◄ Paper 97
  Part 3 ▲
Paper 99 ►
Paper 98

The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident

The Salem Religion among the Greeks  •  Greek Philosophic Thought  •  The Melchizedek Teachings in Rome  •  The Mystery Cults  •  The Cult of Mithras  •  Mithraism and Christianity  •  The Christian Religion

THE Melchizedek teachings entered Europe along many routes, but chiefly they came by way of Egypt and were embodied in Occidental philosophy after being thoroughly Hellenized and later Christianized. The ideals of the Western world were basically Socratic, and its later religious philosophy became that of Jesus as it was modified and compromised through contact with evolving Occidental philosophy and religion, all of which culminated in the Christian church.

98:0.2

For a long time in Europe the Salem missionaries carried on their activities, becoming gradually absorbed into many of the cults and ritual groups which periodically arose. Among those who maintained the Salem teachings in the purest form must be mentioned the Cynics. These preachers of faith and trust in God were still functioning in Roman Europe in the first century after Christ, being later incorporated into the newly forming Christian religion.

98:0.3

Much of the Salem doctrine was spread in Europe by the Jewish mercenary soldiers who fought in so many of the Occidental military struggles. In ancient times the Jews were famed as much for military valor as for theologic peculiarities.

98:0.4

The basic doctrines of Greek philosophy, Jewish theology, and Christian ethics were fundamentally repercussions of the earlier Melchizedek teachings.


 
 
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The Urantia Book