Christianity
“Jesus Christ is Lord”
Primary Beliefs
• Born in Original Sin (430 CE)
• Jesus is the Son of God who paid
for this Original Sin
• Everyone must go through Jesus to
get to God
• Everyone must go through the
Church to get to Jesus
Unique Tenents
• Eternal damnation gained
popularity in the Middle Ages
• Recruiting is required to be a good
Christian
• There is only one way to worship
God—through Jesus Christ
The Story of Jesus
His Radical Ethics
• Jesus touched lepers and bleeding
women
• He ate with tax collectors and
prostitutes
• Sermon on the Mount taught love
and forgiveness not revenge
Sermon On The Mount
Matthew 5-7
3 - "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 - Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 - Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
7 - Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 - Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 - Blessed are the
peacemakers,
For they shall be called
sons of God.
44 - …I say to you,
love your enemies,
bless those who
curse you, do good
to those who hate
you, and pray for
those who
spitefully use you
and persecute
you…
1 - "Judge not, that you be
not judged.
2 - For with what judgment
you judge, you will be
judged; and with the measure
you use, it will be measured
back to you.
3 - And why do you look at the speck in
your brother's eye, but do not consider the
plank in your own eye?
Key Event:
Fall of Jerusalem - 70 CE
A Jewish Movement
• Christianity was a Jewish
movement until 70 CE when
Romans destroyed the Temple
• Jews lost their physical center
• Scattered Jews used the law for a
focal point for next 1900 years
• Other Jews used Jesus as a focal
point to survive
The Split – 90CE
• Jews created new prayer called
“Shemoneh Esreh” to curse new
Christian heretics
• Jews blamed Jesus’ followers for
subverting Judaism and brining
forth God’s anger by the Romans
• Gospel of John answered Jews and
encouraged Jews to follow Jesus
and lose nothing in Judaism
Bible Scholarship
• Matthew, Mark, and Luke together
are called the Synoptic Gospels
• There was a “Q” document that
was the source of all of them
• Only Matthew and John of the
Gospels ever knew Jesus
• Paul, Mark, and Luke never met
Jesus
The Gospels
• Mark – saw cosmic struggle between
demonic forces and God
• Matthew – saw a greater Moses
fulfilling the Hebrew scriptures
• Luke – saw a new Elijah reaching
everyone
• John – saw a pre-existent deity who
was the great I AM
Timeline
Leading to English Bible
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Year 36 – Jesus crucified
By 62 – Paul writes Galatians, Acts, etc.
65 – the Q Document composed
70 – Mark written based on Q Document
80 – Matthew written, Q & Mark source
90 – John written
100 – Peter written
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130 – Gospel of Basilaides – 24 books
150 – Gospel of the Egyptians in Greek
200 – Latin Bible translation in Carthage
200 – Sahidic Coptic translation
254 – Council of Nicea – Jesus & God same
300 – Bohairic Coptic Bible trans.
312 – Constantine defeats Maxentius
321 – Constantine declares Sunday rest
325 – Nicean Creed
350 – Codex Sinaiticus early Christian Bible
384 – Jerome presents Latin Gospels
400 – Augustine formalizes Christ. Theology
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400 – Pershitta Bible
430 – Augustine creates “Original Sin”
550 – Standard Eastern Bible
690 – First English Bible
1095 – first of ten crusades
1206 – Rosary introduced by Dominic
1382 – Wycliffe English OT & NT
1522 – Luther German translation
1525 – Tyndale translation
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1537 – Coverdal’s Bible
1551 – Matthew Bible by Rogers
1569 – Great Bible by Cromwell
1560 – Geneva Bible
1606 – Bishop’s Bible
1611 – King James Bible
1718 – Catholic English version
1815 – Catholic Bible Society NT
1870 – idea of papal infallibility
1894 – Church of England revised
1901 – American Standard Version
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1924 – James Moffat Bible
1936 – Westminster NT
1949 – Basic English Bible
1950 – Knox Version
1952 – Revised Standardized Version
1958 – J.B. Phillip’s NT
1961 – New English Bible
1966 – Jerusalem Bible
1971 – New American Standard Bible
1978 – New International Version
1982 – New King James Bible
Mark
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Oldest Gospel – 65 CE
Mark followed Peter
Never knew Jesus
Street person, saw only empty tomb
Knew nothing of a virgin birth
Matthew
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Wrote after Jerusalem destroyed
Trying to rally Jew to survive
Lawyer, conservative
Well educated
Added a star, three wise men,
earthquake, 90% references to hell
Luke
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Never knew Jesus
Needed a world context
Gave the Ascension story
No Jewish center anymore and
Christianity began to spread to
gentiles
• Mark suggests Christianity
naturally grew past Judaism
John
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A disciple of Jesus
Written at start of next century
John makes Jesus divine
Jews began cursing Christians in
90 CE
• Jews forced to choose between
Judaism and Jewish Christianity
Paul
• Kicked out of early
Church twice
• Roman citizen and
thought a spy
• Self-mutilator, women
inferior, admitted selfloathing, anti-flesh
• His Christ offered
unconditional love and
forgiveness
The Essenes
Josephus, the 1rst century historian, tell us in The
Jewish War the Essenes taught the soul’s preexistence which is the foundation of
reincarnation theory.
Another 1rst century historian
Philo Judaeus said the Essenes
believe, “…the air is full of
souls; those nearest to earth
descending to be tied to mortal
bodies, return to other bodies,
desiring to live in them.”
Philo
The Dead Sea Scrolls
What they found… 1947
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7 complete scrolls
Many fragments
Book of Isaiah
Genesis Apocryphon
Book of Habakkuk
Community Rule
James, The Righteous
Interesting Information…
• James the Righteous – the brother of
Jesus and leader of the early church,
the Law is important
• The Wicked Priest – Ananas is priest in
Jerusalem, Roman collaborator, had
James killed
• The Liar – Paul, appealed to the
unfaithful, hijacked part of the
community doctrine, Roman agent,
faith is important
Jewish Rebellion put
down by Rome 66-73 CE
• The key is the murder of James the
Righteous by High Priest Ananas
• The Essenes at Qumran and
Masada plus most of Judea revolt
• Emperor Vespasian commanded
the Roman army to invade Judea
and put down the rebellion
The Catholic Scandal
• Scrolls discovered in 1947
• Never released to the public
• Why?
Modern day Inquisition
• Pope Leo XIII sets up
Pontifical Biblical
Commission in 1907 to
“…safeguard the
authority of the scriptures
and to promote their right
interpretation.”
Dead Sea Scrolls Deception – page 118
Every director of the Ecole Biblique
that has controlled the Dead Sea
Scrolls has also been a member of the
the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
In 1964 the Commission decreed regarding
Bible scholarship…
“…at all times the interpreter must cherish a
spirit of ready obedience to the Church’s
teaching authority.”
Position of Catholic Church
According to the 1990 updated Catechism titled
Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“…the task of giving an authentic
interpretation of the Word of God…
has been entrusted to the living
teaching office of the Church alone.”
Observer, 1990
The Hero…
• The scrolls
belong to
humanity
• 1991 made
copies public
Marcion
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Second century - 160 CE
First to compile writings
Chose letters by Paul
Many gospels but only chose four
Thus, he was the first to form a
New Testament canon
• Eventually 27 books
Origen
A.D. 185 to 254
Origen was “…the most distinguished and
most influential of all the theologians of the
ancient church, with the possible exception
of Augustine,” says the Britannica. He is
also referred to as the father of the church’s
science and the founder of its theology.
What were his views?
Origen Taught…
• The soul has neither beginning nor end
and pre-exists the body
• The soul is on a constant upward
progress in cosmic life
• All spirits were created blameless, all
must at last return to their original
perfection
Many manuscripts…
Origen wrote,
“The differences among the manuscripts
have become great, either through the
negligence of some copyists or through the
perverse audacity of others…they make
additions or deletions as they please,,,”
Scholar John Mill - 1700
John Mill compared one hundred
Greek manuscripts of the New
Testament in the King James Bible
and found 30,000 variations.
Today scholars say there are more
than 300,000 variations in
translations, additions, and deletions.
Some Known Additions…
• The woman caught in adultery and Jesus
says, “Let he who is without sin cast the
first stone.”
• References to the divinity of Jesus is absent
in earlier texts.
• The last supper of sharing his body and
blood as the new covenant was not in earlier
versions.
Writings of Justin
Martyr
Founded the First Christian Church
in Rome – A. D. 100
In his Dialogue with Trypho Justin speaks
of the soul’s inhabiting more than once a
human body but that it cannot remember
previous experiences.
The Gnostics
Teachings
Jesus had a secret doctrine.
In Mark 4:11 he says,
“Unto you it is given to
know the mystery of the
Kingdom of God; but unto
them that are without, all
these things are done in
parables.”
The Gnostics
Basilades, who taught in Alexandria about A.D.
125, and around whom the founders of the
various Gnostic schools grouped themselves,
maintained that he had all his doctrines from the
Apostle Matthew and from Peter, through
Glaucus, his disciple. It is reported that all
Christian Gnostics were reincarnationists.
Gnostic Philosophy
“The whole of Gnosticism revolved round
the conception of cycles law for both the
universal and individual soul. Thus we find
the Gnostics invariably teaching the
doct4rine not only of the pre-existence but
also of the rebirth of human souls…”
G.S. Mead, Fragments
of a Faith Forgotten
Gnostic Christians – 200 A.D.
“To become enlightened…
Remove physical desires,
Reduce chaos in the mind,
Open to internal visions,
Ponder what is seen,
Become troubled,
Go into isolation in the desert,
And receive the messenger of the light.”
The Enlightenment of Zostrianos, From the Gnostic Gospels
Emperor
Constantine
United what was left of the
Roman Empire in 315 A.D.
Made Christianity the state
religion.
Chose the books that would
be included in the Bible.
Blavatsky on
Constantine
Constantine, “…who drowned his wife in
boiling water, butchered his little nephew,
murdered with his own pious hand two of his
brothers-in-law, killed his own son Crispus,
bled to death several men and women, and
smothered in a well an old monk. However, we
are told by Eusebius that this Christian Emperor
was rewarded by a vision of Christ himself…”
Isis Unveiled, page 304
The“Divine Selection”
That Determined the Bible
At the Council of Nicea: “…except Constantine
the emperor, and Eusebius, these bishops were a set
of illiterate, simple creatures…fools…(they) put all
the books that were referred to the Council for
determination under a communion table …sought
the Lord that the inspired writings might get upon
the table…and it happened accordingly.” We are
not told who kept the keys of the council chamber
overnight.
Isis Unveiled, page 251
Council of
Nicea
325 A.D.
We believe in one God, the
Father All-sovereign, maker
of heaven and earth, and of all
things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
and the only-begotten Son of
God, Begotten of the Father
before all the ages, Light of
Light, true God of true God,
begotten not made, of one
substance with the Father…
Emperor Justinian
Pope Vigilus his prisoner 8 years and finally murdered.
Curses from the Fifth
Ecumenical Council
#1 - “If anyone assert the fabulous pre-existence of
souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration
which follows from it: let them be anathema.”
#15 - “If anyone shall say that the life of the spirits
shall be like to the life which as in the beginning while
as yet the spirits had not come down or fallen, so that
the end and the beginning shall be alike, and that the
end shall be the true measure of the beginning: let him
be anathema.”
Taken from A Select Library of Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers, XIV, p 318-20
Reincarnation &
Christianity
Old Testament
The Old and New Testaments is
glued together by reincarnation.
New Testament
“Before the mountains
were settled, before the
hills was I brought forth:
While as yet he had not
made the earth, nor the
fields, nor the highest
part of the dust of the
world. When he prepared
the heavens, I was
there…”
Proverbs 8:22-31
King
Solomon
Malachi 4:5
(500 years B.C.)
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
From the Hebrews to
the Christians
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
Malachi 4:5
Jesus states ten times
in the New Testament
that John the Baptist
is the reincarnation of
Elijah.
Jesus To The
Multitudes Behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among
them that are born of women
there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. And if ye
will receive it, this is Elias,
which was for to come. He
that hath ears to hear, let him
hear.
Matthew 11:7
Go No More Out…
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the
temple of my God, and he shall go nor more out.”
Revelation 3:12
Lost Years of Jesus?
Two Big
Questions:
1 - Did Jesus
stay in Israel
from ages
13-29?
2 - Or did he
travel to
India?
Three Main Sources
• Master teachers today
• The Bible
• Tibetan manuscripts
Paramahansa
Yogananda
“It is true that Christ
lived in India during
most of the eighteen
unaccounted for
years of his life…”
“Jesus attained Christ
consciousness at the
age of twenty-five
while in India.
Thereafter, he
returned to Palestine
through Tibet,
Afghanistan, Persia
and areas we now
know as Russia.”
Sai Baba
“Few realize
Jesus’ most
important message
to mankind. God
is your own basic
nature—your true
self.”
Sai Baba
The Discovery of Tibetan
Manuscripts…116 years later.
1887
1939
1922
1984
A lama at Mulbekh Gompa
told Notovitch…
“Issa is a great prophet,
one of the first after the
twenty-two Buddhas.
He is greater than any
one of all the Dalia
Lamas…His name and
his acts are recorded in
our sacred writings.”
Mulbekh
“The Life
of Saint
Issa
Best of
the Sons
of Men”
Translation by
Nicholas
Notovitch
Eye Witnesses…?
A revered lama told Swami Abhedananda,
“…three or four years after he (Jesus) left
his body, the original manuscript was
compiled in Pali from descriptions of all
those Tibetans who met him at that time, as
well as from descriptions of the traders who,
with their own eyes witnessed his
crucifixion by the king of his country.”
Libraries in Tibet
The Manuscript Begins…
“The earth trembled and the heavens
wept, because of the great crime
committed in the land of Israel.
For there was tortured and murdered
the great and just Issa, in whom was
manifest the soul of the Universe.”
Notovitch translation
The Outward & Return
Journey
Outward
Return
The Trouble Begins…
“Those who deprive
their brothers of
divine happiness will
themselves be
deprived of it; and
the Brahmins and the
Kshstriyas shall
become the Sudras
of the Sudras…”
Notovitch translation
“But they who deprive
their brothers of the
common blessings
shall be themselves
st5ripped of them. And
Brahmins and
Kshatriyas shall
become the Sudras of
the Sudras…”
Roerich translation
Jesus makes
trouble in
the Bible…
“Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You who are like whitewashed tombs
that look handsome on the outside, but inside are
full of dead men’s bones and every kind of
corruption. In the same way you appear to people
from the outside like good honest men, but inside
you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Notovitch
Returns
to Paris
Paris 1889
The
Vatican
Library
A Catholic Cardinal told Notovitch in Paris, “…the Vatican
Library possesses sixty-three complete or incomplete
manuscripts in various Oriental languages referring to this
matter, which have been brought to Rome by missionaries
from India, China, Egypt and Arabia.”
Elisabeth Caspari
• Takes photos of
Tibetan manuscript
• Trapped in India
during the war
• Learned Montessori
Method
• Brought Montessori
Method to America
Luke 20:35-36
“They who are
accounted worthy
to obtain that
world…neither
marry…neither
can they die any
more.”
Paul to the Galatians
“My little children, of
whom I travail in birth
again until Christ be
formed in you, I desire
to be present with you
now, and to change my
voice; for I stand in
doubt of you.”
Galatians 4:19
The Dark Ages (in the
west)
Why did the Church
oppose Reincarnation so
Ruthlessly?
“The believer in this teaching (reincarnation) tends to hold
himself responsible for his own progress and salvation.
Such a person has no need of priests and little regard for
external dead-letter observance, rite, or conformity. The
devices such as the confessional of a redemption conferred
by institutional authority were to believers in evolution
through rebirth transparently fraudulent or false. Hence
their persecution over the many centuries while dogmatic
religion remained in power.”
Head & Cranston, The Phoenix Fire Mystery, page 164.
Ancient
Baghdad
Science Philosophy Medicine Art Literature Freedom
The
Crusades
Secret Societies that
Protected Reincarnation
• Knights Templar
• Christian
Kabbalists
• Albigenses
• Gnostics
• Rosicrucians
• Cathari
Reincarnation
Today
Interesting Events in
Christian History
• 30 CE – Jesus is crucified and
James becomes the leader
• 40 CE – Paul declares Christianity
a universal religion
• 70 CE – Roman Titus destroys the
temple
• 70 CE – Pharisees expel Christians
from their institutions
• 136 – bishop of Rome assumes the
title of “Pope”
• 230 – Pope Urban justifies
ownership of property by church
• 312 - Roman emperor Constantine
converts to Christianity
• 431 – 3rd Ecumenical Council
declares Jesus is divine
• 445 emperor Valentinian III
decrees all bishops must obey Pope
• 451 – 4th Ecumenical Council
declares Jesus is both human and
divine
• 537 - Emperor Justinian murders
Pope Solverius and installs Vigilius
• 636 – Arabs capture Jerusalem and
allow Jews to return
• 680 – emperor Constantine IV says
Pope is head of all Christianity
• 1054 – patriarch of Constantinople
and the Pope in Rome
excommunicate each other
• 1095 – Pope Urban II calls for a
crusade against the Muslims
• 1189 – the third crusade is led by
Richard the Lion-Hearted
• 1212 – Jews of Toledo massacred by
crusaders
• 1233 – Pope Gregory IX institutes
the Inquisition
• 1321 – Franciscan monk Marsilio da
Padova is excommunicated for
preaching democracy in the Church
• 1517 – Luther prints his translation
of the Bible
• 1536 – Tyndale burned at the stake
for translating the Bible into English
• 1909 – Tel Aviv is founded as a
Hebrew speaking Jewish city
• 1947 – Dead Seal scrolls found near
Qumran
Forms of Christianity
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Baptist
Congregationalist
Lutheran
Methodist
Presbyterian
Salvationist
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Anglican
Catholic
Pentecostal
Gnostic
Russian Orthodox
Mormon