SARAH’S INFALLIBLE QUESTIONS

PART I

Sarah’s Infallible Questions --- A fictional story about the Bible - or is it?

        One day Sarah came up to her daddy and asked, “Daddy we used to attend church faithfully every Saturday.  I wondered why we attended on Saturday, rather than Sunday like most other Christians. We are not Seventh Day Adventist, as a lot of other people used to first think, and except for the holidays that you say the Catholics of the early Christian church added, we still believed in most things that most Sunday keeping Christians churches do.  It’s been hard to understand why everybody, other than the church we used to attend, has a big celebration every year around Christmas.  Even our government, who is supposed to separate church and state, has a Christmas tree on the White House lawn, and Christmas is a Federal holiday.  I couldn’t understand how so many people believe as they do yet we had a different understanding.  It made a lot of sense, when you explained how the early Christians of the Catholic church, while trying to convert the masses of pagans to Christianity, had to Christianize some of their pagan celebrations that they refused to give up.  The Winter’s Solstice on Dec. 25th was during their celebration of the birth of the ‘New Sun’ as the days were going to get longer as they headed towards another spring with hope of another year, it also coincided with the birth of Osiris the pagan god of Egypt, and Mithra the pagan god in Europe, at the time of the early development of Christianity and in competition for acceptance. All my Christian friends at school believe in a trinity, or God in three persons, but the Christian church that we belonged to couldn’t find, in the Bible, where it proves where a spirit or a ghost was a person.  Instead our church believed in only two Gods and they were also one. It had been decided in Rome when the Emperor Constantine, who was supposed to have been a Christian converted from Sun worshiping, called the council of Nicea in 324 C.E., because of a number of problems in the Christian (Catholic) church that needed to be resolved.  After deciding to change Passover to Easter to avoid observing and celebrating with the Jews, they Christianized the pagan spring fertility festival of the goddess Astarte, which I understand kept the Christianized pagans in line.  Then they took up the question of whether Jesus was the Son of God, which would make him a God also.  The main question was whether he was, of the same substance of God the Father, or an extension of God Himself.  It was decided it had to be an extension of the Father to be one.  It would be decided by a vote of the 214 Church Bishops in attendance of the Council.  I understand that prior to the vote, the Emperor Constantine threatened anyone voting negative with being exiled.” Jesus was voted into the God family by a vote of 212 for, and two against.  History reveals that Arius and one other dissenter were exiled.  It became accepted that God the Father and God the son were one.”

        Sarah went on to try to prepare her daddy for the question that was really bothering her. “Daddy, I have problems with that.  If the Father was one with his son, whom was Jesus always praying to, and whom did he cry out to when he was supposedly dying on the cross? That brought me to several questions, at that time. If they were one, why didn’t both die? How could a, omnipresent, eternal God, die? If Jesus wasn’t ‘really dead’, but off somewhere instructing some other group, where is the sacrifice for sin? How could they both be one, when one was dead and the other one was doing the resurrecting? Another thing puzzled me.  If Jesus was tortured into an almost unrecognizable state and then crucified on a cross or stake, how could he be considered a sacrifice, when the God of the Scriptures requires an unblemished sacrifice and that it be burnt?” Sarah went on.  “Daddy, to all these questions, at that time, you gave me the same answer that you had always been given when you had unanswerable questions, that I just had to have Faith.” “Those questions,” Sarah continued, “along with many contradictions in the holy Scriptures, made me understand why we had to leave the Sabbath keeping Christian church, and all the people that were near and dear to our hearts.”

        Finally Sarah got around to the question that was troubling her. “Daddy, you are obviously troubled by the things that I have related to you, about why we reached the point where we were almost a year ago.  At least then we belonged to an organization that was neither Christian, Jewish, or Islam.  Two of the three, Judaism and Islam believe as we do, in just one True God, and the other, Christianity with its multiple god whether it be two or three, they all are steeped in man made ritualism. For lack of a better label for ourselves, we called our organization ‘Hebrews’."  “As Sarah’s daddy painfully waited for the question he know his daughter was bound to ask, she continued bringing him up to date. “Daddy, we use to go and meet with others that had the same or similar understanding, on the Sabbath, but now you study on the Sabbath and have a weekly bible study with me from only the Old Testament part of my King James Bible storybook.  That brings up another question.  A year ago you used the King James ‘Holy Bible’ only sparingly, and that was just for referring to problems, instead you relied solely on The Tanakh, which even though published by a Jewish Publication, it was the Holy Scriptures compared to the King James Old Testament.  Now, you only use the Tanakh sparingly for reference as you study what you call the ‘sources’ of the Scriptures.”   Taking a deep breath Sarah asked, “Daddy, why don’t we go and met with others any longer, and what is it that we now should believe?” Sarah’s Daddy was somewhat slow to answer. His eyes noticeably watering, he finally tried to respond to her well-thought out question.

        “Sarah,” her daddy began, “I’ve always tried to answer any question you asked, to the best of my knowledge at the time, and even though it was with that ‘Faith thing’, like I used to get.  I had listened to hundreds of sermons being preached from the pulpit by highly educated theologians, and been a part of countless ‘guided’ bible studies.  If I couldn’t find an answer among all of that, it must not exist and I needed to take it by Faith.  After all, isn’t that what Christianity is based on?  Now I see it as ‘Faith in the unknown’.   Sarah, I am sorry I pushed that Faith answer off on you.  You asked a very understandable question, I just hope my answer will be as clear.”

         “Three or four years ago I was in a state of euphoria compared too now.  The ‘church’ had lain our future for this elite group that I was a part of, and tied everything up in a nice neat package.  All I had to do was wait for the Millennium to rule what was left of the world after the Beast did his thing. That would include straightening our what was left of the Christians that just couldn’t quite get it.  The Jews and the Arabs really had a surprise coming, but we were going to straighten them out too.  The rest of the heathen world fit some wherein those one thousand years after the return of this savior-god, that we were to do all this with. Also that time is supposed to be right around the corner by their reckoning, even though they don’t want to set dates.  The dead Christians that didn’t have the truth like we did, all the past Popes, and even Orrel Roberts, who collected eight million dollars to keep from having to go to Heaven.  All those deceived Christians would have to wait a thousand years, before we could let them know where they went wrong.  We didn’t quite know who would be a priest and who would be a king, or what we were king of, and of course there would be the savior-god over everything, or at least until sometimes later when the Father that was one with the son, would come down to join the works, and then would go on to finish creating the universe. That could even mean that each of us might have to go through the same ordeal on some other world, that Jesus was supposed to have gone through here.  The church didn’t say a whole lot about what the women would be doing, but surely there was something.  We just have to believe that it was all planned out.” 

         Sarah’s daddy paused, then he continued “Sarah, before I make an attempt to answer your main question, I’ll try to answer the last question. You wondered why we did your bible study from the King James Old Testament storybook, while Mother and I relied on the Tanakh, at least up until lately.  I didn’t want to force things on you. I wanted you to get the basics, and them learn to research and make judgments of your own.  True, I did try to shield you from New Testament Catholic Babylonian mystery religion whose main character has a parallel life with   that of Mithra and Osiris, plus many of the other fourteen crucified saviors.   Once that doctrine gets in your blood, it is very hard to over come.  You wonder, how could it be wrong when so many people believe it? As for the King James Protestant Bible, it is just a slightly modified version of the one the early Catholics created over a period of about 400 years.  We were told that they used the Greek Septuagint, which was the Hebrew Scriptures very carefully translated into Greek, during the third century B. C. E..  Today, the oldest manuscript we have of it, is dated about 400 C.E. That’s at least six hundred years to modify it, and destroy the originals, which is also what they did with the pagan sources they used while developing the New Testament.  That way it avoids traceability.  It has to be more than just a coincidence that 400 C.E.  is about the time they quit developing the N.T.  You will learn more about that later. What I basically feel is; instead of developing the New Testament, from the Old Testament, they adjusted the Scriptures to validate their own creation and fulfill prophecies that were either never there originally, or had already occurred and they would claimed to be dual, and that it would happen again.  They went so far as to claim that their savior-god was also the god of the Old Testament too, that everything that was done, was done by him.  Do you realize that took everything away from the Father God, even the planning? It makes one wonder why Jesus ever prayed to the Father anyway, if he had all the answers himself, and he didn’t need the Fathers help.   If this were true, why did he cry out to Him from the cross?  Sorry Sarah, I got a little diverted.  What I am trying to say is; the only deity there is in the Old Testament or Holy Scriptures, is the Father / Creator God. ‘He is the One and only, and shares His Glory with no other’.  It says that, repeatedly, in the Scriptures.  It also said he has no father or mother, so it couldn’t be the son making that statement. I don’t recall many, if any sermons given on those scriptures."

         Sarah’s daddy continued to try to explain why there are so many versions of the ‘truth’.  “Sarah, there is enough influences in day to day life that you will have to overcome, without intentionally studying something that is so well developed that it is so hard to break loose once you have been brainwashed. The information is always here for research, from Judaism to Talmudism, Islam, Babylonian Mystery Religion, various other pagan religions, including many books on the New Testament.  I want you to study, and decide for yourself.  When that final day does come you will be standing naked before your Creator, and you will not be able to say; ‘but so-n-so said’”.

         Still trying to stay focused on Sarah’s main question, Sarah’s daddy went on, “Sarah, let me see  if  I can get to an answer of your main question.  It is very difficult to determine where I am in this, today.  I seem to be getting more answers almost daily, but with each answer, it seems two more questions are added.   When I think of what I have learned in the last three years, it amazes me, because I thought I had a pretty good handle on it back then.  I guess that’s why I would hope that you don’t have to go through some of the same things I did, that causes the need for so much unlearning before you can be open for the truth.”

         He went on.  “As for the people we used to meet, study, and fellowship, with about a year ago, I think maybe most, if not all, are in the same state we are.  They could even be leery of getting caught up in some of the same traps of the past.  There always seems to be a tendency to get organized, and follow someone, whether we realize we are doing that or not.  I hope that one day, when we are somewhat secure with ourselves, we may be able to fellowship together again.  It’s very hard to remain very focused on this important spiritual need when the world around us seems to be going to ‘Hell in a Hand basket’ completely oblivious to the real problems.  There is a need, also to be concerned about the world situation. Contrary to what we were always taught, there is not going to be a savior-god come along shortly, and correct everything for us.  Even if there is not a lot I can do to change it, I don’t want it sneaking up, and blind-siding me.”

         “As for my present reliance on the Tanakh, Sarah, I still believe there is a lot of truth in it, but a lot of it was written with different motives in mind.  For instances, ‘In the Beginning’, we were always taught it was 4004 B. C. E.. but come to find out, the Sphinx, and numerous discovered Sumerian artifacts are older than that, but I am not really trying to pin down a beginning right now. I did discover that much of the Creation Story was either developed or modified by the Levitical Priesthood during, and shortly after the Babylonian captivity.  Maybe they were trying to trace their Jewish ancestry as far back as they could.  However, there were Sumerian, along with their neighbors in that same area, when the Garden of Eden was supposed to have been there.  The sixth century B.C.E. priesthood may not have known about that.  Sarah, I am not trying to discredit ‘The Scriptures’.  I am just trying to sift through the problems.  As far as when the Scriptures were first begun to be documented, most people think that Moses wrote the first five books of the Scriptures. By the time I get to your main concern, we may have found out, that it’s not entirely true.” 

          “During the tenth century B.C.E., probably during the reign of King Solomon, it must have been decided that there was a need to document a spiritual history. Due to the style of the writer, it was probably a female, either a close relative of Solomon or the Court Historian, that was given the task.   True, I think she did have a lot of the works of Moses that had been either written, or past down orally. Not long after the death of  Solomon, the Nation of Israel split with the ten northern tribes, which became known as the House of Israel, and became independent of the southern, or House of Judah, which included the tribe of Benjamin.  The first historical document that had been written was from the viewpoint of the House of Judah so it became known as the ‘J' document’. It could have come from the first letter of Judah, or from the first Letter of what they called their deity  Jahweh, or the mispronunciation of Jehovah.  Not long after, the sister country of the northern tribes got a hold of a copy of the “J” document and modified it to put their own slant on the Israelite history.  However when they referred to their deity they used the word Elohim, and didn’t mention much about David.  Their document became known as the “E” document.  It could have been from the first letter of what they called their deity, or the first letter of Ephraim, which was what the combined ten northern tribes were often referred to.  Later on after the return from Babylonian captivity, both sources were interwoven and combined by an editor, who is referred to as the Redactor.  It then became known as the “JE” document.  It, with a lot of modifications help from the ‘Priestly History’ crew, probably gave us the first three books of the Bible, up to reaching the Jordan.  More about the Redactor later, because he played a very important role.  Then, what about the other two books of Moses?  Leviticus was written, almost if not completely, by the Levitical Priestly Source or Priestly History, during and/or after the six-century B.C.E. Babylonian captivity, with a lot of Persian influence, as the priest were strongly allied to Persia, or Babylon.  Israel, at that time, was still a vassal-state of Persia, and that could have been the reason Cyrus let the Judahites go back to Jerusalem; because the vassal-state was not producing any income, with all the main Judahites in Babylon, and the rest voluntarily exiled to Egypt, after they killed the grandson of the Scribe Shaphan, who Persia had appointed as governor of Jerusalem, and they feared reprisal.”

          “A lot of the laws the Levitical priesthood imposed, the earlier Israelites were never aware of.  They were mainly for control purposes and financial support for themselves as well as their allies in Persia, but a lot were justifiable laws that had been past down over the ages.  Once again this requires a sifting job.  Later the Roman Catholic/Christians would use the tithe, laws along with some of their own, to make it an extremely wealthy independent state.  Even in recent years Christian churches use this to support above average life styles for their ministry, lavish institutions, and church buildings, while causing a lot of their membership hardships through un-necessary financial sacrifices”. 

          “Well that takes care of three books of Moses for the time being.  What about the Moses book of Deuteronomy?  That involves a little story from the Scriptures.  Not long before the exile to Babylon, there was a young king in Judah, name Josiah. He had been king since he was eight, and probably pretty much raised and influenced by the court High Priest.  Judah in those days was in need of what we would call ‘A Revival’. The nation had gotten a long way away from the knowledge and obedience of their Deity. One day Shaphan, the Court Scribe of King Josiah, came and informed the King of a mysterious scroll of the Law that the High Priest Hilkiah had found hidden away in the Temple.  The scroll, or book was undoubtedly written from sources whether written, or passed along orally by Moses, but the writer of the Deuteronomy Scroll was never revealed.  However, we might have a clue.  History tells us that the name of the son of the High Priest Hilkiah was Jeremiah. Later it was decided that all the books from Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, though I and II Samuel, and I and II Kings, have probably the same Narrator, and all written in the sixth century B.C.E. to form today what is known as the Deuteronomic History.   The references became DTR 1, DTR  2, and so on unless Deuteronomy itself was combined with the other sources, then it became the JED source, and occasionally JEDP to include the Priestly modification.  The Prophets were written just before, during, and after the Babylonian Captivity, often with multiple authors, including Isaiah.  The book of Isaiah covers a span of about 300 years.  The 1st Isaiah was the original, and is covered in chapters 1-39, the 2nd Isaiah wrote with the same style, and purpose as the 1st, and covers the period from Isaiah up to the Babylon Captivity, and can be found in Chapter 40 - 55.  The last 11 Chapters were by still a different author who also wrote in the same style and purpose as the original Isaiah, and it is referred to as 3rd Isaiah, and it was during the Babylon Captivity and maybe a little after”. 

          “While we are talking about Isaiah, this might be the  time to clarify the famous Christian “Virgin Prophesy” that they rely on so much to justify the birth of their Saviour. The Hebrew word ‘Almah’, doesn’t mean virgin at all, but rather it refers to a young woman, maybe in her middle teens.  In this case it was the young pregnant wife of Isaiah, who was about to give birth.  This event occurred during the divided kingdoms.  The House of Judah was at odds with the House or Kingdom of Israel.  King Rezin of Syria decided to join his army with King Pekah’s of Israel, and gang up on the army of the Kingdom of Judah.   This happened to be one of the times when Judah was ‘doing right’ in the eyes of God. God tried to assure the King of Judah that he did not have anything to fear by being out numbered, because King Ahaz of Judah had God on his side, which would assure him of the victory.  To prove where He stood, God said to name Isaiah’s newborn: Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us’ or ‘God is on our side’.  God made an additional proclamation, ‘that before the boy reached the age when he became aware and responsible for his sins, both of the opposing kings would be no more’.  This came to pass, but the Christians never mentioned this prophecy because, it revealed that the individual had sin. Also by the way, I understand that Isaiah’s young wife might have been named Almah. Virgin didn’t fit in anywhere, besides there were quite a few virgin births of savior-gods during the six to seven hundred years before the N.T.” 

          “Minor prophets mainly occurred during the divided kingdom, Babylon Captivity, and some what after. The book of Daniel may have been the last book added.  That means a lot of its prophecies were 20/20 hindsight, because they had already occurred.  As to whether there was really a Daniel in Babylon, there is some question.  For that matter, there is some question as to whether all Israel was in Egyptian Captivity, or just the tribe of Levi, with the rest already in the land when Levi arrived.  There are a lot of questions about the Egyptian captivity.  Just a couple would be: How could one man control and move the number of people and livestock they were supposed to have?   Speaking of livestock;  remember one of God’s plagues where God destroyed all of the Egyptian livestock: cattle, horses mules, and camels. Where did Pharaoh get the horses to pull the chariots that he pursed the Hebrews with? Also if they used all the gold to fashion the calf idol that later was turned to dust, where did they get the gold they used on the Ark? That’s enough problems for now, let’s get back to the Sources, there will be more questions there, with a lot of answers too.”

          “Sometime between the return from the Babylon captivity and the Maccabean period, it became necessary to combine all these sources into one. This had to be a monumental task that called for the skills of a super editor, which the ‘sources’ refer to as the Redactor.  By all accounts that Redactor was Ezra, either by himself, or with an assisting team.  Either way it was a task that deserves more credit than history has given him.  Just combining the competing J and E source would be enough.  One source would refer to the Deity as Elohim, while the other’s reference was Yahweh, one called Moses’ mountain Sinai, while the other was Horeb.  These are called Doublet’s, and they occur through out the Scriptures, including the Creation week and Noah’s Flood.  Of course the flood story got a little help from the Priestly History, so they could have seven pairs of clean animals, so they could sacrifice after the flood, and have meat to eat without causing a species to become extinct.  I don’t know what they would have done with flesh eating animals.”  

         "That brings up  another point, the flood had to be local in lower regions of Mesopotamia.  That was their known world at the time and the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers were known to flood from time to time just as the Nile did every year.  If you had a combination flood of both, it probably seemed like it flooded their whole world.  The animals they took on board were probably just their farm animals. I doubt that they could have gotten Koala bears from Australia along with their needed supply of eucalyptus, or Panda bears from China that requires a diet of bamboo just to mention a couple. As far as Noah and his family being the only ones alive on earth after the flood, I have my doubts.  Maybe the only ones in that general area.  I believe people were alive in different places all over the world, and all the different races too. The concept we were taught that each of Noah’s triplet sons were married to wives of different races that had originally come from eggs that Divinely had been created in Mother Eve, had to be another one of those ‘faith guesses’.  For instance, a lot of people had to be in the area to provide enough able bodied men to build the cities of Babylon and the Tower of Babel during the days of Nimrod, because he was only four or five generations from Noah, though Ham and Cush.  That’s not enough time to produce much of a family tree.  Besides, what were that many of the Black race doing in Babylon anyway? Ham’s descendants  were supposed the have produced the Black race.  I guess that is enough about flood for now except to point out that it is sometime easy to pick out the Priestly contribution to the Scriptures because they are more cosmic in references, whereas the others are more physical as in their Creation week, and flood accounts. Of course, a lot of the Priestly laws were for selfish reasons.  In the beginning times of post Babylon exile period, the required sacrifices were not as we were always taught. The people of Jerusalem area were not allowed to take the life of an animal, when they needed it for food.  Only a priest could do that.  In payment for his services the priest was given one tenth of the animal. So much more could be said on this subject, but we will save that to another time.”

          Sarah’s daddy paused once again, before deciding to change the subject.  “Sarah, I know we don’t talk a lot about the New Testament, so anything I say Now, I expect you to check out for yourself.  It’s only a couple of weeks until Christmas, and we don’t observe it, when it seems like all the rest of the world does.  At first we didn’t celebrate it as other Christians do, because we learned that it was the early Catholic/Christian Church that created the Holiday, as I mentioned earlier.  What we didn’t know at the time was; ‘as Paul Harvey would say ‘the rest of the story’.  They also created the main character.  In the early beginnings of the New Testament church they had very little to work with.  All they  had were some letters from a missionary type person named Paul, that was from an area we now call Turkey.  He was a Proselyte Jew, and because he was unable to become a Pharisee, he seemed to express his zealous ambitions in his letter writings to the groups in the towns of his travels.  He had a lot of moral teachings of this Rabbi from Nazareth in Judah, that taught in the Galilee area some time before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.  Well meaning, though he may have been, he created a resurrected God out of this Nazarene Rabbi of the ‘Q’ people, as the Nazarene followers became known.  Paul decided that this Rabbi was the prophesied messiah that the Jews thought was due, so Paul gave him the Greek name Christ. So all of Paul’s followers became Christians.  They probably still didn’t have the name Jesus until sometime later.  Some say it developed from the crowds chanting ‘yeah Zeus’ much like the Germans used the chant ‘heil Hitler’. Now the early church had a religious ‘hero’ that had a lot of worthwhile moral teachings, and there was a claim that he was a ‘resurrected god.  Now all they needed was a life to go with this individual.  Most people were familiar with the histories of Osiris and Mithra.  Mithra was real popular at that time.  Mithra was born on December 25th to a virgin, with shepherds involved, and three kings that visited him.  Now all they needed was an eyewitness gospel account to back up the story; so the task of developing this gospel was given to a group of these early Christians in Rome. They decided to name this gospel Mark after John Mark, one of Paul’s co-workers, who was probably also a gentile.  In those days, so shortly after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, it was not very popular to be a Jew in Rome.  Other groups of Christians didn’t like some of the ways the gospel, they named Mark, was worded, so they made variation of it until they had over a hundred versions.  They decided to select the best three, burn the rest that didn’t agree with them, then give them names that would make them believable.  Only Matthew and a later gospel that was written, were named after disciples of this Nazarene Rabbi.  It is unknown who wrote the gospel of John, or Revelation, but they were not the same writer.  The Acts of the Apostles was written about 100 years after the events were supposed to have taken place, and we have only the word of the biographer of Paul, named  Luke, a Gentile too, if there was a Luke,  that any of the events concerning Paul’s conversion, actually occurred.  For the Gospel of Luke, the group that wrote it didn’t take very much time to get their facts.  Maybe that was because they were not around during the time they were writing about.  They did some reaching in order to fulfill what they thought was Messianic prophecy”. “The Christmas story in Luke has to be more fiction than truth.  Cyrenius the Governor of Syria, that was named, did not take office until long after the death of Herod.  Joseph was not going to Bethlehem to be taxed.  The only reason to make a trip such as that is for a census, and the census was not taken until years later.  No husband in his right mind would force his pregnant wife, who was about to deliver, to make such a trip on a donkey, when there was no need for her to go at all.  The writers needed that for the ‘prophesy thing’.  I doubt that little Bethlehem was the ‘county seat’ of Nazareth anyway. The parallel story with Mithra about the visitation of three kings - If they were following a star that was light years away, and wound up directing them to a little manger in Bethlehem, how did they get lost, and go to ask directions from Herod in Jerusalem?  Wouldn’t you think that a king with any sense, would send spies along if he really cared about the location of this newborn king?  If there were three kings, and they came bearing expensive gifts, they would have to have a rather large caravan with many bodyguards to protect them and their loot as they crossed the ‘bandit filled desert’.  With the group  that they would have, it’s hard to understand how they could have sneaked out of town without the King’s knowledge.  Any event like that should have shown up in history somewhere, but none can be found.  On the subject of history; any mass killing of male infants, two years and under, would have met a great outcry from the people and been recorded in history somewhere, but once again, none can be found.  Josephus recorded every negative thing that the Herod’s did, but he made no mention of this”.

          “Now we come to a real problem - the father of Jesus.  ‘Will the real Father of Baby Jesus Please stand up’?  In order to fulfill the messianic prophesy, the candidate had to come from the tribe of Judah.  Jesus always called on his father in heaven, but the Heavenly Father was from Heaven, not Judah.  The Christmas story says Mary, was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  That makes the Holy Spirit the father.  John I and Hebrews I says; ‘everything that was done, was done by the Son’.  The Father, according to that, didn’t have anything to do with anything. This would mean that Jesus would have had to conceive his mother Mary with himself, thereby making himself his own father, but he too was from Heaven, and not the tribe of Judah.  Have I lost you yet?  That’s another problem.  Mary and Elizabeth were very close, more like sisters that cousins.  However Mary couldn’t have had a sister, and her mother have been a virgin too.  That’s all a part of the development of the Immaculate Conception, which they need to fulfill the ‘virgin prophesy’ they created in the Old Testament.  I’m not sure how far back in Mary’s genealogy the virgins would have to go to remove any chances of passing on sin.  The Bible says - ‘all have sinned and fallen short.......’  I guess that excludes Mary’s family tree, which by the way surely goes back to Shem, and then to Eve.  Back to the sister problem of Mary and Elizabeth.  Here is an instance when the writer of Luke may have put in ‘too’ much information.  They tell us that Elizabeth was ‘of the daughters of Aaron’,  and her husband Zechariah was a Levitical High Priest.  I think Mary was a Levite too.  That leaves the only way that Jesus could have been from the tribe of Judah, is by Joseph being the real father.  A lot of sources, believe this is true, however none of those ‘sources’ were selected for canonization. If Joseph were the real father then it would cancel what they voted ‘in’ at the Council of Nicea.  Then Constantine would have had to select Mithraism, instead of Christianity, as the state religion, for control purposes.  One of the gospels that didn’t make the grade was the gospel of Barnabas.  It just recently surfaced, and it is quite obvious why it didn’t make the canon.  Although most of the book is the same, with all the same moral teachings of Jesus . The main difference was the repeated denial by Jesus, that he was the Son of God, the Messiah, or even a god at all. Even the first gospel written, which was Mark, didn’t have any resurrection verses in the original manuscript. They were added later, to match it with the letters of Paul’s creation.

          All this leaves is the General Epistles.  They were the last to be written, maybe as late as 200 years, and once again they are generally unsure of the authors.  Last but not least, there’s Revelation.  Although the author is unknown, it is not believed that it was written by the same Christian group that developed the Gospel of John.”  Then Sarah’s daddy stopped and apologized, “Sarah, I didn’t mean to regress into this New Testament thing, but your recent questions about Christmas caused me to relate how my understandings have changed.  These, however, are my understandings, and my relating them to you, is to get you to check into these things.  Remember what I told you about ‘standing before your Creator’.  It’s difficult to understand how so many people can believe a certain way, and you have problems with going along with it. One of our ministers used to address the condition of the Sunday keeping Christians by stating ‘the deceived do not know they are deceived, if they did, then they wouldn’t be deceived’.  Little did he know that it might not be a statement, but instead, it might be a confession.  Maybe, even the elite ‘elect’ can be deceived, and just maybe they have one scripture right: ‘Satan has deceived the whole world.”

          Getting back to Sarah’s main question, her daddy went on to say, “Sarah, I think maybe you can understand why I don’t go to those churches any longer.  Most if not all of what I have just told you, did not come from the pulpit of those churches. You can not continue to do the same thing and expect different result, and the ministers of those churches continue to return to the same source for their information, even if it is the Protestant modification of the original Catholic version, it is only a compromise.  I have learned more in the last three years, than all my church going years put together. Christianity is supposed to be the religion of love, but more people have been killed in the ‘name of Christianity’ than all the combined wars during the last 2000 years. Sarah, I am still continuing to learn things. Just this past week I found out ‘that there is a very good chance that Isaac, was not just bound and then released, but that he was really sacrificed after all, and cremated.  The sheep was burnt just below him.  The books of Genesis and Hebrews even state this, but the Christianized versions modify it, and glass it over.  That would destroy the one edge the Christians have had over the Jews.  They belittled the Jews because they didn’t have an individual in their history who had been sacrificed then resurrected.  This source says Isaac was resurrected about three years later to keep the ‘promise’ alive.  However it was not in time to save Abraham’s wife, Sarah.  She had left him when he had revealed his intent, and she died of grief when she found out that he really carried through with it.  You won’t hear that come out of any pulpit any time soon, nor should it. Things like this should be thoroughly checked out.   Also, in a separate issue of this same source, it was revealed that: in the Midrash version of the Scriptures - Cain was born with a twin sister, and when Abel was born it was along with two sisters. Cain (the first born) felt he should have had the double - blessing of sisters instead of Abel, plus the other problems that added to the jealousy.  I don’t believe that one could go to any of the churches that we have attended in recent years, to find the answer.  That would be asking the ministry of that particular church to step out of the doctrinal box that they are allowed to operate in”. 

          “You see Sarah,” her daddy tried to explain, “There was more to church attendance than just going for the purpose of learning about, and worshiping God.  First you had to find a church that had a belief that corresponds to the understanding that you have at the time.  You contact them, as we did, when we came into the understanding that we should be observing the Sabbath instead of Sunday.  A lot of times you have to call first in order to find where they are having church. After calling the ‘1st Self-righteous Church of God’ in the area where you live, they are subject to send out a visiting team.  You think they are there to inform you about their church, but later find out they came to see if you qualify to attend their church. If you don’t have character traits that the church can’t correct, and your living standards are in keeping with their belief at the time, you will be told where the church is, and be informed when you have to attend.” “You see Sarah” he continued, “even the membership has a standard that they have to stay within, and it is usually higher, than that required of the ministry.  Your main requirement is to ‘pay, pray, and obey’.  If you step out of line, you are subject to disfellowshipment.  If that happens, and you want to stay within your same beliefs, you can seek out a secondary spin-off church of the parent one. The basic qualifications are not quite as strict, but you feel like you are still being judged.  The membership there is mainly victims, and refugees of similar experiences.  Each time, you think you have arrived at where you are supposed to be, that it has to be the ‘last house on the block.’ Then finally you discover it was, and you either have to start a church of  your own, or, find a group of like-minded people, and that is not always very easy, because by that time, people who have been through this, are suspicious of anything that bears resemblance of the past. They have passed the ‘last house on the block’ and they want no part of anything that hints of being organized, or ordained, and that is where I am today.  Where I will be tomorrow, remains to be seen”.

          “I still believe in a Creator, but it may not be the same one that is portrayed in the Holy Bible, or the Tanakh. I continue to study and look for answers.  The day is not far away when you will have to make some choices, but I want them to be your choices.  We have a large variety of information here, and I will try to find anything else that you would like to check into.” Then Sarah’s daddy concluded by saying, “I hope the day will soon come when we will no longer have any questions”.

        Sarah got up Sabbath morning and asked her Daddy, "What was all the noise last night?" This was going to be hard for Sarah’s Daddy to explain, without making it seem like his family was kind of ‘weirdo’s’. "Sarah" her daddy began to reply, "as you will see on the news today, all the world, including the Pope in Rome, thinks that 12 o’clock midnight last night ended, not only a year, but a very important 2000 year period. I guess this gives new meaning to: When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, because even modern Jews recognizes this date as being important. This, however, might be due to their involvement with the commercial world. Their religious belief is the same as ours, that the year begins in the spring when the Scriptures indicate that it does. I see by your puzzled look, that you are a bit confused, so I’ll try to explain."

        Sarah’s daddy paused for quite awhile, then he began to relate his understanding. "Sarah, over two thousand years ago, a Roman Emperor that history calls Julius Caesar, designed a preliminary version of the calendar that most of the world uses today. The first six months were named after pagan gods of that era. Even the days of the week received their names from similar sources. Four of the months of the second half of the year were named after Roman numerals. September, was supposed to be the seventh month, with October the eighth, November the ninth, and December was to be the tenth month. However, Julius decided that he wanted the seventh month named after himself, and not to be out done, Augustus Caesar selected the eighth month to be his Namesake. That pushed the Latin numeral months forward two months. That is why the ninth month of September has the Latin root word for seven in it. Both Caesars also had to have thirty-one days in their month, so the rest of the months had to be adjusted accordingly. There were adjustments that had to be made in this early calendar until it received the revision that was made by Pope Gregory of the early Roman Catholic/Christian church."

        Sarah’s daddy paused again, then he continued, "By today’s standards, one might call that ‘an oxy-moron’, a Christian religion adopting a pagan calendar, but not only did they accept it, but the Gregorian modification is what most of the world uses today. Their main concern at that time was to distance themselves, as much as they could, from the religion of the Jews, who were not very popular with the Romans. It probably was a fair compromise. The Roman Government had accepted Christianity as the State Religion of the Roman Empire, which in itself seems strange. In the days of the Roman Emperor Nero, one could be put to death for being a Christian. Shortly after the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christianity became mandatory and you could be put to death for not being a Christian. That’s a lot of compromise".

        "Speaking of compromise," Her daddy continued. "It played a very important part in the development of the early church all the way from the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, to Plymouth Rock, to the Hundred of Christians denominations. In the early development of Christianity, it was necessary to compromise with pagan religions, in order to keep the multitude of converts they were getting from the non-Jewish pagan world. Compromise continued even into the era called the Reformation. That is a period when a lot of Christians stood up to the Roman Catholic Church and a lot of their pagan beliefs. Similar to the early days of the Christian envelopment, many lives were lost. Finally it arrived at a point where it became necessary to compromise with the Roman Catholic Church in order to avoid being burned at the stake. At this point they were allowed to create their very own Bible, which in the beginning didn’t vary very far from the Catholic version. By 1611 AD , the Protestant Church of England had developed what became known as the King James Version of the Bible’.

        At this point Sarah interrupted and asked. "Daddy, what is AD?" Then her daddy replied, "Sarah, that is a good question, and I will try to answer it as I get back to explaining why we use the calendar we do today, but for now I want to continue to explain the many compromises, that I have learned, were necessary to get the Christian world to where it is today. I mentioned the King James version of the bible. Most Sunday keeping Protestants, and Sabbath-Keeping Christians believe that the King James Holy Bible is the God-breathed infallible Word of God. What is strange about this is: at least eleven of the ‘infallible’ books of the original King James bible were dropped from the version that is used today, however the ‘Mother Church’ as well as the Septuagint, still have them. If they were ‘infallible’, I can’t understand why they were dropped from the Bible!"

        "Now I will try to explain how the Christian religion, along with its calendar, arrived in America". Sarah’s daddy stopped when he saw the puzzled look on Sarah’s face when he implied that the calendar was a Christian calendar. "Sarah," he continued, this might be a good point to explain what I was referring to earlier, when I said ‘1611 A.D.’ Not only did the Roman Catholic/Christian Church accept this new pagan calendar that was created by the Caesars of the Roman Government, but they gave it their own suffix - A.D. This (A.D.) stands for the Latin ‘Anno Domini’, Which means: Year of our Lord.’ This would assume that the counting of years, on this new calendar, began with the birth of their ‘Lord’. Most Christian Historian have trouble pinning down the exact year of this birth. Because there is no zero year, our previous church organization guessed it to be 4 B.C."

        Sarah stopped her daddy at that point and asked "What is the difference between A.D. and B.C." Her dad tried to explain, "I briefly described A.D., but the B.C. part is a little more difficult, at least for me. I don’t know if it stands for something in Latin or not, but most Christians generally believe it means - Before Christ. So, not only did the church put it’s stamp of approval on this new pagan calendar, but they also put their label (B.C.), on all the years that preceded this event. Of course, the main acceptance, as I mentioned earlier, came with the corrections to this calendar that was made by the Roman Catholic/Christian Pope Gregory. As you know, we use B.C.E. meaning Before the Common Era. With all the confusion of the various Christian organizations today it could mean Common Error.’"

        "Sarah, don’t misunderstand me when I refer to ‘Christians’. Most Christians of today are good, well-meaning people. Many I love dearly, and probably always will. I have been hurt by some of the leaders of previous church organization. Even at that, I don’t think it was personal, but either occurred as a result of defending what they believe, or in the case of the church leadership, their lifestyle. My main negative feelings are toward the early Catholic/Christian church. I just wished Christians of today could see what their beliefs are a product of. It is a belief system that is hard to break loose from, but once you break out of that ‘Holy Bible’ box, you find all kinds of information available, and the freedom to study it. I guess I can be thankful that the blinders were lifted. I know there must be a reason that we go through what we do, in life, to arrive at the point where we are. A lot of times we have to leave things and/or people behind. That’s the hardest part. If it is meant for them to follow a similar path, it will happen, and hopefully we will all be together again."

        ‘Let’s see Sarah, where were we when I mentioned that date that ended in A.D.? Oh, I remember now. I was telling you how I understand religion come to the ‘New World’. The early. explorers from Spain mainly went to the West Indies, Mexico, Central, and South America. Along with them they brought their religion of the Catholic Church. They proceeded to convert the natives of their conquered land, where ever they went. Most of the time it was by force. Their church history had provided a good guide-line. Up in the northern area, what was referred to as the Colonies, large numbers of people were arriving in search of ‘freedom’. History says they were looking for ‘religious freedom’ from an oppressive church. The problems is, it wasn’t very long before that church followed them across. At least in the colonies there was not the church-state type of control, as existed both in Rome, and the Church of England. Most arrivals were one variety of Christian or another. They had already splintered to many different understandings of that same King James Bible. Also, they brought that same ‘Christian Calendar’."

        "To most people today, the generally feeling is: all the early settlers were Christians, including all the ‘Founding Fathers’ of our country. Closer research shows most to be either Theist, Atheist, or Agnostic. For instance, we have a ‘Jefferson Bible’, written by Thomas Jefferson. In it is documented most, if not all, of the moral teaching of this Rabbi from Nazareth, that he also refers to as Jesus, however nowhere in this version is there any mention of Jesus being a deity, or a Messiah, or even a Christ. true, our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, are based on good moral principles, but these all existed before the New Testament came along. They mainly call this a ‘Christian Nation’ because that is the majority religion in this country. With immigration being what it is, I’m not sure how long that will last."

        "In reading a lot of historical accounts, that you won’t find in your public schools, I find that there were also a lot of Jews among the early arrivals. As far as the calendar they used, it was the Christian Calendar of the Majority. The interaction of the Jews with others have always been commercial, so using the calendar of the customers seemed like the logical thing to do. Their own Orthodox Calendar is different, in that there is not the artificial break created by Julius Caesar. Their current year is fifty-seven hundred and something. This reminds me of something I have always been curious about. Our former church organization used to relate to us - how accurate time has been kept over the years, because the Creator gave the Jews, or the tribe of Judah, the responsibility of keeping the ‘Oracles of God’. This brings up several questions: If the Jews kept such accurate time for days, months, and years, why did our church use the pagan calendar? Who kept track of time before Judah was born? Finally, did the Jewish count include the ancient Sumerians, or is it only an estimation of the ancestry of the Jews? Anyway, I don’t place a lot of stock in the Jewish calendar either, after studying the history of the ancient Sumerians. The utilization of the Gregorian Calendar by our former church to establish a six thousand year period of prophesy that precedes the end-time millennium, is rapidly losing its significance. There is probably a few more years that can be juggled with, but then there will be little left that will fit."

        "Sarah, as far as the New Year’s celebration that woke you last night, it was very important to a lot of people, but I believe in a couple of weeks they will be asking themselves why they placed so much importance on it? As far as I am concerned it seems more logical that the Creator would want the year to begin in the early spring, when life is beginning, rather than in the middle of winter when most everything is dead."

Who Really Won?             

January 17, 2000

        "Daddy, today is suppose to be Martin Luther King’s birthday, and the banks, public schools, and city, county, state and federal offices are closed. Why do we honor a man’s birthday as a holiday (Holy Day)? (Other than Christmas, we’ve already been there). I heard on the radio today, that the Catholic Church is talking about elevating this Baptist minister to Catholic Sainthood. That makes about as much sense, as the event you told me about where the Pope is glorifying the Pagan New Years. The Vice President said we are going to spend a million and a half in tax dollars to preserve his birth place, and what does all of this have to do with a flag flying over a state capitol?"

        Sarah’s daddy wished that she hadn’t asked these questions. "Sarah, I will try to explain it the best can. Most grownups today do not understand the true history of that last question. The flag you refer to is the Confederate Battle Flag that flies atop the Capitol Building in South Carolina. A lot of people think it is offensive, because it represents slavery in their minds. Slavery only existed four years during the time of this flag, but it had existed for one hundred years under the American Flag. All this is supposed to have occurred due to the Civil War. Well, just as the history of the development of the Church is some what lost, so is the real background to that war. First, it wasn’t a Civil War. A Civil War is when two groups are trying to take over the same government, and Jefferson Davis wanted no part of the Union Government. It was just the opposite. The Southern States wanted the Federal Government to stay out of the business of the states unless the states allowed it under the constitution. States-Right was the real reason for the war between the states. The southern states wanted to keep the freedoms guaranteed by The Constitution. The right to have slaves was just one of those rights. Originally the individual states were more like small countries joined together by the federal government. There were a lot of commerce problems behind the war also. Time and politics have erased a lot of history. When the South lost the war between the states they not only lost their right to have slaves, they also lost a lot of their Freedoms to the Federal Government. Contrary to the Constitution, the Federal Government continues to take more and more of the freedoms away from the states. What the Union States don’t realize is that they lost the war too. They lost states-rights also. You might say that it was that, that put us on the road to socialism that we are headed for at this time. I can understand why the people of South Carolina are clinging to the memory their flags give them. Now The Federal Government is trying to take away Texas Homestead Exemptions, which is a states right. I think all the states lost when the North won the war.

Where’s the Truth?

February 5, 2000

        After trying to find a particular book in their home library, Sarah paused for a few minutes, then she asked, with somewhat of a puzzled tone in her voice, "Daddy, I know you have tried to answer this question in the recent past, but I am still a bit confused. Why do we have so many different bibles in our home library? If the bible is God’s Word, and every word in it is truth, as we have been taught in the past, why are there so many different versions? Would God have inspired a man to write something one way for one group, and a different way for another group, and still call it truth?"

        "Sarah", her dad replied, "Your questions are good ones. In fact, they are the very questions that I am trying to find answers for. In the past we have been told what to believe. It didn’t occur to us to question what we heard from the pulpit. These were highly educated men who had studied the bible at great lengths. They also spoke with great authority. We could even look up the few scriptures they used, to make sure their sermon was indeed coming from God’s Word. They often even let us know which version they were using. They sometimes would use more that one version to make their point more believable. We often were told the bible was God’s Truth, and every word was God Breathed and infallible. ‘How can there be so many different versions, and they all be God’s TRUTH?’ That is the question that I am trying to find an answer to."

        "Sarah, I believe the Creator, our Heavenly Father, wants us to know the truth. I believe His Truth is here on Earth at this time. It may not be all of His truth, but it probably is all we need to know at this time. What I have come to believe is that this is an on going educational thing. We could spend all eternity studying, and never attain the knowledge of God the Father. The scriptures today, I believe have the Father’s Truth in it, but it was highly corrupted by mankind to satisfy his own purpose. Most people, if not all, will tell you that God would not allow that to happen. Sarah, I am going to back up a little, and relate to you what I have come to understand."

        "First, because of the many errors that I have found in my recent studies, I pray often for guidance, and discernment as I search for the truth. I am not quick to assume that each fact I learn is an answer to that prayer. I have to go to many sources to find answers or clues to where they might be. I believe that a lot of truth has been destroyed over a period of time, because it interfered with the purpose the men were trying to develop at the time. A good example of that is the Septuagint. As I told you earlier, it was supposed to be the Hebrew Scriptures very carefully translated into the Greek, during the third century B.C.E. The oldest manuscript copy of that, which exist today, dates back only to about 400 C.E. That is about a six or seven hundred year gap. The last four hundred years of that period is when the church was developing the New Testament. A lot of the Pagan sources that were developed were also destroyed, to prevent traceability. You might ask why would the Creator allow that to happen? Most people do not think that He would, in fact their whole faith is build around the fact that ‘God would not allow error to enter into His Truth.’ That is why they think the holy Bible is the Infallible Word of God."

        "Sarah, this brings me to the second point. Once again I referred to my recent studies. I do not see the creation story in the same way I was once taught. In fact Sarah, I have found many different creations stories. Most of them are just that: stories, but they are not that much more far-fetched than the one that appears in the Holy Bible. For instance, God calling for Adam and Eve in the garden as if He didn’t know where they were, and then having to question them as if He didn’t know what was going on. This whole ‘forbidden fruit/tree of knowledge’ thing, I believe is a myth, if not the whole Garden of Eden story. I feel that the Father created mankind originally with a mind of self-determination. If He had wanted to populate the whole world with sinless creatures, he would have improved upon His angel design and created a world of humanoid-robots. That whole snake/apple things is what we would call entrapment, today. We are to assume that the Creator had no idea what choice they would make. What happened to the ‘All Knowing God’ our ministers preached to us about? Sarah, this Satan/Devil thing, I have to try to explain later, because it would get us to far away from the topic of your question. I could go on and on with picking the Garden of Eden story apart, but then you would not have something to research for yourself when you feel the time is right, or when you reach a point in you life when you no longer rely on the understanding of others as a source for your beliefs. Then, you will probably seek out for answers of your own. I guess that is why I am answering your questions the way I am: to put question in the answers that exist today, so that you will not take them as fact, like most people do, and will search for truth yourself someday."

        "Sarah, the Holy Bible is the Christian/Catholic version of God’s word. It contains the Old and the New Testaments, or the Old and the New Covenants. For some reason, most of the people that lived during the time of the Old covenant had a hard time being obedient to the God of that Covenant. Several times the Old Testament implies that maybe God made a mistake in the people he created. The flood story, and Sodom and Gomorrah are two examples. Another example is after the orgy-scene of Mt.Sinai, when Moses went back up the mountain to confront an all knowing Creator-God who was threatening to destroying all man-kind, except for Moses, and starting over again. This is a little confusing, because he promised he would never do that again, after the Flood. However, Moses who was a murderer, and the husband of an Midian wife, changed the Creator’s mind by reminding the All-knowing God of how that would look to the Egyptians that had chased them in chariots pulled by horses, that had been killed by one of the ‘Seven Plagues’, and then the same horses died again when drowned in the Red Sea . Sorry about that Sarah. I drifted away a bit."

        "Back to what the Church of today feels is the need for an Old and New Testament. They claim that it must have been next to impossible for the people of the ‘Old’ to love or obey the God of that period. If the Church of today were to witness just a fraction of the miracles that are alleged to have happened to the Hebrews and Israelites, there would be no need for the ‘faith’ that is required of its members today. The writers of the New covenant portion injected some miracles of their own that was supposed to have been done by the ‘god of the New Covenant, but a lot, if not all, had been duplicated by others. The one most rely on today is the one Paul created about the resurrection and ascension. More about that later, Sarah. Back to the difference of the need for an Old and a New Covenant."

        "Sarah, the church of today, whether they realize it or not, want to have it both ways. They want to claim the reason for the need of a new covenant is because the laws of the Old covenant were too hard to obey, and the God of the Old Covenant was a harsh, brutal, and bloody God. One who destroyed innocent multitudes of people just to satisfy his own purpose for his own people. Regardless of what the God of the Old Covenant did, he could not get the adoration and respect that most people of today have for the Pope, or this ‘Virgin Mary’ idea."

        "Sarah, herein, is where the problems lies. One day you will hear a sermon regarding the need for a New Covenant, because this harsh, war-like, bloody God of the Old Covenant made it almost impossible to love him. The next week you might hear a sermon about this god of the New Covenant, who is mild, meek, loving and would probably fit very comfortably in certain areas of San Francisco. The following week you might hear a sermon that this Jesus, god of the New Covenant did everything that was ever done (John I, Hebrews I ), which means his father would have had to sit back and watch everything that was going on, however we are told, that they claim, they are not sure who wrote the book of Hebrews, well, I have news for them, they only think they know who wrote the book of John. Back to the sermon varieties. The next week you might have a sermon telling you that this same Jesus was also the God of the Old Covenant. Could he have changed his ways? Not according to the sermon we received on the following week. The God in that sermon ‘changes not. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Sarah, I see you shaking your head is disbelief. Even as young as you are, you can see through this. It would take a lot of blind-faith to not see it. However, a person would never hear sermons like that back-to-back."

        "Sarah, the ‘church of today’ feels a need to have a two-part bible, the New Testament could not stand by its self. They might have a sermon one week, telling everyone that the laws of the Old Covenant were ‘nailed to the cross’, and the next week a sermon where this God of the New Covenant ‘Came not to change anything in the law, not a jot, or a tittle’. Ministers don’t like to refer to the Old Covenant scriptures for their sermons except for when it suits their purpose, and even then, they often have to take the quoted scripture out-of-context. They do get a lot of help, however, because much of the Old Testament had been changed to fit the New Testament. As long as they can convince people that all prophesy is dual, and that when the Old Testament refers to the YAHWEH or ELOHIM God of that time, they are really referring to the individual who later became Jesus."

        "The developers of early Anti-Jewish movement in Rome, after 70 C.E. must have had great difficulty coming up with a doctrine for their cause. It wasn’t very popular to be Jewish in Rome, shortly after the Romans invaded Jerusalem and destroyed their temple. At first all they had were these wise, and moral teaching of this Rabbi from Nazareth that taught in Galilee about 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and some copies of some letters written to churches, in what is now Greece and Turkey, that this proselyte Jewish missionary name Paul had organized, and claimed that this same Rabbi was also a Resurrected Savior God. Paul claimed that this Rabbi from Nazareth had been resurrected from the dead, and there by, he must be the prophesied messiah that he had learned about. If he were the messiah, then he must be the ‘Anointed One’. Being that Greek was the native language ,he used, the Greek word for anointed, which is the word Christ, to identify this Rabbi that was alleged to have been martyred. It was through Paul that followers of Paul first were called Christians. By the time the full impact of this cult, in Asia Minor, had reached Rome, it was too significant to reject. even though they had some problems with a lot of what Paul wrote, they accepted the whole package. They even added additional verses to the doctrine that their first group wrote which they later named the gospel of Mark. It was probably named after John Mark, one of Paul’s companions, to give it some significance. Much later two more break-away groups would copy from, and re-write that same doctrine, but put their own slant on it. You see Sarah, they even had differing church denominations back then. A lot of this I told you before, but I need to add it to the explanation that is a part of the answer to your question."

        With that Sarah’s dad stopped and took a deep breath, then he said, "Sarah, as to why we have so many different bibles in our home library, the answer is the same as why we have added so many books to our home library-I am trying to locate the Creator’s Truth where ever I can find it. Part of finding the truth is finding out how the sources we have today were developed. Great multitudes of people today would not think of stepping out side of the King-James Bible, therefore the only information they will ever find will be confined to that book. That’s why I said earlier, ‘one cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different result’. An organization, church, or most ministers that owe their whole state-of-being, not to mention their income, to a belief or a certain doctrine, will not be looking for truth that runs contrary to that doctrine, nor will they publicly admit it when they do fit."

March 17, 2000

        "Sarah, today is March seventeenth. If you look on most calendars, it says that it is St. Patrick’s Day. Every year I encounter the same thing, people asking me "Where is your green?" I wear a uniform at work, and I sometimes have to explain that my company will not allow me to attach religious symbols on it. That usually draws a blank look from the one who asked the question. You see, Sarah, I work security at a city government facility. The employees are mainly a result of ‘Affirmative Action.’ Therefore there is large number of minorities resulting in mainly females, mostly Latino and blacks. The common slogan is ‘on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish’. Well, being Irish is just part of the tradition. When people persist, and ask whether I have any Irish in me, I have to honestly reply that, I have more Irish ancestry than people in this area, but that I am not Catholic. Once again I get a blank look from the person asking the question, and then I get that usual reply, ‘but it is a tradition’. I stand looking around at all the black and Latino women wearing green. Most, if not all, have no idea why they observe this day. It has to be totally traditional for most of the black women. The vast majority of them belong to the Baptist Church, which is only a daughter of the Catholic Church. However like all traditional Christianity they are unfamiliar with the traditional history of their own church. The Latino women that are observing this day, come closer to being justified. You see Sarah, almost all Latino, or Hispanics, are traditionally Catholics. As I mentioned earlier, this resulted from Spanish explorers of Mexico and South America, bringing the Catholic Religion to the Natives and imposing it on them. In time the tradition grew to the point that some believe it is the religion of their heredity. They even refer to Mary, mother of Jesus of the New Testament, as ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe.’ Some probably even think she is Hispanic. This is another example of what tradition can do over a period of time. Most of the holidays (Holy Days?) on this pagan calendar were developed by the Catholic Church. Tradition has changed most of them. Most people would not admit what they are paying homage to, when they observe Halloween. Valentines, which we just went through, is similarly observed by these same people for the same unknown reasons. Time, however, has caused the ‘Saint’ part to be dropped from this holiday in most cases. Easter and Christmas, I have touched on before, and will go into much further at a later time. Among this pagan observances that were christianized by the Catholic Church, these are much more involved. What I’m trying to do at this point is to explain what part tradition has played in current religious thought. Last night I read the complete history of Lent, as recorded in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, trying to understand why so many people here claim they are observing it at this time. I venture to say , after reading it, very few that observe Lent have made the same effort to check into it. They observe it out of tradition. It is amazing how that tradition has changed over the years. It now is supposed to mainly be a forty day period of penitence prior to Easter. The type of wild revelry of Mardi-Gras that immediately precedes Lent, gives plenty to be penitent of. Although most Christians spin-offs of the Catholic church don’t observe Lent. Like the Catholic developed holidays, most people celebrate Mardi Gras, and it is with the same lack of knowledge as to why. Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday" which is the last day before Lent. When I was stationed in Mainz, Germany they had two weeks of Mardi Gras, which they called Fasching. On Fat Tuesday it was traditional for the married women to take off their wedding rings. Sarah, you are too young for me to tell you what followed, but believe me there was plenty to be penitent of the next day. Sarah, this is the reason your home-school field trip to Galveston had to be postponed to a Friday other than the weekend of Mardi-Gras. As an indication of how the tradition of Lent can vary, in the seventeenth century under King Charles I, there was a commanded abstinence of meat eating. In the same century under James I, the requirement became obsolete. This is just one of many variations. The Catholic Church, which is the ‘mother’ of all the spin-off Christian Daughter Churches, split between East and West, with a church in Rome and the other in Constantinople. Each had its own traditions and observed Lent differently. Whether that meant there were two Christian ‘Mother Churches’ or the Roman church was ‘mother of all’, I am not sure, but each have their own traditions to this day, if you consider the Orthodox church of today as being a descendant of the East split of the Byzantine era. At that time each had its own Pope. Can you imagine two people with different beliefs, being infallible at the same time?

        Sarah, tradition is a process of development. The New Testament, as I have told you in the past, is such a process of development. It didn’t really begin its finalization until the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. This is also when Lent was first mentioned. Prior to that, spring or ‘lengthening of days’, which is what lent means, was mainly a pagan observance."

        At this point Sarah interrupted and asked, "Daddy, does this have anything to do with what you told mother, last week, about your conversation with Dr. Sumner of the Burke Baker planetarium?" Sarah’s daddy paused a minute, trying to think of a way to answer her question without confusing her more. "Sarah, for the past several years I have been contacting the local planetarium to determine the first new moon after the Spring equinox, so we can use the Holy Scriptures to know when we should observe Passover, and the Days of Unleavened Bread. From that point we can determine the rest of the Holy Days observances." Then Sarah said, "That seems simple enough. Why doesn’t everyone use that method." Her daddy replied, "Control, is probably the real reason, but that would take a lengthy explanation, so I’ll just stick to the question you asked about my checking out a local time for our calculations.

        When we were attending a Sabbath observing Christian Church, we were provided with a card which told us when to observe the Holy Days according to the scriptures. Once again we were following the concept ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’. A few years ago we learned that the Hebrews also did some calendar changing that we don’t believe has the blessing of the Creator. They use a method similar to ours, but if the scriptural count causes the Day of Atonement to fall on, the day before, or the day after a weekly Sabbath Day, they would adjust it to avoid a double Sabbath, then count backwards to get a starting point for Passover observance. As hard as it seemed to be for the early Israelite to follow the Creators laws, that would have really given them a problem."

        At this point Sarah interrupted again. "Daddy, that explains why our Passover is slightly different than it used to be for us, but why can it vary so much with the Christian Easter Sunday? Didn’t that have something to do with Passover according to the tradition of the Catholic Church?" Her dad answered, "Yes Sarah, in a way it did, but they focus on just one year. The Passover falls on a different day every year. The year, our former Sabbath-observing Christian church used for calculations was 31 B.C.E. That year the Passover was supposed to be on a Wednesday when the crucifixion of their savior was supposed to have occurred. At sundown began their High Day Sabbath on the Day of Unleavened Bread, mentioned in their Book of John. It was a Thursday that year, which means, if there had been a three day/three night determination for a resurrection, it would have occurred at three in the afternoon of the weekly Sabbath. That would account for the reason the women approaching the tomb while it was still dark Sunday morning, found it empty. All the other gospel books assume that high Sabbath was a weekly Sabbath which would have moved it to Saturday, that’s why there is a Friday to Sunday three day problem. Tradition, however, needed a Sunrise Sunday resurrection to fit the doctrine the early Catholic/Christian church was developing for their movement. Tradition blinded them to some of their own documentation. Their focus on Sunday, for reason I have explained before is why Easter can vary so much from Passover. Easter Sunday occurs each year on the Christian/Pagan calendar, the Sunday following the full moon on or after March twenty-first, even if the Equinox occurs on March twentieth, as it does this year. It doesn’t really have anything to do with what is recorded in the New Testament that they developed, much less the Holy Scriptures. Any way, Sarah, after selecting which ‘Sun-day’ they are to use, they, like the Jews who modified the Hebrew calendar, count backwards, but the reason is to determine the beginning of their traditional Lent season, which I mentioned before, wasn’t even started until the fourth century under Constantine. From there it varied from three days to a week, to 10% of the year, or 36 days. Under some kings it wasn’t observed at all. Somewhere along the line, the developers of the N.T. added a 40 day fast by their savior, to their documentation, then changed their traditional Lent observance to 40 days, and refer to his fast as the reason. Some, if there is a Catholic Church close enough, will leave their work briefly to go get. a black cross of ashes put on their forehead to show everyone that they are religious, and then little mention is made about Lent after that. If they do, or even know what to do during that period, only they know. It may be like a lot of Christians who ‘touch base’ on Sunday, by attending church, then go on and do what they want to for the rest of the day, or at least wait until noon. The setting aside a twenty-four hour period from the week, did not become part of their tradition as it developed.

        "Sarah, this brings me to another point. I don’t know if you noticed or not, but when I was describing the various holidays, I said they were ‘developed by the Catholic Church, rather than originated with the Catholic Church. All these observances pre-date Christianity by thousands of years, and were later Christianized because of stubborn Pagan converts. This is also true of a lot of the New Testament Itself. A desperate attempt was made to destroy the sources so as to avoid traceability.

        So, Sarah you see why there are so many Christian Churches. So many traditions and doctrines have evolved that the Christian Church, like Paul, one of its contributors, can ‘be all things to all people.’ Even my brother-in-law, your Uncle, when he ran into a disagreement with his church, resigned his membership, and decided to start his own church. The Catholic church , which is supposed to be infallible, universal, and the ‘mother of all’, split and changed as traditions dictated. Your mother and I thought we had arrived at the truth, when we started attending a Sabbath keeping church, which derived it’s holy day observances from the ‘Old Testament’ Scriptures, only to later find out that the church had only rejected the pagan sources, that were convenient to their doctrine. If they did discover the real truth of Christianity they sure didn’t let anyone know. That will be something they will have to explain to their Creator someday."

        Sarah, most of my life I followed the religion of my family tradition. That is what most people do. The main reason that I have these little sessions with you is not to get you to follow a certain doctrine, but to arm you with information that I didn’t’ have at your age. It is much easier to make a decision about your own beliefs based on your own research, when you don’t have a drastic process of unlearning to do, based on many years of religious tradition."

        Sarah, what we are trying to do at this time is to try to follow the example, the Creator wanted to Israelites to provide for the rest of the world, to the best of our understanding, and avoid following tradition. That could be like ‘following sheep to the slaughter.’ It could continue to change as we learn more truth.