by Ianto Watt
And then the even bigger period of a thousand (and more) years between the Edict of Milan and the first appearance of Protestant sects, what about that? Where was the true Church for that huge period of time? Underground? Uh, I don’t think so, and simple logic tells me I’m right. Because if the original, small, persecuted but well-organized Church of the Apostles could defy and defeat Imperial Rome over a period of almost 3 centuries, existing both above and below ground, what great military power was keeping these ‘true protestants’ underground from 313 AD till 1517 AD, when Martin Luther decided he wanted to have sex?
Nobody was executing Christians in Europe (in the name of the State) for over 1,000 years, so where were all these Anabaptists and Cathars and their reputed successors (Lutherans, Methodists, Calvinists, etc.) hiding? Where are all their ancient writings? Where are all their ancestors buried? Where are their catacombs? Wasn’t that the mark of the ‘underground’ church? Where are all their martyrs? Where are all the pilgrimage tours to see their churches? Who were their leaders? How were they chosen? How would their followers know who their leaders were? By secret handshakes? Sorry, that’s a Masonic trick, dude. Oh wait, maybe the Protestants were……… never mind. Hahahah! Idiots.
Sorry, I can’t buy that logic. The lies are too blatant, too contrived, too contorted. It’s easier to believe in ET. Speaking of which, as any good Mormon will tell you, there’s only 2 real choices for Christianity (Holy Roman vs. Mormon), and I find their logic pretty straight-forward and compelling. It goes like this; if Holy Rome isn’t the real church, and all the Protestant churches actually originated as splinter groups from Holy Rome, then the Protestant groups aren’t any more real than the one they broke off from. Mathematically speaking, how could a ‘perfected’ (or ‘reformed’) Church come from an imperfect origin? That violates the law of entropy. I know, that’s physics, not math, but the point is the same.
Now of course, the Bizarro Protestants claim they have ‘reformed’ the ‘Christian’ faith that the Holy Roman Church had ‘warped’. But now there’s over 30,000 separate and distinct Protestant sects. Simple logic says they can’t all be right. In fact, the Christian scripture claims there is only one way. That means there can only be one correct group. Now if all these 30,000 groups claim to be the right way, but they don’t claim that the other Protestants are necessarily wrong, where does that lead you, logically? Right. Insanity. These guys are idiots, mathematically speaking. And like I said earlier, math is the one language that won’t let you lie. So their equation reads like this: A=B=C=D=E etc, ad infinitum (or at least out to 30,000 iterations). If A=B, then why did B split off from A? And their corollary to this is equally brilliant; ‘A (etc.) ≠ Holy Rome. Idiots.
All of this, of course, ignores two salient facts; first, the doctrine of most Bizarro Protestant sects conflicts with the doctrine of most other Bizarro sects (and how could they not, given the fact there’s over 30,000 different Protestant groups?). Why would they be separate groups unless they had different beliefs???????? How can they all be different, and yet all be right, but the one they came from originally, somehow has to be totally wrong? It really gets to be funny when you realize that most of them have some core Holy Roman beliefs (like baptism) that merely make them a knock-off, in some fashion, of the Holy Romans they deny. So here’s the problem, mathematically speaking; how does the greater come from the lesser? How does the truth (‘the greater’) come from untruth (‘the lesser’)?
Aristotle wouldn’t buy that logic. Pascal either. And how does it continue to progress this way, through each continuing iteration of schism within each Bizarro sect which produces a ‘new and improved’ (but invariably smaller) set of believers? Here’s what the equation would look like: 1 < (A
The theological logic of Protestantism says that each succeeding sect should be more perfect than the previous, and therefore should be more spiritually powerful, thus attracting more (and not fewer) believers. But the reality is exactly the opposite, because the act of multiple schisms continuously fragments the possible universe of possible ‘true believers’ to the point that there can’t be many saved if only one of these fragmentary churches is the ‘true church’. The logical inference is that there will be damned few who are saved! Not much to hope for here. Here’s what the real equation looks like, in actual numerical fact (as there are more Holy Romans than ALL other groups combined); 1> (A+B+C+D+..out to 30,000 groups).
The perfect example of this came for me when my son Thor and I were cruising around Phoenix looking for a place to eat before a bowl game a few years back, and he yells ‘stop’! I pulled over and he said ‘look at that church’, as he pointed to their sign. It read (as best as I can remember) ‘The Holy Apostolic Messianic Pentecostal Charismatic Priestly & Prophetic Baptist Missionary Church of the Good News Gospel of the Brethren of the End Times in the New Testament Tabernacle of Zion’s Temple in The New Jerusalem of the Last Days’. I’m not kidding. In fact I think I left some of it out. Talk about alphabet soup! And the best part was that their building was smaller than their sign. I’m guessing the place would have seated about 23 people. Hallelujah! Idiots.
The other Protestant problem is the fact that hardly any of them have the same beliefs as they did when they started out. Just look at the Anglican Church today. Henry VIII would have beheaded nearly all of the ‘mainstream’ Anglicans and Episcopalians of today for heresy. John Wesley would be pulling his hair out over modern Methodists. Don’t believe me? Just try this test- ask any Methodist to recite the three basic, core commands of John and Charles Wesley (what, you don’t know them? Earn all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can.). Then watch the blank look descend on their faces. Most of them don’t even know who either Wesley was! So how, from a doctrinal perspective, can any of these groups say they are the one true church when they don’t even know, let alone believe, what their founders said they were when they first claimed to be the ‘true’ believers? Somebody’s lying here. Or maybe they just don’t like the fact that the Holy Roman bunch has refused to change. Or maybe they just all fell asleep. Or maybe they’re simply idiots. Hmmmmm…………..
In any event, like I said earlier, grandson, the Holy Romans have it, hands down, in the category of unbroken leadership (and unchanging doctrine as well, which surely must be related to the longevity of the organization). And so, having examined this category of necessary attributes for a believable monotheistic religion, let’s move on now to the next item on our checklist. And remember, the clock is ticking………………………..
Does Christianity have a believable (and desirable)
Messiah? Well, YES and NO.
Again, it’s all in what you want. Do you want someone who can snap their fingers and make something, anything happen? Sure! But hey, do you want someone who isn’t going to get even for you, for all the wrongs you’ve suffered? At least, not right now. That was one of the big problems the rulers of the Chosen Ones had with that Jesus fellow. They wanted him to stomp the crap out of those damned Romans, and since the Roman Empire encompassed the whole known world, that meant stomping everyone, right? And that’s what the Talmud promised the messiah would do. So when Jesus saves the servant of the Roman Centurion, well, that didn’t set too well with the Pharisaical Headquarters. Especially when the Roman says he doesn’t need Jesus to actually, physically, visit his house in order to heal the servant because the Centurion believes Jesus has the authority and power to command that it be done. Why would that make the Pharisees mad? Because Jesus utters the famous reply, ‘verily, I say unto you, I have not found such faith in all of Israel’ (Matthew 8:10). Hahahhahah!
Well, that sealed the deal for the Pharisees. This fellow Jesus had to die, and the sooner the better as far as the Pharisees were concerned. After all, how could any self-respecting Jew say that about the Roman occupiers of the Chosen People’s land? And there you have it. Obviously, Jesus was not a self-respecting man, and the Pharisees were. And to emphasize the difference between his gospel (‘good news’) and the Pharisees’ vision of what a true messiah would look like and do, Jesus kept predicting that he would be put to death, and in the most offensive manner possible for a Jew (by crucifixion, or ‘being hung from a tree’ as the OT scripture renders it).
So now we’re back to the little matter of ‘faith’. Because if Jesus had simply and miraculously stomped Rome and all her minions, then everyone would be able to see it. Then there would be no need for faith, because it would be a matter of public knowledge. Man always wants knowledge, of any kind, instead of believing something based on faith. Because faith requires that you have to wait until the proof is in, and in the meantime, you have all these doubts that assail you and your beliefs. And usually, you have to die before you want to. Before the proof is in. No, knowledge always seems the easier choice over faith, if you can get it. But there’s no reason to think that anyone deserves any type of reward for recognizing an accomplished fact, right? Even dead Romans would ‘believe’ after they were crushed.
But what does that mean here? It means that ‘faith’ is what’s being rewarded in Christianity. You have to make your choice, and stick with it till the end. The end of what? Your life, of course, grandson. And if you were going to believe in Jesus and all those stories about feeding the thousands, and raising people from the dead, well, you might not have to wait too long. Because there were all those Talmudic Jews that were willing to help you find out if you were right, by tossing you out of the synagogue, and to your death.
Huh? What’s that mean, anyway? It keeps recurring in the NT scripture that the apostles and disciples kept getting tossed from the synagogues wherever they went. And then they would be stoned, flogged, killed, etc. The one followed the other. Why? Because, as I noted earlier, the only people in the Roman Empire that were exempt from the requirement to worship Caesar and the Roman Pantheon were the Chosen Ones. And if the local Rabbi in say, Corinth or Ephesus or even Rome tossed someone from their synagogue, then that was all the proof the local Roman magistrates needed to conclude that you weren’t a Jew! And so, these Jewish believers in a Jewish messiah were ruled to be non-Jews (by the local Talmudic Jews at the local synagogue).
Therefore these ‘Christian’ Jews were now required by the Roman authorities to offer incense to Caesar. Do it or die. The choice was theirs. And so, their faith was usually given a pretty immediate test. If you believed in Jesus, and you told anyone about it, you were toast at the local synagogue. And this dispute about who was the real messiah was what led to the eventual distinction between OT Jews (of any kind) and the NT Jews, who came to be known as the ‘Christian’ Jews, or simply Christians.
So, here’s the irony - the Talmudic Jews, who hated Rome (and all Gentiles) had to use the power of Imperial Rome to enforce their own Talmudic brand of religion down at the local synagogue. Why? Because Talmudic Judaism wasn’t powerful enough to repel the Imperial Romans themselves. And the one Jewish guy who seemed to have enough power to do it single-handedly (Jesus) didn’t seem interested in doing it. What a choice! And we know how the high and mighty ones choose. They chose to ally themselves with Imperial Rome, whom they despised! Why? Because Imperial Rome was the only thing that kept them in power within their own community, by means of the ‘excommunication’ threat at the synagogue or at the Temple in Jerusalem. Wow, what great irony! And what a precursor of how the Jewish community would be run for the next 2,000 years. Sure Rabbi, anything you say! How much do I owe you for your advice?
Now let’s look at the other end of the spectrum of the Jewish people, the little guys. The ones who did all the work. The farmers and shepherds. Specifically, let’s look at the shepherds. Despite all the mushy depictions of them in nativity scenes, they were the most despised of all the Jews, apart from the lepers. Their job was the lowest of the low. They had to live outdoors, with the sheep. They were dirty and smelly, and often ‘cowardly’. Now ask yourself, do you want to do battle with a pack of ravenous wolves at midnight armed with a simple wooden staff? Just to save the sheep that belonged to your rich employer who was probably a Pharisee who despised you? Probably not. And so, they were the lowest of the low, although fisherman ranked right down there with them, but they didn’t have to fight wolves. They just had to catch and haul dead fish from Lake Galilee to the distant markets, on foot.
Now the only thing that ranked below these shepherds were the sheep themselves. After all, they were nothing but tomorrow night’s dinner or a sacrifice, right? Nobody cared about them. And now we’re back to the symbolism we talked about earlier. Jesus kept referring to himself as the ‘Lamb of God’. How disgusting, right? Well, to the upper crust, yes. But to those who lived with the sheep which were the source of their economic well-being (jobs, food, wool, etc.), maybe not. Maybe this is why Jesus had a certain appeal to the lower classes of people, those who he said were weary and burdened. These were the same people who were shunned by the Pharisees who wouldn’t even touch them because it would make them ‘unclean’. The same people who did all the work that made the good life possible for all the rest.
These common working people found a message they could connect with in the ‘good news’ this fellow Jesus brought. And since their entire lives were spent waiting on their masters and their master’s sheep, they were able to understand the Christian teaching on the need to patiently endure a suffering life in the faithful hope of a better life in the next world. They understood the need to believe something and to wait to see if it was true. They had the ability to accept something on the basis of ‘faith’, because that was all they were possibly going to get out of life. And the miracles Jesus performed gave them the hope they needed to believe he could deliver what he promised. After all, it wasn’t the Pharisees that Jesus was feeding with those loaves. It was the little people. The Un-Chosen Ones.
But there’s a problem here for these shepherds, grandson. You want to believe you’re worth something, anything. And you even want to believe your sheep are worth something as well, as this would give some value to your life and work. And here’s this guy Jesus who says indeed, you’re worth a lot, at least to him. He’s even willing to die for you, he says. And he says he’s the Son of God. And he does all these incredible things. You really want to believe in him. But if you do, there’s still no payoff here and now. And he teaches people that revolution is not the answer. So you’ve got to sit and wait, and at the same time you have to get rid of your hatred, envy and disgust for the rich and the powerful. And worst of all, if you tell anyone you believe in him, you just might get the same welcome the apostles and the disciples would all get- instant death. Wow, how desirable!
And yet, that is exactly what happened, but it’s all perfectly understandable from the standpoint of human emotion. The rich and powerful wanted Jesus, but they wanted him on their own terms, which he refused to meet. The poor, the meek and the weak wanted him too, and a huge number accepted his terms- self denial. That’s not hard to do, when everything in life and society says you’re worthless. As Zimmerman says, ‘when ya ain’t got nothin’, ya got nothin’ to lose’.
So here we are, asking ourselves, is this the kind of messiah that we want? Or do we want the Pharisee model? Depending on your outlook on what a messiah should look like, and what he offered to his believers, then the answer to this question is one that will cause you to accept or reject the original Holy Roman faith.
And so, we have now examined all five of our criteria for judging the relative merits of the Holy Roman version of monotheistic faith, in our quest to find the right Operating System. The system that will give us the correct interpretation of hist
ory, so that we can finally interpret the Story of Troy left to us by the ancient Greeks, and how it will impact our lives when it comes to pass again, probably in our lifetime. But before we move on to the next monotheistic contestant (Islam), we need to spend a few moments talking about the two ‘Bizarro’ versions of Christianity, Orthodoxy and it’s mirror-opposite twin, Protestantism.
There are two versions of Bizarro Christianity, but one led to the other. And the first, Orthodoxy, still claims to be the true Church, and claims all the same sacraments of the Holy Roman Church. And all of the dogma. At least, all of the dogma defined prior to the Great Schism of 1054 AD. But in reality, they are the first Protestants, and their schism led directly to the appearance of the other non-Catholic Christians known today, collectively, as Protestants. Although, if you were to ask any Protestant what he is protesting, the blank look on their face will tell you all you need to know! But let’s look at how these two groups (actually, they are one) began, and where they will lead us. And please know, this is IMPORTANT! This is the key link to the ancient Greek prophecy at Troy, so pay attention! Now let’s look at Bizarro #2 first, as we lead up to Bizarro #1.