reply to post by mystiq
Finally, I can agree with a court decision, which is getting harder to do lately. Gay and Women's rights should equally be addressed legally as well.
Religions should be forced to upgrade to the highest degree of human rights, and I wish it would happen the world over. They are ancienct and barbaric
and the human race needs to evolve (nwo aside for a moment).
Keen observations Mr Mystiq. And one people of good will around the globe will eventually adopt.
On Christianity. I offer TWO men who were most instrumental in founding the institution that we loosely call
Christianity today. Without BOTH
men and their very different contributions, it is entirely unlikely Christianity would have ever been more than a disenchanted minority of Judaism
probably forgotten in the pages of history after 66-73 AD. Flavius Josephus to the contrary notwithstanding.
So you ask, just who are those two significant men? Well, I can tell you for sure it was not Moses or King Solomon. But it was, IMO, Saul of Tarsus,
later known as Paul, and then Saint Paul who was the first. Numero Uno. And yes, the second man was none other than Flavius Valerius Aurelius
Constantinus better known as Emperor Constantine I. Numero Duo. When Constantine converted to Christianity, he did not make it the exclusive religion
of the Empire. That came rather later as the Greco-Roman norm of tolerance gradually disappeared.
However, Constantine had big plans. He wanted UNIFORMITY above all else out of his state religions of which he had several. He called the Second
Church Council to meet at Nicaea in 325 and it decided what a Christian was and what Christians should believe. Note this Council was NOT called by
the Bishop of Rome NOR was it held in Rome. Rome was a backwater town beginning its fall from the heady days when Rome ruled the known world. That
long run in history culminated in 476 AD when the last emperor fled the city. And then came the Catholic Church. Or what is called the Roman Catholic
Church today. I don't know when it got its current name but I can tell you one thing for sure, it was not on the Day of Pentecost.
Aside: The First Church Council was held in Jerusalem. Around 35-40 AD. It was called by James the brother of Jesus and Peter to rein in Paul. Despite
what we would today (incorrectly) regard as the superior authority of those two close associates of Jesus, Paul the interloper - late to The Way - and
indeed, the imposter - he claimed a special grant of power directly from Jesus - was not reined in. The Council finally agreed to disagree. By the bye
if James and Peter had succeeded, we would not have modern Christianity as we know it.
Recall that Paul was shrewd enough to bring a considerable sum of money with him to help support the impoverished Jerusalem church which had turned to
communism for its very survival. That would have been the next to last step before giving it all up.
Then for you Bibliophiles, Constantine again stepped into the breech. Dismayed over the numerous variations, interpretations and points of view held
by so many people calling themselves Christians, Constantine ORDERED several better known bishops from around the Mediterranean basin to convene and
produce for him a CANON. A well accepted compilation. It was the numbers of followers and not the veracity of position that determined who was called.
(I don't think the Bishop of Rome was invited, or if even if there was one then. In any case, he was a minor player. The episcopacy of
Rome did
not gain its ascendant position until 1873 at the first Vatican Council).
And alas, they produced from among 100s of letters, manuscripts, fragments and stories what is known today as the Holy Bible. We are even certain
what was in the First Bible. Constantine ordered his scribes to make 50 exact copies. It was his plan to install one in each of the 50 churches he was
building or remodeling in his new capital city, renamed from Byzantium to Constantinople. In each new church a bible was chained to the lectern.
Because the books were valuable and not to prevent people from reading the book. Almost no one could read anyway. Oh, the books were written in Greek,
the lingua franca of the era. Latin did not come on until the 5th-6th century. And so there you have how our Holy Bible came to be in one bound
volume. None have survived.
Aside: We don’t now who or when the books of the Hebrew Bible - our OT - were first named. But if the First Book of Moses had been named
Book of
Origins of the Hebrew People instead of Genesis - the beginning- think how much easier our lives would be! No Scopes trial. No young earth
advocates. No anti-Darwin fakers. No faith based anti-intellectualism.
Or if the Divine Endowment in 2 Tim. 3:16, had been translated to read: All INSPIRED scripture is of GOD rather than the current ALL scripture is
INSPIRED of GOD, then we would not be faced with the literalists who dominate today’s public conversation. Talking louder, not smarter. I’m
assured by people who know better than I that either translation is equally valid. King James just gave us the BAD one.
[edit on 7/20/2008 by donwhite]