Listener Q&A

Listener Question: Egyptian religion still practiced today?
Ancient Egyptian religion makes for some interesting grist for si-fi movies and such, but surely, nobody really practices that bizarre religion anymore..

Tsiyon Answer: Well, yes and no. Yes - Egyptian religion is bizarre, including gods with human-like bodies and animal heads. No - Egyptian religious practices continue as a regular part of the lives of billions of people. Now let me document that.

We will start with a popular claim that is not true. Namely, that the "Jesus story" (as found in Scripture) is just a re-hash of the ancient Osiris-Isis-Horace myth. Here are three principle claims used to "prove" this accusation, with my rebuttal. 

Horus and Jesus both born of a virgin: Simply untrue. Horus was not born of a virgin. Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris, who were married. No virgin birth here.

Horus and Jesus both had twelve disciples: Simply untrue again. Horus had four demi-gods who followed him, if you want to call them "disciples" - but 4 isn't 12.

Horus and Jesus were both crucified and resurrected 3 days later: Strike three - crucifixion was invented by the Romans centuries after the advent of Egyptian religion. There is no crucifixion story of Horus.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. The attempt to equate "Jesus" with Horus is a forced contrivance with no basis in reality. So why does this false accusation persist? The reason is that the Roman Church of the fourth century A.D. forward did assimilate pagan customs that originated in ancient Egyptian religion. If you don't make a distinction between the earliest followers of Messiah and the apostates of the later Roman Church then you could easily be fooled by the apostate pagan practices.

In a nutshell, the ancient Egyptian religion came down through time as part of the mystery schools of ancient Greece and Rome. These flourished in Rome under the banner of Mithras, god of the Sun, which worship was practiced by Emperor Constantine, who was also the first Roman emperor to rule the Roman Church. 

Here is one example of how the ancient Sun god became amalgamated into the Roman Church in the form of their Christ figure. 

The Roman Church is not alone in carrying forward doctrines, customs and celebrations of the ancient pagan religion, including the December 25 celebration of the birth of the Sun, assimilated into "Christianity" as Christmas, The Easter celebration, named after an Isis permutation, and many other pagan customs.  We find this same Mithrasian cult carried forward in other groups as well. Note this quote:

The Freemason / Oddfellows / Skull and Bones & other related fraternal organizations, all can be traced to the worship of Mithras which is the worship of the Sun god, which is where the “lodge” or underground cave or tavern came from. They believed that the Sun came out of a rock and was received by shepherds. Mithras worship came from the Egyptian worship of Horus (the Sun god), Isis (the goddess of fertility, the eternal virgin mother, the queen of heaven) and Osiris (their father god). The Greeks took Horus and changed him into their Sun-god Helios and Isis they made Dionysus etc. It’s all paganism and false god worship, it was part of the ruling party of Rome and had come down through Persia through the Arya, or spiritual people of Iran. Many of whom migrated to India to start Hinduism & later monks went to China & start Buddhism from a traveling Hindu monk who pasted his knowledge unto a martial art monastery that the Shaolin temple was born. [paradoxparables.justparadox.com]

Through Mithras cult influence the gods of ancient Egypt continue to influence virtually all modern secret societies as well as all major religions of the world. That is why so many different groups and religions incorporate very similar practices and symbols. For example, nearly every "Christian" Church worships under a representation of the phallus of Osiris! Note this:

     What Do Spires and Steeples Represent? Such objects long predate Christianity. In fact, they go back to ancient pagan fertility rites. The male symbol of fertility was represented by the pagans as an upright stone, pillar, obelisk, or slender tower. [The Egyptian obelisk is a representation of the phallus of Osiris.]
     According to Edward Carpenter, in the book Pagan and Christian Creeds, the lingam (a stylized phallic symbol) occurs all over the world.
     The Biblical Cyclopaedia, by McClintock and Strong, says: "Even the spires of churches are symbols retained from the old phallic worship" ("Phallus," vol. VIII, p. 55).
     Thomas Inman, in his book Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, writes that ancient fertility rites and phallic worship resulted in the setting up of various architectural structures such "as we now see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets before mosques" (p. XXII). [Bibletools.com]

Much more could be said about the influence of ancient Egyptian religion in our modern world. In some cases these practices are accepted unknowingly, while in others, they are entered into knowingly and purposefully. In either case we should ask ourselves, "Should I participate in the use of customs which originate in a pagan religion that YHWH condemned by the Ten Plagues." Think about it, and make your choice today.