It is a documented fact that a religion cannot exist without a revelation. The Bible is a book that contains "revelations" which are authoritative for a religious community. There are many religious communities, thus there are many Bibles. It is through these revelations that a religious community develops its understanding of God and God's requirements for mankind.
Man is limited in his knowledge of God, and it is by the vehicle of revelation that man received knowledge of God that is outside of his natural ability to know or discern. The major obstacle confronting man in his search for God is that the reality of God is beyond discernment through man's senses. Man's knowledge is limited to the information that he receives from his sensory organs: hear, taste, touch, feel, see. But when we talk of the supernatural realm and not the natural realm, then everything changes. Man does not have the capability to penetrate into God's dimension at will. What we know of God is because God desired to reveal it to man. We must wait for God to break into our dimension and show Himself first. Since it is God, and not man, who determines when and where and how contact is to be made with His creation, then our knowledge about God is limited to the information that God chooses to reveal about Himself. After God makes contact with the natural realm and imparts His message, the resultant message is called a "revelation." The accumulation of "revelations" over time becomes the cornerstone of what a community or group of people come to understand about God. Such a group of revelations is called the community's "canon" or "Bible". It is my personal opinion that today we receive no new revelations from God; only illumination from the Holy Spirit concerning past revelations.
It is easy to see that the canon or Bible of such a community becomes the most important document they possess and is cherished as the ultimate authority for the communities' religious beliefs. Given enough time teachings and interpretations concerning the communities' "received revelations" will accumulate around one's canon. It is from these interpretations and teachings that the community will gradually build and produce its "Religious Belief System." This simple process is best explained as follows:
This newly formed Religious Belief System (as seen in our canons and Bibles) quickly becomes the standard which will be used exclusively to test and evaluate all other religious beliefs. If statements agree with the "Standard" they are considered correct and true. If they conflict or disagree with the "Standard" they are considered incorrect and false.
There is only one major problem: Who determines the "Standard?"
Unfortunately since the death and resurrection of Jesus the Catholic Church has for the most part determined the "Standard" to be used in evaluating revelation, both past and present. Little consideration has given to Jesus, his faith, his religion, and his teachings as the "Standard." Few seem to realize that he is the "Standard" and his Religious Belief System (his teachings and his interpretations which happen to be Jewish) make for the correct canon and Bible, both yesterday, today, and forever!
You can easily see that such a "Standard" becomes a potential source of enormous power for those who control it (organized religions). Such "Standards" have been used by priests, preachers, ministers, translators, evangelists, rabbis, etc., to control and manipulate people to do their (the organization's) bidding and not God's.
Often such "Standards" are challenged in one or more of the following methods:
History will give the details concerning how the above four methods of challenging and eventually replacing the canon (the previous authoritative Religious Belief System of the Jewish Church). It would be this Jewish Messianic Belief System which served as the foundation for the new move of God at Pentecost (Festival of Shavuot) as God began to bring all men together in one body through His Messiah. TRAGICALLY, this Jewish Religious Belief System for both Jew and Gentile would, in the span of three hundred years, be completely replaced with a totally Gentile, Hellenized (Greek influenced) replacement faith which would serve as the new Religious Belief System which would serve as the replacement foundation for the Church of Yeshua and does so even up until today.
One major question I challenge you to answer: "how did a movement within Second Temple Judaism, that began as a Jewish revival, anticipating the coming of it's long-awaited Jewish Messiah, evolve into the majority of the churches we see today that carries the Messiah's name, yet opposes most of what the historical Messiah taught and modeled? How did this Jewish renewal movement within Sinai faith of the first century become as we see it today: a anti-Semetic, anti-Judaic, Law-replacing, Festival-ceasing, Sabbath-changing, money-hungry movement that denies with impunity its responsibility to practice the tithe correctly, thus robbing God repeatedly week after week in Yeshua's name by neglecting and teaching incorrectly concerning one's responsibilities to the widows, orphans, strangers, the sick, lame and blind? How has the Christian church, which is grafted into "Israel," become a wild olive branch that has detached itself from the root and fatness of the olive tree, and has, for the most part, replaced the "faith of Jesus" by a "faith about" Jesus" which has tragically bent upon destroying Judaism and abolishing totally the practice of the religion of Judaism? The answers can be found in researching the Canon of Scripture. Let us continue.
As stated previously, as God revealed Himself to men, it became necessary to write down these revelations which later became canonized into an authoritative documents for a community of people. The Bible is a book that contains a number of different recorded revelations about God. Religious leaders, both in Judaism and Christianity rely upon their "Canon" as proof for their authority. Over time challenges have been brought against different groups in authority through different methods:
By the time of John the Apostle's death (at the turn of the first century), the leadership of the Messianic church within Judaism (originally a Jewish congregation birthed at Hag Shavuot or the Festival of Pentecost) had shifted from Jews to Gentiles who were ignorant of the Jewish language, history, culture and mind set. The reason for this change was primarily related to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. and the dispersion of the Jewish people into all the world. The first challenge to this new Messianic Community was through the changing of existing revelations with reinterpretation of the words within that revelation. The written authority that was originally used by these Gentile church leaders was the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, not the Hebrew Bible itself. Remember, we have a translation, not the original manuscripts. As Gentiles read the Greek Bible numerous questions arose since they had not the background or tradition in this Jewish faith necessary to properly interpret what they were reading. With questions came answers, some correct and many incorrect as supplied by Gentiles, and not Jews, as they challenged the authority of the Jerusalem church as well as the Jewish Bible, from which their Green Scriptures had come. Let me say that in translation from Hebrew to Greek, it would be wonderful if every Hebrew word has an "EXACT EQUIVALENT" in the Greek language, but that is not the case. As a result, a variety of interpretations arose that only further aggravated tensions between Jewish interpretation and Gentile-Greek interpretations. Conflicting positions escalated between the two camps as the Gentile Church drew further away from its Jewish roots..
With the advent of Marcion and his Bible (the first New Testament), new revelations were offered by Marcion to replace the "old Jewish revelations". Marcion decided to throw away the Old Testament which was Yeshua's Bible. Can you believe it? Marcion is credited with producing the first "New Testament" and forced the Roman Church leaders to create their own "New Testament" to counteract that of Marcion and wrestle this "NEW AUTHORITY" away from Marcion and transplant it into their own theological camp. These "proto-Catholics" simply built on the foundation of Marcion's Bible to create their own authority to sanction their efforts of spreading their own kind of interpretations of the religion of Yeshua, regardless if it was right or wrong.
Marcion produced his new canon in 140 A.D. which is almost 100 years after Yeshua. This was 80 years after Paul and 40-50 years after John the Apostle's death. Marcion was forced to create a "New Bible," thereby replacing the authority of the "Old" Testament to allow emerging Gentile church leaders to justify their position as God's "new" appointed leaders as they felt that they had "replaced" Israel in God's economy.
I can understand the these early Gentile feelings, since Israel had been dispersed into captivity, and the physical nation no longer survived, but what of today when Israel has been re-established by Yahweh in 1948? How can the Christian Church claim, in the face of the momentous events of the last generation, that they are still the "replacement" for Israel, and God is no longer working through Israel?
The tragic error of Marcion and these first century Gentiles is that they failed to realize that God's covenant with Israel and the Jewish people is forever! The Gentile Church's agenda, in the wake of the exile and dispersion of the Jews in the first century, was to switch the authority of the "Mother Church" from Jerusalem to Athens-Rome. To do this, they needed an "authority" which gave them the "right" to proceed with the transfer of power. Marcion had already provided his "new revelation," so why not them as well? They found such authority in a new "Canon."
With the Roman response to Marcion which included writings very similar to those found in the New Testament of today, came also the prerogative to include or exclude certain books as each community decided. The debate over which books should be included or excluded in the Roman Catholic Canon extended from 150 to 380 A.D. Although the Catholic Canon was closed in 380 A.D. the debate over many books continued for almost one thousand years, in fact, the debate over inclusion or rejection of the Book of Revelation continued until well into the 10th century!
It would be 55 more years before Emperor Constantine (a self-professed God, himself an idolator) would wrestle the control of Christianity from the grip of the local independent church leaders. They became totally subject to the Emperor's decisions in the matters of religion after the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Relying upon "personal revelation" from either the God of Israel or the sun god, Constantine blended Mithraism (pagan worship) with Judaism and further the Gentile expression of the religion of Yeshua. Thus, he further laid the foundations that perpetuated Christianity for what it has become today. As recorded earlier, one of the ways of challenging existing religious authority is through a "new revelation". It was through such "new revelation" that Constantine:
Constantine failed to remember the same thing that plagues the churches of today: Yeshua (Yeshua), Paul, Peter, Jacob (James), John, etc. were all Jews. They all kept the Passover and worshipped on the Jewish Sabbath. It would have been a sin for Yeshua to participate in an Ish-tar fertility rite or worship at a sun-rise service on the day of the Sun g-d. Yeshua and his Apostles were Jews who never renounced their Judaism, neither gave up their Jewish observances or told other Jews to renounce their Judaism in order to become members of a "new Christian Church." We must not forget that these are the same teaching that were shared with Gentiles who came to faith in Yeshua in obedience of the Great Commission up until the fourth century. Unfortunately this Roman Emperor authority model became the model followed by the Roman Catholic church. Eventually the Roman Empire along with its Emperor who would become the head of the church would disappear but only to be replaced again with one man who controlled the church, the Pope. The Roman model of authority prevailed against every major attack until the arrival of Martin Luther and a new model of authority; subjectivism.
The decision of Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church was never intended to end in the further creation of a new religion. He liked being a Catholic priest, practiced and taught Catholic doctrines, and actively participated in the Catholic Church. He accepted the Catholic doctrine of salvation and never suggested that there was another way of salvation. Luther chose to continue his reform activities against the purchasing of indulgences (prayers for the dead), trying to guarantee that more money would be left in his parish, and soon found himself excommunicated for his efforts. For a Catholic this is serious because being kicked out of the Roman Church meant he was no longer "saved" as "salvation is only in the church." For Luther to regain his salvation he had to successfully challenge the authority of the Church. He had to overcome:
Acknowledging that challenges to existing religious authority is always linked to "new" revelations, Luther challenged the Roman Church with his "new" revelation. The following is a summary of Luther's "new revelation."
READ MATTHEW 19:16-21 & JAMES 2:14-26…IT DOES NOT SAY THAT
THIS EXPLAINS WHY WE HAVE OVER 2000 DIFFERENT PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS ALONE...WITH 2000 DIFFERENT YESHUAS. WHO HAS THE FAITH ONCE GIVEN TO THE SAINTS? WHERE IS THE ONE FAITH OF EPHESIANS 4:5?
JESUS TEACHES US THAT THE PHARISEES SET IN MOSES SEAT (GOD'S SEAT OF AUTHORITY). PAUL TEACHES US THAT WE MUST STUDY TO SHOW OURSELVES APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDETH NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH (1 TIM. 2:15).
Multitudes quickly became self-appointed authorities themselves, with little preparation and without accountability to the Bible Yeshua used. It mattered little to them if their Bible was correctly interpreted: linguistically, historically, culturally, and politically. Thus, multitudes continued to "wrongly divide the Word of Truth."
Thus, the foundation for great Biblical error and disobedience to God was perpetuated in the Protestant Reformation as individuals protested against the Roman Catholic Church and began to break away with themselves self-appointed authorities, basically ignorant of the Bible, except that they had a faith in God.. Next came an immediate exodus from the Catholic Church to Luther's Church. But, it was not very long before Luther's disciples began to use their new found "individual freedoms and personal authority to challenge Luther. Before long there were two Protestant Churches, then 3,5,50,100, and we have 1500 today!
Answer for yourself: What happened to the faith and religion of Yeshua that provided for widows, orphans, obeyed the Sabbath, kept the Festivals, and taught Gentiles to do likewise for four centuries? By now, you can see how replacement "revelations" have taken the place of the faith of Yeshua, and these "replacement revelations" were canonized and became the Bibles we carry today. Let us return to the study of the Canon.
More to follow in next article. Shalom.