The Hero Archetype

Since civilization began, there has been word of an event when God would take on human form and personally rescue mankind from oncoming destruction. Many versions of this prophecy have existed for years, each painting the hero with a different face and acting out a different scenario. But ultimately, all of these lessons with their illustrated characters point to one person who would actually carry out the plan of what was written. In the end, it would be He who would prove to be the mystery man destined to save the world.

Jesus was born a poor, panethnic Arab of the Jewish nation, Circa 5 B.C. He was wise, handsome, strong, muscular and looked nothing like His Rennaisance paintings. He was a perfect specimen who stood out among all those around Him like an exquisite young bull surrounded by common cattle. Growing up, Jesus was well liked in His community until the day He rose to fame. It was then that His people began to hate Him because He revealed His true identity as the only man ever to be sired by God Himself. Rejection of His claims was notably predicted in the story of Dionysus, whose father was Zeus and mother was a mortal woman, yet no one believed it. To persuade his doubting family, Dionysus was written to have caused wine to spring from the ground and perform frightening miracles, but he suffered persecution despite it all, even unto death. According to the Greeks, this mark of suffering and isolation was a badge of honor that only belonged to true heroes. And this kind of suffering is something Jesus knows more than anyone who has ever lived.

Among other suffering heroes whose legends foretold the coming of Jesus, was Hercules. Just like Jesus, he too was the son of the most high god by a mortal woman. At birth, young Hercules escaped infantcide at the hands of a jealous ruler like King Herod, and as a young man he did many superhuman feats including raising the dead. In death, he was betrayed by the closest person to him, who like Judas Iscariot committed suicide by hanging due to grief. When Hercules companions returned to the site of his death to collect his remains, they found no bones because he had returned to life and become a god. It was then that they remembered an oracle who said Hercules would rise again and ascend to a throne in Heaven as reward for his earthly tasks.

In addition to Scripture, Hercules' story even compares with modern day prophecy about Christ. For instance, evangelist Jesse Duplantis claims that in a vision of Jesus, he was told that Christ's worst day is yet to come. By this, He was speaking of the day when Jesus will send His own creation to Hell on Judgment Day. Jesse goes on to say Jesus was weeping in front of him and showing that He doesn't want to send his own children to the what Scripture calls, the Second Death, but it's destiny. Likewise, Hercules final labor was to slaughter his own children to which he said after all that he had accomplished, nothing else had caused him to weep.

Another hero was Orion, who was also fathered by a god. Orion was known to walk on water (the waves in fact) and he was considered to be the fairest of all mortals. Likewise, Jesus is called the Fairest of 10,000. And also like Jesus, Orion died but returned to life rising into the night sky as an immortal. And yet, another heroic representation of Jesus is found in the origin of the Golden Fleece, which is about an innocent lamb born to willingly sacrifice himself for the sake of children who were sentenced to death.

I am not saying that any of these fabled heroes are the Messiah, but rather that they were pointing to Jesus as the fulfilment of what they had been set to predict all along. Even King David described vivid and accurate details about the unborn Jesus. Foreknowledge about Christ was divinely inspired. It was classified information that could have only come from God, and the poets of ancient Greece drew from this same source of inspiration. The only difference in delivery was their interpretation, which is why the Apostle Paul agreed that the Greeks worshipped the same God as He did, but that they worshipped Him in ignorance (Acts 17:23).



So what threat was Jesus really saving mankind from? Well aside from myth and legend, the real deal says that humans needed to be rescued from a spiritual law that sentenced their souls to the Underworld. You see, God has many enemies, and when they saw that they couldn't hurt Him directly, they targeted those He loved: humans. The scheme went like this: Lucifer, God's former covering (companion) broke laws that required his own incarceration (Hell). So he set God's new lover up for the same sticky end. This was a demonstration of a spurned woman's jealousy. Now after Satan's success at tripping mankind, the law stated that the human race was sentenced to die in order to satisfy the law of the spirit. So as a token of love, and a sarcastic jab at His ex, God assumed human form to take the death penalty on Himself. With God in man's place, the death sentence would be fulfilled without any additional humans having to set foot in Hell. There are so many legends that tell of this, but their meanings must be carefully decoded. For instance, Hercules was said to have journeyed to Hades (Hell) to set two captives free; Theseus and Pirithous. Theseus was pure and did no wrong. However, Pirithous was a wrong-doer. Hercules returned to the Land of the Living with the righteous man, but had to leave the guilty man behind. Another such story is found in the Golden Fleece. When the Golden Ram rescued the two children sentenced to die, he flew them over the sea. One held on to the ram's fleece while the other did not. She fell off the rams back and drowned in the sea while her brother completed the flight over the waters. The one taken one left behind theme is told in Jesus' parables and was actually performed when He freed the righteous souls from prisons in Hell and left the sinners behind. This goes for the time Jesus died on the cross as well as the time He returns to remove His followers from yet another foretold disaster. Further references are found in Luke 17:26 and Matthew 24:40.

The heroes of legend die in many different ways. Hercules dies on a burning funeral pyre, Orion is shot by an arrow and the Golden Ram is slain with a sword before having his fleece fastened to a tree in the grove of Ares, god of slaughter. But the real death took place on a wooden cross on a hill called Golgotha (The Skull). Notice the similarities. Scripture says, cursed is he who hangs on a tree. And Jesus was indeed cursed.

But this was all a part of the plan. God has played the dark horse many times, only to surprise His enemies. This is best described by Colossians 2:15 where God finally unleashes wrath that He had previously held back. Upon His descent into Hell, Scriptures say He spoiled principalities and powers (angelic rulers and armies). The fact that it says "spoiled" means that there was a battle after which God took their goods by force (spoil is a war term). Why doesn't anybody talk about this war in Hell? Anyways, not only did God engage these mighty beings with violence, but Scripture says He embarrassed them in front of spectators. Among the spoil were captive humans as well as treasure items belonging to the two major angelic princes who rule over the dead, even to this day. The mentioned items taken were keys belonging to Death and Hell. These demonic beings are otherwise known as Thanatos and Lord Hades to the Greeks. After Iesou fulfilled the law with His own death, He took rights over all souls who passed on to the other side. As He brutally injured the fallen angels, He rescued the humans He had come for. Iesou left Hell as a one man army, gloating over His defeated enemies. And for this He is called the hero that set the pattern of heroism for all time.