Serapis Christus
Religions of the world often have an image or object to represent their deities and God. Christianity and Islam are one of them. The Image and name of Jesus went through so many transformations, which all started in Egypt when a Greek became Pharaoh, and ended when the Muslims formed their religion. Today many Christians, mainly Catholics believe in an image and hang it around their houses thinking that this picture or image is actually representative of Jesus.
The man they called Christus - Ptolemy 1st of Alexandria was a European man, Greek to be exact - that moved to Egypt, and became a pharaoh via military force of his friend Alexander. When he became a Pharaoh, Ptolemy wanted the Egyptians to make him a god. The Egyptians refused to make Ptolemy a god in Egypt because he was from another country. Once Ptolemy finally became a god, he wanted an image made in honor of him.
Ptolemy went everywhere throughout Egypt searching for one that will be willing to make this image of him. He came across a few Coptic Egyptians that offered to make an image in honor of him, which is called "Serapis." After this image was made, Ptolemy and his countrymen made the Africans worship the image of Serapis. A Libyan man named Arius (256-336 A.D) made noise about Ptolemy worship and told people to stop worshiping Ptolemy-Serapis Christus.
People began listening to Arius so a meeting was held in a Turkish city called Nicea. This meeting became known as the "Council of Nicea (325CE)." Many bishops were there and so was Roman Emperor Constantine. The bishops, presbyters, and Constantine created the Nicean Creed to discredit Arius by addressing the statements Arius made concerning the worship of Serapis. At the Council of Nicea, Serapis Christus was changed to the name Jesus Christ (Iesous Christos). Many choices were under consideration, but this was the one that won out in the end.
Now we get to the image of Christ. Many debates have discussed the modern day depiction of Jesus Christ. People say it was at the Council of Nicea were the image of Jesus became finalized, while others say it was created after the council. No matter what, we were given a false image of this man Jesus, and this image looks like Cesare Borgia.
So, now for a bit of history. Borgia was the son of Pope Alexander IV. At age fifteen he became the Bishop of Pamplona, and was made Cardinal at Eighteen. Cesare Borgia was not only an officer in the church, he was also an officer in the military. You may say "how can a Cardinal be an officer in the military?" Borgia was not a cardinal forever, and resigned due to the death of his brother Giovanni Borgia.
Cesare was appointed commander of the papal armies with a number of Italian mercenaries, supported by 300 cavalry and 4,000 Swiss infantry. Cesare's father sent him and his army to capture the cities of Imola and Forlì, ruled by Caterina Sforza, an Italian noblewomen. Borgia captured the two cities and was praised for it when he got back. So after this quick condensed history lesson, let's return back to the creation of ... Christ.
All fingers point to Leonardo Da Caperio who was made military architect and engineer by Cesare Borgia. During Alexander IV reign, Christians were taking part in crusades and Holy wars. Messy, horrific, murderous, atrocities. The Holy wars were against another religious group called Mohammedanism (Islam). Both religious groups fought each other trying to conquer and convert. It had nothing to do with who is right and wrong, or one group getting revenge. During these wars the Muslims (Mohammedans) gained control of Constantinople in Turkey, the whole Mid-East and Germany. This of course threaten the stronghold the Roman (Catholic/Universal) church had on the world.
One major obstacle that faced Alexander and the church was the Muslims' belief in Jesus or should I say - holy figure. The Muslim Jesus was represented in all paintings, carvings and sculptures as a colored skinned man of Middle-Eastern descent. Which would make sense had he actually been a man from that region.
So, guess what Pope Alexander VI decided to do? He had every image of Jesus destroyed. After that, he commissioned Leonardo Di Vinci to remake Serapis Christus (Jesus) in the image of his son Cesare Borgia. His express intent was to make Jesus look European. Obviously, much more like the Romans than the Hebrews and middle easterners. Other symbols and relics transmuted through the years as well. The X of Constantine became a cross. The Lamb, became a man, etc.
The bottom line is that the creators and inventors - the rulers - of Christianity and Islam, the founders of both religions only cared about ruling. This is why they forced people into their religions, and fought each other all in the name of God to conquer and convert. True religions do not fight and force people to join their religion. Truth, needs not defense or apologists in the same way that a Lion needs no bodyguard. Just turn it loose ... no defense needed.
Seek and you will find the Supreme ruler of the universe. I suggest you go back to the Traditional Religions of the Ancients. The Pagans, Egyptians/Kemetians, because our ancient ancestors knew God before the Europeans and Arabs traveled to and conquered foreign lands, overthrowing their belief systems, and their governmental authorities to convert them by force to accept their lies.
These Ancient Celestial and Inner Mysteries were around long before Rome launched it's campaign and it's newly formed religion on the rest of the world. Go back as far as you can, then move forward. There is Truth under every rock and leaf that you can overturn. Seek and you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened. These are allegories for inquiry ... seeking within and without ... searching for Truth, and the Divine Spark of God/Absolute within each and evry human being on Earth.
Just a thought ...
~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
Image of Serapis
