Martin Alfred Larson was an American populist religious freethinker and Christian historian specializing in its origins and early theological history, best known for his assertion that Jesus Christ and John the Baptist were Essenes.
Biography
Larson was originally from a fundamentalist Christian Evangelical background but "rejected its dogmas and practices" when he was about twenty years old. Following service in the United States Navy, he graduated from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, after which he earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan in 1927 with a thesis on the unorthodoxies of Milton, whom he found to have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. He retired from a career in business at the age of 50 to devote himself to private study, lecturing and writing. Larson's lifelong body of work constructs a complete historical theory of the origins of Christianity and the genesis of its theological controversies, detailing its evolution from the pagan cults of Osiris and Dionysus to modern times. This includes a synthesis of ideas, deities, and personalities that show how they combined to favor the rise and dominance of Christianity over religious competitors such as Mithraism, which lacked a human founder and excluded the general public, and Manichaeism, which invited the general public but lacked a deified founder. The thrust of his work is to show that Christianity evolved from pagan religions and Judaism rather than arose full-blown from the mind of a single religious prophet. Although he had no advanced degree in the subject, his works were popular with Freethinkers, and he defended his theories to his death. A longtime friend of historian Harry Elmer Barnes, Larson was a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Institute for Historical Review's Journal of Historical Review from its first issue in 1980 to his death. Larson was also a tax critic and tax expert who was popular with the Tax protester movement for his books on the tax immunity of organized religion, the Federal Reserve, and how to fight the IRS. His articles have appeared in Parade Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Reader's Digest and other publications, and he had a regular column in The Spotlight entitled "Our World In Conflict". He spent the final years of his life with his wife Emma in Phoenix, Arizona.
Published books
The Modernity of Milton: A Theological and Philosophical Interpretation
. His synthesis of facts regarding the Christian epic, from its pagan origins, Palestinian primary and secondary sources, and age-old religious concepts introduced by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persions, Buddhists, Greeks, Jews, Phrygians, and Syrians, examining the soteriology, eschatology, and ethics, and the Messianic concept which make up Christianity.
Liberty Lobby Presents The Great Tax Fraud: You Can Say Goodbye Forever to Your Income Tax
The Essene Heritage; Or, The Teacher of the Scrolls and the Gospel Christ. Claims that Jesus Christ and John the Baptist were Essenes.
The Great Tax Fraud: How the Federal Government Favors the Rich and Exploits the Masses
Praise the Lord for Tax Exemption: How the Churches Grow Rich, While the Cities and You Grow Poor
When Parochial Schools Close: A Study in Educational Financing
