Possibly a brief history of monotheistic religion

Religion is a tremendously large subject for discussion, and would take a lifetime to scratch the surface, so please bear this in mind when reading this hub. Because of my beliefs, some of the information I shall be supplying may contradict beliefs of other Christian denominations, and some may seem absolutely scurrillous. However, everything I am about to include is my belief and understanding of history, sociology and theology, and is not meant as an attack on the beliefs of any other person, just my honest feelings.

I'll start with a very brief chronology of certain events from within the OT, and the perceived history and validity of certain texts.

Circa 4000BC, the Middle East was flooded due to glacial erosion causing river swells in the Himalayas, Alps, Urals. When society rebegan in the area, the Sumerians built an empire based around Ur & Uruk (Uruk was the religious capital, and had a 4-stepped pyramid, known as a 'zigarat', and lis about 150km northwest of Basra in Iraq). Civilisation spread across the Middle East, and the areas known as Persia, Babylon. Assyria etc. came into being. So the Biblical flood did occur, but was not worldwide, and not during the time of The Jews. This area, having been flooded, was also great farmland, and is the basis for the Garden of Eden.

3000 years later, Amen Hotepk 4th moved the whole Egyptian capital away from Luxor/Thebes (to El-Amarna), took the name Akenhaten, and created the first monotheistic religion, Ra worship. His wife, Nefertiti, was very well known and loved, but when Akenhaten died, she had only born daughters, no sons, and as daughters could not take over if a valid male heir existed, Tutankhamen (his son by a secondary wife) was made heir. The people who reigned in his name (Tut was only 6) moved the capital back to Luxor/Thebes, and reinstated the practices prior to Akenhaten, branding him a heretic, and removing most of his cartouches (name symbol) from statues. When Tutankhamen was due to come of age, he died, and was buried with mostly Ra symbols in his tomb, which implies that he may have been inclined to return Egypt to Ra worship.

The architects who had created the new capital were transported to a walled town outside the 'Valley of the Kings', where they lived in comfort, but also seclusion, and continued to build the royal tombs. During the decline of the Egyptian Empire, there was insurrection on Egypts borders, and food shortages from disease and locusts in the Nile Delta. The occurences which the Bible describes as curses of God upon the Pharoah (Sea turning red, frogs coming onto land, plague of locusts, death of children etc) can also be attributed to global warming and algae poisoning the water, resulting in amphibians leaving the water for land, the spread of disease etc. During this decline, and the food shortages, the Pharoah offered any people wishing to leave Egypt, a free ship, stocked and ready to go. Thus the population would decrease, and the limited food stocks go further. The secluded architects, who had been neglected in these poor times, took up the offer. On their way to the ship, they plundered the tombs of the Pharoahs. This explains the Biblical passages regarding the Exodus and imprisonment etc. These architects settled near Jerusalem, took the name Jews, and followed an adapted version of Akenhatens monotheistic religion, with a matriarchal lineage, which if it had been in place at Akenhatens time, would have resulted in Nefertitis line succeeding to the throne.

700 years later, and with the Middle East now being under Roman rule, the Jewish people had built a bit of a country for themselves, with freedom to practice their own faith, and have their own king (Herod). Unfortunately, these quiet times of trading, and stolen wealth, had resulted in corruption and decadence among the ruling class. From Egypt came John the Baptist, and his followers, who were Jews but who had a more Moses-esque attitude to Judaism, and they decried the corruption. For this, Herod imprisoned John, who knowing he would die, named Simon Magus as his successor. When beheaded (at the request of Salome) Simon was studying in Alexandria, and it took him 2 years to get to Jerusalem, only to find that a large bunch of John the Baptists followers had lined up behind a guy called Jesus. Simon denounced Jesus for usurping his power, and was proclaimed as the first Christian heretic.

A large number of the everyday Jews were also incredibly angry about the corruption within their faith and monarchy, and so Jesus found a ready following. Unfortunately, many of these followers began to think that Jesus was the prophecised Messiah, who would raise an army and crush the Romans. Jesus, however, had no problem with Rome, just with Herod and the church leaders (notably the High Priest, Caiaphus). Upon entering Jerusalem, matters started rapidly to get out of hand. Herod wanted Jesus stopped, but realised that he must not be seen to be attacking him, as the crowds firmly felt he was the Messiah. The Jewish chiefs felt the same. On the other side, the crowds of followers were expecting Jesus to announce some kind of revolution against Herod and the Romans, as prophecised. Within Jesus' own followers there was a difference of opinions - Simon wanted revolution, Peter wanted to succeed Jesus, Mary wanted a quiet life with her husband, Paul wanted them to back away from any controversy. Most importantly, Judas Iscariot realised that if the crowds carried out an uprising against Herod, crowned Jesus king, and then attempted to remove the Romans, that the Romans would crush them, and probably wipe Judaism off the face of the Earth. Thus, fearing the destruction of his faith, he made an agreement with Caiaphus, and Jesus was quietly arrested, tried by the Romans who found him guilty of breaking Jewish Law, so sent him to Herod, who was too scared to do anything. Herod sent Jesus back to the Romans, who eventually did Herods dirty work for him. Jesus himself, in the gnostic texts, refers to defeating death as the achievement of death, and would have held no anymosity for Judas Iscariot. Ironically, Judas means Jew, and it seems odd that only 1 of the disciples should carry this phrase. It implies that the other 11 were not Jewish!

The first Bible was created circa 320AD, at the Congress of Niceae, near Istanbul. This was a gathering of Christian Theologists, who were supposed to come up with the definitive text, because at that time there were more than 200 types of Christianity, and they were stirring up bother, which the Romans wanted settled.

When the Roman Empire started to collapse, the Papacy removed itself from Byzantium, back to Rome. By the 6th Century AD, the Roman Empire had fallen, and Europe and the Middle East was fractured into many speerate states with no central Empire. At tis time, the Roman Catholic faith started to doctor the Bible to suit its own political ends. The Gospel of St Thomas was removed, and a whole new Gospel (Luke) was written and included. This sidelined woman, which was important, because many Christian women idolised Mary Magdalene, and even Isis worshippers had found a Christian rolemodel in her. The church then began maligning Mary, and doctoring the texts to suppress women. This also included adding the birth of Jesus story, stolen from the Roman GodHuman Mithras,

Throughout the Medieval Era, as well as creating a whole raft of new religious texts, ascribed to all and sundry, the church created numerous devils, and a hierarchical pyramid of class division and elitism amongst the angels. Most famous is the Malleus Malefactorum (Hammer of Evil Doers), listing the devils in Hell, and their associates on Earth. The hierarchy of angels with the Archangel at the top, and containing Seruphim, Cherubim & Nephilim etc. The church has denied the existence of these books for several hundred years now, but copies still exist from the libraries of wealthy European families (Medicis, Borgias etc).

That is a brief history, and I should like to mention a few subnotes. I use the term Roman Catholic, because following 'the great Schism' the original Catholic faith split in two. In addition to the RC church, there are now 4 Orthodox Catholic faiths - Polish, Greek, Russian & Ukrainean, although the Ukrainean Pontiff[Pope] died in the late 1980s, and has not been succeeded, as the Ukrainean Orthodoxy hopes to combine with the Russian or Polish Orthodoxy. The date in the Orthodox countries is 11 days behind that of the Roamn Catholic countries, due to a re-appraisal of dates by Pope Gregory (8th, I think). This has led to the Julian and Gregorian Calendars.

There are many branches of Catholic and non-Catholic Christianity (the non-Catholics are generally termed Protestants, due to their following on from Martin Luther, a German who 'protested' by nailing contradictions to the doors of his local cathedral). Among the famous historic Christian sects are the Cathars, who were destroyed under the Albigensian Crusades (Albi in Southern France, being the city they were based around) in the 11th/12th Centuries. Also, the Knights Templar, the Bulgars, and Gypsies.

Gnostics, like myself, feel the Bible of the Congress of Niceae was designed to suit the ends of the Romans, and the Christian leaders, not Jesus nor John the Baptist. We embrace the words contained within the Gospels written by Jesus's followers at the time of his life. Whilst this allows for Matthew, Mark and John, we bear in mind that these texts have been altered over the centuries. We also believe in the word of Mary, Peter, Paul etc. These texts were contained within the Nag Hammadi Texts, re discovered about 120 years ago. There are also the Coptic texts (Coptic being a religious language of Alexandria, the Empires seat of learning).

There are a vast array of Christian faiths (Christian Scientists, Mormons, Methodists, Branch Davidians, Anglicans, Baptists, Southern Baptist) and each Christian faith claims it is the 'one true faith', and beyond the acceptance of Jesus as 'Son of God', their beliefs and practices vary a lot. This hub is just a further opinion in this on-going debate.

I trust that this has helped give one view, and whilst I hope I haven't offended anyone, I, also, hope I have given you plenty of keywords and phrases for you to 'google'.

All the best