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Cyrus The Great Essay

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Moving along, Cyrus the Great, king of the Medo-Persians, was the instrument chosen by God for the liberation and restoration of Judah. So says the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 45.1 to 7). But the Persians were not only mediators of divine wisdom for the salvation of the Jews. The influence went far beyond the externals. Aura Mazda was the heavenly king and head of a hierarchy of intermediary entities called the Amesha Spenta, Geniuses, Mitra, earth, water, fire, etc. And they also had a dark deity, Angra Mainyu and his demons.
These hierarchies of invisible beings came to enrich the pantheon of angels of the Jews, it was very simple: Gabriel and Mikael. Their names appear late in Jewish history in the book of Daniel, holy prophet who lived in Babylon …show more content…

They believed that Mithra, the Sun god's son, came to earth as prophesied by Magi, born at the winter solstice. He let himself be sacrificed to save the world and returned to life on the 3rd day. During a second coming at the end of the world, he will defeat evil and establish his kingdom on Earth. Mithraism had 7 sacraments, Communion with bread & water, eating flesh & blood of the sacrifice, the cross as sacred symbol, and Sunday was its holy day. Paul (Saul) had many Mithraic concepts in his writings. Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, was a follower of Mithraism and merged much of it into the new state religion. He shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and Christmas to winter solstice.”
And therefore, the confrontation between Christianity and Mithraism has always been fascinating for historians of religions. The cult of Mithras has ancient origins. Mitra is an Indo-Iranian divine character who appears in both the Indian Veda as god of light, subordinate to the sky god Varuna, as in Avesta (collection of sacred texts of ancient Persia, belonging to the Zoroastrian religion) as companion god Ahura-Mazdah in the cosmic struggle against Angra Mainyu, the god of

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