THE CROSS – PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY

Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, is build on paganism in its beliefs and practices. This seems unbelievable, but records of history speak the truth. Take the case of the most revered cross. Most Christians want to believe it originated with Jesus; nothing is further from the truth. What is the truth behind the cross?

One can see the ubiquitous cross in the churches, on the doors of houses, inside offices, and on the chests of ladies in the form of necklaces. Catholics also make the sign of the cross by first touching the forehead, then the chest, the left shoulder, then the right, and finally the chin together with saying, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” They also make the same sign on leaving their houses, when starting to travel, and before doing anything. They said this is for protection against evil spirits and failure. These are they who have been duped not knowing or refusing the know how their cross came into the Church. Where do they get this kind of belief? Nothing has been said in the Bible about it.

Before the advent of the Christian era, the pagans of Babylonia, Syria, Persian, Egypt and other nations in the Mediterranean area already used the cross as a religious symbol. False pagan gods like Bacchus, Tammuz, Bel of Chaldea, and the Norse Odin were known to their followers by the symbol of the cross.

In Egypt the priests and the Pharaohs are depicted as holding a cross called the “Crux Ansata,” a cross with a circle on the crossbeam, as the symbol of authority as priests of the Sun God(Horus). This cross was called the Sign of Life and was sacred to their phallic worship. The vertical staff of the cross represents the male phallic organ and the horizontal crossbeam the female sex organ; these two organs perpetuate life. This phallic worship was also prevalent in other Middle East nations.

Some Christians argue that their use of the cross is in honor of Jesus who died on the cross. Why, what was the so-called cross of Jesus? Was that a crossbeam as popularly depicted by artists in their paintings and sculptures? The New Testament original Greek is stauros, which was wrongly translated by Jerome “cross” in his Latin Vulgate because he himself was influenced by the cross syndrome prevalent during his time. Stauros according to modern scholars is nothing more than a straight pole, not a cross, used as a torture stake to punish criminals.

But why did the Christian Church adopt the pagan cross and the practices associated with it and call it Christian? This was just to make the conversion from paganism to Christianity as easy as possible as those pagan converts would still continue practicing their paganism though in the new brand called “Christianity.”

Does it make any difference if one practices paganism in the name of Christianity as what most people are doing now? Any false worship and honoring false gods is detestable and opposed to the true worship of God (Jer. 50:29). Also Bible commentators explain that Eze. 8:17 refers to the detestable and offensive phallic worship. And the cross symbolizes phallic worship. Does it make any difference? Maybe not to most ignorant false worshipers, but to God there is much difference, and this is not just a simple difference; it's a matter of life or death in the hereafter.