Why did they choose "Dionysus" on a platter on the Last Supper Table?
There is only "One truth, One way, and One way to eternal life, and that is through Jesus Christ. For the last 2,000 years the church has suffered mockery and persecution. Why Dionysus?
If you look at Genesis 6, you will see that the war began in earnest with an intrusion into the human gene pool. Fallen angels took human wives and had half-human/half-angelic children with them. The Bible calls them Nephilim. The Greek mythology calls them "Demigods." Dionysus was one of those offspring.
He is NOT a benevolent being!
Either through ignorance, or through intent, the team who planned the Olympic opening ceremony said that Dionysus was chosen because he was the "god of celebration."
Ummm...more like the god of insanity and destruction. Sure he was the "god of wine," but the wine of slavery and drunkenness. His celebrations often included murder, were celebrated in the woods away from the public view, because of the atrociousness of the "celebration."
Dionysus was a demigod who became a part of the Pantheon of gods. Son of Zeus and a human woman, he became a god. How he was worshipped varied depending on the locality. In one place, his priests were free to murder women. Drunkenness was certainly an aspect of his worship, for he was also known as the god of insanity. Women who refused him, he made insane. They would then murder their own families and then live out their miserable lives away from others as hermits.
While many think these myths have no basis in reality, they are all twisted versions of one true story!
The book of Genesis states that these half-human, half-fallen angels are the "mighty men of old." What is myth is based on reality. And I don't think that we as Christians should be surprised that the truth is mocked.
We are commanded by God to "be angry, but not sin."
We ought to respond with the same compassion and patience that Jesus has given to each of us. And we can laugh! Because the enemy behind all of this is not going to win. We have the whole counsel of God, and that last book, Revelation, shows us the end.
God wins!
I want to finish with this...Dionysus was the god who made men insane with wine. What did the true God-Man do as His first miracle? He turned water into wine. Not just a little wine, a few bottles brought along to a wedding celebration. No, an incredible amount of wine! Not grape juice, alcoholic wine. That's the meaning of the original Greek.
In the first century AD, Dionysus was well-known. He was the enemies' mockery of the true Messiah. He was the son of Zeus and a human woman!
I believe Jesus deliberately threw down at the wedding in Cana. He came into enemy territory-remember Satan offered Him the kingdoms of this world and could do so because he is "the god of this world." Instead of offering the wine of insanity, He was offering Himself as the Bridegroom.
In the first century, the Galilean custom was for the man to offer the woman he wanted to marry a glass of wine. She was free to take the cup and drink, saying "yes!" or rejecting it. In making so much wine, Jesus was stating that the offer of Himself was not for a few, but for the world.
That is why on a world-wide stage, the "Last Supper," the most beautiful proclamation of the Gospel we followers of Jesus celebrate until He comes, was mocked.
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