It sounds like a lot of religions. It's a pretty common idea. Christianity certainly had mystery cults, but so did all of the other Mediterranean religions, in

It sounds like a lot of religions. It's a pretty common idea. Christianity certainly had mystery cults, but so did all of the other Mediterranean religions, including its immediate ancestor Judaism. It's hard to tell how much Christianity cribbed from other religions and how much is just the same idea recurring over and over because it's a common human theme. Your pastors were wrong to say that Christianity is totally unprecedented. But neither is it just a cynical pastiche of existing ideas. It arose out of the time and place that surrounded its creation. Like all human ideas it's a blend of old and new thoughts.