[Amilius777]

Awesome topic Morpheus! I love this stuff!

The Essenes were heavily influenced by Buddhist and Hindu rites.

Baptism is in fact a pagan tradition going back to Hinduism and I believe Egyptian worship.

Jesus was very knowledgeable of such practices, but Jesus took baptism a step further that was "baptism by fire"- Jesus was permanently transforming the disciples' consciousnesses with the (Holy Breath) that he acquired. The Holy Breath-HolySpirit-HolyGhost is nothing more but the uplifting divine energy of the spiritual teacher.

I truly believe that Christianity has down more with the messianic aspect than Judaism expected. The Jews were expecting a messianic king who would deliver Israel from its foes and establish a righteous nation and the Gentiles would enter the covenant through peace after hostility and war.

Christianity needs to be redefined not as a religion of Jesus but a Mystery Religion. It is a revamped religion of Hindu/Buddhist and Egyptian Spirituality. Christianity covers it ALL.

I remember in Catechism they made us read a line in Genesis- "And the offspring of Eve will crush the serpent but the serpent will wound his heel". After telling us the "offspring of Eve is Jesus" they then said Genesis is completely poetic and symbolic. So I started to wonder- "Well then why does it symbolize just the Jewish messiah? besides Jesus didn't fulfill all the prophecies in his life as Jesus".

I believe the new offspring of Eve is the birthed Christ Consciousness that crushes the temptations of the false self (serpent) and in the process of transformation the person is wounded by the false self (serpent). Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated this ancient "Christ Pattern" by giving up his body for complete Universal Christ Consciousness, but in that process he was wounded by his generation of hostile pious elite and Imperial powers. The point is that nobody is born "from above" or can give birth to the "new self' without suffering and breaking through the carnal self.

Even though I believe Jesus was the Jewish messiah who opened a door for the gentiles (Western world) to God and overcame imperialism (Rome) on the cross, I don't think all the Old testament prophecies of the "MESSIAH" are all about Jesus.

The "MESSIAH" is more accurately the Universal Christ which saves the world and saves yourself through the ages.