The moment that Christianity was adopted by the political power structure of the Roman Empire it stopped being a pacifist Gnostic cult, and became a methodology for control. The racism that was inherent within an empire that thought nothing of enslaving foreign peoples has continued within the Roman Catholic Church right up to the present day.
When the brutal Roman Empire witnessed the courageous martyrdom of the Gnostic Christian cult followers who were tortured and slaughtered in the Roman coliseum, it realized the incredible power of this new mythology. Consequently, using the teachings of Saul/St.Paul the Holy Roman Catholic Church developed a manipulative dogma of the heroism of victimhood that gave the failing Roman Empire a new strength.
When a new people were conquered by the Empire, the new mythology taught them to "turn the other cheek" and accept their suffering in order to be rewarded by a afterlife in Heaven. Yet the Empire itself never accepted these same conditions. Eventually the Holy Roman Empire and its Holy Roman Catholic Church had conquered most of Europe, forcibly converting the Pagan cultures to Paulian Christianity. However, the strength of this form of Christianity lay in the continued suppression of the true Gnostic Christian teachings upon which it was based.
These teachings originally derived from a structured form of Shamanism developed in ancient India, and were merely echoed in Paulian Christianity. Indeed, many scriptures document disagreements between Christ's closest apostle Simon Peter and Saul/St.Paul, who didn't even know Christ, yet claimed to have had a transcendental meeting with Him on the astral plane. The conflict centered on the precise nature of the Last Supper, what should be eaten, and whom exactly it should be shared with. Peter was inclusive, just as Christ was, accepting everyone as a welcome guest. However, Paul insisted on excluding Jews.
This seed of anti-Semitism was expanded upon by the Roman Church bishops who invented the apostle Judas, who was previously unmentioned in the first Gospels. In later approved Gospels Judas became the central figure of betrayal.
Judas by name and description is clearly meant to represent the Jewish race, who have consequently been blamed for the murder of Christ.
In fact, Paulian Christianity has always been based upon separation rather than inclusion. Humanity is separated from God, and as Jesus is dogmatically also God, humanity is separated from Him. The ordinary Christian congregation can only gain access to God through the initiated Priest. This is the opposite to the original Gnostic teachings of the Historical Christ, who showed that Man through Tantric/Shamanic rituals and understanding could access the Divine and "walk with God".
This mystical knowledge inspired the Early Christians in their martyrdom and gave them the power to face the mighty Roman Empire and an awful death. It was clear to the Paulian Roman Church that to maintain its power base through its initiated priests, the true Shamanic teachings of Christ must not be accessed by Humanity.
The destruction of Celtic Christianity, and the horrors of the Inquisition that lasted for six hundred years, clearly illustrates just how far the Roman Catholic Church was prepared to go in order to suppress this knowledge. This Inquisition was directed against Jews, Muslims, Gnostic Christians, and followers of Pagan Nature cults. Acts of violence directed against the Jewish people became a highly commendable religious act. In plague ridden medieval Strasbourg 16,000 were murdered, and in Mainz, Germany, 12,000 were burned alive. In the south of France one million Cathar Gnostic Christians were massacred. Pope Innocent III declared "Kill them all, God knows his own", and as a consequence most of the region was laid to waste.
When Shamanism in its rawest form was confronted in the new worlds of Africa and the Americas, it was important for the Church to stamp out these cultures based upon the similar Spiritual values that the Historical Christ had come to understand. It has recently been estimated by the University of Hawaii's Anthropology Dept. that up to 250 million Ameri-Indians and Polynesians, equal to the population of Europe at that time, lost their lives through slaughter and disease due to "Civilization" and the Church's "Good News" being spread to the New World. Not to mention the millions of Africans who died as a result of Church sanctioned slavery.
As recently as the late 1800's to the beginning of the 20th Century, over half of the population of the Belgian Congo were killed by the brutal imperialism of Belgium's King Leopold II. Forced labor, starvation, village burning, torture and murder claimed over 11 million. The Congo's extensive network of Catholic missionaries remained silent during the slavery and genocide.
If the Truth behind the metaphors of Paulian Roman Catholic dogma were recognized and accessed, their concretization of "the Word" would simply crumble. If the seed ideas of Christ were allowed to merge with Pagan Nature religions, then the original dreams of unity, brotherhood, charity, equality, mutual compassion, and ultimately union with God of early Gnostic Christianity might create a Global Village, instead of a New World Order.
History has proven that the recognition of Christ's original truth must be avoided, whatever the cost.
Pope John Paul II's recent lengthy apology for the above-mentioned crimes against Humanity, while admitting some degree of culpability, will not prevent history from repeating itself, unless he is prepared to show true Christian heroism, and remove the Mask of Evil from the face of the Roman Empire.
