Newly Released Book:

The Gospel of Truth

Introduction
The Gospel of Truth is the crowning jewel of Gnostic scriptures, serving a similar position and function as the book of Romans in the Holy Bible. Gnostic theology and the path of salvation according to that doctrine is laid open like a treasure map for the second century reader, and all seekers who have come after. The wisdom found in the text influenced later Gnostic writing. So rich, deep, and powerful are the spiritual ideas presented in this gospel that they influenced Carl G. Jung’s concepts of archetypes in modern psychology, thus proving its continuing relevance over a span of eighteen-hundred years. The Gospel of Truth is one of the Gnostic found in the Nag Hammadi codices. There were thirteen manuscripts within the discovered collection. Twelve of them made their way into the Coptic Museum in Cairo and were declared national treasures. It exists in two Coptic translations, a Subakhmimic (a late dialect of Coptic standing between Sahidic and Akhmimic) rendition surviving almost in full in the first codex (the "Jung Codex") and a Sahidic (a Coptic dialect of southern Egypt) in fragments in the twelfth manuscript. A little-known fact is the great father of modern psychology, Carl G. Jung, had great interest in Gnosticism, and went so far as to purchase an ancient codex. Gilles Quispel is a distinguished professor of Early Christianity who was born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1916. As a young man he obtained a doctorate in literature and the humanities and went on to research and teach about the early Gnostics. He describes his first meeting with Jung in 1944 in Ascona, Switzerland and how he gained the help of Jung and C.A. Meier to retrieve a valuable Gnostic text from the black market. This text had been part of a larger cache of ancient documents found in 1945 buried in a jar in Egypt near Nag Hammadi. Scholars consider these documents extremely valuable as the texts were from around the first century C.E. and contained unknown sayings of Jesus including a book titled, “The Gospel of Truth”. The lost text was retrieved and named the Jung Codex. It may be of interest to note the connection between the ancient Gnostics and modern psychology. Stephan A. Hoeller wrote, in his article, “C. G. Jung and the Alchemical Renewal,” the following: Jung's "first love" among esoteric systems was Gnosticism. From the earliest days of his scientific career until the time of his death, his dedication to the subject of Gnosticism was relentless. As early as August, 1912, Jung intimated in a letter to Freud that he had an intuition that the essentially feminine-toned archaic wisdom of the Gnostics, symbolically called Sophia, was destined to re-enter modern Western culture by way of depth-psychology. Subsequently, he stated to Barbara Hannah that when he discovered the writings of the ancient Gnostics, "I felt as if I had at last found a circle of friends who understood me." The circle of ancient friends was a fragile one, however. Very little reliable, first-hand information was available to Jung within which he could have found the world and spirit of such past Gnostic luminaries as Valentinus, Basilides, and others. The fragmentary, and possibly mendacious, accounts of Gnostic teachings and practices appearing in the works of such heresy-hunting church fathers as Irenaeus and Hippolytus were a far cry from the wealth of archetypal lore available to us today in the Nag Hammadi collection. Of primary sources, the remarkable Pistis Sophia was one of very few available to Jung in translation, and his appreciation of this work was so great that he made a special effort to seek out the translator, the then aged and impecunious George R. S. Mead, in London to convey to him his great gratitude. Jung continued to explore Gnostic lore with great diligence, and his own personal matrix of inner experience became so affinitized to Gnostic imagery that he wrote the only published document of his great transformational crisis, The Seven Sermons to the Dead, using purely Gnostic terminology and mythologems of the system of Basilides. Throughout all of his devoted study, Jung was disturbed by one principal difficulty: The ancient Gnostic myths and traditions were some seventeen or eighteen hundred years old, and no living link seemed to exist that might join them to Jung's own time. (There is some minimal and obscure evidence indicating that Jung was aware of a few small and secretive Gnostic groups in France and Germany, but their role in constituting such a link did not seem firmly enough established.) As far as Jung could discern, the tradition that might have connected the Gnostics with the present seemed to have been broken. However, his intuition (later justified by painstaking research) disclosed to him that the chief link connecting later ages with the Gnostics was in fact none other than alchemy. While his primary interest at this time was Gnosticism, he was already aware of the relevance of alchemy to his concerns. Referring to his intense inner experiences occurring between 1912 and 1919 he wrote: “First I had to find evidence for the historical prefiguration of my own inner experiences. That is to say, I had to ask myself, "Where have my particular premises already occurred in history?" If I had not succeeded in finding such evidence, I would never have been able to substantiate my ideas. Therefore, my encounter with alchemy was decisive for me, as it provided me with the historical basis which I hitherto lacked.” In 1926 Jung had a remarkable dream. He felt himself transported back into the seventeenth century, and saw himself as an alchemist, engaged in the opus, or great work of alchemy. Prior to this time, Jung, along with other psychoanalysts, was intrigued and taken aback by the tragic fate of Herbert Silberer, a disciple of Freud, who in 1914 published a work dealing largely with the psychoanalytic implications of alchemy. Silberer, who upon proudly presenting his book to his master Freud, was coldly rebuked by him, became despondent and ended his life by suicide, thus becoming what might be called the first martyr to the cause of a psychological view of alchemy. Now it all came together, as it were. The Gnostic Sophia was about to begin her triumphal return to the arena of modern thought, and the psychological link connecting her and her modern devotees would be the long despised, but about to be rehabilitated, symbolic discipline of alchemy. The recognition had come. Heralded by a dream, the role of alchemy as the link connecting ancient Gnosticism with modern psychology, as well as Jung's role in reviving this link, became apparent. As Jung was to recollect later: “[Alchemy] represented the historical link with Gnosticism, and . . . a continuity therefore existed between past and present. Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed the bridge on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other (hand) into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.” This does not imply that Jung believed one could turn lead into gold, nor did he believe or pursue any other legendary trick of alchemy. To Jung, alchemy seemed to represent the ability to combine the lesser interior elements to produce the gold of the spirit. According to Marsha West, Carl Jung has been called the “Father of the re-birth of Gnosticism also called Neo-Gnosticism. Dr. Satinover comments, "One of the most powerful modern forms of Gnosticism is without question Jungian psychology, both within or without the Church.” End quote. Edward Moore wrote, “Carl Jung, drawing upon Gnostic mythical schemas, identified the objectively oriented consciousness with the material or “fleshly” part of humankind—that is, with the part of the human being that is, according to the Gnostics, bound up in the cosmic cycle of generation and decay, and subject to the bonds of fate and time (cf. Apocryphon of John [Codex II] 28:30). The human being who identifies him/herself with the objectively existing world comes to construct a personality, a sense of self, that is, at base, fully dependent upon the ever-changing structures of temporal existence. The resulting lack of any sense of permanence, of autonomy, leads such an individual to experience anxieties of all kinds, and eventually to shun the mysterious and collectively meaningful patterns of human existence in favor of a private and stifling subjective context, in the confines of which life plays itself out in the absence of any reference to a greater plan or scheme. Hopelessness, atheism, and despair, are the results of such an existence. This is not the natural end of the human being, though; for, according to Jung (and the Gnostics) the temporally constructed self is not the true self. The true self is the supreme consciousness existing and persisting beyond all space and time. Jung calls this the pure consciousness or Self, in contradistinction to the “ego consciousness” which is the temporally constructed and maintained form of a discrete existent (cf. C.G. Jung, “Gnostic Symbols of the Self,” in The Gnostic Jung 1992, pp. 55-92). This latter form of “worldly” consciousness the Gnostics identified with soul (psukhê), while the pure or true Self they identified with spirit (pneuma)—that is, mind relieved of its temporal contacts and context. This distinction had an important career (role) in Gnostic thought, and was adopted by St. Paul, most notably in his doctrine of the spiritual resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:44). The psychological or empirical basis of this view, which soon turns into a metaphysical or onto-theological attitude, is the recognized inability of the human mind to achieve its grandest designs while remaining subject to the rigid law and order of a disinterested and aloof cosmos. The spirit-soul distinction (which of course translates into, or perhaps presupposes, the more fundamental mind-body distinction) marks the beginning of a transcendentalist and soteriological attitude toward the cosmos and temporal existence in general.” End Quote (Author’s Note: onto-theological is the theology of being. The term was used by Kant. Kant had distinguished two general types of theology: that which comes from reason and that which comes from revelation. Within the category of reasoned theology, he distinguished two further types, "natural theology" and "transcendental theology". Within natural theology, Kant differentiated between "physico-theology" and an ethical or moral theology. Transcendental theology or reasoned-based theology, he divided into ontotheology and cosmotheology.) In August 1957, Jung gave a series of filmed interviews for the University of Houston. The following is part of the transcript of the fourth interview with Dr. Richard I. Evans: “I got more and more respectful of archetypes, and now, by Jove, that thing should be taken into account. That is an enormous factor, very important for our further development and for our well-being. It was, of course, difficult to know where to begin, because it is such an enormously extended field. So the next question I asked myself was, “Now where in the world has anybody been busy with that problem?” And I found nobody had, except a peculiar spiritual movement that went together with the beginnings of Christianity, namely Gnosticism. That was the first thing, actually, that I saw, that the Gnostics were concerned with the problem of archetypes. They made a peculiar philosophy of it, as everybody makes a peculiar philosophy of it when he comes across it naïvely and doesn’t know that the archetypes are structural elements of the unconscious psyche.” The study of Gnosticism by Jung contributed enormously to the field of modern psychology. Here, in the Gospel of Truth, we have a central and clarion work of Gnosticism. Here, in this small work, we have a chance to look into the heart of Gnosticism, and into our own hearts, as we explore this ancient and mystical work. The Gospel of Truth is not a gospel at all, but a religious discourse, which may wax poetic in places. A gospel is usually seen as a narrative account of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection. The orthodox view of the gospel, or good news, is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus and how his death redeems the believer from sin and hell. In the common view of the gospel or good news, it is the sacrifice of Jesus, the perfect and sinless man on our behalf, that re-establishes our right-standing with God. The Gospel of Truth is a Gnostic text and according to the standard Gnostic belief, it is not the death of Jesus that frees us. It is the knowledge he brought with him from the realm of Fullness, also called the Pleroma. The Gospel of Truth is written in an elegant, Hellenistic style in which the poetry of parallel statements is used to drive home the meaning of the writer’s ideas. The writing is thought to cite or allude to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew and John, as well as 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, 1 John, the Book of Revelation, John's Gospel, the Gospel of Thomas Chapters 22 and 28). In the text, Error is personified and is seen as a Satan like entity. This entity or Power created a fog, such as a mental or spiritual fog, which is ignorance, which keeps us from the truth of the real God. (Author’s Note: 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.) Jesus was sent down by God to remove this ignorance. But Error grew angry at this, and nailed Jesus to a cross. The text also proceeds to describe ignorance as a nightmare and how it is knowledge of the true Father that grants salvation, which constitutes eternal rest. (Author’s note: Matthew 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.) The world is dark and Jesus is the light that illuminates the path to the Father. In the poetic styling of the gospel, God brings 'fullness' for the 'deficient' and 'inexpressible joy' and the peace that passes all understanding, as discussed in the canonical gospels. Even though the awakened souls still live on earth, they find heavenly joy and rest. (Author’s Note: Ephesians 1:18-19 King James Version (KJV) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power… John 17:14-17 King James Version (KJV) I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.) The theology described above is further taught in the parable of the good shepherd. It describes feeding the spiritually hungry and giving rest to those weary of the material world. Salvation is described as being anointed and becoming perfect or full, lacking nothing and having no deficiency. The text refers to those in ignorance as empty or deficient. The enlightened or saved ones are anointed and they are full jars. Those jars that are empty, the Father fills. The Father sent the son and the son is the image of the Father. This is the meaning of the phrase, “the name of the Father is the Son”. That is to say that the Son is the Logos of the Father (Author’s Note: 1 John 1-2 King James Version (KJV) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us…) The Gospel of Truth is a Gnostic explanation, elucidating the sum of various other Gnostic gospels that went before. It is one of the earlier writings on the subject of Gnosticism but must have occurred after several of the earliest Gospels were penned and circulated. This puts the dating of the Gospel of Truth around the time of Valentinus, or somewhere around 140-180 C.E. Valentinus may have written this work. To say the least, his influence can be seen in the text. Valentinus is considered by some to be the father of the Christian Gnostic faith. He first taught at Alexandria and then in Rome. He established the largest Gnostic movement around A.D. 160. This movement was founded on an elaborate mythology and a system of sexual duality of male and female interplay, both in its deities and its savior. Tertullian stated that between 135 A.D. and 160 A.D. Valentinus, a prominent Gnostic, had great influence in the Christian church. Valentinus ascended in church hierarchy and became a candidate for the office of bishop of Rome, the office that quickly evolved into that of Pope. He lost the election by a narrow margin. Even though Valentinus was outspoken about his Gnostic slant on Christianity, he was a respected member of the Christian community until his death and was probably a practicing bishop in a church of lesser status than the one in Rome. The main platform of Gnosticism was the ability of its followers to transcend the material world through the possession of privileged and directly imparted knowledge. Following this doctrine, Valentinus claimed to have been instructed by a direct disciple of one of Jesus' apostles, a man by the name of Theodas. G.R.S. Mead considered Valentinus to be the father of modern Gnosticism. His vision of the faith is summarized by G.R.S. Mead in the book “Fragments of a Faith Forgotten.” “The Gnosis in his hands is trying to embrace everything, even the most dogmatic formulation of the traditions of the Master. The great popular movement and its incomprehensibilities were recognized by Valentinus as an integral part of the mighty outpouring; he labored to weave all together, external and internal, into one piece, devoted his life to the task, and doubtless only at his death perceived that for that age he was attempting the impossible. None but the very few could ever appreciate the ideal of the man, much less understand it. “(Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 297) The mainline or orthodox Christian church had sought to eliminate Gnosticism and destroy all Gnostic documents. There were times in early church history that Gnostics were hunted down and killed for heresy, but these texts were saved and sealed by Gnostics as they attempted to preserve some of their most holy books, and thus they came to us with some of the texts still intact. The translation of the Nag Hammadi library was completed in the 1970's and the information contained in the cache’ would turn Christianity on its head by revealing an unknown history of Christianity and a fight for control of doctrine and the faith. Among the Gnostic works are scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and many others. Gnosticism is an undeniable part of the history of Christianity. By both influence and opposition, it has helped shape what we now know as the Christian faith. The text of the Gospel of Truth was first discovered in the last part of the month of December in 1945. It was found among 52 other Gnostic Christian texts contained in 13 codices or scrolls. The discovery was made by two peasant Egyptian brothers as they dug for fertilizer near their home. While digging in the rich soil around the Jabal al-Ṭārif caves near present-day Hamra Dom in Upper Egypt, they found several papyri in a large earthenware vessel. The find of these codices came to be known as the Nag Hammadi library because of their proximity to the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, which was the nearest major settlement. The brothers wanted to make money by selling the manuscripts, but when they brought some of the scrolls home their mother burned several of the manuscripts. One source indicates she burned them as kindling, while another source claims she was superstitious and worried that the writing might be dangerous. News of the discovery appeared gradually as the brothers tried to sell certain scrolls. The full significance of the new find was not immediately apparent until sometime after the initial discovery. As more of the scrolls were examined it was revealed that the find included a large number of primary Gnostic Gospels, some of which had never been seen before. In 1946, the brothers became involved in a feud, and left the manuscripts with a Coptic priest. In October of that year a codex, now called codex III, was sold to the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo. The resident Coptologist and religious historian Jean Doresse realized the significance of the artifact and published the first reference to it in 1948. With the death of Jesus placed around 33 C.E., the Christian church was still very young at the time of the writing of The Gospel of Truth. The church was attempting to fix or codify its doctrines and canon. The author of this manuscript seemed to be acquainted with the New Testament books of Paul, John, and Hebrews, and alludes to them in the text. There are also references to many of the New Testament books and no obvious citations from the Old Testament. This is likely due to the fact that Gnostic believed that the Old Testament God was a false and flawed God and the cause of the existence of pain, suffering, and disease in the world. It was the New Testament God of love and mercy that Jesus came to reveal. In Gnostic Christian theology, God revealed himself to man through his Word/Logos and his Son. These are not the same “entities” but are within the same person. Jesus, the man of flesh, was born to interface with mortal men but the true power from above is the Logos, who is the son of the All, the true God, He Who Is. This makes Jesus the perfect guide, teacher, and example for men. Unlike the belief and doctrine that became orthodox Christianity, to Gnostics it was knowledge that freed us from ignorance and thus the entrapment in the sin or illusion of this world. It was knowledge that brought about understanding and through understanding and applying this knowledge there was faith. Ignorance is sin and error. Knowledge is the good news. Jesus did not come to save us from our sins but to awaken us out of a dream state caused by living in this false world. The error of living in ignorance and the error of believing in the god of this world is our sin. Knowledge takes away this sin. Jesus brought the revelation that enables us to understand the concept of the true God, beyond this realm and our sonship in Him. Jesus came to teach us that we were not created to live in this world, but to be the sons and daughters of God. We are not of this world but simply passers by. Like Jesus himself, the awakened or enlightened ones begin to see themselves as a body, soul, spirit combined but not the same. Our bodies continue to live and function on this material realm, but our spirit reaches higher and higher. Passing out of this realm, seeking unity with the true God. "The Gospel of Truth describes three stages on the way of salvation: first, the stage of receiving divine ideas from the Logos and then applying them to purify our lower nature; second, the stage of acting as if the Logos were in charge of our lives, even though many illusions still remain in us; and third, the stage of rest, in which our lower nature is restful because our illusions are largely absent, permitting the Logos to act through us." (Lansdowne, p41) The idea that Gnosis could come from one’s own correct understanding took the “church” and its leaders out of the equation of salvation. There was no need of a priest or church to bring salvation through its teachings or baptisms. This threatened the emerging church and its hierarchy. As the orthodox or mainstream church grew and took power it would begin to hunt down and kill Gnostics. History is written by the victors. With Gnosticism declared heresy and Gnostics persecuted and killed, the church set about to eliminate all traces of the old faith. They failed. With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices we have rediscovered the broad and rich history of Gnosticism.

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Advice to my Children's Children

TO MY CHILDREN’S CHILDREN
These are insights I wish to pass on to my children’s children. I wish I could have taught my children all of them but some I learned too late. Some of them I whispered into the ears of my children, while others took 60 years to gain enough wisdom to articulate them. Even though I still cannot keep these rules consistently, I know they made my life much better. I give them you, my friends, so that those of you who are still young and lack parents or teachers may use them as you will. Shallow and lacking as they may be, they are a start.

RULES FOR A BETTER LIFE

Be grateful – gratitude is the pipeline to God. Gratitude draws in to itself joy and happiness. Gratitude forces us to let go of past hurts and be thankful for the present. Gratitude brings wonder and surprise. Through gratitude we can see grace.

Be kind – you never know whom you are talking to and you never know when the person sweeping the floor or waiting on your table today will be your boss tomorrow. Treat everyone with equal respect.

Be humble - always know that no matter how good you are at something your abilities will fade and a better person will always come along.

Be peaceful - Move peacefully through life. Do not distract others from their goals or interfere with their peace. Shun those who cause drama and disruption. They will cost you peace, focus and stability.

Be Strong - Even though we walk in peace, there is a time for violence. Stand up for yourself. Do not let anyone run over you. Evil will win if good men do not stand up for what is right. Protect the weak and vulnerable. They have no one else.

Be Smart - Always assume you could be wrong. Start from the place of seeking further information. Keep an open mind. Be open to possibilities you have not yet seen. But do not be easily led by others. Just because others believe something to be right or true does not make it true or right for you. You must define your own path.

Be Improving - Know your strengths and weaknesses – work harder on your weaknesses to make them less weak. In the meantime, hide your weaknesses and show forth your strengths.

Be Inspired - There is part of us that is “inspired” by God. Inspired means He breathed into us. We are part of Him and he is part of us. That means we have the ability to create. We create art, buildings, books, and even other people when we have children. But there is more. We have the ability to create opportunities by our intention. By seeing in our minds and imagination what we want and focusing on our desires we will open up possibilities to reach those goals. So make sure your wishes are not selfish or destructive. See yourself as successful. See yourself prosperous – and then work your butt off to reach your goals. Nothing is free and if you take things without effort it cheapens your worth as a person. Labor, work, and ideas have worth. Know your worth.

Be Loving - Know love. Do not hide for fear of being hurt. The joy will always outweigh the pain. To love you must allow yourself to get close enough to be hurt. There is no other way. Like childbirth, the memory of the pain will fade it you let it, but the memory of the joy remains.

The clarion call of the human heart is to love and be loved. Yet, love must be balanced and uplifting and not toxic or hurtful. Let love be supportive, giving strength and freedom to those we care about and accepting no less for yourself.

There are types of love and it take time to tell them apart. There is love that springs from the soul love that flows from the heart, love that comes from the body. Only age and wisdom will allow you to know the difference. If you should get them confused consider yourself human and learn from the experience.

A relationship with God is the most fulfilling and loving experience a person could have, but a relationship with religion is the most hateful, judgmental and damaging of all. It is more difficult the experience the love and acceptance of God when constrained by the rules and judgment of man. Sadly, it is easier to fall into the rules and judgment of men than it is to reach out to the heart of God. God has one rule. Love and do what you will in the light of perfect love. If you love God and love your fellow man you will fulfill all that God desires. Man has a million rules that no one will ever be able to fulfill. When you fail you will be judged. The trick is to know who condemns you. It will always be someone coated with pride, ego, arrogance, and they will always be blind to their own vileness and shortcomings.

Be Wise - No one is perfect but we hope to sin less and less and have greater periods between sins. Be merciful but do not forget what a person’s weakness is. Do not be a fool. Keep enough distance from weak people so that their follies and failures do not affect or reflect on you. There are some people who cannot change. They are the ones lacking a moral compass. They do not feel what is right or wrong. They only want their way. These will be able to lie and convince you because they feel no guilt. These are people who are evil. Evil is difficult to spot. It is cloaked in smiles and flattery, but it always originates from pernicious selfishness. It is without conscious and cares only about itself. It has no thought of the feelings of others. It pretends to care but does not even think of others except as to how they can serve the evil person. Stay away from selfish and self-serving people. Even Satan himself falls into this category, and many people are just like him. It has taken me 60 years to gather to myself fewer than a dozen people I trust completely. Even at this, I feel I have been blessed with the best friends. If you want to know the true heart of a person watch how they treat others who they perceive to be below them or those serving them. If you want to know the true person watch them when things get tough. Between the lightning and thunder the true man is revealed.

Be Fearless - A successful life is made up of taking REASONABLE risks. Never bet the farm. Never try something that will ruin you or your family if it does not work. Take risks to get ahead and try new things if those risks are limited and you can recover if they fail. If you take reasonable risks you are assured of failing at times. Do not let your pride make you hold on to bad directions or choices too long. Do not become attached to them. Let go of them and move on. It does not matter how many times you fail, but how many times you try again. Be resilient.

Be Consistent – Go out of your way to keep your word. The more you do the more powerful your word becomes. There will be those who wish you to bend your word to benefit them. Let your word be as true for one as the other.

Make your plan and stay on the path -

There is a plan for living a good and rich life. You need a good education – a good plan – and a good job, and never take your eyes off the goal. Don’t do things that take you off the path.

Always think three steps ahead. Ask yourself how others will react to your words or actions. Ask yourself what the outcome will be. Then ask yourself what the outcome of the outcome will be. If you can do these things you will have a great life because so few people think more than one move ahead.

You must finish your education, land a good job, and only then should you get married. After these things you may decide when to have children. Doing things in any different order will greatly reduce your likelihood of a successful life.

Never be a one trick pony – be able to do many things because the world changes and what you make a living doing today may not be needed tomorrow.

Most problems in life are of our own making - lack of concentration – lack of thinking about the outcome of your actions. Most of the time it is because what clouded our judgment was “SPAM”. Sex, Power, Arrogance, and Money. These are the downfall of good people. One day they may be your downfall too, so be forgiving. We all suffer from the same diseases.

Understand that we are all connected in ways we cannot fathom. You attitudes will affect others around you. And the ones affected by you will in turn affect others. And the energies will spread like a mist of love or hate from one person to another.

There are areas of personally space and freedom. Theses are “Yours – Mine - and ours.”

Never tell someone how to feel or what to think. Those things are sacred and belong to them alone. Never let anyone tell you how to feel or what to think. Those are yours and just as others have a right to stand up for what they think or feel or believe, so do you have that right. The most we should do is present our case clearly and leave it to the person to change or not. We cannot change another person. Only in the areas of life where you and others have mutual concerns do you have the right and are allowed to argue strongly. Yet, in the midst of the argument ask yourself how much it really means to you and never let winning become more important than what you are discussing.

Changing takes tremendous and constant energy. It is difficult for people to change. If you are a teacher, sensei, or counselor you must apply gentle and constant energy and encouragement over a long period of time to help the person change, even if that person is you. The person must want to change. Even then, it is like bending cold steel, and many times when the strength of will is released the personality has a tendency to spring back.

At every stage of life we think we have arrived, matured, become what we were meant to be. We are wrong every time. We never arrive because we are always learning and changing. Never assume you are fully formed. If you are alive you are not. Also – If you want to know if your journey here is done, if you are alive it is not. BUT – your mission may be accomplished before your journey is over.

Be strong and walk your own path. If you do this and respect others they will call you a leader.

There are great and constant laws in this universe. These laws are how God has created the universe to work. These are my interpretation of the laws I have seen work for me.

1 "As you sow, so shall you reap". Whatever we put out into the Universe comes back to us in some similar form. - If what we want is Happiness, Peace, Love, and Friendship... then you must be Happy, Peaceful, Loving and a True Friend. How you treat others will be reflected in how you are treated. Of course this also has to do with your choice of people, as well as how you treat them.

2 Life doesn't just HAPPEN, it requires our participation. – Very few things happen by chance. We draw things to us. The things that happen and the people in our life reflect what we are inside. If you have several failed relationships they will likely have something in common. A flaws in you and thus your decisions.

3 Because nothing happens by chance we must take responsibility for what happens to us and because of us. Our choices and our attitudes cause our life to happen. If we do not accept responsibility we cannot change the things that need changing. Remember that the masses go in circles but the wise man rises in spirals. History will repeat itself . Over and over the same things will occur in various ways. Most people react the same and make the same mistakes. But the wise person learns each time and each time they act with more knowledge and wisdom.

4 When we change we will see the people, things and circumstances around us change also. Our world mirrors us. Likewise, if you wish to change it is easier to do so after we change our friends and our daily routines/habits.

5 Everyone and everything is connected. Your bad mood, thoughtless deeds, or harsh words will change those around you for the worse and make them feel like you feel. Keep your bad moods to yourself or it will spread and come back to get you. Likewise, your love and respect will spread also and will lift you up as you life up others.

6 Keep your mind focused on better things, spiritual things, things that will cause growth. Most mistakes are made for two reasons. – Lack of focus. Lack of consideration of the outcome of your actions or words.

7 Be here now. Learn from the past but live in the present. Each moment becomes its own world. You cannot fully live if you regret the past or dread the future. Plan. Prepare, think ahead, but live with your focus on what you are doing now. You will get out of a deed or thought what you put into it so put all of yourself in each thought and action. It is your intent that will open the doors of possibility and opportunity. Intend – Want – Work – and Be ambitious creators.

Islam is not a religion. It is a nation of Violence and it is headed this way.

When people come in to a country and set up their own government with their own laws and when they declare with a clear and loud voice they intend to overthrow your country and make it part of their nation, it is considered sedition and treason - unless of course you are Muslim. If you are Muslim our government will pay to import civil war, and they will pay each Muslim very well.

 A Fox News report this morning disclosed that the resettlement of Syrian Refugees will cost over $1900 EACH - but it turns out that is just to get them here. There is also the cost we will incur PER MONTH FOR EACH REFUGEE.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies - As Americans continue to debate what to do about the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, this analysis attempts to estimate the costs of resettling refugees from that region in the United States. Although we do not consider all costs, our best estimate is that in their first five years in the United States each refugee from the Middle East costs taxpayers $64,370 — 12 times what the UN estimates it costs to care for one refugee in neighboring Middle Eastern countries. The cost of resettlement includes heavy welfare use by Middle Eastern refugees; 91 percent receive food stamps and 68 percent receive cash assistance. Costs also include processing refugees, assistance given to new refugees, and aid to refugee-receiving communities. Given the high costs of resettling refugees in the United States, providing for them in neighboring countries in the Middle East may be a more cost-effective way to help them.

The Washington Post Nov. 30, 2015 reported - Once they're here, the federal government has an entire office dedicated to resettling them, making sure they get medical assistance and some spending money ($1,000 per refugee), along with English language and job training. It's called the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and it's housed under the Department of Health and Human Services. The

Washington Examiner 11/16/15 reported Obama plans to bring in 85,000-100,000 refugees, starting with 65,000. Hillary Clinton said she would increase the number of refugees Obama had suggested Even those in favor of taking in refugees, such as the director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa, have referred to sharing the "burden" of refugees, Wonkblog's Ana Swanson notes.

 So how much does it actually cost to resettle refugees? The nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures dug through the numbers recently and found that the Office of Refugee Resettlement has $1.56 billion to spend in fiscal 2015 — up from $587 million a decade ago.< A note here: Most of that money — and almost all of the increase — went to funding unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Mexico, which spiked to more than 24,500 in fiscal 2013 and led President Obama to call the influx an "urgent humanitarian crisis." The budget line for processing unaccompanied minors increased from $77.2 million in fiscal 2006 to $948 million in fiscal 2015. Excluding this money, funding for refugee resettlement has increased much more modestly. The rest of the money in fiscal 2015 was split up for traditional refugee resettlement, including medical services and cash (about $300 million a year) and social services such as job and language training (about $150 million a year) among all the refugees coming to the United States — of which an estimated 1,500 to 1,800 this fiscal year are expected to be Syrians.

Next year, Obama has plans to let in 10,000 Syrian refugees. There's no tidy way to break down how much the U.S. spends per refugee, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement's communications department. The costs vary greatly by state, and the office might receive funds from the Department of State, or use some of that money for people who aren't considered refugees, like victims of trafficking. But here's how the main budget items in resettling refugees break down now with our current count of refugees, courtesy of NCSL. Keep in mind that the United States resettled about 70,000 refugees in fiscal 2014: Paying $582 million a year to resettle refugees is an unavoidable upfront cost if the United States wants to keep accepting refugees.

 Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam is not a religion and should be afforded no religious rights .It is a political movement founded on a set of unaltered laws dating back to 700AD supported by a religious book. Islam is a nationalist movement in which its followers are told to conquer and subdue all others and impose Sharia law on the world. It should be considered a nation under a set of laws in the same way our laws are based on Judeo-Christian religious laws and beliefs. The difference is that their laws tell them to kill and enslave everyone else and our laws says to be fair to all. This combination is their invitation to do to us as they did to Europe and the UK. We cannot let this happen for the sake of our children. Obama has become the dreaded dictator and destroyer of nations. We must appeal to those in congress to stop this invasion.

 In a plea to his fellow congressmen, Jeff Sessions wrote, " In testimony before my Subcommittee, administration officials confirmed that our government has no access to Syrian government data to properly vet refugees and has no capacity to predict whether Syrian refugees are likely to join ISIS, as have many, for example, in Minnesota's Somali refugee community. On October 22, 2015, FBI Director James Comey confirmed this in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly stating that the government does not have the resources and lacks the necessary information to fully vet Syrian refugees, and could not offer any assurances that there is no risk associated with admitting these individuals to the country. Our track record on screening is very poor. My Subcommittee has identified at least 26 foreign-born individuals inside the United States charged with or convicted of terrorism over approximately the last year alone. The barbaric attacks in Paris - an assault on civilization itself - add immense new urgency. As the former head of the USCIS union warned in a public statement more than a year ago: "as we know from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, from the Boston Bombing, from the recent plot to bomb a school and courthouse in Connecticut, and many other lesser-known terror incidents, we are letting terrorists into the United States right through our front door."

 I my opinion, no Democrat should be left in any national office if we are to stop this madness. Learn more about the nature of this great threat : https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Islam-Understand-Prepare-Defend/dp/1936533812/

Hanukkah Didn't Happen That Way -

Hanukkah Didn't Happen That Way -

In Noam Zion's "A Different Light: The Hanukkah Book of Celebration", pg. 244 there is an excerpt that discusses Hanukah and the “miracle” of the oil. In the myth the Jews re-took the temple and kept the eternal flame burning for 8 days, even though there was only enough oil for 1 day. This, as it turns out, never happened. Recent changes in Hebrew schools curriculum have made it very clear that it was improper and unprofessional to teach the story of the miracle of the oil as having any historical accuracy. According to the new standards: "The myth of the oil is bad history, bad theology, and bad doctrine."

Teaching this myth as history violates the basic principles of Reconstructionist, Conservative, Reform, and Secular-Humanist Judaism.

It is more accurate to say this is a fictional story the rabbis told to explain why we celebrate Hanukah for 8 days.

Hanukkah celebrates the fact that a small number of ill-equipped rebels won a war against a mighty force. They were standing up for the freedom to worship God as they chose. After the war was done, they cleaned the temple and celebrated the holiday they'd most recently missed: Sukkot.

As the years passed, the people did not want to forget how miraculous it was that a small band of Jews defeated the mighty Greek (-Syrian) army, and how great the joy was at restoring the Temple. Somehow, to the original story was added the miracle of the oil.

But there is a huge political overtone to Hanukkah. The descendants of the Maccabees, the Hasmoneans, had significantly corrupted the priesthood and they were the nemesis to the rabbis who were starting rabbinic Judaism. The Maccabees were attempting to combine kingship and priesthood. This is against Jewish law. It was this party who began the practice of Hanukkah as a way to celebrate what they had accomplished as Jewish leaders, taking credit for defeating the pagans. The holiday was for their political advantage. In this light it makes sense that the rabbis would tell the story in a way that emphasized God's role as opposed to the Maccabees' role.

The closest thing the Jews have for “real” Hanukkah story is the Book of Maccabees which was preserved via the Christian canon in the Apocrypha of the Bible. It describes a civil war among the Jews. Antiochus took the temple over for pagan rites and defiled it. The story of the jewish revolt against this king is a very messy and bloody event. When the Maccabees headed the revolt and gained political power, it went to their heads and they wished to be both priests and rulers. Thus, they established their own holiday. The people needed something to commemorate the battle they had won and it was convenient for the Maccabees to use it as self aggrandizement

The story, as it is told now is aggadah, a legend that tells us something about the spiritual meaning of the history without necessarily being intended as factual. You can note that traditional Judaism does not take aggadah as fact, but still treasures it.

Over time myth can be mistakenly taught as history. Families do it all the time. So do religions. True or not, these stories inspire and teach spiritual and moral lessons.

Islam, Terrorist, and Religious Blackmail

In response to the continuing attacks on innocent people by Islamic terrorists, one is forced to err on the side of vocalism. We who believe in free speech will not be silenced, or even quieted, by religious hate, no matter from which religion it may arise. Running a company and page as I do, I have seen more than my share of religious intolerance, from both Christians and Muslims. Love and hate seem to turn on a dime between the poles of the religious life on one hand and a spiritual life on the other.

In my limited experience with this type of hate, there seems to be Christians who seek truth and those who judge. Most, but not all, Muslims wishing to interact with me have approached with a type of judgement and religious arrogance that does not allow dialog. There are exception, and to these men and women we must appeal.

Since we see few Muslims attempting to control the outbreak of hate and murder within their own religion, we must assume consent of the broader Muslim body to the recent killing and destruction throughout the world. This may not be the case, but the world as a whole is quickly developing this view. The Muslim clergy may condemn attacks after the fact but, to my knowledge, they do not turn in those within their mosques entertaining radical or murderous leanings. One wonders how opposed to the inevitable actions they are. Muslims are killing Christians, Jews, and even other Muslims of differing sects. There is no loud outcry en mass of "moderate Muslims" to condemn the recent killings.

As for Islam as a religion, one must ask, how can a movement conveying this amount of death be considered a valid religion? How can muslims remain silent regarding these events? Why do they not stop the terrorists growing within their midst? If Muslims do not rein in the murders among them there will be a time when anyone claiming that belief will be rejected by free societies.

Anyone believing they must kill others who disagree with their beliefs or "disrespects" (a subjective idea) their "god" has an impotent and false god of a belief system so weak it will fall under the slightest inspection. If God is actually powerful he or she is quiet capable of protecting himself or herself. No one needs to kill for a deity if that deity is real. Yes, once Christian had their time or ignorance.

The crusades were a horrible time, but at that time we had swords and spears. Now we have dirty bombs and weapons of mass destruction. We cannot afford this amount of ignorance in these modern times. Societies have evolved and advanced, all but some Islamic societies, which seem to be stuck, both in mode and method, in the dark ages. Let us appeal to those Muslims who are loving, wise people, to influence others in their faith to show the love of God, and not the hate of religion and to drag the violent minded people of their faith into the modern times, where freedom of thought and speech is held as the cornerstone of advancement.

In closing, I encourage all reading this post to continue to have open and free religious and philosophical dialog, even more so now than before. Do not be muted by hate or threat of violence. If we are quieted, the terrorists will have won. We are entitled to our opinions and points of view - even if they offend others. If we give in to the the cries of foul by those who set themselves up as religious judges we will soon have no rights left, neither to speak or act. Even the way we choose to dress will be stifled by religious leaders, no matter what religion they may espouse. DO NOT GIVE IN TO RELIGIOUS BLACKMAIL.

Christianity and Judaism - Cannibalism, Hocus Pocus, and Blood Sucking - Rituals misunderstood

Christianity and Judaism - Cannibalism, Hocus Pocus, and Blood Sucking - Rituals misunderstood

Most religions have rituals that are misunderstood by those outside the particular faith. When the Catholic church announced the belief in transubstantiation (the belief that the bread and wine became the literal body and blood of Jesus) those outside the faith claimed Christians were practicing cannibalism. Then, when they heard the priests proclaim "Hoc est corpus meum" - Mark 14:22 - 'This is my body' those who ridiculed the Christians claimed they were performing magic, and thus the words "Hocus Pocus" were born.

Now, there is an outcry regarding an ancient rite of circumcision still used by ultra-orthodox Jews. The ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice of metzitzah b'peh requires a practitioner to orally suck the baby's penis to 'cleanse' the open wound following its circumcision, making them susceptible to the virus.

Two more babies stricken with herpes after ritual ultra-orthodox Jewish oral blood sucking circumcision in New York City.

Since 2000 13 known cases of herpes have been contracted from the religious practice. Two deaths and two babies suffering brain damage have resulted Department of health warns there being no safe way to perform the ritual that dates back more than 5,000 years.

The department of health says one of the latest infants to contract the virus developed a fever and a lesion on its scrotum, seven days after the procedure. The boy later tested positive for HSV-1. That virus differs from HSV-2, the genital herpes, which is contracted during sexual intercourse.

'A herpes infection in a newborn baby has the risk of leading to severe illness and death,' Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told ABC News.

'The reason is that the baby doesn't have the same fully developed immune system as an adult. Instead of staying in the genital area, it extends throughout different organs in the body,' he explained.
He said it's too soon to tell whether the boys will suffer permanent effects.

The identify of the rabbi who performed the circumcision is being withheld by the boys' parents, preventing the health department to step in, they said.

Dangers: Since 2000 13 known cases of herpes have resulted from the practice, two of which suffered brain damage and two others died.

The religious practice that dates back to more than 5,000 years defies warning by the city's department of health which says there is no safe way to perform the oral suction on an open wound.
More modern Jewish practices use a sterile aspiration device to clean the wound or a pipette opposed to the oral sucking.
But some rabbis stand grounded behind the practice, calling it a religious freedom while noting its long history.

In September the department voted to require parents to sign forms consenting to the risks of the practice after the death of two children who contracted the virus through the practice.
The parents of those newly infected boys are said to have not signed those forms.
According to Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America, two-thirds of boys born in New York City's Hasidic communities are circumcised in the oral suction matter.

The health department claims they've had complaints in past by parents who say they weren't made aware that the oral practice would be performed on their child.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Two-babies-stricken-HERPES-rit…

Joseph and Aseneth

http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Aseneth-Love-Story-Commentary/dp/1936533502/

The story of Joseph and Aseneth was written between 100 BCE and 100 CE, in a midrash style. This translation is rendered in a modern, easy to read format with history, background, and commentary. Joseph and Aseneth is an epic story of love, desire, sanctification, and forgiveness. It is also a story of religious intolerance, racism, sexism, subterfuge, betrayal, and hate. The story begins after Joseph’s own brothers sold him into slavery. An Egyptian man purchased Joseph to be a servant to his wife. Because Joseph refused to serve her lustful desires, the woman had him thrown into prison on a false charge of rape. The Pharaoh saw greatness in Joseph after he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, giving the ruler insight that would save his nation. Thus, Pharaoh pardoned Joseph and assigned him a position of power. Joseph, the ever-devout Jew, begins his new career living in a world of polytheists where he seems to be tolerated with more grace than he gives to those “abominations” who are neither Jewish in the racial or religious sense. Aseneth is the daughter of the chief priest of the sun god in Heliopolis. She is a spoiled, arrogant child who disdains all men, and even disrespects her father. Aseneth is cursed with beauty, which draws men to her like flies to a carnivorous plant. Even the son of Pharaoh wants her for himself and plots to get her. But Aseneth loathes and despises men, until she sees Joseph, who refuses to even touch her because she does not worship the same god as he. It is within this setting we begin the wonderful and uplifting tale of Joseph and Aseneth.

Top Three Books Left out of the Old Testsament

For those interested in the Lost Book of the Bible, but do not wish to trudge through hundreds of texts, we have published the top three lost books of the Old Testament in a single volume.

Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher

http://www.amazon.com/Enoch-Jubilees-Jasher-Banned-Bible/dp/1936533448/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1409408261&sr=1-43

Three of the most popular and sought after apocryphal books are now presented in a single volume. - 

The Book of Enoch is quoted by Jude, cited by Peter, and read by the apostles, Enoch (1 Enoch) informs our ideas of angels and demons. The book describes the fall of a group of angels called,the Watchers, who took the daughters of men as wives and fathered the Nephilim (Genesis 6: 1-2). Enoch goes on to record amazing visions of heaven and the workings thereof. Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. It is regarded as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. - 

The Book of Jubilees, also known as The Little Genesis and The Apocalypse of Moses, opens with an extraordinary claim of authorship. It is attributed to the very hand of Moses; penned while he was on Mount Sinai, as an angel of God dictated to him regarding those events that transpired from the beginning of the world. The story is written from the viewpoint of the angel. The angelic monolog takes place after the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt. The setting is atop Mount Sinai, where Moses was summoned by God. The text then unfolds as the angel reveals heaven's viewpoint of history. We are lead through the creation of man, Adam's fall from grace, the union of fallen angels and earthly women, the birth of demonic offspring, the cleansing of the earth by flood, and the astonishing claim that man's very nature was somehow changed, bringing about a man with less sinful qualities than his antediluvian counterpart. The story goes on to fill in many details in Israel's history, ending at the point in time when the dictation began on the mount. - 

The Book of Jasher reveals a large quantity of additional information about the period between divine creation and the time of Joshua's leadership over Israel when the Israelites enter into the land of Canaan. The Book of Jasher includes details about the antediluvian patriarchs, angels, watchers, the flood, the tower of Babel, and many other events mentioned in the Bible. The tales are expanded and infused with detail not previously available. This means we receive insight into the lives of Abraham, Noah, Enoch, Joseph, and many other biblical figures. We come to understand how they became great and why they acted as they did. We are also given hitherto unknown knowledge of historical events. We are shown how God's hand shaped history through his love and anger. We see how his disappointment with men and angels ended in earth's near total destruction.

Newly released - Before The Gospels

Before the Gospels: The Gospels of Thomas, Q, Signs, and The Passion: The Writings from which the Gospels Sprang

http://www.amazon.com/Before-Gospels-Thomas-Passion-Writings/dp/1936533413/

Jesus was a man of few words, simple words, and a deeply challenging message. However, through the years his words and message have been clouded with additions and redactions. How can we possibly know the words he spoke? What were his original teachings? Where did his message stop and the many changes begin? Hidden in the gospels themselves are the source materials containing the original message preached by Jesus. Before the gospels were written, there were proto-gospels, notes, lists and collections of sayings used to construct the gospels we have today. By examining history, language, and content we can cut through additions and redactions to extract the earliest source materials and examine the true words and teachings of Jesus.

The Origin of Evil

From the book: "The Books of Enoch"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Books-Enoch-Extensive-Commentary/dp/1936533073/

The origins of evil are planted deeply within each of us. Evil is innocent as a child and monstrously vicious. It feeds upon the same flesh and breathes the same air as saint and martyr. Free will and personal choice direct our steps to heaven or hell and mark us as good or evil. Whether we are angel, watcher, nephilim, or man, evil is a choice many give themselves over to, fully and completely.
What is evil? Could it be as simple as pernicious selfishness? Could it be the drive for immediate gratification without regard for others? Man’s life is limited; one hundred years or less. But, the souls of angel and watcher are eternal. Consider how much evil can be wrought through the millennia of immediate gratification on an eternal scale.
It continues to be pride that keeps us from seeing the truth of our own nature. Pride itself blinds us to our own pride. Pride, arrogance, and selfishness are the seeds and flowers arising from the same root of evil. Evil is the manifestation of the same, all too common, human condition; a condition afflicting angels and watchers alike.
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” Proverbs 8:13
The root and cause of all evil arise from a self-centered viewpoint that takes no one else into consideration. It is the drive to control, dominate, and consume. The condition comes from tunnel vision so narrow as to include only the person and his desires. This calls into question the nature of evil.
Does evil have a reasoned intent to hurt, kill, and destroy or is there an egomaniacal innocence to evil? Could it be that complete evil is actually a blind selfishness? Does evil not arise from a refusal to consider the life, position, or feelings of others? Evil thoughts, actions, and feelings are based on fulfilling one’s own desires at the expense or destruction of all others. Feelings and welfare of others do not come into play, nor do they cross the mind of an evil being. The nature of evil is a twisted, childish, innocence; a self-centered and myopic view.
How strange and paradoxical; how appropriate Satan should take what was so much a part of his own nature and assist man in finding it so abundantly in himself.
As it is written of Satan in the Book of Isaiah:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14
As it is written in the records of man, in the most ancient books of Enoch, Jasher, and Jubilees:
Look the children of men have become evil because the building a city and a tower in the land of Shinar was for an evil purpose. They built the city and the tower, saying, “Go to, let us rise up thereby into heaven.” And whilst they were building against the Lord God of heaven, they imagined in their hearts to war against him and to ascend into heaven.
And all these people and all the families divided themselves in three parts; the first said, “We will ascend into heaven and fight against him;” the second said, “We will ascend to heaven and place our own gods there and serve them;” and the third part said, “We will ascend to heaven and strike him with bows and spears.” God knew all their works and all their evil thoughts, and he saw the city and the tower which they were building.

Yet this is only the beginning of the story. Hidden within the most ancient texts are the footprints of evil’s origins. Spread through these books are threads of truth left here and there in racial memories and oral histories dating back to the first recollections of man. In this primal state, evil was born and the story was recorded.
By contrasting and comparing ancient texts containing the creation of angels, demons, and man; a full and panoramic history of evil is produced. In this history the startling revelation of the descent of man and angels, and the evolution of evil on earth is clearly revealed.
The books selected for this purpose are, First and Second Adam and Eve, Jasher, Jubilees, First and Second Enoch, the War Scrolls, The Book of Giants, the Bible, and other ancient texts. Each of these ancient texts carries within it a piece of the story. By weaving the stories together, the origins of evil are brought into focus.

Audio and Video Teaching

Videos of interviews regarding Lost Books of the Bible, Canon, the Axial Age, and the Sacred Feminine are available toward the bottom of the page at  http://fifthestatepub.com/media/video/

More audio interviews can be found at http://fifthestatepub.com/feinterviews/page/2/

A third page of audio interview has been posted at http://fifthestatepub.com/feinterviews/page/3/

Inerrant Scripture?

From the book "Heresy of a Curious Mind"

http://www.amazon.com/Heresy-Curious-Mind-Exposing-Religion/dp/1936533383/

Inerrant Scripture

From the very beginning of the faith, when letters and books were being copied by hand and passed from one person to the next, there were glaring errors. As letters were collected and compared, it became obvious that there were major problems.

Origen (185 – 254) wrote in his thesis, Contra Celsum, “We must say that an attempt to substantiate almost any story as historical fact, even if it is true, and to produce complete certainty about it, is one of the most difficult tasks and in some cases is impossible.” To Origen, there were obvious discrepancies, such as the difference in chronology and geography concerning the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. Yet, since the Scriptures are inspired by the Spirit, they cannot contain errors, and at three different times in his commentaries Origen explicitly states, “inspiration implies freedom from error.”

But how can the Scriptures be free from error, even if inspired by the Holy Spirit, when they contain such obvious problems? For Origen, the apparent distortion of historical information is not necessarily the result of some scribal or other literary error, but purposefully put into the text by the Holy Spirit as a reminder that we must not depend on the purely historical reading. Origen writes:

“The differences among manuscripts have become great, either through the negligence of some copyists or through the perverse audacity of others; they either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please.”

“The divine wisdom has arranged for certain stumbling-blocks and interruptions of the historical sense to be found therein, by inserting in the midst a number of impossibilities and incongruities, in order that the very interruption of the narrative might as it were, present a barrier to the reader and lead him to refuse to proceed along the pathway of the ordinary meaning: and so, by shutting us out and debarring us from that, might recall us to the beginning of another way, and might thereby bring us, through the entrance of a narrow footpath, to a higher and loftier road and lay open the immense breadth of the divine wisdom.”

He continued by saying, what may appear as errors to us are intended by the Holy Spirit, to call the reader’s attention to “the impossibility of the literal sense”, and therefore signal the need for “an examination of the inner meaning.”

Origen believed, in his own words, that scripture “...contains three levels of meaning, corresponding to the threefold Pauline (and Platonic) division of a person into body, soul and spirit. The bodily level of Scripture, the bare letter, is normally helpful as it stands to meet the needs of the more simple. The psychic level, corresponding to the soul, is for making progress in perfection.… The spiritual interpretation deals with 'unspeakable mysteries' so as to make humanity a "partaker of all the doctrines of the Spirit's counsel.”

Origen actually believed that it was impossible for the scriptures to have errors so the errors found in scripture must have been placed there by God to provoke us to look at some deeper meaning.

A pagan opponent of Origen, named Celsus was not so kind when he wrote, ”Some believers, as though from a bout of drinking, go so far as to oppose themselves and change the texts of the gospels three or four or several times over, as to change its character to enable them to deny difficulties in the face of criticism.”

There were variations between books, and that was bad enough, but after manuscripts of various books were combined into the codices to make the Bible, the errors or differences between the various Bibles translated from them would become all too apparent. One might assume that the older versions would be less corrupt, but that would not necessarily be true. Look at copies in terms of genetics and lineage. If the original epistle was copied two times in 80 A.D. and the second copy had an error, we have only one copy left that was not a corrupt version. Now assume the flawed copy made it to a library and was preserved but the faithful version is copied and the copies were copied through ten generations of copies. If one of these copies of the faithful version lands in a church in 600 A.D. it would have a much longer lineage. It would be natural to assume the 80 A.D. version was less corrupt, but in fact if the 600 A.D. version did not pick up errors along the way it would be the one that is true to the original text.

Now assume that through time we collect fragments here and there and at times we are fortunate enough to find the occasional complete books. We can compare versions and maybe even track the lineage or “text family” of the fragments and books. If we compare fragments or books which have various “text families” we may see that books from pedigree “A, B, and C” say one thing but “D” says something different. If they started out with different copyists we can assume that one made a mistake. It becomes especially obvious if the word is one that looks or sounds like the rest but does not make as much sense.

These explanations are, to say the least, simplistic but they give a glimpse into the issues at hand. Those are which manuscripts are the least corrupt and which ones should be used to translate into some other tongue, such as English, in order to produce a Bible? It is not like we do not have several manuscripts to choose from. We have hundreds of fragments. Men have been searching through churches, archives, libraries, sand dunes, caves, and hardened soil for a thousand years to find traces of ancient Christian books.

To prove a point, here is a list of the first 20 out of over 100 as they are categorized.

The list contains:

Papyrus numbers and collection, dates, contents, text family,

owner or place.

P1 -P.Oxy. 2 - 3rd cent. - Matt 1- Alexandrian

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- Univ. of Penn. Museum

P2 - 6th cent.- John 12 - Mixed

Florence, Italy -Museo Archeologico

P3 -6th–7th cent. -Luke 7, 10 - Alexandrian

Vienna, Austria – Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

P4 -3rd cent. - Luke 1-6 - Alexandrian

Paris, France - Bibliothèque Nationale

P5 -P.Oxy. 208 - 3rd cent. - John 1, 16, 20

Western London, England - British Museum

Pap. 782 + Pap. 2484

P6 -4th cent. - John 10-11 agrees with B & Q

Strasbourg, France - Bibliothèque de la Université

Pap. copt. 351r, 335v, 379, 381, 383, 384

P7 - 5th cent. - Luke 4 (This item has been LOST. It was formerly in Kiev, Ukraine: Library of the Ukranian Academy of Sciences)

Petrov 553

P8 - 4th cent.- Acts 4-6 - mixed: Alexandrian & Western

(Item LOST, formerly in Berlin, Germany: Staatliche Museen_

P. 8683

P9 - P.Oxy. 402 - 3rd cent. - I John 4

Cambridge, Massachusetts -Harvard Semitic Mus.

P10 - P.Oxy. 209 - 4th cent. - Rom 1 - Alexandrian

Cambridge, Massachusetts - Harvard Semitic Mus.

P11 - 7th cent. -I Cor 1-7 - Alexandrian

Leningrad, Russia - State Public Library

P12 - P.Amh. 3b – late 3rd cent. - Heb 1

New York, New York - Pierpont Morgan Library

P13 - P.Oxy. 657 - 3rd–4th cent. - Heb 2-5, 10-12 - Alexandrian

London, England - British Museum

P14 - 5th cent. - I Cor 1-3 – Alexandrian

Mt. Sinai -St. Catherine's Monastery Library

P15- P.Oxy. 1008 - 3rd cent.- I Cor 7-8 - Alexandrian

Cairo, Egypt - Egyptian Museum

P16 - P.Oxy.1009 - 3rd–4th cent. - Phil3-4 -Alexandrian

Cairo, Egypt – Museum of Antiquities

P17 - P.Oxy.1078 - 4th cent. - Heb9 - mixed

Cambridge, England – University Library

P18 - P.Oxy.1079 - 3rd–4th cent. -Rev1 – agrees with: A, B, and C

London,England –British Museum

P19 - P.Oxy.1170 -4th–5th cent. - Matt10-11 - mixed

Oxford, England – Bodleian Library

P20 - P.Oxy.1171 - 3rd cent. - Jas2-3 - Alexandrian

Princeton, New Jersey – University Library

(These are but a few. There are over a hundred more.)

This brings us to the next pertinent problem, which is that of translation. We should question the source text or codices used. Some sources are better and more faithful than others. For example, if we know that the Vulgate was corrupted we should not use that source. We should go back to a Greek source. The source of the Latin Vulgate was the codex Vaticanus, named for the fact it was housed in the Vatican library.

But some Greek sources have errors also. An example within the Vaticanus codex is found in Hebrew 1:3. In his book, Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman describes how scribes battle over words within this chapter and verse, as with the entire Bible. According to most manuscripts the word Pheron is used and the verse is translated, “Christ bears all things through the word of His power.” But in the Vaticanus the word Phaneron is used and the verse is rendered, “Christ manifests all things through the word of His power.” Then a second scribe read it and decided that “manifests” is an uncommon word so he changes it back to “bears.” A century later a third scribe notices the alteration done by the second scribe and assumes the second scribe had exercised too much freedom, presuming to alter the original text. He changed the word back to “manifests” and added a note of indignation to the margin that read, “Fool and knave, leave the old reading. Don’t change it.” Sermons and entire theologies turn on a single word. In some manuscripts the word may not even be there.

Experts compare texts and render a version they believe is as close to the original uncorrupted text as possible. Out of this practice a manuscript is built that will be used to render an English translation. Some manuscripts will be better than others. Some will have the latest discoveries incorporated into the manuscripts. Thus, first we must question the sources used. Since we had been hand-copying manuscripts for fifteen hundred years, errors that occurred early, or errors occurring in manuscripts that were being copied and passed around more than others become entrenched. In fact, they become an accepted part of our bible.

One such example is the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. This is a wonderful story. It shows the grace and kindness of Jesus. It is also absent certain details like, where was the man who was also caught? Was he also forgiven? Was the law of punishment simply forgotten by the priests as the story was told in the town? As it turns out, we do not have to speculate. The story is missing from the older manuscripts. A scribe, who had an apparent mind toward drama more than truth, added it.

The above example is used every Sunday to teach the mercy and forgiveness of Christ, but it is not likely that denominations were founded upon its existence. Not so with the next example.

In the closing verses on Mark, the story is building rapidly to a crescendo. Jesus has been resurrected. Mary has discovered his body is missing. She runs to tell the disciples. Jesus is on his way to them. They do not believe Mary, but then, there he is! Jesus appears! Then the disciples are told to go out into all the world, preach, make converts, and if you are a true believer there are signs that will follow you. You will be able to pick up snakes, drink poison, heal the sick, drive out demons, and speak in tongues.

The following section of Mark does not appear in the older or more reliable manuscripts.

Mark 16

9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. 12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. 14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. 15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Now, we have a problem, because entire denominations are based on the existence of this text.

At times the error is compounded.

Matthew 17:21 is a duplicate of Mark 9:29. It was apparently added by a copyist in order to harmonize the gospels, however, Mark 9:29 was not in the oldest manuscripts either.

At times there are even variations within the additions. In Mark 9:29 Jesus comments that a certain type of indwelling demon can only be exorcised through "prayer and fasting" (KJV). This is also found in the Rheims New Testament. But the word "fasting" did not appear in the oldest manuscripts. New English translations have dropped the word.

Slight alterations can have ripple effects that produce entire doctrines.

Luke 3:22 is a passage that describes Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. According to Justin Martyr, the original version has God proclaiming, "You are my son, today have I begotten thee." Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, and other ancient Christian authorities agree on this version. The implication is that Jesus was first recognized by God as his son at the time of baptism. This would agree with certain Gnostic teachings. To distance the passage from the Gnostic viewpoint the words were altered to read, "You are my son, whom I love." This would come to be one of the passages on which the doctrine of the Trinity was based. Christian belief became set that Jesus was the son of God at his birth, (as described in Luke and Matthew) or before the beginning of creation (as in John), and not at his baptism.

Some additions are for theatrical effect and matter little to the overall message.

            In John 5:3-4 "a great multitude" of disabled people waited by the water for an angel to come and “trouble the water,” at which time it had healing properties for the first person who stepped in. A blind man was there. But the blind man could not see the water or the angel and those that were crippled stood little chance of being first. The passage seems out of place and makes little sense. Part of Verse 3 and all of Verse 4 are missing from the oldest manuscripts of John.

Scribes get carried away and begin writing instead of copying.

In John 21 the apostles are fishing and catching nothing. Jesus appears and tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat. By doing so they haul in as many fish as the boat can hold. Jesus eats with them and then begins the famous dialogue with Peter about loving Jesus and feeding His sheep. There is general agreement among liberal and mainline Biblical scholars that the original version of the Gospel of John ended at the end of John 20. Scholars do not agree if John 21 was an afterthought or an addition, although most hold with the latter view.

Then, there are errors that reflect values and prejudices of the time.

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 appears to prohibit all talking by women during services. But it contradicts verse 11:5, in which St. Paul states that women can actively pray and prophesy during services. The question has been, ”was this opinion for that one church or was this behavior to be held by all churches?”

It is obvious to some theologians that verses 14:33b to 36 are a later addition. Bible scholar, Hans Conzelmann, comments on these three and a half verses: "Moreover, there are peculiarities of linguistic usage, and of thought. [within them]." If they are removed, then Verse 33a merges well with Verse 37 in a seamless transition. If he is correct, many churches will have to re-think their sexist views.

In Revelation 1:11, the phrase "Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last…" (KJV) which is found in the King James Version was not in the original Greek texts. It is also found in the New King James Version (NKJV) and in the 21st Century King James Version (KJ21) The latter are basically re-writes of the original KJV. The Alpha Omega phrase is not found in virtually any ancient texts, nor is it mentioned, even as a footnote, in any modern translation or in Bruce Metzger's definitive 'A Textual Commentary' on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition.

            Many sources, including United Bible Societies and Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance were used for the previous section and speak well to this issue.

            Before we accept the version of the Bible we are reading we must be sure of its source. We must know if it was the most reliable source available. We must know how the manuscript was translated.

There are several ways to translate. The large number of translations are usually grouped into three main categories. A literal translation attempts to translate word for word and is a type of interlinear approach. They are usually the most accurate but also the most difficult to read. This is because English differs from Greek in the order of subject, verb, and predicate. The sentence structure becomes tangled and confusing. Then, there is that looming problem when words do not have an exact match and a phrase is used to render a word or two.

A dynamic translation attempts to keep the literal approach but restructures the sentences and grammar to make the Bible more readable. This opens the translation up to some degree of subjectivity and error.

Contemporary English translations are the easiest to read because they attempt to capture the meaning of the text and place the thought into modern English. The result is easy to read, but the text is highly subjective and should be approached with great care.

One should always question the purpose of a new translation. Was the translation commissioned for the purpose of expanding a particular denomination? In such cases it is quite possible that the wording and flavor of the text was bent to conform to the beliefs of the church body underwriting the translation. It would seem to be pure foolishness for a church to bend the scriptures to their will instead of re-examining and reforming their doctrine, but the former is done far too often.

One such obvious tact used in a modern church was that of the “New World Bible.” The denomination using this version is adamantly opposed to the doctrine of the trinity. By altering their Bible by a single word, nay – a single letter, they manage to negate the existence of the trinity. They simply inserted the letter “a.”

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

John 1:1

1 In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.

Compare to the NIV, which echoes most other Bibles.

John 1:1 (New International Version)

 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

With such translations freely circulating, how can one claim the Bible is inerrant?

Most translations have the general error induced by starting with their own personal beliefs, and thus the subconscious prejudice of how the verse should be rendered.

Having covered the three main approaches to translations, it needs to be restated that every translation requires interpretation. At times this can be rather subjective. Why? Because languages do not translate word for word. Not every word has a unique word to match it in the other language. There are idioms, expressions, and metaphors that become meaningless in other tongues. Some languages even have different verb tenses and there is no direct single verb that fits the translation. Greek has verbs that indicate an action happening in the past with continuing effects back in time.    There are also verbs that indicate an event in the present with consequences continuing far into the future. English has no such equal. Some languages are richer in expression than English (such as Greek) or smaller in vocabulary (such as Hebrew). A translator must interpret the original meaning and find an equivalent wording. This is why at times a phrase will end up replacing a word or two. It is also why this makes the result subject to the biases of the translator. The translator must also attempt to put aside his personal beliefs so as not to bend a translation to mean something more or less than what it actually says.

This is a human process of choices and biases. Interpretations will differ and errors will occur.

To complicate things, all ancient manuscripts do not support a number of verses. Some verses only occur in latter versions, sometimes within only a set text family. Translators have to decide which verses to leave out of the text. Most translators will mark any verse left out of the majority of manuscripts with a note in the margin or a footnote with the omitted verse.

It is extremely ironic that one of the most well known and foundational sections of the Bible demonstrates both of the above points of translation and omission. It is the Lord’s Prayer.

First, let us examine the The King James' version of The Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13: “After this manner therefore pray ye: ‘Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’”

Now let us read the Lord’s prayer in the NIV.

Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Ignoring the difference between the Elizabethan English and modern English, there are two glaring differences in the last verse between the King James' Lord’s prayer.

The KJV asks for deliverance from “evil” while the NIV asks to deliver us from “the evil one.” There is a huge theological difference between the two. The Greek text actually uses an adjective with an article, making “the evil one” the only correct translation. We pray to be delivered from the evil one, not from any danger, disaster, or from the general ugliness of the world.

Look at the last line. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen.” This verse does not occur in older manuscripts. It only occurs as an addition to manuscripts of a certain “lineage” past a certain date. The doxology of the prayer is not contained in Luke's version. It is also missing from the earliest manuscripts of Matthew, representative of the Alexandrian text. It is present, however, in the manuscripts representative of the Byzantine text. To help date these two periods one should know that the Byzantine Empire began around 1557, and the Codex Alexandrinus is a 5th century Greek Bible, so we are talking about a period of almost one-thousand years.

Therefore the differences between the various English translations, such as the KJV and the NIV can come down to choices in interpretations as well as a choice of which ancient manuscripts to use as a source. Sometimes errors occur.

When errors do happen from the copyists’ standpoint they can usually be attributed to a hand full of reasons. Errors in translations come from several directions. There are errors of the eye, where the copyist or scribe may read the text incorrectly, and transposing letters to make a new word and then write or interpret accordingly.

Errors of speech occur when a reader is dictating to a copyist and the scribe hears the word but confuses it with a word, which is pronounced in a similar manner but is incorrect.

Errors of the mind occur when the scribe reads a line and simply forgets the exact wording, producing an inexact copy, such as a substitute of the word “out” for “from” or the word “karpos (fruit) instead of “karphos” (speck). Other tricks the mind can play are to include explanatory notes found in the margins of many manuscripts within the main body of the text.

Intentional changes occur when a well-meaning scribe attempts to correct what he assumes to be an error in linguistics, which is not an error at all. Other intentional errors occur when attempting to align the Bible with biblical history, as it is understood at the time of copying.

A very obvious and specific error occurs when the scribe attempts to “harmonize” various passages in the Bible in order to make them less divergent or contradictory.

There are errors that can be introduced due to doctrine. These occur when one group decides to alter the manuscript to more closely reflect their own biases. Several of these may be found in the 16th century and include certain changes of an anti-Semitic view.

There are subtle changes that may occur in what is called “liturgical errors.” These tend to be minor changes in word or flow to make the liturgy flow easier or make it easier to remember or follow.

In the more recent past, the errors of eye and mind were compounded when the printing press was invented. Errors usually assigned to one or two books could now be propagated through hundreds of Bibles at once.

King Charles I ordered 1,000 Bibles from an English printer named Robert Barker in 1631. It was an edition of the King James Bible. Only after the Bibles were delivered did anyone notice a serious mistake. In one of the Ten Commandments [Exodus 20:14], a very small word was forgotten by the printers. The word "not" was left out. This changed the 7th commandment to say “Thou shalt commit adultery!” Most of the copies were recalled immediately and destroyed on the orders of Charles I. But there are 11 copies still remaining. They are known as the "Wicked Bible." (The Bible museum in Branson - Missouri has one on display.) The printer was fined the equivalent of $400, a lifetime’s wages at the time.

The word "not" was also left out in the 1653 edition. In 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 it was printed: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God" - instead of ""Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Again it was recalled immediately. It is known as the "Unrighteous Bible."

The Murderer's Bible - printed in 1801 - declared: "these are murderers" (instead of murmurers) and continued - "let the children first be killed" (instead of "filled.")

Perhaps the error in Psalm 119 verse 161 in a 1702 version summed it all up: instead of "princes" it read - "printers have persecuted me." It is known as the Printer's Bible.

These are but a few of the more noteworthy mistakes, but these mistakes must bring into question the doctrine of the inerrancy of the Bible. Most fundamental denominations hold to the fact that the Bible is complete and without error. It may be neither.

The history of the English Bible is a fascinating story. It serves to prove a point or two about how the church intentionally changed the Bible and then protected the alterations on penalty of death. Our starting point in this history is the production of Wycliff’s hand-written English Bible, which was the result of the “Morning Star Reformation” led by John Wycliffe.

The first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts were produced in the 1380's A.D. by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor. Wycliffe was a well-known theologian in Europe who stood in opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. He enlisted his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, along with others to act as scribes to produce dozens of English manuscripts. They were translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which was known to be somewhat corrupt, but was the only source text available to Wycliffe. The Pope was so infuriated by his rebellion, his actions, his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, the Pope ordered the bones of Wycliffe to be dug-up, crushed, and the dust of his bones were thrown in the wind to be carried out over the river.

John Hus was one of Wycliffe’s followers. Hus actively campaigned for Wycliffe’s work and ideas. Both men firmly believed that people should be permitted to read the Bible. They believed Bibles should be available in native tongues and all men should have the right to read it in their own language. Hus and Wycliffe openly opposed the tyranny of the Roman church. The edicts issued from the Pope threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. The edict was carried out when Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) to the church door at Wittenberg. The prophecy of Hus had come true.

Sometime in the 1450’s Johann Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press. The result was amazing and immediate. Copies of books could now be mass-produced in a short time. Distribution for illegal books happened in an underground network. The first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.

Thomas Linacre was a self-styled Greek scholar active in the 1490’s. He was an Oxford professor, and the personal physician to Kings Henry the 7th and 8th. Thomas Linacre, a very bright man, decided to learn Greek in order to read the Bible for himself. After reading the Gospels and comparing the same texts to those in the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary, “Either this is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.” The Latin had become so corrupt that it misrepresented and mangled the message of the Gospel. The church knew this but worked to keep a strangle hold on power instead of putting forth the effort to correct the Vulgate. Throughout all of this the Church threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin from any other source but the Vulgate. This was because many of the Vulgate’s corruptions were intentionally placed to support church doctrine. Instead of building doctrine around the Bible, the church bent the Bible to support doctrine. This was not that difficult since Latin was not an original language of the scriptures and the conversion between Greek and Latin could be worded as the church wished.

John Colet, another Oxford professor was the son of the Mayor of London. In 1496 he began reading the New Testament in Greek. Soon after he decided to translate it into English for his students at Oxford. Later he provided texts for the public at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. The people were so excited to actually read and understand the Bible, that within six months it was reported that each Sunday there were 20,000 people attempting to get into the church and an equal number surrounding the church to listen and possibly obtain a document. Fortunately for Colet, his political connections spared him from execution.

Erasmus was considered one of the greatest biblical scholars of all time. In 1516 he picked up the challenge of Linacre and Colet to correct the corrupt Latin Vulgate. He did this with the help of a printer named John Froben. Together, they published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. He used the Greek, which he had managed to collate from a half-dozen partial old Greek New Testament manuscripts he had acquired. This produced the first non-Latin (Vulgate) text of the scripture to be produced in a millennium. The Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament focused attention on just how corrupt and inaccurate the Latin Vulgate used by the church was. Now people began to see how important it was to go back and use the original Greek and Hebrew texts. To translate the Bible into any native tongue more faithfully one must begin with the most accurate texts. Translations rendered from corrupt translations simply compounded error. The driving force keeping the act of translating illegal became obvious when Pope Leo X himself declared, "The fable of Christ has been quite profitable to me." The Pope feared loss of control and loss of revenue.

William Tyndale (1494-1536) holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. Tyndale was a true scholar and a genius. He was fluent in eight languages to the point that it was said one would think any one of them to be his native tongue. He is frequently referred to as the “Architect of the English Language”, (even more so than William Shakespeare) as so many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in our language today.

           Tyndale was a Biblical translator and martyr; born most probably at North Nibley, about 15 miles south-west of Gloucester, England, in 1494. He died at Vilvoorden, about 6 miles north-east of Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 6, 1536. Tyndale was descended from an ancient Northumbrian family. He went to school at Oxford, and afterward to Magdalen Hall and Cambridge.

Tyndale translated the Bible into an early form of Modern English. He was the first person to take advantage of Gutenberg’s movable-type press for the purpose of printing the scriptures in the English language. Tyndale held and published views considered heretical by the Catholic Church, and the Church of England established by Henry VIII. His Bible translation also included notes and commentary promoting these views. In the house of Walsh he disputed with Roman Catholic dignitaries, exciting much opposition, which led to his removal to London around Oct., 1523. A clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church once infuriated Tyndale by proudly proclaiming, “We are better to be without God’s laws than the Pope’s.” Tyndale was enraged by what he viewed as the unreasonable and ungodly Roman Catholic heresies, to which he replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you!”

Tyndale's translation was banned by the authorities, and

His death would occur a few years thereafter.

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records that in that same year, 1517, seven people were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of teaching their children to say the Lord’s Prayer in English rather than Latin.

In 1517 Martin Luther declared his intolerance for the Roman Church’s corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door.

Luther, who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worms Council in 1521 that was designed to martyr him, would translate the New Testament into German for the first time from the 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus, and publish it in September of 1522. Luther also published a German Pentateuch in 1523, and another edition of the German New Testament in 1529. In the 1530’s he would go on to publish the entire Bible in German.

William Tyndale had wanted to use the same 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print the New Testament in English for the first time in history. Tyndale showed up on Luther's doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year's end had translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale had been forced to flee England, because of the wide-spread rumor of his project. Inquisitors and bounty hunters were constantly hounding Tyndale to arrest and kill him.

The authorities failed and Tyndale published his Bibles. They were burned as soon as the Bishop could confiscate them, but copies trickled through and actually ended up in the bedroom of King Henry VIII.

            The public fascination continued to grow as well as the panic within the Roman Catholic Church. They attempted to counter the outcry by declaring the new translation contained thousands of errors. This became the excuse for burning hundreds of New Testaments. The fact was that they could find no errors in the texts. The church continued to enforce its edicts and anyone caught with a Tyndale Bible risked death by burning.

Having God's Word available to the public in the language of the common man, spelled disaster to the church. The church could not continue doing things that were so completely contrary to the Bible, such as selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sins one was planning to commit) or selling the release of loved ones from Purgatory.

Salvation through faith, not works or donations, was becoming the cry to battle. These were just a few things to come out of the Luther – Tyndale crusade.

Tyndale was betrayed by a fellow Englishman who was supposedly his friend. Tyndale was imprisoned for about 500 days before he was strangled and then burned at the stake in 1536. His last words were, "Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” This prayer would be answered in 1539, when King Henry VIII commanded the printing of an English Bible known as the “Great Bible.”

Myles Coverdale and John Rogers were disciples of Tyndale. They continued the English Bible project after his death. Coverdale finished translating the Old Testament, and in 1535 he printed the first complete Bible in English. He made use of Luther's German text and the Latin as his sources. The first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible.

John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. It was, however, the first English Bible translated from the original Biblical languages of Hebrew & Greek. He printed it under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew", a pen-name actually used by Tyndale at one time. He could have done this to honor the fact that a considerable part of this Bible was the translation of Tyndale before his murder at the hands of the church. The Bible was a composite made up of Tyndale's Pentateuch, his New Testament 1534-1535 edition, Coverdale's Bible, and some of Roger's own translation of the text. It remains known as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible. A second-edition printing was done in 1549.

In 1539, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, hired Myles Coverdale at the command of King Henry VIII. His task was to publish the "Great Bible.” It became the first English Bible authorized for public use. The Bible was distributed to Anglican Churches. One was chained to the pulpit, and a person to read the Bible was provided so that even the illiterate could hear the Word of God in plain English. William Tyndale's prayer had been granted three years after his martyrdom. Cranmer's Bible, published by Coverdale, was known as the Great Bible due to its great size: a large pulpit folio measuring over 14 inches tall. Seven editions of this version were printed between April of 1539 and December of 1541.

King Henry VIII had not actually changed his mind regarding publishing the Bible in English for the masses. He did it because he was angry with the Pope for refusing to grant his divorce. King Henry responded by marrying his mistress anyway, and having two of his many wives executed. Henry was the second son in the family and was destined to be a priest. Henry VIII had three siblings, two girls and one boy. His brother was called Arthur. Arthur was Prince of Wales. When Henry VII, his father, was still alive, Arthur died. Which made Henry VIII heir to the throne. Henry knew the church inside and out. In his anger he renounced Roman Catholicism, and removed England from Rome’s religious control. Henry declared himself the new head of the Church. To this day the Kings of England are sworn to be “Defender of the Faith.” His first act was to strike Rome in the heart of the church by funding the printing of the scriptures in English. This gave way to the first legal English Bible.

After King Henry VIII and then King Edward VI died, the reign of Queen “Bloody” Mary began. From 1540's through the 1550's she was possessed in her obsession to return England to the Roman Church. In 1555, she had John "Thomas Matthew" Rogers and Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake. Mary went on to burn hundreds for the "crime" of being a Protestant. This era was known as the Marian Exile. Religious refugees fled from England, but there was no truly safe place anywhere near except for Switzerland.

The Church at Geneva, Switzerland, was sympathetic to religious refugees and was one of only a few safe havens. Myles Coverdale and John Foxe, publisher of “Foxe's Book of Martyrs,” along with Thomas Sampson and William Whittingham met there in the 1550's, with the protection of the great theologian John Calvin and John Knox, the reformer of the Scottish Church. They undertook to produce a Bible that would educate their families while they continued in exile. The New Testament was completed in 1557, and the complete Bible was first published in 1560. It became known as the Geneva Bible. Due to the use of the word "Breeches," which is an antiquated form of "Britches" (pants), some people referred to the Geneva Bible as the Breeches Bible. The Geneva Bible was the first Bible to add numbered verses to the chapters, so that referencing specific passages would be easier. Every chapter was also accompanied by extensive marginal notes and references so thorough and complete that the Geneva Bible is also considered the first English "Study Bible.”

William Shakespeare quotes hundreds of times in his plays from the Geneva translation of the Bible. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of choice for over 100 years of English speaking Christians. Between 1560 and 1644 at least 144 editions of this Bible were published.

Examination of the 1611 King James Bible shows clearly that its translators were influenced much more by the Geneva Bible, than by any other source. The Geneva Bible itself retains over 90% of William Tyndale's original English translation. The Geneva in fact, remained more popular than the King James Version until decades after its original release in 1611. The Geneva holds the honor of being the first Bible taken to America, and the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims. It is truly the “Bible of the Protestant Reformation.” The famous Geneva Bible has been out-of-print since 1644, so the only way to obtain one is to either purchase an original printing of the Geneva Bible, or a less costly facsimile reproduction of the original 1560 Geneva Bible.

In 1568, a revision of the Great Bible known as the Bishop's Bible was introduced. Despite 19 editions being printed between 1568 and 1606, this Bible, referred to as the “rough draft of the King James Version”, never gained much of a foothold of popularity among the people. The Geneva may have simply been too much to compete with.

By the 1580's, the Roman Catholic Church saw that it had lost the battle to suppress the Bible and repress the people. In 1582, they ceased their fight for "Latin only" and began an official Roman Catholic English translation. In an attempt to continue control through the corrupt translation of the Latin Vulgate, it was decided that the English translation should use Vulgate as the only source text. Because it was translated at the Roman Catholic College in the city of Rheims, it was known as the Rheims New Testament. The Douay Old Testament was translated by the Church of Rome in 1609 at the College in the city of Douay. The combined product is commonly referred to as the "Doway/Rheims" or “Douay/Rheims” Version.

In 1589, Dr. William Fulke of Cambridge published the "Fulke's Refutation.” Fulke printed in parallel columns the Bishops Version along side the Rheims Version, in an attempt to show the error and distortion of the Douay/Rheims.

With the death of Bloody Mary and then Queen Elizabeth I, Prince James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. The Protestant clergy, feeling less religious tyranny, approached the new King in 1604 with the desire for an updated and less confrontational Bible. The new translation was to replace the Bishop's Bible first printed in 1568. They wished to keep the scholarship and accuracy but do away with the rather acrid marginal notes proclaiming the Pope an Anti-Christ, and such. This suited the king, who many regarded as a closet Catholic. The leaders of the church desired a Bible with word clarification and cross-references, available to the masses.

In 1611 the first of the 16-inch tall pulpit addition was printed. It is known as "The 1611 King James Bible.” A typographical error in Ruth 3:15 rendered a pronoun "He" instead of "She" in that verse in some printings. This caused some of the 1611 First Editions to be known by collectors as "He" Bibles, and others as "She" Bibles. Yes, I regret to say that even the sacred KJV had errors.

One year after the pulpit-size King James Bibles were printed and chained to every church pulpit in England, personal copies of the Bible became available.

One of the great ironies of history is that many Protestant Christian churches today declare the King James Bible as the only legitimate English language translation but it is not even a Protestant translation. Remember, the King of England is the “Defender of the Faith” for the Anglican Church, which is considered by most not to be a Protestant faith, but a Catholic sect.

After England broke from Roman Catholicism in the 1500’s, the Church of England, also called “The Anglican Church,” continued to persecute Protestants throughout the 1600’s. One famous example of this is John Bunyan, who while in prison for the crime of preaching the Gospel, wrote one of Christian history’s greatest books, Pilgrim’s Progress. Throughout the 1600’s, as the Puritans and the Pilgrims fled the religious persecution of England to cross the Atlantic and start a new free nation in America, they took with them their precious Geneva Bible, and rejected the King’s Bible. America was founded upon the Geneva Bible, not the King James Bible. However, as time went on and the newer edition of the K.J.V. gained in popularity in America it eclipsed the Geneva Bible.

Until the appearance of the English Revised Version of 1881-1885 the King James Version was the Bible of choice for most. It is a little-known fact that for the past 200 years, all King James Bibles published in America are actually the 1769 Baskerville spelling and wording revision of the 1611. The original “1611” preface is deceivingly included by the publishers, and no mention of the fact that it is really the 1769 version is to be found, because that might hurt sales. The only way to obtain a true, unaltered, 1611 version is to either purchase an original pre-1769 printing of the King James Bible, or a less costly facsimile reproduction of the original 1611 King James Bible.

The differences between the two versions are easy to spot since there are no less than 24,000 differences in words, grammar, and punctuation between the four major revisions of the 1611 KJV between the 1613 and 1769 versions. (Here I must ask my Independent Baptist Brothers who defend the KJV as the only true Bible; “Which of these versions is the perfect word of God?”)

In 1663 John Eliot published the first Bible printed in America. It was a translation in the native Algonquin Indian Language. The first English language Bible to be printed in America by Robert Aitken in 1782 was a King James Version. Robert Aitken’s 1782 Bible was the only Bible ever authorized by the United States Congress. President George Washington commended him for providing Americans with Bibles during the embargo of imported English goods due to the Revolutionary War.

In the 1880’s England planned a replacement for their King James Bible, known as the English Revised Version (E.R.V.). It would become the first English language Bible to gain popular acceptance after the King James Version. The widespread popularity of this modern-English translation was the first bible to eliminate the 14 Apocryphal books. Up until the late 1800’s every Protestant Bible, as well as the Catholic Bibles had 80 books, not 66. The exception was the little known “Robert Aitken’s Bible” of 1782. It was the King James Bible published without the apocrypha.

The inter-testament books written hundreds of years before Christ called “The Apocrypha” were part of virtually every printing of the Tyndale-Matthews Bible, the Great Bible, the Bishops Bible, the Protestant Geneva Bible, and the King James Bible until their removal from the K.J.V. around 1885. The original 1611 King James contained the Apocrypha, and King James threatened anyone who dared to print the Bible without the Apocrypha with heavy fines and a year in jail. Only for the last 120 years has the Protestant Church rejected these books, and removed them from their Bibles. This has left most modern-day Christians believing the popular myth that there is something “Roman Catholic” about the Apocrypha. That was not true, and no consistent reason for the removal of the Apocrypha in the 1880’s has ever been officially issued by mainline Protestant denominations. It is thought that since the Apocrypha had fallen into disuse and was thought of as a historical reference but not on the same spiritual level as the Old or New Testament, the removal made little spiritual difference and saved a little money.

Knowing all of the above… knowing how corrupt the Vulgate and all translations issuing from it are, I ask again, ”Is the Bible inerrant?”

The Bible is a wonderful gift from God. It is a great road map to live by, but it is not God. The Bible has been passed through the hands of men. Scribes, copyists, translators, collectors, and printers have all made their marks. Men make mistakes. Nothing mankind has touched is without error. When we raise the Bible to the Status of God and begin worshiping the book instead of the Spirit who inspired it, we fall into legalism. Legalism breeds judgment, divisions, and hate. It is at this point that Christians begin hurting those of differing beliefs, including other Christians who may have another point of view. We fall into the same category as the extremists we so despise. Christian extremists have damaged more Christians than Islamists have ever hurt.

Sources: University of Texas at Dallas - on line library

williamtyndale.com

Regent University - on line library

American Bible Society