Why does Christianity's gospel account story resemble the stories told in several Egyptian myths? Does this mean that it's a made-up story?
C.S. Lewis, a scholar of myth at Oxtord, once stated that Christianity has a mythical radiance, but he never directly commented on Horus and Isis in a major, standalone essay.
However, he frequently discussed them as prime examples of "dying-and-rising" pagan gods. Lewis grouped them alongside similar figures like Adonis, Osiris, and Balder, whom he termed "corn kings".Lewis believed that God used these pagan stories as "shadows" or "hints" to prepare the human imagination for the coming of Christ. While his early skeptic friends viewed these similarities as proof that Jesus was merely a copied myth, Lewis (guided by J.R.R. Tolkien) eventually concluded that these pagan myths were "real, though dappled, shafts of the divine light". He famously reconciled these "parallels" with the resurrection by asserting that Jesus is the "True Myth"—the single point where myth and historical fact became one.In addition to this broad view of dying gods,
Lewis specifically evaluated ancient Egyptian religion in his book Reflections on the Psalms. Interestingly, he focused his commentary not on Isis, Horus, or standard Egyptian polytheism, but on the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who instituted a brief period of monotheism by worshiping the sun disk, Aten. Lewis admired Akhenaten's Hymn to the Sun, comparing its deep appreciation of nature and creation to some of the Jewish Psalms in the Bible.
My response:
If by Horus you referred to his virgin birth, born Dec 25, resurrection, etc. All made up in the last century, but circulated as Jesus Myth virally online. Never originally told that way. I don't know why folks don't go to "libraries" anymore.
As for dying-and-living, analogy of perpetual season cycles, longing for eternity, that would be what John Calvin called "Sensus divinitatis" and general revelation, perceived by sinners.
However, the only truth of resurrection is only found in Christianity, and eternal life in Jesus' own resurrection, which was original in history. All pagan mythologies only show the longing of life but never got it right, so technically their resurrections were not really resurrections by definition - More like reanimation, transitioning or ascension of life which is basically transitioning, etc. They never grasp the concept of becoming THE SAME living person anew, again.
I admire Lewis' pursuit of "true myth" or even William Lane Craig's "Mytho-History", but we really don't need these parallelomanias as if the Bible needs saving from secular critics. And don't get me wrong, definitely appreciate the creativity of men in Narnia and LOTR, though LOTR a bit too Roman for me (elves = Sainthood, etc.) but still...
One exercise for us is to truthfully, with hard work (now you even have the advantage of AI) and study, judge these parallelomania, i.e. True myth & Mytho-history methodology, Epic of Gilgamesh, from the Bible as historical fact, not any form of myth, breathed out by a Sovereign God. And you'll see wonders, as I've shown with just the word "resurrection" in all pagan worlds.
Perhaps now you can try this "virgin birth" idea in pagan mythologies (i.e. How Iris actually conceived Horus by turning the dead Osiris into Frankenstein for her to copulate with). Try how Buddha was conceived. Compare them all with the very concept and definition of the "VIRGIN" birth the Bible offers. You'll see which ones are childish imitations, which one is the boss, regardless of chronological order, just by definition alone.
And now you can chuckle at the term: Comparative Religion, which some hold their PhD in it with great pride. God didn't create us to do comparative religion, He wants us to judge the world! (1Co 6:2). And there is a way to do this humbly, as Moses recalled of his own humility (Num12:3). Certainly wasn't easy (you may be tempted, or you maybe misunderstood), but also not without great joy in the Lord.
I just played with Google AI, after comparing my electric bills between 2019 and 2026 (doubling, and a complete flip of tier plan by the electric company - from rewarding more usage of power to penalizing it), I am very curious now with the power of AI, to learn about all creative ways to go around this electricity problem, particularly via solar energy. This entry will track all pertaining projects.
From a Christian perspective, the Bahnsen group offers this series (of 30 videos) upon sign up for free. A foundational principle on trading. This course is done in a way that it's not an optional elective subject. If you're a Christian, you must learn this. I am basically summarizing the entire course series using Granola and thus some of my summary is AI assisted. I skipped watching these videos myself because they work too slow for me. Saving it in a folder for my library drive.
I'll mention here some key take away:
Lecture 03: The goal is Human flourishing
Lecture 06: Foundation in Creation
God's created world prevents economic worldview of the false dichotomy of mere “wealth creators” vs mere “wealth consumers”.
Human purpose in economic life is a required mandate, even pre-fall.
Division of labor rooted in Garden of Eden - "fill the earth", diversity is creational, not accidental. Results in Adam Smith's "division of labor".
Macro systems working against creational truths must be resisted. - This is probably why the Bahnsen group's business approach is conservative. I think though the principle is sound, but applying those principles to policy is not straightforward. The principles may be fixed, but the policy conclusions often are not. Different societies can agree that dignity matters and still disagree on:
child labor
wage regulation
welfare systems
unions
environmental rules
trade policy
So the real dispute is often not over the value itself, but over which institutions best uphold it. Cultural differences matter. Creational truths may be stable; policy translation is contested.
Lecture 07: Anthropology
Asking why rather than just observe and discern patterns. This leads to incentives.
Viewing mankind as collective (not individual) or individual (not collective) in a mutually exclusive manner, is an error. The right economic system is one that aligns with all five anthropological realities (creative, rational, individual, social, sinful) simultaneously.
Lecture 08: Work is not a curse
The curse of work is only toil and anxiety, not work itself - parallels pain in childbirth, not bearing children. No work means idleness, purposelessness, and valuelessness. Ecc 5:18.
Work uniquely marries passion to skill:
Passion without skill, or skill without passion, yields little satisfaction
Their intersection is the “secret sauce” of happiness
Dignity argument: the strongest case against policies that make people nonproductive or noncontributory - I would say it depends on how you define dignity. Americans have fallen into a "don't judge" fallacy to really define dignity properly. Cross cultural evaluation of dignity is warranted, I believe.
The exponential happiness gain lies in unlocking creation’s potential, not in accumulating things. I can use this lesson, especially when you tend to become a hoarder.
Bahnsen's claim: Redistribution-focused systems are the truly materialistic ones. I think both capitalism (free enterprise) and communism fall prey to materialism. Communism is just conveniently worse.
Why many Christians don't learn from this? Laziness in discernment. They just want the list: Show me who are on the naughty list and good list (their version of unsaved vs. saved).
So I am about ready to install the long coaxial cable from attic to outside panel, now that the cables have arrived. I just need to visit Home Depot for a few items after checking with Google AI below:
What should I watch out for if I want to drill a hole from inside the attic through the wall to the outside aluminum siding, so that I can put a coaxial cable through?
When drilling from your attic through aluminum siding for a coaxial cable, the most critical risk is accidentally drilling into hidden electrical wiring or puncturing a water line inside the wall cavity.
Take these crucial safety and structural steps to ensure a clean, damage-free installation.
1. Identify Hidden Hazards First
Trace Utilities: Look closely at the attic floor and interior wall plates near your target zone. Ensure no electrical cables, HVAC ducts, or plumbing vent stacks run down into that specific wall cavity. [1, 2, 3]
Inspect the Exterior: Look outside to ensure you are not drilling directly into or right next to an outdoor light fixture, security camera, or utility meter box.
2. Avoid Binding and Tearing the Metal
Do Not Use Spade Bits: Wood-boring spade bits or wood-only drill bits will catch on the aluminum siding. This can violently twist your drill, warp the metal panel, or tear a jagged, dangerous hole.
Use a Standard Twist Bit: A high-speed steel (HSS) or cobalt twist bit safely slices through wood, insulation, and aluminum.
Drill from Inside to Outside: Use a long installer bit (bellhanger bit) to drill your pilot hole from the attic out. Once the tip of the bit pierces the aluminum outside, stop. Go outside and finish widening the hole from the exterior to prevent the metal from tearing outward. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
3. Protect and Protect the Coaxial Cable
Sharp Metal Edges: Aluminum siding creates razor-sharp edges when drilled. If you pull a bare coaxial cable directly through it, the metal edge will eventually slice through the cable jacket and short out your signal.
Install a Cable Feed-Through Bushing: Always insert a plastic coaxial feed-through bushing into the aluminum hole. This acts as a shield, protecting the cable from the sharp metal edge. [1]
Create a Drip Loop: Before feeding the cable into the house, leave a small, loose loop of cable hanging downward right below the hole. Rainwater will run down the wire and drop off the bottom of the loop rather than tracking straight into your wall. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
4. Seal Out Moisture and Pests
Water Intrusion: A hole in aluminum siding is a direct path for wood rot.
Apply Outdoor Silicone: Once the cable and bushing are in place, generously apply a premium exterior-grade 100% silicone sealant around the cable, the bushing, and the siding seam to make it completely watertight and insect-proof.
To make sure you have the right setup, let me know:
What tools do you currently have on hand (drill type, bit length)?
How thick do you estimate the wall is from the attic space to the outside siding?
I can give you the exact bit size and steps for your specific equipment.
6/24/2026 Wednesday
Videos from my mother's sharing, worth some note:
The above video is an interview with Jensen Huang. Summarizing the AI industry into the five-layer cake: 1. Energy (i.e. nuclear power) 2. Hardware/Silicon (i.e. chips) 3. Infrastructure (i.e. real estate, data center land) 4. The Model layer (i.e. LLMs, OpenAI) 5. The Application Layer (i.e. AI tools startups)`
"You won't lose your job to AI; you will lose your job to someone who uses AI." ~Jensen Huang. He believes the Terminator sci-fi film conception is nonsense.
Of course, Jensen Huang only prefers to see the optimistic side of technology.
Second video is from the YouTube channel "澳洲Henry" (Henry in Australia) covers the shifting dynamics of the global AI race between the US and China:
Hardware Constraints Breeding Algorithmic Ingenuity: Because US sanctions block China from buying cutting-edge NVIDIA chips, Chinese engineers were forced to innovate on architecture. Companies like DeepSeek popularized Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) frameworks (splitting models into distinct "expert units" like math or coding, and only activating a few at a time), which radically lowered compute costs and energy usage.
Knowledge Distillation - vocabulary for training a smaller/cheaper model on the outputs of a larger model (data scraping), which is a widely known industry practice, though Western tech firms strictly forbid it in their Terms of Service.
These Chinese AI talks are really pragmatists vs. Christianity. Not that everything practical is wrong, but pragmatism is inherently anti-Christ. Even Google Gemini noted their similarity to the Babel-like Ambition (in building architectural and technological monuments to encourage reliance away from God for the sake of money making rather than gratitude for God). So we are seeing this as a battle of U.S.A. vs. China, rather than cultural mandate.
3rd video is a talk show Yuan Zhuo Pai (Roundtable Parlor, Season 6) features host Wang Wentao alongside guest speaker Prof. Cao Zexian, a theoretical physicist and researcher from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), discussing making higher science (quantum mechanics) accessible for the general public:
Vocabulary - Esoteric subjects: Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
Professor Cao mapped the Industrial Revolutions from thermodynamics (the steam engine) to electromagnetism (electricity) to quantum mechanics (semiconductor chips) to geopolitical/industrial competition.
Mathematical beauty in nature is recognized here. Thus, an opening for Christians to dialogue on God's aesthetics. The creation is an ordered one. What the professor is proposing, entering into the hard sciences, mastering quantum mechanics, is actually an act of obedience to God (Book of Job is full of this at the end), rather than some, I think, fundamentalists, view of treating these as secular distraction.
Some view it as choosing heaven and hell. I would interpret the verses as choosing life or death. As for this painting, I suppose the skeleton figure on the roof is closer to biblical teaching.
6/22/2026 Monday
I asked my mother about my dad's back, it's still the same. She's feeding him in the master bedroom bed which is more comfortable. It is a bit of a relief that my brother was there close by and well ready to help.
6/21/2026 Sunday
News of my dad's back problem since yesterday concerns me. Only learned of it this morning before church from my mother. Old injury.
Sunday Sermon by Pastor Dan on Numbers 13. I read to Nadia earlier in the morning with dramatic narration. Pastor Dan came to us after the service so I was able to ask him about his father's "swim" - I was just joking that I thought it was a Pacific swim, I think he may have taken it seriously. Troy wanted to eat together the next week, possibly at Spice24. As for the sermon, theme was "Big God vs. Big Problems" but as he preached, I was raising other questions and getting fascinating with them using AI. I'll add this to the Numbers 13 Bible Study entry. But I did get a chance to challenge Pastor Dan a couple of them: If the land was promised, why even bother to send spies?If they would only occupy Canaan if there were no giants or weaker, wouldn't that seem to be a bully mentality? He seemed to just want to focus on his topic. Fine by me. His sermon was fun too, I don't usually stay awake so fully but not this time.
The music chosen for worship: Hillsong's Man of Sorrow was actually quite catchy. So I Sunonized it (wouldn't work with lyrics sung so I had to hum it):
I don't think I used my time wisely, as usual, in the night time when Nadia asked to watch a movie. She doesn't really watch movies in general. I should have done something else, but with her by the side, rather than REwatching Spiderman - No Way Home, mostly myself while she scrolled through Instagram or something. Tagging this as my fault.
We lunched at Asian Food Market first time in North Plainfield. No public seating, but the staff was nice enough to welcome us to their staffs' lounge to eat. Ate there because Nadia had something to return to Sierra which was near the area.
I measured and purchased two coaxial cables, to be setup for the attic antenna I bought last week. So far, everything seems to work well. Baby Room's TV may not be hooked to this system as I really don't want to drill too many holes in the wall/ceiling, and that TV can work with the portable antenna that came with the portable TV (for testing) I bought recently. Perhaps I would rescan the channels for this TV with the attic antenna just to store max channels before swapping back to the smaller portable antenna. I plan to drill a hole in the attic by the front window and pull the 20+ft coaxial cable from antenna down to the Verizon panel on the side of the house outside. There's a splitter for already setup cable to the master bedroom and the office. I should expect 71 channels at least, or I would need to get a signal booster.
I looked at my first successful potato plant (paperbag method) from regular potato that was growing "eyes" that Nadia gave me about a week or two ago. So 8 weeks to harvest would mean mid-August. Sign of harvest time is when foliage turns yellow, wilts, and completely dies back.
What does Alex Tseng, Stephen Chan and Samuel Ling have in common? I think Tseng has beef with Ling, I cannot say if it's rightly justified, because I really don't know Ling that much. Chan posted a video lecture by Ling, Alex considered Ling not critiquing others in good faith. All from the Facebook post link I highlighted above.
Men's Breakfast at GCC. R led the group on Contentment. I have Granola Meeting minutes. Glad at Pastor Chris' warning about being passive in contentment (too content to get better job, too content to fix washing machine), reminds me of the Drowning Man parable. Phil also questioned if we should practice contentment rather than just a mental recognition, so I had to double down on this concept, first time speaking for me after not speaking in these meetings for a while. Not sure why Frank got it side way - he quoted Peter "where else would we go", as if I was only saying "we can only rely on God", but I am sure I was clear, as Phil got my point completely and immediately connected from Frank, "Yes, active! Like Joni, bringing joy to others". I also had to deal with Matt claiming (falsely, I believe) that Stephen Tong said "do not go preach the Gospel in a whore house". As Matt had issue with his former church elder persuading the congregant go give water to people during pride month, to which I added - that's a great thing if you include the Gospel in that ministry. Matt wouldn't have it, basically for him, we shouldn't even do anything near these "wicked" people. I later thought, Matt reminds me of the Pharisees who had issue with Jesus eating with sinners. I don't see how else I can give him benefit of the doubt, because the only benefit of the doubt, would be that Matt was confused with participating in sin, almost like what the Pharisees thought, but for Matt, in the context of rewarding the Juneteen parade (wasn't mentioned) by giving them free water. And if so, that would mean Matt really was bad with evangelism, i.e. not Gospel centered. Yet, he certainly is kind with helping people, very initiative. So, he seems to be the moralist from the fundamentalist movement.
I need to reflect two things from this: Firstly, be eloquent, certainty with words and vocabularies. Next, how to respond charitably but sternly someone who was dumb beyond my expectation.
6/14/2026 Sunday
Pastor Dave Lee's sermon was a fun one. If you want to preach on Numbers, you definitely don't want to miss out Num 12 - Miriam and Aaron vs. Moses. Nadia enjoyed the sermon, she said that it really helped when I read the Bible reading a day ahead to her. I was reading it with dramatic tone. I was more fascinated (in a God-fearing manner) with verse 8 (not so with Moses...with him I speak mouth to mouth...), which wasn't quite expounded as it wasn't the focus of the theme of the sermon.
I joked about verse 3 also with Nadia before, and too bad Pastor Dave did not bring it to light either. That Moses (possibly) wrote of himself - Moses was more meek than all people who were on the face of the earth. I'll leave these to my own Bible Study entry on Numbers.
Second time met Logan and his wife. Thus far, he's my favorite person I like to meet at Crossroads church. That's because, the first encounter, I learned that he's into durians and picked up some Malaysian slang. The first "Malaysian" I've met. Even though he's white and technically from Jersey/NZ.
Lately, I've come across various podcast interviews reasoning that the reason folks now prefer high church (i.e. RC, Eastern Orthodox, etc.) is not just because of a distain towards charismatic worship songs, etc. but chiefly a more "stable" theology (JD Vance to Allie Beth Stuckey), more organized (Holy Post Media) structure with the Pope having a unison voice. The sort of Gen-Z High Church revivals.
To push back, I would just say that it's not because of the above reason, this excuse used to justify their choice this way, is actually due to lack of due diligence. They don't want to do the study and research themselves. They just want to be told what to do. They do not love God with their all. Typical sinner problem.
Psalm 56-59 (or 60) appears to be in one grouping. The study of this chapter mainly began from MeRF's Thursday Bible study (on 6/19/2026), as Part 1 of a possibly two part lesson on Psalm 57. Part 1: Verses 1-5. And I have documented virtually all of these MeRF studies using Granola, including this chapter.
I find it interesting that Psalm 57 contrasts Psalm 56 such that 56 speaks of David's prayer while being captured by the Philistines at Gath and 57 speaks of his refuge in a cave from Saul. That is, if you care about the superscriptions of the psalms, since some always love to question the authenticity of these superscripts being inspired or not, being later additions to the Torah (at least 200BC to post-exilic era).
There is a wonder as to if this psalm uses prophetic perfect tense (that it was written completely before David's victory) that changes from a struggling reality to a victorious one within David's own prayer internally. Or as David's spiritual journal (already triumphed over Saul).
There's this progressive arc of the crisis David is facing: [ Ps 56: Trapped in Gath] ---> [ Ps 57: Trapped in the Cave] ---> [ Ps 59: Trapped in his own House]
The redemptive-historical perspective (one single, unfolding story of God redeeming His people through Jesus Christ) is strong in David's story. David though just a type and shadow of the real that is to come in Jesus, being a man after God's own heart, knows that the church is ultimately the center of God's heart. As a type, David displayed not only the one delivering God's people from Goliath, but God's mercy to his people quite remarkably. As a man, he is a remarkable example, that is hard to match - To not end Saul after all these trouble? Sure, those who hate violence today, run. But David was not like them. David did not actually run. David fled not out of cowardice which many today do, David fled to not have to harm God's anointed and bring chaos to Israel. Many today would rather say "Oh...I am not worthy!" But David said: "I am as God has chosen me". Not to glory, but to see God's glory. His obedience came out of true love of God. This is why he could cry out to God, he could exalt and praise God here in this Psalm!
Redemptive-Historical Perspective of David: [ David in the Cave ] ──────────────► [ Jesus in the World ] • Rejected by the current king • Rejected by religious leaders • Gathers the poor, broke, & bitter • Gathers sinners, tax collectors, & broken • Transforms them into Mighty Men • Transforms them into the Church
V1. on "my soul", it is important to note that we must avoid separating soul from body, as some from MeRF mentioned that David's "soul goes up to heaven, and that his body does not go up with it", which is leaning towards Gnostic heresy. I believe Pastor Dan was careful in his reply, that he subtly not trying to rebuke the error, but steered towards the fact that God ultimately delivers us "body and soul". I think it's better to read the soul here as David's innermost self. The point is not that David is escaping the body. A living man must be distinguished as more than just just physical material body, yet not a division of consciousness nor the ability to discount a material shell part, when we speak of body and soul.
v2. I made it a point in the Bible Study group from the question raised by the pastor: regarding "God most high", that the mention of a Most High God seems to be motivated by a comparison of a recognized ruler or king on Earth. In this case, King Saul, who though was certainly recognized by David to be wicked, yet, David would affirm King Saul as the rightly ordained ruler of Israel. Who is also David's own father-in-law. This would not be the case for David with the gentiles. In fact, there's no doubt that David would execute anyone who terminated Saul for David's sake. He would rather flee than attack Saul. In doing so, his comfort and strength lies in looking higher up, to the most high. So it behooves us to truly respect the order God placed in our civil magistrates, the rulers, the kings, the presidents of the lands, that we do not rebel as if we are ruled by foreign powers, but show God's honor by displaying our submission as rightful subjects of the land, because fret not the flaw of this world and its fallible kings, for we have the most high God to cry to.
v3. children of man as lions and fiery beasts. This certainly directs us toward the suffering of Christ. David's imagery was likely grounded from his trials as a shepherd, having to defend his sheep from wild beasts. "Whose tongues are sharp swords" shows the troubling skill of his enemies (from within, his own people, from Saul's side) in cunning intellect and betrayals.
v4. The goal of our mission is to glorify God. Only when we harbor no ill to others in our active cause for the Lord and suffer misunderstandings and harm from them, especially from those of our own "people" in the church, in the family, that we could get a hint of what David truly went through. What many times more it is, to even understand the suffering of our Lord? Today, most of us erred in justifying our careless divorce from the communion with the family of God with such verses, when things get hard in serving our church, our community. We need higher salary, we can't stand working with this brother or that sister. That irresponsible selfishness is hardly David's approach. How could we truly call for the exalted Lord above all Earth if we prioritize our own glory and comfort as the means to God's glory?
[ Encountering Gentiles ] --> Threat to the Covenant --> Fight (Defend the Kingdom) [ Encountering Saul ] ------> God's Anointed Office --> Flee (Trust God's Timing)
v6. David's soul was bowed down for these reasons: exhaustion of constant survival mode, unjust betrayal by his king (father-in-law) and his people (killed Goliath, played music to soothe Saul), hiding in the cave, etc. But twice God had turned Saul's attack to David's advantage to show Saul mercy: [ Saul's Plot: Trap David in the Wilderness ] │ ▼ [ God's Providence: Directs Saul to the Exact Cave ] │ ▼ [ The Reversal: Saul is trapped by his own target ]
v9. Like in verse 5, this is not an Israel thing. David fully recognizes God's people being the whole world, among the peoples, among the nations. David would give thanks to God not only as an Israelite.
This has been going on in the news of especially Christian circle since last couple of years. It's about an increasing report of young people going back to church and particularly an attraction to the high church (i.e. Roman Catholic Churches, Eastern Orthodox Churches, etc.).
I wouldn't buy it, just like I didn't buy the 2023 Asbury University Revival.
I would caution that longing for the sacred is not the same as submitting to the Savior.
The host of the video below nailed it: Coming to worship looking only for aesthetic intimacy without an objective truth-based commitment to obey God is like wanting to sleep with someone without marrying them.
