The pagan connection myth
"Cigarettes are like hamsters. Perfectly safe until you put them in your mouth and light them on fire."
There is a claim circling around the internet that the accounts of Jesus found in the Bible are actually attributes that have been borrowed from various pagan religions. According to the theory, Jesus shares many similarities with at least 16 pagan gods that were worshipped long before Jesus was born (hence the hamster joke at the top of the page). It is claimed that, just like these other gods, Jesus was born on the 25th of December, had 12 disciples, was born of a virgin, died by crucifixion and rose again from the dead, among other similarities sometimes claimed. These similarities are often bare faced lies. If not based on an attribute that the other gods never actually had, they are based on an attribute that Jesus, himself, simply does not have. In this section, we will examine each of the pagan gods that Christianity allegedly borrowed from and refute the claim that Jesus is a re-vamped version of any of them.
False Christs
While there are no actual gods that Jesus copied from, Jesus did warn that other religions would have "false Christs" (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22 etc.), and in Luke 21:8 and other passages, he even says many will come claiming to speak in his name. Furthermore, other passages say that there will be other gospels preached. It should not surprise us, then, that some religions will even call themselves Christians, but will still preach false messages and practice things the Bible condemns.