I bet you don't know who determined the basis for almost all the beliefs of the Catholic religion?

Question

330 years after Christ, The birth of the Catholic Church - With a stroke of a pen Jesus the man became immortal; the divine son of God, Mary his wife became a prostitute. The male form became divine and the female form became subservient.
No single person had more influence over the contents of the bible than first theologian, who determined the doctrines of the first Universal / Catholic Church, from which come, most of the beliefs of the Protestant Church. There is no dispute that Eusebius was completed dedicated to the reform agenda of the Emperor Constantine, and that he was trusted to shape that agenda into a religion by Constantine. It is most curious that there was never any pronouncement by any central authority, such as the Pope, in all of Christian history concerning, which books belonged in the Bible, until 1443 AD at the conclusion of the Council of Florence.
Scriptures were interpreted and rewritten by a man. Is it possible that the bible is a man made hoax?

Reading through these replies its very evident that there is alot of confussion and very little agreement on where the content came from and when it was endorsed - I did research this question prior to posting and yes I too found many contridictions. So how do we decide who is right, we cant we can only rely on blind faith... BUGGA!!!

Answer 1

Its not only possible, it is probable, nay truthful.

God to see that you also have read the history of the Church, and know what a wanker Eusebius was....He has taken old Pagan myths, Gnostic beliefs, and woven them into a rather magical story about Jesus. Makes for a good yarn, but let's not get carried away by actually BELIEVING that any of it is actually true.

It's actually refreshing to know that there are men of wisdom out there in "answers" land. I was begining to despair.

Answer 2

Have you been watching the Da Vinci Code too much? Sounds like it.

First, the Catholic Church did not originate 330 years after Christ. It originated WITH Christ. He is the founder.

Second, the Church has always taught the divinity of Christ. Click on this link and you'll see quotes from the early church fathers dating as far back as 110 AD, all confirming the divinity of Christ.

http://catholic.com/library/Divinity_of_Christ.asp

Third, Mary Magdela was not Jesus' wife. From what we know in scripture, Jesus never married. In fact, the Church venerates her as a saint. Ever heard of St. Mary Magdela? Isn't that a strange way to recognize someone supposedly hated by the Church?

Fourth, the Christian canon of scripture came to be around the year 400. It is the inspired Word of God. Even the Protestants have the Catholic New Testament canon in their bibles.

No, the bible is not a hoax. If you're reading Dan Brown's material, do yourself a favor and study some real history and not this guy's pipedream.

God bless.

Answer 3

What HAVE you been smoking?

Ever hear of St. Jerome? Of Irenaeus? of St. Augustine? Of St. John Policarp? of the four Evangelists? Of St. Peter? Of St. Paul? Of Linus, Anacletus, Clement? etc? St. Monica?

LOOOOONG before the Council of Chalcedon, 325AD (NOT 11 centuries later as you claim!), there was a consensus as to the inspired contents of Scripture. That Council merely ratified those decisions.

Kindly remember that the Gospel of Mark was written less than three decades after the resurrection. That the last Book of the NT was completed before 70 years had passed from that date. We 're writing books about the First World War still. Are they to be considered fantasy simply because it's been 90-odd years since its inception? Puhleeeze!

Kindly remember that it was to end the spread of Gnostic heretical works that the Council was called in the first place.

Kindly remember that the Pope was the one who called it!

I don't know where you're getting this pathetic propaganda but your sources are wrong, just plain wrong and if you'd do a little research you'd know that and not make such an appallingly ignorant assumption.

And FYI, of course the scriptures were written by human beings. Unlike the Muslims, we never claimed that God wrote the thing in propria persona, nor that the authors were merely secretaries taking dictation.

SHEEESH!

Answer 4

Wow, I have not seen anything so WRONG in a very long time.

Selection of New Testament books as canonical was slow. It was felt that such a monumental task should not be taken lightly. The present official Canon appeared for the first time in print in the Festal Epistle of Athanasius (A.D. 367). Pope Damascus I, at the Council of Rome in 382, stated the canon of Scripture, and listed the exact same books we have today.

In the Synod of Hippo (A.D. 393) this same Canon was officially stated and adopted for all the Church. This was the entire Church - East and West - there was not yet any split or schism in the heart of Christ yet. All of Christianity had one Holy Book. And it was this scripture that it maintained, whole, and unblemished, until the 16th century.

However, it is evident that the initial canon in the 4th century found many opponents in Africa, since it took three ratifying councils there at brief intervals - Hippo in A.D. 393, and Carthage in AD 397 and then again in A.D. 419 - to reiterate the official catalogs. This canon was once again ratified by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787; and then again confirmed and ratified by the Council of Florence in 1442. But if was first officially declared, for all time, as the official canon of the entire Church at the Synod of Hippo in 393 AD, and has never changed.

Answer 5

It seems like you already know what the christian bible is. I think your knowledge is coloured with the da vinci code though, any way no harm- Jesus had given a religion of peace and compassion but the Emperor Constantine did not favour a vegetarian diet which the earlier christians practised and reincarnation which they accepted- to list a few. So he rejected these ideas and altered the bible. However I would like to say that the bible still is a book of God and one can learn a lot from these different books telling of a self realised soul, namely Jesus (Isa) Christ (Krsta). Saint Francis of Assissi is a saint who learned the inner meaning of the bible by divine revelation. Indeed one cannot know God with mundane knowledge, reading a book be it a bible or any other religious literature- these just help one to understand. The real understanding come from The Supreme's own divne mercy by revelation. The Quraan has not been altered neither has the precious jewel Srimad Bhagavad gita as it is which like the name says is as it is- Handed down through a line of self realised souls bringing the essence of all knowledge- Self Realization or God consciousness. We have to be broad minded not narrow minded.

Answer 6

Cool, you know some Church history. So then you probably know that many ancient texts still exist from Biblical times. True, we do not have the "originals" written by Paul, Luke, Mark, etc....but what we do have is enough for most reasonable people to accept that the Bible is no modern hoax. The Old Testament, in particular, can be clearly shown to predate Christianity and not written later to fit.

Of course the Bible is written by the hands of men, and to some that automatically makes it a hoax. I would urge you to consider Bible prophecy itself as evidence of the Bible's truth and authority. Hundreds of prophetic statements were made concerning Christ's first coming, and each and every one of them came true. Check out a book called "The Anatomy of Calvary", it explains it fairly well.

Answer 7

The earliest surviving evidence of the use of the term "Catholic Church" is a letter that Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch wrote in year 107. Since the death of Jesus believers were secretly meeting in his name because it was illegal to be Christians. The symbol of a fish was used on people`s door to indicate a secret meeting was taking place.

Constantine was first Christian Roman Emperor. His reign was a turning point for the Christian Church. In 313, Constantine announced toleration of Christianity and removed penalties for professing Christianity.

It took time to sort through the evidences in favor of authenticity but the process culminated in the major councils of Hippo (393 A.D.), Carthage (397 A.D.), and again in Carthage (419 A.D.). All three councils agreed to the same set of books in setting the New Testament canon.

Answer 8

The first known use of the Greek word "katholikos" to describe the church, was in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, a student of John the Apostle. "Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church. It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop. On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God. Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid." (Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8) [106 AD]

Answer 9

Well, there's actually a lot more to it than that. The 'Jesus' of Paul (Saul of Tarsus) existed only in 'spiritual' realms. There was nothing to differentiate the 'Christ Cult' from the OTHER 'savior cults' which were popular at the time... Mithras, Adonis, etc.

Early Christians, such as Paul, had no inkling of the idea that Jesus ever existed as an actual human person who lived in the recent past. In all of the genuine (not forged) writings of Paul, there are only two references to events that can even be interpreted as having taken place on the human plane of existence, absent the mental contamination that comes from having read the Gospels, and interpreting them in that light. Paul omits essentially ALL (two exceptions) of the details of the supposed 'life' of Jesus that are 'revealed' in the Gospels. Pretty odd, huh?

It is most likely that as early Christian missionaries came into contact with pagans, "spreading the word", that they gradually became aware that the people they were addressing were interpreting their message as a story about an actual person... not someone who figuratively and metaphorically existed (and had existed) only in imaginary spiritual realms. So, they figured... why fight it? These boneheads are swallowing this fable hook-line-and-sinker, in a way that we never anticipated. We need to build off this unexpected success by developing some real, heavy-duty marketing materials.

Thus... the Gospels.

Mark was the 'first-draft', written near the end of the 1st century. Fair outline, but sketchy on details.

Matthew and Luke, probably written shortly after the beginning of the 2nd century, were competing 'second-drafts', written using Mark as a template, expanding on the Mark outline and creating scenarios in which to incorporate 'sayings of Jesus', which were actually a Judaized version of snippets of 'wisdom' from the Greek 'cynic' school of philosophy, written down in the supposed 'Q-document' (look up 'Synoptic Gospels'). They were both tried out 'in the field', to see which one was received better. Unfortunately, both drafts escaped 'into the wild'. (You can't un-ring a bell.)

John... who the heck knows where John came from. Probably some mid-2nd century intellectual who just thought that he could do a much better job spinning a yarn, than the authors of the amateurish tripe that was presently in circulation.

The existence of FOUR Gospels (rather than just one) is consequence of the fact that there was no mechanism in place for recalling and suppressing earlier versions of their marketing materials. So, over the centuries, Christian apologists have made a career out of trying to explain-away the glaring discrepancies.

I'm especially delighted with the bone-heads that point out all of the prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. LOL. Think of this:

* Look into some old document that makes a lot of predictions.

* Make a list of these 'prophecies'

* Create a work of fiction which weaves in the items from the list as 'plot elements' in a series of vignettes.

Excluding the 40-days that he (supposedly) spent in the desert, the entire new testament accounts for only abour 3-weeks in the 'life of Jesus'... and a quarter of the world's population shapes their lives around this mythological drivel. That a sad statement about the mental-health of humanity.

Answer 10

I see we have another person who has been duped by Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code.

I'd try to correct you but the passage I've given you a link to tells me not to.

Pastor Art