Rob's Thoughts

a quick post:

I am confused. 

I have just had a discussion with a lovely lady on Facebook, probably not the best place to discuss things - face to face is always better.  But anyway the general discussion revolved around Acts 4:10-12 and more specifically around the notion of names.  Now as a Christian I believe there was power in the name of Jesus, that is probably the main reason I am here today, because once I realised Jesus wasn't what was origionally penned - or even close to it - I had an issue with that.  I mean surely you would have if you believed it important.

So I tried to get some answers by asking about whether the name was important to the people and had a varied responce.  In facebook I had a "call him what you like, but I call him Jesus" and on Twitter I had "Well Jesus is His name so Yes it matters".

The second responce I would say was my standard Christian belief, before I found out the name Jesus didn't exist until 1632, and that it should actually be translated in english as Joshua. 

So what seems to happen is this: Christianity loves the name Jesus, if issue is brought up with the name then it dosn't matter because "he knows my heart".  But anything to avoid dealing with the issues at hand and developing some kind of deeper understanding that might change or challenge something about what they believe. 

I put forward the idea that if the name dosn't matter maybe all names for gods work kind of like forwarding email.  There is God and he has many names, and all prayers to Jesus, Allah or whoever end up in the same inbox.  I mean with the argument that it dosn't matter as long as your heart is right, then surely you can't say that someone praying to another god dosn't have the right heart?

Basically the message still kinda seems to be the same.  Don't rock the boat, what a shame.

Well in 2008 it all went down hill for Todd, and although I wishedhim all the best, I hoped that was where he would stay... But no - So Because of this I am reminding people that my good wife and myself produced a document on Todd, from a purely Christian perspective (as many know we are now not Christians) to expose and rebuke his message. 

So without any more introduction here it is. 

Click here to download:

TBexposition.pdf (239 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

TBexposition.pdf (239 KB)

Over the past 7 months, my good friend Stephen has been researching and writing a document that addresses some of the issues with Paul being the author of Galatians.  These issues are never really discussed in the typical Christian circles for the simple reason that if you remove Galatians from Christianity it's like pulling the bottom brick out of the already wobbly tower.

It is a large document with a full Greek/English interlinear of the oldest manuscripts and all the sources documented so that you can check it all out for yourselves - which is the most important part. 

So anyway I would like to declare that the document is now available for your reading pleasure!  You can get it directly from his website for free here: 

http://www.thewaytoyahuweh.com/research/did-paul-write-galatians

He would love any comments you have on it, and you can contact him through his website

Enjoy! 

As a Christian I thought the Jews main issue and the reason they are “lost” is the fact that they missed the Messiah.  Why Yah seem to be so discouraged / annoyed by them, other than their moaning, and missing the Messiah?   I suppose one of my Christian views was they were still following the Law, which the Messiah set us free from, and that’s why Paul spends all his time bashing the religious Jews and why “Jesus” seemed to dislike the religious leaders somewhat.

Well actually, this is once again an ignorant point of view.  It’s ignorant as Christianity assumes that the Jews follow Torah, and it was this that was so offensive to God, because He went to all that effort to free them from these strange “God Pleasing” rituals.

Christianity also assumes that “in the old testament” you had to follow the Law so as not to sin, and to keep on the right side of this terribly vengeful God.

Most Christians also think that the Messiah changed what was in the Torah, for example the law for washing the hands before eating and such, or working on the Sabbath by picking grain in a field.

There is also a view that Israel was closed off, then the Messiah came and the Gentiles were allowed to join in.  And of course, the things in the “Old Testament” are Jewish.

All these views come from a very miss informed view point, and it’s not always the fault of the Christians, because information about Jewish ways is hard to find because religious Jews really don’t like talking about it, they aren’t after converts.   Also Christianity doesn’t like to put in the effort.

Basically Christianity kn ows nothing of the context that Yahushua was talking about, and the same thing is true for Paul especially in Galatians and H ebrews.  Christians need educating in Phariseeism.

Pharisees comes from the Hebrew word for separated ones. At the time of the 2^nd temple they were pretty much exiled from the main body of Israel, after the destruction of the temple they started to take over.

Today Pharisees are now called Orthodox Rabbis, they are the direct decedents of the Pharisees of the 2^nd Temple, and the ordination physically handed down from one Rabbi to another. 

The 5 fundamental beliefs of the Pharisees are:

1.      Two Torahs – Written and Oral.

The concept of Oral Torah is documented to go back to around 20BCE and probably was round 100’s of years before that.  The Pharisees say you can not understand the written Torah without the oral.  One big change is that from 200CE the oral Torah started to be written down in four collections of writings called:

·        Mishnah – 200CE: Traditions practices and customs.

·        Jerusalem Talmud – 350CE: Discussions about the Mishnah

·        Babylonian Talmud – 500CE

·        Midrash – 200 – 900CE

2.      Absolute Authority of the Rabbi’s

“Even if they instruct you that right is left or left is right, you must obey them” - Midrash

If your Rabbi tells you something you must obey, even if you do not agree. 

The Story of Rabbi Eliezer is a little long for this post, the overview is he is arguing a point with the other Rabbis and invokes miracles to prove he is correct, all which happen, and all which the Rabbis rebuke, even to the point at where God’s voice from heaven says “Eliezer” was right.  The moral of the story is the majority rule, the Torah is not in heaven so God has no say.  The story goes on to say else where that in regards to that meeting, God laughed and said “my sons have defeated me.”    You can read the account from the Babylonian Talmud here:

http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/salafi/RabbiDebateGodAndGodAdmitsDefeat.htm

Basically the Rabbis are the only people, including God, who can understand and interpret Torah. They get this idea from Deuteronomy 30:12 “it is not in Heaven”.  You will see if you read in context it's actually saying that the Torah is not too difficult for you, its not in heaven or across the sea out of reach so you have an excuse. The Rabbis believe the Torah is written in a code, so you can rip words out of context and make it up as you go along really.

3.      Midrashic / Hermeneutical Interpretation

This means they can ignore language and context.  As said above; Scripture is a divine code.  

Example:

Exodus 23:2: “You shall not go after the majority to do evil, neither shall you testify in a matter of strife to incline after the majority to pervert justice”

This obviously says that you must follow the truth, even if you are the only one doing it.

This is what the Rabbis do:

“You shall not go after the majority to do evil, neither shall you testify in a matter of strife to incline after the majority to pervert justice”

They take out the words they want.

So now you can see they are saying the exact opposite, because they can ignore context and language to interpret the code they think exists. This is the problem Eliezer had above in his debate against the majority. 

4.      Sanctified Tradition

“A custom of Israel is Law (Torah)” – a custom done over and over becomes sanctified and Torah.

An example is wearing the head covering or skullcap – It's only about 800 years old – its now got its own rules and laws, like you cant walk 4 feet without an uncovered head.  Another is praying with an uncovered head.

Problems with this are in verses that tell us not to add (or take away) from Torah, Deuteronomy 4:2, and Deuteronomy 12:22, Proverbs 30:6

5.      Commandments of Men – (Takanote) – Commandments of our Rabbis.

Similar to No.4 – Examples for this are things like washing of the hands ceremony, and the words that you speak while doing it. 

According to the Midrash you can’t say they these commandments are not Torah, because of another context removed verse.

This is a small sample of the things Yahushua, and mainly Paul were speaking against in the Eye witness accounts and in Paul’s letters.

Yahushua never destroyed, removed or rebuked the Torah, because He was the Torah made flesh – it would be like un-making yourself.   

This is something Christianity does not see because they believe the Jews to be following the commandments of God and not the commandments of man, and this is because of lack of Knowledge.  Then they see Paul so against Torah, when he is actually against the rabbis and teachers – because the distinction is not seen, Christian doctrine and translators fail to render the text I think because they are blinded by their doctrine and lack of understanding of Judaism. 

I would recommend for your information viewing this really good lecture by Nehemiah Gordon – the first half goes into more detail about Orthodox Rabbinical Judaism as Nehemiah grew up as one.  The post here is a brief summery really of what he says, but you will get a much better understanding if you take the time to listen to his examples.

I hope this is a good insight into Jewish tradition vs. what actually is Torah.  I hope you can see the problems we have when we do not make this distinction.   With this new perspective we can really start to see what is actually going on.

You can watch the lecture here: http://youtu.be/tddCNY6U77Y

The "New Testament" and the "Old Testament" - these are titles for parts of the bible Christians and other people seem to take for granted.  It's like it always has been this way so thats that.  The terms divide, in my life as a Christian it divided the vengeful and angry god of the Jews from the lovely fatherly god and Jesus of the New.  It is almost like a clean slate. 

But where did the terms come from?  Who decided one was the Old and the other was New? This question is very interesting, because no one ever asks it - it's just accepted. 

The person who decided to "name" the sections was called Marcion - he is a very well documented guy who lived from 85-160CE.  He was a theologian and gnostic, well known within the religious circles as he was a Suffragan bishop.

Now you would think he was well documented because of his awesome work in theology and as a bishop, but unfortunately he is best known as a heretic.  Basically he offered an alternative theology to the Canonical, Proto-orthodox, Trinitarian and Christological views of the Roman Church, the early Church Fathers denounced him sharply.  Yet still a lot of his teaching influenced and stuck in the church.  

One of his big things was the promotion that the "Hebrew" Scripture as obsolete, and that it was incompatible with the writings of Paul and the eye witness accounts.  This is the reasons that he announced the "old testament" and the "new testament", he hated the Jews and did not want anything to do with them or their doctrine.  He was finally kicked out and went and set up his own type of religion based on his views where he was the self appointed bishop.  Ironically Yahweh wanted nothing to do with Jewish doctrine either, but as is the way with Christianity, they some how think what the Jews do is what Yahweh asked them and they just missed the Messiah, when it isn't in the slightest. 

If it was not for Marcion this division probably would not exist and we might actually understand a little about who Yahuweh actually is because we would have the perspective that doesn't split Scripture.  Our perspective on Scripture is messed up, and as we are told by Yah, we need to "Change our perspective". 

So for your reading pleasure, please find below some well sourced documentation on good old Marcion - the excommunicated heretic, and maybe think why the church still accepts a lot of his teaching.

• Marcion on Wiki
• Marcion on EarlyChurch.org

We all know foundations are supposed to be strong, solid and secure, and all religions claim they have solid foundations – even to the point of debating something and blindly hanging on to it even when it’s untrue, illogical or completely fabricated out of nothing.

The more convincing religions seem to be able to do this better than most, hanging on to partial truth to make the lie seem plausible.  Half lies are always more destructive than an out right one; all we have to do is look at how the serpent in the garden phrased his question to the woman and we can see that’s the way the adversary plays.

All religion knows that deception leads away from the god they are trying to walk towards, this is why there is religion, (other than one man gaining power over another) because they all believe that they have the correct way to him.  Some are more inclusive than others, but all in all the religion was set up as a pathway to god, a god or a higher existence – whatever.

This obviously leads to the question, which one is right? Surely there must be one true religion that leads to god.  The short answer is no, religion is the opposite of Yah’s plan.

We shall disregard some religions as they are too ridiculous, and the evidence too stupid; for example Scientology, Islam and Mormonism, you would have to be a right plum to have been caught in that – and if you are reading this from inside one of those religions, please do some research in to what you blindly swallow for goodness sake, you have a brain, and an awesome one, do yourself a favour and engage it… 

So onwards to the others. Let’s have a look at the Jewish religion first.  Orthodox Jew’s believe some very strange things, according to their traditions Moses received two Torahs’ (the Law) when he was up the mountain, one was written and one was oral.

Coincidentally according to the rabbi’s the oral has more authority than the written, and again coincidentally the Rabbi’s can create new laws which become as binding as any other.  How convenient – now the Jewish leadership have a way to create law that has MORE authority than the written Scriptures, very useful when you are partial to a drop of power.

One of my favourite oral laws is when you get out of bed, you need to put on your right shoe, and then your left shoe, and then tie your right lace, then your left lace – and if you are in a country without shoelaces you just do the first part.  Like Yah really cares… people are stupid.

There are actually some Jewish tradition that speaks of a story where the voice of Ha Shem (read Yahweh) Himself called down from heaven saying “My sons have defeated me!”  It was in context of interpretation of Torah – the Rabbi’s claimed that from a verse (badly ripped out of context) said the Torah was not in heaven so Yah had no say in the matter… If you can not see the problems with this, then you are beyond help.

My point is, if Yah is defeated on the point the instructions to His people – why do they keep doing it – either they are pleasing man or, well, I have no idea…

Christianly is amusing as it swings completely the other way.  Partially due to anti-Semitism, bad and misleading translation and people listening to man’s doctrine over what the Scripture actually said, Christianity is a mesh of paganism twisted with a drop of Yah’s actual message, just enough mind that you think you are right.

From long term experience as an evangelical Christian I know that to Christians “the Law” is abolished, done away with, removed, however your pastor turns the phrase. Christians believe they are “free” of the Torah – yet this makes absolutely no sense in regards to who their “Jesus” was.

In the “New Testament” all He ever did was preach from the Torah, pretty much everything He said was from the Torah.  Actually in the account of Matthew there are 2 chapters that don’t quote from Torah and that’s 26 and 28 – but in those Chapters He was the embodiment of Torah – acting out His role as the Passover lamb and the first fruits resurrection.

What Christianity fails to realise is everything their “Jesus” (and Paul for that matter) spoke against when he was teaching and preaching was the Oral Torah of the Jewish leadership – because for want of a better phrase, it was a load of bull.

The point of the Torah is that it’s a foreshadow, a picture of what to expect and what to look for that is so amazingly deep and complex it would blow your mind.  He even stats in the “New Testament” at one point that he had not come to abolish Torah but to complete it – and then in the next few verses explain that the Torah would not be done away with or changed until Heaven and Earth pass away not the smallest part of punctuation AND that if there are those who teach that it is so they will be considered the least in the “heavens” which means kept out of the eternal life – relationship with Yah. .

Christianity sees Torah as a burden that their “Jesus” nailed to the “Cross”, (this is partially the traditions of the Jews fault, but mainly Christianity as they should do their research) – where as Yah sees it as His love letter and gift to us.

He wants us to choose to love Him, and how He wants us to display this is through listening and observing what He says.  The Torah was never meant to be followed word for word, or extrapolated like the Jews have, that’s not what “observes” means. 

Observe means to watch, and understand, to take note of. 

It is firstly a divine picture that maps out our path home via the seven prescribed feasts (of which Christianity knows nothing about), and secondly an outward demonstration of our love and affection for our Father.

So who was this “Jesus”dude?  Well His name is actually Yahushua – but we won’t get into why that is important yet – and what does your average everyday bible say about him?

Well we know from John 1 that He is the Word.  We also know He has other titles, especially things like Cornerstone, capstone or keystone, the Torah also says He is the upright one.  So let’s think about this rationally.

We know from Scripture and even your churches and worship songs that Yahushua is:

• The Lamb of God
• The Word of God
• The Upright Pole
• The Anointed Implement of Yah (that’s what Messiah means)
• He is the Way, the gate, the door to the Father.

Let’s think about these things.  The Lamb of God – what’s that reference to?  Well we have to look to the Torah for that, and see that it’s a sacrificial thing.  He was the lamb that was slain.   A lamb is slain at Passover to remove the penalty of death for the first born in Egypt.

The Word of God, what does this mean?  What was the Word of God?  Well the Word of God is the Tanakh – Torah prophets and Psalms – otherwise know as the Scriptures. John 1 says that the Word was made flesh in the Messiah.

The Upright Pole? In the tent (called tabernacle) the upright pole held the whole thing up, the tabernacle was a place to meet face to face with Yah.  In the “New Testament” the meaning is lost again by removing the symbol of the upright pole and replacing it with “Cross”.

Let’s bring some of these things together…

In the story of Passover, the lamb is slain for the salvation of the first born – via the blood of the sacrificed lamb being painted on the wooden upright doorposts of the houses.  Passover means to let sin pass without consequence.

The Word of God is the Tanakh - Torah Prophet and Psalms – Yahushua was the manifestation and embodiment of this.  If it was thrown away, then you throw away Yahushua for He is the Word.  In this instance Matthew 21 where Yahushua is telling the Pharisees off for throwing away the Torah, the cornerstone, the foundation, casting it aside also applies to Christianity.  For they have cast aside the foundation in not observing Torah.  You can’t take the Torah out of Yahushua, because He is the Torah.

So if Yahushua is the way the truth and the life, and He is the Word, the Upright Pole, the Passover Lamb and the cornerstone, that means the Word is what is prescribed to us.  If Yahushua is the way the truth and the life – we can find the answers in the Tanakh, because that is who He is.  He didn’t just say these things to sound pretty in a song one day you know…

You know what day it was when Yahushua hung there and died as our perfect sacrifice? Yup you guessed it! Passover.  Think God was up to something yet?  I hope by now you do…

The gateway to the salvation Christianity boasts of, is found in Passover and leads on through the other feasts that Christianity decided were done away with.  Oh and replaced with Pagan festivities like Christmas and Easter.  Ignoring and casting aside these feasts removes who Yah is, and what is important to Him.  It also removes His road map.  Yahushua has only  fulfilled 4 of the 7 feasts – the first 4 happened exactly on time and exactly in the right order – do you know what the next 3 are? Do you know what they mean? Well you are meant to…

Christianity did exactly what the Jews did to Yah’s word – twisted and corrupted it until the meaning is completely lost.  The cornerstone is cast aside and history repeats itself yet again.

This means Christianity is either wrong, or God is.   Now I know the Jewish Rabbi’s wouldn’t mind saying that it was God…

If the Tanakh is the iceberg – the information here is merely a snowflake, there is so much more.

By casting aside the Torah, Prophets and Psalms for mans agenda, religion has cast aside the foundation, the keystone, the capstone.  The Jewish leadership literally cast aside their Messiah to His face by calling mans word more authoritive and holding on to their traditions.

Christians do the same by not observing the Torah, and in that regard miss who Yahuweh is, who Yahushua is, and cover over everything that He prescribes us to do with pagan and man made traditions.  Christianity had the hindsight of history, and the Torah, to see how Yah feels about mixing His Word and Relationship with paganism and man made tradition, yet they still did it.

As Yah laments in Hosea – “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”

If you need verses referenced to look into this extremely small study, you really need to read the scriptures and writings more. 

Forward: Hi guys and thanks for stopping by yet again!  I decided to get an expert in for this next post, let me introduce Stephen he is a good friend of ours and has over the past 3 years been translating the New Testament from the oldest known Greek manuscripts that we have into an amplified English translation that is available free at his website,  I will let him tell you more about that.  The reason that I wanted to start here is because a lot of what Christianity believes is based on the bible, if its not then I don’t know where people are getting their bases from lol.  I wanted to illustrate to you  a little just how reliable our current translations are.  Of course this is an extremely short overview, and Stephen has done great work condensing something he has enough material to write a few books on now!  Anyway that said, here is Stephen!

Greetings one and all, and welcome to this guest blog on Rob MacKay’s “Posterous”. May as well start with who I am, and why I’m writing this. The name’s Stephen, I’m in my early 20’s, I live in Manchester, England, UK; I’m a Computer Technician (that means I fix computers and computer equipment), I was a Christian for 5 years until I was finally “asked” to “leave” my Church; and finally, for the past 2 years and 6 months, I’ve been working on an Amplified Translation of what’s commonly known as the New Testament, aka, the “2^nd half” of the “Bible”. This is probably the reason Rob has asked me to do this guest blog. But don’t be completely fooled by the title, I’m not here to discuss the historical reliability of the “Bible” - there’s numerous books on that, and even though Rob has asked if I’d possibly do a snippet, a “snippet” on the historical reliability of the “Bible” is nigh on impossible, so it’s best that I don’t waste too much time dwelling on that. No, the main point that Rob has asked me to discuss is this: How reliable are our English translations of the “Bible”? I have to stress English Translations as I can’t really speak for those in other languages, but saying that, I’m more or less willing to bet that there wouldn’t be too much of a difference with the answer for English Translations as there would be for those into other languages. Anyway, that’s the introduction: let’s get started eh?

First of all, I despise using the word “Bible” to refer to God’s Scriptures. Why? Because Bible is derived from the Greek word byblos, which comes from the Egyptian Byblis, the name of a polytheistic female Sun-deity. Funnily enough, the fact that God constantly talks against religions and their gods, I doubt he’s all that pleased that we’re breaking the following instruction: Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let them be heard on your lips (Exodus 23:13). So what do we do? We mention the name of another god every time we reference God’s own Scriptures! Obviously, someone was off their head when they decided to call Yahuweh’s collective Scriptures “the Bible”. Well, that wasn’t really a “translation” issue, but an important explanation none-the-less.

Right, I’m going to answer the question asked above (how reliable etc), and then proceed to explain my answer.

No. English translations of Scripture are not reliable.

There you go. I’ve said it. They’re about as reliable as Jelly/Jello is to build the Empire State Building on, whilst being held by 20 shall children, who are in turn jumping up and down on a trampoline. English translations of Scripture are so gosh damn bad, we may as well use The idiot’s guide to Web Design as our written source for God’s words.

Let’s use an example here. Revelation 13:16, from the New International Version (NIV): He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead. The context surrounding this verse is a prophecy regarding the “End times”, and this verse is talking about the “false prophet” who, according to the NIV translation, “forces” people “to receive a mark” on their right hand or forehead. Problem is, for the NIV, this is NOT what the Greek says at all! Not one bit! I may as well have been reading a Swahili translation of Revelation in order to understand it. This is such a badly “translated” verse from the Greek; it should make every translator shudder with anger and disgust. Firstly, the word translated as “forced”, from the Greek ποιεω/poieo, does not mean “forced”. Strike number 1. Secondly, there is no Greek word for “to receive”, in the Greek text of this verse. Strike number 2. Thirdly, there is no “his” in the Greek text of this verse. The word is actually αυτων/auton, which is plural and so means their, incorporating the plurality of everyone who has been mentioned previously. Strike number 3 and 4 (as they did it twice). Fourthly, they have missed out translating 11 different Greek words that are there in the Greek text of Revelation. That brings the total up to 15 strikes against this highly popular English “translation”. There are only 25 words in their translated verse! The Greek has 35 words in total. So the NIV, not only missed 29% of the words, they added one that wasn’t needed, and mistranslated 4 more of them! The NIV, then, has only given English readers 57% of what the Greek verse of Revelation 13:16 actually says! Can you imagine what they’ve done with the rest of Scripture? Well, I actually chose this verse, as it’s one of the better ones.

So, what is the Greek text of Revelation 13:16 and what does it actually say? Well, the NIV has turned the false prophet into a tyrant, who forces people to do his will. Problem is, the false prophet, whilst actually being a tyrant, sure as heck won’t appear as one! The verse is as follows:

Greek: και ποιει π?ντας, τους μικρους και τους μεγ?λους, και τους πλουσ?ους και τους πτωχο?ς, και τους ελευθ?ρους και τους δο?λους, ινα δωσιν αυτοις χ?ραγμα επι της χειρος αυτων της δεξιας η επι το μ?τωπον αυτων

English translation: And he causes everyone, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the enslaved, with the result that they give themselves an inscription upon their right hand, or upon their forehead.

English translation with Greek in between: “And (και) he causes (ποιει) everyone (π?ντας), the (τους) small (μικρους) and (και) the (τους) great (μεγ?λους), and (και) the (τους) rich (πλουσ?ους) and (και) the (τους) poor (πτωχο?ς), and (και) the (τους) free (ελευθ?ρους) and (και) the (τους) enslaved (δο?λους), with the result that (ινα) they give (δωσιν) themselves (αυτοις) an inscription (χ?ραγμα) upon (επι) their (αυτων) right hand (της χειρος της δεξιας (literally “the hand, the right” aka “right hand”)) or (η) upon (επι) their (αυτων) forehead (το μ?τωπον).”

See the difference? The false prophet doesn’t “force” people to take the mark (from the false prophet himself, NIV?), but he “causes” everyone to give themselves the mark. The false prophet here is portrayed as a shrewd businessman, a smooth talker, who is so good; he will convince people that taking his “mark” or “inscription” (the Greek χ?ραγμα/charagma, literally means “to engrave on the skin”) is going to be the best thing for them. He doesn’t “force” them to do it; he just convinces them that it’s a good thing. Is the meaning of this verse given across by the NIV? It sure as hell isn’t. And believe me; no other popular English translation can get this verse right either. The English Standard version, that prides itself on its “literal accuracy”, even though it has one extra word than the NIV, actually misses out 12 words, and adds one, as this image shows.

Now, before I begin translating a book of the New Testament, I engage in some Textual Criticism before I do anything else. This entails a comparison of the oldest manuscripts that we have of the New Testament, with the current “supposed” basis for all English “translations”, commonly known as the Nestle Aland Greek New Testament, 27^th Edition (NA27), and the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, 4^th Edition (UBS4), to see if there are any differences between the oldest known manuscripts, and the ones being used for all Scripture “translations” across the world. To aid me in this, I have a Computer Software program known as Logos Bible Software, which allows me to make notes on electronic editions of the NA27 and UBS4 (although I mainly use NA27), so I can compare the manuscripts, make the notes, and then start translating. Whenever I come across anything different, the word, phrase or verse is highlighted in green, and I add a note stating what’s different between the NA27/UBS4, and the oldest know manuscripts. And what I’ve found is quite startling.

Principally, historical accounts, such as “Jesus went down to lake Galilee” and others, there will either be a one word difference, i.e., Jesus was going down, or Jesus went down (one is present continuous tense, the other past tense), or no difference between the oldest known manuscripts and the NA27/UBS4. On the other hand, however, when it comes to theological discussions, such as stuff in Paul’s letters like Galatians, Romans, or Hebrews, there will be a 20 - 75% difference between the oldest known manuscripts, and the NA27/UBS4 Greek NT’s, which are used for today’s Scripture “Translations” (see this image of Jude, remember differences are highlighted in green). That, readers of this blog, is completely abysmal. Not only are English “translations” already 20 - 75% removed from the oldest known manuscripts (those that are less likely to have been changed due to changing theological beliefs), they then proceed to utterly destroy the meaning of the verses that are still intact! Is it any wonder people think there’s something up with “God” and “the Bible” when translations aren’t even based on the oldest manuscripts, and then what’s left they seem inept at translating properly?

Trust me; the Old Testament isn’t any better. Even though most will have heard the statement, “there is only a 6% difference between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew manuscripts used for today’s translations,” I can safely tell you that this is utter bull. There is a lot more than a 6% difference between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew manuscripts used for today’s translations. It’s something more like 60%, not 6%. The most heavily edited book of the Old Testament is Isaiah, more or less due to the fact that Isaiah has a lot of prophecies about the Messiah, of which Rabbi’s throughout history have not liked to refer to a certain man from Nazareth. Example. Isaiah 53:9a, according to today’s translations: “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a ??rich man in His death...” This, Christians will tell you, is a prophecy about Jesus. Problem is, Jesus didn’t die with a “rich man”, nor was His tomb/grave with “wicked men”. It was actually the other way around. He died between criminals, “wicked men”, and He was placed in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb/grave, that of “a rich man”. So this can’t be a prophecy regarding Jesus, as then God would have said something wrong, and God can’t be wrong, at all. So, what does the Dead Sea Scrolls “Great Isaiah Scroll” say regarding Isaiah 53:9a? Well, according to an accurate translation of the Hebrew, “His place of dying and death by violent means (maveth) they assigned (nathan) to be with the condemned (rasha'), yet His tomb (qeber) was with a rich man ('ashiyr).” So, was the Messiah’s “place of dying and death” with “the condemned”, aka, criminals? Yes, yes it was. And was His tomb, in that of “a rich man”? Yes, yes it was. So, it is a prophecy regarding the Messiah - problem is, it currently isn’t one in English translations, as they don’t use the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known manuscripts of the Old Testament, as their basis. Again, they are good at what they do best - doing things wrong.

Well, I know I’ve only concentrated on two verses out of hundreds found in Scripture, yet if I did any more, people will probably switch off, as I’ve spent quite a lot of time just explaining what’s wrong with these two in English translations. As always, people are more than welcome to disagree with my conclusions that I’ve mentioned in this guest blog, but I hope that’s because you actually have proof that what I’ve said on here is wrong, and not just because you “don’t like what you’re (I’m) saying” as it doesn’t “fit with my (your) beliefs”. Funnily enough, most of what I’ve said on here didn’t fit with my beliefs before either, but after investing the time to actually investigate what I had been told, I’m afraid that my beliefs just didn’t stand up to logical, rational scrutiny, and the facts that I found after much enquiry.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this guest blog, and I’m sure comments are welcome, not only on here, but to me or Rob via our email addresses.

As always, in Yahuweh’s love,

Stephen

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Ok, I thought I should lay it on the line, I don't want people to see me as laying a trap or asking loaded questions or anything like that.  So I'm gonna put it all down right here.

I am Rob, obviously, 28 years old.  I became a Christian at 8 years old, I can remember the day, although not the exact date.  I was brought up as an Anglican but during my Christianity I have worked for Youth For Christ on a year out program and been a member of many denominations of Church. I suppose you could say a "happy clappy" "spirit filled" Evangelical type.  I attended many events like Soul Survivor and Walk of 1000 men, and also led tables on the good old Alpha course a good few times. 

I stepped out of Christianity about 4 years ago now, so I had managed 16 years of Christianity and its influence.  About 2 years ago we were finally asked to leave our Church by the elders.

So I was a Christian for 16 years, but I am no longer a member of any religion, this is due to their false teaching and testimony.  Christianity claims they have the truth, as does pretty much all religions, although I do not understand where they get this from.  I created the poll the other day to see how Christians felt about their bibles, which is supposed to be to Christianity the basis of what they do and who they are,  the only recorded teachings of the person they "give their lives to".  The vote, although it wasn't very big asked this question "As a Christian do you believe the bible is the ultimate written authority in your life?" I was surprised to find the answer of 7 replies 5 no, and 2 yes. 

This puzzled me as it made me wonder, if this is an accurate average (which I am not sure it is to be honest) where do those 5 people get their authority? How do they test things? As a Christian I was always told that we had to test things against it.

If Christianity claims the truth, they must get that definition of truth from somewhere.  If as I would have claimed as a Christian they get it from the Bible, then they are in trouble, because Christianity in its very essence goes against what was revealed in Scripture.

This is going to be one of the topics of the blog.  I started seeking what the truth was back in 2000, and after 9 years I feel I have something to offer.  I do not claim to hold the answers, but logic and reason which is something we are to use - and its amazing how lazy I was as a Christian, I pretty much just opened my mouth and let the most recent author of the most popular Christian book dump his stuff in to my brain.

I am not bitter, I am not extreme, I don’t want anything in return, I just want to help people start to think - to show them some of the most obvious and most destroying evidence taken straight from Scripture and what God says, in context, from the oldest sources we have.

I understand I will not make any friends doing this, and I will probably either anger or cause people to just sign me off as another one who "strayed" or backslid. I know, I used to look at people like that too.  But I hope you will read, and do what was asked of us, to change our perspective.  I am loosing sleep at night with the thought that a billion Christians believe fully that they are correct, and what they do makes God happy, I want to give them the chance to actually make God "happy".

So until the first post, peace.

There has been a massive social media reaction to the "Free Iran" green waring Hossein Mousavi movement - which in essence I think is an awesome look at how powerful social media is these days.

My gripe is I think people jump on the wagon too quickly, and no one seems to look into things before they do.  There is always more information to be had especially with places as colourful politically as Iran.

So to the real question, Who is Hossein Mousavi is he a "moderate" option?

The BBC website profile him as a artist and architect who is married to a nice lady, and that's pretty much all you get.  They don't mention that he has been president of Iran 20 years go... did you know that?

Did you also know that it was Mousavi, while in his stint as Prime Minister started their Nuclear program (via the black market no less)? 

Did you know that it was under him that Hezbollah was founded in Iran, one of the worlds deadliest terrorist organisations - and he continues to support both Hezbollah and Hamas.  He actively used this organisation to force Author Salman Rushdie into hiding for his book "The Satanic Verses" he called on Hezbollah to “take the necessary action,”...

Did you know that during his reign as president he killed protesters who stood up against him?

Did you know he was also the editor of the Islamic Republican Party newspaper which stood against the release of American hostages (yes Iran has held American hostages) and lots of other "hardline" things like banning the playing of Chess? (nice sort of freedom eh...)

Did you know he also played a huge role in trying to destabilize the the Saudi regime and recruit Muslim worshipers along the way in the 1987 Mecca demonstrations in which 402 people died.

Did you also know in his 2009 presidential campaign, he vowed not to bend on Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities? Yummy.

That's only a small selection... not even starting to mention how America practically armed Hezbollah with weapons given to Iran for the war against Iraq... *facepalm*

I really don't understand how our countries leadership could refuse to see this information, they must know about it - its just history.  Instead people seem to think they can believe a dude who has broken so many promises before.  I think people need to look before they leap sometimes...

Iran will never be free under his leadership, he's worse than the current president.

With that I will leave it for you to decide.

That last question was terrible - although I did get 2 good comment and thanks a lot by the way!

I suppose what I meant was how do you view the bible in your life as a Christian, is it something given by God or is it as designosophy said and its got its errors. What I meant by ultimate written authority was, do you go to it for advice to see what God says on certain things, so you study it or is it just a collection of interesting stories, and well meaning messages?

Maybe that explains what I am on about a little clearer - comments would be really welcome as I am interested in what you guys think!

Hopefully in the next few days you will see some more article based stuff which hopefully will give some good discussion for everyone!

Thanks in advance!!