased. But the main thing is that the converts to the New Religion, after the slogan "By this thou shalt conquer," acquired an ever-virgin defender, general and protector in their military operations, replacing Athena Pallas, daughter of Zeus, who, according to myth, protected the Athenians.

Catholic priest Andrew Greely says: "The Mary symbol links Christianity directly to the ancient religions of mother goddesses."

In his monumental work "Panarion," referring to the heresy of the Collyridians (they made offerings to Mary because they recognized her as the queen of heaven) in some parts of Scythia, especially in Thrace (the area where Constantinople was located), from where it spread to Arabia, Epiphanius of Salamis writes:

"Yes, of course Mary's body was holy, but she was not God. Yes, the Virgin was indeed a virgin and honored as such, but she was not given us to worship; she worships Him who, though born of her flesh, has come from heaven, from the bosom of his Father. And the Gospel therefore protects us by telling us so on the occasion when the Lord himself said, "Woman, what is between me and thee? Mine hour is not yet come" (Jn. 2:4). [For] to make sure that no one would suppose, because of the words, "What is between me and thee?" that the holy Virgin is anything more [than a woman], he called her "Woman" as if by prophecy, because of the schisms and sects that were to appear on earth. Otherwise some might stumble into the nonsense of the sect from excessive awe of the saint." (Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion, Book III, 79,4, p. 452)

Other wrong beliefs

The Orthodox "philosophers" established the ancient custom of iconolatry and the procession of icons, the saint worship with the ability to choose between a personal, clerical and corporative protector and mediator (a mediator between God and men), as well as other pagan ceremonies that do not agree with the message of the Gospel of Salvation by the Crucified and Resurrected Jesus. Deeply influenced by and dependent on the Gnostic and Egyptian ascetic movements, the cenobitic monasticism and their dualistic perceptions, and by imitating their practices (celibacy, abstinence from food, punishment of the material body to sanctify the immortal soul), they turned the isolation from society into a sacred, ecclesiastical institution. And the purpose of isolation is the union with God and the transcendence from the material world through Peace, with the study of death as a companion (Orthodox Psychotherapy). The historian Procopius called the monks' life "a careful study of death."

Those who practice the "Orthodox Psychotherapy," followers of the hesychast philosopher, scholar and monk Gregory Palamas (Palamites), believe that through silence and devout concentration and by surrounding themselves with a multitude of handmade icons of "Orthodox" saints, they are able to see the "Holy Trinity" or otherwise known as the uncreated Glory (theoptia = the direct sight of God), and then they can become "theologians."

"Historically, Western Christianity has tended to reject Palamism, especially the essence-energies distinction, sometimes characterizing it as a heretical introduction of an unacceptable division in the Trinity and suggestive of polytheism. Further, the associated practice of hesychasm used to achieve theosis was characterized as 'magic.'" (Fortescue, Adrian (1910), Hesychasm, VII, New York: Robert Appleton Company)

By preaching that "The kingdom of heaven is dispassion of the soul" and that "The kingdom of God is knowledge of the Holy Trinity," they present the denial of the world and the doctrine of the "Holy Trinity" as biblical truths, and they canonize stylites, dendrites, inmates and other "crazy" deniers of the world and of the goods of life, whom they praise as charismatic.

The course of the New Religion

The power hunger and the claim of the ecclesiastical throne led, after mutual curses, to the schism between the churches of the East and the West (1054) and then to the fall and plunder of Constantinople and the slaughter of coreligionists by the Latin brothers "in Christ" (1250) with the fourth crusade. After the crusading "services" of "chivalry," the Christian West turned to Greco-Roman antiquity and the classical spirit and was reborn. In 1517, Luther's reform split the totalitarian regime of the Western Church, and Protestantism was born, divided into Lutheranism and Calvinism. New "national churches" and many modern, heterogenous denominations sprang up within Protestantism. Fundamentalism was also developed, which can also be found in other religions. Protestantism nurtured within itself theories of free will and shaped the ideology of capitalism that led to the collapse of the feudal system.

King Henry VIII of England (1509-1547), due to his turbulent love life, caused the separation of England from the Papal power of Rome, which denied to grant him a new divorce, and thus the Anglican Church was born. The Anglican Church gave birth to Puritanism (an extreme expression of conservatism), which flourished during the years of the dynamic Queen Elizabeth I of England, daughter of Henry VIII. And the Puritans gave birth to the Puritan Evangelical Church of America.

In the 18th century, "Orthodoxy," under the Ottoman yoke, sought the rebirth of its theology and the enslaved Greek nation through the Kollyvadic movement, led by Orthodox monks and philosophical theologians. The effort succeeded with the revival of the secret, neptic and hesychast tradition of the "fathers" (neptic theology), always in combination with iconolatry (a union of the inconceivable with the perceptible). Thus, the enslaved Eastern Orthodox Church clarified its theological identity while securing itself against the Western and Protestant proselytism.

During the Ottoman period (which was the result of the anti-unifying policy of "Better the Turkish turban than the Papal tiara" led by the monk Gennadius Scholarius, who, after the fall, became the first patriarch of Constantinople), in order to maintain national consciousness, the enslaved Hellenism rallied under the institution of the Orthodox Church, which acquired privileges from the Ottoman conqueror and functioned as an institution of self-government of the enslaved Orthodox Greeks. Thus, the Orthodox patriarch became the political and religious leader of the "Roman Millet," that is, of all the Greek Orthodox Christians of the empire. The patriarch was aided by wealthy families, the Phanariotes, and community leaders known as proestoi (leaders), commissioners, demogerontes (elders of the people) and kodjabashis, who, along with the patriarch, acquired wealth and political power. Just as the Jewish ruling class pursued a pro-Roman policy under the Roman power, so did they pursue a pro-Ottoman policy. For the election of the ethnarch, now called patriarch, who appointed metropolites (archbishops) and priests and was accountable to the Sultan, the sultan was given a gift (peskesi) of 500 gold coins, an amount that increased over time.

Conclusion

The greatest antibiblical gift of "patristic Christianity" since its birth has been to convince the uneducated mass of the people and the ruling political class that it is the continuation of the primitive church of Christ, and whoever disputes its doctrine and its rites is an enemy of the state and of the Holy Trinity and must be punished.

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