In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that it wasn’t until 367 A.D. (the latter half of the 4th century) that a New Testament canon was officially recognized.
However, this canon was put together by the Western church.
The Eastern Church did NOT accept this New Testament canon.
In response, the Eastern Church came up with their own New Testament canon that had some of the same books that the Western church did but rejected others and then went on to add some books that weren’t accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.
A perfect case in point is the Book of Hebrews which has been accepted and rejected and accepted and rejected and accepted and rejected…ad infinitum ad nauseam.
A similar thing occurred with the Apocrypha.
The Eastern Church added some of the Apocryphal books to their Bible but dismissed others.
However, it wasn’t until the late 1500’s that any serious attempt to completely rid the Bible of the Apocrypha was attempted.
Enter another man who like Marcion himself could be considered one of the most anti-Semitic church leaders in Christian history.
I’m talking about Martin Luther.
In spite of the Apocrypha being a part of the Gentile Christian Bible for a good 12 centuries or so, he vehemently fought against these books.
Why?
Because in his own words and this is a direct quote folks, according to Luther the Apocrypha was just “too Jewish” and thus had to go.
As a result, during the Protestant Reformation which was spearheaded by Luther, the Apocrypha was removed from the Biblical canon.
And in the Geneva Bible (the Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years), the Apocrypha was relegated to a totally separate section of the Bible indicating its status was even lower than both the “Old” Testament and the New Testament.
This is actually quite similar to what the Jewish people had done with the Tanakh and the Apocrypha about 2000 years earlier.
Now you wanna know what’s funny about all of this accepting and rejecting of the Apocrypha and parts of the New Testament that has gone on continuously throughout history?!
The modern gentile Christian church has done the very same thing today!!!
Except instead of the Apocrypha or certain books of the New Testament they have led a full-fledged assault against the Torah and other books that they incorrectly label an “Old” Testament.
Oh sure, the “Old” Testament is still kept in the Christian Bible but that’s just a bunch of superficial lip service.
Make no bones about it, your average Christian views the Hebrew Bible as being a flawed and insufficient testament of lesser inspiration than the New Testament.
Can you believe this crap?
Do you wanna know what makes this seem so funny if not grand comedy?
It is…
…ONLY THE TORAH AND THE PROPHETS THAT CLAIM DIVINE INSPIRATION.
The New Testament does NOT make such a claim anywhere.
It is both illogical and ridiculous beyond the par to think that every mention of the word “Scripture” in the New Testament includes itself.
It’s retarded and nonsensical because the notion of any of the NT books as being God-inspired wasn’t even given any serious consideration until almost a full 200 centuries after the New Testament authors passed away.
So chew on that one for a second homies.
There is absolutely ZERO EVIDENCE, NONE, ZILCH…that any New Testament author (including Paul whom the church practically worships) that what he was putting down in writing would someday be elevated to or God forbid replace the holy Torah and the Prophets.
In fact, if you want to pay so much homage to the New Testament authors, then you should know that the New Testament writers and the early church affirmed unanimously the continuing relevance, validity and authority of TANAKH (the Hebrew Bible).
For them, the Torah and the Prophets were the very unshakeable foundation of their faith.
For them, Yeshua was the fulfillment of the prophecies that were written in only the Hebrew Bible.
Therefore, I plead with you to reject those gentile church leaders such as Marcion and Luther who came along centuries later and attempted to promote manmade and anti-Semitic doctrines and rules with the sole and perverse intention of relegating the “Only” and “Original” testament to inferior status and in its place upholding the newest (newest, NOT new) testament into something it is not, namely some God-breathed document that the believer is subservient to above and beyond the Torah.
Let me close by showing you some interesting patterns.
Yeshua as Messiah is subservient to God.
We know this is true because he bowed down and prayed to his Father and always asked for the Father’s Will to be down.
And we are now told that Yeshua is in heaven sitting right next to the Father at His right hand.
He has NOT replaced the Father, he is sitting at the right hand of the Father.
In the very same way, in the Book of Deuteronomy, we see the Torah being laid next to the Ark indicating that it is subservient to what is inside the Ark.
The Torah does NOT replace the 10 Words (aka 10 Commandments) of God, it is subservient to the 10 Words of God.
In the same way, understand that the New Testament is subservient to the Torah and NOT the opposite as the gentile church suggests.
It is an abomination to even think that the NT has abolished the OT (Original or Only Testament).
I’m done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“If you believed Moses,
you would believe me,
for he wrote about me.”
-John 5:46
So very true. Christianity must stand on the TORAH or it will surely fall like a house without foundation. Concerning Martin Luther : he went to the Jews with the Gospel and they rejected his preaching. Then Luther turned on the Jews (even so Jesus / Y’SHUAH IS a JEW and never left JUDAISM) and Luther proclaimed: “Burn their Synagogues”… Hitler used Martin Luther’s writings to kill 6 Million Jews. How Y’SHUAH must have cried in Heaven over HIS brethren, the Jews, who were killed because of false teaching. Very good post & Well done ! ! Anybody who says they love “Y’SHUAH” should visit the Synagogue for their Saturday services – Shabbos – and find HIS NAME – “y’shuah” in their prayer books. HIS name means “SALVATION” and HIS brethren pray “In HIS Name “y’shuah”/salvation every Sabbath. I know. I am present with them every Sabbath… even though I am a “Christian”, but following the Holy Spirit & HIS WRITTEN WORD, I just want to show them HIS LOVE. Shalom to JerUSAlem & the World with Y’SHUAH in the Heart of All People. Amen & Amen & Amen