Tyndale's comfort to persecuted Bible readers is left for our examination today: "Let it not make thee despair, neither yet discourage thee, O reader, that it is forbidden thee in pain of life and goods, or that it is made breaking of the king's peace, or treason unto his highness, to read the Word of thy soul's health;...for if God be on our side, what matter maketh it who be against us, be they bishops, cardinals, popes..." It is hard to believe that for the majority of the time since the apostolic community, the people of God were deprived of their right to own, read, and study the Bible, yet today, with the proliferation of Bibles and ease of access to Bibles in our day and time, that Biblical illiteracy is at an all time high...possibly greater than ever before in the history of mankind.
There has been from the beginning of "religion" the attempts of the Priestcraft to keep it's follower "ignorant" of religion and rely upon "superstition" and the "mystical" instead of facts. The same can be said for Christianity and Roman Catholicism during the Dark Ages. Protestantism is little better. As long as the parishioners are "Biblically illiterate and ignorant" then they will be led around by the whims and ambitions of clergy masqueraded as "God's will." It is long past time that you take responsibility for studying out what you "believe" and what you have been taught to accept "by faith" in order to determine if you are a "true follower" of Yeshua and a part of "the faith once given to the saints." What you find will not only scare you if you become dedicated to serious study but bring repentance in your life which will assure you of a stronger relationship with God and a true assurance that you have now a "faith in truth" and not a "faith in lies."
The word Bible is derived from the Greek "biblia", meaning "books," and refers to the sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity. The Bible consists of two parts. The first part, called the Old Testament by Christians, consists of the sacred writings of the Jewish people and was written originally in Hebrew, except for some portions in Aramaic. The second part, called the New Testament, was composed in Hebrew and Greek and records the story of Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. Today, Bible scholars have verified that much of the Gospels had originally been written originally in Hebrew only to later be translated into Greek for Greek-speaking audiences. Translated in whole or in part into more than 1,500 languages, the Bible is the most widely distributed book in the world. Its influence on history and culture, including literature and the other arts, is incalculable.
This may come as a shock to you, because you already think that you have the bible that Jesus desires you to have, but you do not carry the Bible or the collection of Books that not only Jesus used for his authority, but his disciples and followers as well. You will probably want to disagree with the previous statement, but the facts speak for themselves. We don't have Yeshua's Bible! You are not reading the same scriptures in your churches that were read in the churches and synagogues of the first century. I always thought that Christianity used the same Bible as Jesus until I began to study for myself. I had a rude awakening. It is time for you to awake also!
Answer for yourself: Which Bible should be used as the ultimate authority for modern Christianity...the Jewish Bible, the Catholic Bible, or the Protestant Bible?
As both a pastor and Bible scholar, I believe that the Religious Belief System of every Christian should be as close as possible to the Religious Belief System of Jesus.
Answer for yourself: What do you think?
Answer for yourself: Wouldn't it be absolutely insane for a Christian to have a Religious Belief System that was not only in opposition to, but also an insult to many things that Jesus believed and taught? Well it has happened and you, the average Christian, and most likely you are even aware that it has!
"Not me" you say, well read on!
I ask you as a Christian to face reality as it is laid open to you in these articles, and make whatever changes are necessary in your belief system as well as your life. God would have you do so. Let's us examine the issues together. Let us begin with Yeshua's Bible.
The first step in assuring ourselves that we have the same Religious Belief System of Jesus is to agree as to the same Bible Jesus used for the authority for his beliefs. The Bible of the Jew in the first century A.D. consisted of 12-20 scrolls of varying lengths. None of the scrolls contained the writings which are now called the Catholic New Testament or the Protestant New Testament! Most of the writings found in the Catholic New Testament (from which we get the Protestant New Testament) would not be written for another twenty to sixty years! That means that the Great Commission was started without a New Testament! Why? Because for Jesus, as well as his disciples and Apostles, nothing had the authority to compare with the Old Testament Scriptures that had been given at Mt. Sinai. Nothing was comparable with the Torah (God's Teachings and Instructions). According to Biblical scholars, it would be until another 10 years or so following the crucifixion of Jesus before the apostle Matthew would write down the life story of Jesus in Hebrew (called the Logia-which is lost to us today). This was the first record of an attempt to record the words of Jesus.
Answer for yourself: Let me ask you, why did the apostolic community decide to wait so long (written records were complied well up until 70 A.D. and afterwards) to record the words of Jesus?
Answer for yourself: Even more important, why were Yeshua's words, or more importantly, the words of his followers not recorded for almost a generation or so, unless they were not considered on the same level of authority as the "Scriptures" that they already possessed; namely, the Old Testament?"
It would not be until 380 A.D. before we would have an "accepted" Canon (Catholic) for the New Testament.
Answer for yourself: Can you possibly imagine that Yeshua would say "Go ye into all the world..but shucks... I won't have the manual ready for you for 400 years? What did they "teach" then in this Great Commission for up to 400 years before the creation and official canonization of the New Testament which can be shown to contain many "doctrines" and "teachings" that contradict many major tenants of Biblical faith which Yeshua both believed and taught?
Answer for yourself: Do you realize, that the Great Commission had been obeyed for over 380 years before we had "another authority" that would eventually replace the "authority" that Jesus relied upon; namely, the Hebraic Old Testament Scriptures that were composed of the Law, Prophets, and Writings?
It might surprise you but it would be almost another twenty years or so after the cross of Jesus before Paul would write his first epistle! That means he began to write about 50-55 A.D. which is around twenty to twenty-five years after the death of Jesus.
Answer for yourself: What Bible did the Apostles carry with them, as well as others, as they went into all the world to preach the Gospel? They had no New Testament.
After Paul's epistles were in circulation for about ten to twenty years the authors of Luke and Mark decided to write their Gospels. This would be around 70 C.E., just prior to the time that the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Again, this might surprise you, but it would be another 70 years before anyone would decide that a collection of writings from the Messianic Community should be gathered together as a rival authority for the Old Testament (140 C.E.)! Marcion, the heretic, would combine (most probably) the Gospel of Luke with some of Paul's writings which would become the first of many replacements for Yeshua's Bible.
We now have a new canon in the making and it will become "the authority" that would eventually replace "the authority" of Yeshua's Bible for the Messianic Community. We will develop a new canon to replace the canon of Yeshua