One person wrote me privately the following, and I thought it interesting
enough to pass on. I'm always impressed by the wealth of knowledge in this
group.

=======================================

>Zoroastrianism is a religion of man as God and is still
>practiced primarily in India today, but many of its early ideas and ideals
>were absorbed into Christianity

Zoroastrian ideas may have been absorbed into ancient Judaism, long before
the birth of Jesus, and thence into Christianity.

The Israelites, of course, were living in exile in Babylon from roughly 586
BCE to 538 BCE, when they returned to Israel after the Babylonians were
themselves conquered by Cyrus the Mede, ruler of Persia. Cyrus was a
Zoroasterian. Some scholars believe that the concepts of the struggle of
good vs. evil, and a person born of a holy seed to redeem the world, did
not begin to show up in Jewish prophetic writings until after the Jews were
exposed to Zoroastrianism.

========================================

The notion of one true God, a Devil, a virgin birth, a coming Savior,
redemption and resurrection into eternal life are also all part of
traditional Zoroastrianism, a religion that emerged 1200 years before Jesus.
Modern Zoroastrians write the following:

========================================

Faith, and Hope in the coming of the Saoshyant (Saviour) has sustained our
religion through the centuries. We firmly hope, and pray, that Ahura Mazda
sends the Saoshyant to the earth to defeat evil and further righteousness
(Ashoi). The Zarathushtri religion was the first to proclaim that Ahura Mazda
will send the Saoshyant, born of a virgin, and many other religions took on
this belief.

We firmly believe that when the Saoshyant comes, the final spiritual battle
between the forces of good and evil will commence, resulting in the utter
destruction of evil. Ristakhiz, the ressurection of the dead will take place
- the dead will rise, by the Will of Ahura Mazda. The world will be purged by
molten metal, in which the righteous will wade as if through warm milk, and
the evil will be scalded. The Final Judgement of all souls will commence, at
the hands of Ahura Mazda the Judge (Davar), and all sinners punished, then
forgiven, and humanity made immortal and free from hunger, thirst, poverty,
old age, disease and death. The World will be made perfect once again, as it
was before the onslaught of the evil one. Such is the Frashogad
(Frasho-kereti), the Renovation, brought on by the Will of Ahura Mazda, the
Frashogar.

    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~zarathus/tenets33.html

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Wirt Atmar

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