Tag Archives: corruption of scripture

WARNING: Women are Disappearing

From the Author: I have been exposing the corruptions in translation on this blog for a while now. People have no idea about the corruptions done by men in translation to subjugate and control women throughout history. It is a fact. It cannot be ignored. Adele is right. There needs to be a translation done that puts all the feminine words back in place where they belong. The corruptions that scholars have discovered need to be removed; as many of them were done to point women into a place of servitude to men. To do so would bring equality, honor and dignity back to every woman; something the translators robbed women of and, has led to their abuse and sexual exploitation for centuries.

WARNING: WOMEN ARE DISAPPEARING

By Adele Hebert, Author of Every Woman & Childadele

Until a few years ago, I had always trusted that the Bible was the Word of God and had never given a thought about the translators. After reading God’s Word to Women, I was in shock and deeply disturbed to find out that our bibles had been manipulated, in order to sabotage women’s freedom and rights. Katharine Bushnell was an extremely educated woman (Medical Doctor, Greek and Hebrew Scholar) and she had so much proof. She believed that “mistranslations were responsible for the social and spiritual subjugation of women.” But why hadn’t I heard about this from the pulpits or in books?

Comparing bibles, I observed that they can be so different. There were many disappointing moments when I found words that were indeed mistranslated, especially since they seemed to be about women.

Shamefully, I found many “women” words, which are now missing in the newer bibles!!
There are two extremely important verses which started me on my quest to find out the truth about women and translations. On the cover of her book, God’s Word to Women, was Katharine Bushnell’s favorite verse:

“The Lord gives the command; The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host…” Psalm 68:11 (New American Standard Bible)

So I checked my bibles … and…To my HORROR! most bibles no longer had “the women” in it at all!! I was so distressed!!! To my great disappointment, I found only a few bibles which use the word “women.” The translators had changed the word “women” to: “hosts, them that preach, company, many people, ones announcing, great army, thousands, bearers,” … anything but “women!!”

My heart was deeply wounded… How could this happen to God’s Word? Katharine Bushnell was right! She proved that words had been twisted, right from Genesis, and showed how those words were chosen, deliberately, to subordinate women’s position in the home, the church and society. And the words are still being changed, in our generation! God had warned women, “and he shall rule over thee.” (Gen 3:16) Man is still controlling and dominating women, and using the bible to do it. The male translators had been deceitful.

And then I found some old commentaries which confirm that the word Used to be “women.”

Psalm 68:11, Barnes’ commentary (Albert Barnes 1798 – 1870) states, “More literally, “The women publishing it were a great host.” The word used is in the feminine gender…”

Psalm 68:11, Clarke’s commentary (Adam Clarke LL.D. F.S.A. 1712 – 1832) says, “Of the female preachers there was a great host. Such is the literal translation of this passage… the publication of good news, or of any joyful event, belonged to the women. It was they who announced it to the people at large; and to this universal custom, which prevails to the present day, the psalmist alludes. See this established in Isaiah 40:9.” (Clarke)

From the Masoretic text http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2668.htm

“The Lord giveth the word; the women that proclaim the tidings are a great host.” Psalm 68:12

I did find a few bibles which still used “women” words. I was pleasantly surprised with this one:

Psalm 68:11 “Adonoi gives the word; rav (great) was the tzava (company, army) of the mevaserot (heralds, those that published it, the lady evangelists). (Orthodox Jewish Bible 2003)

“the lady evangelists.” Those words are awesome.

The Only Modern versions which still have “women” in them are: Amplified, Bible in Basic English, Contemporary English Version, English Standard Version, English Revised Version, Good News Bible, God’s Word, Holman Christian Standard, New American Standard, New English Translation, New International Version (not all NIVs), The Jewish Study Bible, Orthodox Jewish Bible.

Ladies – hang on to this verse; it’s disappearing fast!!

There was a similar verse I needed to check – Isaiah 40: 9. This verse was the title of a book, about the life and work of Katharine Bushnell, O Thou Woman That Bringest Good Tidings, written by Dana Hardwick (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002). I searched and searched and searched, in nearly sixty bibles… and… to my GREAT SORROW… there was NO bible that had the word “woman” in it!!

…Yet …Isaiah 40:9, Barnes’ commentary notes,
“It is a participle in the feminine gender…” “Lowth supposes that it is applicable to some female whose office it was to announce glad tidings, and says that it was the common practice for females to engage in the office of proclaiming good news.” (Barnes)

…And …Isaiah 40:9, Clarke’s commentary says,
“O daughter, that bringest glad tidings to Zion” “For the office of announcing and celebrating such glad tidings as are here spoken of, belongs peculiarly to the women. On occasion of any great public success, a signal victory, or any other joyful event, it was usual for the women to gather together, and with music, dances, and songs, to publish and celebrate the happy news. Thus after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, and all the women, with timbrels in their hands, formed a chorus, and joined the men in their triumphant song, dancing, and throwing in alternately the refrain or burden of the song: “Sing ye to Jehovah, for he is greatly exalted; The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.” Ex 15:20, 21. (Clarke)

“So Jephthah’s daughter collected a chorus of virgins, and with dances and songs came out to meet her father, and to celebrate his victory, Jdg_11:34. After David’s conquest of Goliath, “all the women came out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music;” and, forming themselves into two choruses, they sang alternately: “Saul has slain his thousands: And David his ten thousands.” 1Sa_18:6, 7. (Clarke)

…Also …Isaiah 40:9, Right Reverend Robert Lowth, Doctor of Divinity, Bishop of the Church of England, and Oxford Professor (1710 – 1787) Isaiah, Volume 2, (Glasgow University Press, 1822, pages 258,9). Rev. Robert Lowth writes about both Psalm 68:11 and Isaiah 40:9:

“9. O daughter that bringest glad tidings] That the true construction of the sentence is this, which makes Sion the receiver not the publisher of the glad tidings, (which latter has been the most prevailing interpretation,) will, I think, very clearly appear, if we rightly consider the image itself, and the custom and common practice from which it is taken. I have added the word daughter to express the feminine gender of the Hebrew participle, which I know not how to do otherwise in our language: and this is absolutely necessary in order to ascertain the image.” (Lowth)

“And this gives us the true sense of a passage in the 68th Psalm, which has frequently been misunderstood: “Jehovah gave the word, (that is, the joyful news), The women, who published the glad tidings, were a great company; The kings of mighty armies did flee, did flee: And even the matron, who stayed at home, shared the spoil.” (Lowth)

“The word signifying the publishers of glad tidings is the same, and expressed in the same form by the feminine participle, as in this place; and the last distich is the song which they sung. So in this place, JEHOVAH having given the word by his prophet, the joyful tidings of the restorations of Sion, and of God’s returning to Jerusalem, the women are exhorted by the prophet to publish the joyful news with a loud voice from eminences, whence they might best be heard all over the country; and the matter and burden of their song was to be, “Behold your God!” (Lowth)

So if these commentators, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes and the well-known Bishop Robert Lowth, knew that the gender was feminine, and even quote both verses, then why did the translators remove the “women?” I was Extremely Disappointed! Mortified!!

From Katharine Bushnell, Heaven on Earth (Southport, England, 1914) http://godswordtowomen.org/heaventable.htm:

“Isaiah 40:9 The verse, however, is obscured by mistranslation and should read: (Bushnell)

“O thou woman that bringest good tidings to Zion,
get thee up into the high mountain;
O thou woman that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem,
life up thy voice with strength;
lift it up, be not afraid;
say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God! (R. V.) (Bushnell)

“A prophecy about women preaching is also found in Psalm 68:11, and the Revised Version gives the correct translation: “The women that publish the tidings are a great host.” (Bushnell)

“John the Baptist cannot be meant even though he is the subject of Isaiah 40: 3 because the person addressed in verses 9 and 10 is a female. Precisely the same reasons exist for translating “thou woman” here as “the women” in Psalm 68:11. One and the same prophecy is expressed in different forms as Dr. Adam Clarke long ago demonstrated. In each case of the two passages, the original is a feminine participle of the Hebrew verbal form bisser, “to tell good tidings.” (Bushnell)

[With Great Sorrow, the Revised Version no longer uses the word “women.”]

The whole verse (40:9) is feminine! The Duty and Method of Bearing Good Tidings to Zion, a Sermon by Rev. Alexander McCaul, D.D., pg 9 (London: Hatchard and Son, 187, Piccadilly) 1841:

“The substantive and all the words referring to it are, in the original, feminine. (McCaul)
“It is hardly needful to say that in the Bible the feminine is thus applied to churches and to nations. Some commentators assert, that the feminine form is here used for the masculine, and adduce in proof instances which they consider similar, but they forget that here the whole sentence is feminine, which makes this case essentially different. Such a continuation of feminines is applied only where a female is intended…” (McCaul)

Then I came across a valuable old book, Gunethics; Or, the Ethical Status of Women, Rev. W. Kennedy Brown A. M., D.D. (Funk and Wagnalls, New York and London, 1887). Rev. Brown also writes about both Psalm 68:11 and Isaiah 40:9:

“In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah the following prophecy is found beginning with the third verse: (Brown)

(Isaiah 40:3)
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the LORD,
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God…” (Brown)

“This is universally conceded to be a Messianic prophecy. The New Testament Scriptures affirm the reference of this passage to John the Baptist, the immediate herald of Jesus, the Christ. (Brown)

“Immediately following the quotation just made, at the ninth verse, are utterances evidently as distinctively prophetic of the engagement of females in the promulgation of the Gospel. (Brown)

(Isaiah 40:9)
“O daughter that bringest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain!
O daughter that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength;
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” (Brown)

“Thus the special heralds of the Gospel, John the Baptist and the woman sex, are designated in a united prophecy. The exhortation of the prophet was to the woman sex. This is suppressed in the ordinary translations, including our Authorized Version (King James). (Brown)

“At Isaiah 40:9, there is a most manifest perversion. The Hebrew text demands a feminine herald. As if to avoid this acknowledgment in our Authorized Version, the arrangement of the grammar is Reversed [“O Zion that bringest good tidings”… instead of “O daughter that bringest good tidings to Zion”]. The Revised Version corrects the false arrangement and restores the grammar, but Fails to carry the feminine into the translation [“O thou that tellest the good tidings to Zion”… “daughters” were changed to “thou”]. (Brown)

“This text, standing as it does, immediately following a passage which is universally conceded as prophesying the ministry of John, the New Testament Elijah, would bear most conclusive testimony for the prominence of women in publishing the Gospel of glad tidings, were not its significance dissipated in the translation. It is also possible that whole texts on this question have disappeared, very much as the incident at St. John, eighth chapter, beginning at the first verse, was so nearly lost…. (Brown)

“It may not be amiss to remark that the interpretation of this sixty-eighth Psalm has always been regarded by commentators as exceedingly perplexing, and conclusions thereon as of doubtful worth. It is also proper to note that the translations generally wholly suppress the sex of woman, including our Authorized Version (King James). Let us refer to the sixty-eighth Psalm. The English Authorized Version reads at the eleventh verse, (Brown)

(Psalm 68:11)
“The Lord gave the word.
Great was the company of those that published it.” (Brown)

“Let us consider the prophecy of the sixty-eighth psalm which doubtless has reference to the great number of women preachers in the fullness of Gospel times. Beginning with the eleventh verse of this Psalm, we read from the Revised Version: (Brown)

(Psalm 68:11)
“The LORD giveth the word:
The women that publish the tidings are a great host.” (Brown)

“The angels and Saviour united in authorizing and charging certain women whom Jesus had associated with His disciples to fulfill the mission embodying these features of a spiritual ministry. (Brown)

“What more honorable or more purely spiritual ministry has been entrusted to mankind than that of making the first proclamation of the resurrection, the greatest fact and miracle of the kingdom of God? (Brown)

“What higher religious honour and spiritual truth has been confided to man than that which received commission to show the path to the Risen Saviour, to announce the marvel of the ascension, to declare the relation of Jesus and our own relation to the Infinite One? – all of which was specifically entrusted to woman for proclamation to the Church by the Lord Himself after the resurrection and before He had spoken to any of the male disciples. (Brown)

“Christianity no-where in its subsequent history presents women on the elevation assigned them by Jesus, nor, indeed, at the status they were conceded at its rise. (Brown)

“Anything less than an equal opportunity in the field of the world in the labor of human redemption is injustice to the kingdom of God, injustice to the State, injustice to humanity, as well as unwarrantable, almost unpardonable injustice to the sex of woman. (Brown)

Margins and footnotes …….

It is most likely impossible to find out the exact year when our bibles lost their “women” words, or who is responsible. The deceitful translators definitely had a plan. First the “women” words got insidiously transferred to the margins; then the margins disappeared altogether. It is quite a coincidence that both “women” prophesies got moved before they were eliminated.

Helps to Composition by Charles Simeon (John Burges, Cambridge University, 1801) pg 164. In the footnotes of Isaiah 40:9

  • It should be read as in the margin, “O daughter, that bringeft good tidings to Zion, &c” It was cuftomary for women to celebrate the praifes, of God in public on remarkable occasions. (Simeon)

God’s Word to Women by Katharine Bushnell, 1923, pg xiv. From the forward written in 1943 by Ray B. Munson:

“The Lord giveth the word, [the women] … that publish the tidings are a great host” (Psalm 68:11, KJV, margin note, Oxford University Press). (Bushnell)

Omitting Margins, missing link for missing “women” words….

“The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into the English language, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. By and large, the difference is that the KJV lacked footnotes that the Geneva Bible contained.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Bible

Finally, I found Isaiah 40:9! In Only ONE bible, again the Orthodox Jewish Bible. Thank God for their honesty!!

O Mevaseret Tziyon (O Herald, Preacher of Besorah [Good News, Gospel] Tziyon, O Lady Evangelist Tziyon), get thee up into the har gavo’ah (high mountain); O Mevaseret Yerushalayim (O Herald, Preacher of Besorah [Good News, Gospel] Yerushalayim, O Lady Evangelist Yerushalayim), lift up thy voice with ko’ach; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the towns of Yehudah, Hinei Eloheichem.
Twice it says, “O Lady Evangelist… O Herald, Preacher of Good News, Gospel.”

…..…Only ONE bible….….!!!!!!!!!!

This paragraph about Psalm 68:11 in Hard Sayings of the Bible (Intervarsity Press, 1996), by Walter C. Kaiser Jr, Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, Manfred T. Brauch sums it up very well (page 276):

“As mentioned before, the announcers of the good news appear to be women, for the Hebrew participle is in the feminine plural form. God placed his word in the mouths of his announcers; the word of promise and power in the face of a hostile world. As such, this word is very close to that of Isaiah 40:9 and especially Joel 2:28-29. These heralders comprised a great host of individuals. Surely this foreshadows what God would do at Pentecost and what he has since done all over the world through the great missionary force which has included so many women.”

Could it be that the “women” in these verses were erased because men didn’t want to give women ‘ideas’ about preaching?

These verses were actual prophecies about the women on Resurrection morning. Jesus fulfilled these words when He appeared to Women Only at the empty tomb, telling them to proclaim His excellent news.

Those prophetic verses belong to women!!

It still grieves me that most bibles do not say “women,” in both these verses. These are such strong and meaningful passages. And if they changed these verses, how many other verses did they change??

Other missing women:

  • In our modern English bibles, men are “elders” and women are “older” (1 Tim 5:1, 2), yet in the Greek it is the same root word ‘presbuteros.’
  • “Her” villages are now “the” villages. These verses should say “her towns:” Joshua 15:45, 47; 17:11, 16; Judges 1:27; 11:26; 1 Chronicles 5:16; 7:29; 18:1; Jeremiah 19:15. These verses should say “her cities:” Joshua 13:17; Jeremiah 48:15, 51:43; Ezekiel 29:12, 30:7. And these should say “her villages:” Numbers 21:25; Joshua 15:45, 47.
  • When speaking of the tribulation, Jesus said, “and the moon shall not give her light.” Matthew 24:39, Mark 13:24.
  • Then He talked about the fig tree, “When her branch is yet tender,” Mark 13:28.
  • “Inhabitress” is now “inhabitant.” These verses should say “inhabitress:” Isaiah 12:6; Jeremiah 10:17; 21:13; 22:23; 46:19; 48:18, 19; 51:35; Micah 1:11, 12, 13, 15.
  • “Deacon” is for men, “servant” is for women. Again it is the same Greek word ‘diaknonos.’ In Romans 16:1 Phebe used to be a “minister,” now she is a “servant.”
  • Check your bibles to see if you still have: “born of women” in Matthew 11:11; “from their mother’s womb” in Matthew 19:12; “daughter of Zion” in Matthew 21:5; “born of women” in Luke 7:28; “her children” in Luke 7:35.
  • In Acts 18:26, less than half the bibles still name Priscilla first, then Aquila. I wonder who changed them around. And the list goes on… Is your heart not breaking?

For many centuries, the “woman caught in adultery” (John 8) was even excluded from the bible, because men thought it would give women the ‘idea’ that Jesus approved of adultery. Can you imagine not knowing that story?? And Junia (Romans 16:7), the only known woman apostle, was robbed of her gender. In the thirteenth century she became a man, Junias!!

These are just some of the mistranslated words and atrocities which I have discovered through my readings and comparing bibles. There are likely many more but I don’t know about them.
I feel that our bibles have been hijacked. Removing the “women” words is a type of female genocide, making women disappear. I was beginning to see how all these mistranslations, misinterpretations, and false teachings work together to keep women in subordination, taking away their equality, giving men all the power, control and authority, and women remaining invisible.

Women are not allowed to question, or speak, or teach, or preach, or divorce. And how many times a year do women have to be indoctrinated with “Must be silent.” “Must submit.” “Must not teach.” “Men are the head.”…?

‘Undermining Women’s Prominence’ in the early church http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/women.html Written by Karen L. King:

“Women’s prominence did not, however, go unchallenged. Every variety of ancient Christianity that advocated the legitimacy of women’s leadership was eventually declared heretical, and evidence of women’s early leadership roles was erased or suppressed. It needs to be emphasized that the formal elimination of women from official roles of institutional leadership did not eliminate women’s actual presence and importance to the Christian tradition, although it certainly seriously damaged their capacity to contribute fully. What is remarkable is how much evidence has survived systematic attempts to erase women from history, and with them the warrants and models for women’s leadership.”

“Or women’s stories could be rewritten and alternative traditions could be invented. In the case of Mary Magdalene, starting in the fourth century, Christian theologians in the Latin West associated Mary Magdalene with the unnamed sinner who anointed Jesus’ feet in Luke 7:36-50. The confusion began by conflating the account in John 12:1-8, in which Mary (of Bethany) anoints Jesus, with the anointing by the unnamed woman sinner in the accounts of Luke. Once this initial, erroneous identification was secured, Mary Magdalene could be associated with every unnamed sinful woman in the gospels, including the adulteress in John 8:1-11 and the Syrophoenician woman with her five and more “husbands” in John 4:7-30. Mary the apostle, prophet, and teacher had become Mary the repentant whore. This fiction was invented at least in part to undermine her influence and with it the appeal to her apostolic authority to support women in roles of leadership.”

You will also want to read, Karen Jo Torjesen, When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church & The Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publisher, 1995.)

The ones translating the word keep erasing women words, and the ones speaking the word speak mostly about the men, but throughout the centuries God has called many women. They were not able to be on the pulpits of later organized religions but they had the first house meetings and they formed monasteries and they became missionaries and they passed on their faith to their sons and their daughters.

God still calls women today. They teach bible studies and they read to their children and they comfort the poor and they become bible scholars and they write blogs. All people suffer when women are not allowed to use their gifts. And when women feel devalued enough, they stop going to church.

I still trust God, and I still believe in the Word of God, even though it has been tampered with. Perhaps, if enough people demand it, one day those precious women words will be restored. “O thou woman, preacher that bringest glad tidings.” “The Lord gave the command. Great are the lady evangelists, the heralds who proclaim and publish the good news, gospel.”

We need to focus on Jesus’s words and actions in the gospels, not on Paul’s misinterpreted words. We need to restore our faith in the Lord Jesus and dwell on what He did for women. There is so much of God’s love and protection in those pages that we have not heard. The bible also has some really powerful women and children we could learn from and enjoy.

Women need to hang on to these verses. Hopefully, more women will learn Hebrew and Greek so they are allowed on translation committees. I also pray that more men will be moved by God to defend the equality and dignity and words of women. How I wish there was one bible which translated all the women verses accurately! We cannot let these women verses disappear forever.

“This is such a great work because it will preserve and hopefully restore the truth about these “women” verses. This work reminds me of the people who save seeds; once the original seeds are gone, they are gone forever. The seeds become an extinct species, just like the animals that are disappearing. There is only a fragment of evidence left about the mistranslated “women” words, but thank God there are a few people who are called to do this precious research for the Lord, and for women.” – Irene Fisher

Corruption in 1 Corinthians 14

Exposing the Corruption in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35corruptionpic

1 Cor. 14:34-35 – Let women be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but let them be in subjection, just as the law says; but if they want to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

The passage above coincides with Paul’s (in)famous instructions to Timothy:

1 Tim. 2:12-15 — I do not allow a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man; they are to be quiet. For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and fell into transgression. But she will be saved through bearing children—if they remain in faith, love, and holiness, with moderation.

These two passages have been used throughout history to force women into subjective roles to men in religion and society. Today, however, what has been twisted and used to deceive the masses needs to be untwisted and made right. The time has come to expose what man has changed in translation so that women everywhere can be given their honor, dignity and equality back. Men have, by force and translation, robbed women of these things. Scripture has been the number one weapon of choice for men everywhere in order to abuse and manipulate women. The two passages above are battering rams that religious leaders use to “prove” that this is GOD’S mandate.

Well, in case you haven’t read the many articles on this blog that “unmask” the corruptions that men have made to scripture to POINT women into this direction – thus setting them up for abuse – then let me start by saying that it is important that you do so. Many lives and, future abuses, hang in the balance.

So, as usual, I will quote a Hebrew and Greek Scholar on the passages above. Afterwards, I will give a summarization of my thoughts. According to the passages above, Paul believes that women should be quiet, pregnant, and allow the men to do all the teaching, right? Or does he?

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Lost Christianities – Forgeries and Discoveries

By Bart D. Erhman

“As I have already pointed out, most critical scholars think that 1 Timothy is pseudonymous (not written by Paul): its vocabulary, writing style, theological modes of expression, and presupposed historical situation all differ significantly from what can be found in Paul’s authentic letters. But what about the passage in 1 Corinthians? No one doubts that Paul wrote THAT letter. Even so, there are good reasons for thinking Paul did not write the passage about women being silent in chapter 14. For one thing, just three chapters earlier Paul condoned the practice of women speaking in church. They are to have their heads covered, he insists, when they pray and prophesy—activities done out loud in antiquity. How could Paul condone a practice (women speaking in church) in chapter 11 that he condemns in chapter 14?

It has often been noted that the passage in chapter 14 also appears intrusive in its own literary context: Both before and after his instructions for women to keep silent, Paul is speaking not about women in church but about prophets in church. When the verses on women are removed, the passage flows neatly without a break. This too suggests that these verses were inserted into the passage later. Moreover, it is striking that the verses in question appear in different locations in some of our surviving manuscripts of Paul’s letter as if they had originally appeared as a marginal note (drawn from the teaching of the forged letter of 1 Timothy?) and inserted as judged appropriate in different parts of the chapter. On these grounds, a number of scholars have concluded that Paul’s instructions for women to be silent in 1 Corinthians may not be from Paul, just as the letter to Timothy is not from Paul.

What, then, was Paul’s attitude toward women in the church? In his undisputed letters, Paul indicates that “in Christ there is no male and female” (Gal. 3:28), that is, that men and women were completely equal in Christ. Moreover, as scholars of the late twentieth century began to emphasize, churches connected in some way with Paul appear to have had women leaders. Just in the greetings to the church of Rome, for example, Paul mentions several women who worked with him as Christian missionaries (Rom. 16:3, 6, 12), another who was the patron of the church meeting in her home (16:3), one other, a woman named Phoebe, who was a deacon in the church of Cenchrea (16:1), and most striking of all, yet another woman, Junia, whom Paul describes as “foremost among the apostles” (16:7).

Paul, and his churches, may have been more open to women and their leadership roles than people have traditionally thought and far more than Tertullian thought. No wonder that members of Paul’s churches (primarily women members?) told stories about the adventures of his female companions like Thecla. And no wonder that men in the churches eventually decided to clamp down, forging documents in Paul’s name condemning the practice of having women speak in church (1 Timothy), inserting passages into Paul’s authentic letters urging women to be silent (1 Cor. 14:34-35), calling church councils to condemn an elder of a Pauline church who had dared collect narratives of Paul’s woman disciple Thecla and pass them off as authentically Pauline.

Some scholars have wondered whether the stories of Thecla were causing problems in the Pauline churches years before this accused forger did his work, wondered whether the existence of such stories is what led the author of 1 Timothy, whoever he was, to compose his letter in Paul’s name. It is indeed striking that the letter predicts that in “later times” there will be people who condemn the practice of marriage (4:1-4): “Paul” himself speaks against the practice in the Acts of Thecla. Moreover, the canonical letter of 1 Timothy explicitly urges its readers not to listen to “the profane tales of old women” and condemns younger women who are “idlers, going about from door to door. . .as gossips and busybodies, saying things they should not” (4:8, 5:13). The younger women who have lost husbands are to “marry, bear children, rule their households, and give the enemy no grounds to reproach us” (5:14).

This is certainly not the view advanced in the Acts of Thecla, which urges women not to marry, not to bear children, and to leave their households. For THAT “Paul,” the Paul of the Acts of Thecla, “blessed are the continent, for God shall speak with them” and “blessed are the bodies of the virgins, for they will be well pleasing to God and will not lose the reward of their chastity.” Possibly the stories of Thecla and others like them are what motivated the author of 1 Timothy to write his letter in Paul’s name.” — Bart D. Erhman, Lost Christianities

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Scholars have known about corruptions, errors, and mistranslations in translation of scripture for centuries. Yet, many religious leaders and Bible theologians refuse to acknowledge them. Scholars agree that some of the books of the New Testament were not written by the authors whose names are on them. (That is why they are called pseudonymous books. It is an antiseptic term that masks the truth that they are forged.) Many of the purposeful changes that have been made to keep women in bondage and subjection to men have been uncovered and exposed by experts in the field of textual criticism. Yet, many religious leaders and Bible expositors refuse to acknowledge these expositions and set things right.  It is time to unmask what has been used to deceive and set it right. It is time to expose the lies of the religious system regarding women. Why? Because it has led to their abuse and sexual exploitation for centuries. They have been robbed of honor, dignity, autonomy and equality in religion and society. This blog and its many articles expose these lies, mistranslations, twisting of doctrines and heretical teachings of mainstream religion today.  Since women and children bear the brunt of religious abuses, it is vital that we expose the lies in translation that lead to abusive attitudes and behaviors toward women, and expose the abuses that lie underneath religions “mantle” along with the corruptions that lead to these abuses. The system is corrupted through and through. The abuses are rampant. Victims are being silenced and shamed. Who are the victims? Women and children. To not correct something that has caused so much damage to women and children shows a total lack of love and compassion. To profess Christ and do “nothing” about these corruptions, is the weightier sin.

Gospel Forgeries

forgedWhat is very important for people to understand is that during the early centuries there were MANY different beliefs regarding Christ. Today’s Christian beliefs regarding Christ were NOT the majority belief during the early centuries. What we have today is the result of centuries of fighting and forgeries. The opponent with the biggest material resources and secular arm of power to enforce their agendas was the opponent whose beliefs won the battle and paved the way for what is believed as “orthodoxy” today.  Just as we have countless theological beliefs and differences today, so it was then. What makes the difference between then and now is that we have copyright laws that prevent people from forging books in other people’s names. Back then, forgery was a huge problem. Historical evidence attests to this fact and, scholars agree on this point. Whenever the disputes over doctrine collided, it was a simple fix – they forged documents that leaned toward their theological views and wrote these forgeries in the names of well known people. The debates over what was the “right belief” were prevalent and heated back then just as they are today.

In his books, scholar Bart Erhman covers this issue of forgeries excellently and, brings to the forefront of reasoning, the questions that most Christians either REFUSE to ask, or CHOOSE to overlook. It simply frustrates me that Christians tend to believe blindly what they are told regarding the Bible and scripture, as well as doctrine and belief, without doing their own due diligence and research on the issue. As a matter of fact, it is not just Christians that are guilty of not doing their due diligence on their religious teachings and scriptures — other religions have the same problem. Countless followers do not research to find out if what they are being taught is true.  Because religious people tend to ACT on their beliefs in unethical and immoral ways to hurt others that believe differently (in the name of their religion or God), it morally behooves us to search out if what we are being told by religious leaders IS TRUE. What type of godly testimony do we have if we ignorantly believe what we are told? What does this tell the world? That we are NOT going to do the research; that we do not CARE what the REAL TRUTH is; that we are too AFRAID to find out if we have believed a lie? What IF you have believed a lie? Wouldn’t you WANT to know? What IF those lies are destroying the relationships within your family and your marriage? WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO KNOW?

I was handed lies my whole Christian life about the Bible and doctrine. Those lies led to abuses and strife in the home, destruction of my marriage and family, isolation, fear of government, fear of authorities and other religions, fear of the church and religious leaders. Today, because of an honest effort to find out if what I was taught was true, I have been freed from the bondage to the lies I once believed. If you are in bondage to ANY religion that has attached to it FEAR of retaliation for not conforming, then my guess is that you are believing lies too. Just my honest opinion. There is no FEAR in TRUTH.

Whatever you are being taught needs to be challenged with the utmost effort and research! I believe that this journey into truth requires character, humility and, a heated desire that will enable one to not only uncover the lies, but once uncovered, discard them for the right beliefs based on the FACTS presented. It’s time to NOT take mans word that truth is truth! Why? Because men lie to further their own agendas; and when they do propagate lies, it brings abuse and suffering to those that are weaker or slighted by their dogmas and rules.

I will simply leave the following quotes from Bart Erhman’s book, Lost Christianities, as the thoughts to ponder in hope that those who read them, will decide to embark on that journey into truth that will either validate their beliefs, or damn them as lies.

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Gospel Forgeries

“Almost all of the “lost” Scriptures of the early Christians were forgeries. On this, scholars of every stripe agree, liberal and conservative, fundamentalist and atheist.” – Lost Christianities, Bart Erhman

“That Christians in the early centuries would forge such books should come as no surprise. Scholars have long recognized that even some of the books accepted into the canon are probably forgeries. Christian scholars, of course, have been loathe to call them that and so more commonly refer to them as “pseudonymous” writings. Possibly this is a more antiseptic term. But it does little to solve the problem of a potential deceit, for an author who attempts to pass off his own writing as that of some other well-known person has written a forgery. That is no less true of the book allegedly written to Titus that made it into the New Testament (Paul’s Letter to Titus) than of the book allegedly written by Titus that did not (Pseudo-Titus), both claiming to be written by apostles (Paul and Titus), both evidently written by someone else.” — Lost Christianities, Bart Erhman

“Other books, however, are widely regarded as forged. The author of 2 Peter explicitly claims to be Simon Peter, the disciple of Jesus, who beheld the transfiguration (1:16-18). But critical scholars are virtually unanimous that it was not written by him. So too the Pastoral epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus: They claim to be written by Paul, but appear to have been written long after his death.” — Lost Christianities, Bart Erhman

“How could forgeries make it into the New Testament? Possibly it is better to reverse the question: Who was  collecting the books? When did they do so? And how would THEY have known whether a book that claims to be written by Peter was actually written by Peter or that a book allegedly written by Paul was actually by Paul? So far as we know, none of these letters was included in a canon of sacred texts until decades after they were written, and the New Testament canon as a whole still had not reached final form for another two centuries after that. How would someone hundreds of years later know who had written these books?” — Lost Christianities, Bart Erhman

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If scholars know about forgeries in the Bible, and have known about them for centuries, why do Christians fight against that knowledge? Why aren’t they addressing this reality and fighting for the truth to be made known and/or corrected in Scripture? My guess on that question is a simple one and, possibly, a hated one. Here is my opinion on that question, if you don’t like it, just agree to disagree with me:

I believe that the changes that were made to scripture were done in order to:

  • Give men pre-eminence and dominance over women.
  • Proliferate inequality of the sexes
  • Allow for sexual dominance and control
  • Afford men power, control and prestige in religion and the world

If one just reads the countless articles on this blog that expose these truths scripturally and historically, these points that I give will become obvious. Why else would male-dominated religions wish to use, and tout as infallible and inspired, corrupted texts that have been altered by MEN to oppress and suppress women and, bring the masses into bondage to FEAR of their God, their rules? Why else would religious leaders defame, attack, label and “name-call” those women and men who bring these facts to light?  It wasn’t women that made the forgeries, keep that in mind. Inequality always leads to abuse. Just my opinion based on the evidence uncovered. Read my blog articles yourself and form your own opinion. BUT, You don’t have to believe me. Afterwards, go on your own quest for TRUTH. Let the FACTS guide your thought processes and build your foundations — not hear-say and opinion from fallible men who have agendas to uphold.

Maintenance of the Clergy

TAT CoverDuring the early days of Christianity, church leaders all worked and provided for themselves and their families. Offerings were never taken for the maintenance of clergy. The offerings were always distributed to the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, the captives. The corruption, of men taking for themselves from the offerings, didn’t happen until the third century. It was shortly after they started taking a portion of the offerings that they then began to EXACT the monies for their office. God never commanded us, nor showed us by his example, that those who shared the gospel should be partakers of any earthly goods of others. As a matter of fact, scripture tells us that they are not to take from the people (see my book, The Truth About Tithing)!  Jesus was a carpenter by trade. Paul was a tentmaker. Other Apostles were fishermen. None of his disciples lived off the offerings they received that were given to help the poor. This corruption, of men living off the backs of the poor through their forced tithes and/or giving, has to be one of the grossest and most blatant misuses of the position of ‘Pastor.’ Many passages have been twisted or overlooked in order to propagate this lie and, my book, The Truth About Tithing, exposes them.  Here’s what early church history tells us:

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Early Church History to the Death of Constantine

by Edward Backhouse, 1906

MAINTENANCE OF THE CLERGY. We have seen how, in her days of pristine simplicity, the ministers of the Church supported themselves by their own labour. The free-will offerings of the congregation were at first appropriated to the use of the sick and the poor, of orphans, widows and captives. By degrees a portion of the weekly contributions was set apart for the maintenance of the presbyters [pastors].  At a latter period, in some churches a three-fold, in others a four-fold, division was adopted; one share, in the latter case, being appropriated to the bishop, another to the rest of the clergy, a third to the church building and service, and the remainder to the poor. [Notice how the sick, poor, orphans, widows and captives who once received 100% of the offerings are now relegated to only one portion of them. They are the ones that need it the most!]

In the circular issued by the synod of Antioch against Paul [of Samosata], . . . and the Apostolical Constitutions say, “Let the young be diligent in their business, so as to have enough for their own support and to bestow on the needy. For we ourselves besides our attention to the word of the Gospel, do not neglect our inferior employments. Some of us are fishermen, some tentmakers, some husbandmen; for none of those who are dedicated to God ought to be idle.” We have seen in Cyprian’s lamentation over the state of the Church, that the pursuit of trade was not unknown to the African clergy, and was indeed too eagerly followed by some. The council of Elvira forbids the bishops and clergy to be itinerant merchants, but permits them to trade within the province. They were however on no account to exact usury. Even so late as A.D. 398, the fourth Council of Carthage directs that “clergymen, however learned they may be in the divine word, should provide themselves with food and clothing by some handicraft or agricultural labour, but not to the hindrance of their office in the Church; and that such as were strong enough to labour should be instructed in some handicraft and in letters.”

Chrysostom also, about the same time, has described the country clergy around Antioch: “Their language was not Greek but Syriac. They were engaged in agriculture at one time following the plough, at another taking their turn in the pulpit; at one time hedging or cutting thorns with a bill hook, at another sowing the seed of the word; being able to boast of a very small modicum of worldly learning, but yet fairly acquainted with the Holy Scriptures.” “The bishops and presbyters of those early days,” observes Hatch, “kept banks, practised medicine, wrought as silversmiths, tended sheep, or sold their goods in open market. They were like the second generation of non-juring bishops a century and a half ago, or like the early preachers of the Wesleyan Methodists. They were men of the world, taking part in the ordinary business of life. The point about which the Christian communities were anxious was, not that their officers should cease to trade, but that in this as in other respects they should be ensamples to the flock. The chief existing enactments of early councils on the point are, that bishops are not to huckster their goods from market to market, nor are they to use their position to buy cheaper and sell dearer than other people.”

But this liberty was not suffered to continue. The Church had now become subject to the State. It is true we find Theodosius at the end of the fourth century exempting the inferior clergy from the trading tax, provided their mercantile transactions were kept within bounds; but this immunity being abused, all clerical persons whatsoever were by a law of Valentinian III. (A.D. 425-455), interdicted from trade.
The practice of taking fees for the services of the Church, a practice utterly unknown in her days of purity, was not admitted without opposition. In Spain, at the beginning of the fourth century, it had become a common custom to drop a piece of money into the font or box as a gratuity for the rite of baptism. The
Council of Elvira prohibits this custom, assigning this cogent reason, “Lest it be thought that the priest gives for money what he has freely received.”  In the same spirit, at a much later period, the Council in Trullo forbids the clergy to receive any thing from the communicants at the Lord s table, because “the grace of God is not an article of merchandise, nor is the sanctification of the spirit to be bought with money.”  In like manner Jerome declares it to be unlawful to take a fee for performing the burial service. — Early Church History to the Death of Constantine, pgs 233-235.

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According to Backhouse, the third and fourth centuries were where the origin of tithing developed. Iranaeus, Origen and Cyprian began planting the seeds toward tithing by teaching that tithes were similar to ‘first fruits.’ Cyprian even taught that, “on the ground that the tribe of Levi was supported by tithes in order that it might be devoted entirely to the Lord’s service, claims the same inheritance for the Christian clergy, who receive as it were tithes, that they may not depart from the altar (Backhouse).” By equating the office of Bishop and presbyter with the Levite Priest that served in the Temple, it allowed them to also add to the position the same honor, reverence and holiness of the position that the Priest in the Temple held. This also instilled a “fear” of going against the “man of God.” Does any of this sound familiar? Of course it does. Presbyters, Bishops and Priests (or whatever other term used for leadership) attained for themselves a holiness and reverence that was never given them by God. They stole these honors through craftiness in order to benefit and reap personal gain.

The idea had acquired a yet stronger hold in men’s minds by the time of the Apostolical Constitutions where they later added, “As the Levites, who attended upon the tabernacle (in all things a type of the Church), partook of the gifts, offerings, first-fruits, tithes, sacrifices and oblations, so you, O bishops, are, to your people, priests and Levites, ministering to the Holy Tabernacle, the Holy Catholic Church, ye who stand at the altar of the Lord your God, and offer to Him reasonable and bloodless sacrifices through Jesus, the great High Priest. . . . Oblations and tithes belong to Christ and to those who minister to Him. Tenths of salvation are the first letter of the name of Jesus. (Backhouse)”

By deceiving the people into believing that priests, presbyters and bishops were similar to Levite priests that served in the Temple, it allowed the Catholic clergy an avenue into people’s pocketbooks. This one corruption has proliferated down through history and has become so massive, that it has allowed uneducated and self-serving men to enter into the ranks of pastoral leadership while earning salaries that rival many large corporations.

It’s time for clergy to earn their own livings and provide for their own families. Offerings should be dedicated 100% to the poor and needy and not divided between administrative expenses, employee expenses, building expenses, expense accounts for pastors and, pastoral salaries. Christians everywhere should be angry at having their finances siphoned by religious institutions that coerce or force giving and/or tithing through fear of judgment or cursing from God. There is nothing wrong with giving, but there is everything wrong with giving under duress or threat of punishment. Many churches use tithing as a means to determine one’s Christian character and, as a prerequisite for serving in the church!  Some churches, like the one I was involved in, would not help you if you were in desperate need of help, if you did not tithe! Tithing was used as a weapon against the poor and needy — the very ones that God COMMANDED we take care of — because they could not afford to tithe.  Yet, when the truth is brought to light regarding this lie about maintaining clergy, many will fight against it and, against the one that points out the corruption. Remember, I didn’t invent this truth, I am just pointing out what has already been pointed out by someone else. Maintenance of the clergy is the biggest ponzy scheme this side of heaven. We had better wise up to this lie of the church and start requiring clergy to get a job and support themselves. Imagine how many poor could be helped just with the savings in clergy salaries?

The Balaam Phenomenon

evangelistEarly church history is full of information that brings truth to light regarding early Christianity. It also allows us a glimpse into how far Christianity has fallen from its once pure state. Through the annals of church history, we can see all the mutations that have occurred that have changed the face of Christendom forever. Many of these mutations have resulted in doctrines and practices of the “church system” that have brought disgrace to the name of Christ and turned countless numbers of people away from the faith. A veering off course has taken place throughout Christianity that has allowed church leaders to usurp the Holy Spirit’s place in the lives of believers and usurp control over the lives of believers; all while creating for themselves wealth, prestige and power.. Needless to say, the Lord will not hold them guiltless.

It is very important that as Christians, we study to show ourselves approved unto God. Satan is a MASTER at deception and masquerades as an “angel of light.”  This means that there might be some in positions of leadership within the “church” that are only there for themselves. We must become aware of these false brethren that sneak in unawares. Most believe that these imposters would be lay people; however, I genuinely believe that there are more church leaders that are imposters than one would imagine. In order to see how far the corruptions have come from the purity of the early church, we need to first know a little about the early church and how it operated. The many articles on this blog go into great detail in many areas to help readers in understanding the truth about every aspect of the early church and the many twisted doctrines that have birthed as a result of the many corruptions.

The following is a little insight regarding the evangelists of the early centuries:

The spread of the Gospel during this period was rapid and continuous. Eusebius thus describes its propagation in the opening years of the second century. “There were many next in order of time to the apostles, who built up the churches founded by them, and pushing further the preaching of the Gospel, scattered broadcast over all the world the seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven. Many evangelists, first obeying the Saviour’s command to give their substance to the poor, set forth, vying with one another in preaching Christ and distributing the Scriptures of the divine Gospels. After they had thus laid the foundations of the faith, and ordained pastors into whose hands they could commit the care of the new converts, they would themselves pass beyond to further regions and nations, God accompanying them with his grace; for even down to that time the Divine Spirit wrought so mightily by them, that at the very first hearing, whole assemblies embraced the Gospel.”  May we not say it is these obscure evangelists, whose work remains but whose names have perished, who are especially worthy of honour in the Church? The most glorious time in her annals was the century or more during which she had little or no history.

Looking at these passages of history, I would like to point out a phenomenon that is seen today not only with evangelists, but pastors as well. Today’s Evangelist is nothing like the evangelist of the early centuries!  In the passages above, I have highlighted a very important characteristic of an evangelist: “Many evangelists, first obeying the Saviour’s command to give their substance to the poor, set forth, vying with one another in preaching Christ and distributing the Scriptures of the divine Gospels.” Early evangelists gave all they owned to the poor before embarking on their ministry!  They truly lived by faith, allowing God to provide their need.  They did not own anything.  Not only this, they did not make a name for themselves! They had the humility to do the work of God without the accolades and ‘pats on the back’ and recognition that many thrive on today.   Let’s compare this conduct to today’s evangelistic conduct. I would like to also point out that pastors are guilty of the following phenomenon as well, so the following will encompass both areas – evangelists and pastors.

Here’s Today’s Pastors and Evangelists as quoted from my book, Religion’s Cell: Doctrines of the Church that Lead to Bondage and Abuse:

The Balaam Phenomenon

The Balaam Phenomena is sweeping the churches and has mushroomed into catastrophic proportions. As Balaam was for “hire” so are these ministers who market the “Truth” and “Revelation” they received from God. Ministers are profiteering off of the Word of God and marketing “Revelation” they receive for personal gain.

Instead of pointing people to the “Truth” they draw attention to themselves and to the “Revelation” they received by elevating themselves as the source of the “Truth.” Thus, they raise their words to divine rank and exercise spiritual power for “position

Instead of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher (Ephesians 4.11) they pursue and embrace worldly designations such as “Dr.” “Reverend” “PhD” and “Senior Pastor” in order to distinguish themselves. In short, they seek to “elevate” themselves before others. Instead of “serving” they are being “served”

There is a fitting story in the Bible about this kind of conduct: The mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom” (Mathew 20.20)

You see…These two apostles wanted to be elevated above the others. And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. One translation says they were moved with indignation against those two. Jesus taught, the greatest among you will be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mathew 23:1-12).

Three words come to mind that are characteristic of these ministers: Performance, Position and Power. These ministers have made a predacious climb on the “ladder of success” by building an institutional empire that rivals many corporations. Their ministry has become an “idol” in their heart at the cost of their own soul.

Through the Balaam Phenomenon, ministers use the “Truth” of God to nurture their own visions and bring to fruition their own agendas beneath the shroud of furthering the Gospel. It is easy to identify these ministers in the pulpit since the anointing is no longer present. The Spirit of the Lord has departed (1Sam. 16:14). Yes, they operate in the “gifts.The gifts and the calling are without revocation (Romans 11.29) however, the anointing has departed! Consequently, there is a lack of a clear Biblical objective.

The “Revelation” they are delivering to the people is the “Revelation” that was only for them when they were “small in their own eyes” (1 Sam 15.17). They force others to eat their diet of food. They are unable to prepare a table like a Master Chef who prepares a balanced variety of food some for the mature, some for the young and another for infants. Consequently, the pathway they present is littered with landmines and pitfalls. It is the same truth over and over deceptively packaged to look different.

For the mature discerning Christian, that minister is easily identifiable because he relies on the “Revelation” received in the past that catapulted him into recognition. There is no “New” “Revelation” delivered to the people because he is NOT drawing from the presence of Christ and His Spirit. He no longer has the intimate relationship with Christ that he once had and he knows it! These ministers know how to smile outwardly, and they know all the religious words and how to manipulate the congregation. Private personal prayer life is non-existent. What burden for that minister to carry. Eventually he will falter under its weight. What is hidden will eventually come to light (Luke 8.17).

These ministers increase their spiritual “stronghold” over people and they have “mastered” the ability to manipulate the “touch points” in a person: that area within a person that is vulnerable; they probe without applying salve or the ointment of healing brought by the “anointing” — they open the wound wider. The wounded keep returning looking for that healing… that balm of Gilead (Jeremiah 8.22). They never find it and the wounds closes over being festered with all the wrong doctrine.

Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam (Jude 11)… forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages(2 Peter 2.15) who suppose that godliness is a means of gain(1Timothy 6.5) Drawing disciples after themselves…. (Acts 20.30).

Furthering their own agenda under the deceptive umbrella of “godliness” as a means of gain” they siphon money from those hurting…the vulnerable that come seeking healing and restoration. The result is that these ministers divert “Truth” to water their own field and feed themselves (Ezekiel 34:2-10).

The “Truth” and “Revelation” they have received is “for sale “in the form of tapes, CD’s, books and videos. During and immediately following a service one is encouraged to “purchase” the “truth & Revelation” from the minister. Little has changed from the time of Jesus when those tables were overturned by him (John 2.15). In the name of God, they were providing for the people the sacrifice offerings for worship right in up the temple (John 2.16). How that seemed noble!

How often has someone walked out of a Sunday service hungry for the “Truth” only to find it being sold for money? What happened to “freely you have received freely give? (Mathew 10.8). I tell you the truth…they have received their reward (Mathew 6.5). Who is wise among you and who is discerning (Hosea 14.9) let him come forward and shout from the roof top!

The Balaam Phenomenon is pervasive throughout the body of Christ. It’s time for clarion call to go out. The Presbyters, Bishops and Elders need to rise up; I mean those whom the Holy Spirit has appointed (Acts 20.28) NOT overseers elevated by man. I am not referring to these who fail the test of integrity. I am referring to the wise and discerning. I am referring to the man or woman who has Wisdom; “Godly Wisdom” — which is comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God (Proverbs 12.8).

— Edward Umling

Is the true nature of the evangelist and pastor becoming clear?  Power, prestige and money have become the ultimate snare. As a result, abuses abound and many are turned away from the faith. Who do you think God will hold accountable? If you do not know the answer, then maybe this will help: The Third Commandment – What it Really Means.

The Truth About Changes in Translation

manuscriptFor centuries, Greek scholars have known about the many changes done by scribes in translation of the early manuscripts. What is sad is that mainstream theologians, preachers and Christians refuse to accept the fact that translators have made these changes. Most would rather believe that their English translation of the New Testament is “innerant.”  There are countless manuscripts in existence written in Greek and yet, due to copyist and translational errors, not very many of them match word for word. There are NO ORIGINAL manuscripts in existence. Let’s make that fact perfectly clear. All we have is copies of copies of copies of copies of copies. This is a reality. But why would someone want to change the manuscripts in translation?  In order to translate the text based on what they already believe, or, to make changes in order to lean people toward those beliefs. This is exactly what has taken place and people refuse to admit it. The usual response is quite amazing and usually wrapped up in anger and hatred toward anyone that points these truths out. This matter of corruption of scripture is serious! Scholars know for a fact that the manuscripts in existence are riddled with thousands of variations. Rather than attack those that bring to light these corruptions and call them “anti-Christ,” let’s fix the errors and corruptions! We now have technology and the best scholarship in history. Comparative analyses between the many thousands of manuscripts can be done with accuracy to deduce what is truth and what is not.

Sadly, one of the most blatant corruptions in translation has to do with women and their place in religion and society. Translators have made an obvious effort to point women in scripture into a direction of servitude to men and out of positions of leadership and autonomy.  It is time to shout from the rooftops what men have done in translation that has caused a race of people great harm throughout history — women. And, it is time to make the populous aware of the many changes that affect other areas of religious practice!

Educating people on the many changes in translation has been a focus of mine on this blog. Continually, I point out the corruptions so that minds can be set free of abusive dogmas and doctrines that lead to abusive behaviors and attitudes toward others. One cannot be truly free until one’s mind is free from bondage to religion and its doctrines and rules. Man-made rules were never a part of the teachings of Christ and, he never treated women with the disrespect that man-made religion does. I will continually point out what has been twisted and bring it to light on this blog.

Since very few people know about all the variants between manuscripts in existence, I want to take this time to give some insight on this matter.  Let’s talk about some of these changes in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament:

Mill’s Apparatus of the Greek New Testament

The text of the Greek New Testament seemed to be a trusted source for most scholars throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, many scribes would add marginal notes identifying places of variation among several manuscripts they had looked at. Later, in the seventeenth century, “editions were published by English scholars such as Brian Walton and John Fell who took the variations in the surviving (and available) manuscripts more seriously. (Erhman)” However, no one really realized the magnitude of the problem with textual variations until 1707, when John Mill published a book that exposed all the variations. This book was so shocking that it caused scholars to realize that they need to take the textual situation of the New Testament manuscripts more seriously.

John Mill of Queens College, Oxford, invested 30 years of hard work collecting manuscripts for his book. The text that he printed was the 1550 edition of Stephanus; “what mattered for Mill’s publication was not the text he used, but the variant readings FROM that text that he cited in a critical apparatus.  Mill had access to the readings of some one hundred Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. In addition, he carefully examined the writings of the early church fathers to see how they quoted the text–on the assumption that one could reconstruct the manuscripts available to those fathers by examining their quotations.  Moreover, even though he could not read many of the other ancient languages, except for Latin, he used an earlier edition published by Walton to see where the early versions in languages such as the Syriac and Coptic differed from the Greek (Erhman, Misquoting Jesus, p. 84).

Mill published his text with apparatus in which he indicated places of variation among all the surviving materials available to him. To the shock and dismay of many of his readers, “Mill’s apparatus isolated some thirty thousand places of variation among the surviving witnesses, thirty thousand places where different manuscripts, Patristic (=church father) citations, and versions had different readings for passages of the New Testament (Bart Erhman, Misquoting Jesus, p.84).”

However, Mill’s apparatus was not exhaustive in that the data he collected did not include the countless variations in word order. According to Erhman, “. . . what it did include was enough to shock the public away from the complacency into which it had fallen based on the constant republication of the Textus Receptus and the natural assumption that in the T.R. one had the “original” Greek of the New Testament. Now the status of the original text was thrown wide open to dispute.  If one did not know which words were original to the Greek New Testament, how could one use these words in deciding correct Christian doctrine and teaching?”

The impact of Mill’s publication was immediately felt. The scathing attacks that followed from conservative theologians was huge. One protestant conservative, Daniel Whitby, believed that “even though God certainly would not prevent errors from creeping into scribal copies of the New Testament, at the same time he would never allow the text to be corrupted to the point that it could not adequately achieve its divine aim and purpose (Erhman, Misquoting Jesus, p. 85).” In 1710, Whitby published his own set of notes to dispute Mill’s findings. In his publication, Whitby suggested that Roman Catholic scholars “would be all too happy to be able to show, on the basis of the insecure foundations of the Greek text of the New Testament, that scripture was not a sufficient authority for the faith– that is, that the authority of the church instead is paramount (Erhman, Misquoting Jesus, p. 85).”

“Whitby may have intended his refutation to have its effect without anyone actually reading it; it is a turgid, dense, unappealing one hundred pages of close argumentation, which tries to make its point simply through the accumulated mass of its refutation (Erhman, Midsquoting Jesus, p. 86).”

Let me point out here that this is what many conservative Christians do in refuting the work of those that have labored intensively for years to bring the truth to light. They have no factual basis for their refutations. They parrot what they have been taught as truth and use those teachings as grounds for dismissing facts that prove their dogmas and doctrines are not what they should be. They label any work that exposes lies and errors in translation as an attempt to destroy the Bible. They label anyone that exposes the corruptions as “anti-Christ” instead of realizing that the facts don’t lie and something needs to be done about all the changes made.  Instead of realizing that Mill did not INVENT the variant readings – that he only pointed them out– it became a personal attack on Mill’s character to discredit what he had brought to light. Every time I point out a corruption in Scripture that has caused women much harm, conservative Christians think that I made up the corruptions and make it a personal attack on me, wishing to discredit ME instead of looking at the findings and realizing that I am only pointing out what re-known scholars have pointed out before me.

Because of Mill’s publication, the result was that it drew responses from many learned and indignant people. The most significant being a scholar of enormous international reputation – the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Richard Bentley. Bentley was known for his work on classical authors such as Homer, Horace, and Terence. What Bentley pointed out, is what is mentioned above – the variations Mill’s points out existed before he pointed them out and that, “If Religion therefore was true before, though such Various Readings were in being: it will be as true and consequently as safe still, though every body sees them. . . no Truth, no matter of Fact fairly laid open, can ever subvert true Religion (An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1854).”

Bentley was an expert in the textual traditions of the classics. He pointed out that anytime you find large numbers of manuscripts, you will find a multitude of textual variations. If there were only one manuscript of work, there would be NO textual variants. The good thing about the variants is that they show where the preceding manuscript has preserved an error and, they also show where the original text is preserved. So, variants do not detract from the integrity of the New Testament, they just provide the data that scholars need to work on to establish the text that is more closely aligned to what the original authors wrote! Another thing that these variants do is show with clarity the changes made that affect women and their standing in the world today.  What was done was “on purpose,” and not by accident. Men willfully changed scripture regarding women. As a result, woman have been the most abused race of people in human history. The facts regarding these changes that affect women have been brought to light by many re-known scholars over the centuries, but have been ignored by mainstream theologians. Why? It is my humble opinion, based on the evidence I have read, that men wish to continue to have a male-dominated religious system that subjects women to their whims of servitude and abuse. This also gives them sexual dominance, which is a key factor in this issue of control.

It is time that the Bible translations that many mainstream religions use as a foundation for their teachings be revised and many of the errors removed; especially, regarding women. Women need to be given their equality, honor and dignity back. Religion permeates every society in the world. Religion is the foundation for beliefs, actions, attitudes and character of men and women everywhere. Religion has pointed women down a road of submission and servitude to men and robbed them of equality, autonomy, status in society, etc. Correcting translations with these errors, will help to change attitudes and behaviors toward women and help to alleviate the doctrines and dogmas that lead to their abuse and inequality.

What the Apostle Paul Didn’t Write

twisting of scriptureThroughout Christianity, across all denominations, teaching and preaching of truth is filled with innuendos and implications that give an underlying message to people regarding women and their place in the church and society.  Many of these underlying messages are the result of a mindset regarding women that developed due to scribal changes in translation of religious texts. During the early centuries, men, not willing to allow women the freedom, autonomy and respect that Christ gave them, made sure that through translation they would be silenced and controlled.  Because of these additions and changes in the texts, women have been forced into very abusive roles by men, while at the same time, men are not being held accountable for the abuses.

The off shoots of religion are many; the majority of which, go even further in their corruption of the truth and place on women shackles of bondage to abusive men that God never intended nor commanded. Modern scholars have come to realize that disputes over the role of women in the church occurred precisely because women HAD a role; often a very significant and publicly high profile role ( Bart Erhman, Misquoting Jesus).  Many of Jesus’s closest followers were women and they accompanied him on his travels. Some of these women provided for him and his disciples financially, serving as patrons for his preaching ministry. The scriptures show remarkably well that Jesus did not treat women like the men of his day did. He actually went against the teachings of his day in his treatment of women! According to Erhman, “Most scholars remain convinced that Jesus proclaimed the coming Kingdom of God in which there would be no more injustice, suffering,  or evil; where all people would be equal.” This included the women.

“The Pauline letters of the New Testament provide ample evidence that women held a prominent place in the emerging Christian communities from the earliest of times. . . Women, in short, appear to have played a significant role in the churches of Paul’s day. . . This appears to have been Paul’s message as well, as can be seen, for example, in his famous declaration in Galations:

For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free; there is not male and female; for all of you are one in Jesus Christ. (Gal. 3:27-28)

— Bart Erhman, Misquoting Jesus, page 180

The equality that developed as a result of the teachings of Jesus and his disciples laid the very foundations for women that changed their subservient and oppressive positions and gave them new found freedoms. Women were now equal through Christ and were allowed, once again to participate in every aspect of the early church. However, after Paul’s death, men began once again to force women back into the abusive bondage that Jesus came to set them free from. This is evidenced in the following passages that were written in Paul’s name. Scholars agree that these passages were NOT written by Paul, but have been attributed to Paul. These very passages have been used to beat women over the head and force them into silence and subjection to men in the church and keep them from positions of leadership. (For more on other translational changes, read some of my other articles on this blog.)

Let a women learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. (1Tim. 2:11-15)

33For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34let the women keep silent. For it is not permitted for them to speak, but to be in subjection, just as the law says. 35But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. 36What! did the word go forth only from you, or has it reached you alone? (1Cor. 14:33-36)

According to Erhman, this seems a long way from Paul’s view that “in Christ there is . . . not male and female.” By the time the second century had rolled around, there were some very clear battle lines drawn regarding women and the church. Scholars understand that scribes were very involved in these early debates regarding women and translated scripture to reflect their personal views regarding women. Erhman states in his book, Misquoting Jesus, that . . . “In almost every instance in which a change of this sort occurs, the text is changed in order to limit the role of women and to minimize their importance. . .”

These passages teach a straight forward injunction for women not to teach and to keep quiet. However, according to Erhman, scholars are convinced that Paul did not write the 1 Timothy passage because it occurs in a letter that appears to have been written instead by a second-generation follower of Paul in his name. No one doubts that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, but there are doubts about that passage because verses 34 and 35 are shuffled around in some of the most important textual witnesses. In three Greek manuscripts and a couple of Latin witnesses, they are found after verse 40. This has led scholars to surmise that the verses were not written by Paul but originally were a marginal note by a scribe that was later inserted in different places of the text– some placing the note after verse 33 and some after verse 40.

Another reason that scholars give in determining that Paul did not write these passages is that they do not fit well into their immediate context.

“In this part of 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is addressing the issue of prophecy in the church, and is giving instructions to Christian prophets concerning how they are to behave during the Christian services of worship. This is the theme of verses 26-33, and it is the theme again of verses 36-40. If one removes verses 34-35 from their context, the passage seems to flow seamlessly as a discussion of the role of Christian prophets. The discussion of women appears, then, as intrusive in its immediate context, breaking into instructions that Paul is giving about a different matter.

Not only do the verses seem intrusive in the context of chapter 14, they also appear anomalous with what Paul explicitly says elsewhere in 1 Corinthians. For earlier in the book, as we have already noticed, Paul gives instructions to women speaking in the church: according to chapter 11, when they pray and prophesy–activities that were always done aloud in Christian services of worship–they are to be sure to wear veils on their heads (11:2-16). In THIS passage, which no one doubts Paul wrote, it is clear that Paul understands that women both can and do speak in church. In the disputed passage of chapter 14, however, it is equally clear the “Paul” forbids women from speaking at all. It is difficult to reconcile these two views–either Paul allowed women to speak (with covered heads, chapter 11) or not (chapter 14). As it seems unreasonable to think that Paul would flat out contradict himself within the short space of three chapters, it appears that the verses in question do not derive from Paul.

And so on the basis of a combination of evidence–several manuscripts that shuffle the verses around, the immediate literary context, and the context within 1 Corinthians as a whole–it appears that Paul did not write 1 Cor. 14:34-35. One would have to assume then, that these verses are a scribal alteration of the text, originally made, perhaps, as a marginal note and then eventually, at an early stage of the copying of 1 Corinthians, placed in the text itself. The alteration was no doubt made by a scribe who was concerned to emphasize that women should have no public role in the church, that they should be silent and subservient to their husbands. This view came to be incorporated into the text itself, by means of textual alteration.”

— Bart Erhman, Misquoting Jesus, pages 183-184.

Clearly, what is being taught in these passages regarding women is a corruption. As a result of these two changes, women have borne the brunt of abuses throughout history. They have been robbed of equality in every aspect of life and relegated to subservient positions. As a result, today, women are still not paid the same salaries as men and, degrading “mindsets” and “attitudes” toward women are prevalent across all cultures. These mindsets and attitudes are a result of SCRIPTURE placing women on an unequal level to men. SCRIPTURE has become the weapon of choice for power and control hungry men.

So, if scholars agree that these passages were not written by Paul and, the evidence points to this fact, then why are those, who are not scholars, condemning those that bring these types of corruptions to light? Why does one think that Bible theologians want to teach and preach an “inerrant” and “infallible” Bible? Answer: Because all the changes made by scribes point women into subservience, allowing for sexual exploitation and abuse AND, the changes give men power, prestige, control and money to boot! Scripture translations have only been done by MEN. Corruption in translation of scripture has only been done by MEN.  Interpretations of scripture have only been done by MEN. Rules have been fabricated for women only by MEN. It’s time for the corruptions to be made known and corrected. Women need to be given back their equality, autonomy, dignity and honor. Laws need to change to protect women from the abuses within every area of society and religion and, Bible translations need to be purged of the corruptions placed in them by MEN. Scholars know all the corruptions. It’s time to set things right and give women back what men robbed them of – equality, honor, dignity and protection from abuse.

The State of the World Before Christ

before christAt the birth of Christ the Roman empire was comparatively, enjoying a state of peace ; but as to other nations, who were not subject to Rome, those of the eastern regions were strangers to liberty, owing, in a great measure, to their manners and effeminacy, and even to their religion; whilst, on the contrary, the northern nations, from their form of government, climate, and robust constitution of body, enjoyed the blessings of freedom.

All these nations, except the Jews, were devoted to the superstitious worship of many gods, over whom presided one deity, as supreme, yet in such a manner, that this supreme deity was even under the control of what the philosophers called “Eternal Necessity.”  As each nation differed in the names and qualities of their divinities, so did they also in their mode of worship. The Greeks and Romans, in process of time, became as ambitious in religion as in politics : they asserted that their gods were the objects of worship in all nations, and, therefore, gave the name of their deities to those of other countries. Hence arose great confusion in the history of the ancient superstitions ; and hence innumerable errors in the writings of the learned. Notwithstanding these varieties of religion, they produced neither war nor dissension among the different nations, the Egyptians excepted ; nor was this toleration exercised by any more liberally than by the Romans.

Departed heroes were generally the deities of almost all nations, though the natural world afforded many objects for worship. The sacrifices offered to these deities were according to their respective nature and offices.  Most nations offered animals, and many human sacrifices. Various classes of priests presided over the ceremonies, who abused their power in the grossest manner. Besides this public worship of the gods, the Greeks and eastern nations celebrated secret rites, called Mysteries. That this religion had no tendency to promote real virtue is most certain, because the objects of worship were notorious examples of crimes, rather than of virtues ; and as to the knowledge of future retribution, it was uncertain and licentious.  Hence the wiser part of mankind, about the advent of Christ, looked with contempt on this corrupt system of religion.

The consequence of this theology was a universal corruption of manners, leading to the impunity of the worst of crimes, as fully testified by Juvenal and Persius among the Latins, and Lucian among the Greeks.

At the time of Christ s appearance on earth, the religion and arms of the Romans were spread throughout the world. With the view of not only confirming their authority, but also of abolishing the inhuman rites practised by the barbarous nations who were under their yoke, the victorious Romans introduced every where their own system of religion.

Passing from this view of the Roman religion to those of other nations, we find them divisible into two classes, political and military. In the former class may be ranked the religions of most of the nations of the east, especially of the Persians, Egyptians, and Indians: under the military class may be comprehended the religion of those northern nations, the Germans, Bretons, Celts, and Goths.
Notwithstanding the many wise men who have existed in all the heathen nations, none were able to stem the torrent of superstition ; which must convince us that none but God could reveal the truth, pure and unalloyed by error.

At the time of Christ’s birth, two kinds of philosophy prevailed; one of the Greeks, adopted also by the Romans ; and the other of the Orientals. The former was simply called “Philosphy;” the latter, “Knowledge.  The followers of the latter pretended to be the restorers of the knowledge of God, which was lost on earth. The disciples of both these systems again subdivided into a variety of
sects.

Of the Grecian sects, there were some which were enemies to all religion ; and others who, though they acknowledged a Deity, yet cast a cloud over the truth. Of the former kind were the Epicureans and Academics ; of the latter, the Platonists, the Stoics, and the Aristotelians.

In all these sects, as there were many things maintained absurd and unreasonable, certain men of judgment and moderation determined to adhere to none of them, but to extract out of each reasonable doctrines, and to reject the rest. Hence arose a new form of philosophy in Egypt, and principally at Alexandria, which was called the “Eclectic,” and founded by one Potamon, of Alexandria. This sect held Plato in the highest esteem.

From this brief account of the ignorant and miserable state of the world at the birth of Christ, it is self-evident that mankind required some Divine teacher, to convey to the mind true and certain principles of religion and wisdom, and to recall them to the sublime paths of piety and virtue,

The Jews, at this period, were nearly in the same state as other nations, and were governed by Herod the Great, a man of the most vicious and tyrannical disposition.

— Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, 1822

It was this state of the world that Christ came into. History tells us that many of the oriental philosophies and beliefs had infiltrated not only other pagan religions, but the Jewish religion from the time of the Babylonian captivity. From these corruptions came the many “rules” regarding women; the 10 curses of Eve; the subjugation; the servility.  What also came into being was the BIGGEST lie of all that I speak about in my book, Religion’s Cell.

Jesus came to undo all this superstition and to set woman in her rightful place as an equal to man, restoring the honor and dignity that was stripped from her because of these many corrupt belief systems.  As a result of the state of the world at Christ’s death, being that Christ did not stamp out all of the superstition and change existing laws regarding women, men soon stripped women of the autonomy, honor and dignity once more. To this day, women have borne the brunt of the abuses – sexual exploitation, rape, incest, murder, mutilation, emotional abuse, spiritual abuse.

Two Corruptions with Huge Consequences

corruption2The people, according to the example of the apostles, were chief in authority, (a regulation necessary at that time,) and had the power of electing their own rulers, and of rejecting any laws [or rules] proposed by them; they could also excommunicate or restore unworthy members. These privileges they had obtained in consequence of their general and public oblations.

A perfect equality [this includes an equality between male and female] and harmony reigned among the members of the church, as appears by their feasts of chanty, and by their mutual salutations of ” Brethren,” and ” Sisters.”

. . . All other churches chose their deacons in the same way ; and some chose also deaconesses, from among their devout widows and matrons.

— Mosheims Ecclesiastical History, 1822

The many articles on this blog continually point to the corruptions that have taken place in the church and in translation, that were done purposely by men of old to subjugate and control women. These changes went against scripture and were not the teachings or examples of God or his Christ, but man. Because the “fruit” of these corruptions and changes has been . . .

  • The sexual exploitation of women
  • The abuse of women – physical abuse, rape and incest
  • Subjugating women to men
  • Inequality of the sexes
  • Servitude of women to men
  • Emotional and spiritual abuse
  • Removal from authoritative positions in the world and in religion
  • Lack of protections from these abuses through civil laws

It is imperative that these corruptions be revealed for the sake of those women still suffering the bondage that these changes have brought into the world.  My books focus narrowly on several of the biggest lies ever propagated by men in order to control not only women, but the masses through fear. This blog focuses narrowly on even more corruptions not mentioned in my books.

Church history and the earliest manuscripts do not support many of the doctrines taught today in churches and religions across the globe; especially, regarding WOMEN. Therefore, these corruptions must be made known for the sake of equality, honor and dignity of women AND, to show the depravity, the pride, the arrogance and control-mongering to which men have resorted to gain sexual dominance.

Women had equality in the early church. They were leaders, deaconesses, had churches in their homes, and were apostles.

The members of the “assembly” of believers were in total control over every matter within their “assemblies.”

Corruption:  Women were removed from leadership positions in the church and relegated to servitude. As a result, they were denied autonomy, honor and dignity in religion and the world.

Corruption: There is one “man” as head of each assembly that has unquestionable authority in the lives of the believers and dictates “God’s” will in their lives [usurping the Holy Spirit’s position]. As a result, the masses blindly follow these “men of God” willingly doing what they are told to do….even to the point of murder and violence against those who disagree or believe differently.

The state of the church today is far from holy, pure and undefiled. The atrocities and abuses that lurk under the mantle, especially toward women and children, are criminal. These abuses thrive because of corruptions like these two that I mention and, the many others mentioned on this blog. It’s time to bring the corruptions out and set the truth before us; purging the filth that has permeated the church of God.

There Was No Hierarchy and All were EQUAL

equality“The whole body of Christians,” observes Hatch, “was upon a level ; ‘All ye are brethren.‘ The distinctions which St. Paul makes between Christians are based not upon office, but upon varieties of spiritual power. . . . The gift of ruling is not different in kind from the gift of healing. The expression, ‘He that ruleth,’ is co-ordinate with ‘he that exhorteth,’ ‘he that giveth,’ ‘he that showeth mercy.’  Of one or other of these gifts every Christian was a partaker. [This included the women]” “The kingdom of Christ,” says Dr. Lightfoot, “has no sacerdotal system. [Sacerdotalism is the belief that propitiatory sacrifices for sin require the intervention of a priest.]  It interposes no sacrificial tribe or class between God and man, by whose intervention alone God is reconciled and man forgiven. . . . Every member of the human family is potentially a member of the Church, and as such a priest of God [This includes the women]. … In the records of the apostolic Churches, the sacerdotal title is never once conferred upon [the special officers]. The only priests under the Gospel, designated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood. As individuals, all Christians are alike. . . . Tertullian,” he observes,” is the first to assert direct sacerdotal claims on behalf of the Christian ministry.” — Edward Backhouse, Early Church History to the Death of Constantine.

During the early era of the church, there were no such rulers in the church as Pastors and Priests. Every believer, under the Gospel, was considered part of a ‘brotherhood’ of believers that knew no such ruler over them. The early corruptions that ensued by those like Tertullian, brought into the early church, the Sacerdotal system and hierarchy that exists today.  Because of power, prestige and money, man has corrupted the simplistic system where all were equal and all had input in everything that the body of believers did to help the sick, the poor and the needy. Women and men were EQUAL under the original system that existed. Tertullian, and others like him, are responsible for the the male-dominated hierarchy that exists. . . a hierarchy that has brought much corruption to the church and, abuse of women throughout history. God never meant for women to be subjugated to men. Subjugation and servitude were woven into scripture [by translators] in order to gain control over women for sexual advantage and power, as history affirms. To learn more, please read the many articles on this blog, listed below for your convenience, that expose these changes that religious men of old have done in translation to place women in an unequal position, setting them up for abuse. They also expose the corruption and lies that have been inserted into translation to control and manipulate congregants for personal gain.

For those wishing to de-brainwash from a “religious” mentality and be set free “in truth,” here are just a few articles from my blog that will help in that process. John 8:32  “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Be sure to subscribe to my news feed so you don’t miss any subsequent articles!

Religion’s Cell Articles by Cynthia McClaskey