Guest guest Posted January 9, 2002 Report Share Posted January 9, 2002 JESUS AS THE ONLY WAY ETC.....IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND A VAISHNAVA BOTH ? WHAT ABOUT APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS ? I want to address the issue of whether there is a basic contradiction between Christianity and Krishna centric Vaishnavism, or if in fact a person can, in good conscience, be both a Christian and a Vaishnava. the million dollar answer that solves all of the ten dollar problems The first question is WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP, IF ANY, BETWEEN ELI-YAHU-ADON, THE GOD OF THE BIBLE 'OLD TESTAMENT', & KRISHNA ? If They are the SAME HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL DEITY, then there is no contradiction. The second question is IF ELI-YAHU-ADON and HARI-VASU-ATMAN ARE THE SAME DEITY, THEN WHO IS JESUS CHRIST, THE BIBLICAL 'NEW TESTAMENT' SAVIOR MAKING THE CLAIM " I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME " ? (1) How can Vaishnavas understand this claim as inclusive of their salvation, rather than exclusive of it, as interpreted by the Protestant Fundamentalist Christians ? the answers THE HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL IDENTITY OF GODHEAD IN THE HEBREW, GREEK, CHALDEAN, COPTIC, ARAMAIC AND LATIN JEWISH AND CATHOLIC SCRIPTURES AND TRADITIONS Messianic Judaism is one of the main historical and thus theological sources of Christianity. Hebrew of course was a primary language of the Jewish Scriptures, but Jews were of many 'races' and spoke and wrote in many languages other than Hebrew. For example, during one period when a large number of Jews spoke and read Greek, the Hebrew version of their Scriptures was translated into Greek. According to Jewish Tradition, this occurred with miraculous divine assistance at the Temple Library Complex of the Great Serapeum in Alexandria Egypt, sometime between 285 and 247 BC. So many copies were made of this text, presently called THE SEPTUAGINT WITH APOCRYPHA, that we still have reliable copies of it today. Later the Egyptian Coptic Catholic Church also had its first center of learning at the Temple Complex of Serapis in Alexandria, from which it rapidly spread (peacefully) throughout Egypt, quickly becoming the majority religious tradition of that land. Centuries later, with the Muslim invasion of Egypt,persecuted Coptic Rite Catholics fled in large numbers to the South and South- East of Egypt, to the ancient lands of KUSH (yes related to Ramayana), where they settled and established their ancient Alexandrine Serapean form of Judeo-Catholicism. The Coptic Rite Catholic \Church thrived in Ethiopia, where there had already been a strong Jewish presence for centuries. So the Judeo-Catholic (Christian) Scriptures today are also preserved in the ancient Egypto-African Languages of Copt and Geez . Chaldean and Aramaic are also Old Testament Biblical Languages, and of course Latin became an important Biblical Language for the Roman Rite Catholic Church. In the late 1960s i began studying the Names of the Biblical Deity in both these early multi-language Biblical sources , and in extra-Biblical sources like building inscriptions, census records, royal correspondence, signature seals, amulets, coins, temple foundation deposits etc. throughout the regions mentioned in Biblical stories. First, I wanted to know the identity of the many other peoples mentioned in the Old Testament, who also worshiped the ONE TRUE GOD, but who were not Hebrews, Israelites or Jews. So i carefully studied the Biblical Names of God, so that i could look for evidence of His worship among other Semites, and among other peoples in Africa, the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and Persia. The first thing i learned was that the God of the Bible has scores of Holy Names, but principal among these in the Hebrew are ELI , YAHU and ADON, ( which is compounded with Yahu as ADON-YAHU) . ELI is the Supreme Deity of the Semites, and ancient Sumerian Civilization, where He was called ILU. There are many dialectal forms of the Holy Name Eli throughout Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean, including ELI, ORI, URI, HURRI, ALI, ARI, CYRA / SYRA, KORA / HURA, ARI and ILU. These names are mostly associated by modern scholars with the Supreme 'Solar' Deity of the region. However, as in the Old Testament, these Deity Names are found compounded or associated with scores of other Holy Names as 'by-names' of the Deity. EXAMPLES OF BY-NAMES OF ELI-YAHU AND HARI-VASU NAMES ELI-YAHU HARI-VASU ARI-YAHU HARI-VASU YISHMA-YAHU VISHNU-VASU ADON-YAHU ATMA-VASU YISHMA-EL VISHNU-HARI NARA-YAHU NARA-VASU ASARA-YAHU ASHURA-VASU (ASHURA = VEDIC NAME PURUSHA) ELI-ASAR HARI-ASHURA ZECHAR-YAHU SUKRA (SUKLA) -VASU PETHAH-YAHU BUDDHA-VASU PETHU-EL BUDDHA-HARI NATHAN-YAHU NATHA-VASU NATHAN-EL NATHA-HARI KUSHA-YAHU KUSHA-VASU YEDA-YAHU VEDAYAHA, VEDA-VASU YEDA-EL VEDA-HARI RAMA-YAHU RAMA-VASU RAGHU-EL RAGHU-HARI SHIVAN-YAHU SHIVAN-VASU SHEBU-EL SHIVA-HARA (EL sometimes HARA / SHIVA too) CHENNA-YAHU KANA-VASU KEPHIR-YAHU KUBERA-VASU This has led to modern scholars, who DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE EMANATION AND INCARNATION OF ELI-YAHU-ADON to assume that all these peoples were gross mundane polytheists who constructed a supreme deity out of their competing tribal gods. For instance, Semiticists now generally consider that ELI-EL, or EL ELYON was the SUPREME GOD OF THE SEMITIC 'PANTHEON' AND THAT YAHU-BALU (BAAL) WAS HIS ALTER-FORM OR ' SON' FORM AS THE UNIVERSAL SAVIOR. (2) The Holy Name ADON first appears in the Bible in the story of the Hebrew Patriarch Joseph who was Pharaoh's next-in-command in Egypt, and who married the daughter of the High Priest of Helios, (HELI-OS = ELI-YAHU) , in the Northern Egyptian Capital City of Heliopolis. In Heliopolis, the Name ADON is the Deity Name ATUM. Significantly, centuries later the Theban Monotheist AKHENATEN would revive Heliopolitan Monotheism in his worship of THE ALL-PERVASIVE ATUM, which he called ATEN at Thebes. The ATUM or ATEN Name of HELIOS ( EGYPTIAN HERI-ASU) is associated WITH HIS IMMANENT OR ALL PERVASIVE PRESENCE WITHIN THE HEART OF ALL BEINGS. Thus Biblical Hebrew ADON-YAHU was the omni-present 'HOLY SPIRIT' PERSON of the Semitic GODHEAD ELI-YAHU-ADON. YAHU-BALU was the PERSON OF THE GODHEAD WHO DESCENDED / INCARNATED IN COSMIC AND LOCAL MULTI-FORM TO CONQUER SIN AND DEATH. Thus together ELI THE SUPREME FIRST PERSON, BALU-YAHU THE DESCENDING SECOND PERSON, AND ADON-YAHU THE OMNI-PRESENT THIRD PERSON CONSTITUTED THE TRIUNE TRANSCENDENT-EMANATING -IMMANENT GODHEAD OF THE REGION'S MONOTHEISTS. I discovered that this entire regional tradition had legendary times (prehistoric) connections to the worship of HELIOS AS MEGHISTOS KOUROS (KRISHNA) AND HIS FEMININE RHODA-SHEKINAH ( RADHA-SHAKTI) ON THEIR SACRED NYMPIA (LOTUS) ISLAND OF RHODES IN THE NORTH EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN. Semites, Indo-Europeans and Africans all worshiped KOUROS AND RHODA together in peace and harmony on Their little sacred Isle of Rhodes ! There They were considered the ORIGIN OF ALL THE 'GODS AND GOD-ESSES'. Following the Biblical Evidence FROM ALL VERSIONS IN ALL LANGUAGES, KEPT LEADING TO THE SAME CONCLUSION. THERE WAS A SINGLE DEVOTIONAL SALVIFIC EMANATIONAL AND INCARNATIONAL MONOTHEISM THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE REGION, SHARED BY ALL THE RACIAL AND LINGUISTIC GROUPS. As i traced this APPARENTLY PRIMAL TRADITION to the East, i was astounded to discover that ELI-YAHU-ADON WAS WORSHIPED IN INDIA AS HARI-VASU-ATMAN, and that KOUROS AND RHODA-SHEKINAH WERE ALSO THERE AS KRISHNA AND RADHA-SHAKTI ! Oh ! How i longed to go back and be there, when the entire human race worshiped ONE GOD/ESS in love and harmony ! This became my obsession, to enter again into that time when the young world was of one heart, and THE SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD ELI-YAHU-ADON / HARI-VASU (VISHNU)-ATMAN WAS WORSHIPED BY THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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