Welcome to the new-and-improved KingDavid8.com! I finally have all of the contents from my old site transferred here, so everything should be working properly. Please let me know if you find any "dead links". My pages also have boxes where readers can leave comments and criticisms, so don't be shy.
This website is mostly aimed at providing arguments and evidence for the non-Christian, the Christian who may be struggling with what he or she believes, or those Christians who are interested in reaching out to others.
My opinions may contradict what other Christians believe, but many of my arguments are also based on arguments given by a variety of Christian sources. I especially owe a debt of gratitude to the writings of Glenn Miller, J.P. Holding, Paul Maier, Grant R. Jeffrey, Lee Strobel, and Gerald Schroeder.
Please feel free to borrow ideas or arguments of mine (since many of them were not mine to begin with). I do ask that if you quote from my site directly, to please credit me.
Was Jesus A Copycat Savior?
No. The first time I heard this theory, I was in a chat room and a person came in listing "comparisons" between Jesus and the Egyptian god Horus (such as that Horus was also born of a virgin, had 12 disciples, resurrected someone named El-Azarus, was crucified and resurrected, etc.). Wanting to see if this was true, I hit a few websites about Egyptian mythology so I could read the Horus story for myself. None of them gave any such details, and even said things which clearly contradicted this person's claims. I also went to my local library, and even a bookstore, looking at books on Egyptian mythology, and found nothing in the way of comparisons to Jesus. I then went to as many websites as I could find where similar lists were given, and asked the people running the websites to back up their claims. Most didn't respond to me, but I did have a few conversations, the text of which are in the section further down (none were able to give significant backing to their claims). I then found a couple of Christian sites that had already discussed the supposed 'comparisons' between Jesus and Horus, as well as His supposed comparisons to other ancient godmen. Their work was quite thorough, and what I'm posting on my site here is simply a summary of their work, plus my own research into these (and other) godmen stories, plus any other comparisons that people responding to this site have come up with. A couple of other Christian pages dealing thoroughly with "Christ-Mythers" can be seen at Tektonics: Confronting The Copycat Thesis and Christian-Thinktank.com: Jesus A Copycat?. More recently, I decided to offer $1000 to anyone who could provide me with any story in which the pre-Christian deities did the things which are claimed, or any convincing evidence supporting their claims. I revisited the "Christ-Myther" sites to let them know of my challenge. While I had several people tell me that they would find the evidence and collect the $1000, not one of them has thus far been able to find any, so the $1000 is still available if anyone out there thinks they can find such evidence. See here.
Of course, as you'll see on my pages, there are a few (very few) valid similarities. So what does this mean? Honestly, not much.
Look at this list of comparisons between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy:
1. Both Lincoln and Kennedy were elected to Congress in '46 (1846 in Lincoln's case, 1946 in Kennedy's). Both became President in '60.
2. Both had lazy eye muscles which would cause one eye to wander.
3. Both had been skippers on boats (Lincoln on the Mississippi river boat 'Talisman' and Kennedy on the PT-109)
4. Both were the second sons in their families. Each lost a sister to death before becoming President. Both married 24-year-old brunettes who had been previously engaged to other men, and who spoke French fluently.
5. Both had a child die while living in the White House.
6. Both were related to U.S. Senators, U.S. Attorney Generals who graduated from Harvard, and ambassadors to the Court of St. James.
7. Both were acquaintances of a man named Adlai E. Stevenson who ran for either Vice-President or President, a doctor named Charles Taft and a man named William Graham.
8. Both were advised not to go to the place where they died.
9. Both Lincoln's theater box and Kennedy's car were altered for their benefit (Lincoln's theater box had a partition removed to accomodate his party, Kennedy's car had a raised rear seat)
10. Both were slain on a Friday before a major Holiday (Lincoln on the Friday before Easter, Kennedy on the Friday before Thanksgiving). Both were shot while sitting next to their wives and in the presence of another couple. Of the other couple, the man was also wounded by the assassin, but neither wife was wounded.
11. Both were shot from behind and in the head. Both of their wives cradled their husband's heads after they were shot.
12. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln from inside a theater, and fled to a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from inside a warehouse and fled to a theater.
13. Lincoln was shot while inside the Ford theater, in box 7. Kennedy was shot while inside a Ford automobile, in car 7 in the motorcade.
14. Both were pronounced dead in places with the initials P.H. (Lincoln in the Peterson House, and Kennedy in Parkland Hospital)
15. Both of their assassins escaped, and were killed before going to trial.
16. Both of their assassins were privates in the military. Each was detained after the shooting by a policeman named Baker. Both were eventually killed by a Colt revolver.
17. Both Lincoln and Kennedy were succeeded by southern ex-senators named Johnson who were born in '08. Both Johnsons were in their mid-fifties when they took the office and both suffered from urethral stones (the only presidents to have them). Both Johnsons could have run for re-election in '68, but chose not to.
By the logic of the critics, this list is absolute, undeniable proof that John F. Kennedy is a fictional character based on Abraham Lincoln. Of course, I haven't verified all of the items on this list, so it's possible that some are untrue. But by the logic of the critics, that doesn't matter. A list with untrue items will do just fine, right? The reason that this list really doesn't mean much is that we're looking ONLY at what they have in common. For each thing they do have in common, there are dozens of differences between them. It's the same with Jesus and the earlier deities. There are a few similarities in some cases (though not nearly as many as the Christ-Mythers would have you believe), but the differences far outweight them. If you're open-minded, I challenge you to read any or all of the four New Testament gospels and then read the mythology of the other deities for yourself (there are many books and websites available).
So why are people who are so skeptical of the claims made by Christianity so gullable as to believe these supposed comparisons with pre-Christian religious figures without asking for evidence? There's a definite lack of critical thinking on their part when it comes to these lists. There are many who seem to want to believe that Christianity is a copycat religion and thus accept any evidence that they feel backs up their beliefs whether that evidence is truthful or not. Being a relatively recent convert to Christianity myself, I am fully aware that not all non-Christians are as deceitful as those who create and spread these bogus lists. Many non-Christians are honest and ethical people, and give valid, thoughtful arguments. The few who spread obvious lies in pathetic attempts to keep people from Jesus give the rest of them a bad name.
Below are the pages where I respond to the claims of Jesus' comparisons to the various deities
Related Articles:
The Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Team Doesn’t exist!
Aren’t There 40+ Historians Who Should Have Mentioned Jesus, But Didn’t?
And here are some conversations I've had with mythicists:
Regarding The Copycat Challenge
From A Guy Who Wants To Debate Me
The Letter That Began The Copycat Challenge
Conversation With The English Atheist
A Letter I Sent To NoBeliefs.com
A Letter I Sent To ReligiousTolerance.org
Mithra's Influence On Christianity
Sources and other anti-Copycat sites:
Tektonics: Confronting The Copycat Thesis
(This is from a Christian apologetics site which has separate pages for many of the 'godmen')
Christian-Thinktank.com: Jesus A Copycat?
(From another apologetics site, a long essay dealing with many of the issues)
Encyclopedia Mythica
(The biggest mythology site I've seen, listing thousands of gods from all parts of the world)
Probert Encylopedia: Mythology
Encyclopedia Of Greek Mythology
Epologetics: Debunking the Jesus/Mithra Myth
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http://www.freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4773#p4773
Albert,
"The Greek name “Lazarus” or “Lazaros” equals “Eleazar” in Hebrew and, per Strong’s [Concordance] (G2976), means “whom God helps.” It is a strange coincidence firstly that the person whom Jesus resurrects happens to be named “whom God helps,” and secondly that “Eleazar”—or, breaking down its original components in Hebrew, El-Azar—closely resembles a combination of the Semitic word for God, “El,” with the Egyptian name for Osiris, “Ausar.”
- Christ in Egypt 297-304Posted by Perry on Jun 21, 2012