Since Time Immemorial: The Hallowed Symbol of the Cross
However, what is not very well-known is that the reverence shown to the sign of the Cross occurred in all of the ages prior to Christianity, and still is revered in almost every land where that of Calvary is unrecognized and unknown. Yet, throughout modern times, anyway, official "history has been [mostly] silent on this subject" of this universal symbol. The obvious reason for the silence, in my humble opinion, is that this pre-Christian and pagan reverence for the Cross foreshadows the coming of Christ and testifies to the presence of Him throughout the history of all mankind, as it proves that all human beings are innately predisposed to revere the Cross, and this knowledge might encourage or solidify belief in the very thing that the worldly powers are attempting to eliminate: Jesus Christ.
From an article in the Edinburgh Review, July 1870:
“From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world, to the final establishment of Christianity in the West, the cross was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments; and to a remarkable extent it is so still in almost every land where that of Calvary is unrecognized and unknown. Apart from any distinctions of social or intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of every people in antiquity—the elastic girdle, so to say, which widely separated heathen communities—the most significant token of universal brotherhood, to which all families of mankind were severally and irresistibly drawn, and by which their common descent was emphatically expressed, or by means of which each and all preserved, amid every vicissitude of fortune, a knowledge of the primeval happiness and dignity of their species. Where authentic history is silent on the subject, the material relics of the past and long since forgotten races are not wanting to confirm and strengthen this supposition. “Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and in not a few instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of subterranean as well as superterranean structures of tumuli, as well as fanes. The extraordinary sanctity attaching to the symbol in every age and under every variety of circumstance justified any expenditure incurred in its fabrication or embellishment; hence the most persistent labor, the most consummate ingenuity, were lavished upon it. Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits—the highly-civilized and the semi-civilized, the settled and the nomadic—vied with each other in their superstitious adoration of it, and in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue amongst their latest posterities. The marvelous rock-hewn caves of Elephanta and Ellora, and the stately temples of Mathura and Terputty, in the East, may be cited as characteristic examples of one laborious labor of exhibiting it; and the megalithic structures of Callernish and Newgrange, in the West, of another; while a third may be instanced in the great temple of Mitzla, the ‘City of the Moon’, in Ojaaca, Central America, also excavated in the living rock, and manifesting the same stupendous labor and ingenuity as are observable in the cognate caverns of Salsette—of endeavors, we repeat made by peoples as intellectually as geographically distinct, and followers withal of independent and unassociated deities, to magnify and perpetuate some grand primeval symbol…
Of the several varieties of the Cross still in vogue, as national and ecclesiastical emblems, in this and other European states, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, etc. etc., there is not one amongst them, the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. They were the common property of the Eastern nations. No revolution or other causality has wrought any perceptible difference in their several forms or delineations; they have passed from one hemisphere to the other intact; have survived dynasties, empires and races; have been borne on the crest of each successive wave of Aryan population in its course toward the West; and having been re-consecrated in later times by their lineal descendants, are still recognized as military and national badges of distinction…
Among the earliest known types is the crux ansata, vulgarly called ‘the key of the Nile’, because of its being found sculptured or otherwise represented so frequently upon Egyptian and Coptic monuments. It has, however, a very much older and more sacred significance than this. It was the symbol of symbols, the mystical Tau, ‘the hidden wisdom,’ not only of the ancient Egyptians but also of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Mexicans, Peruvians and of every other ancient people commemorated in history, in either hemisphere, and is formed very similarly to our letter T, with a roundlet, or oval placed immediately above it. Thus, it was figured on the gigantic emerald or glass statue of Serapis, which was transported (293 B.C.) by order of Ptolemy Soter from Sinope on the southern shores of the Black Sea, re-erected within that famous labyrinth which encompassed the banks of Lake Moeris, and destroyed them by the victorious army of Theodosius (A.D. 389) despite the earnest entreaties of the Egyptian priesthood to spare it, because it was the emblem of their god and ‘the life to come….
That each known variety has been derived from a common source and is emblematical of one and the same truth may be inferred from the fact of forms identically the same, whether simple or complex, cropping out in contrary directions, in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere.”Nevertheless, as the recent Zeitgeist film portrays the biblical accounts of Jesus as plagiarizing the story of Horus, Krishna, Mithras, Dionysis and other pagan Gods, without any historical evidence whatsoever as these gods never existed, there are those who interpret the pre-Christian and pagan reverence of the religious symbol throughout history up until today as proof that the Cross--because it was used and is used by non-believers/non-Christians-- is essentially meaningless despite Jesus' cammoand to "Take up your cross and follow me." Some even go as far as to interpret the cross as a symbol from the devil.
“Satan the devil knew long before Jesus was born that He would die by crucifixion (Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14; Psalm 22:16). In an attempt to deceive the world and lead people into worshipping a false Christ, the Devil made the cross a popular symbol of worship.Well, the fact of the matter is that demons hate the Crucifix. There is a reason it is used in exorcisms, and there is a reason, those who worship Satan try to reverse the Catholic mass, defile the Eucharist and mock the Cross. If the Cross was essentially meaningless or powerless, those who hate God wouldn't bother. Satan's, the great counterfeiter, only power is his persuasive ability to separate us from God through his genius ability to be whatever you want him to be, until he has hardened your heart to the point of what he believes is no turning back, only he's wrong: as long as you have breath in your body there is turning back thanks to God's great mercy.
Anyway, the Zeitgeist creators, and other Bible skeptics, benefit from the appeal to skeptic fallacy: I doubt therefore I am [superior]. Declaring Myself As A Skeptic Defaults Me Unearned and Unassailable Credibility without me having to lift a finger, or the belief that skeptics are exempt from having to provide authoritative outsider recitation or evidence to support a contended claim or counter-claim, as if skeptics are free of any kind of agenda but to find truth with no burden of proof placed on them.
In reality, no other figure, religious or otherwise, has received even close to the scrutiny that Jesus did and does, not to mention, the New Testament, which has been verified by manuscript evidence to be the most reliable and substantiated document in antiquity. This alone should be enough to listen to Jesus when He says, "Take up your cross and follow me."
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