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For me the cross has the opposite effect...I find it disgusting...not because it is the instrument used to put Christ to death....but because it isn't. The cross as a religious symbol predates Christianity by many centuries. The instrument used to execute Jesus is described in the NT as a "stauros", which never means two pieces of wood crossed at any angle.
"Stauros (σταυρός) is a Greek word which in the oldest forms (Homeric and classical Greek) (until the fourth century BC) is found used in the plural number in the sense of an upright stake or pole. In Koine Greek, in use during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, within which the New Testament was written, it was used in the singular number with reference to an instrument of capital punishment...
In Homeric and classical Greek, until the early 4th century BC, stauros meant an upright stake, pole, or piece of paling, "on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground."
In the literature of that time, it never means two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, but always one piece alone, and is always used in the plural number, never in the singular."
Stauros - Wikipedia
It denotes a simple upright stake, but when Christianity apostatized, all manner of false ideas began to be incorporated....this is just one of them.
That Christ did not die on the traditionally shaped cross is also indicated by the testimony of the catacombs. Dean Burgon, in his Letters from Rome, wrote: “I question whether a cross occurs on any Christian monument of the first four centuries.”
Mons Perret, who spent fourteen years doing research in the catacombs of Rome, counted in all a total of 11,000 inscriptions among the millions of tombs. According to him, “not until the latter years of the fourth century does the sign of the cross appear.”
This was after Roman Catholicism became the official state religion of Rome. Emperor Constantine who is supposed to have received a vision of a cross, and told to conquer in this symbol, was actually never baptized as a Christian until on his deathbed. He was a devotee of Zeus. He used "Christianity" (or his version of it) to consolidate his divided empire....not because he was a Christian.
The Bible itself repeatedly tells of Jesus dying on a "tree", the Greek word being xylon. (Luke 23:31; Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39) 'Xylon' simply means “timber,” and “by implication a stick, club or tree or other wooden article or substance.” That is why the Gospel writers all use xylon to refer to the staves or clubs that the mob carried when they came to take Jesus. (Matthew 26:47; Mark 14:43; Luke 22:52) By saying that Christ died on a xylon these Gospel writers indicated that Christ died on a timber, a piece of wood.
Thus the apostle Paul states that Christ became a curse to those under the law by being fastened to a xylon, since “Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake [xylon].” Paul was there quoting from the law of Moses, which required that the bodies of executed criminals be fastened to a tree or stake as a warning and which meant that they were cursed by God. (Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
Dr. William Killen, in his Ancient Church, wrote:
“From the most remote antiquity the cross was venerated in Egypt and Syria; it was held in equal honor by the Buddhists of the East; and what is still more extraordinary, when the Spaniards first visited America, the well-known sign was found among the objects of worship in the idol temples of Anáhuac. It is also remarkable that, with the commencement of our era, the pagans were wont to make the sign of the cross upon the forehead in the celebration of some of their sacred mysteries.”
We have seen the ankh cross of Egypt,
which some say is a symbol of "life"....perhaps more correct to say what begins life.....the cross represented the male sex organ and the loop was symbolic of the female's.....meaning it was a sexual symbol representing coitus.
The Celtic cross........some say the circle stands for the Roman sun-god Invictus, thus giving the name of Celtic Sun Cross. Others say it represents the halo of Jesus Christ. Others simply see it as a holdover from its pagan roots as a sun symbol. It is still pagan in origin.
"The Pre-Christian Cross. A vast body of evidence shows that the cross was used centuries before the birth of Christianity. The cross is thought to have originated from the ancient Babylonians before its spread to other parts of the world such as Syria, Egypt, Greek, Latin, India, and Mexico."
The History of the Christian Cross - WorldAtlas.com
The History of the Christian Cross
Doesn't it also seem bizarre to make an image of something used to put someone you love to death and idolize it? What if Christ had been hung...would we be wearing the replica of a gallows perhaps with a little figure of Jesus swinging from the rope?
Before we start venerating something we really should make sure of its origins, lest we offend the God we are trying to worship.
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) and the IX monogram (
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).
Why did Bahaullah and Abdul Baha always say inane things? For Christians the death of Jesus is paramount glory and not a shame. Bahai God instructed Bahaullah wrongly. Do the Bahais think that they can bring about universal brotherhood by opposing all other religions? Bahai peace is just a sham, they are harbingers of conflict.
Why did Bahaullah and Abdul Baha always say inane things? For Christians the death of Jesus is paramount glory and not a shame. Bahai God instructed Bahaullah wrongly. Do the Bahais think that they can bring about universal brotherhood by opposing all other religions? Bahai peace is just a sham, they are harbingers of conflict.
The Bible was edited in Fourth Century. Nails do not prove a cross. The hands could be nailed even on a stake.
