A presupposition is not a belief. My presupposition remains that God exists. As of yet, I have found no evidence to the contrary. I have no compelling reasons to change my view.
However, you make unsubstantiated conclusions about the substance of my knowledge of God as if you know me.
I am not the one denying the documented history of salvation. It's up to you to show that the biblical history of salvation is indeed wrong. Be my guest.
Well it can be shown it's adapted from Hellenism. From 300-100BC Hellenism was sweeping through all religions. The changes that Judaism went through happened to many religions.
The Britannica entry on Hellenism detains some of the common changes, it describes Christianity exactly:
Hellenistic religion - Beliefs, practices, and institutions
This shows all the Christian concepts come from Hellenism, a trend sweeping through all religions from 300 BC - 100Ad. This is why the "mystery religions" also had dying/rising sons/daughters of their one true God. Like Judaism they started out using Mesopotamian myths and then adopted Greek and Persian myths as well.
-the seasonal drama was homologized to a
soteriology (salvation concept) concerning the destiny, fortune,
and salvation of the individual after death.
-his led to a change from concern for a religion of national prosperity to one f
or individual salvation, from focus on a particular
ethnic group to concern for every human. The prophet or
saviour replaced the priest and king as the chief religious figure.
-his process was carried further through the identification of the experiences of the soul that was to be saved with the
vicissitudes of a
divine but fallen soul, which had to be
redeemed by cultic activity and divine intervention. This view is illustrated in the concept of the paradoxical figure of the
saved saviour, salvator salvandus.
-Other deities, who had previously been associated with national destiny (
e.g., Zeus,
Yahweh, and Isis), were raised to the status of
transcendent,
supreme
-The temples and cult institutions of the various Hellenistic religions were repositories of the knowledge and
techniques necessary for salvation and were the agents of the public worship of a
particular deity. In addition, they served an important sociological role. In the new,
cosmopolitan ideology that followed Alexander’s conquests, the old nationalistic and ethnic boundaries had broken down and the problem of religious and social identity had become
acute.
-Most of these groups had regular meetings for a communal meal that served the dual role of
sacramental participation (referring to the use of material elements believed to convey spiritual benefits among the members and with their deity)
-Hellenistic philosophy (Stoicism,
Cynicism, Neo-Aristotelianism, Neo-Pythagoreanism, and Neoplatonism) provided key formulations for
Jewish,
Christian, and
Muslim philosophy,
theology, and
mysticism through the 18th century
- The basic forms of worship of both the Jewish and Christian
communities were heavily influenced in their formative period by Hellenistic practices, and this remains fundamentally unchanged to the present time. Finally, the central religious literature of both traditions—the Jewish
Talmud (an
authoritative compendium of law, lore, and interpretation),
the New Testament, and the later
patristic literature of the early Church Fathers—
are characteristic Hellenistic documents both in form and content.
-Other traditions even more radically reinterpreted the ancient figures. The cosmic or seasonal drama was interiorized to refer to th
e divine soul within man that must be liberated.
-Each persisted in its native land with little perceptible change save for its becoming linked to
nationalistic or
messianic movements
(centring on a deliverer figure)
-and
apocalyptic traditions (referring to a belief in the dramatic intervention of a god in human and natural events)
- Particularly noticeable was the success of a variety of prophets, magicians, and healers—
e.g., John the Baptist,
Jesus,
Simon Magus,
Apollonius of Tyana,
Alexander the Paphlagonian, and the cult of the healer Asclepius—whose preaching corresponded to the activities of various Greek and Roman philosophic missionaries
the concept of souls that can be redeemed and go to heaven is another Greek invention the Hebrews adopted. From Sanders and Wrights work:
During the period of the
Second Temple (c. 515 BC – 70 AD), the Hebrew people lived under the rule of first the Persian
Achaemenid Empire, then the Greek kingdoms of the
Diadochi, and finally the
Roman Empire.
[47] Their culture was profoundly influenced by those of the peoples who ruled them.
[47] Consequently, their views on existence after death were profoundly shaped by the ideas of the Persians,
Greeks, and Romans.
[48][49] The idea of the
immortality of the soul is derived from Greek philosophy
[49] and the idea of the
resurrection of the dead is derived from Persian cosmology.
[49] By the early first century AD, these two seemingly incompatible ideas were often conflated by Hebrew thinkers.
[49] The Hebrews also inherited from the Persians, Greeks, and Romans the idea that the human soul originates in the divine realm and seeks to return there.
[47] The idea that a human soul belongs in Heaven and that Earth is merely a temporary abode in which the soul is tested to prove its worthiness became increasingly popular during the Hellenistic period (323 – 31 BC).
[40] Gradually, some Hebrews began to adopt the idea of Heaven as the eternal home of the righteous dead.[40]
Heaven - Wikipedia
only in
Hellenistic times (after c. 330 BCE) did
Jews begin to adopt the Greek idea that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an
afterlife in heaven.[
Sang Meyng Lee, Born 1963; 2005-2008 Adjunct Professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, Pasadena;
