Bible Anomalies
THE FIRST CHURCH
To
the church a church is a big fancy building, fed by a building fund, used to
hold weekly meetings, which are held to increase the building fund. A staff
whose job is to hold the existing members and draw in more members to support
the building fund. A pulpit is
used to scare the members into following harsh and primitive Hebrew laws, keep
them from seeking knowledge outside the particular organization, and give more
money to the building fund. Seldom, if ever, some money is diverted from the
building fund to present a token image of charity, which is aimed at attracting
new members to increase the building fund.
The Bible:
What is religion?
The word religion appears only 4 times in the Bible, three of those
times in direct reference to the religion of the Jews.
The one time it refers to religion in general is in this verse:
James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Helping the poor and indigent is at the very core of the first church’s
focus and practices.
The Beginning
The first chapter of Acts details the first actions of the first church.
In reading this it should be pointed out that this book is actually the
second part of the Book of Luke. The
first part was about the actions of Jesus, the second about the actions of the
apostles after his ascension. This
is detailed in the first three verses:
Acts 1:1.
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that
Jesus began both to do and teach,
2. Until
the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had
given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3.
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by
many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
The next verses refer to the directive that the apostles and disciples
to wait for a special transfer of spiritual energy to be imparted to them after
his ascension:
Close Encounter
In the next three verses Jesus is beamed aboard a cloud / vehicle, the
apostles have a very close encounter and are told that Jesus would return in
the same cloud /vehicle he just boarded.
9.
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up;
and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up
into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
After the ascension the group returns to wait for the promise:
12. Then returned they
unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath
day's journey.
13.
And when they
were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and
James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew,
James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
The Spirit
The spirit is transferred and
the miracles begin:
The Communal Church
The church establishes a communal lifestyle:
Acts
2:43
Communal living is an established church practice:
Acts
Communal honesty is a serious matter:
Acts
5:1. But a certain man
named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2.
And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and
brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3.
But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4.
Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5.
And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and
great fear came on all them that heard these things. 6. And the young
men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. 7.
And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not
knowing what was done, came in. 8.
And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so
much? And she said, Yea, for so much. 9.
Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to
tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy
husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. 10. Then fell she
down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came
in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
Church Members
As can be seen from the above verses the modern church bears no
resemblance to the first church. A
study of the principles Jesus taught would of course mean the church was
engaged in helping the poor and indigent, as well as the healing by those
possessed with this gift. The
roles that the members of the church played were quite different from the
members of today’s pew fillers and plate passers:
Constantine’s Church
Constantine
became Emperor of western Rome after Diocletian abdicated in 305 AD. Under Diocletian,
284-305 AD, the Christian faith suffered its worst persecution but had not been
eradicated. Up to this time paganism played an essential role in life and
government and religion was considered an area within the governments rule.
Constantine was sympathetic to Christianity and tolerant to diversity in
religion, but his conversion to Christianity after his rise to power was not due
to true religious zeal. Christianity was a more effective way of accomplishing
goals his rivals failed to reach under paganism. It was certainly politically
advantageous for him to convert as soon he was not only the head of Rome but the
head of Christianity. He found that if he portrayed himself as God's
appointed Emperor he could accomplish more than claiming himself to be God.
What he did in government was God's will and of course being chosen by God he
was a natural as head of the Church.
After solidifying his position to gain complete control of the
western portion of the empire in 312, he instituted the Edict of Milan, a "Magna
Carta of religious liberty," which eventually changed the Empire’s religion and
put Christianity on an equal footing with paganism. Almost overnight the
position of the Church was reversed form persecuted to legal and accepted.
Constantine began to rely on the church for support, and it on him for
protection. The Church and the Empire formed an alliance, which remains to this
day. Very rapidly the laws and policies of the Empire and the doctrine of the
Church became one with Constantine as the interpreter of both law and policy.
Through a series of Universal Councils he eliminated dissent and
dissenters, changed holy days, and outlawed the Sabbath. The greatest effect he
had was destroying any book in the accepted biblical works, over 80% of the
total, he felt did
not fit within his concept of
Christianity. He completely altered doctrine without regard to biblical edict,
set up a church hierarchy of his own design, and established a set of beliefs
and practices, which are the basis for all mainstream Bible-based churches. The
separation of the Protestants and the Roman Church caused a physical split but
the beliefs and practices established by Constantine remained almost identical.
Very little has changed since the 4th century Councils changed face of
Christianity.
The Non-Biblical Nature of the Modern Church
Though claiming piety and biblical authority the reality of modern church conduct is sadly lacking in scriptural foundation and often runs contrary to biblical principle. Finding any resemblance to the first church is a futile pursuit. Here are a few of the discrepancies:
· All the High Sabbaths, or festivals, outlined in the Bible are ignored and are replaced with ancient pagan holidays such as Easter, Christmas, and Halloween.
· Money is solicited and often demanded to allegedly support the work of the church, which has little, if anything to do with the original commission of the church. Such practice is not authorized in biblical law, and may possibly be a gross violation, if extracted as a tithe.
· Meetings are held on Sunday without biblical authority and setting aside the last day of the week for rest is ignored. There is no biblical command to meet in any building, on any day of the week, in force. The fact that the first day of the week is a day set aside by pagan religions to worship an assortment of sun gods only increases the violation. In the year 321, Constantine the Great ruled that the first day of the week, 'the venerable day of the sun', should be a day of rest. The personal pronouncements of a mere mortal do not negate the rules of God.
· Ministers and deacons in churches do not fulfill duties outlined in biblical text for these positions.
· Socialism, the core principle, and well-documented practice, of the first church, is condemned by its pretender.
· Miracles and abnormal powers in people are condemned as witchcraft without regard to the reality that such were common phenomenon in the first church.
· Churches openly support political issues that contradict biblical principle and use church resources for these activities.
· Churches openly support war and nationalism and use church resources for these activities.
· Churches demand adherence to an old divine contract made with the twelve tribes of Israel by persons who are not members of the nation of Israel.
· Churches ignore the new contract made with the entire world.
· Churches exhibit an extreme level of hypocrisy by following only those laws it chooses and ignoring those it violates, while claiming total obedience to all biblical law.
· Church buildings, officers, staff, customs, public and private practices, finances, celebrations, rules, solicitations, associations, appearances, and stated missions are without biblical foundation.
· Feeding, clothing, and housing the poor, a basic biblical principle, and the core teaching of Jesus, is seldom practice and then with only a token effort and a minute percentage of the church funding and resources. In most cases of such rare exhibitions of charity, religious indoctrination is exacted as the cost for these services.
· Bigotry, with respect to race, gender, political belief, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, financial status, social conduct, and philosophy is commonly practiced or tolerated in either overt or covert manifestations.
· Mind control and dogmatic conditioning is encouraged, blind acceptance is expected, obedience is demanded, and all dissension and inquiry are condemned. Biblical demands for proof of doctrine are ignored. Loving your fellow man is restricted to those the church approves.
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