Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition Read Online Free PDF Page B

pacifistic Messiah had appeared who advocated cooperation with Rome. On the other side of this theological divide stood the Jewish Zealots who awaited a militaristic Messiah to lead them against Rome.
    Among Christianity’s oldest surviving records is the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, dated to 96 C.E. The letter was purportedly written by (Pope) Clement I to a congregation of Christians who had apparently rebelled against the church’s authority. It shows that even at the onset of the religion the bishop of Rome was able to give orders to the church of Corinth, and that the church of Rome used the Roman army as an example of the kind of discipline and obedience that it expected from other churches and their members.

The Church of God which sojourneth in Rome to the Church of God which sojourneth in Corinth, 15
Let us mark the soldiers that are enlisted under our rulers, how exactly, how readily, how submissively, they execute the orders given them.
All are not prefects, nor rulers of thousands, nor rulers of hundreds, nor rulers of fifties, and so forth; but each man in his own rank executeth the orders given by the king and the governors.
1Clem 37:2-3
     
    But how did the church’s authority structure come into existence resembling the Roman military?  Who established it and who gave the bishops such absolute control?  Cyprian wrote:
     
… “ The bishop is in the Church and the Church is in the bishop … and if anyone is not with the bishop, that person is not in the Church.” 16

    And why was Rome, supposedly the center of Christian persecution, chosen as the church’s headquarters?
    A Roman origin would explain why the bishop of Rome was later made the supreme pontiff of the church. And why Rome became its headquarters. It would explain how a Judean cult eventually became the state religion of the Roman Empire. A Roman origin would also explain why so many members of a Roman imperial family, the Flavians, were recorded as being among the first Christians. The Flavians would have been among the first Christians because, having invented the religion, they were, in fact, the first Christians.
    When considering a Flavian invention of Christianity, one should bear in mind that the Flavian emperors were considered to be divine and often created religions. The oath that they swore when being ordained emperor began with the instruction that they would do “all things divine … in the interests of the empire.” The Arch of Titus, which commemorates Titus’ destruction of Jerusalem, is inscribed with the following statement:
     
SENATUS POPULUS QUE ROMANUS  DIVO  TITO  DIVI  VESPASIANI.  F VESPASIANO AUGUST
[The Senate and People of Rome, to the divine Titus, son of the divine Vespasian]
     
    Fragments of the written pronouncement, given in 69 C.E. by the prefect of Egypt Tiberius Alexander, in which he recognized Vespasian as the new emperor, are still in existence. Vespasian is referred to in them as “the divine Caesar” and “Lord.”
    Josephus also believed that Vespasian was a divine person. He claimed that Judaism’s messianic prophecies foretold that Vespasian would become the lord of all mankind. This indicates that in the eyes of Josephus, Vespasian was not only the “Jesus,” or savior of Judea, but that he was also the “Christ,” the Greek word for the Messiah that was foreseen in the prophecies of a Judaic world-leader.
     
Thou, O Vespasian, thinkest no more than that thou hast taken Josephus himself captive; but I come to thee as a messenger of greater tidings; for had not I been sent by God to thee …
Thou, O Vespasian, art Caesar and emperor, thou, and this thy son.
Bind me now still faster, and keep me for thyself, for thou, O Caesar, are not only lord over me, but over the land and the sea, and all mankind. 17

    Josephus, in proclaiming himself God’s minister, also described an ending of God’s “contract” with Judaism that was quite similar to the position that the New