still haven't seen the fact addressed which pointed out that the symbol of the cross was used by pagans prior to the Christian use of it... so, standing firm... are you going to be consistent and stop using the Cross and say that any Christian publication that has the Cross on it must therefore be pagan and should cease using it? hmmmm?
"Scandinavia: The Tau cross symbolized the hammer of the God Thor.
Babylon: the cross with a crescent moon was the symbol of their moon deity.
Assyria: the corners of the cross represented the four directions in which the sun shines.
India: In Hinduism, the vertical shaft represents the higher, celestial states of being; the horizontal bar represents the lower, earthly states.
Egypt: The ankh cross (a Tau cross topped by an inverted tear shape) is associated with Maat, their Goddess of Truth. It also represents the sexual union of Isis and Osiris.
Europe: The use of a human effigy on a cross in the form of a scarecrow has been used from ancient times. In prehistoric times, a human would be sacrificed and hung on a cross. The sacrifice would later be chopped to pieces; his blood and pieces of flesh were widely distributed and buried to encourage the crop fertility."
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_symb.htm
Another source states:
"'That which is now called the Christian cross was originally no Christian emblem at all, but was the mystic Tau of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians - the true original form of the letter T - the initial of the name of Tammuz - which, in Hebrew, radically the same as ancient Chaldee, as found on coins, was formed as in No. 1.' (#1 refers to a picture on page 197 in Hislop's book, of a cross, which looks like the common, small 't' cross of most any church.)
The 'mystic Tau was marked in baptism on the foreheads of those initiated in the Mysteries 66 and was used in every variety of way as a most sacred symbol. To identify Tammuz with the sun, as in No. 4; sometimes it was inserted in the circle, as in No. 5.' (The cross of #4, pictured in his book on page 197, is a small t with a circle at the top, while the cross of #5 has cross-bars of equal length and width, with the circle surrounding it, or touching all four outer points.)
'The mystic Tau, as the symbol of the great divinity, was called, 'the sign of life.' It was used as an amulet over the heart 7 and was marked on the official garments of the priests, as on the official garments of the priests of Rome; it was borne by kings in their hand, as a token of their dignity or divinely conferred authority.'
'The Vestal virgins of Pagan Rome wore it suspended from their necklaces, as the nuns do now.8 The Egyptians did the same, and many of the barbarous nations with whom they had intercourse, as the Egyptian monuments bear witness. In reference to the adorning of some of these tribes, Wilkinson thus writes:'
'The girdle was sometimes highly ornamented; men as well as women wore earrings; and they frequently had a small cross suspended to the necklace, or to the collar of their dress...showing that it was already in use as early as the fifteenth century before the Christian era.'9
'There is hardly a Pagan tribe where the cross has not been found. The cross was worshipped by the Pagan Celts long before the incarnation and death of Christ.'10
'It is a fact,' says Maurice, 'not less remarkable than well attested, that the Druids in their groves were accustomed to select the most stately and beautiful tree as an emblem of the Deity they adored, and having cut the side branches, they affixed two of the largest of them to the highest part of the trunk, in such a manner that those branches extended on each side like the arms of a man, and together with the body, presented the appearance of a HUGE CROSS, and on the bark, in several places, was also inscribed the letter Thau.'11
'It was worshipped in Mexico for ages before the Roman Catholic missionaries set foot there, large stone crosses being erected, probably to the 'god of rain.'12
The cross thus widely worshipped, or regarded as a sacred emblem, was the unequivocal symbol of Bacchus, the Babylonian Messiah, for he was represented with a head-band covered with crosses.' This symbol of the Babylonian god is reverenced at this day in all the wide wastes of Tartary, where Buddhism prevails, and the way in which it is represented among them forms a striking commentary on the language applied by Rome to the Cross.'
'The cross,' says Colonel Wilford, in the Asiatic Researches, 'though not an object of worship among the Baud'has, or Buddhists, is a favorite emblem and device among them. It is exactly the cross of the Manicheans, with leaves and flowers springing from it. This cross, putting forth leaves and flowers (and fruit also, as I am told) 13 is called the divine tree, the tree of the gods, the tree of life and knowledge, and productive of whatever is good and desirable, and is placed in the terrestrial paradise.'14
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ftnotes for the above
Ibid. p. 198: 'Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 365, Plate.' This refers to his work, Egyptians, 1837-41.'
Ibid. 'Pere Lafitan, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. i. p. 442.'
Ibid. p. 198-199. 'Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 376.'
Ibid. p. 199. 'Crabb's Mythology, p. 163.'
Ibid. 'Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 49.'
Ibid. 'Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. p. 242.'http://www.seedofabraham.net/cross.html
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So, once again standing firm, are you going to be consistent and abandon the symbol of the Cross?
blessings,
Ken
