The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or Christianity Before Christ [Paperback]

Kersey Graves (Author), Paul Tice (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1585090182 | ISBN-13: 978-1585090181 | Publication Date: July 1, 1999 | Edition: Revised and Enl

Known to be a masterpiece of freethought literature. The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors has been out of print but sought after for many years. A small part of it was reprinted in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read in 1994, thereby causing renewed interest. Many people are unaware that before Christianity there were 15 other religions that also had a savior who died for their sins, then arose from the dead. Graves gives all the details inside, plus much more found in common like the immaculate conception of the gods, virgin born gods, magi, shepherds and angles who visit the infant saviors, the birthday of the gods being December 25th, plus an explanation as to how Jesus began to be worshipped as a God. Some scholars are suggesting that Jesus had spent time in India. One chapter in this book discusses 346 striking analogies between Christ and Chrishna, the Hindu god. Could this same story have travelled from India rather than the man himself? Could this everpresent story, "the greatest story ever told, " be the common link between all early religions? Has the purpose of religion, in general, been designed to provide all of mankind with a common set of beliefs, to keep us from learning the real truth for ourselves? It is difficult to answer these questions, and it probably always will be, but this book offers us a small step closer to the answers. It shows that Christianity is not alone and special in its beliefs, and may cause us to explore further into the origins of religion.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Book Tree; Revised and Enl edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585090182
• ISBN-13: 978-1585090181
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,226,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, November 26, 2002

By 

TheHighlander (Richfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or Christianity Before Christ (Paperback)

A very interesting book from a historical and a religions perspective. But let me warn you, this book is not for everyone. The book looks at the 16 religious saviors that were crucified in their persepctive religions, all before the advent of Christianity. There are many chapters covering the similarities of the different religions and their saviors.

One of the most intriguing chapters is the one comparing the Hindoo savior Krishna's similarities with Jesus. The chapter lists 346 similarities from the teachings of the perspective religions as written in the Bible and the Baghavat Gita (Hindoo Bible). It is quite startling, considering Krishna lived thousands of years before Jesus.

The book is more or less a basher of Christianity, not the faith itself but the belief that Jesus was the only savior ever to come to earth based on the writings in the Bible. It shows that other religious writing previous to the Bible in other religions listed their own crucified saviors. Kind of a religious mans "Age of Reason" if you will.

The book is interesting but seems to lack some proof in a few areas when listing older saviors. But he also lists sources and historical documents for many of them. I feel he would have been better off listing 10 or 12 instead of 16. But overall it is worth the read for anyone with an open mind or who is curious about ancient religions. I have read both better and worse but this book is not a waste of time.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely astounding, January 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or Christianity Before Christ (Paperback)

After reading this book, my belief system was thrown into complete chaos. Never had I read such a treatise that tears into fundamenalist's oft-repeated arguments about their one true savior and renders them impotent- and this book was written over 100 years ago! Most striking is when the author points out errors in the Bible that call to question the accuracy of it and in the process, puts a challenge to the entire Bible (for example: How did the wise men come from the east if they were following a star in the east?). I can only think of two things wrong with this book. One, since it is over 100 years old, some of the spellings are incorrect (such as Mohammad-Mahomet and Quetzalcoatl-Quetxacote). Also, the author believed that with his book, fundamentalist Christianity would cease to exist. Unfortunately, this did not come true. This book is well written and calmly written, unlike other books that attack Christianity, which engage in wild theories and are usually written by people who have a prior agenda against Christian fundamentalists (such as homosexuals and atheists) Highly recommended for anyone who wants to be challenged or challenge ignorance.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mind Blowing, September 14, 2002

By 

andrew e packard (harrison, oh United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or Christianity Before Christ (Paperback)

How many Christians know that other historical personages claimed to be God other than Jesus? Even more mind blowing how many realize that they too claimed to be of virgin births? Even more mind blowing is that there are oriental historical stories that parellel Jesus' life very closely only predating the Christ event! This book will challenge anyones faith! And it was written over 100 years ago!
My biggest critizism of it is that the author claims that God would never become human and would certainly never become a baby! Well this is the strength of Christianity... And Faith will never make logical sense (nor will life!) like the author claims...