Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [204]
Furthermore, as noted, it was maintained by Irenaeus and other Christians that the belief was that "men" could not really "partake in salvation" if Jesus was merely imaginary. The author of the Epistle of Barnabas further illustrates this need for the carnalized Christ: "Then he clearly manifested himself to be the Son of God. For had he not come in the flesh, how should men have been able to look upon him, that they might be saved?"8 "Barnabas" also gives a hint as to the identity of Christ in his next sentence: "Seeing if they beheld only the sun, which was the work of his hands, and shall hereafter cease to be, they are not able to endure steadfastly to look against the rays of it." In other words, looking at "Christ," some have seen "only the sun, which . . . shall hereafter cease to be . . ." And this was the charge of the conspirators: To make the "sun of God" disappear, so that its mythos would not be remembered and the person of "Jesus Christ" could be inserted in its place.
In Against Heresies V, Irenaeus expounds upon the need for the incarnation:
CHRIST ALONE IS ABLE TO TEACH DIVINE THINGS, AND TO REDEEM US: HE, THE SAME, TOOK FLESH OF THE VIRGIN MARY, NOT MERELY IN APPEARANCE, BUT ACTUALLY, BY THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN ORDER TO RENOVATE US.... FOR in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man. For no other being had the power of revealing to us the things of the Father, except His own proper Word.... Again, we could have learned in no other way than by seeing our Teacher, and hearing His voice with our own ears, that, having become imitators of His works as well as doers of His words, we may have communion with Him, receiving increase from the perfect One, and from Him who is prior to all creation.
The incarnation was established as doctrine in one of the most important of "Christian" councils, evidently held at Alexandria in the year after the Gnostic-Christian leader Marcion's death, 161, at which "Docetism," or the disbelief in the "historical" Jesus, was condemned as heresy.
As stated, many cultures were waiting for the mythos to become carnalized, just as people around the world today pray for any number of avatars, messiahs, maitreyas, mahdis and assorted other incarnations. In reality, this expectation can be found around the globe where the deep meaning of the mythos has been lost, as "the vulgar were taught to expect a new incarnation every 600 years."9 As noted, in addition to the 2,150- year cycle of the precession of the equinoxes was this cycle of 600, the reason why Christ himself was compared to a phoenix, who rises from the ashes every 600 years, and why Mohammed appeared on the scene some 600 years later. The expectation of the incarnation, in fact, allowed for some places to be more easily conquered by Christian armies. Because of this past experience with the ongoing cycles and "incarnations," the ancient priestastrologers were well aware that in order to create a new "faith" there had to be an obvious break from the past, which was rife with cults, sects and religions, with "someone" new to come along to found it, alleged to have been sent by the "Almighty Himself." The race was on as to who would produce this incarnation, one in a long line on a recurring theme.
Enter the Romans
While the Israelite Therapeuts had won the race and were seemingly in opposition to the Romans, having been displaced out of Palestine, their efforts were eventually combined with those of Rome. Indeed, in the decades between 170-90 was begun the push for Roman supremacy in the Gnostic-Therapeut-Christian Church, and the various gospel texts and epistles were reworked on behalf of the vested interests at Rome, producing the four gospels, based on manuscripts from the Alexandrian school and other branches/churches of the network. As Walker