373
absolute throughout in all their essential doctrines, and princi-
ples, and precepts. And if it shall be found, on a critical read-
ing of this work after it comes from the press, that there is one
feature of Christianity which has not been traced to pagan
origin, or that any points of resemblance have been omitted,
they will be supplied in an appendix.
3. It has been stated that a transfiguration is related of
Chrishna of India (1200 B. C.) in the Hindoo bible (the Bag-
havat Gita), which is strikingly similar to that of Christ. We
will here present the proof. “Abandoning the mortal form, he
(Chrishna) appeared to his disciples in all the divine eclat of
his Divine Majesty, his brow encircled with such a brilliant
light that Adjourna and the other disciples, unable to bear it,
fell with their faces in the dust, and prayed the Lord (Chrishna)
to pardon their unworthiness. He replied, c Have you not
faith in me ? Know ye not, that whether present or absent in
body, I will be ever present with you to guard and protect
you ? ’ ” (Baghavat Gita.) How remarkable this to the story of
Christ’s transfiguration!
4. Some readers, perhaps, will be surprised to observe that
we have named so many crucified gods to whom some writers
assign a different death. But we have followed, as we be-
lieve, the best authorities in doing so.
5. In our work, “ The Bible of Bibles,” we have shown that
the score of bibles which have been extant in the world teach
essentially the same doctrines, principles, and precepts. There
are to be found in the old pagan bibles the same grand and
beautiful truths mixed up with the same mind-enslaving errors
and deleterious superstitions as those contained in the Chris-
tian bible. And the same exalted claim is set up by the disci-
ples of each for their respective holy books — that of being a
direct revelation from God, and inspired at the fountain of
infinite wisdom. And all were exalted, adored, and idolized
by their respective admirers, as containing a perfect embodi-
ment of truth, without any admixture of error. The ancient
Persians carried their bibles in their bosoms, and read them
and prayed over them daily. The Hindoos often read their
bible through on their bended knees, and sometimes committed
274
THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.
it all to memory. The Baghavat has the following text: “ The
most important of all duties is to study the Holy Scriptures,
which is the word of Brahma and Chrishna, revealed to the
world.” Some of the Mahomedans claim that immortal life
can only be obtained by reading the Koran, and that the read-
ing of it is essential to the progress and practice of good morals,
and the advancement of civilization; and that it will ulti-
mately reform and civilize the world. Both they and the Hin-
doos, like the Christian world, have numerous commentaries,
explaining the obscure texts of their bibles, and aiming to recon-
cile their teachings with reason and science. And the disciples
of all bibles had a mode of doing away with the immoral teach-
ings, and concealing the worst features of their sacred books by
bestowing on them a spiritual meaning, as Christians do theirs,
thus dressing up error in the guise of truth. The Hindoo bible,
the Mahomedan bible, and other holy books, consign those who
disbelieve in their teachings to eternal damnation, denouncing
them as infidels. In this respect, also, they are like the Chris-
tian’s bible.
6. uBut then, after all (as some good pious Christian will
probably exclaim after reading this work), the bible and Chris-
tianity are essential to the progress of good morals, and the
advancement of the cause of civilization, and the civilized
world would sink into a state of heathen darkness, demoraliza-
tion, and savagism without them; for every enlightened nation
owes its present moral and intellectual greatness to the Chris-
tian bible and the Christian religion, and would relapse into
barbarism without them.” This is a mistake, a most egregious
mistake, my good brother Christian, as the following facts of
history will show : —
1. There are heathen nations now existing who never saw a
bible, and others which flourished in the past, before our bible
was written, who nevertheless attained to a higher state of
morals, and a higher state of civilization in some respects, than
any Christian nation known to history. A whole volume of
facts might be adduced, if we had space for them, drawn from
the ablest and most reliable authorities, to prove that India,
Egypt, Greece, and other countries had reached a high state
CON CL US ION AND RE VIE W.
875
of civilization centuries before Christianity or any of its founders
were even heard of, or made their appearance in the world.
India was distinguished for her learning, her laws, her legisla-
tion, her civil courts, her judicial tribunals, her astronomers, her
poets, her philosophers, her writers, her moralists, her libraries,
her men of literature, and her good morals long before Moses
was found in the bulrushes. Jacolliot says, “ India gave civil-
ization to the world.” Egypt borrowed of India, the Greeks
of the Egyptians, and the Jews and Christians are indebted
to the Greeks for both their morals and their civilization.
Dubois, a Christian missionary, in his “ Memoirs of India,”
testifies that u kindness, justice, humanity, good faith, compas-
sion, disinterestedness, and in fact nearly all the moral virtues,
were familiar to the ancient Brahmans and Hindoos, and they
taught them both by precept and example.” Can as much be
said of any Christian nation ? Certainly not. And the Itev.
D. O. Allen says they were distinguished for all the arts
and refinement of civilized life — thus placing them on the
highest plane of civilization and moral elevation. And other
nations might be referred to. Egypt had her vast temples of
science, Chaldea her astronomical observatories, and Greece
her distinguished academies of learning, her profound philoso-
phers, and her high-toned moral writers and moral teachers,
while the Jews, “God’s holy people,” were in a state of semi-
barbarism. So affirms the Rev. Albert Barnes.
2. No advancement has often been made in morals or civil-
ization in any country by the introduction of the Christian
bible or the Christian religion. It is the arts and sciences which
accompany or follow the bible which do the work. A proof
of this statement is found in the fact, that no improvement
takes place in the morals of the people by the introduction of
the bible till the arts and sciences are also introduced amongst
them. On the contrary, the morals of many deteriorate by
reading the bible alone, because it sanctions as well as con-
demns every species of crime then known to society. (For
proof see Chap. XXIX. of this work.) That India has become
corrupted and sunk in morals since the introduction of the
Christian bible, is admitted by the Rev. D. 0. Allen, for twenty-
376
THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.
five years a missionary in that country. But science, espe-
cially moral science, imparts a different influence. It explains
the nature of crimes, and teaches and demonstrates that a life
of honesty and virtue can alone produce true and real happi-
ness, while the bible augments the temptation to commit sin
by teaching that “it is a sweet morsel to be rolled under the
tongue,” and that its punitive effects may be entirely escaped
by an act of divine forgiveness. But science, either directly or
by the enlightening of the mind, teaches and convinces the
wrong-doer that there is no escape from the evil effects of a
wrong or wicked act, and that sin is not a “ sweet morsel,” but
ultimately a bitter pill. And thus it arrests the demoralizing
effects of this pernicious doctrine of the Christian bible.
3. It may startle some of the bible devotees to bq told that
their sacred book, instead of being a prompter to civilization
and good morals, is really a hindrance to those ends; and
that consequently nations without bibles advance faster in these
respects than those who are well supplied with this book.
But the facts of history seem to establish this as a fact. As a
proof we will contrast the present condition of heathen Japan
with that of Christian Abyssinia. Colonel Hall and Dr. Oli-
phant both testify that no drunkenness, no fighting, no quarrel-
ing, no thefts, no robberies, no rapes, no fornication, no domes-
tic feuds or broils, and no fraudulent dealing take place in
Japan. No locks or keys are used, for none are needed. There
is no disposition to steal, or even to cheat, or overreach in deal-
ing. But in Christian Abyssinia, on the other hand, according
to Mr. Goodrich, where bibles and churches are numerous, and
preaching and praying are heard every day, nearly all the crimes
above enumerated are daily committed. The people go naked
eat raw flesh, cheat, lie, and murder, and practice polygamy.
Such a thing as a legitimate child, he tells us, is not known.
And thus it has been for fifteen hundred years, while in the
daily practice of reading their bible. The arts and sciences
have never been introduced amongst them. And this fact ex-
plains the cause of their continued moral degradation.
4. According to Noah Webster, the cultivation of the arts
and sciences is essential to the progress of civilization and
CONCL USION AND RE VIE W«
377
good morals. But bible religion knows nothing about the arts
and sciences. It don’t even use the words. Paul uses the
word science only once, and then to condemn it. But Jesus
omits any allusion to science, philosophy, or natural law. So
thoroughly convinced were the early disciples of the Christian
faith that the teachings of their bible are inimical to the arts
and sciences, that they destroyed works of art wherever they
could find them, and opposed with a deadly aim every new
discovery in the sciences.
5. As bibles represent only the morals and state of society
in the age in which they are written, and are not allowed to be
altered or transcended, they thus hold their disciples back in
all coming time, and compel them to teach and practice the
morals of that semi-barbarous age as found taught in their
bibles. And thus bibles prevent the moral growth of the peo-
ple as effectually as the Chinese wooden shoes prevent the
growth of the feet. For a fuller exposition of this matter, see
The Bible of Bibles, Chap. XIV.
NOTE OF EXPLANATION.
In Chapter XXXI. we have traced Christianity to Essenism. This
may need a fuller explanation than we have yet devoted to this point,
though we have stated several times we consider them essentially one.
The Essenes had their “ Exoteric ” and their “ Esoteric” doctrines. The
latter, which seems to have included the incarnation, atonement, trinity,
and all the other Budhist doctrines as set forth in Chapter XXXII. (and
now included in the term Christianity), they never published to the world.
Hence Chapter XXXI. sets forth only their Exoteric doctrines. But as
Philo, Milman, Tytler, and other eminent authors show they held all
the doctrines of Budhism, we assume they were a Budhist sect. Hence,
when we speak of Christianity growing out of Budhism, in Chapter XXXII.,
we mean Budhism under the name of Essenism. We believe Christianity
is from Essenism and Budhism both, because they are essentially one;
and that Christianity is merely a continuation of Budhism as taught by
the Essenian sect of Budhists. Hence we have sometimes used the term
Essenism, and sometimes the term Budhism, as being the fountain head
of Christianity. We have stated Christ may have been an Essene either
by birth or by conversion. But our conviction now is, that he was one
by birth. And we now think it probable that that portion of the Jewish
nation which became known as Essenes sprang up in the Budhist school
of Pythagoras, in Alexandria, in the second or third century before Christ,
and thus became Essenian Budhists; i. e., a sect of Jewish Budhists who
called themselves Essenes. And consequently, neither Christ nor his
disciples made any changes in the Essenian religion, when they changed
its name to Christianity, except to ingraft a few unimportant tenets bor-
rowed from the principal Budhist sect. We are now convinced that
Essenism was complete Budhism, that Christ was born of Essene par-
ents, and that no important changes were made bj droning the term
Essenism, and adopting the term Christianity in its place.
378
NOTE TO PAGE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-
SEVEN.
It may not be improper to explain more fully the reason for the opinion
expressed on page 157, that the Gospel writer John did not believe that
Christ first came into existence through human birth, but believed that
he, like seme of the oriental Gods, was “ The Word” personified, without
the process of birth; though he may, like the heathen orientalists, have
cherished the tradition that the second God in the trinity (as he repre-
sents Christ to be)., after having sprung into existence as “ The Word,”
was subsequently subjected to human birth. Either so, or else his allu-
sion to “the mother of Christ” was done in condescension to the gen-
eral belief among the people, that he had a human mother. Be that as
it may, he declares, “The Word was made flesh ” (John i. 14); nearly
the same language used by the orientalists,—which with them did not
imply human birth. And the declaration, “All things were made by
him” (John i. 3), is proof positive he believed in Christ’s existence as
the creator, before his human birth. Much of John’s language is so
strikingly similar to that employed by the disciples of some of the orien-
tal religions, who believed that a second God emanated from the mouth
of the Supreme, to perform the act of creation, that we cannot resist the
conviction that this was John’s belief; especially as many of them be-
lieved, like him, that this creative “Word” became afterward a subject
of human birth. Thus, as we conceive, the proposition is established.
NOTE TO PAGE THREE HUNDRED AND ONE.
Our most reliable authorities testify that Babylon never was destroyed,
but successfully resisted, for one hundred and fifty years after Isaiah’s
time, many of the most powerful sieges, and “the mightiest munitions of
war,” conducted by seven of the most skilful generals that ever wielded
the sword — Cyrus, Darius, Alexander the Great, Antigonus, Demetrius,
Poliorcetes, and Antiochus. She then gradually declined by the removal
of her inhabitants to other and newer cities; thus falsifying the predic-
tion of Jeremiah (li.
, “Her end has come,” and of Isaiah (xiii. 22),
“ Her days shall not be prolonged,” and that “ desolation shall come
upon her in a day,” and her destruction shall be effected suddenly— all
of which are falsified by the facts just presented. And even if Babylon
379
380
APPENDIX.
had been destroyed, the present existence of Hillah, built in 1101 upon
the same spot, with a population, according to Wellstead, of twenty-five
thousand, is a signal overthrow of Jeremiah’s prophecy, that it “ shall
become a wilderness, wherein no man dwelleth ” (li. 43), and of Isaiah,
also, that it should not be dwelt in from generation to generation. Jere-
miah first predicted that her sea and springs should dry up (li. 38), and
then declared the waves of the sea should come upon her (li. 42) ; and
finally, that she should sink to rise no more (li. 64). And Isaiah’s pre-
diction of ruin and destruction included with Babylon, “ the land of
the Chaldeans” (1. 39), which was then, and is yet, a great commercial
country, with an annual revenue at this time, according to Harvey
Brydges, of a million pounds sterling. Here, then, is a long series of
prophecies falsified. Our authority for saying that Hillah occupies the
site of ancient Babylon is Malte-Brun’s Geography (page 655), which de-
clares, “ Hillah is situated within the precincts of Babylon; ” thus prov-
ing it is not “ a wilderness, wherein no man dwelleth.” Had we space,
we should present an extended view of the prophecies.
Language in this board is ENGLISH