Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [16]
And he further states, "Whether considered as the God made human, or as man made divine, this character never existed as a person."13 Moreover, the claim of preexistence of the gospel portraiture was repeatedly confirmed by Christians, as shall be seen. According to the mythicist school, then, the New Testament could rightly be called, "Gospel Fictions" and the Christian religion could be termed the "Christ Conspiracy."
1. Mack, 210.
2. Wells, JL, viii.
3. Wells, WWJ, 137.
4. Wells, DJE, 160.
5. Wells, DJE, 176.
6. Larson.
7. Larson, 352.
8. Massey, HJMC, 170.
9. Higgins, I, 44
10. Robertson, 96.
11. Massey, HJMC.
12. Massey, GHC, 2.
13. Massey, GHC, 22.
The Holy Forgery Mill
J'accuse!
From the very beginning of our quest to unravel the Christ conspiracy, we encounter suspicious territory, as we look back in time and discover that the real foundation of Christianity appears nothing like the image provided by the clergy and mainstream authorities. Indeed, far more rosy and cheerful than the reality is the picture painted by the vested interests as to the origins of the Christian religion: To wit, a miracle-making founder and pious, inspired apostles who faithfully and infallibly recorded his words and deeds shortly after his advent, and then went about promulgating the faith with great gusto and success in "saving souls." Contrary to this popular delusion, the reality is that, in addition to the enormous amount of bloodshed which accompanied its foundation, Christianity's history is rife with forgery and fraud. So rampant is this treachery and chicanery that any serious researcher must immediately begin to wonder about the story itself. In truth, the Christian tale has always been as difficult to swallow as the myths and fables of other cultures; yet countless people have been able to overlook the rational mind and to willingly believe it, even though they may equally as easily dismiss the nearly identical stories of these other cultures.
Indeed, the story of Jesus as presented in the gospels, mass of impossibilities and contradictions that it is, has been so difficult to believe that even the fanatic Christian "doctor" and saint, Augustine (354-430), admitted, "I should not believe in the truth of the Gospels unless the authority of the Catholic Church forced me to do so."' Nevertheless, the "monumentally superstitious and credulous Child of Faith" Augustine must not have been too resistant, because he already accepted "as historic truth the fabulous founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, their virginbirth by the god Mars, and their nursing by the she-wolf ..."2
Apparently unable to convince himself rationally of the validity of his faith, early Church father Tertullian (c. 160-200) made the notorious statement, "Credo quia incredibilis est-I believe because it is unbelievable."3 An "ex-Pagan," Tertullian vehemently and irrationally defended his new faith, considered fabricated by other Pagans, by acknowledging that Christianity was "a shameful thing" and "monstrously absurd":
I maintain that the Son of God was born; why am I not ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why! but because it is itself a shameful thing. I maintain that the Son of God died: well, that is wholly credible because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain that after having been buried, he rose again: and that I take to be absolutely true, because it was manifestly impossible.4
In addition to confessions of incredulity by Pagans and Christians alike, we also encounter repeated accusations and admissions of forgery and fraud. While the masses are led to believe that the Christian religion was founded by a historical wonderworker and his devoted eyewitnesses who accurately wrote down the events of his life and ministry in marvelous books that became "God's Word," the reality is that none of the gospels was written by its purported author and, indeed, no mention of any New Testament