BIBLICAL THEMES - VOLUME III (Documentare teologica)
Do you think about what you read in the Bible?
I greet you with grace and peace from God, Yehowah, our Father Almighty, the awesome and glorious Creator of Universe, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our King!
Teachings, Church History and Bible Prophecy
Who was Jacob in history, called "the brother of the Lord"?
"But I saw none other of the apostles than Jacob, the brother of the Lord." (Gal. 1:19)
He was from the house of Joseph, so the physical brother of Jesus, and not Jesus' cousin as those who say that Mary had no children with Joseph or that Joseph was already a widower and had more children from another woman... All these are simple speculations launched by Satan the Devil, to make Saint Mary an idol, to be worshiped by people as God. Satan the Devil has as his motto> "Worship what you want, only not God."
"Isn't He the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary His mother? And Jacob, Joseph, Simon and Judas, aren't they His brothers?" (Matt. 13:55)
If Mary had not literally given birth to Jesus, the following should not have been written>
And, when the days for their purification were fulfilled, according to the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary brought the Child to Jerusalem, to present Him before the Lord - (Luke 2:22)
A historian from the second century gives us some more details from the life of this faithful man, which confirms the practices of the first Christians, who followed the teachings of Jesus, which we read in the Bible..
Hegesippus, Memoirs from the the early Christian history
Written in the second century AD
Fragments from His Five Books of Commentaries on the Acts of the Church.
A Catholic source wrote the following about him>
------------
[a.d. 170.] One of the sub-Apostolic age, a contemporary of Justin and of the
martyrs of "the good Aurelius," we must yet distinguish Hegesippus2
from the apologists. He is the earliest of the Church's chroniclers-we can
hardly call him a historian. His aims were noble and his character was pure;
nor can we refuse him the credit due to a foresight of the Church's ultimate
want of historical material, which he endeavoured to supply.
What is commonly regarded as his defect is in reality one of his greatest
merits as a witness: he was a Hebrew, and looks at the Church from the
stand-point of "James the Lord's brother." When we observe his
Catholic spirit, therefore, as well as his Catholic orthodoxy; his sympathy
with the Gentile Church and Pauline faith of the Corinthians; his abhorrence of
"the Circumcision" so far as it bred sects and heresies against
Christ; and when we find him confirming the testimony of the Apostolic Fathers,
and sustaining the traditions of Antioch by those of Jerusalem,-we have double reason
to cherish his name, and to treasure up "the fragments that remain"
of his works. That touching episode of the kindred of Christ, as they appeared
before Domitian, has always impressed my imagination as worthy to be classed
with the story of St. John and the robber, as one of the most suggestive
incidents of early Christian history. We must lament the loss of other portions
of the Memoirs which were known to exist in the seventeenth century. He was a
traveller, and must have seen much of the Apostolic churches in the East and
West; and the mere scraps we have of his narrative concerning Corinth and Rome
excite a natural curiosity as to the rest, which may lead to gratifying
discoveries.
I.
Concerning the martyrdom of James, the brother of the Lord, from Book V.1
James, the Lord's brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in
conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from
the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James;
but this one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or other
intoxicating liquor,2 nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head; he did
not anoint himself with oil, nor make use of the bath. He alone was permitted
to enter the holy place:3 for he did not wear any woollen garment, but fine
linen only. He alone, I say, was wont to go into the temple: and he used to be
found kneeling on his knees, begging forgiveness for the people-so that the
skin of his knees became horny like that of a camel's, by reason of his constantly
bending the knee in adoration to God, and begging forgiveness for the people.
Therefore, in consequence of his pre-eminent justice, he was called the Just,
and Oblias,4 which signifies in Greek Defence of the People, and Justice, in
accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him.
Now some persons belonging to the seven sects existing among the people, which
have been before described by me in the Notes, asked him: "What is the
door of Jesus?" And he replied that He was the Saviour. In Consequence of
this answer, some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the sects before
mentioned did not believe, either in a resurrection or in the coming of One to
requite every man according to his works; but those who did believe, believed
because of James. So, when many even of the ruling class believed, there was a
commotion among the Jews, and scribes, and Pharisees, who said: "A little
more, and we shall have all the people looking for Jesus as the Christ.
They came, therefore, in a body to James, and said: "We entreat thee,
restrain the people: for they are gone astray in their opinions about Jesus, as
if he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all who have come hither for
the day of the passover, concerning Jesus. For we all listen to thy persuasion;
since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that thou art just,
and showest partiality to none. Do thou, therefore, persuade the people not to
entertain erroneous opinions concerning Jesus: for all the people, and we also,
listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand, then, upon the summit5 of the temple,
that from that elevated spot thou mayest be clearly seen, and thy words may be
plainly audible to all the people. For, in order to attend the passover, all
the tribes have congregated hither, and some of the Gentiles also."
The aforesaid scribes and Pharisees accordingly set James on the summit of the
temple, and cried aloud to him, and said: "O just one, whom we are all
bound to obey, forasmuch as the people is in error, and follows Jesus the
crucified, do thou tell us what is the door of Jesus, the crucified." And
he answered with a loud voice: "Why ask ye me concerning Jesus the Son of
man? He Himself sitteth in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and
shall come on the clouds of heaven."
And, when many were fully convinced by these words, and offered praise for the
testimony of James, and said, "Hosanna to the son of David," then
again the said Pharisees and scribes said to one another, "We have not
done well in procuring this testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him
down, that they may be afraid, and not believe him." And they cried aloud,
and said: "Oh! oh! the just man himself is in error." Thus they
fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah: "Let us away with the just man,
because he is troublesome to us: therefore shall they eat the fruit of their
doings." So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to one
another: "Let us stone James the Just." And they began to stone him:
for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned, and kneeled down, and said:
"I beseech Thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them; for they know not what
they do."
And, while they were thus stoning him to death, one of the priests, the sons of
Rechab, the son of Rechabim, to whom testimony is borne by Jeremiah the
prophet, began to cry aloud, saying: "Cease, what do ye? The just man is
praying for us." But one among them, one of the fullers, took the staff
with which he was accustomed to wring out the garments he dyed, and hurled it at
the head of the just man.
And so he suffered martyrdom; and they buried him on the spot, and the pillar
erected to his memory still remains, close by the temple. This man was a true
witness to both Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ.
And shortly after Vespasian besieged Judaea, taking them captive.
Have you been brought before someone because of the Lord Jesus?
How beautifully this verse was fulfilled: Because of Me, you will be brought before governors and before kings, to serve as a testimony before them and before the Gentiles. (Matt. 10:18)
From Hegesippus, Memoirs from the the early Christian history
Written in the second century AD
Concerning the relatives of our Saviour.6
There still survived of the kindred of the Lord the grandsons of Judas, who
according to the flesh was called his brother. These were informed against, as
belonging to the family of David, and Evocatus brought them before Domitian
Caesar: for that emperor dreaded the advent of Christ, as Herod had done.
So he asked them whether they were of the family of David; and they confessed
they were. Next he asked them what property they had, or how much money they
possessed. They both replied that they had only 9000 denaria between them, each
of them owning half that sum; but even this they said they did not possess in
cash, but as the estimated value of some land, consisting of thirty-nine
plethra only, out of which they had to pay the dues, and that they supported
themselves by their own labour. And then they began to hold out their hands,
exhibiting, as proof of their manual labour, the roughness of their skin, and
the corns raised on their hands by constant work.
Being then asked concerning Christ and His kingdom, what was its nature, and when
and where it was to appear, they returned answer that it was not of this world,
nor of the earth, but belonging to the sphere of heaven and angels, and would
make its appearance at the end of time, when He shall come in glory, and judge
living and dead, and render to every one according to the course of his life.7
Thereupon Domitian passed no condemnation upon them, but treated them with
contempt, as too mean for notice, and let them go free. At the same time he
issued a command, and put a stop to the persecution against the Church.
When they were released they became leaders8 of the churches, as was natural in
the case of those who were at once martyrs and of the kindred of the Lord. And,
after the establishment of peace to the Church, their lives were prolonged to
the reign of Trojan.
How did the prophecy about the false prophets begin to be fulfilled?
Look at these prophecies:
Many false prophets will arise and deceive many. (Matthew 24:11)
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. (2Peter 2:1)
When do you think they started to come true?
From Hegesippus, Memoirs from the the early Christian history
Written in the second century AD
Concerning the
martyrdom of Symeon the son of Clopas, bishop of Jerusalem.9
Some of these heretics, forsooth, laid an information against Symeon the son of
Clopas, as being of the family of David, and a Christian. And on these charges
he suffered martyrdom when he was 120 years old, in the reign of Trajan Caesar,
when Atticus was consular legate10 in Syria. And it so happened, says the same
writer, that, while inquiry was then being made for those belonging to the
royal tribe of the Jews, the accusers themselves were convicted of belonging to
it. With show of reason could it be said that Symeon was one of those who
actually saw and heard the Lord, on the ground of his great age, and also
because the Scripture of the Gospels makes mention of Mary the daughter of
Clopas, who, as our narrative has shown already, was his father.
The same historian mentions others also, of the family of one of the reputed
brothers of the Saviour, named Judas, as having survived until this same reign,
after the testimony they bore for the faith of Christ in the time of Domitian,
as already recorded.
He writes as follows: They came, then, and took the presidency of every church,
as witnesses for Christ, and as being of the kindred of the Lord. And, after
profound peace had been established in every church, they remained down to the
reign of Trojan Caesar: that is, until the time when he who was sprung from an
uncle of the Lord, the aforementioned Symeon son of Clopas, was informed
against by the various heresies, and subjected to an accusation like the rest,
and for the same cause, before the legate Atticus; and, while suffering outrage
during many days, he bore testimony for Christ: so that all, including the
legate himself, were astonished above measure that a man 120 years old should
have been able to endure such torments. He was finally condemned to be
crucified.
... Up to that period the Church had remained like a virgin pure and
uncorrupted: for, if there were any persons who were disposed to tamper with
the wholesome rule of the preaching of salvation,11 they still lurked in some
dark place of concealment or other. But, when the sacred band of apostles had
in various ways closed their lives, and that generation of men to whom it had
been vouchsafed to listen to the Godlike Wisdom with their own ears had passed
away, then did the confederacy of godless error take its rise through the
treachery of false teachers, who, seeing that none of the apostles any longer
survived, at length attempted with bare and uplifted head to oppose the
preaching of the truth by preaching "knowledge falsely so called."
Blessed are those who weep now!
Would you weep for Jesus?
The Gamo are an African tribe and they wept when they heard the message of the Holy Gospel. Their belief system was originally rooted in traditional African religions and was closely related to nature.
Many people have not yet heard the Gospel, and when they do, they begin to cry out in pain: How is it possible for someone to die for us?
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And yet the time will come when all unrepentant people will weep... Why will all nations weep? The time will come when the beautiful message of the Gospel will be known to all. And then will come the end and the reckoning (Matthew 24:14). Then many will complain because they did not respond with love to God's great love.
Matthew 24:30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, then all the nations of the earth will mourn and see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. (RÚF)
Blessed are those who weep now (Matthew 5:4)!
Why do so many sects appear in Christianity?
Obviously there are many causes. One of them is clearly shown by the apostle John:
I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to have the upper hand among them, does not want to know about us. (3 John 1:9) The desire to be a leader, at any cost, has made many fall into the sin of self-aggrandizement:
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:11)
And now let's see an example from the first century.
From Hegesippus, Memoirs from the the early Christian history
Written in the second century AD
Concerning his journey to Rome, and the Jewish sects.12
And the church of the Corinthians continued in the orthodox faith13 up to the
time when Primus was bishop in Corinth. I had some intercourse with these
brethren on my voyage to Rome, when I spent several days with the Corinthians,
during which we were mutually refreshed by the orthodox faith.
On my arrival at Rome, I drew up a list of the succession of bishops down to
Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. To Anicetus succeeded Soter, and after
him came Eleutherus. But in the case of every succession,14 and in every city,
the state of affairs is in accordance with the teaching of the Law and of the
Prophets and of the Lord....
And after James the Just had suffered martyrdom, as had the Lord also and on
the same account, again Symeon the son of Clopas, descended from the Lord's
uncle, is made bishop, his election being promoted by all as being a kinsman of
the Lord.
Therefore was the Church called a virgin, for she was not as yet corrupted by
worthless teaching.15 Thebulis it was who, displeased because he was not made
bishop, first began to corrupt her by stealth. He too was connected with the
seven sects which existed among the people, like Simon, from whom come the
Simoniani; and Cleobius, from whom come the Cleobiani; and Doritheus, from whom
come the Dorithiani; and Gorthaeus, from whom come the Gortheani; Masbothaeus,
from whom come the Masbothaei. From these men also come the Menandrianists, and
the Marcionists, and the Carpocratians, and the Valentinians, and the
Basilidians, and the Saturnilians. Each of these leaders in his own private and
distinct capacity brought in his own private opinion. From these have come
false Christs, false prophets, false apostles-men who have split up the one
Church into parts16 through their corrupting doctrines, uttered in
disparagement of God and of His Christ....
There were, moreover, various opinions in the matter of circumcision among the
children of Israel, held by those who were opposed to the tribe of Judah and to
Christ: such as the Essenes, the Galileans, the Hemerobaptists, the Masbothaei,
the Samaritans, the Sadducees, the Pharisees.
The real origin of the 1843-1844 Adventist dogma (part 1)
In time, the lies from the false doctrines of men will always create great problems of unity in the churches, no matter how „Paradise” the spiritual conditions there may seem.
This is what happened in the Adventist movement, as well as that of the Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Troubles in the Bible Student spiritual paradise
The Bible Students have spread in a multitude of movements, each of them proclaiming to have stayed faithful at the teachings of Pastor Charles Taze Russell, instead that of the Bible. Among those movements existing for the great majority in the United States, we can name:
Dawn Bible Students Association, Christian Millennial Fellowship, Inc., Stand
Fast Bible Students Association, Elijah Voice Society, Servants of Yah (not
Assemblies of Yahweh, a later schism from JW's), Bible Fellowship Union, New
Jerusalem Fellowship, Old Paths Publications, Forest Gate Church, Bible
Students Publishing Company, Goshen Fellowship, Institute of Pyramidology,
Angel of Jehovah Bible and Tract Society, Berean Bible Institute, New Covenant
Fellowship, Christian Truth Institute, New Covenant Believers, Associated Bible
Students, etc..
Unity problems started from Charles Taze Russell's time, when some did not want
to accept his innovations.
Whoever takes it forward, and does not remain in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever remains in this teaching has the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:9)
But after his death, a serious process of breaking up unity began, the movement fragmenting into dozens and dozens of sects, which continue to divide until today.
Only the truth can free man from any error:
you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
CT Russell was an Adventist pastor who relied on Adventist speculations about the imminent end of this world and the return of the Lord Jesus. The basis of this speculation actually started from some Jews, who took the interpretation of Daniel chapter 8 in a wrong direction, arguing that the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt in the year 1843. This speculation reached some Christians who swallowed it without chewing it and they started a campaign to propagate it, saying that in that year the Lord Jesus will return. So Adventism is not a creation of the Adventists, but a takeover of speculations from some ethereal preachers. William Miller is not the father of Adventism, he is only the organizer of these ideas, managing to form a movement around him. Pastor Charles Taze Russell also worked in exactly this way, who collected from Adventists and other different theories, which he preached within the cult formed by him. But the Bible clearly shows where those Jews who launched the ideology about 1843, as well as Miller and Russell, went wrong. The idea about 1843 (changed laterr in 1844) left by Adventist founder William Miller is totally wrong.
The real origin of the 1843-1844 Adventist dogma (part 2)
When were the "two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings" fulfilled Daniel 8:12-14, 26?
First of all, I hear that when you come to the assembly, there are divisions among you. And in part I believe it,
for there must also be parties among you, so that those found good may come to light. (1Cor.11:18,19)
Protestants believe that these verses were fulfilled during the time of the second Temple, more precisely during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Hellenistic Syria, whose capital was in Antioch. But I know at least three Christian parties (Adventists, Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses), who claim in their own way, each one differently, that this prophecy was not fulfilled in antiquity, but much later, in the modern era. Adventists claim that this prophecy was fulfilled in 1844 AD, Bible Students claim that this prophecy was fulfilled in 1846 AD, and Jehovah's Witnesses claim that this prophecy was fulfilled in 1944 AD.
Which of these four parties has the correct interpretation? Should anyone be bothered by this question, put in the light of what is read in 1 Corinthians 11:18,19?
When was this prophecy fulfilled?
Antiochus IV of the Seleucid dynasty - who also called himself "Theos Epiphanes" (meaning "the manifestation of the god"), was the king of Syria during the Greek rule. He lived between 215-164 BCE, reigning between 175-164. A great-grandfather of Antiochus IV was one of the four symbolic horns (Daniel 8:8,9). His great-grandfather was one of Alexander the Great's officers, named Seleucus I Nicator. The followers of Seleucus were described as the "kings (emperors) of the north" (Daniel chapter 11), because Syria was north of Jerusalem.
So, one of the descendants of Seleucus I Nicator was Antiochus IV Theos Epiphanes. Antiochus undertook two campaigns of conquest over Egypt, whose king was called the "king of the south" because Egypt was south of Jerusalem.
The first military campaign was crowned with success. But the second military campaign ended in failure, according to historical and biblical accounts (Daniel 11:28-30).
On his return from the theater of operations, this king of Syria stopped in the "wonderful land" (Daniel 8:9), that is, in Israel, and at the instigation of the high priest Menelaus, he became involved in the internal affairs of the Jews.
With the help of that party among the Jews who broke the sacred covenant (the Philo-Greek, paganized Jewish party) (Daniel 11:31), Antiochus ordered the forced paganization of all the Jews.
Enraged at the "sacred covenant" (Daniel 11:30), he forbade this sacred covenant under capital punishment, destroyed the sacred writings, and caused an end to the daily sacrifice brought before Yehowah Elohim in the Temple in Jerusalem. He placed the idol statue of Jupiter Olympus in the Temple and as a sign of sacrilege he brought a sow to the altar of Jehovah God in honor of this idol. Then he ordered the Jews to worship Jupiter in all places, and severely punished the faithful Jews who opposed him:
"he cast down a part of this host and of the stars to the ground, and trampled them underfoot" Daniel 8:10
The upright are considered before God as "the stars of heaven" (Daniel 12:3).
The real origin of the 1843-1844 Adventist dogma (part 3)
The mystery of the 2300 evenings and mornings
Having great faith in God, the victorious guerrilla troops led by the Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus, a priest's son, freed the Temple from the occupation of the pagans (Daniel 8:13,14) and proceeded to cleanse the holy place, as it was prophesied:
Daniel 8:13. "I heard a saint speaking; and another saint asked the one who was speaking: "In what time will the vision of the abolition of the unceasing sacrifice and the abomination of desolation be fulfilled? Until the Holy Place and the army will be trampled?"
14. And he said to me: "Until two thousand three hundred evenings (and) mornings pass; then the Holy Place will be cleansed!"
I put the word "and" in parentheses because it does not appear in the Hebrew text. In fact, this extra word helps to solve the mystery. This "abomination" (idol sacrifices) lasted a long time, being called a period of 2,300 evenings - mornings, but not in the equation of 1150 evenings + 1150 mornings totaling 2300 days, but in the equation of 1150 evening sacrifices + 1150 of sacrifices brought in the morning, from the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem to its cleansing and rededication.
Brief history regarding this "abomination":
- in 174, the pagan king Antiochus IV Epiphanes removes Onias, a man faithful to the sacred covenant, from his position as high priest and installs a corrupt collaborator, the Hellenized (Greekized) Iason, in exchange for a large sum of money, offered by him; Onias dies assassinated in exile
- in 173 or 172 Antiochus IV visits Jerusalem and through the corrupt collaborator, Jason, robs the Temple treasury
- in 171 Iason is deposed by Antiochus IV, who for an even larger amount of money offered by Menelaus, another Hellenized (and more corrupt) collaborationist, makes him high priest.
- in 168, during the reign of this unscrupulous collaborator (Menelaus), King Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposes on all Jews the breaking of the sacred covenant, forcing the Jews to worship the pagan idol Jupiter the Olympian and to bring sacrifices of pigs instead of sacrifices of lambs on the altar in The Temple in Jerusalem.
So the "abomination" (that is, these pagan pork sacrifices) appear in 168 BC. of the reign of the Greeks (the 145th year of the reign of Antiochus' dynasty) and will last until 2300 sacrifices are fulfilled, brought continuously in the evening and in the morning, i.e. 1150 days, until the Temple profaned by the pagan king was cleansed (Daniel 8: 13,14). The Hebrew text does not say "evening AND morning", but makes a play on words, connecting the phrase "evening - morning", because sacrifices were made twice a day: morning and evening. So the text speaks of 2300 sacrifices, which add up to only 1150 days.
The real origin of the 1843-1844 Adventist dogma (part 4)
The Chronicles of the Maccabees correctly record how things unfolded and do not add up to 2300 days, as - unfortunately - are done in most Christian explanations:
1 Maccabees 1:57 "And on the fifteenth day of the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, they raised the abomination of desolation on the altar of God, and in the cities of Judah around them they built capitals."
1 Maccabees 4:52-54 "And they ate in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev in the year one hundred and forty-eight.
And they offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of burnt offering, which they had made.
In the time and in the day when the Gentiles defiled him, then he renewed himself with songs and lutes and harps and cymbals. And all the people fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped and blessed the God of Heaven, the One who helped them. And they renewed the altar in eight days and offered burnt offerings with joy and sacrificed peace offerings and sacrifices of praise."
The years mentioned here are counted from the reign of the Seleucid dynasty, and the lack of 45 days in the 1150 is due to the fact that this chronicler only mentions the end of the inner cleansing of the Temple, which lasted eight days, not the Temple as a whole, which lasted more much, the competent rededication of the Temple (Hanuka) being in the winter, in the month of December (John 10:22).
Josephus Flavius, a very learned Jew of the 1st century AD, from a family of Jewish priests, wrote a book called "Jewish Antiquities". In Volume II of "Jewish Antiquities," he describes the abominations the Jews had to endure: King Antiochus IV Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem and placed the statue of Jupiter the Olympian in the Temple, imposed on all the Jews to bring pigs as sacrifices and to worship Jupiter. Those who circumcised their children were crucified and the circumcised child was hanged, hanging from the neck of the crucified father. The Maccabean Revolt was a revolt against the forced paganism established by the demented king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Here is an excerpt from this book:
"At that time in the village of Modiim in Ludea lived a Nunite man Mattathias, the son of Ioannes, the son of Simeon, the son of Asamoneus: he was a priest from the tribe of Joarib, originally from Hierosolyma (Jerusalem). He had five sons: Ioannes, nicknamed Gaddes; Simon, who was also called Matthes; Judas, whose name was Maccabeus; Eleazar, who was called Auran and Ionathas, nicknamed Apfus. This Mattathias lamented before his sons the miserable state of things, the devastation of the city, the plundering of the Temple, and the miseries endured by the people, telling them that he would rather die for the laws of the Lord than lead such a humiliating life. When the servants, empowered by the king to force the Jews to follow his orders, arrived in the village of Modiim, they asked those present to perform the sacrifice as the sovereign had ordered. They asked Mattathias, who had acquired great fame through his teaching, to begin the sacrifice himself (for his countrymen would follow his example and he would enjoy the king's esteem). But Mattathias refused to do this, and told them that, whether all the other nations obeyed the commands of Antiochus, whether they were afraid, or whether they wanted to do the king's favor, he and his sons would not let him in the situation of leaving the country of their ancestors. After he was silent, a Jew came forward and offered the sacrifice as Antiochus had ordered. Seeing this deed, the angry Mattathias and his sons encamped with sword in hand on the Jew and kidnapped him near the altar, then killed the royal servant who had forced him to offer the sacrifice, Apelles, together with his small number of soldiers. He then tore down the altar and shouted: "He who feels the zeal of the ancient customs and the honor of the Lord should follow me!" After speaking like this, he took refuge with his sons in the desert, leaving all his wealth in the village. Many others followed his example and fled into the desert with their children and wives."
The priest Mattathias and his sons launched a guerrilla war against the pagan collaborationists and the king's troops, winning important victories, one of the notable victories being the recapture of the Temple in Jerusalem.
It is not worth it and it is not allowed for the memory of those Jews who suffered for their faith to be defiled, through fanciful reinterpretations of this prophecy, which through history confirms the deeds of these heroes of faith.
References:
Joseph Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, volume II
The Geneva Bible, published in 1599, a Protestant Bible with many commentaries
John H. Alexander, The Book of the Prophet Daniel
The first book of Maccabees
Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, Makkabean Revolt and many other articles related to this topic.
Another Jesus and another Gospel is forbidden
In truth, if someone comes to preach another Jesus that we did not preach or if it is about receiving another spirit that you did not receive or another Gospel that you did not receive, of, how you indulge him! (2Cor.11:4)
Sects of Russellism „gospel”: From the early years to the present day
After Russell stumbling onto Adventism and get away with some Adventist teachings, he started his own movement, namend it "The Bible Students Association"
Unfortunately he not unlearning errors from the former company of
"The Herald of the Morning".
After his disappointment, disagreement and separation from Adventism he started the publication of The Zion's Watch Tower: A new beginning with old lies.
Expansion of his ministry started from relocating to Brooklyn, New York and made the celebrity through the presentation of The Photo-Drama of Creation.
After this he died as a unvigilant servant and his movement is taken by various siftings, schisms and separation, causing many leaders of the "daughters" (aka sects) of the The Zion's Watch Tower:
Laymen's Home Missionary Movement
Epiphany Bible Students Association
Laodicean Home Missionary Movement
Pastoral Bible Institute, Inc.
Watchers of the Morning
Dawn Bible Students Association
Christian Millennial Fellowship, Inc.
Stand Fast Bible Students Association
Elijah Voice Society
Servants of Yah
Jehovah's Witnesses
Bible Fellowship Union
New Jerusalem Fellowship
Old Paths Publications
Forest Gate Church
Bible Students Publishing Company
Goshen Fellowship
Institute of Pyramidology
Angel of Jehovah Bible and Tract Society
Berean Bible Institute
New Covenant Fellowship
Christian Truth Institute
New Covenant Believers
Associated Bible Students
Various Bible Students sects appears all around the world, in Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, India, Poland, Russia, Romania, Japan, Africa, South America, Australia, etc..
Conclusion
Of the dozens of schisms that appeared after the death of Charles Taze Russell, all of them clung to the illusion of forgiveness that the Bible does not offer. And they preach it as "gospel".
In addition to the
large schisms of the Pastoral Bible Institute (PBI) and the Laymen's Home Missionary
Movement (LHMM) (after the Rutherford coup), a number of Bible Student groups
broke fellowship with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, led by J. F.
Rutherford over the next couple decades. The following is a summary of the most
notable of these groups. This accounting does not include the countless numbers
of independent or micro groups of Bible Students or those groups which broke
association prior to the Rutherford Era.
The key hallmark of these Bible Student groups is their acknowledgement of
Charles T. Russell as a spiritual founder. The theology of these groups is in
line with Russell's teachings in part or substantially and as modified by their
founders or leadership, but not of that from the Bible.
Pastor Russell preached that no matter what people did in this life and no matter how they ended their lives, they are forgiven based on the blood of Jesus Christ and they will be given a chance to enter his kingdom.
All the sects that came out of this movement preach in one way or another, this delusional message of apostasy, contrary to the clear statements of the Bible.
According to the Bible the false preacher will be punished
But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not sound the trumpet, and if the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes the life of any man, that man shall perish because of his iniquity, but I will require his blood at his hand the watchman." (Ezek. 33:6)
According to the Bible, those who do not believe are not absolved of guilt
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." (John 3:36)
According to the Bible, you must fight strongly against sin in order to overcome it
You have heard that it was said to those of old: "Do not fornicate."
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.
If therefore your right eye causes you to fall into sin, take it out and throw it away from you; for it is to your advantage that one of your limbs should perish and that your whole body should not be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:27-29)
Imagine a whore who believed such a "straw gospel" of unconditional forgiveness, and did not repent, what will happen to him at the judgment:
But, with the hardening of your heart, which does not want to repent, you are gathering a treasure of anger for the day of anger and of showing the righteous judgment of God, (Rom. 2:5)
So no matter what "pompous" names these sects take, the Bible warns us to beware of them:
If someone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema! "Maranata!" (Our Lord is coming!) (1Cor.16:22)
But, even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven should come to preach you a gospel different from the one we preached to you, let him be anathema! (Gal. 1:8)
As I said before, I say it now: if someone preaches a Gospel different from the one you received, let him be anathema! (Gal. 1:9)
The word "anathema" means cursed. How terrible it sounds!
The gospel of "a second chance" is not Biblical
In truth, His unseen attributes, His eternal power and His divinity are clearly seen, from the creation of the world, when you look carefully at them in the things He made. So they cannot excuse themselves; (Rom. 1:20)
You almost don't realize the error, if you don't know how those who wrote the following interpret the gospel: „All this trouble will but prepare the world to realize that though men may plan and arrange ever so well and wisely, all their plans will prove futile as long as ignorance and selfishness are in the majority and have control. It will convince all that the only feasible way of correcting the difficulty is by the setting up of a strong and righteous government, which will subdue all classes, and enforce principles of righteousness, until gradually the stony‑heartedness of men will, under favourable influences, give place to the original image of God. And this is just what God has promised to accomplish for all, by and through the Millennial Reign of Christ, which Jehovah introduces by the chastisements and lessons of this day of trouble.—Ezek.11:19; 36:25,36; Jer.31:29‑34; Zeph.3:9; Psa.46:8‑10.”
The gospel preached by the group who wrote this, is the same erroneous opinion of Russell, that now no man can be guilty of eternal perdition, because under certain circumstances he can be absolved of any guilt. Only in the kingdom of God - they say - man can be responsible and as such destroyed forever. Until then, every man is excusable and for this reason, God offers everyone a second chance to reconcile with Him, in His kingdom. Those who will miss this chance in the kingdom of God, will be destroyed forever. So according to this diabolical opinion, Nero, Hitler, Stalin and all the sinners who did not repent and did what they wanted, no matter how wicked and diabolical sinners they were, will sit at the table with us in the kingdom of God, which will pray for them there, so that they repent.
But how clearly can we refuse this gospel of the Devil, with the following verse:
But I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. And the sons of the Kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Mat. 8:11,12)
This is why, those who will be resurrected do not go to learn the Gospel, but to listen to the sentence:
and they will come out of them. Those who have done good will rise to life; and those who have done evil will rise for judgment. (John 5:29)
What will be the sentence for those who did evil before they died?
Revelation 20:11. Then I saw a great white throne, and the One sitting on it. The earth and the sky fled before Him and no place was found for them.
12. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. Some books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, according to what was written in those books.
13. The sea gave back the dead who were in it; Death and the abode of the dead gave back the dead that were in them. Everyone was judged according to their deeds.
14. And Death and the Abode of the dead were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
15. Anyone who was not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Certain Russellite sects have chosen not to assert
themselves with Pastor Russell, nor with his writings, and no longer mention
him. Only by questioning the
origins of the group and its teachings, we can realize what danger is in the
message of its "gospel", and that the person not knowing the truth
can fall into the trap behind this sect. This is the case with the group of the
so called Bible Fellowship Union (1917 - Present).
This group was formed by the British Board of Directors of the International
Bible Students Association, lead by Charles Taze Russell. They withdrew their
support and took control of the "London Tabernacle." On April 5,
1919, the Bible Students Committee was constituted to coordinate publishing,
pilgrim service, etc., outside the Society's auspices.
The B.S.C. Monthly (1924-1927), Bible Students Monthly (1927-1951), was
published by the Bible Fellowship Union (BFU) under the original editorship of
E. Housden. In August 1951 the name was changed to Bible Study Monthly, so as
not to be mistaken with the new Watch Tower, who previously published a journal
by that name. A. O. Hudson (b.1899 - d.2000) served as editor until his death
in 2000 at the age of 101 and as general director until the late 1990s. He was
succeeded by Derrick Nadal. The BFU cooperates with the PBI in the U.S.
This is one of the rare Bible Student groups that does not mention of C.T.
Russell prominently nor use his writings. They produce their own booklets and
tracts, etc.
All this is in vain if they do not have the true gospel:
No Other Gospel
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Would you like God to find you a liar?
I think no one wants to. Well, then be careful not to be deceived by the greatest liar and deceiver, who is the old Serpent, called Satan the Devil!
"I know your works, your toil and your patience, and that you cannot suffer the wicked; that you put to the test those who say they are apostles, and they are not, and you found them liars. (Apoc. 2:2 )
Therefore, you must test any preacher who says he is sent by God or does God's work.
Here is another „second chance gospel” group:
- Berean Bible
Institute (Melbourne, AU) (1918 - Present)
R.E.B. Nicholson rejected the "seventh volume in 1918 and thence
formed the Berean Bible Institute which has continuously published Peoples
Paper (which remarkably still uses some of the Classic Watchtower imagery in
its masthead) in Melbourne since 1918 (edited by E. E. Martin, circa 1926-1988)
as well as other books, booklets and tracts. The Institute represents
both the PBI and the Dawn in that country. There are several associated Berean
Bible Student classes (including Polish) in Australia and also a few in New Zealand.
This group is also linked to Charles Taze Russell’s work.
The group states:
„THAT THE HOPE FOR THE WORLD
lies in the resurrection of all in their graves and in the blessings and opportunities of Christ’s thousand-year kingdom at His second advent, which present conditions indicate is close at hand. (Luke 21:25-28, John 5:28-29)”
But also this group states that if a sinner dies unrepentant, all is not lost for him, because in the thousand years of Christ he can still be corrected. But the Scripture clearly teaches us that without repentance these blessings cannot be obtained and this repentance must exist before death, because after death nothing can be done:
God does not take into account the times of ignorance and now commands all people everywhere to repent; (Acts 17:30)
But I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, in all Judea and to the Gentiles, to repent and return to God and do deeds worthy of their repentance. (Acts 26:20)
But, with the hardening of your heart, which does not want to repent, you are gathering a treasure of anger for the day of anger and of showing the righteous judgment of God, (Rom. 2:5)
I gave her time to repent, but she doesn't want to repent of her fornication! (Rev. 2:21)
Anyone who was not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:15)
So let's not be deceived by the branches left by a false preacher, Charles Taze Russell, who preached this err.
Be careful who you follow! Christ or Russell?
Colossians 2:18-19
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
There is a great danger in those who do not hold fast to what our Lord Jesus Christ preached, but follow different people, falling into different errors, which lead them to disappointments.
The wrong interpretations of some prophecies and other biblical texts, announced by Charles Taze Russell, have led many people to false, unbiblical beliefs and expectations.
Some groups that broke out of Russell's movement survived by continuing to preach his errors, not shaking anything from his "legacy" - others tried to sell "the same merchandise but in a different package" (another group name); some groups are still alive today, others died with time, died out, because the people around them realized who they really are and their teaching full of mistakes, no longer had an outlet for the public.
One such defunct
group was the Forest Gate Church (England) (1920s - 1979).
This was the second largest Bible Student group in England. F.G. Guard,
father-in-law of William Crawford, led the effort to divorce themselves from
the Society. However in wasn't until 1939, when they started publishing their
own journal. "The Forest Gate Church Bible Monthly", along with
booklets and tracts. This group folded in 1979.
Charles Taze Russell was born on February 16, 1852, in Allegheny, to Presbyterian parents, after whom Charles later joined the Congregational church.
Allegheny City was a municipality that existed in the US state of Pennsylvania from 1788 until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. He developed a textile business and other obscure and questionable businesses and became prosperous. After the death of his mother, he also experiments with other religions, after which he becomes an atheist and gets the disease of syphilis, due to a disordered life.
While Russell was searching for the "truth", one evening in 1869, he made contact with a group called "Second Adventists", so later in 1870, he together with other acquaintances formed a Second Adventist Bible study group. In this group he meets his future wife, to whom he does not reveal his illness, but makes her take a vow of chastity.
Russell and his group of Adventists, where he was ordained as a pastor after a two-year study, adopted certain calculations and false predictions from the Adventist mentors of this group, who taught him and anointed him as a pastor. Thus, after the "little deception" of 1843 and the "great deception" of 1844 (since Jesus did not return in the years set by them), the Millerite movement fragmented in many orientations. One of them, led by Nelson H. Barbour, put the date of Christ's return on the date of 1874 and calculated that the "seven times" of 2520 years will end in 1914.
The young Charles Taze Russell also entered this movement, who accepted these hypotheses, in addition sympathizing with the pyramidological movement of freemasonry, which he included in his teachings. Before his death he asked his secretary who was accompanying him to be dressed in a Roman toga, the clear sign of Masonic sympathy, if not actually belonging to a Masonic movement, of "free" and "biblical" orientation. The literature edited by him had clear Masonic signs on the covers. It is clear that Russell thought of himself as a kind of Freemason, an enlightened one of his own, a "Biblical Freemason", even though he may not have been affiliated with any Masonic group. Or maybe it was, who knows, because they kept secrets. It is certain that some of his followers met in Masonic temples, even to this day. They avoided words like church, Christian or Christendom, but preferred expressions like temple, tabernacle or simply hall, to describe their places of assembly, and instead of Christian they called themselves student of the Bible, herald of the morning, friend of the peoples, Berean, philanthropist, servant, witness, layman, etc.. Some even came to believe that the first disciples did not call themselves Christians, but this word was introduced later in the Bible.
What was young Charles waiting for in 1914? The end of the world - through anarchy and the effective establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. But it didn't happen, did it? Not. Thus, after the collapse of their expectations related to 1914, and the death of Russell, his collaborators had to give other meanings to their expectations towards 1914.
First of all, they abandoned the hypothesis of the coming of Christ in 1874 and "transferred" the event to 1914.
In fact, the hypothesis of the seven times, totaling 2520 years, was taken from John Aquila Brown. He was a priest. He calculated the seven times, starting from 604 BCE, when according to his opinion, Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne, so he did not believe that Jerusalem fell in 607 and in his opinion, these 7 times ended in 1917.
This hypothesis of his was taken up by William Miller, who revised it to match Brown's other hypothesis, which fell in 1843.
Then about 1875, the second to revise it was Nelson H. Barbour, a collaborator of Miller's, who put the start date of the 2520 years at 606 BCE, finding this date simply by adding 70 years in 536, when according to his opinion the Temple altar was built. According to Barbour, the 2520 years ended in 1914.
Russell takes the hypothesis from Barbour in 1876 and publishes it in the periodical: "Bible Examiner". That neither Barbour nor Russell were good at chronology is shown by the fact that they put a year 0, between the year 1 before our era and the year 1 of our era.
Only in 1904, Russell publishes an article in which he shows his mistake and writes that it is possible that the end of the 2520 years will end in 1915.
What false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on? And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 1
Revelation 12:6,14
"The woman" fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
The year 1798 was wrong! - Russell considered the end of the 1260 days (which he converted into years) of Revelation chapter 12, this year. Source: "Three Worlds", joint publication of Barbour and Russell, 1877, p.114. This explanation was later changed, 1798 being changed to 1889. But these days of Revelation 12, have not yet occurred, but will occur 1260 days before Armageddon! It's days, not years. Great attention! Russell changed the days into years and put them preferentially in history. What a big mistake he made.
After Russell's death and sometimes still during his life, some of his followers were not satisfied with certain explanations and gave them another direction of explanation, but equally wrong. Often they relied on a false argument, that days in Bible prophecies always mean years. But it's not like that. When days are days, the context clearly shows this.
With this in mind, after the death of their founder, the Russellists began to go in different directions, separating from each other and creating different groups with strange, unbiblical doctrines, inheriting the same Adventist spirit inattentive to the details of prophecy, as Russell.
Such a group came into existence under the name of "The Angel of Jehovah Bible and Tract Society" and „The Philanthropic Society” (1919 - Present) the great rival of the Jehovah’s Witnesses group, founded by JF Rutherford in 1931.
(Later both this groups also split into several sects)
"The Angel of Jehovah Bible and Tract Society" also known as the
"Philanthropic Assembly of the Friends of Man," aka "The Church
of the Kingdom of God, Philanthropic Assembly" aka "Philanthropic
Society" is a group established in 1920, by Alexander F. L. Freytag - who
had been the Swiss Branch Manager of the Society. Despite his open and public
disagreement with Russell on many important doctrines, Russell personally
appointed him Swiss Branch manager in 1898.
In 1917 he started publishing his views using the Society's presses and paper.
After he was ousted in 1919 by Rutherford, he formed the Philanthropic Society
and published a four volume set of scriptural writings, mostly published in
French. His writings have been translated into English, Spanish, French,
German, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch. He published his own hymn book, to which
he wrote and composed all the music, as well as his own devotional book. He
also wrote numerous booklets and tracts. He published two journals, the monthly
"The Monitor of the Reign of Justice" and the weekly "Paper For
All". They have branch offices in Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium,
and Italy. Members of this group view Freytag as "that Faithful and Wise
Servant" of Matthew 24:45-47, which is an erroneous
explanation.
In 1920, Freytag published a book entitled "Messenger of Laodicea" in
which he challenged certain doctrines and certain topics within the Studies in
the Scriptures volumes. Rutherford responded to Freytag's book in "The
Harp of God" - his first major book.
What false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on? And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 2
Daniel 7:25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.[a]
Footnotes a: Daniel 7:25 Or for a year, two years and half a year
The Bible clearly shows that during the end time a world political leader will come who will turn the world against God. But the Adventists, including pastor Russell, who did not correctly understand certain prophecies in the Bible, misinterpreted the prophecy about the time when this leader called the Antichrist will appear.
This is how it happens that those who study Russell's writings or consider themselves his followers (like the Bible Students and Jehovah’s Witnesses), even to this day, do not believe that a world political leader will come, who will turn the world against God.
After CT Russell died, there was a great debate among his followers about who should take his place at the helm. But some did not know anything about his death, like the branch of the Polish Bible Students (1921 - Present). A strange fact, which raises suspicions: who had the interest to hide the event of Pastor Russell's death?
We learn from Russell's descendants the following:
„When Rutherford tried to incorporate his sweeping changes, the Polish Bible
Students as a group rejected these and declared that they would subscribe to
Pastor Russell s teachings only. In 1921 the original Watchtower
headquarters was taken over by the Polish Bible Students. Remarkably although
it had been communicated to them that Rutherford was the new President, they
did not learn that Russell was actually dead until 1925. A few years
later the Society incorporated "The International Bible Students
Association II" in Poland because the first one was lost to the Polish
Bible Students. Somehow the second association was also taken over by the
Polish Bible Students when the branch manager joined them. Thus it was necessary
for the Society to try and incorporate "The International Bible Students
Association III" but the impending war and political situation made
rendered this attempt unsuccessful.
After WWII, only a few Bible Students adopted the changes and became Jehovah s
Witnesses. The majority remained members of the Polish Bible Students.
As early as 1921, the Polish Bible Students began publishing The Watchman.
Previously there had actually been two Polish language "Watch
Towers" with the same title and even the same (traditional "Crown and
Cross" cover), one produced by the Society and the other by the Polish
Bible Students in Chicago, IL. In 1930 they began publishing the monthly
Dawn of a New Era which was interrupted during the war years. In 1948
they began publishing the monthly "The Watch" and in 1958 they began
publishing the monthly "DayBreak." Every year they hold a
convention in which some 2,000 Bible Students attend.”
Do you realize that if the Bible Students in Poland did not know about the death of Russell (-1916) for so many years, until 1925, what gaps could they have in knowing other things? For example the year 1798 was wrong! - Russell and his associates considered this year as the beginning of the "last days". By the fact that Napoleon removed the Pope, he considered that the 1260 days described in Daniel 7:25 were fulfilled; Daniel 12:7; Revelation 11:1-3. Source: The Watchtower, January - February 1889, Studies In The Scriptures Volume II, p 256, Studies In The Scriptures Volume III, p 58, 63, 64, written by C.T. Russell. But what do we do if Daniel 7:25 has not happened yet, but will happen three and a half times (three and a half years or 1260 days) before Armageddon! In this case, we can only see a strategy of Satan the Devil, to divert attention from an important prophecy that must be fulfilled in the future. Therefore, Daniel 12:7 should not be included in this calculation, because it is a prophecy that was fulfilled during the time of the cruel king Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the temple in Jerusalem.
Who will worship the Antichrist?
Who is the Antichrist? How will we recognize him? The Bible is clear that one man, the Antichrist, will rise up to unite the world under one government during the Tribulation. This global dictator will pose as an angel of light, just like his father the devil, but will later act out of his true, evil nature.
Here are some Bible verses that answers to questions about this future leader, which is not missing even from the book of Revelation chapter 17, in the near time of the Apocalypse.
According to Revelation 13:8, all who dwell on the earth will worship the "beast” (the atheistic state religion). Daniel 7:25 tells us that the Antichrist is a cultic leader, an atheist. “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High . . . and shall intend to change times and law.” He will speak out against the true God of heaven. The language suggests that he will try to raise himself to the level of God and make declarations from that position.
Second Thessalonians 2:4 says the Antichrist “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” He will accept the worship of the people of the world.
How can it affect us if we do not understand these prophecies correctly? Well, if we don't know the truth about the end time, we can be among those who worship the Antichrist and perish like him in the wrath of God.
What false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on? And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 3
Daniel 12:11
“From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.
Another theological confusion of Russell's was related to the year 1829. Russell, who was an Adventist minister, believed like the Adventists that the 1290 days set forth in Daniel 12:11 were actually years, which began in 539 B.C. .e.n and they ended in 1829. It was seen as a very important date, because that was when the pseudo-Adventist work of William Miller began and in fact the Bible Students originally came from there. Source: Lothar Gassman, Jehovah's Witnesses, p 9, Studies In The Scriptures Volume III, p 40, 60, 163, Our Lord's Return by JF Rutherford. This teaching was abandoned in 1930.
HERE IS ANOTHER LIE SUPPORTED (CUMULATIVELY) OVER 50 YEARS! They were unable to find the correct explanation for over 50 years! These lying "Witnesses" can excuse themselves that the apostles also had false expectations. But the Bible clearly shows that the Lord Jesus corrected them and did not leave them in error for decades, like Russell and Rutherford. We can ask again: If these Witness leaders were God's channel of communication at that time, why did God keep them in the dark as a group for over 50 years? And is the explanation given by Rutherford certain?
Why Did Former Adventist Pastor Russell Give False Predictions? What was it based on? And how can it affect us if we believe? Why is Rutherford's explanation not correct either?
Because in Daniel 12:11 it is days, not years. Great attention! The eccentric Russell changed the days into years and inserted them according to his own preference in history. I ask again: How can you arbitrarily change some days into years without the Word of God in that place clearly specifying that?
After Russell's death, and sometimes still during his lifetime, some of his followers were not satisfied with certain explanations and gave them another, but equally wrong, direction of explanation. They often relied on a false argument, that days in Bible prophecy always mean years, according to the arbitrary Adventist model. But it is not so, because the days in the prophecies do not always have to be changed into years. When the prophetic days show years, the context clearly shows this, for God himself shows in the text, whether they are to be changed into years or not.
The period of 1290 days refers to the Hellenistic era during the time of King Antiochus Epiphanes.
Josephus Flavius, a very learned Jew of the 1st century AD, from a family of Jewish priests, wrote a book called "Jewish Antiquities". In Volume II of "Jewish Antiquities," he describes the abominations the Jews had to endure: King Antiochus IV Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem and placed the statue of Jupiter the Olympian in the Temple, imposed on all the Jews to bring pigs as sacrifices and to worship Jupiter. Those who circumcised their children were crucified and the circumcised child was hanged, hanging from the neck of the crucified father. So, the Maccabean revolt was a revolt against the forced paganism established by the demented king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Let's keep a moment of silence in memory of those faithful Jews who suffered for the faith, giving us an example as holy heroes and martyrs of the faith.
Here is an excerpt from this book:
"At that time in the village of Modiim in Ludea lived a man named Mattathias, the son of Ioannes, the son of Simeon, the son of Asamoneus: he was a priest from the tribe of Joarib, a native of Hierosolyma (Jerusalem). He had five sons: Ioannes, nicknamed Gaddes; Simon, who was also called Matthes; Judas, whose name was Maccabeus; Eleazar, who was called Auran and Ionathas, nicknamed Apfus. This Mattathias lamented before his sons the miserable state of things, the devastation of the city, the plundering of the Temple, and the miseries endured by the people, telling them that he would rather die for the laws of the Lord than lead such a humiliating life. When the servants, empowered by the king to force the Jews to follow his orders, arrived in the village of Modiim, they asked those present to perform the sacrifice as the sovereign had ordered. They asked Mattathias, who had acquired great fame through his teaching, to begin the sacrifice himself (for his countrymen would follow his example and he would enjoy the king's esteem). But Mattathias refused to do this, and told them that, whether all the other nations obeyed the commands of Antiochus, whether they were afraid, or whether they wanted to do the king's favor, he and his sons would not let him in the situation of leaving the country of their ancestors. After he was silent, a Jew came forward and offered the sacrifice as Antiochus had ordered. Seeing this deed, the angry Mattathias and his sons encamped with sword in hand on the Jew and kidnapped him near the altar, then they killed the royal servant who had forced him to offer the sacrifice, Apelles, together with his small number of soldiers. He then tore down the altar and shouted: "He who feels the zeal of the ancient customs and the honor of the Lord should follow me!" After speaking like this, he took refuge with his sons in the desert, leaving all his wealth in the village. Many others followed his example and fled into the desert with their children and wives."
The hero priest Mattathias and his sons launched a guerilla war against the pagan collaborationists and the king's troops, winning important victories, one of the most important victories being the recapture of the Temple in Jerusalem and its rededication (after a period of sacrifices that had to be offered 2300 evenings -mornings, i.e. 1150 days), then the complete liberation of Jerusalem, by driving out the Greek garrison (after 1290 days) and then the liberation of the country (after 1335 days), these periods being overlapping.
Therefore the year 1829 AD cannot be considered the end of the 1290 days and cannot be converted into years, but must be left as they are set forth in Daniel 12:11. These days did not begin in 539 B.C.E. but in the Hellenistic period, when Judea was under the rule of the Greeks. These days have nothing to do with the beginning of William Miller's work, nor with the Bible Students, who originally came from there. They do not refer to Jehovah's Witnesses either, and Rutherford's interpretation, which is as damaging as Russell's, must be rejected as illogical and unbiblical.
As I have shown before, after the death of Pastor Russell, the ex-Adventist cult launched by him fragmented into numerous smaller sects, usually all of Adventist-speculative orientation, each trying to patch up the failed predictions of their deceased former pastor. Blindly believing that all the days in the prophecies must be converted into years and must be reinterpreted, they arrived at strange and even dangerous interpretations, as was the case in various places around the globe.
This was the case
with the India Bible Students Association (1921 - Present).
In the Russell’s time, S. P. Devasahayam ("Davey"), from near
Nagercoil, had begun the work in 1912, including translation of Studies in the
Scriptures by CT Russell, volume 1, into Tamil and then Malayalam. After Russell
s death, contact with the Watch Tower was lost for many years, but contact with
the PBI was later established. Davey became physically weak about 1920 and
thenceforth involuntarily inactive until his death in 1936. Then, also, many
associates left the Society en masse in the Rutherford era.
Bad explanations lead to new false predictions
Davey appointed V. Devasandosham to succeed him circa 1920. A capable
organizer, Devasandosham organized the "Associated Bible Students
(later India Bible Students Association) and centered the work in Madras.
The IBSA began publishing their own monthly periodical "Zion's
Express" as well as the "India Bible Students Monthly" and other
writings including Tamil publications "Babylon and her Daughters,
"Is Saturday the Sabbath of the Christians?, and "The
True Bible Catechism”. Later, Devasandosham suggested 2520+30 years
might signify the end in 1944; after 1939 many sold everything for the sake of
the Christian work, which afterwards led to serious problems.
The false explanations were spread through the new cult's own printing press
Originally from Singapore, a cut member, Pakian, (of poor health) bought a
small printing press in Madras, 1920-1924. Pakian Press printed many Tamil
tracts, and a monthly magazine (since 1922) for the Associated Bible Students.
After Devasandosham s death, the press was moved to Coimbatore, in 1966 (with a
press bought by the Dawn) to Madurai, and in 1974 to Trichy (Tiruchiripali,
where there were about three hundred in the class). Later, Ryer Pillai gave a
trimming machine for books circa 1960.
As head of the India Bible Students Association, Devasandosham (1920-1944) was
succeeded by T. C. Devakannu ("TCD 1944-1970), by S. Rathansami
(1967-1975) of Tiruchiripali, and Sebastian (1975- ). The India Bible Students
Association [Tamil language] convention has been held annually since 1921.
Currently it lasts about three days, attracts as many as five hundred, and from
year-to-year rotates among a few cities. The Bible Students Press publishes a
monthly magazine in the Tamil language. Several hundred Bible Students are
scattered throughout India, but are primarily in the south.
Sundar Raj Gilbert left an engineering career to begin his activity. His
outreach beyond the Tamil state began in 1940. Solomon Subamangalam and Bro.
George by chance found a small Dawn booklet at Madras and wrote for free
literature early in 1946. In 1947 Subamangalam gave some of it to Sundar Raj
Gilbert. Then correspondence between H. A. Livermore of Portland, Oregon, and
Sundar Raj Gilbert led to foreign support of the India work beginning in 1947.
The Northwest India Committee (in America later renamed Northwest Committee for
India, and now Friends of India) receives cooperation from several classes and
individuals in the U.S. and Canada. The South India Bible Students Committee
was formed in 1965 (in conjunction with G. R. Pollock s visit) to publish
literature also in the other native languages including Telugu, Kanada
(Canarese), Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and Oriya. The
Bible Students Press has a working agreement with the Dawn in America.
Incidentally, C.T. Russell was so influential in India on his visits there and
to leper colonies that there are currently several towns and streets named
after him.
What
false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on?
And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 4
1844 - According to Miller it was considered the year of the "end of the world", according to Russell it was the beginning of the 30 years of "trial", which in his opinion corresponded to the 30 years of Jesus' life, elapsed from his birth as a man until at his baptism in the water of the Jordan. Source: Studies In Scriptures Volume II, p 240. This teaching was abandoned in 1930. It should be noted that Russell and his collaborators believed that any Biblical event that happened in antiquity had to have another fulfillment after that in the future. All their speculations were based on this wrong preconception. And it's no wonder why there has been so much speculation about the data.
Out of this sectarian movement of CT Russell came many other sects, with strange, unbiblical ideology, such as the group named - Servants of Yah (1925 - ?)
Probably the strangest of all Bible Student groups to form during this period
was that group based in Brooklyn, NY, and led by C.H. Zook. This small
group, called the "Servants of Yah" came to believe that Satan's name
was in fact "Jehovah," and so Jehovah's Witnesses were really
Witnesses of Satan. They were Universalist. They denied the teachings of
Armageddon, the Flood, water Baptism, the Ransom, Restitution, etc. They had
branches in Levittown, New York and Vienna, Austria. Other than these major
differences their doctrines were similar to Jehovah's Witnesses. They
believed that only the 144,000 are destined to discover the hidden meaning of
the scriptures and enter heaven. The meaning is hidden partly because they
believe that our Bible texts were altered. They see the Bible as primarily
prophecy, most of which relates to the present century. They believe that
everyone who ever lived will live forever on a paradise earth except the
144,000 who live in heaven. This group has dwindled to non-existence.
What
false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on?
And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 5
The year 1846 was considered by the Russellite-Adventist movement to be the end of the 2300 days and nights, an expression difficult to understand for many, because it is interpreted in non-contextual terms. It is set forth in Daniel 8:14. It was considered an important date by the Russellite movement, because it was believed that then George Storrs and other prominent Adventist collaborators of Russell abandoned the wrong teachings and thus the "sanctuary" was cleansed. It was also considered the year in which the "evangelical alliance" between Protestant groups began, which was cataloged as "spiritism". Source: Studies In The Scriptures Volume III, p 108, Studies In The Scriptures Volume VII (The Fulfilled Mystery), p 163. This teaching was abandoned in 1930. But what is the truth?
Daniel 8:14
14 And he saith unto me, Till evening -- morning two thousand and three hundred, then is the holy place declared right.
Daniel 8:14 In-Context
12 And the host is given up, with the continual [sacrifice], through transgression, and it throweth down truth to the earth, and it hath worked, and prospered.
13 `And I hear a certain holy one speaking, and a certain holy one saith to the wonderful numberer who is speaking: Till when [is] the vision of the continual [sacrifice], and of the transgression, an astonishment, to make both sanctuary and host a treading down?
14 And he saith unto me, Till evening -- morning two thousand and three hundred, then is the holy place declared right.
15 `And it cometh to pass in my seeing -- I, Daniel -- the vision, that I require understanding, and lo, standing over-against me [is] as the appearance of a mighty one.
16 And I hear a voice of man between [the banks of] Ulai, and he calleth and saith: Gabriel, cause this [one] to understand the appearance.
Daniel 8:14 meaning in the ancient Jewish commentary
It was a secret time for Daniel and his people's sake the question was asked, and therefore gave the answer to him, as follows: unto two thousand and three hundred „times” or so many "mornings" and "evenings", not in days, but in total as 2300 actions (1150 days); reckoning from the year, in which Antiochus IV set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar:
``Now the five and twentieth day of the month they did sacrifice upon the idol altar, which was upon the altar of God.'' (1 Maccabees 1:59)
The Jewish Revolt
The faithful Jews lead by Judas Maccabee obtained victory over Nicanor, the general of Antiochus IV.
Judah Maccabee (or Judas Maccabeus, Hebrew Yehudah HaMakabi) was a Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE).
The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah ("Dedication") commemorates the restoration of Jewish worship at the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE, after Judah Maccabee removed all of the statues depicting Greek gods and goddesses and purified it.
From the historical books of the Maccabees:
``Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and eighth year, they rose up betimes in the morning, 53 And offered sacrifice according to the law upon the new altar of burnt offerings, which they had made. '' (1 Maccabees 4:52)
In that time the sanctuary was cleansed, not after a long period of 2300 years, as it was by Judas Maccabeus at the time above mentioned, when he purified the holy places, sanctified the courts, rebuilt the altar, renewed the vessels of the sanctuary, and put all in their proper places:
``Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and eighth year, they rose up betimes in the morning, 53 And offered sacrifice according to the law upon the new altar of burnt offerings, which they had made. '' (1 Maccabees 4:52)
``41 Then Judas appointed certain men to fight against those that were in the fortress, until he had cleansed the sanctuary. 42 So he chose priests of blameless conversation, such as had pleasure in the law: 43 Who cleansed the sanctuary, and bare out the defiled stones into an unclean place. 44 And when as they consulted what to do with the altar of burnt offerings, which was profaned; 45 They thought it best to pull it down, lest it should be a reproach to them, because the heathen had defiled it: wherefore they pulled it down, 46 And laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, until there should come a prophet to shew what should be done with them. 47 Then they took whole stones according to the law, and built a new altar according to the former; 48 And made up the sanctuary, and the things that were within the temple, and hallowed the courts. 49 They made also new holy vessels, and into the temple they brought the candlestick, and the altar of burnt offerings, and of incense, and the table. 50 And upon the altar they burned incense, and the lamps that were upon the candlestick they lighted, that they might give light in the temple. 51 Furthermore they set the loaves upon the table, and spread out the veils, and finished all the works which they had begun to make.'' (1 Maccabees 4) See Josephus Antiqu. l. 12. c. 10. sect. 5.
The future world leader, the last Antichrist, who will be the greatest Antichrist of all time, far surpassing Antiochus IV, will launch a worldwide and total persecution against the church, which he will bring to the end of the the sixth millennium. Then the People of God will undergo a cleansing from all corruption in doctrine, discipline, worship and conduct. However, we must beware of any comparative speculation between the time of Antiochus IV and the last Antichrist in human history. Those who did this by experimenting with certain patterns with the type, prototype, or antitype of certain scenarios always ran into trouble, as the Adventist and Russellite sects.
Unfortunately, the Adventist and Russelist sects have learned nothing from their failed predictions, but have maintained them in one form or another, in a disguised form, some of them exceeding all bounds of common sense, arrogantly - contrary to all evidence - that they were and are God's spokesperson in the world. Let us see three of these sects and their inevitable end in shame: God has removed them from existence, so that today they have no supporters.
„StandFast” Bible Students Association (1918- ???)
In December 1918, Charles E. Heard, and some others, considered Rutherford's
endorsement of the purchase of war bonds a perversion of Russell's pacifist teachings,
and contrary to Scripture. As a result, they founded the StandFast Bible
Students Association in Portland, Oregon. The name originated from their
decision to “stand fast" on principles involving war that Russell had
espoused. Opposed to public witnessing, they eventually dwindled in numbers,
and then completely dissolved.
A splinter group known as the Elijah Voice Society, was founded by John A. Herdersen and C. D. McCray in 1923. They were especially noted for their witnessing and pacifist activity.
- The „Elijah Voice” Society (1923 - ???)
In 1923, John A. Herdersen, C.D. McCray and about 300 persons from the Stand
Fasters Bible Students organized the Elijah Voice Society. For several years
they published the Elijah Voice Monthly and numerous tracts. This group became
the most prominent Seventh Volume group. They felt they were "called
to smite babylon," similar to the Stand Fasters, only they were more
extreme - so extreme they refused to salute the flag, buy liberty bonds, and
contribute to the Red Cross, long before the Jehovah's Witnesses. This group
also, eventually dwindled to non-existence.
- „Old Paths” Publications (England) (1925 - 1961)
„Old Paths” Publications meaning Russellite original teachings. An original
member of the British Board of Directors, William Crawford, was a staunch Bible
Student, he caused the first split among the British Board of Directors. And
founded "Old Paths Publications" and produced the monthly journal
"Old Paths." Countless, booklets, books, and tracts were produced,
but dwindled to non-existence.
http://dictionary.sensagent.com/bible+student+movement/en-en/
What false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on? And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 6
1873 - It was considered the date on which the 6000 years from the creation of Adam are fulfilled and the entry into the 7000th year, the thousand years from the book of Revelation, "the day of the Lord". Source: Studies In Scriptures Volume II, Preface, p 39; JV[2] p.631, teaching abandoned in 1930.
The end of the 6000 years of human history will be put in the year 1943, as the year 1975, in the book The Truth Will Set You Free. Starting with the year 1966, the year 1975 will acquire a prophetic importance in the literature of the witnesses at that time. Source = Book: Life Everlasting. [see year 1975].
The problem is that both timelines were wrong. After some Russellist leaders started checking the chronology, they found 20 years missing, so they set the expectations from 1914 to 1934. But even this time did not come true, what they expected. Thus, they started to check the chronology again and found a lack of 100 years, so they set the expectations from 1874 to 1975.
Since nothing happened even then, some Russellite sects completely gave up fixing the dates and no longer published Russell's volumes, Studies in the Scriptures, which were full of such data created after silly calculations and a wrong chronology.
Such a Russellite sect without data fixation, is „The Christian Millennial Fellowship” (1928 - Present). In the meantime, they changed their name in Free Bible Students and in the fall of 2011 CMF became Christian Discipling Ministries International (CDMI).
This was
originally the "Italian Bible Students Association," and
"Millennial Bible Students Church," based in the "little
Italy" section of Hartford, CT. This group is currently associated with
one of the earliest offshoots of the Watchtower Society. They withdrew their
support in 1928, and in 1940, they produced the New Creation - a Herald of
Christ's Kingdom journal. However a few years later, Gaetano Boccaccio, began
to be influenced by the writings of E.C. Henninges and M.L. Mcphail. The CMF
eventually discarded most of Russell's writings as error and converted to
"New Covenant Bible Students." Gaetano Boccaccio was its leader since
its inception, having been with the Society since 1917, he died in 1996. For
over fifty years he led this group from Hartford, Connecticut. Today the group
is international, has been relocated to New Jersey and is headed by Elmer
Weeks.
Others still stuck to Russell's data-fixing studies, even though they were
expired, like the German Bible Students Association (1930 - Present).
Although the events and persecution of the German Bible Students are remarkable
and tragic, the facts are that many of these Bible Students had divorced
themselves from the Organization prior to WWII and only some of the post-WWII
Bible Students rejoined the Society. (See the German Timeline.)
Thus although
all "bibelforscher" were subjected to intense persecution, the claims
made by the Society regarding "their members' persecution" during the
war must be understood in this light.
In fact, like other Bible Student groups, a large portion of the German Bible
Students Association declared their independence from the Society and rejected
the sweeping changes instituted by Rutherford as early as the 1920s. In
the 1930s they independently published the monthly "Der Pilgrim" which
was suspended when Hitler took power.
After the war they began publishing "the Burning Lamp" and then in
1949, they began publishing "the Christian Watchtower" and "The
Tagesanbruch". Today they are a sizable group and publish the
monthly periodical "Herald of Christ's Kingdom" as well as numerous
books and booklets of Russell s writings translated into the German language.
What is the chronological timeline of the Bible?
A Russellite group proposed in recent years the following chronology>
If this chronology is true, then our generation is near the end of the 6,000 years of human existence on earth:
1656 - FROM ADAM TO THE FLOOD
427 - FROM THE FLOOD TO THE COVENANT WITH ABRAAM
430 - FROM THE LINK WITH ABRAAM TO EXOD
46 - FROM THE EXODE TO THE DIVISION OF THE CANAAN
349 - FROM THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CANAAN TO THE PERIOD OF JUDGES
463 - FROM THE PERIOD OF JUDGES TO THE PERIOD OF KINGS
587 I. AD - FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD OF KINGS TO THE END OF THE KINGDOM OF ZEDEKIA
----
3958 BC ADAM CREATION
2302 THE END OF THE FLOOD
1875 THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
1445 EXODUS
1399 CANAAN'S DIVISION
1050 THE FIRST YEAR OF SAUL'S DOMAIN
1010 DAVID'S FIRST YEAR
970 THE FIRST YEAR OF SOLOMON'S DOMAIN
966 BEGINNING OF THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
930 THE BEGINNING OF THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM
587 THE END OF THE KINGDOM OF ZEDEKIA
538 BC THE FIRST YEAR OF CIRUS I
2043 AD THE END OF THE 6000 YEARS
3043 AD THE END OF THE 7000 YEARS
We must be careful with such an approach to the chronology, because neither Lord Jesus nor the apostles left us such a preoccupation. The focus must be on vigilance. Anyway, the signs of the coming of the Lord Jesus will be so great that those who are watching will discern their meaning (Matthew 24:24-33).
What false misinterpretations (predictions) did Russell make? What was it based on? And how can affect us, if we believe it?
Part 7
1874 - It was considered the date from which the invisible presence (parousia) of Christ begins. Russell's most important date. Source: Three Worlds, p. 175, Studies In Scriptures Volume II, p. 170, Our Lord's Return, p. 27, JV 133, footnote. Until 1904 Russell believed that Armageddon began on this date. After 1904 he claimed that Armageddon had not yet begun. Source: Watchtower 15/1/92, p 3, 21 (reprinted on page 1355), Studies In Scriptures Volume II, p 101. This teaching was partially abandoned in 1930 and in 1943 completely. See footnote 2; see also JV p.47, it is currently believed to have returned in 1914 and since then began its presence (parousia).
What is the truth? The truth is that the date 1874 belongs to the other failed predictions, which were cosmeticized (reinterpreted) after they did not come true. It is well known that Russell and associates were waiting for the coming of the Lord in the year 1874, and when he did not come, they claimed an invisible coming. As well as the opinion about the beginning of Armageddon on this date, it is impossible to accept. In the end, they too were convinced that Armageddon could not begin in 1874, but is in the realm of the future.
In fact since the early 1900's, some have realized that they were too quick to accept the data and related theories presented by Russell and went back to what the Bible says in Matthew chapter 24 and the book of Revelation.
From the source presenting
those times we learn the following:
- Watchers of the Morning
In the 1930s, some
prominent members of the Pastoral Bible Institute influenced by the writings of
both E. C. Henninges and M. L. McPhail—two prominent pilgrims who left the
Society in 1909 because of some doctrinal disagreements with Pastor
Russell—began to deny that Christ was present and other important doctrines
held by the brethren. In 1936 Isaac Francis Hoskins (a deposed director by
JFR), a director of the Pastoral Bible Institute, and others withdrew from that
association in a dispute over doctrinal matters and began publishing The
Watchers of the Morning, a journal which continued until June 1957.
The Watchers of the Morning was after 1936, by Isaac F. Hoskins, but his
occupation as "Minister -- Pastoral Bible Institute" was on September
12, 1918.
In the early 1930’s troubles arose in the PBI. Some of its prominent members
began to believe the Church was under the Mediator and under the New Covenant
(rather than part of the Mediator of that covenant when it goes into operation
in the thousand-year kingdom of Christ), and that the Church has no part in the
sin offering (rather than joining with Jesus Christ in that offering). Some
also doubted that the Lord had returned in any sense, and that the sleeping
saints had been raised from the dead. Others protested that none should be
engaged in the ministry except those in harmony with "Present Truth."
Still others, who were in harmony with "Present Truth," defended the
right of those who were not to continue in the service without limitation. At
the PBI annual meeting 1936 June 6 the "liberal" directors, Dr. S.D.
Bennett, J.J. Blackburn, J.C. Jordan, P.L. Read, and P.E. Thomson, were
elected, together with their nominees, Chester E. Stiles of Washington, D.C.,
and Benjamin Boulter of New Jersey. The "Present Truth" directors,
I.F. Hoskins and B.A. Parkes, were not elected, nor their nominees, P.A. Gates
of Memphis, C.H.S. Kuehn of Toledo, C.W. McCoy of Spokane, S.N. McElvany of
Pittsburgh, and G.C. Stroke of Buffalo.
Thereupon, Isaac Hoskins withdrew from the PBI and in 1937 April began
publishing Watchers of the Morning, emphasizing "Present Truth."
Among those cooperating with Hoskins were H.H. Eddy of Providence, R.I., C.W.
McCoy of Spokane, and Charles F. Moser of Toledo. Watchers of the Morning
continued until Hoskins died (1957 Sept. in the Los Angeles area). (His sister,
Edith, stayed with the PBI.)
They have this good point:
"began to deny that Christ was present and other important doctrines (cronological doctrines) held by the brethren."
Although it is outside of the main time period, the following schismatic group
could be included as one of the breakaway Bible Student groups:
Although it is outside of the main time period, the following group could be
included as one of the breakaway Bible Student groups, wich left this failed
dates and beliefs:
- The Goshen Fellowship (1951 - Present)
The Goshen Fellowship was formed as a result of the ministry of Jesse Hemery.
He was undoubtedly the most prominent Bible Student/Jehovah's Witness in
England, serving as Vice President of the IBSA, a position he held until 1946
since his appointment by Pastor Russell in 1901. He was disfellowshipped by N.
H. Knorr in 1951. Although he accepted much of Russell's interpretations, he
did reject the second presence as being a current reality. Believing Revelation
was to be fulfilled in the future, he wrote a few commentaries on Revelation
and other books of prophecy. He died in 1955 shortly after founding the
"Goshen Fellowship" in 1951. Frank Lewis Brown headed the group for
many years, publishing Zion's Herald, a monthly journal beginning in 1965.
http://www.jehovahs-witnesses.net/sscc12.html
All those who still believe in these failed dates will be very surprised and unprepared for the difficult and troubled period of humanity, when a world political leader, called in the Bible the Antichrist, will lead the world to total rebellion against God.
When the truth is undermined because of the company of falsehoods
Romans 2:24
For because of you the name of God is blasphemed among the nations," as it is written.
It is said that during the great religious reform made by Luther Martin, the Anabaptist group gained a lot of ground in different parts of Europe and Anabaptist gatherings appear everywhere like mushrooms after a warm rain. But certain extremist elements from the Anabaptist movement launched some prophecies that did not come true. This brought down the movement, which fragmented into dozens of rival groups, which were hostile to each other. And when some of the Anabaptist leaders believed that the Turks would fulfill the prophecy of Revelation 16:12 and secretly began to sympathize with the Muslims, taking certain teachings from there, the situation became explosive, culminating in their persecution and extermination from certain places.
This situation was somewhat repeated in the Baptist movement, which, for various reasons, ignored certain teachings from the Bible. This is how the Adventist group came into existence, led by a Baptist named William Miller, from the USA. The Adventist group fragmented in turn into many other groups, from where pastor Charles Taze Russell also left.
It can be observed that wherever Protestantism and the cults derived from it failed - because they did not stick to the Bible - Catholicism and Orthodoxy were consolidated, different non-Christian religions entered or even atheism flourished.
No matter what brand name someone has in the religious field, if they make mistakes on the treadmill, the popularity and credibility of that group will drop to alarming levels. Or the group will actually disappear, as has been the case in many cases (one of them being William Miller's group).
Another problem is that these mistakes will somehow affect the credibility of the true teachings, tarnishing their reputation. And in fact, this is what the cunning Devil is after.
And there is a lot of more error and Bible mixed teachings in many countries such as Unitarian, Adventist, Bible Student, Jehovah’s Witnesses or "Les amis de l’homme" ("The Friends of Men") in Europe, and their branches. All professes more or less the same credo of the mortality of the soul, the non-existence of hell, the non-existence of the Trinity, the next coming of the Kingdom on the earth, lead by Christ, the new world in the Kingdom of God.
All these correct teachings can be affected if errors and human falsehoods are preached alongside them.
For example here is an interesting thing about a Bible Student group meeting:
February 12, 2000
BIBLE STUDENTS CONVENTION
The Jersey City Bible Students, would like to extend to you a warm invitation
to attend our annual pre-thanksgiving convention held on the weekend of
November 18, 19 2000.
It will be held at:
The Masonic Temple
1912 Morris Avenue
Union, NJ 08073
Dear Christian Friend,
The Jersey City brethren ... would like to extend to you a warm invitation to
attend our annual pre-thanksgiving convention held on the weekend of November
21, 22 1998.
Directions
The Masonic Temple
1912 Morris Avenue
Union, NJ
Telephone: (908) 688-9842
What conclusion will a Trinitarian or Modalist Christian, for example, come to if he sees such an invitation? Will he not be able to believe that that group is actually a Masonic sect?
-------------------
The daughters of the Watchtower and the mother Adventism
Who were the first associated of pastor Charles Taze Russell? According to pastor CT Russell, the Adventists.
So, the Adventist linked origin of Bible Students & Jehovah's Witnesses is clear, like the blue sky.
Charles Taze Russell early view about the Adventist leader Nelson H. Barbour as "the chosen vessel of God" is clear.
Russell was the founder of the Bible Student movement, after the split from the Second Adventists. The appearance of the Bible Student movement comes after the split of Russell from the Adventist Barbour.
CT Russell's wrong view about the gentile times and the great tribulation comes from the Adventism.
Some Adventist writers claim that not only William Miller was the only mentor of the Adventism, he was just o voice. For example, the 2520 year Adventist theory is from William Miller, not from Russell. But also, the 2520 years Adventist theory about the "Gentile Times" are from Joshua Spalding.
The book "DEMONISM and the WATCH TOWER: JW's leader under the demon's control", by Roy D. Goodrich it shows us what a sick imagination the leaders had who allowed some procedures considered scientific, which they later questioned categorically, as dangerous for believers (Request for A.P. Pottle, "The Power of the Mind," The Golden Age).
It is no wonder why the Adventist movement - and later the Russellite movement - had strange and dangerous ideas such as in the 1850s. In the Adventist imagination, they are an "elite" group: See on the internet sources when God will shut the door of salvation in the mind of Ellen G. White.
JW's and Bible Students Splinter groups missionary trip reports they show us the same elitist and smoky spirit, believing themselves to be the mouthpiece of God, from heaven.
Although there were serious reform movements in motion both in the JW's and Bible Student splinter groups - see The Watchers of the morning or The Goshen Fellowship - the doctrine that they are an elite group of God, is too deeply rooted, that they can be brought with the foots down to earth.
The doctrine that they (the Adventist, Bible Students and JW's fractions) are God's elite group who knows God's timing defies all logical possibilities about a true dialog about 1844, 1874, 1914 and other doctrine about the so called God's given date.
The Adventist - Bible Student - Jw's Movement and it's fractions need a last and final reformation according to the Word of God, if they want to be God's people on the Earth.
Therefore: "Come out from among them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord; do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. (2 Corinthians 6:17)
It was clearly seen that these data released by certain dubious individuals like Joshua Spalding, Nelson H Barbour and Charles Taze Russell, near William Miller are unclean. They must be abandoned, otherwise they make anyone who follows them a son or daughter of Babylon the Great and not a son or daughter of God.
Some information about Bible Student and JW groups missions around the world
Warning about vigilance: He who will not be vigilant will be deceived!
In response, Jesus said to them: "Take care that no one deceives you. (Mat. 24:4)
Jesus then began to tell them: "Take care that no one deceives you. (Mark. 13:5)
Let no one deceive you with empty words; for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon disobedient people. (Eph. 5:6)
I say this so that no one deceives you with deceptive words. (Col. 2:4)
Children, let no one deceive you! He who lives in righteousness is righteous, as He Himself is righteous. (1 John 3:7)
By their practices and the deviations they preached regarding dates and other things related to them, and the displayed elitism, it clearly shows that they were not students of the Bible, but students of a man> Charles Taze Russell.
Surprisingly, many separate groups of JWs and Bible Students were formed in different parts of the world and they left and took their Kingdom Hall with them. Others still remained rejecting or holding in secret some teachings inside of the Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses, as concerned against the official line. They were dedicated to promoting reforms, coordinating and the sharing of information against the old doctrines, it is believed that membership entails all levels of the Witness hierarchy, including some well-placed members at the Branches and Brooklyn Bethel.
Before and after 1916, there were of course dozens of schism in the Russellite movement. Most of these schism were ecclesias who divorced themselves from the Russell’s Society to function independently. These are of course the original Independent Bible Students, some still exist today, like the Associated Bible Students of Jersey City, NJ, the Pastoral Bible Institute, the Berean Bible Institute - Australia, The Christian Believers - The New Creation Bible Students Association and others.
In some part of the world entire congregation, including its elders, broke away, objecting to the Russell’s Organization's emphasis on the doctrines, or the hars leading of it's mentor, or on the preaching work of it's successors, or to the neglect of charitable acts in the community, like The Ghosen Fellowship lead by the vicepresident of the IBSA, Jesse Hemery and the group Back to the Bible Way lead by Roy D. Goodrich.
Brief Mention at Joe Emerson's "Schisms" Page - The Lethbridge defections and James Penton, and other incidents like Bishops Waltham Congregation, Hampshire, England.
After the death of CT Russell, several Kingdom Hall broke with the Society. As those halls included the trustees to whom the Hall was deeded, the defectors got the building and property. Subsequently the Governing Body changed the deeding arrangements for all Kingdom Halls to make the Society the sole owner. In so doing, the Watch Tower made a final break with "congregationalism" to become a fully "hierarchical" religious entity.
According to the Belgian Bible Students:
J.C. Sunderlin and J.J. Bender were two associates of the well-known “Pastor” Charles T. Russell of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, had started of the growth of the Bible Students movement in England in 1881. Nearly ten years later, on July 1, 1891, Charles T. Russell first arrived in the British Isles, landing at Queenstown, Ireland, and made a two-month missionary tour, embracing Britain, Europe and Russia. He concluded that Britain offered the best potential and decided to concentrate activities there. He visited and talked to small groups of Watch Tower subscribers and addressed public meetings of up to two hundred interested persons specially invited in Liverpool and London. He also arranged with a London firm to supply Millennial Dawn books, Bible study aids, at special rates to colporteurs (colportage men and women, knockers, canvassers or peddlars).
By December 1898 there were nine established congregations in Britain. Help in organization became the pressing need. C. T. Russell had previously sent “pilgrims” from America to work with colporteurs in the field and to address congregations. Pilgrims were spiritually older men who visited congregations giving Scriptural counsel and encouragement. They were really the forerunners of the travelling ministers now known as circuit overseers.* Russell then decided to appoint Jesse Hemery, a railway signalman from Manchester, to pilgrim service. For ten years Hemery had responded actively to the tract work organized by Bender, and now he commenced his new service on January 3, 1899.
Jesse Hemery had arranged his affairs so that he could devote all his time to the ministry, and he was willing to take up an assignment in London. Hence, on Thursday, November 1, 1901, Hemery was appointed branch overseer of the British Isles branch.
In time the growing activity of the Bible Students in Britain called for changes in the legal structure of the group. On June 30, 1914, the International Bible Students Association (IBSA) was registered under the Companies Acts as an unlimited company. The liability for the mortgage on the London Tabernacle was transferred to the new legal corporation, which became the lessee also of 34 Craven Terrace, then occupied by the Hemerys and ten other members of the Bethel family. The parent legal body was the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
Paul S. L. Johnson, a Jew who had become first a Lutheran minister and then a Bible Student pilgrim (teacher/preacher), shortly before Pastor Charles Taze Russell died in 1916, was sent to England to straighten out troubles among the British students. In order to facilitate Johnson’s work, Russell gave him “enlarged powers.” Johnson, in November, proceeded to England and, under the authority received from Russell, fired two of the managers of the London office. Judge J. F. Rutherford, confirmed as president of the Watch Tower Corporation while Johnson was in still in England, saw Johnson as a major threat to his consolidation of leadership control. Johnson believed that the “special authority” given by Russell was still valid. Johnson, Raymond Jolly, and a host of Bible Students withdrew from the Rutherford-led organization and joined in the formation of the Pastoral Bible Institute (PBI).** Differences soon arose among the PBI leaders, so Johnson left and formed the Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement. The Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement believes Russell was that faithful and wise servant of Matthew 24:45-47 and was labelled by Johnson the “parousia messenger.”
It turned out later-from Johnson’s own writings-but was not known at the time, that he had come to England having in his possession not only a copy of the proposal signed by the Elders, but also a copy of the 1916 Elders’ Schedule marked by Jesse Hemery to show which of the Elders were sponsoring the move toward control of its own affairs by the Church. And he says that Jesse had sent two copies of this list to America before he left for Britain.
Three men, namely Rutherford, Johnson and Hemery, were each convinced that they were, the best man to rule and direct the brethren, ambitious enough to attempt achievement of the coveted position, and blind to the harm they were causing.
Johnson “dismissed” Jesse Hemery as manager for the Society; Jesse took no notice of that but realizing, rather late it must be admitted, the seriousness of the situation, called in Shearn and Crawford, whom he had quite happily seen disfellowshipped and sent into the wilderness only a few weeks previously, to come back and help him get rid of Johnson-which, with perhaps a commendable disregard for old differences, they did.
Rutherford began to forcibly and dogmatically alter the existing doctrinal views, organizational structure and other Bible Students started to react against it or go their own way. Bible Students began to realize that not only the truth, but even the spirit of truth they held so dear had been compromised.
Jesse Hemery printed a short booklet supporting Rutherford, and denounced Johnson in “Harvest Siftings Reviewed” itself reviewed (December 7th, 1917).
By the end of 1928 three-fourths had severed their association with Rutherford and the newly changed Watchtower Society. In Great-Britain several separate groups came into existence:
William Robertson formed the Bible Student Publishing Co. before the major split of 1917; he published a quarterly journal The Bible Student that was critical of both Pastor Russell and Rutherford. There were certain IBSA officials who joined after the split in 1917. This group stopped operations in the 1920s.
Bible Fellowship Union 1917
At the time of the split in 1917, the Forest Gate Church was the second largest Bible Student group in England. F. G. Guard, father-in-law of William Crawford, led the class in divorcing themselves from the Society. In 1939 they started publishing The Forest Gate Church Bible Monthly, along with booklets and tracts. This group disbanded in 1979.
Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement 1918 [Paul S.L. Johnson]
Berean Bible Institute 1918 [Australia]
Stand Fast Bible Students Association 1918
Christian Truth Institute 1920
New Jerusalem Fellowship 1922
Elijah Voice Society 1923
Institute of Pyramidology 1923
Old Paths Publications 1925
Yah Witnesses 1925
Dawn Bible Students Association 1928 reorganized as DAWN in 1932
Watchers of the Morning 1937 [offshoot of Pastoral Bible Institute]
Goshen Fellowship 1951 [Jesse Hemery]
Epiphany Bible Students Association 1957 [John Hoefle]
Laodicean Home Missionary Movement 1957 [John Krewson]
Jesse Hemery was disfellowshipped by N. H. Knorr in 1951. Although he accepted much of Russell’s interpretations, he did reject the second presence as being a current reality. Believing Revelation was to be fulfilled in the future, he wrote and published a few Futurist interpretations of Revelation and other books of prophecy. He did reject the second presence as being a current reality.
He died in 1955 shortly after founding the “Goshen Fellowship” in 1951. Frank Lewis Brown headed the group for many years, publishing Zion’s Herald, a monthly journal beginning in 1965. Today there are still some adherents.
The problem with smaller groups or schisms of the Jehovah Witnesses is that they still found themselves as a special or elite chosen group who should be careful not to read material which could bring them off their path.
For example:
Laymen's Home Missionary Movement of Chester Springs, PA. (estimated
50,000-100,000 members). These folks are accepted by some Christian groups even
though they have almost the same theology as Jehovah's Witnesses do. They are
active in some places aroud the world.
Dawn Bible Students Association of East Rutherford, NJ. (estimated 20,000-40,000 members) - Active in some places aroud the world.
Independent Bible Students - Associated Bible Students of Jersey City, NJ.
Some former Bible Students and JW's started new magazines, for example:
- Bible Student Examiner - Olin R. Moyle
- John Paton: The World's Hope (Larger Hope Publishing Company)
- Back to the Bible Way (Roy D. Goodrich)
- The New Creation (Gaetano Boccaccio was one of the Bible Student elders and in 1940, he began to publish The New Creation magazine regularly).
Through the years the Watch Tower Movement has had its share of schisms and offshoot. In fact the Watch Tower Society was formed as a result of a schism between the Rochester, New York group under the leadership of Nelson H. Barbour who published The Herald of the Morning. In 1879, Russell and John Paton went on to published Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence. Russell was the main editor and had five contributing editors. By 1882, Paton and defected to form his own group, and published The World's Hope under the publishing name Larger Hope Publishing Company, which folded in 1916, Paton died in 1922.
In 1894, there were another schism as some members believed Russell had too much authority and attempted to wrestle control of the Society from him. The major players all disappeared. Otto Von Zech who did early translations of Zion's Watch Tower into the German language, started his own movement, building a commune like the Anabaptists.
The New Covenant issue
In 1909 what was known as the New Covenant Schism resulted in a large defection of Bible Students, the largest second only to the 1917-1919 schism in New York, Chicago and Australia.
The Concordant issue - or the universal salvation issue
After the failure of 1914, there were certain pilgrims who left, some returned, only to defect again. Some joined an existing group of universalist, called the Concordant, who published Unsearchable Riches. This group although small, still exist today. And there is at least one website by a member of this group who is attempting to reach out to International Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses with the message of universal salvation.
Bible students literature
On the site of the so caled "Most Holy Faith" we will find some still active Bible Study - or Russellite groups and their literature.
http://www.mostholyfaith.com/
The Year „1881”, the "last (lost) member" of the 144000 and the „Lying Shepherd Syndrome”
(Monday, 7 January 2013)
Why are there so many failed speculations in the Russell movement?
Did they have a reason? No. The answer is that they simply did not watch. The another answer is that they simply did not care if they failed and what the effects would be...
But the effects of such an epidemic of speculation in the Christian world (Russellists and others) - are already visible and will be devastating. It's like in the story of "The Lying Shepherd".
A Lying Shepherd
Once upon a time, there was a shepherd who was taking care of a group of sheep. Every morning, he took them to the top of the green hills to graze. He spent all day with the sheep around the farm, and he also played a flute.
Sometimes, without any reason, he shouted for help. It was his favorite to act that his sheep were attacked by a wolf. Actually, when he was asking for help, there was nothing that had happened, and everything was just fine. The people who believed him got there as fast as they could, to assist him. Then they found out that there was nothing wrong and that he was joking.
Naturally, the shepherd of our story lost his reputation by lying. Furthermore, everybody knew him as a liar. The shepherd not only didn't care about his reputation as a liar, but also, he continued doing his bad hobby.
One day, a wolf rushed at the sheep, so he was afraid and really needed help. He shouted for help. The people heard his scream, but nobody helped him, because they thought he was joking again.
The shepherd got very sad and disappointed because the wolf took one of his sheep. He also learned a lesson: that lying is a bad hobby, so he decided not to lie from that moment on.
In response, Jesus said to them: "Take care that no one deceives you. (Matthew 24:4)
Jesus then began to tell them: "Take care that no one deceives you. (Mark 13:5)
The connection between the year 1881 doctrine the "last (lost) member" of the 144000
I read on the internet that a Bible Student leader - I forgot his name -
claimed that he is the last member of the 144000.
Very funny. Now, seriously, I think the same speculation inspired both Russell
and this "last (lost)" speculator.
"The Year 1881" in pastor CT Russell’s speculations
"We know not the day or hour, but expect it during 1881, possibly near the
autumn where the parallels show the favour to Zion complete and due to end, the
door to the marriage to shut and the high calling to be the bride of Christ, to
cease.)" R191
In May 1881 issue, there appeared an article entitled: "The Year
1881" in the article were some thoughts as to what was to be expected on
October 02, 1881. The Pastor believed and taught that the door to the high
calling would be shut and all opportunity to enter in would be fruitless.
"We have no desire to dogmatize nor to keep any one out, but we [believe]
(and therefore speak) that the favour which ends this fall, is that of entering
the [Bride company]. We believe the [door of favour] is now open and any who
consecrate [all] and give up [all], can come in to the wedding and become
members of the Bride, but that with this year the company will be reckoned
[complete] and the [door to that high calling] (not the door of mercy) closed
forever." R224
In R833, the Pastor still believed the door was closed with no opportunity to
get in, although he did believe that the sleeping saints were resurrected in
1881.
Source> The Bible Student movement’s reprint literature
http://www.network54.com/Forum/89087/message/1276833932/Re-+An+interesting+read!
Good to know
- The 2520 year theory is from William Miller, not from God
- Possible that the adventist preacher William Miller took the theory of the 2520 years – leading to 1914 - about the Gentile Times from Joshua Spalding
- Who were the first associated of pastor Charles Taze Russell? The Adventists.
- The Adventist linked origin of Bible Students & Jehovah's Witnesses is clearly demonstrated in the annals of JW’s history
- Charles Taze Russell early view about Nelson H. Barbour was that he is "the chosen vessel of God"
- A new split from the Second Adventists lead to the appearance of the Bible Student movement under the leadership of pastor Charles Taze Russell
- A.P. Pottle, "The Power of the Mind," The Golden Age and the book Demonism and the Watchtover by Roy D. Goodrichshows the origin of the demonic influence in this movement
According to Bible prophecy, in what condition will God's people be found?
But the Spirit clearly says that, in the last times, some will abandon the faith, to cling to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons, (1 Tim. 4:1)
having only a form of piety, but denying its power. Stay away from these people. (2Tim.3:5)
And their word will gnaw like gangrene. Among them are Imeneu and Filet, who deviated from the truth. They say that the resurrection has come and overturns the faith of some. (2 Tim. 2:17,18)
"I tell you that he will do justice to them soon. But when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8)
Therefore: "Come out from among them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord; do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. (2Cor.6:17)
Matthew 25
1. Then the Kingdom of Heaven will resemble ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
2. Five of them were foolish, and five wise.
3. The foolish ones, when they took their lamps, did not take oil with them;
4. but the wise ones, together with the lamps, took with them oil in the vessels.
5. Since the bridegroom was lingering, they all dozed off and fell asleep.
6. At midnight, a shout was heard: "Here is the bridegroom, go out to meet him!"
7. Then all those virgins got up and prepared their lamps.
8. The foolish said to the wise: "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out."
9. The wise ones answered them: "No; lest there should be neither us nor you; but rather go to those who sell oil and buy some."
10. While they were going to buy oil, the bridegroom came: those who were ready entered the wedding room with him and the door was locked.
11. Later, the other virgins also came and said: "Lord, Lord, open us!"
12. But he, as an answer, said to them: "I tell you the truth, I do not know you!"
13. Watch, however, because you do not know the day or the hour in which the Son of man will come.
Then I heard another voice from heaven, which said: "Come out of her midst, my people, so that you do not share in her sins and that you are not struck with her plagues! (Rev. 18:4)
What impression do these texts make on you? That during the time of the end the Church will be OK or that there will be big problems in the Assembly - the Church of God - that is, in the People of God?
Bible believers – Who is a true Bible believer?
(also Bible-believer, Bible-believing Christian, Bible-believing Church)
Bible believer > Definition
This article is not about a sect with this name or page.
We talk about a spiritual condition of faith in God, through His Words, from the Bible.
First of all: if you want to be a Bible believer, you must have faith in God, our Father Almighy, the loving Creator of Heaven, Earth and of the Humanity and read His words, from the Bible. Read it all, and belive it all, from Genesis to Revelation and understand it right.
The Bible was written mostly in Hebrew (the Old Testament) and Greek (the New Testament). Because there are many translated editions of the Bible, compare carefully this translations with the original languages - Hebrew and Greek from the interlinear text of the Bible.
Second: View a true history about the Bible authority in the Church History, and will see that many Christians mixed it with pagan traditions leading toward errors God's people. So, the Bible believers must differentiate their teachings from others who they see as placing non-biblical or extra-biblical tradition as higher or equal in authority to the Bible.
A true Bible believer or Church that believes the Bible is true and contains no theological contradictions, historical discrepancies, or other such 'errors', is a true believer:
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living,
(2Tim.3:16)
Third: A Bible believer will always carefully examine the differences in the Bible manuscripts and choose the most plausible version.
When someone reviews (corrects) an older translation of the Bible, such as the one made by Dumitru Cornilescu, he must have a solid basis in the oldest manuscripts.
Example
In a recently edited New Testament (having the logo EDCR), in Jude 5 "Lord" was replaced by "Jesus", mentioning the following in the footnote:
"Other manuscripts have the lection 'The Lord.'
Indeed, when the manuscripts were studied, certain differences were found between them. However, in Jude 5 we have four variants of one word, that is, one word is rendered in four different ways: Lord, God, Jesus, Christ.
Version with "The Lord" rendering:
In Dumitru Cornilescu's version we find this type:
Jude 5. I want to remind you, even though you know all these things once and for all, that the Lord, after delivering His people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.
This type of rendering appears in manuscripts such as Sinaiticus (4th century), Athos (8th/9th century), Ephraemi Rescriptus (5th century) and the Harklean Version, designated by the symbol syrh, being a biblical translation into Syriac by Thomas of Harqel completed in 616 AD to Enaton of Egypt.
Version with "God" rendering:
Jude 5. I want to remind you, even though you know all these things once and for all, that God, after delivering His people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.
This type of rendering appears in manuscripts like p72 (=Bodmer 7/8) of Greek language about 300 AD, in Clement of Alexandria (c.150 - c.215) Book of the instructor III, in Ephraemi Rescriptus – in the second corrector and in the Philoxenian Version (508 AD). It was commissioned by Philoxenus of Mabbug and completed by his co-bishop Polycarp in the Syriac language. It also appears in a Latin (Italic), Armenian and Georgian manuscript. So this rendering had significant international support.
Version with "Jesus" rendering:
Jude 5. I want to remind you, even though you know all these things once and for all, that Jesus, after delivering His people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.
This type of rendering appears in manuscripts such as Vaticanus (4th century), Alexandrinus (5th century), many Latin (Italic), Ethiopian, in Origen, Jerome, Cyril, in Bohairic Coptic and Sahidic Coptic. It is bracketed in Aland et al in the 4th revised edition.
Version with "Christ" rendering:
Jude 5. I want to remind you, even though you know all these things once and for all, that Christ, after delivering His people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.
This type of rendering appears in Ephraem, Moscow (from the 9th century) and Byzantine Lectionaries.
I have two important questions:
1. If you still make a correction and give a footnote, shouldn't all variants be mentioned?
2. On what criteria do you choose this option?
Which option do you choose and why?
The Bodmerian version of the text (the one from the Biblical Manuscript p 78) is preferable and here is why: It is the oldest text of the Epistle of Judas, ever discovered.
Papyrus 72 (Bodmer Papyrus VII-VIII) is the designation used by New Testament textual evaluators to describe portions of the so-called Bodmer Miscellaneous Codex, namely the letters of Jude, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter. These books appear to have been copied by the same scribe, and the handwriting has been palaeographically assigned to the 3rd or 4th century.
Although the letters of Jude (P.Bodmer VII) and 1-2 Peter (P.Bodmer VIII) in this codex do not form a single continuous text, scholars tend to refer to these three texts as a single early New Testament papyrus. Papyrus 72 is the earliest known manuscript of these epistles, although a few verses from Jude are found in a fragment P78 (P. Oxy. 2684).
Papyrus 78 (in Gregory-Aland numbering), designated P78, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle of Jude. The surviving texts of Jude are verses 4-5 and 7-8. P78 is written in an elegant hand. The manuscript has been paleographically assigned to the 3rd century (or 4th century).
Jude 5 according to Papyrus 78 - the oldest at the present time!
5 Hypomnēsai de hymas boulomai, eidotas hapax panta, hoti Theos laon ek gēs Aigyptou sōsas to deuteron tous mē pisteusantas apōlesen,
In Ebglish:
Jude 5. I want to remind you, even though you know all these things once and for all, that God, after delivering His people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.
Let's say "Amen!" this version, which I repeat, is the oldest at the present time and best fits the context of the Bible.
This is the true statement of faith about a true Bible believer.
What do I like and dislike about Jehovah's Witnesses?
We see the members of this cult daily with their religious literature stands on the street.
Sometime appears on the streets other cult members from the Bible Student Movement and it's fractions with the old literature of this movement.
This rises some questions:
What was the causes and this troubles in the Bible Student paradise, leading to separation and new teachings?
I presented some info about this Bible Student and JW's groups.
What I like about them is that they stick to the Bible, what I don't like is that they introduce into these biblical studies that they do, some of the human opinions of their leaders, which are very dangerous for the faith. These opinions are sometimes taken even from their theological opponents and are very contrary to their own beliefs.
See also:
1. In the snowball case of the Trinity versus the Father Almighty, JW's take a wrong position regarding John 1:18.
In the John 1:18 controversy - exist a Gnostic corruption from the II century.
The seriousness of corruptions in early text of the NT from the second century was clearly shown by the text critics. This leads us in the artificial doctrinal problem in John 1:18. No internal evidence anywhere else in the Bible, from the readings of John 1:18 from NWT of JW's. The New Testament's textual evidence is against the usage of the phrase "only begotten god" in the early Christian jargon.
This is an intentional corruption of the text made by the Gnostic Connection.
The connection of the old meaning in the modern version damages the truth. This is out of the Bible control and context. Redefining "mono-genes" as a second god, is a terrible mistake.
Conclusion> JW's made a great mistake regarding the real text of John 1:18.
2. About our God and Father name, He is "Yehowah". This is God's holy name, not Jehovah.
JW's made no attempt to change the wrong letter J to Y as it is in Hebrew. They flirted with the denial of some who said that the pronunciation of the name is not known and gave a wrong interpretation of the meaning of the name, which actually means "He who is and will be", as he is presented in Revelation 1:8, explained also by Clement from Alexandria, twice in the book Stromata.
3. The story of The rich man and the beggar Lazarus: A fake, a literal history or a parable?
There are a lor of evidence why this is a fake... bur JW's try a middle interpretation between the two, as a "parable".
As it is written in the book "The History of Hells" by George Minois, publish by Humanitas, 2000, in Romania, the ancient Hebrews didn't have a such opinion.
http://www.humanitas.ro/humanitas/istoria-infernurilor
The Ancient Inventors of Hell's eternal torment were pagans not Hebrews. THE FIRE THAT CONSUMES the sinners is not the HELL: This is the "Eternal Destruction" depicted with Words of Action.
4. Sometimes, time to time, the JW's literature presents an opinion that exist a second chance about the unrepented sinners, exception of those condemned in the past by God. Now, this is a serious problem> Why would God judge with two judgments? Why did God destroy some, but give a second chance to others? This fact would destroy all the sermons of Jesus and Paul about the necessity and urgency of everyone repenting, because after death there is no more chance, being only about throwing into the fire, those who have not repented.
5. What is a man, and why we still believe in resurrection and not in a recreation? It is true that there is no consciousness or any human action in death. But JW"s explain the resurrection in the recreation from nothing terms. This is wrong. The firs death is not a destruction into nothing, so we don't need a recreation, just a resurrection. Only the second death is a destruction to nothing.
6. JW's literature shows pastor C.T Russell ho rediscovered the truth. This is wrong. He just picked up different doctrines from others. For example we find the soul sleep doctrine in the Bishop Polycarp’s last prayer (II century) or in "The Last hymn" of Georg "Blaurock" 1529, existing also in the various groups of catholic, ortodox, anabaptists, baptists, adventists, pentecostals and others. In other way "the last gnostic" Origene,was the head supporter of the unbiblical immortality of the soul.
7. About the "inspiration" of so called "JW's church fathers" they didn’t have it from God. Some men and women rejected their former doctrines, one of these was CT Russell but also most of JW's. However, they totally avoid all those who distance themselves from them due to a similar experience, although they keep their faith in the Bible, God and Jesus and lead a moral life, according to the Scriptures. Although its leaders admit that they are not inspired and were not like the authors of the Bible, they want everyone to obey them, as before the Bible - although there is a long list of misinterpretations that they- they did and they recognized them. This shows that the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses practice a form of spiritual abuse, based on their opinions about the meaning of the Bible verses, opinions that have sometimes been proven to be wrong.
The pagan Pythagoreans and their bad influence in Christendom
The pagan Pythagoras
Pythagoras (570? – 495? BC) was a pagan philosopher and matematician, and also a founder of a pagan sect named "the Pythagoreans". He wanted to make a scientific belief about the gods, that's why he traveled around the world and sought to gather the most advanced and philosophical information of the time about them. He didn't succeed, because he didn't look where he should, among the Jews>
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because Salvation comes from the Jews. (John 4:22)
The Pythagoreans were famous for their mystical numerology, of which they made a real cult. They believed that the greatest God is related to the number three and represented him with a triangle with equal sides, having an eye in the middle. Pythagoras, the founder of the sect, traveled to the advanced world known at that time, such as Egypt and Persia, and imported certain mathematical and pagan religious knowledge from there. It is possible that this is where he got the idea of the triangle with the eye in the middle, as a symbol of the greatest God, adapted later in Christendom, as the Trinity. But there is no such concept in the Bible.
The Pythagoreans influence
Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metapsihical beliefs held by Phytagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were much influenced by mathematics and probably a main inspirational source for Plato and Aristotle, platonism and neo-platonism. Since the Greeks did not really sympathize with Pythagoras' teaching, Plato and Aristotle reformed Pythagoras' thinking to make it more attractive. During this period, the idea developed - which we also find in the great historian Herodotus and even in the Jewish philosopher Philo - that the deities in the world are identical in any country, including from Israel, only that each people calls them differently.
It seems that many Jews accepted this opinion in the Hellenistic period, being probably about that great sin or betrayal of the covenant mentioned by the angel of God to the prophet Daniel>
But some ships from Chittim will advance against him; and he, in despair, will turn back. Then, angry against the holy covenant, he will not sit idly by; but, upon his return, he will come to terms with those who will leave the holy covenant. (Daniel 11:30).
During this period, a mysterious character appears, named Hermes Trismegistus, who is mentioned by Bishop Marcellus of Ankira, along with Plato, as an ambassador of the doctrine of the Trinity. According to the name, Hermes seems to have been a pagan philosopher from the Hellenistic era.
Bishop Marcellus, who discredited the doctrine of the Trinity - and who lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries, also tells us that some Christians stole this opinion from Plato and Hermes, so in ancient Christian circles it was known that the doctrine of the trinity was not of Jewish origin or Christian, but of pagan philosophical origin, from the time of Pythagoras.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoreanism
The pagan Neoplatonists and their bad influence in the Christendom
For centuries, certain Christians have been fascinated by the teachings of Plato's followers who tried to present the philosophers as being inspired by the gods. Since some of Plato's followers "tolerated" Christ alongside pagan philosophers, some Christians tried to do the same, tolerating pagan philosophers alongside Christ. This is how a mixture of sterile, unfruitful teaching between Christianity and paganism came into being, i.e. "lukewarm" Christianity:
"So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Revelation 3:16
"If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." John 15:6
Porphyry, the virulent antichristian neoplatonist (c. 233 – c. 309) wrote widely on astrology, religion, philosophy, musical theory and a biography of his teacher, Plotinus. He is important in the history of mathematics because of his Life of Pythagoras and his commentary on Euclid's Elements, which Pappus used when he wrote his own commentary. Porphyry is also known as an opponent of Christianity and as a defender of paganism; of his Adversus Christianos (Against the Christians) in 15 books, only fragments remain. He famously said, "The gods have proclaimed Christ to have been most pious, but the Christians are a confused and vicious sect."
The earliest Christian philosophers, such as Justin Martyr and Athenagoras of Athens, also the Christian Gnostics of Alexandria, especially Valentinus and the followers of Basilides, attempted to connect Christianity with Platonism. Later, this mixture was called „neoplatonism”.
Neoplatonism has flourished in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion, about the doctrine of God, as a single principle, "the One" (Monad).
With a kind of false respect for Christ, Neoplatonism began with Ammonius Saccas (175 AD – 242 AD) was a Hellenistic Platonist self-taught philosopher from Alexandria and his student Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 271 AD). According to Porphyry, the parents of Ammonius were Christians, but upon learning Greek philosophy, Ammonius rejected his parents' religion for paganism. After Plotinus there were three distinct periods in the history of neoplatonism: the work of his student Porphyry (3rd to early 4th century); that of Iamblichus (3rd to 4th century); and the period in the 5th and 6th centuries, when the Academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished.
Neoplatonic gods and their link in the early gnostic beliefs
The Celestial Hierarchy
The One – as God, The Good. Transcendent and ineffable.
The Hypercosmic Gods - Those which make Essence, Life and Soul
The Demiurge - The creator.
The Cosmic Gods - Those who make Being, Nature, and Matter. These include the Gods known to us from classical mythology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism#Teachings
Philo's negative influence in Christendom
Philo of Alexandria - romanized: Phílōn; Hebrew: יְדִידְיָה, romanized: Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.
His philosophical treatises try to harmonize the Hebrew Bible and Greek philosophy, and his apologetic works offer a glimpse into the life of the Jewish diaspora. In his works, he interprets the Hebrew Bible allegorically to show its compatibility with philosophy, especially Middle Platonism and the Stoics. His explanations were primarily based on the LXX, not the Hebrew text. In his exegesis, he gives the literal and the allegorical interpretation. This had a great impact on the Christian biblical interpretation of the Alexandrian school and this impact had a negative meaning, as the allegorical interpretation of the Bible drove those who followed it to many extremes.
According to Josephus, Philo was largely inspired by Aristobulus of Alexandria and the Alexandrian schol. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his participation in the embassy to Rome in 40 CE; whereby he represented the Alexandrian Jews in a delegation to the Roman Emperor Caligula following civil strife between the Alexandrian Jewish and Greek communities.
Philo's works were enthusiastically received by some the early Christians,
mixing the theology of Christianity with his theology, although this
danger was clearly shown by the apostle Paul: „Take care that no one steals you
with philosophy and vain delusion, according to the tradition of men, according
to the beginning teachings of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Col.
2:8)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo
The beliefs of Marcion
See this Marcion of Sinope what believed. I am shocked.
He is considered the father of the "Hellenized" Christendom by Raul
Vaneigem.
7) To achieve his objective, the Good God, under the reign of the emperor Tiberius, departed from his heaven, the third heaven; he crossed the heaven of the Creator situated beneath his own; he descended upon the earth into Galilee and went immediately to work. Immediately-- and here is why. He had only the appearance of a human body. In reality he was a spirit, a spirit savior.
He received nothing from Mary, he was not born, he didn't need to grow up. But is this the property of the Good God who personally came to the earth? Is he not limited to delegate someone? It was He Himself who was manifested to us under the appearance of a human body and who is called the Christ. The Christ is thus the Good God clothed with an ethereal cloak which renders him visible. (It is this ethereal covering, the appearance of a human body, which is entitled "son of God" and which calls God his father ( I, 19 , The marcionite Christ, having had no childhood, descended from the heaven in the 29th year of our era, right at the moment where his public life began; I.,14-15;IV,7; I., 24;III,10; IV, 19,21;I,19,14;II,27). The spiritual Christ possesses a principle of life analogous to the human soul which allows him to experience, as he wishes and is without it subject, to the psychological and physiological phenomenons that we experience.
8) Upon arriving to the earth to deliver men who groaned under the cruel yoke of the Creator God, the Good God couldn't let stand the mosaic law, who on one hand, being incarnated, allowed the barb- arism of the evil God. On the other hand he could dispense in revealing himself to men as their savior. He abolished thus the law and, along with the law, the prophets. He is, all the more, made known to men. As much as the Son he revealed the Father; as much as the Father he revealed the Son, according to what he himself declared: "no one knows who the Son is but the Father; and no one knows who the Father is but the son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him" (Luke 10:22).
9) The Creator, seeing
the Christ working against him, determined his loss. And, for best appeasing
the hate that this rival inspired in him, he attempted to inflict upon him the
torment that his law, the mosaic law, reserved for the accursed, which was the
agony of the cross. The Christ was therefore crucified by the virtues and
strengths of the Creator; he died on a cross (Tertullian noted that the death
of the marcionite Christ was only a sham since his body was only a phantom; but
the marcionite spoke of the crucifixion and death of Christ as a phenomenon
truly accomplished ( AM I., 25,11; III, 23;4,21;III, 19; here Tertullian
reproaches Marcion to speak of the death of Christ whose birth he rejected;
III, 8, same reproaching of the inconsistencies held by Marcion who believed in
the death of Christ).
http://www.marcionite-scripture.info/turm2.htm
I don't support this author in his fight against Christianity, but he's
historical research could be helpful in the comparison of the early Church
beliefs, and later sects motivations and evolution of the dogmas.
Justin the gnostic
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1584560
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1583286
11. Justin the Gnostic.
Justin propagated his doctrine secretly, and bound his disciples to silence by
solemn oaths (cf. Freemasonry). His teaching has a Judaizing cast, making use
also of Greek mythology.
He claimed that Christ by his crucifixion emancipated from his material body,
thus denying the resurrection.
List of gonostic sects:
http://www.tecmalta.org/tft324.htm
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc2.v.xiii.xxi.html
See also:
1. The snowball Trinity versus the Father Almighty
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2012/11/about-our-god-and-father.html
2. He is "Yehowah": God's holy name
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2012/11/some-article-about-gods-holy-name.html
3. The story of The rich man and the beggar Lazarus: A fake, a literal history or a parable?
See why is a fake...
Try with Google Translate from Romanian
http://sufletulestemuritor.blogspot.ro/2013/07/cat-ne-putem-permite-sa-ne-incredem-in.html
4. Greetings from Romania!
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2012/12/greetings-from-romania.html
5. Archangel Michael, the Son of God
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2012/12/article-1.html
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
64. The real origin of the trinitarian dogma (three persons in one God)
The real origin of
the trinitarian dogma (three persons in one God)
The origin of trinitarian dogma is in the gnostic-marcionist movement:
"If he adapted the trinitarian conception -- Father-Son and Pneuma-Spirit
(Spirit), which would triumph at Nicaea -- from the Valentinian Theodotus,
Bardesane was opposed to Marcion and he rejected the Demiurgical creation.
According to Bardesane, the world was the work of a Good God, because, despite
its imperfections, salvation enters into mankind's possibilities. Thus it was
incorrectly that Ephrem the Syrian denounced the influence of Bardesane on
Mani, the founder of the Manichean religion. If the Bardesanites excluded from
their canon the two epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, no doubt it was due to
Marcionism, which presented versions anterior to the Catholic
corrections."
Opinion rejected in 268 at the Council of Antioch, but later accepted at the
Council of Nicaea.
"Ironically, the synod that deposed Paul of Samosate would reject the term
homoousios (consubstantial) by which he designated the identity of God and the
Christ; this was the same quality that the Church would impose in the Fourth
Century as the only trinitary truth."
http://www.notbored.org/resistance-17.html
"Other texts by Paul were written: the so-called "pastorals."
Joseph Turmel has established that the letters of Ignacius of Antioch -- the
same ones that the tradition cite as the [first] appearance of the word
"catholic" -- reveal the existence of a Marcionite version (135, at
the earliest); before being revised, around 190-210, by another bishop of
Antioch, Theophile, who, despite his hostility to Marcion, complacently based
himself upon the inspiration of the Novum Testamentum.[8] This Theophile did
not hesitate to speak of the letters of Paul as the "holy and divine Word
[Verbe]," not without ridding them of the Marconite word [parole]. He also
borrowed from Theodotus the notion of the trinity and he would undertake the
"harmonization of the Gospels, which thus appeared to him nearly deprived
of harmony," Deschner remarks.[9]
So as to demolish Marcion, Theophile was joined by Denyse of Corinth, Philippe
of Gortyne, Hippolyte of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Justin
the Apologist, Bardensane of Edessa, Tertullien, Rhodon and Modestus; these
were mostly men who enjoyed a certain power as leaders of Christian
communities."
http://www.notbored.org/resistance-11.html
"The Arab historian Shahrastani (Eleventh Century) affirms that, in the
Fourth Century, Arius borrowed his doctrine, according to which the Messiah is
the first angel of God for the Magharians, "who lived four hundred years
before Arius and were known by the simplicity of their way of life and their
serene abstinence."
"Who were these Magharians, whose existence dates back to the First
Century before the Christian era? Their Arab name leaves little doubt; it means
"people of the cavern or the cave," because -- Shahrastani makes
clear -- they hid their sacred texts in caverns."
"There is nothing surprising in the fact that the doctrine of the
Angel-Messiah (the angelos-christos) was originally Essene, since it was shared
by the [various] Christianities and predominated up to the historization of
Jesus, undertaken in the second half of the Second Century."
http://www.notbored.org/resistance-4.html
The so called "arianism" is certainly not invented by Arius nor by
his teacher Lucian, but is certain an old jewish christology. The true
christology.
Strong conclusion
The so called "Arianism" in fact is pre-christian biblical Jewish
christology (messiahism). Was not invented by Arius.
There is, also, two echoes in the apostle Paul teaching:
"(...) but as angel of God you received me as Christ Jesus."
Galatians 4:14 Biblos Interlinear Bible
"For himself Lord with shout with voice of arch-agent and with trumpet of
God will descend from heaven (...)." 1Thessalonians 4:16 Biblos
Interlinear Bible
And in Revelation 19:14 ASV "And the armies which are in heaven followed
him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure."
See also:
1. The snowball Trinity versus the Father Almighty
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2012/11/about-our-god-and-father.html
2. He is "Yehowah": God's holy name
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2012/11/some-article-about-gods-holy-name.html
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
65. The trinitarian dogma and the marcionist movement
The trinitarian dogma
and the marcionist movement
"If he adapted the trinitarian conception -- Father-Son and Pneuma-Spirit
(Spirit), which would triumph at Nicaea -- from the Valentinian Theodotus,
Bardesane was opposed to Marcion and he rejected the Demiurgical creation.
According to Bardesane, the world was the work of a Good God, because, despite
its imperfections, salvation enters into mankind's possibilities. Thus it was
incorrectly that Ephrem the Syrian denounced the influence of Bardesane on
Mani, the founder of the Manichean religion. If the Bardesanites excluded from
their canon the two epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, no doubt it was due to
Marcionism, which presented versions anterior to the Catholic
corrections."
Opinion rejected in 268 at the Council of Antioch, but later accepted at the
Council of Nicaea.
"Ironically, the synod that deposed Paul of Samosate would reject the term
homoousios (consubstantial) by which he designated the identity of God and the
Christ; this was the same quality that the Church would impose in the Fourth
Century as the only trinitary truth."
http://www.notbored.org/resistance-17.html
Chapter 11: Marcion and the Hellenization of Christianity
"Despite two centuries and an accusation of heresy that separated him from
the State religion, Marcion might well pass for the true father of the Catholic
Church, a father maladroitly abandoned to the world, a runt that only his
enemies brought to maturity.
Missionary zeal; the eagerness to found communities; the hope for divine
authority, the investment of which he would receive in Rome; the monarchal organization
of the ekklesiai; virulent anti-Semitism; the conception of a Christianity
purified of its Judaism; a theology inspired by Greek thought: these compose a
great many of the fundamental traits of the future Catholic Church."
http://www.notbored.org/resistance-11.html
"Other texts by Paul were written: the so-called "pastorals."
Joseph Turmel has established that the letters of Ignacius of Antioch -- the
same ones that the tradition cite as the [first] appearance of the word
"catholic" -- reveal the existence of a Marcionite version (135, at
the earliest); before being revised, around 190-210, by another bishop of
Antioch, Theophile, who, despite his hostility to Marcion, complacently based
himself upon the inspiration of the Novum Testamentum.[8] This Theophile did
not hesitate to speak of the letters of Paul as the "holy and divine Word
[Verbe]," not without ridding them of the Marconite word [parole]. He also
borrowed from Theodotus the notion of the trinity and he would undertake the
"harmonization of the Gospels, which thus appeared to him nearly deprived
of harmony," Deschner remarks.[9]
So as to demolish Marcion, Theophile was joined by Denyse of Corinth, Philippe
of Gortyne, Hippolyte of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Justin
the Apologist, Bardensane of Edessa, Tertullien, Rhodon and Modestus; these
were mostly men who enjoyed a certain power as leaders of Christian
communities."
http://www.notbored.org/resistance-11.html
See also:
61. Hegesippus, about the early sects
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2013/01/hegesippus-about-early-sects.html
63. The pagan Pythagoreans and their bad influence
http://waitingforthefinaltest.blogspot.ro/2013/01/the-pagan-pythagoreans-and-their-bad.html
Read more:
http://www.biblestudents.net/history/daughters_tower.htm
http://www.christianwitnesses.com/id185.html
Linkuri cu Adunari ale Studentilor Bibliei
http://www.heraldmag.org/literature/links.htm
Romania - Baia Mare
http://biblestudents.eu/ro/corul-international
Christian Witnesses Of Jah - Active
http://elihubooks.blogspot.com/
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