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"The corruption of Christianity came not so much from what was taken away from it but what was added to it." - Stephen Robinson, Webmaster
“It was the Christian tradition that produced atheism as its fruit; it led to the murder of God in the consciences of men because it presented them with an unbelievable God.” - Paul Valadier Latest Update! New website: 4YHWH.com
Why Quoted Statements Are Needed The need for "quoted statements" can be seen by people who use the internet to do research, as in my case. In 1996 I remember reading a document online which proved the participation of all religious groups, except for one, in the Rwandan genocide. The document was removed shortly thereafter. Why was this document removed from the public domain? I suspected that the "churches" did not want the public to have access to that information! The following is a summary of that document I am referring to: "In 1995, African Rights documented the genocide in Rwanda on twelve hundred pages. It could prove participation of all Churches with the exception of ....." - The Reformed Press, December 8, 1998. Rwanda is the most "Christian" country in Africa. According to the 1991 census, before the genocide, 90% of Rwandans were Christians, out of which 63% were Catholic, 27% Protestant. This figure has changed somewhat after the genocide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda#Religion) but still the obvious question remains unanswered: Why do so-called "Christian" religions refuse to practice Christianity? Why do we always see only ONE exception no matter where we look (let the reader do his/her own research), be it Nazi Germany, Rwanda, the countries of former Yugoslavia, or elsewhere? Why is it that this ONE exception is usually either completely ignored or totally demonized on the internet? The internet is not kind to primitive Christians; they are attacked by all sides. Atheists, Agnostics, Catholic, Protestant, Islam, Fundamentalists and Progressives will always seem to agree on anti-primitive Christianism: They find excuses not to practice even the most basic and simple of Christ's commands. Susan Jacoby in a Washington Post article entitled "No Atheists (Still) Need Apply" made this interesting concluding comment: As an atheist, I believe precisely what the Bible says on this subject: "By their fruits ye shall know them." The Scripture, taken out of context, that atheist Susan Jacoby is quoting from is of Jesus' world-famous Sermon on the Mount found at Matthew 7:15-23 where Jesus is not referring to just any kind of do-gooder, believer or not, as her post implies, but of his true followers, those who have historically proven to be the "exception". These are and have always been primitive Christians. The thought that Jesus concludes with in that part of his Sermon is that calling on his name is utterly useless unless one is actually a doer rather than just a "believer". Quoted statements, for which this website is named, are always in need so as to give validity to what one is preaching. Even atheists make use of quoted statements by credited sources to disprove the unscientific affirmations of young-earth creationists. The internet needs a central location for factual unbiased information in the public domain on subjects that truly matter. Every Christian needs to sit down and realize his/her vocation in life as such, which is: 1) Learn what Jesus actually taught, 2) Believe it, 3) Obey it, 4) Live it, AND 4) Share it with others. It is my hope that in the coming months QuotedStatements.com will become just that, a website researchers can come to for quoted statements from credible sources that reflect well on the unbiased Scriptural teachings of Jesus and on the people who unselfishly dedicate their time and resources to share them with you. Who are they? Well, to quote Susan Jacoby almost word-for-word, but give it my own personal but obviously more accurate "spin": As an ex-atheist, I believe precisely what the Bible says on this subject: "By their fruits ye shall know them." "This subject" is primitive Christianity, what Jesus actually taught, and the "them" being, of course, the primitive Christians who 'come to him, hear his words and do them'. - Luke 6:46-49.
Agape,
More Quoted Statements to be
Edited:
No Immediate Afterlife
"The
idea of the immortality of the soul and faith in the resurrection of the
dead . . . are two concepts on completely different planes."—Dopo la
morte: immortalità o resurrezione? by theologian
Philippe H. Menoud. "Since man as a whole is a sinner, therefore at death he dies completely with body and soul (full death) . . . Between death and resurrection, there is a gap."— The Lutheran catechism Evangelischer Erwachsenenkatechismus. "The soul in the O[ld] T[estament] means not a part of man, but the whole man—man as a living being. Similarly, in the N[ew] T[estament] it signifies human life . . . The Bible does not speak of the survival of an immaterial soul."-- The New Catholic Encyclopedia.
No Eternal Torment GEHENNA: the Greek word translated hell in the common version, occurs 12 times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated, "The valley of Hinnom." This valley was also called Tophet, a detestation, an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies of criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were kept to consume these. Sennacherib's army of 185,000 men were slain here in one night. Here children were also burnt to death in sacrifice to Moloch. Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction, but in no place signifies a place of eternal torment. - The Emphatic Diaglott, page 857.
Every Member Preached
“Every congregation was a missionary society, and every Christian
believer a missionary.” (Philip
Schaff in History of the Christian Church)
Crimes of Apostate Christianity "When the crusaders at last stormed Jerusalem, July 15, 1099, they drove all the Jews into one of the synagogues and there burned them alive. . . . The religious zeal fomented by the Crusades burned as fiercely against the Jews as enemies of Christ as against the Moslems. Thus both economically and socially the Crusades were disastrous for European Jews." - The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume IV of 1910, on page 379, under "Crusades" "A horrible spectacle could be seen. Some [of the enemy], the fortunate ones, had been decapitated; others fell from the walls riddled with arrows; many others burned among the flames. Piles of severed heads, hands, and feet could be seen in the streets and squares of the city." -- Raymond of Aguilers Some Bilingual (English/Spanish) Quoted Statements:
abortion and infanticide were forbidden
aloof and distinct from the state
attitude to war
being a Christian and a soldier was irreconcilable
changed our warlike weapons,—our swords into ploughshares When Did They Observe the Death of Christ?
The Christians of Asia Minor were called
Quartodecimans [Fourteenthers] from their custom of celebrating the
pascha [Lord’s Evening Meal] invariably on the 14th of Nisan . . .
The date might fall on Friday or on any of the other days of the
week.”—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge,
Volume IV, page 44. “It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom (the calculation) of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded.” —A History of the Christian Councils, by K. J. Hefele, Volume 1, page 322.
To be in such a position was viewed as a “‘humiliating subjection’
to the Synagogue which irked the Church,” says J. Juster, quoted in
Studia Patristica, Volume IV, 1961, page 412.
Hallarse en esa posición se veía como “‘una sujeción humillante’
a la sinagoga, lo cual molestaba a la Iglesia”, dice J. Juster,
citado en Studia Patristica, tomo IV, 1961, página 412.
Because they did so on Nisan 14, they were called Quartodecimans,
meaning “fourteenthers.” “The Christians of Asia Minor were
accustomed to celebrate this sacred feast, commemorative of the
institution of the Lord’s supper, and the death of Jesus Christ, at
the same time when the Jews ate their Paschal lamb, namely on the
evening of the fourteenth day of the first month [Nisan]. . . . They
considered the example of Christ possessing the force of law.”
—Historian J. L. von Mosheim.
For the next two centuries, many Christians held to Nisan 14, they
being known as Quartodecimans, from the Latin for “14th.” “The
churches of Asia Minor celebrated the death of the Lord on the day
corresponding to the 14th of the month Nisan, on which day,
according to the opinion of the whole ancient Church, the
crucifixion took place.”—M’Clintock and Strong.
“The Christians of Asia Minor were accustomed to celebrate this
sacred feast, commemorative of the institution of the Lord’s supper,
and the death of Jesus Christ, at the same time when the Jews ate
their Paschal lamb, namely on the evening of the fourteenth day of
the first month. For . . . they considered the example of Christ
possessing the force of law; and, as is equally manifest, they did
not conceive our Savior to have anticipated the passover, . . . but
that the Paschal lamb was eaten by him and his disciples on the same
day on which the Jews . . . were accustomed to eat
theirs.”—Historian Mosheim, History of Christianity, the First
Three Centuries, Vol. 1, p. 529. Misc. Quotations
“In the Christian, Mohammedan, and Jewish sense, the Supreme Being,
the First Cause, and in a general sense, as considered nowadays
throughout the civilized world, a spiritual being, self-existent,
eternal and absolutely free and all-powerful, distinct from the
matter which he has created in many forms, and which he conserves
and controls. There does not seem to have been a period of history
where mankind was without belief in a supernatural author and
governor of the universe.”—The 1956 edition of The Encyclopedia
Americana (Vol. XII, p. 743) commented under the heading “God”.
“Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the
early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew
Sheol and the Greek Hades and Gehenna by the word hell. The simple
transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised
editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this
confusion and misconception.—The Encyclopedia Americana
(1956, Vol. XIV, p. 81).
“The flag, like the cross, is sacred. Many people employ the words
or term ‘Etiquette of the Flag.’ This expression is too weak, too
superficial and smacks of drawing-room politeness. The rules and
regulations relative to human attitude toward national standards use
strong, expressive words, as, ‘Service to the Flag,’ ‘Respect for
the Flag,’ ‘Reverence for the Flag,’ ‘Devotion to the Flag.’”—Encyclopedia
Americana, Vol. 11, 1942 edition, page 316.
“Christians refused to . . . sacrifice to the [Roman] emperor’s
genius—roughly equivalent today to refusing to salute the flag or
repeat the oath of allegiance.”—Those About to Die (1958), by Daniel
P. Mannix, page 135.
Early flags were almost purely of a religious character. . . . in
fact the aid of religion seems ever to have been sought to give
sanctity to national flags, and the origin of many can be traced to
a sacred banner, as is notably the case with the oriflamme of France
and the Dannebrog of Denmark. . . . The banner of William the
Conqueror was sent to him by the pope.”—Volume 10, eleventh edition
(1910), pages 455.
Historian H. G. Wells makes the following interesting observations
on the distinctiveness of the Roman Empire: “Now this new Roman
power which arose to dominate the western world in the second and
first centuries B.C. was in several respects a different thing from
any of the great empires that had hitherto prevailed in the
civilised world. It was not at first a monarchy, and it was not the
creation of any one great conqueror. . . . It was the first
republican empire that escaped extinction and went on to fresh
developments. . . . Its population was less strongly Hamitic and
Semitic than that of any preceding empire. . . . It was so far a new
pattern in history, it was an expanded Aryan republic. . . . It was
always changing. It never attained to any fixity. In a sense the
[administrative] experiment failed. In a sense the experiment
remains unfinished, and Europe and America to-day are still working
out the riddles of world-wide statecraft first confronted by the
Roman people.”—The Pocket History of the World, 1943, pp. 149-151.
“Someone would raise a question. They would discuss it. They would
look up all related scriptures on the point and then, when they were
satisfied on the harmony of these texts, they would finally state
their conclusion and make a record of it.” - A. H. Macmillan
“Never forget that the Bible is our Standard and that however
God-given our helps may be they are ‘helps’ and not substitutes for
the Bible.”
Some Quotes that
Might be Related to Revelations Chapter 13?
Quotes from some of the world's most influential people. Are the lies
you believe truth? Or Is the truth you believe lies? Who or what
influences your mind? Who influences the mind of those who influence
you? Why do you believe what you believe? What is the truth? President George H. Bush speech - Attack on Iraq - Washington D.C. - January 16, 1991. "We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent." James Warburg, (CFR) member, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 17, 1950. History has shown that populations tend to choose to disbelieve allegations brought against their governments. Governments, by nature of their position of authority have learned that they can literally get away with murder, and their subjects will tend to choose to ignore the facts, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. This psychological blindness, or blinkers reflects a condition we call "The Apathy of the General Populous". The problem people have is that if they acknowledge the facts, their conscience generally demands they act. "The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." Benjamin Disraeli, first Prime Minister of England, in a novel he published in 1844 called Coningsby, the New Generation. "National Socialism will use its own revolution for establish of a new world order." Adolf Hitler "Revolutions are effected in two ways, by force and by fraud." Aristotle "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." Edward R. Murrow "Rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the church, is nevertheless under a different form but with the same guilt, still practiced by avaricious and grasping men ... So that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself." Pope Leo XIII "We are at present working discreetly with all our might to wrest this mysterious force called sovereignty out of the clutches of the local nation states of the world." Professor Arnold Toynbee, in a June 1931 speech before the Institute for the Study of International Affairs in Copenhagen. "Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Leonardo Da Vinci "The government of the Western nations, whether monarchical or republican, had passed into the invisible hands of a plutogracy, international in power and grasp. It was, I venture to suggest, this semi-occult power which ... pushed the mass of the American people into the cauldron of World War I." Major General J.F.C. Fuller, British military historian , 1941. "This power becomes particularly irresistible when exercised by those, because they hold and control money, are able also to govern credit and determine its allotment, for this reason supplying, so to speak, the life-blood to the entire economic body, and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of the economy so that no one dare breathe against their will." Pope Pius XI "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." Richard Salant, Former President CBS News. "Power from any source lends to create an appetite for additional power ... It was almost inevitable that the super-rich would one day aspire to control not only their own wealth, but the wealth of the whole world. To achieve this, they were perfectly willing to feed the ambitions of the power-hungry political conspirators who were committed to the overthrow of all existing governments and the establishments of a central world-wide dictatorship." W. Cleon Skousen "I want to own nothing and control everything." John D. Rockefeller "We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries." David Rockefeller, Bilderberg Meeting, June 1991 Baden, Germany. "A holy war will now begin in America, and when it is ended America will be supposedly the citadel of freedom, but her millions will unknowingly be loyal subjects to the Crown. Your churches will be used to teach the Jew's religion and in less than two hundred years the whole nation will be working for divine world government. That government that they believe to be divine will be the British Empire. All religions will be permeated with Judaism without even being noticed by the masses, and they will all be under the invisible all-seeing eye of the Grand Architect of Freemasonry." British General Charles Cornwallis to General George Washington. "The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." Morpheus in the film, The Matrix. "It can be held certain that information that is withheld or suppressed contains truths that are detrimental to the persons involved in the suppression." J. Edgar Hoover "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson." A letter written by FDR to Colonel House, November 21, 1933. "If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." Anatole France "People are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one." Adolf Hitler "There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears so to speak. Producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution." Aldous Huxley, Tavistock Group, California Medical School, 1961. "When the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the new world order ... and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people." H.G. Wells, in his 1939 book entitled The New World Order. "One-fourth of humanity must be eliminated from the social body. We are in charge of God's selection process for a planet earth. He selects, we destroy. We are the riders of the pale horse, Death." Psychologist Barbara Marx Hubbard - member of Task Force Delta; a United States Army think tank. "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world - no longer a Government by free opinion, nolonger a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and the duress of a small group of dominant men." President Woodrow Wilson (The President whose administration passed the Federal Reserve Act). "The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon it's crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln "The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under a self-created screen ... At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties." John F. Hylan, 1922, then mayor of New York City. "For a long times I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the United States. But, he didn't. Most of his thoughts, his political ammunition, as it were, were carefully manufactured for him in advance by the Council on Foreign Relations - One World Money Group. Brilliantly, with great gusto, like a fine piece of artillery, he exploded that prepared ammunition in the middle of an unsuspecting target, the American people, and thus paid off and returned his internationalist political support." Curtis Dall, FDR's son-ín-law, as quoted in his book, My Exploited Father-in-Law. "The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained as one block, and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence which would upset their financial domination over the world. The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. There was no man in the United States great enough to wear his boots. I fear that foreign bankers with their craftiness and tortuous tricks will entirely control the exuberant riches of America, and use it systematically to corrupt modern civilization. They will not hesitate to plunge the whole of Christendom into Wars and Chaos in order that the earth should become their inheritance." Otto von Bismark "The Council on Foreign Relations is 'the establishment.' Not only does it have influence and power in key decision-making positions at the highest levels of government to apply pressure from above, but it also announces and uses individuals and groups to bring pressure from below, to justify the high level decisions for converting the U.S. from a sovereign Constitutional Republic into a servile member state of a one-world dictatorship." Former congressman John Rarick 1971. "The depression was the calculated 'shearing' of the public by the World Money powers, triggered by the planned sudden shortage of supply of cll money in the New York money market ... the One World Government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank." Curtis Dall, FDR's son-in-law as quoted in his book, May Exploited Father-in-Law. "The United Nations is but a long range, international banking apparatus clearly set up for financial and economic profit by a small group of powerful One-World revolutionaries, hungry for profit and power." Curits Dall, FDR's son-in-law. "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." Thomas Jefferson "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." Thomas Jefferson "It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Henry Ford "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer." Henry Kissinger "The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes." Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice. "One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda." General Douglas MacArthur "No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation." David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations "The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments' plans." British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1876. "Today the path of total dictatorship in the United States can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by the Congress, the President, or the people. Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government - bureaucratic elite." Senator William Jenner, 1954. "In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn't such a great idea after all." Strobe Talbot, Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State, as quoted in Times, July 20, 1992. "I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the Empire, ... The man that controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire. And I control the money supply." Baron Nathan Mayer de Rothschild (1777-1836) "The Federal Reserve Banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this Nation is run by the International Bankers." Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa). "We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt instituions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it." Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa). "If we were merely dealing with the law of averages, half of the events affecting our nation's well-being should be good for America. If we were dealing with mere incompetence, our leaders should occasionally make a mistake in our favor. We are not dealing with coincidence or stupidity, but with planning and brilliance." Gary Allen, from his book None Dare Call It Conspiracy. "The high office of President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizen of his plight." John F. Kennedy, at Columbia University, 10 days before his assassination. "The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency: Their sole object is gain." Napoleon Bonaparte "Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." Woodrow Wilson, from his book The New Freedom (1913) "Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutation of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception." Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, 1916, Chapter 9. "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas "It is also important for the State to inculcate in its subjects an aversion to any 'conspiracy theory of history;' for a search for 'conspiracies' means a search for motives and an attribution of responsibility for historical misdeeds." Murray N. Rothbard "If you give a man the correct information for seven years, he may believe the incorrect information on the first day of the eight year when it is necessary, from your point of view, that he should do so. Your first job is to build the credibility and the authenticity of your propaganda, and persuade the enemy to trust you although you are his enemy." A Psychological Warfare Casebook Operations Research Office Johns Hopkins University Baltimore (1958). "It's not the votes that count, it's who counts the votes." Josef Stalin "The secret to success is to own nothing, but control everything." Nelson Rockefeller "People only see what they are prepared to see." Ralph Waldo Emerson "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." Franklin D. Roosevelt "The first casualty of war is truth." Rudyard Kipling "You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Jesus Christ "All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me." Jesus Christ "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish." Jesus Christ
I will be the first to admit that my story is not that unusual. Nothing
in it involves the supernatural or any unbelievable event. It is my hope
that you, the reader, will identify with many of my experiences and come
to the same logical conclusion regarding God's existence and why He
cannot die.
I was born to God-fearing parents who endeavored to instill moral values
into us children. They had received that heritage from their parents,
all born and raised in an area known as
the Bible-Belt.
As a young child, religion instinctively appealed to me. In fact, I
remember my very first vocational desire, at five years of age,
was to "become a priest and marry a nun". Of course, later I found out
that our religious affiliation had preachers or pastors, not priests;
and that neither priest nor nun are allowed to marry.
My religious mindset, however, was steeped in fantasy. I had many
questions about God, whom I believed to be the Christ, and at no other
time of the year was it so important to get these answers than at
Christmas time. God and Santa Claus were real persons in my mind
and I could not believe in one without accepting the other as well.
A young child will believe almost anything you tell it and I stayed in
that immature state longer than most children do. This had its effect on me when I
started separating fantasy from reality, fact from fiction, and this led me toward atheistic
thinking. You see, I fused superstition and fantasy with
all religious thought, so that when I finally shed the former, the
latter went as well.
THIS IS THE MOST COMMON TRAIT OF THE NON-BELIEVER
I have observed over more than 40 years, half of that time in the U.S.
and the other half in Bolivia, speaking to thousands individually in
their homes and on the street, the basic reason why non-believers reject
the idea of an Almighty Creator is the following:
Any notion of God is steeped
in superstition and fantasy.
This is why my story is so universal! Yet, seldom will people admit to it.
I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW DUMB I WAS!
Let's all own up to it! We've all, at some time or another, had experiences such
as mine or that of my wife:
For the past 37 years I have been an English
"profesor" (Spanish for "teacher") and I have used an experience I
had as a five-year-old boy who argued with his mom over her being
"blond". Also I give an experience my wife had when she was growing up.
These true-life illustrations point out how misinterpretation of words
and their real meaning can be naturally corrected through use by trail
and error. I tell my students how ignorant even native speakers of
language can be of their own mother tongue.
During the late 1950's and early 1960's the fashion had blonds with
shoulder-length hair and brunettes with shorter cuts. I had no idea that
the war between blonds and brunettes had to do with color, instead I
thought it was about the length of their hair. So, when I insisted to my
mom that she used to be a blond (because I saw a picture of her when she
had shoulder-length hair), she ended the argument by firmly stating: "I
have NEVER been a blond!" When I finally found out what the word "blond"
actually meant, I
wondered why I did not understand it earlier. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW DUMB I
WAS!
Even after I had been teaching for over a decade, one non-native English
speaker asked me the meaning of "plight" and I automatically translated
it as "future". Another teacher, whose mother tongue was Russian,
corrected me: No! No! It means "danger" or "risk"! Afterwards I
looked up the word, she was right, and ... I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW DUMB I
WAS!
My wife is the oldest of six siblings, so, while growing up, she was
momma's little helper. For some time her mother would ask her to go
check and see if the kettle was "boiling"; she'd go and check to
see if the kerosene stove flame was yellow or blue. If it was yellow she
would tell her mom "not yet", if it was blue she would yell that it was
boiling. She thought boiling had to do with the flames, not the
water. SHE COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW DUMB SHE WAS!
My point in relating these experiences, and I am sure you have your own
I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW DUMB I WAS! adventures of to tell, is that it is all well and good to correct our understanding of words and
concepts in a secular sense, but we totally reject the thought of
religious "truths"! With religion everything is right and
nothing is wrong. Just believe! How ridiculous is that?
No wonder atheism is gaining
strength and acceptance! Religion makes no logical sense! They
constantly compare God to a Celestial Santa Claus or the Tooth
Fairy and religious people actually agree with them!
Notes:
From 1962 until 1968 I floated in and out of atheism.
I have always thought atheism was something most people floated in
and out of at various points in their lives.
That struck me as an obvious truth. Most people have doubted
God's existence but will keep these doubts to themselves.
In this first chapter of God cannot die! entitled "My Story" I will
endeavor to relate to you my own personal experiences floating in and
out of atheism during the periods of 1962 until 1968 and what were the
factors that helped me come to the conclusion that God did not exist.
Existence and consciousness has always fascinated me. Why am I hear?
Since I was conscious, I concluded everyone and even everything that
moved was conscious as well; even cartoons.
Until 1962 I believed everything, but then there came a change. In that
year I was no longer the baby, I became the middle child instead and I
had to grow up. There were no more Santa Claus, tooth fairy or
cartoons as being real.
My interest from then on was geared toward science and I rejected
anything that had to do with the supernatural, anything and everything
with no logical explanation. I became fascinated with an introduction to
Cosmology (Cosmology is the study of the origin and evolution of the
Universe) given to me by my second-grade teacher, Ms. Stickles, so much
so that I remember when my next door neighbor, Jean Kowalchick, told me
about God creating the earth back in Adelanto California. In 1962 I
snapped back correcting her that the earth came from the son.
Article to continue ...
Go to God cannot Die!
Here is one of my favorite
excerpts found on
page 39
from the book Faith on the March:
STUMBLED BY TRADITION
Then I almost lost all I had gained on a religious campaign. They were
connected with the Moody School at Northfield. Some of their talks were
exposing teachings of the Unitarians. The Unitarians did not believe
that Jesus had a pre-human existence or that he was the redeemer of
mankind. To them he was just a remarkable man who set a good example to
be followed.
We are told that Jesus, before becoming a man (in his pre-human
existence, was "in a form of God" — a spiritual form, a spirit being;
but since to be a ransom for mankind, he must be a man, of the same
nature of the sinner whose substitute in death he was to become, it was
therefore necessary that his nature be changed; and Paul tells us that
he took not the nature of angels, one step lower than his own, but came
down two steps, and took the nature of men — he became a man; he was
"made flesh."[32]
Jesus nothing more than a perfect man on earth? That statement left me
confused. I was greatly shocked. Violently I threw the book to the other
end of my room, saying to myself, "I'm certainly not going to be a
Unitarian, but the author of this book must be!"
Have you had a similar experience? I know I have.
In 1969 I decided to read the Bible from cover to cover, really
understanding it as I progressed. No sooner had I begun when I
encountered what I thought to be an "obvious" flaw. I put away my Bible
and decided to return to my atheistic thinking. For two whole weeks I
stopped going to Christian meetings, stopped talking to people about God
from door to door and at school. This experience is in my book
"God cannot Die!"
the rough draft will be finished in a few more weeks and I will make it
available for free download. Your critical review of it will be
most appreciated!
Not everything atheists say is wrong!
For example,
notice this
Democracy Now March 24, 2005 interview with Amy Goodman what Phil Donahue says
about his first TV guest, the atheist
Madalyn
Murray O'Hair: My first guest was
Madalyn
Murray O'Hair who came on the program. The
atheist who effected the Supreme Court decision banning the official
reading of prayer in school. ... (She said) ’There’s no God, there’s no heaven,
there’s no hell.
When you die, you go into the ground.
The worms eat you, you biodegrade, and you become part of the
physical universe.’ ... She
brought issues. ‘I don’t care if you worship a pet rock, you pay for it.
I’m tired of paying more taxes because of your churches getting phony
tax relief that causes my taxes to—’ oh, I mean, she was fabulous.
... I liked her a lot and still do and have fond
memories of her, and sorry about her grim death. (Note: O'Hair was the very first guest on
The Phil Donahue Show, when it debuted as a local program in
Dayton, Ohio on November 6, 1967.) Notice how reasonable this atheist's conclusion is about death. When people die they do not go to heaven or hell; instead 'when you die, you go into the ground. The worms eat you, you biodegrade, and you become part of the physical universe.’ When she said "There's no heaven, there's no hell" she is speaking about an immediate afterlife; a religious myth people attach to God's existence. God's existence, however, has nothing to do with an immediate afterlife for us humans. Why would it? Atheistic complaints against certain theistic notions are actually very true. Did you know that primitive Christians were known as atheists in the first and second centuries? Why? Because they, too, rejected certain theistic ideas popular at the time. Most atheists once believed in God, but stopped because they received no satisfying answers to their questions. Ex-Atheists.com will hopefully provide some of those answers in the near future. It will respond to general misinformation for the sincere individual who is actually looking for a good reason to believe. Belief in God has nothing to do with superstition and is in total agreement with modern science. As an ex-atheist for over 40 years, I am always interested in testimonials from other former non-theists. However, I am usually disappointed by the experiences of "saved" Christians who turned to traditional beliefs rather than primitive Christianity. I have never been impressed with accounts of unbelievable miracles, conversions after visions of a hellfire torment in an afterlife or other stories of supernatural nature. These tall tales never convince logical minds and are mainly geared toward superstitious individuals. If you have believable evidence through your own personal observations that convinced you of God's existence, please share it with me. For some people it was the fulfillment of Bible prophecies, for others it may have been an appreciation of their surroundings and the realization that all this could not have possibly come about through blind chance, but, instead, by intelligent design, or, as was in my case, the utter shock of finding out that a book written between 3,500 and 1,900 years ago agrees completely with modern science and points out things that could not have been known at the time by men of that period. My own experiences will be included in my upcoming book that will be available for free download entitled: God cannot Die!
Email me your thoughts at
RobinsonWorld@hotmail.com
so these can eventually be included
here
About PrimitiveChristianity.com Also PrimitiveChristian.com and PrimitiveChristians.com: These websites are dedicated to individuals who are interested in primitive Christianity or for those who have left it for some unknown reason. It is not designed for us who are primitive Christians. Actually, we have an abundance of information available to us both for our personal use and to distribute to interested ones in our public ministry. We have only three official websites available to us and to the general public: one for the media, one for the readers and one to download audio materials. There is so much information on these websites we really have no need for websites such as mine. The two groups that this website is geared toward often times are prejudiced against the modern name representing primitive Christianity, therefore reject home visits from us simply because of our name. They do not access the three previously mentioned websites, also, mainly due to prejudice against the name associated with them. Yet, besides these three websites previously mentioned, there is hardly any consistent and reliable information about primitive Christianity. In fact, several years ago I tried to submit the "generic" category of "primitive Christianity" as a contributor into the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and they flatly rejected it as offensive and only have kept the category of Primitive Apostolic Christianity which is altogether different. Primitive Christianity is basically what Jesus and his first-century followers believed before outside influences changed it. My own quote is: "The corruption of Christianity came not so much from what was taken away from it but what was added to it." My hope and the purpose of this website is to provide accurate information in a "generic" format about primitive Christianity available in the public domain. I will not even mention my own religious affiliation nor post any materials that are copyright protected from the organization of which I am a member. Actually, there would be no need since it can be obtained from primitive Christians when we visit your home and/or what is available through the official websites. This "generic" website may help people see which Christians today resemble the original version and may even help a few return who used to belong to a primitive Christian congregation but left it due to outside influences, whatever those were (peer-pressure, lack of understanding, marrying out of the faith, day-to-day anxieties, resentment, etc.). Continued Reading:
Quoted Statements and Primitive Christians/Christianity websites will strive to be free of religious bias that presents itself in the form of labels or categorizations, and, in keeping with this goal, I hereby refuse to mention my own religious affiliation by name. For a more detailed explanation for my reasoning please click here. Let the reader use his/her own discernment to conclude what theological group comes closest to the beliefs I point to through the quoted statements on these websites and which Christian groups I feel do not have a primitive Christian foundation. Other than my own personal experiences, nothing on these sites are of my invention; I've simply borrowed the quoted statements of observant individuals in light of Scriptural truths in order to present them to you for your consideration. Rethink what you were taught to believe, it may not be true! Speaking of the early corruption of Christianity, Professor Douglas T. Holden in his book Death Shall Have No Dominion stated the following:
This points out to us that we should be open-minded with regards to our view of such topics as Does the Bible really teach some part of us survives the death of the body? The truth regarding this topic in particular will help us understand other facts that Scripture clearly state and what traditional religions do not want you to know.
Note: More quoted statements (the purpose of this website) will come with the respective Amazon link information (so you can either purchase the book or get the ISBN in order to locate it at your local library for a free loan). If you have a favorite quoted statement from an author that promotes primitive Christianity and exposes traditional concepts, please email me so I can research it and post it here. Thank you.
My Story:
A turning point in my life came in the summer of 1968 shortly after the political assassinations of Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Presidential Candidate, Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Due to these events, I lost interest in politics. Science, on the other hand, seemed to present the only hope for the future. It was the only thing that truly interested me. So when our little sister came up to the attic where my brother and I had been browsing through some old records and told us of a lady downstairs who had some "science" books, we made a mad dash toward the dinning area where this lady and our mother were sitting. There on the table were Bibles and the same old "orange books" I had seen some three years earlier at my grandfather's home back in Arkansas. What a disappointment! I complained to this lady about the Bible not being "scientific"; and she responded by saying that it was the most modern book in existence. I thought to myself : "How could anyone, knowing the facts, make such a ridiculous statement?" Unbeknownst to my parents, I had chosen atheism as my "religion" due to my belief in the theory of evolution. Going to Sunday School every week had also convinced me that accepting what is written in the Bible as true was synonymous to belief in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. However, this woman who had come to visit us at our home was different from your typical Sunday-school church lady. The explanations she presented using key Bible verses made sense to me; from start to finish. She gave reasonable answers to every question I asked. We started with the Genesis account of creation. I had thought that the Bible taught the whole creative process of our universe occurred some six thousand years ago, during a period of six literal days (144 hours). "Does a day begin in the evening and does it end in the morning?", she asked me. We read the first chapter of Genesis where each of the six days concluded with the expression: "there came to be evening and there came to be morning". Then she showed me Proverbs 4:18 and explained how a "day" can figuratively end in the morning.1 Also proving that the "days" were not literal 24-hour periods, she pointed to Genesis 2:1-4 where it refers to the "seventh day" as having no conclusion, in fact we are living it to this day! And then it speaks singularly of "the day", not days, "that Jehovah God made earth and heaven".2 She then showed me other Bible verses where the use of the word "day" does not refer to a literal 24-hour period. Another convincing argument in favor a Scriptural interpretation for long periods of time as the "days" of creation were the statements made in the Bible concerning Adam and Eve: Genesis chapter one (verses 26-31) shows that they were both created at the end of the sixth "day" and both given the command to subdue the animals and to have children. Yet chapter two indicates that Adam was created first and obviously he had lived a very long time alone, being given the assignment to care for the Garden of Eden, and to name all the hundreds if not thousands of different "kinds" of animals. Then, only after realizing he had no (female) compliment, did God create Eve, the first woman, and bring her to him.4 Chapter two of Genesis concludes with the man exclaiming: “This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!". In short, Adam could not possibly have done so much before Eve's creation had it been in the same 24-hour period, nor would he have made that exclamation. "Bible literalists3," she told me, "who insist on a 144-hour universe creation also fail to note that the first three verses of Genesis (1:1-3) are not included in the six-day creative process." Therefore, everything that occurred during this time-frame (1:4-31) was done with pre-existing materials which could very well have been created billions of years earlier, since it simply states that God "in the beginning" created the heavens and therefore everything in them (sun, moon, stars, etc.) plus the earth and everything in it (water, minerals, etc.). ("My Story" will continue ... )
Footnotes: 3 Young-Earth Creationist Kent Hovind 4 Genesis chapter two restates in further detail aspects of creative day three, five and six (verses 5-6 and 8-14) for the purpose of the Garden of Eden and the ending of day six (verses 7 and 15-24) for the purpose of human habitation in that garden. It is interesting to note that it was only after the man carefully observed the animals in order to give them fitting names did Adam find "there was found no helper as a complement of him" and God stated that "it is not good for the man to continue by himself" (verses 18-21)
Traditional
and Primitive Christianity The dictionary1 defines primitive as “not derived from something else; primary or basic”. The same source says that Christianity is “founded on the life and teachings of Jesus”. With these two definitions in mind, primitive Christianity should, therefore, mean the original beliefs and practices of the first Christians, before other beliefs and practices were added and thereafter “passed on” to us from one generation to the next by way of tradition. Traditional Christianity differs from the primitive through its non-Christian roots. According to the above definition, what was “handed down” to us was “derived from something else” other than Christianity. Traditional and primitive; these will be the generic2 modifiers that will distinguish one version of Christianity from the other. No reference will be made to any specific theological organization or group. Religious labels would only distract and prejudice the reader from the mission of this article, which is to limit the discussion to the “primary [or primitive] doctrine about the Christ.”3 Hopefully this generic approach will help you make an unbiased assessment of basic unadulterated Christian theology, regardless of your religious ancestry or current beliefs. In fact, non-Christians and atheists, may be in an even better position to get the full sense of the basic outline of first-century congregational or “church”4 teachings listed in this article, since these individuals will not need to unlearn cherished and long held traditional misconceptions. This article makes a marked distinction between primitive Christianity, which can be authenticated, and traditional Christianity, which cannot. Actually, we have no way of authenticating the validity of doctrines we have received through tradition, since these were “handed down” via hearsay then recorded centuries later. Simply stated, oral transition of evidence centuries after the fact [being the traditional "church" writings] is not as reliable as a written account of events at the time of their occurrence [being the primitive first-century manuscripts that Scriptures are translated from]. It is the author’s viewpoint that the only reliable source to confirm what primitive Christians actually believed and practiced is to be taken from their own firstcentury Scriptures or “writings” we have come to know as the New Testament6. Historians and scholars have very closely scrutinized these writings, more so than any other ancient document. These writings can be trusted for their accuracy so as to provide us with the needed information. The example below shows us in what way the Apostle Peter supported the Christian Scriptures or “writings” that were in the form of letters to churches or “congregations”, authored by the Apostle Paul:
Notice how Peter referred to Paul’s letters as belonging in the same category as “the rest of the Scriptures” that were available at the time he wrote the above. Peter warned against those who were misinterpreting “some things hard to understand” through the “twisting … of the Scriptures” which included Paul’s letters. It is evident by Peter’s words that there were, in fact, "some things hard to understand" that are written not only in Paul’s letters but also "the rest of the Scriptures". Scholarly materials may help us understand some aspects of primitive Christianity, however, in other areas, we need to exercise caution for these may lead us to believe notions that do not harmonize with the facts. The two letters that Peter wrote plus the fourteen letters penned by Paul make up a major portion of the twenty-seven “little books” found in the Christian Scriptures written for us in koi·ne′, the common ancient Greek of that era. The thirty-nine “little books” of the Jewish Scriptures were originally written in ancient Hebrew. These two segments make sixty-six “little books” grouped altogether in one volume that we have come to know as the Holy Bible9. I believe the Bible is a much better source compared to secular history to obtain accurate and detailed information about the primitive Christian church or congregation. If we want to consider Jesus, the man who founded the religion a quarter of the earth’s population claims it belongs to, authorities and scholars admit there are very few verifiable ancient documents and references pertaining to him. And, based on this lack of so-called historical confirmation, some even question the validity of his historical existence. However, their findings are based on the assumption that no part of the Bible qualifies as an historical document. The Christian Scriptures have been preserved for our benefit as historical eyewitness evidence of events that took place in first-century Palestine. It gives us a snapshot of the historical Jesus, events that took place during his lifetime, and what followed up to six decades afterwards. These writings provide us with all the information we need “on the life and teachings of Jesus”, evidence that can be found nowhere else. It alone can tell us what actually constituted the first-century primitive Christian church or congregation. Let us not make the mistake that others have of equating primitive to early; these two words are not the same. There were many divisions among early Christians, however, not so among primitive. Note what the Apostle Paul wrote in exhortation to the congregation of his day:
Again, keep in mind that primitive means “not derived from something else; primary or basic”. Therefore, when divisions did occur among the early Christians, it was because some at that time no longer stayed with the “primary or basic” teachings of the primitive church, but decided to believe what was “derived from something else” [tradition]. In short, what really defines primitive Christianity and differentiates it from the early versions that sprang up soon thereafter is the closeness it resembles to the original message Jesus and his disciples taught. ("What is the Difference?" page will continue ... )
The Corruption of Christianity Synonyms for corruption include “pollution” and “contamination”. Many times when an element is added to a substance, it is no longer pure, and may even not serve the purpose for which it was intended. To illustrate, let us consider one of the most precious resources we have in abundance on this planet, which is water. Water is a requirement for life. People can survive weeks without food, but without water we die within a matter of days; it is that important! Yet if we drink polluted water, it could kill us or, at the very least, make us seriously ill. Sure, the same amount of water is still there, but the contamination corrupted that element and rendered it useless for human consumption. Only when and if a purification process is completed would it be fit again for our use as a beverage. This illustration demonstrates what actually happened early on to Christianity and why care is needed. No longer in its primitive state, it became contaminated. Indeed all the elements of primitive Christianity were still there, but additions to Christianity rendered the message unable to fulfill the purposes for which it was originally intended. It was this altered version that was “handed down” to us by way of tradition. Surprisingly, Jesus, yes, its very founder, foretold the corruption of Christianity! The Christian Apostles John, Peter and Paul restated the prophecy. We will consider statements made by Jesus and his disciples one at a time: Matthew 13:24, 25. This prophetic illustration covers verses 24 through 30 and then is explained in verses 36 to 43. Since we are referencing the part that deals with the corruption of our subject, let us deal with the significance of the “the weeds” that “the enemy” sows in the parabol: The “weeds” spoken of in this illustration is translated from the Greek word zi·za′ni·a or darnel, which very much resembles wheat until maturity, then it can be distinguished from wheat because its seeds are smaller and black. This, plus the fact that the roots of these weeds become entwined with the wheat, makes it inadvisable to pull up the weeds before the harvest. This prophecy brings up the corrupting aspect of weeds that are mixed up with the wheat, but it also shows us when, in the course of history, this contamination occurred. It was at the very beginning, as soon as the apostles fell asleep in death; while men were sleeping. The apostle Paul repeated this understanding when he said:
If you notice in Jesus’ illustration of the weeds that were sown, it was while men were sleeping, soon after the wheat had been planted but before it germinated. What does this tell us? The men commissioned to watch over wheatclass of firstcentury Christians were the handpicked apostles of Jesus. They were sleeping when the last of them fell asleep in death and then his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat, and left. Today, how can you or I tell the difference between the wheatclass from the zi·za′ni·a type of Christian? Well, primitive Christians produce fruitage imitating their Master, whereas zi·za′ni·a [weeds] look identical to wheat in appearances but by the time of the harvest will only produce poisonous black seeds that, if mixed with wheat, contaminates and renders the whole wheatcrop useless. Here is an observation: Notice the care that is given in the illustration not to mix the wheat with the zi·za’ni·a after the harvest! The stalks are cut and separated during the harvest, not afterwards. The wheat plants are cut and separated first, then the wheat grains are removed; they are never mixed in with the zi·za’ni·a seeds. Here is why according to the Scriptural word reference for the verse: Weeds: or “bearded darnel.” From the Greek zi·za·ni´on; Hebrew zu·neh´. A species of the grass family whose seeds have poisonous properties believed to stem from a fungus growing within them. If all the grains were harvested together, the whole crop would be useless, even poisonous. Therefore, the plants are cut and carefully separated before the wheat grains are removed from the stalks. What this means is that “wheat” and “weed” Christians have been mixed for centuries and have been growing sidebyside. Actually, there was nothing one could do about it until the final part of the days when world situation will force people to separate themselves. This also tells us that Judgment Day has not yet arrived. This brings us to the subject of the “AntiChrist” that many traditional Christians have feared for many centuries. Only the Apostle John mentions it in the following verses according to their order:
From reading the above verses one thought should strike you immediately, and that is the antichrist cannot be a literal person. There is no one individual who was alive during the final part of John’s ministry and has come forth to reveal himself. Just as we were speaking previously about weeds; we can see here also where the antichrist fits into the same general understanding of “corruption” within the primitive Christian congregation. John, the last of the apostles, was at the very end of his life and he was an eyewitness of the antichrist taking over the faith. With regards to the antichrist, it is important to understand the primitive Christian mindset as expressed by the Apostle Paul and supported by the other writers of the Christian Scriptures, which is the following:
Therefore the antichrist is not a reference to atheists or nonChristians; many of whom are opposed and even offended by traditional church doctrines. The truth of the matter, one which the Apostle Paul clearly explained in the above verse, Christians have no authority to impose neither their code of conduct nor their faith on the general population outside the realm of their particular church or “congregation”. The term antichrist was never applied to people who opposed Jesus’ ministry while he was on earth nor was it applied to opposers of the beliefs and practices of primitive Christians. The truth is that these individuals expected persecution, as the Apostle Paul stated below:
The antichrist mission was to corrupt primitive Christians with ideas that would establish a tradition to be “handed down” from one generation to the next. Although the Apostle Peter did not use the term antichrist, he did warn its proximity: However, there also came to be false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among you. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves. Furthermore, many will follow their acts of loose conduct, and on account of these the way of the truth will be spoken of abusively. Also, with covetousness they will exploit you with counterfeit words. But as for them, the judgment from of old is not moving slowly, and the destruction of them is not slumbering. – 2 Peter 2:13 Notice that Peter was speaking about the antichrists saying that these ones will disown even the owner that bought them. This shows the antichrist could not in the least be an atheist nor a nonChristian for notice the prophetic language of the last book of the Christian Scriptures: […] No one was able to master that song but the hundred and fortyfour thousand, who have been bought from the earth. […] These are the ones that keep following the Lamb no matter where he goes. These were bought from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, and no falsehood was found in their mouths; they are without blemish. – Revelation 14:3, 5. Scripturally speaking, only those bornagain of the spirit, anointed to rule with Christ in his kingdom, are considered “bought” from among mankind. Therefore, Peter was not speaking of a nonChristian antichrist. John’s description of the antichrist fits Peter’s warning about apostasy, which, in turn, is related to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: Let no one seduce you in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. – 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The word apostasy, from the Greek a·po·sta·si´a, literally means “stand away from, desertion, abandonment or rebellion.” This abandonment, as Thomas Jefferson11 observed, of the genuine precepts of Jesus himself would, as I see it, come not so much from what was taken away from it but what was added to it.10 No one person could have literally been “the man of lawlessness”, “son of destruction”, who singlehandedly brought about the apostasy or “abandonment” of Jesus’ message. It is only logical to conclude a prevailing attitude would take over Christianity, rather than an individual or group. So, What, exactly, is this socalled prevailing attitude, that, like leaven, took over Christianity early in the game? The answer, in short: worldly philosophies. Worldly philosophies? Let’s take a look at the only mention of this word in the Christian Scriptures and see if we can tie it into the corruption Jesus spoke of:
Philosophy, from the Greek phi·lo·so·phi´a means, literally, “love of wisdom” however Paul equated it to empty deception. Paul was not condemning philosophy in and of itself, but the establishing it as a tradition within the Christian congregation. Why was this? Who were the original primitive Christians? After Jesus’ death, this was the general opinion as thought by the firstcentury ruling religious class:
Although these religious leaders were amazed at how well spoken these men were, and did accredit this to their master, they still considered these to be “unlettered and ordinary”. Notice Paul’s advise in a letter to a young man:
What Paul wrote to Timothy is the key to solving our puzzle regarding the illustration of what constitutes the prophetic leaven. It is what people accept as “knowledge” which contradicts what Jesus taught and preached. These contradictions would be added to the Christian faith without taking anything away from it! By adding worldly philosophies that were popular during the first centuries of our common era, it would produce a nullifying effect on the whole primitive Christian message. Speaking of the early corruption of Christianity and how this has been “handed down” to us, Professor Douglas T. Holden in his book Death Shall Have No Dominion stated the following: “Christian theology has become so fused with Greek philosophy that it has reared individuals who are a mixture of nine parts Greek thought to one part Christian thought.” Greek philosophy had a tremendous leaven effect on early Christianity! Soon it would undermine even the most basic fundamental teachings. Let us examine but two. Example Number One: The Resurrection Now if Christ is being preached that he has been raised up from the dead, how is it some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If, indeed, there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised up. But if Christ has not been raised up, our preaching is certainly in vain, and our faith is in vain. Moreover, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we have borne witness against God that he raised up the Christ, but whom he did not raise up if the dead are really not to be raised up. For if the dead are not to be raised up, neither has Christ been raised up. Further, if Christ has not been raised up, your faith is useless; you are yet in your sins. In fact, also, those who fell asleep [in death] in union with Christ perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. – 1 Corinthians 15:1219. The most fundamental teaching to Christian is the resurrection. However, it looses all meaning and value if one assumes the Greek philosophy of inherent human immortality. This contradiction will be discussed at length in the article: Resurrection of the Dead. Example Number Two: The True God That with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Romans 15:6. Why is the God and Father of Jesus ignored by traditional Christians? Did Greek philosophy play a part in converting Jesus into God? This contradiction, too, will be considered in detail in the chapter: Faith Toward God. ["The Corruption of Christianity" page is to be continued ... ]
Footnotes: 1 All dictionary definitions are given for words within the scope of the sentence, with the defined word in italics followed or preceded with the quoted definition taken from the online source Dictionary.com 2
There are more than 37,000 competing religions that claim
authentic Christianity. In order to bypass these prejudices and
focus on fundamental Christian beliefs, the author has adopted a
generic
approach. What this means is that “no identifying labels” will
be used other than primitive and traditional
to describe the controversial teachings associated with
Christianity. 4 Many persons think of a church as a building for religious services rather than a congregation engaging in worship. The Greek word ek·kle·si´a and the Hebrew word qa·hal´ translated as church always refers to the congregation of people and never to a building or temple. 6 Regarding the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament”: Today it is a common practice to refer to the Hebrew Scriptures as the “Old Testament” and the Christian Scriptures as the “New Testament”. This is erroneously based on the reading in 2 Corinthians 3:14 in the Latin Vulgate and the King James Version. The Greek word used here di·a·the′kes means, “covenant.” Jesus referred to the collection of sacred Hebrew writings, not as an old covent, but “the Scriptures,” (Matthew 21:42; Mark 14:49; John 5:39) And Paul said they were “the holy Scriptures,” “the Scriptures,” and “the holy writings” at Romans 1:2; Romans 15:4; and 2 Timothy 3:15. 7
All Scriptural texts are taken from the online version of
the
New World Translation of the
Holy Scriptures because it is always consistent, easy
to understand and, above all, does not substitute the Divine
Name with ambiguous titles. It will facilitate the translation
of this publication into Chinese, French, German, Italian,
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Thanks to human traditions and philosophies, Christianity evolved from a singular theology taught by Christ and his primitive disciples to where today there are over two billion members belonging to more than 37,000 different religions claiming to be "Christian". Thus, "Christianity" has become a meaningless label. "God cannot die!" were the words a young man uttered as he finally understood the Judeo-Christian concept of monotheism. It changed his whole theological perspective. Only then did he understand the Scriptural meaning of the resurrection, a primary Christian doctrine. Like most theological students, he tried to harmonize what he was learning from his study of the Scriptures with the philosophical view which the general public accepts as a fact--namely, the wrong conclusion that God is omnipresent, in the sense of being literally everywhere and in everything. However, the true God is not omnipresent, for he has a location. (1Ki 8:49; Joh 16:28; Heb 9:24) His throne is in heaven. (Isa 66:1) He is all-powerful, being the Almighty God. (Ge 17:1; Re 16:14) “All things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him,” and he is “the One telling from the beginning the finale.” (Heb 4:13; Isa 46:10, 11; 1Sa 2:3) However, His power and knowledge extend everywhere, reaching every part of the universe.—2Ch 16:9; Ps 139:7-12; Am 9:2-4. Paul compared certain primary Bible teachings to a foundation,—Heb 6:1, 2. In what sense is the resurrection a “primary doctrine”? It is part of the foundation of faith without which we could never become Christians. (1 Corinthians 15:16-19: For if the dead are not to be raised up, neither has Christ been raised up. Further, if Christ has not been raised up, your faith is useless; you are yet in your sins. In fact, also, those who fell asleep in death in union with Christ perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.) Thus, understanding what death actually is (the opposite of life), That God is not omnipresent, though His knowledge and power are; Christ could not have actually been "God in the flesh". [these notes are to continue ... ]
Early Christianities [plural] and primitive Christianity [singular] are not the same. When teachings that could not harmonize with ancient Jewish theology were mixed in with the message Christ preached, Christianity no longer remained primitive. It did not remain in its original stage or state. “Primitive” means: “Not derived from something else; primary or basic. Of or relating to an earliest or original stage or state; primeval. Being little evolved from an early ancestral type.” The following quoted statement is from the Apostle Paul addressing some of the early Christians who had abandoned or who were in the process of abandoning primitive Christianity: "I marvel that you are being so quickly removed from the One [Jehovah God] who called you with Christ’s undeserved kindness over to another sort of good news. But it is not another; only there are certain ones who are causing you trouble and wanting to pervert the good news about the Christ. However, even if we or an angel out of heaven were to declare to you as good news somethingbeyond what we declared to you as good news, let him be accursed. As we have said above, I also now say again, Whoever it is that is declaring to you as good news something beyond what you accepted, let him be accursed."-- Galatians 1:6-9. Therefore, restating the obvious: "The corruption of Christianity came not so much from what was taken away from it but what was added to it." The original first-century Christians believed in a simple message of salvation through their spiritual leader, Jesus Christ. Their beliefs did not involve the complex notion of a Trinitarian God nor the Greek concept of an immortal soul. Primitive Christian theology simply involved the understanding that Jesus had been appointed by the Hebrew God [thus the title Christ] to be their leader [similar to the leader Moses], their prophet [similar to the prophet Elijah], their judge [similar to the judge Samuel], their governing king [similar to King David], their priestly king [similar to the king-priest Melchizedek] and, since he was a perfect man, a unique son of God [similar to the first man Adam before sinning]. Jesus was everything to these early Christians, however, he was definitely not their God. Instead his role was that of a mediator, like that of a high priest. As followers of this man, whom the God of the Hebrews raised from the dead, these early disciples confessed the hope that someday they, too, would also become secondary leaders, prophets, judges, kings, priests and sons of God, just as their master (or Lord), Jesus Christ, had become, as a reward for their faithfulness through the resurrection of the dead, not through the possession of an inherent immortal soul. These early followers of Jesus understood that their salvation was for the purpose of their participation in judging the rest of mankind during the millennial reign of their master. This is why the gospel of salvation is so closely related to the gospel of the kingdom and is, in fact, one in the same. By adding the doctrines of the Trinity and the Immortality of the Human Soul to Christianity, it made the basic foundation of Christian theology void and incomprehensible. This, my friend, is primitive Christianity in a nutshell, supported, as you will see in forthcoming articles, by both secular history and unbiased Scriptural evidence. Primitive Christianity is a very simple theology, easy to understand by anyone who takes an interest in it, but only if they remove common prejudices associated with traditional Christianity. Because Judeo-Christians absorbed Platonic philosophies of afterlife, the Scriptural resurrection hope became null and void. This also led to the distortion of: 1) Who Jesus was/is, and What he taught regarding 2) worship and 3) human salvation. Although people study Scripture, their minds are poisoned with theological prejudices that prevent them from grasping the true meaning of what they read. In short: "The corruption of Christianity came from what was added to it, and not so much from what was taken away from it." I invite you to take a fresh look at Christianity without the corrupting influence of the notion of inherent human immortality.
The Majority Text / Byzantine Text vs the Modern Critical Text With Another Look at the King James Version In a discussion with someone on the possibility of Jesus being the archangel Michael, up popped Hebrews 2:16 in the King James Version (hereafter, KJV). It states, "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels." I explained that my New American Standard Bible does not have this reading, instead, "He does not give help to angels." The answer: "Well, my reading (KJV) is in the majority of manuscripts, the Majority Text." What does he mean? The Majority Text comes mainly from the Byzantine Text. "It has, in addition to 'Byzantine,' been called 'Antiochian,' after the supposed place of its origin, and the 'Lucian Recension,' after its supposed editor. It is Semler's 'Oriental,' Bengel's 'Asiatic,' Griesbach's 'Constantinopolitan,' Westcott and Hort's 'Syrian,' and Burgon's 'Traditional.' Other designations of the same text include: von Soden and Merk's 'K,' standing for 'Koine" or 'Common' text, Lagrange's 'A,' and Kenyon's 'Alpha.' It is largely the text which lies behind the Textus Receptus and the King James Version." - The Byzantine Text-Type & New Testament Textual Criticism by Harry A. Sturz, p.13 It means that there are readings in the majority of available manuscripts that are not used in modern Bibles like the RSV/NRSV/NIV/NAB/NASB/NWT etc (i.e., John 7:53-8:11, the longer ending to the Lord's prayer at Matt 6 amongst others). But if they are in the majority of manuscripts, should we therefore not accept them? Let us take a look at some facts: There was a time back about the 4th century when Greek ceased to be the lingua franca in the West, instead the Latin was adopted. However, the eastern Byzantine continued to use and write in the Greek. Hence, there are more Byzantine Greek manuscripts by virtue of all the copying done at a later date. So should we use this later text, which resembles the text (Textus Receptus) the King James translators used, rather then the older texts like the Codex Alexandrinus (A), Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) and the Vatican Manuscript 1209 (B)? We find that these older manuscripts differ in certain aspects than the later Byzantine texts, as mentioned above.
Scholars who work in the area of textual criticism have recognized that
manuscripts fall into groups that are known as text-types or families.
These families arose because a certain original, or few originals, were
the basis for copies of the texts. Readings in those originals where
passed on the copies made from them. Because of the development of the
Church into certain geographical groupings, these families tend to fall
into certain geographical patterns.
The Alexandrian text-type is so named because it is generally associated with the Church at Alexandria. Most of the papyri manuscripts, and the uncial (meaning all capital letter) manuscripts are representative of this Alexandrian text-type. The oldest manuscripts reflect this text-type. Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) and Codex Vaticanus (B) are two of the most important mss. of the Alexandrian type, and often the brunt of the KJV only debate. The Western
text-type is so named because it was the text-type prevalent in the Western
church.
The Byzantine text-type is so named because of its association with the Byzantine empire. This text type is also referred to as the Majority Text because the majority of the surviving manuscripts are of this type. The Caesarean text-type is associated with the Church at Caesarea. If is represented by what is known as "Family 1" and papyrus 45. There is considerable debate about whether this should be treated as a separate text-type. You can see
some
These are not always perfect rules, but they have proven themselves for the most part thus far. KJVO (King James Version Only) people do not like this, because a lot of this comes from Westcott and Hort. In 1881, these two British scholars, Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort published an edition of the Greek New Testament which was based heavily upon the readings of Alexandrian MSS Aleph and B. The full theory of Westcott and Hort regarding manuscript transmission and their relation to the text is complex, the basic premise can be summed up as the older manuscripts are more likely to reflect the original reading. This has brought a torrent of ad hominem attacks on these two. But what is often not known is that S. P. Tregelles (Tregelles was promillennial and wrote a famous commentary defending the Book of Daniel), who was a British scholar affiliated first with the Plymouth Brethren and reportedly later with the Baptists (See Schaff-Herzog, vol. IV, p. 2388, and Life and Letters of John A. Broadus, p. 352.) produced a revised Greek text (1857- 1879) before the Westcott-Hort text was issued (1881). Tregelles' text was the result of decades of laborious and exacting personal inspection of manuscripts. There is very little difference in substance between his text and the later text of Westcott and Hort. Few would find problems with Tregelles as he was considered "orthodox." (The same line of argument could be pursued using another 19th century Greek text editor, Constantine Tischendorf). There is a movement right now that is promoting the longer readings in the Textus Receptus. Their proof? Readings in the Textus Receptus are in the majority of manuscripts, therefore the majority text is the original. To conclude that this makes it the "preserved" word of God is no more logical than walking into a Bible bookstore today and concluding that the New International Version is the preserved word of God because it is in the majority. Or that the predominant life on earth would be anaerobic bacteria, and the human race would have originated in China. What are some other facts:
So
Where does the Majority Text differ from the Textus Receptus (Received
Text, TR) that the KJV uses?
Matthew 27:35 -- The Majority Text deletes the following words: "that might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots." Mark 15:3 -- The Majority Text does not have: "but he answered nothing." Luke 7:31 -- The Majority Text does not have: "And the Lord said" Luke 9:1 -- The Majority Text does not have: "his disciples" Luke 17:36 -- The Majority Text does not have: "Two men shall be in the field; the one shall betaken, and the other left." Luke 20:19 -- The Majority Text does not have: "the people" John 6:70 -- The Majority Text does not have the word "Jesus" John 10:8 -- The Majority Text does not have "before me" Acts 7:37 -- The Majority Text does not have: "him shall ye hear" Acts 8:37 -- The Majority Text does not have the entire verse: "And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Acts 9:5,6 -- The Majority Text does not have: "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Acts 9:17 -- The Majority Text does not have "Jesus" Acts 10:6 -- The Majority Text does not have: "he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do" Acts 10:21 -- The Majority Text does not have: "which were sent from him from Cornelius" Acts 15:11 -- The Majority Text does not have" Christ" Acts 15:34 -- The Majority Text does not have the entire verse: "Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still." Acts 20:21 -- The Majority Text does not have the word: "Christ" Acts 24:6-8 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "and would have judged according to our law. But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, Commanding his accusers to come unto thee" Romans 13:9 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "Thou shalt not bear false witness" 2 Corinthians 8:4 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "that we would receive" 1 Thessalonians 2:19 -- The Majority Text does not have the word "Christ" 2 Timothy 2:19 -- The Majority Text does not have the word "Christ" Hebrews 11:13 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "and were persuaded’ Hebrews 12:20 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "or thrust through with a dart’ 1 John 5:7,8 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth" Revelation 1:8 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "the beginning and the ending" Revelation 1:11 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "1 am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and" Revelation 2:3 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "hast laboured" Revelation 5:4 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "and to read" Revelation 5:7 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "the book" Revelation 5:14 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "four and twenty" Revelation 5:14 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "him that liveth forever and ever" Revelation 7:5-8 -- -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "were sealed" from 10 of the 12 references Revelation 8:7 -- The Majority Text does not have the word "angel" Revelation 11:1 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "and the angel stood" Revelation 11:17 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "and art to come" Revelation 12:12 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "to the inhabiters" Revelation 12:17 -- The Majority Text does not have the word "Christ" Revelation 14:1 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "forty and four" Revelation 14:3 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "forty and four" Revelation 14:5 -- The Majority Text does not have the words: "before the throne of God" Also, the Hodges & Farstad edition of the Majority Text disagrees significantly with Robinson & Pierpont's edition. However, it should be noted that Bibles that use the Majority Text (New King James, World English Bible) still have some of the readings above, like Rev 1:11 and of course, I John 5:7,8 (the Comma Johanneum), even though it is not in the majority of manuscripts (in fact, it is in only about 8 of them). The Greek manuscript evidence and the evidence from early translations and church fathers (ANF) overwhelmingly declare that the Trinitarian text is not an original or genuine part of 1 John, and has no legitimate place in the text of the New Testament, as anyone can see by examining the evidence in, for instance, the commentaries of Adam Clarke [Vol. VI, pp. 927-933], Henry Alford [Vol. IV, pp. 503-505], and B. F. Westcott [pp. 202-209], Scrivener's Introduction [pp. 8, 149-150, 457-463], and Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament [pp. 716- 718].) Luther never included the passage in his own German translation. Both Tyndale and Coverdale indicated that they thought the suspect words were spurious. Even Erasmus rejected 1 John 5:7 as not being an original part of 1 John. In this, all Greek New Testament editions (other than mere reprints of Erasmus' text) agree, including The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text of Hodges and Farstad. Erasmus also surmised that the doxology to the Lord's Prayer in Matt. 6:13, "for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen," was a later liturgical addition to Matthew, and formed no original part of that Gospel (Bainton, p. 137). In this virtually all Greek New Testament editors agree. Further, Erasmus doubted that Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11 formed an original part of those Gospels (ibid., p. 136). On the basis of available evidence, most New Testament editors agree with the judgement of Erasmus (the evidence on these disputed passages can be readily found in Alford's commentary or Metzger's Textual Commentary). All in all, Erasmus believed "the only way to determine the true text is to examine the early codices" (Bainton, p. 135). It is not unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that, were Erasmus alive today, he would use a Greek text like that of Nestle or the United Bible Societies' text. In
fact, the reading, "he took not on him the nature of angels"
mentioned above, is not supported in any Greek manuscript. Even the KJV
has this in italics to let you know that it is an interpolation. What it
comes down to is this: Majority Text supporters are usually KJV
supporters,
and are really not concerned with the facts, they simply want to be able to
buttress their arguments for their support of the deity of Christ.
These are not quotes from the Bible, in fact, the closest that resembles anything like the scripture in 1 Timothy 3:16 comes from Chrysostom (347- 407), but it does not appear any earlier than this. After carefully investigating the Gospel quotations of Didymus, a fourth-century Egyptian writer, Ehrman concludes:
In a critique of W. N. Pickering's The Identity of the New Testament Text (Pickering is a Majority/Byzantine Text advocate), Carson takes note that Pickering does raise some valid historical questions relating to the Byzantine text. But he concludes that Pickering is historically naive in failing to take into account:
So what
is the textual evidence for the reading of QEOS (theos) in 1 Timothy
3:16?
It
looks on the surface that QEOS has the advantage. But why do most Bible
versions reject that reading? Because OS has the best support, being
supported by all the Alexandrian manuscripts with the addition of some
"Western" witnesses. "QEOS," except for the members of Family 1739, is
purely Byzantine (we can ignore the corrections in Aleph, A, C, etc.;
those are Byzantine also). "O" is supported only by a subset of the
"Western" witnesses.
OS is also the middle reading. To get from OS to O requires a change of only one letter; similarly, to get from OS to QEOS requires only one letter (remember that QEOS was written QS). To get from O to QEOS or vice versa is a larger change. So OS could be preferred as the middle reading. Even Sir Isaac Newton commented on this scripture where he showed how, by a small alteration in the Greek text, the word "God" was inserted to make the phrase read "God was manifest in the flesh." He demonstrated that early Church writers in referring to the verse knew nothing of such an alteration.
Summing up both passages, Newton said: "If the ancient churches in
debating and deciding the greatest mysteries of religion, knew nothing
of these two texts, I understand not, why we should be so fond of them
now the debates are over."
On the flip-side, Scrivener, whose Greek text carries a lot of weight with the MT/Byzantine/TR crowd finds for the reading QEOS, though with much hesitation, but Edward Miller who edited the posthumous work, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament 4th ed. vol. 2. pages 390-395 attempts to make a more definite case than Scrivener did. All of this is neither here nor there to most of us. I still use the King James and the New King James Versions. All texts and Bibles agree at least 98.5%. The reason for this page is due to the sad fact that many are ready to condemn modern Bibles simply because they believe that the King James Bible is the best and has the support of God. This is unfortunate, and dangerous, and displays a limited grasp of the issues at hand. The same goes for those who are to quick to condemn the New World Translation. There are over
5,300 surviving Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. These range from
P87(3), containing a few verses of Philemon, (c. 125) P77, containing a few verses of Matthew 23, ( c. 150) P45, (the Chester Beatty Papyrus 1), containing portions of all Gospels and Acts, (c. 150) P32, containing portions of Titus, (c 175) P90, containing a portion of John 18, (c. 150) P52, containing a few verses of John 18, (c. 150, many scholars date it c. 125) P4/64/67,
containing portions of Matthew and Luke, (c. 200; grouped together because they
are
P1, containing Matthew 1, (c. 200) P13, containing Hebrews 2-5, 10-12, (c. 200) P27, containing a portion of Romans 8, (c. 200) P66, containing most of John, (c. 175, although some scholars have dated c. 125-150) P75, containing most of Luke and John (c. 200) P46, containing
all of Paul's letters except the Pastorals. (traditionally dated c. 200) In 1988
In addition to the above listing, there are 33 papyri from the 3rd century. The other major
group of early manuscripts are known as uncials, because of the style of writing
Codex Sinaiticus (designated by the Hebrew letter Aleph), containing the whole New Testament, (c.350) Codex Vaticanus (designated B), containing almost the whole New Testament, (c. 325) Codex Alexandrinus (designated A), containing most of the New Testament (5th century) Codex Bezae (designated D), containing the Gospels and Acts (6th century) Codex
Claromotanus (designated DPAUL), containing the Pauline epistles and Hebrews
(6th
Codex
Freerianius, or Washingtonensis (designated W), containing the New Testament
(4th or
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