| 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. 16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given [us] everlasting consolation and good hope through grace" - 2 Thessalonians 2:11 |
| Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. " - Romans 1:25 |
| "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." - dolf , Meine Camp |
Today, Christians may have difficulty seeing how Christian leaders are like the Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus' time. Afterall, did not Jesus make it clear that many religious leaders are bad if not worse than non-believers?
Could it be, that our very Christian leaders we trust are leading us astray? Is such a thing even fathomable?
1. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOUR PASTOR IS REPRESENTING TO YOU THE COMPLETE WORD OF GOD?
I am refering to the 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament) as commonly found in most Protestant Bibles.
Do you believe that these are the only scriptures that God has handed down to us?
I will show you something now, that may startle you. In the Russian and Greek Orthodox Church, they include in their Old Testament what Protestants often call the "Apocrypha", which means "hidden texts".
Now, before you turn off this video, because you think that the Apocrypha is "obviously not scripture", I want to point out a few things to you.
First, I am a protestant. So, I am not a Catholic or Orthodox theologian trying to "convert you".
Second, I am just going to give you the facts here. And let you decide for yourself if you have been deceived or not.
The current Old Testament as you find in most Protestant Bibles was decided upon in the year of 90 AD, by the Council of Jamnia. The council was not Christian. They were jewish in nature. Further, there is a reason they convened at this time to decide or should I say redecide on the Canon of the Old Testament.
You see, according to the very early church fathers, the reason they were removing these "Apocrypal" books from the Old Testament is because the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) included these books and that it was widely used to prove that Jesus was indeed the Christ.
In other words, in reaction to the many jewish people becoming Christians from proofs in the Septuagint, the jewish leaders decided they needed to "demonize" the Septagint by removing certain books from their Hebrew version of the Old Testament to distance themselves from the Septagint and then claim that Christians had a non-reliable Old Testament.
Keep in mind, both Jesus and the apostles quoted from the Greek Septuagint in the New Testament. It was around for over 200 years and well revered among the jews until 30 years after Christ ascended into the sky.
Now, this should disturb you atleast a little. However, we are just getting started.
In one of these "apocryphal" books, we find this passage, "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first, and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people." (2 Esdras 14:45�46 RSV; 4 Ezra 12:45�46)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Esdras
As you can imagine, many of these 70 books have been hidden or lost. The Apocrypha is called "hidden", not due to them being fallacious, but rather, they are hidden from the eyes of those who reject the truth.
As we see in Revelation, that he that adds or takes away from the Word of God, it is a serious error.
"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." - Revelation 22:19.
Many protestants contend that these books are not historically reliable. But the concern is whether or not some of these books are actually in parable design. As Christ used many parables to explain truths, it is a mystery.
As it says in 1 Corinthians 2:7 - "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:"
Could this hidden wisdom be eluding to the Apocrypha?
Now, maybe you think I am crazy? Let me show you something else.
In Jude, we find this strange passage, "1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 1:15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. "
Jude is quoting a line from the end of the Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch almost made it into the Canon of scripture. However, it was not allowed in, due to them not being able to establish its origin to perfection.
Well, the question though is, is it scripture? Does it have to pass man's test or perhaps God's test?
It clearly says here that "Enoch also, seventh from Adam, prophesied".
And as we read in 2 Peter 1:21, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. ".
So, the scripture clearly teaches that the "Book of Enoch" is scripture. Interestingly, there is one church that did canonize the "Book of Enoch". The Ethiopian Orthodox Church canonized it.
Yet, interestingly, the "Western Church", which is where Catholicism and Protestanism derive (the Orthodox split from the Catholic in 1054 AD. The Orthodox being the Eastern side, while the Catholic being the Western/Latin side).
And it says in the Book of Enoch, "not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come".
http://www.summascriptura.com/html/Enoch_Sequestration_of.html
Did you know that the Book of Enoch was "lost" to the Western World for nearly a millenia? Only within the last couple hundred years did it resurface.
So, we are in that "remote generation".
Why was this book "lost" for a 1000 years, when it is clear, that Jude taught it was scripture?
http://www.summascriptura.com/html/Enoch_Sequestration_of.html
Why is it your pastor does not know this?
Interestingly, the Book of Enoch teaches that fallen angels mated with humans. This is what created the "nephalim" or giants. Goliath was a nephalim. Most if not all who perished in the flood were nephalim.
Yet, atheists love to use these stories to discredit God. They claim God is genocidal?
Or was it really, the Devil was genocidal? As it clearly says in Genesis 3, God gave a promise that a saviour would be born of woman. So, perhaps the Devil used this idea of polluting the human race, so there was no longer any true and actual "women", but rather hybrids.
This is the reason there was a flood. It says that "Noah was perfect in his generations". It is not refering to his morality, but rather his DNA. He was still human.
It also says there were nephalim after the flood. This is why the jews were led into the promised land of Israel. After the spies came back from spying on the land, they said, "We are like grasshoppers before them". This is clearly refering to a difference in size, as there were "nephalim in the land".
But, you did not know this did you? And maybe this is because, the Book of Enoch was not in the Bible, as it should have been.
2. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD IS LOVE?
If we start with this concept, that God is indeed love, we have to ask ourselves if we have been sold certain great lies within the church. As dolf dolf said, it is easier to sell a big lie, than a small one, as people are familiar with small lies, but are not as well adapted to big ones.
Now, I want you to imagine what you would consider a perfect God of love. First, wipe your mind of preconcieved notions and opinions and theology. Ask yourself, what are attributes of love? Picture in your mind these things.
Now, this video here is not against God, but against theology taught incorrectly about God. I want to point out to you some errors. It may not be clear to you at first, because you have been conditioned to believe these errors over time.
Now, that you have thought of this God of love. I have to ask you. If you saw this God of love torturing people, would you consider that a contradiction?
If I told you he is torturing people in Hell for an eternity, would you have to somehow justify it in your mind?
Or is this big lie too big for you to see the forest from the trees?
Perhaps here again, you have been lied to. And that your pastor does not know what he is talking about.
I have spoke with Orthodox Christians who seem to understand what I am saying. They believe that the "Lake of Fire" is God's presence.
As we see on Mount Sinai, God is "fire and brimstone". His presence is like a fire.
So, it is God's presence that both the non-believer and believer experience.
Now, the question is, where did the idea of "physical torture in hell come from"?
Did God really teach this in His Word, or has there been some textual liberty on certain english translations?
As the Bible was not written in english, but rather Greek and Hebrew.
Let me show you some proofs of these "textual liberties", where the person translating the scripture put his own theological conclusions right into the translation.
When Jesus told the parable of the sheeps and goats being separated on Judgement Day, we read:
"41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" - Matthew 25:41
But, is this really what it says in the Greek? Or are we being theologically led astray?
The term "everlasting" here has been translated "age" and "world" for any topic other than when discussing the "afterlife".
The term was likely invented by Plato. It means a period of time, which either feels long or is long. For instance, in the Old Testament, the term was used to represent the 3 days Jonah was in the belly of a whale. So, it felt like "forever", but it was not indeed "forever". Plato taught that it only means forever in the case of God or something that extends in perfection from God.
So, is Hell "perfection"? Of course not. This begs the belief in an eternal hell.
The term "kolassis" in Greek, which is often translated "torment", actually means "discipline to benefit the person receiving it", according to renowned Greek Scholar William Barclay.
So, is it really "eternal torment" or more likely "a long span of discipline to benefit the person receiving it".
Is God like a ruthless dictator that enjoys torturing people in Hell? Or is God a God of love and using his presence to discipline and bring non-believers to repentance?
Which one to you sounds more like a "God of love"?
3. GOD IS ANTI-SEX AND PLEASURE.
I used to attend a holiness church. Actually I have been in many Christian denominations. Catholic, Assembly of God, Baptist, Methodist, Holiness, Word of Faith.
Yes, I have actually went to all of those denominations for more than a year each.
One thing I noticed that seemed to be a tradition in all these Western denominations is their fixation with sex and the physical. Generally, they are very anti-sexual.
This, some years back, led me into many studies on the topic, to see really what was going on.
What I learned is, there are many theological spins on terms found in the New Testament.
We are told fornication means "sex before marriage". However, here is something you do not know. Before the 18th Century, the term "fornication" meant exclusively "prostitution". Now, the King James Bible was written before the 18th Century.
So, when the KJV Bible was written, it meant something entirely different than it means today.
And even then, if you use the more archaic meaning of the term, I do not believe it is an exact fit to the term "pornea" in the Greek.
So, it is not saying "do not have sex before marriage", but rather, do not go whoring after other God's and strange women.
This is the truest meaning of the term.
Let me show you a couple passages greatly mistranslated and greatly misunderstood..
"Matthew 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
This is actually just a paraphrase of Exodus 20, the 10th Commandment from the Septuagint.
The 10th Commandment reads, "Thou shall not covet thy neighbors house, wife, manservant, etc.".
So, in reality, Christ is not saying you can not lust after a woman. He is actually saying, do not desire to steal another man's wife.
Another scripture:
"There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel." - Deuteronomy 23:17-18
In reality, if you look at the greek, the term "whore" and the term "sodomite" are actually "male and female temple prostitutes".
So, it is not saying there can be no prostitutes in Israel, but rather, no "temple prostitutes".
As you may have remembered, King Solomon had to settle a dispute between two prostitutes, where one of their babies died and the other had stolen the other prostitutes child. And King solomon said to chop the baby in half and give one half to one mother and the other to the other mother. And the real mother came forward and said give the child to her. This is how King Solomon figured out who the true mother was.
Yet, he did not have them put into prison for prostituion!
We have a saint in the Hall of Faith who was a prostitute and even a decendant of Christ! The Harlot Rahab.
So, is God anti-sex or perhaps as the church taken on some of the world?
You may ask, "Where is the world in being sexually pure".
All I need to do is point at Islam.
Their religion is even more strict about sex than many Christians.
In the Bible, we even have an erotic story in the Song of Solomon, between King Solomon and his 141st wife.
Yet, we are told, it is a sin to like erotica, yet there is an erotic story in the Bible!
WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY?
Is God an anti-sex diety. He is so concerned about your pleasure?
Is God a sadistic torturer? Does he torture people in Hell forever?
Is God represented properly by the Church? Or has the Bible been "hidden" in many respects?
Who would delight in painting God with the wrong brush?
Would it not be the Devil?
It says he disguises himself as an Angel of Light.
Why is it we have so many bad concepts about God?
Now, what is the Devil's greatest acheivement? Is it making people believe he does not exist?
Or is it perhaps that he got you to believe God was a sadistic monster, yet somehow, you still think he is a God of love, in all contradiction?
It is insanity to believe God would be anti-sex, as he created it. It is from the mind of the Devil. Rejection of God's Word (Deuterocanonicals). It is because they can not accept God's word or retain it.
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