Various oddities surrounding the death of Prince Rogers Nelson...

[Mister Obvious]

From the archive of Prince's 1997 website "love4oneanother.com"...

http://web.archive.org/web/1998042615195.../cross.htm

The 'ism' b hind a symbol

B careful...
Do u ever think about what u b lieve, or do u b lieve whatever bcuz some1 else thinks? What if some1 changed the story long ago...what if some1 lied about the manner in which some1 died?

Early versions of the Gospels (the New Testament books containing accounts of Jesus' death) were written in Greek. These manuscripts say he was xecuted upon a "stauros." The most common definition of the word, according 2 Greek dictionaries and Strong's Concordance (a reference book 4 Biblical word origins), means "a stake, especially a pointed one, often used 4 torture." Death on a stake, sometimes by impalement, other times by hanging or nailing, was a common 4m of Roman capital punishment in Jesus' day. While crucifixions happened in some cultures, the New Testament and other historical accounts tell of his death by stauros, yet not of a perpendicular beam that would have 4med a cross shape.

So y 2day a cross? The symbol has been used thruout the ages by many cultures 2 depict many different gods... it didn't appear as a Christian holy symbol until the third century AD, and even then some churches condemned the idea bcuz they said it had pagan origins. Depiction of Christ's body upon the cross didn't appear 4 another 4 centuries after that!

Perhaps some1, still worshipping the cross 4 its representation of other religions' gods, thought it would b a good worshipful representation of a son of God as well. As their beliefs changed, so did the meaning of the cross until people 4got the pre-history of the story and accepted the symbol as a Christian idol.

We r not ndorsing one religion over another...spirituality needs no such labels. We r merely urging one 2 inspect the ideals that result in idolatry... dive in a little deeper, c what lies within the seenery. What do worshipped symbols really stand 4? Is it the cross that's important, or the Christ?