Leonard Abbott
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 Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject: Jesus was no ><> ><> ><> <>< " God is a spirit, and th |
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Jesus was no ><> ><> ><> <><
" God is a spirit, and the ones worshiping Him must worship in spirit
and truth." (John 4:24)
How low can a Catholic stoop, now Christ becomes a fish!
Origin of the "Christian" Fish Symbol
Most symbols that people use have a story behind them and are used to
make a statement. Some of the most famous are the so-called Christian
symbols such as the cross and the fish. Whilst they provide a useful
mean of identification, all of these are carnal and nowadays used
promiscuously by everybody, thus it is best for us to avoid using them.
Moreover they all have a precedent story of paganism, a thing we
Christian must avoid, even if some says the pagan origins have now been
lost in history. The wearing or keeping such symbols has the tendency to
bring veneration to them and thus returning to paganism. Besides, what
saith the Word of God: God is a spirit, and the ones worshiping Him must
worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24)
Here are some tidbits concerning this ancient symbol:
When threatened by Romans in the first centuries after Christ,
Christians used the fish mark meeting places and tombs, or to
distinguish friends from foes. According to one ancient story, when a
Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one
arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the
other arc, both believers knew they were in good company.
Greeks, Romans, and many other pagans used the fish symbol before
Christians. Hence the fish, unlike, say, the cross, attracted little
suspicion, making it a perfect secret symbol for persecuted believers.
So the early Christians made practical use of this symbol for practical
convenience. It is somewhat similar to the use in our days of
bumper-sticker and business-card practice to be recognised by strangers,
although we are not yet under persecution.
As early as the first century, Christians made an acrostic from this
word: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, (ICTYS) i.e. Jesus Christ, Son
of God, Savior, using the Greek word for fish "ichthys." The Greek word
Ichthus (Iota Chi Theta Upsilon Sigma), pronounced ich-thoos, upper
case: and lower case: , is the word used throughout the New Testament
for the English word fish.
The fish has plenty of other theological overtones as well, for Christ
fed the 5,000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves (a meal recapitulated in
Christian love-feasts) and called his disciples "fishers of men." So
that was an easy association: "fishers of men" and the acronym for the
word fish in Greek, and thus the symbol resembling a fish.
It is reputed, however, that his particular fish symbol has ancient
pagan roots.
In pagan beliefs, Ichthys was the offspring of the ancient Sea goddess
Atargatis, and was known in various mythic systems as Tirgata,
Aphrodite, Pelagia, or Delphine. The word also meant "womb" and
"dolphin" in some tongues, and representations of this appeared in the
depiction of mermaids. The fish is also a central element in other
stories, including the Goddess of Ephesus, as well as the tale of the
fish of the Nile that swallowed part of Osiris' body (the penis), and
was also considered a symbol of the sexuality of Isis for she had sexual
intercourse with Osiris after his death which resulted in the conception
and birth of his posthumous son, Harpocrates, Horus-the-child. So, in
pagan beliefs, the fish is a symbol of birth and fertility.
In certain non-Christian beliefs the fish also has been identified with
reincarnation and the life force. Sir James George Frazer noted in his
work, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental
Religion" (Part Four of his larger work, "The Golden Bough") that among
one group in India, the fish was believed to house a deceased soul, and
that as part of a fertility ritual specific fish is eaten in the belief
that it will be reincarnated in a newborn child.
Before Christianity adopted the fish symbol, it was known by pagans as
"the Great Mother", and "womb". Its link to fertility, birth, and the
natural force of women was acknowledged also by the Celts, as well as
pagan cultures throughout northern Europe.
The Romans called the goddess of sexual fertility by the name of Venus.
And thus it is from the name of the goddess Venus that our modern words
"venereal" and "venereal disease" have come. Friday was regarded as her
sacred day, because it was believed that the planet Venus ruled the
first hour of Friday and thus it was called dies Veneris. And to make
the significance complete, the fish was also regarded as being sacred to
her. The accompanying illustration, as seen in "Ancient Pagan and Modern
Christian Symbolism", shows the goddess Venus with her symbol, the fish.
The similarities between the two, would indicate that Venus and Freya
were originally one and the same goddess and that original being the
mother-goddess of Babylon.
The same association of the mother goddess with the fish-fertility
symbol is evidenced among the symbols of the goddess in other forms
also. The fish was regarded as sacred to Ashtoreth, the name under which
the Israelites worshipped the pagan goddess. And in ancient Egypt, Isis
is represented with a fish on her head, as seen in the accompanying
illustration.
A Philistine deity. It is commonly admitted that the name Dagon is a
diminutive form, hence a term of endearment, derived from the Semitic
root dag, and means, accordingly, "little fish". The name, therefore,
indicates a fish-shaped god. This the Bible also suggests when speaking
of the Dagon worshipped in the temple of Azotus (1Sa 5:4) and his
trunk. Coins of various Philistine or Phænician cities, on most of
which Dagon is represented as a composite figure, human as to the upper
part of the body, fish-like as to the lower. From this it may well be
inferred that Dagon was a fish-god. e had face and hands and a portion
of his body resembled that of a fish, in accordance with the most
probable interpretation of "the stump of Dagon" (verse 4). Dagon is
sometimes associated with a female half-fish deity, Derceto or
Atargatis, often identified with Astarte.
One case in point is the church mitre worn by prelates. Where did this
originate? Dr. Thomas Inman discussed this phenomenon in his two volume
opus, "Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names," (1869). He included a
representation of a sculpture from Mesopotamia, observing "It is the
impression of an ancient gem, and represents a man clothed with a fish,
the head being the mitre; priests thus clothed, often bearing in their
hand the mystic bag..." "In almost every instance," added Inman, "it
will be recognized that the fish's head is represented as of the same
form as the modern bishop's mitre." The fish also appears in another
sacred iconograph, the Avatars of Vishnu, where the deity "is
represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish
himself; the legend being that he was to be the Saviour of the world in
a deluge which was to follow..."
Typical modern Jewelry:
What are we to do with all these "Christian" symbols that have pagan
(satanic) roots? Absolutely nothing. And what agreement does
Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an
unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:15)
A godly man once said about people wearing a cross hanging from the
neck: "we ought to hang on the cross ourselves rather than the cross
hanging from our necks".
Another one said: "when in doubt, leave it out".
Whether or not these pagan symbols have lost their original pagan
meanings in our modern era (a doubtful situation) it is best not to be
involved with them, we do not need them. Moreover, another secure test
is to see what the world does with them: if the world loves them, then
they are not godly for the world hates anything from God, and our stern
warning is this: Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, (1 John
2:1)
Therefore a Christian that worships God in Spirit and in Truth has no
need to make a physical point for his belief and should not wear any
jewelry AT ALL, or make use of symbols, whether he knows if they are
Pagan or not. Besides the second commandment forbids the flaunting of
such things.
The faith of a Christian will be known by ALL if he puts into practice
the word of his Master, Jesus Christ: 34 I give a new commandment to
you, that you should love one another; according as I loved you, you
should also love one another. 35 By this all shall know that you are My
disciples, if you have love among one another. (John 13:34-35)
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