In what I am about to say now I do not intend to offend anyone. Please understand that. But over the years of my Pastorate I was amazed at the lack of Biblical knowledge by those who called themselves Christians. It seemed to me that rarely I would meet a person who had a workable knowledge of the New Testament let alone the Old Testament which is another story entirely. But they are not totally to blame because the church has centered on preaching instead of teaching since the early fourth century. This is why Biblical ignorance is rampant in the Christian Church in America today. If one can quote 10 Scriptures then he considers himself knowledgeable about the Bible. Thus the flock is led around by blind Pastors who themselves are more interested in building bigger ministries than equipping their people to know the truths about their faith. Such truth is dangerous as it liberates mankind from the selfish ambitions of hirelings. If the Christian body of believers knew the truth about their faith then there would be a tumult in Christendom today which would rival the "big bang" of creation.
Answer for yourself: So what is the history of the document Christians call their New Testament?
Answer for yourself: Can the New Testament stand up to critical examination to prove its infallibility, inerrancy, and inspiration?
Answer for yourself: Have you as a New Testament believer ever seriously examined the New Testament to prove to yourself that it is inspired, infallible, and inerrant, and worthy of your commitment to follow its religious tenants?
Answer for yourself: And upon such examination of the New Testament if it be found to be a creation of anti-Semitic dogmas of Rome taken from centuries of syncretistic pagan religious mixture will you repent of such heathen beliefs and return to the faith of the real Yeshua which is not Gentile Christianity, but Biblical Judaism?
These are tough questions only you can answer. But if you ever hope to answer them then you must have the truth about the New Testament. Let us begin our serious inquiry into the infallibility of the New Testament by researching together the History of the New Testament.
After three centuries of obscurity and serious internal conflict, in the fourth century AD a second rate religious cult emerged virtually overnight as the supreme faith of the Roman Empire. This occurred when Emperor Constantine the Great was supposedly converted to Christianity and at once became the benefactor of the church. With this unexpected turn of events, and with the enthusiastic backing of the ''first Christian emperor," the surprised Christian Church fathers wasted little time in cementing their new-found authority throughout the empire. Without hesitation they began to centralize all Christian activities through the office of the Bishop of Rome, while at the same time seeking to convert the emperor's subjects to the faith of Christ.
At first the conversion of the pagan masses was undertaken by some inventive methods. One was by Constantine himself offering a bribe (twenty gold coins and a new set of clothes to every new Christian convert), which, needless to say, was initially successful but didn't have a lasting effects (Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 174). The better method proved to be the Christian Church's absorption of pagan doctrines, g-ds, g-ddess and customs into their ever-expanding catalogue of theology and tradition. Please understand it is these Godless customs and doctrines which are expounded from the pulpits of American Christianity today. Sadly, for the most part, these congregations are totally unaware of the origins of such Christian dogma as taught by their Pastors because they have never personally studied the origins of such dogmas both preached and contained in the New Testament.
Into the church of the fourth century came the old Persian Mithraic mass, unaltered in many instances to this day. The church absorbed the ancient Vestal Virgins of pagan Rome, who were then called by the new title of nuns. The ancient pagan office of the hierarchy of the mysteries (from which we get the religious term "hierarchy") was transformed into the papacy. The ancient holy day of the sun-g-d, Sunday, or Dies Solis, was the replacement for the Jewish Sabbath. The pre-Christian legends of a human virgin giving birth to a halo-bedecked baby savior g-d on December 25, whose life was immediately sought by an evil king while three wise men from the east visited him as he lay in a manger, was given over to Jesus. The pre-Christian legends of a crucified savior-g-d, who died upon a cross for the sins of humanity in the spring only to be resurrected three days later from his tomb, became the legend of Easter. The pre-Christian pagan symbols of bread and wine, eaten by the faithful to represent the body and blood of the sacrificial savior-g-d, entered the church as the Eucharist. Into the church also came hundreds of new Christian saints, transformed from the g-ds and g-ddess—and demons—of the old pagan faiths.
In addition to the better known Christianized pagan g-ds, like St. Nicholas and St. Valentine, here is a small sampling of the numerous g-ds and g-ddesses absorbed by the early Christian Church:
Keep in mind, these are but a small sampling of the many g-ds, g-ddess, demons, devils and other spirits that were absorbed by the Christian Church in their efforts to convert the world!
On one hand you have the Jewish people with their religion and customs which is strange and alien from all other nations of the world. One only need to remember the book of Esther at the hatred for the Jews by the non-Jews of the world. And it is into this world that Paul and others are taking this "Jewish Gospel" along with the writings of the New Testament in hope of "conversion" of the masses to the faith of Christ.
Answer for yourself: If you understand the scenario I just pictured for you then does it not seem to you, at first glance, remarkable with what readiness the non-Jewish cultures of the world dropped their ancestral faiths an accepted Christianity through the persuasions of Christian missionaries?
Answer for yourself: What can explain the openness and readiness of these non-Jewish nations to receive this "Jewish Gospel" as taught by Paul and as recorded by the writers of the New Testament as the documents circulated among the congregations?
The information is massive so I have just chosen a few examples to show why early Christian Doctrine along with their writings (the New Testament) was so readily accepted among the pagans to whom they evangelized. Remember that behind all of this is our question regarding the "truthfulness" of the New Testament as a Revelation from God and not one copied by men from prior pagan sources. Now on with the testimony of the Early Church Fathers:
In this writing Father Felix indignantly resents the supposition that the sign of the cross should be considered as exclusively a Christian symbol; and represents his advocate of the Christian arguments as retorting on an infidel opponent thus: "As for the adoration of crosses, which you object to against us, I must tell you that we neither adore crosses nor desire them. You it is, ye Pagans, who worship wooden g-ds, who are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses, as being parts of the same substance with you deities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards, but crosses? Your victorious trophies not only represent a simple cross, but a cross with a man upon it".
"The origin of your g-ds is derived from figures molded on a cross. All those rows of images on your standards are the appendages of crosses; those hanging on your standards and banners are robes of crosses" (Egyptian Belief, p. 217).
"That there exist not a people, civilized or semi-civilized, who have not offered up prayers in the name of a crucified Savior to the Father and Creator of all things".
Also Justin remarks: "It having reached the Devil's ears that the prophets had foretold that Christ would come…he [the Devil] set the heathen poets to bring forward a great many who should be called sons of Jove [that is, the sons of God]; the Devil, laying his schemes in this to get men to imagine that the true history of Christ was of the same character as the prodigious fables and poetic stories". (Justin, Apol. 2.). We must understand properly the above quote. In the attacks upon Christianity by heathenism Christians were blamed from "copying" the pagan' religious beliefs and the only answer that the leading apologist for this new "Gentile Christian faith" could come up is that "the Devil" did it!
"that the names of Jesus and Christ were both known and honored among the ancients (Eccl. Hist., Lib. 1. Chap. iv.)
Also Eusebius states: "that which is called the Christian religion is neither new nor strange, but if it be lawful to testify the truth, well known to the ancients". (Eccl. History, lib. 2, ch. v).
"A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less they comprehend the more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, but what circumstances and necessity dictated". (Heiron ad. Nep. Quoted in Volney's Ruins, p. 177, note. Boston: 1872).
"It mightily affects me to see how many there were in the earliest times of the Church, who considered it as a capital exploit to lend to heavenly truth the help of their own inventions, in order that the new doctrine might be more readily received by the wise among the Gentiles. These officious lies, they were wont to say, were devised for a good end". (Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 44).
"That it was not so much the empire that was brought over to the faith, as the faith that was brought over to the empire; not the Pagans who were converted to Christianity, but Christianity that was converted to Paganism". (Taylor, Diegesis, p. 50).
"That in our times is the Christian Religion, which to know and follow is the most sure and certain health, called according to that name, but not according to the thing itself, of which it is the name; for the thing itself which is now called the Christian Religion really was known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of the human race until the time when Christ came in the flesh, from whence the true religion, which had previously existed, began to be called "Christian:; and this in our day is the Christian religion; not as having been wanting in former times, but as having in later times received this name". (Opera Augustini, vol. i. p. 12, quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 42).
Paul pleads with his listeners that he was made a minister of the gospel, which had been preached to every creature under Heaven (Col. 1:23). You must think now! In saying this Paul was indicating that the doctrines he was bringing the Gentile world were already known by the peoples he targeted for "conversion". We find Saint Paul, the first Apostle of the Gentiles, avowing that he was made a minister of the Gospel which had already been preached to every creature under Heaven, and preaching a God manifest in the flesh, who had been believed on in the world, long before the commencement of his ministry, and who could not have been Jesus of Nazareth, who had certainly not been preached at that time, nor generally believed on in the world till ages after. Paul was preaching to the Gentiles a Jewish adaptation of their own prior pagan superstitions and religion. The reason for such compromise by Paul is not difficult to fathom once comes to the truth about Paul but let me warn you the "half" has not been told about the truth concerning this Paul. You need to know but it is not pretty when you find the facts about him both hidden in places in the NT as well as documents that exist outside the Bible that expose him for what he really was. We can read Luke's accounts of Paul but let us never forget that Luke was his friend and friends tend to bias their depiction of other friends. The truth about Paul can be found at this website: http://paulproblem.faithweb.com.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice the testimony of early Church fathers testify to the fact that the Christian religion is not new or a Divine Truth which dropped down from heaven, but the same religion of the ancients only retold with different names for their g-ds and saints?
Answer for yourself: Then if the above claim and charge be true, then are we not to expect that in the writings of the New Testament to find such pre-existing doctrines carried over from pagan mystery religions?
Answer for yourself: After seeing the New Testament as a mixture of conflicting doctrines and dogmas, many of which come directly from pagan mystery religions, what is to by your response before God?
Answer for yourself: Once you see for yourself that these non-Jews who wrote and continually altered the New Testament did no more than lend to heavenly truth the help of their own inventions, in order that the new doctrine might be more readily received by the wise among the Gentiles by offering them no more than what they already had only dressed up in new names (Jesus), can you now better see the ease of conversion of the polytheistic non-Jews, and what will be your approach to the New Testament which can no longer be shown to be the citadel of truth?
But a more complete study of the subject only reveals more concerning the unusual ease of this conversion much less surprising, by making it apparent that the Christian Church's Gentile missionaries:
With the absorption of the old pagan faiths and the recording of them in the "infallible and inerrant document called the New Testament", mass conversions became a reality. Think about it for a minutes. The pagans to whom the Gentile Gospel would come would not have to give up anything at all in accepting this Pauline Yeshua. The same concepts and beliefs held by them about their pagan g-ds and g-ddesses were only transferred and made applicable to Yeshua, the Virgin, and saints as well. The conversion of the non-Jewish world in the earliest centuries was accomplished easily by only changing the names of their g-ds; the concepts staid the same. And few know the truth about the alteration of the religion of Yeshua which went into all the world and accept today unquestioningly that what they have as taught by Christianity is what God intended they have. Nothing could be further from the truth and God is not amused as the apostasy of the people of God today. Not only that, but neither could He be pleased with the apathy and lethargy inherent in most believes who fail to study to discover these truths for themselves before they die.
Understand in closing, it was these early writers and redactors of the New Testament manuscripts who "wrote into the oral traditions of a Jewish Rabbi named Yeshua" pre-existing accounts of their pagan g-ds and molded such stories in and around the life of Yeshua. Therefore, without a through background in comparative religion one is helpless in reading the New Testament because he lacks the knowledge and skill necessary to separate out truth from fiction. Now, on with the next study. Shalom.