He did discuss them in his letters and diaries and I have researched them (the unaltered ones). He wrote why he translated what he did into Latin as well. It was because the Jews were highly critical of his alterations to the Septuagint which he translated from the Greek version because he could not read Hebrew.
You might also like some background into my spirituality and reincarnation as well. http://www.squidoo.com/mkyspirituality
Before you put me down for what I know is true and not because someone has told me or I read it then you should read these pages. There is a lot of support and evidence for what I have said here. It is only a little while ago that evolution was banned by the CC because it is not mentioned in the bible. So too were native people considered animals for the same reason. It’s time the world woke up to the ignorance that propels religions and to the misguided information that floats around and which hurts a lot of people.
It’s leaders still claim that condoms spread aids and that people should continue to have as many children as possible. That is even in the face of massive overpopulation that is driving us to the brink. People are fleeing overcrowded countries and wars are being fought as they target each other. This situation will worsen as populations continue to increase and resources become scarcer.
If your JC existed and died to save the world then why is it being torn apart and why are we all facing extinction because of what he supposedly preached? No one answered my questions about a virgin birth or other things mentioned above because I don’t believe you have answers. Isn’t it time, therefore, that they become available?
Perhaps someone can answer this question. If heaven and hell exist where are they?
Nobody in this thread is trying to argue for the objective truth of Christian doctrine as material, verifiable fact, so you’re fighting a straw man there.
All we’re doing is pointing out the errors in your misrepresentations of Christian doctrine (and other subjects), such as the false assertion that Christians “worship” the cross symbol.
The Catholic Church didn’t ban evolution, and it didn’t declare that native people were animals. To the contrary, the papal bull Sublimus Dei condemns the view that Native Americans were animals or Satanic, saying:
A lot of your information about Constantine is just wrong. If you want, I can go into it with you, but I don’t know if you want to listen.
Which is all very well, but has nothing to do with compiling the New Testament which existed in very close to its current form 177 years before he was born.
Neither of these sites are credible.
They read, pretty much, like they were borrowed from the Moody Bible Institue and then reshaped for use by a New Age religion.
The church was long established before Constantine came along. Even if one chooses to believe that Paul of Tarsus and the church leaders with whom he had fights were imaginary, we have a long tradition of people from whom we have consistent writings about the church, including its structure and beliefs: Polycarp, Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Pantænus, Dionysius Of Alexandria, Epiphanius, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, Eusebius Pamphili, Bishop of Cæsarea, and others. Every one of them contributed commentary and descriptions about the church, beginning in the late first century, and their commentaries are consistent with each other.
The tripe that squidoo posts about the Council of Nicaea is pretty much made up out of whole cloth. It claims, for example that “Arias” (Arius misspelled), was murdered during the council, even though he lived for another 11 years after it ended.
The notion that Constantine “created” a church that had over 250 years of history is nothing but uninformed speculation by people who have not spent enough effort actually studying the events.
Similarly, its claims about the “creation” of the New testament are absurd. I have already pointed out the rather silly error that tries to link “Christ” to “Krishna.” (And where in the writings of Plato is he supposed to have invoked the name Krishna?) It makes numerous similar dumb errors, claiming that the month of March comes from the initials Ma-R-X meaning, according to squidoo, “mother’s powerful cross” when the name actually was taken from the Roman god Mars and was in use long before the claims of squidoo. (It is also amusing to watch the “scholar” who created squidoo inventing lots of nonsense origins for words, then describing their “entomology.” I agree that the author’s word tricks have a few bugs in them.)
I would not put you down. I feel sorry for you for being misled by someone who is really out of touch with reality.
Neither of these statements is true. Darwin’s works were never placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and Darwin was never condemned by the church. There is no statement by the church that any human was regarded as a lower animal. If you are going to post nonsense that can easily be researched and rejected, you will win no points, here.
One of Erasmus Darwin’s books was, though. I’ve read one study of the Index that says that after the black eye the Church got after the Galileo trial, the people who maintained the Index narrowed their focus, and pretty much only restricted themselves to books on philosophy, theology, and religious history.
Given this poster’s “familiarity” with facts, it would be pretty difficult to demonstrate that the statement was false, but a reference to the Index could be easily provided. I could also have pointed to entries in the 1919 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia that demonstrate that evolution was not “banned” at that time, but who knows how long ago “a little while” is supposed to be–94 years might not have cut it.
I’ve read plenty of Bible scholars, most of them agnostic or atheist. You, madam, are no Bible scholar. The problem with self-publication, and I see you’ve written several books and hundreds of articles, is that there’s no peer review and no editorial filter. (BTW, notice tomndebb that the OP wrote these articles, rather than being mislead by them. And, yes, Monty, misunderstanding the meaning of worship is only one of the OP’s failings.) No doubt you believe what you say, but since you give almost no cites, your work has little credibility. And I say this as an atheist. Perhaps there are a few kernels of truth in your writings, but the errors are so numerous and broad that, frankly, it’s not worth my time to find the kernels. As a witnessing thread, I mark this a fail. Finally, I should like to mention that advocating a world view (reincarnation) most folks regard as crazy or marginal is no evidence of validity. As Cecil Adams (the syndicated columnist whose work is the basis of this board) likes to say, just because it’s bullshit doesn’t mean it’s true.
I know. That was just an aside on my part. The Catholic Church and the evolution question is actually fairly complicated, and not really all that easy to sum up on a message board, but theistic evolution was never outright rejected.
There is a kernel of truth here. But your interpretation is just garbled.
Correct. What Constantine did was take two (maybe vying) Christian symbols, the staurogram and the IX monogram and combine them into one.
But that is not all.
Put in a victory wreath it also closely resembles the sunwheel, a warrior symbol among the Celts and Germans. There are representations of Taranis the thunder/war god of the Celts) holding a six spoked wheel and in germanic art a four spoked wheel is often used.
Constantine’s Celtic and Germanic soldiers would have had no problem at all painting a sunwheel on their shield. they just needed to add a curly bit to the top spoke to make the Rho.
So, yeah, the swastika being one form of the subwheel, this would be semi~correct.
Of course, the nazis would be harking back to its Indo European origin. Not to the Chi Rho
Which only makes your failure to provide adequate citations all the more ridiculous. Editions of Jerome’s works are numerous and widely available, not just in ‘National Libraries’. Quite a few of them can now even be found online. So there is no excuse for you not to be able to provide precise references to specific passages.
But if you want to claim that some versions of Jerome’s works are better than others - that they are ‘unaltered’ - then it is even more important that you indicate which are the versions that you consider to be better. If you know what you’re talking about, you should have no difficulty in providing that information. Not providing that information does therefore tend to give the impression that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Which only confirm that you seem not to have grasped that the purpose of citations is to make it as easy as possible for your readers to check what you are claiming. It is almost as if you don’t want them to do so. (Hint: giving actual book titles would be a start.)
Just to add to this.
Constantine´s power base, in this civil war, was the Western part of the Empire. Consisting of Britain, Gaul, Spain and the german provinces. So quite a considerable proportion of his army would have been Celts and Germanics.
Well, now I’m just going have to renounce my Church and my faith because of what one person “remembers” from past lives (or intercarnation periods). Thank you. Norma. I feel much greater freedom now.
It is not a sticking point with me, Everyone has the right to their own beliefs and I try to look at the posts and see if they can teach me anything. I learn a lot from the posters and if I see something told as fact I would like to have proof of it. Truth is more important to me than faith alone.
Norma, you words amaze me with their hostility, defensiveness, and close-mindedness. In a debate, one can expect to hear other viewpoints. You seem to see this differences as a personal attack on you.
Most of the reponses that have been given to you are well-documented and fair. They’ve been educational to me – and I studied courses in the Bible in college, though I’m certainly no Biblical scholar.
Not all Christians believe in the Virgin Birth. Other Christians believe that the Virgin Birth was a miracle. The freedom to decide for oneself is one of the things that I like about Christianity.
Generally, Christians are not brow-beaten by evil church leaders who want to hide things from them. My minister is a very relaxed person who has been known to have a beer or two when he plays pool in someone’s home. And he went out of his way to be present just before my lung cancer surgery. He held my hand, said a beautiful prayer, and put me at ease. His sermons are eloquent and encouraging and his wit is charming. We never “worship” any object in our church.
My father and I both believe in the possibility of Reincarnation. We came to that conclusion without consulting with each other until he was elderly. I believe that Mark Twain also believed in Reincarnation as have many people that I think have good sense. But they don’t usually try to beat anyone over the head with it in my experience.
I do believe in the Holy Spirit and I think there is something in the Bible that suggests that he was with God before the last of the Trinity was born. In my life, when I listen, he is a guide for me. His teachings for others may not be quite the same.
Out of morbid curiosity, what is an altered KJV bible? Any other English translation? Wouldn’t reading an “unaltered” version of the Old Testament require ancient Hebrew?
And why is it the more, um, “unorthodox” interpretations of Christianity always seem to rely on the KJV?