In
the next few weeks, the Supreme Court is expected to give
a ruling regarding a Christian cross that sits atop a
precipice in the Mojave dessert. This cross has been the
center of religious debate since a former government employee
sued because it was permitted, but a Buddhist shrine was
not allowed on the same land. The symbol of the cross,
though beloved by millions, is indeed controversial for
many reasons.
History
shows that the cross was already a religious symbol hundreds
of years before Jesus walked the earth. It was often used
as a sign of phallic worship by the Egyptians, Babylonians,
Druids, and Greeks. Those who worshipped the god Tammuz
would write or wear the mystic Tau, cross shape, in reference
to the initial of their god’s name. Interestingly,
Tammuz was a god-man hybrid that was supposedly born of
a virgin and whose shed blood brought new life. To worship
Tammuz, a forty day period of fasting was held each year
that would culminate with the retelling of the resurrection
of Tammuz from the dead. These similarities between Tammuz
and the Christ made the transition to using the cross
as a symbol of Christianity an easy compromise for new
believers. "In the Egyptian churches the cross was
a pagan symbol of life borrowed by the Christians and
interpreted in the pagan manner," The Encyclopedia
Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 14, p.273.
To make matters worse, it is highly doubtful that the
Messiah was crucified upon a cross. The most popular Roman
method of crucifixion used during the times of Jesus was
actually a straight stake or tree as prophesied in Deuteronomy
21:23. Historical texts prove that the few times a cross
beam was used by the Romans for an execution; the shape
resembled the capitalized letter T and not the lower case
t shape. In the New Testament, the word translated for
“cross” is the Greek phrase “stauros.”
According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament
Words, this term literally means “stake” or
“upright beam.” The Messiah Himself made such
a reference to crucifixion on an upright pole in John
12:32, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness;
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The Old
Testament shows in Numbers 21:8-9 that after a horrible
plague, Moses took a brazen serpent on a pole and raised
it as a symbol of healing. (This is where the modern medical
symbol originates.)
Later in the Scriptures, the Hebrew people were guilty
of offering incense to this same bronze serpent. They,
like people with their crucifixes today, were looking
to a symbol for miracles and healing. King Hezekiah destroyed
the pole in 2nd Kings 18:1-6 and rebuked the people for
exalting a symbol over the Almighty.
Through the centuries, the cross has become a major stumbling
block. There are scores of unbelievers who remember that
Christians stood in the shadow of the cross as Muslims
and Jews were murdered during the Crusades. Even Hitler
used his own version of the cross as he killed millions
in the Holocaust. Today most people will deny that they
worship their crosses, but these items certainly carry
an emotional attachment. A little research will verify
that the cross simply can not be justified as an acceptable
symbol in the Bible or the history books.
Perhaps in an effort to return to a historically and scripturally
accurate representation of Christianity, the cross should
be removed from the Mojave dessert and banished from the
churches in America. What could it hurt?