A writer builds their story around a theme that is designed to stand out in the mind of the reader. If someone were to try and remember a story they had heard a long time ago and draw from memory in an attempt to re-write it, they would not remember all of the details of the story but the main theme. So it was for the stories of the bible.
No one knows the time periods that these stories recorded in the bible actually took place, some have theorized a number of dates and era’s but the truth is, that no one really knows! Logic can tell us many things about history if one were so inclined to look. For example; when we envision the ancient Vikings, we see barbaric ocean marauders, like pirates, raiding villages along the sea coasts and rivers of ancient Europe, wearing helmets with horns protruding from the sides.
The ancient Vikings were fierce warriors but I can assure you that they never went into combat with helmets so vulnerable to being knocked off of their heads. These helmets were ceremonial and so when we read ancient descriptions, the writer who might have made mention to this in the original writings was not quoted directly by those who re-wrote these stories from memory or possibly even translated from ancient texts. Language changes so frequently in our history that one generation can barely understand literally, the language of the last. Can you imagine the translation issues we have attempting to translate something that is hundreds or even thousands of years old? Often logic is not part of the writers’ agenda, even when the object of the writing is non-fictional!
Man has never been so primitive so as not to protect themselves from injury or death to the best of their ability when they went into combat. When we see ancient paintings of bare-chest Egyptians in chariots with spear and bow or sword in combat, these descriptions need to become instantly suspect. Believe it or not, even ancient man feared being injured.
Why is it that wisdom always seems to be ancient wisdom? Do we not evolve? One would think that the wisest most intelligent knowledge would permeate from contemporary times. However, this has never been the case. Myth is always more dramatic than the reality that surrounds us and so it is… that myth portrayed as truth is the foundation for our beliefs.
Even in ancient times, it was ancient wisdom that built the house we call belief, it always has and as long as we still must wonder about what the truth is, it always will. The truth is always found somewhere, beyond the grasp of our own reality and the past is a great place for truth to hide. Belief is just another way of saying, “I don’t know”! The problem with belief comes about when our beliefs become a part of or represent us as a society much like a mascot represents an athletic team. Our team becomes the foundation of our security, the building blocks of our self-esteem. Go team go…fight, fight, fight! Our team is stronger, faster and more powerful than yours!
When one searches for truth, they trace the steps of logic to a singularity, to the very beginning. Truth occurs where it happened and when it happened and only the actors that were there can accurately portray it. A myth originates from a singularity, from an event that defies reality that can only be explained in the mind of the unlearned as divine. Religion is a primitive form of reenactment of these ancient events. When in our past could we logically call the age of miracles, what happened so long ago that we even talk about it in our myths and legends today?
It is impossible for a human to conceive of anything that it has not experienced with one of its senses. We either see it, hear it or we read about it. Even the concept of God must be or have been experienced by self or another in order for those who are so inclined to believe in it today. There is a singularity to myth and legend, a complete circuit which begins and ends not with concept, theory or philosophy but a singularity solidly grounded in reality. What could have happened in our past that could possibly make God a reality?
In our society, contemporary science has figured out how to send a man to other planets, disseminate information globally via computer, to do what 100 years ago would have seemed like miracles. What will science give us in a thousand years from now? Can you imagine in your wildest imagination, how far it will go as time marches on? Will our beliefs turn from God to greater understanding or will our myths simply change. What will we believe when all of the miracles have been explained? Is it possible that we could find God through technology? Is God waiting for us to become advanced enough to understand her? Does God wait for us to discover her through our own industry as she had to do in order to create the universe and all of us? Possibly, this is the only way for a simple primitive person to evolve to the point of true union with such an advanced being. Nothing we conceive of is impossible and it is impossible for us to conceive of a thing that is not already written in our minds eye. Is it possible to conceive, that when we look way into our future, in a time of amazing technology, that we are looking into our own past. Is it possible that there have been other advanced societies that came before us? Scientists don’t know. Contemporary science looks at a small piece of history and theorizes about the times that it existed. All of our dating techniques, to include, radio isotope dating and carbon 14 dating are theoretical. Science knows very little about what happened in antiquity. Even with the scientific dating equipment and all of the knowledge that has been theorized, sometimes logic is the best tool.
The bible as well as all religious texts is accumulations of ancient myths and legends written by authors who wrote about ancient myths and legends and so on and so forth. Truth is a journey that doesn’t end until we have what we set out to find. When we believe something, the journey ends for us. When we believe, we stop short of our goals and plant the flag of eternal victory at the base of the mountain and call it paradise while the true seeker beckons us onward from the summit. When we are open to discovery, when we stop telling God what we believe, is it possible that we might be able to hear God telling us the truth, telling us which way to go?
The story of the bible begins in and around the year 325 AD at the council of Nicaea. The process of selecting the books of the bible took place initially at this gathering of theologians, philosophers, statesmen and powerful people from all across the Roman Empire. The council of Nicaea was presided over by Constantine, later to be known by the Roman church as Constantine the Great, and in his own time, was proclaimed Saint by the church. During the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire became the Roman church. This was just, in those days, a more politically correct term for the Roman Empire. In those days the word church did not mean the little white house on the hill where people go to worship God, it meant united! In essence, the Roman church meant the united people of the Roman Empire. Roman emperors, as did other emperors and kings, often claimed a blood relationship with God or the Gods. So was the case for Constantine who by virtue of his authority, was by default, the first emperor of the church. The Roman church was not a religion in those days but a political union. Constantine was not a Christian but a pagan who claimed a blood relation with the Gods.
Constantine united the Roman Empire into the Roman church but who was it within the empire that was united; why was it that Constantine needed to take this unprecedented step to unite his people?
Rome was the melting pot for everyone within the empire from the Britons from the Middle East to Africa, a place for commerce, a place of opportunity. The Romans themselves were becoming a minority in their own seat of power… Rome!
There comes a point in the building of an empire where tyranny becomes less effective, a point where the subjugated no longer care whether they live or die. This is a dangerous time for a tyrant, a time to step back and rethink your policies. The Romans had ruled their world with an iron fist in the guise of Roman justice for over 300 years. Rome controlled the flow of information to the masses exactly as the Nazis attempted to do with the Germans and occupied territories, during the 1930s and 40s.
The pagan Romans knew better than to disallow the practice of common religion of the region occupied. After all, the primary purpose for Roman occupation was not to control hearts and minds but wealth; and the Romans sought only to control the heart and mind for the purpose of maintaining this enterprise but these religions had boundaries imposed on them that were not to be crossed. The biggest boundary of course, dictated that religions were free to be practiced up until the point they became seditious or INRI (sedition…..this is an evolution of an even earlier more ancient meaning… “in violation of God”…. RA or RI… the sun god, translated from ancient Egyptian (RI) …. Not of God!). Jesus of Nazareth was not executed by the Jews but by the Romans who had a very strict legal system and a specific mode of execution or punishment for each crime that could be committed. Crucifixion was the mode of punishment prescribed for sedition…
For instance, a promoter of civil war was subject to death but not by crucifixion; these political civil warriors would be executed by spear. However, a promoter of sedition by reason of divine right, which was not just a crime against Rome but an assault on the Roman emperor himself i.e. God, INRI, was punishable by crucifixion!
When we consider that the biblical account of Jesus of Nazareth was compiled more than 300 years after the event, at the council of Nicaea and subsequent councils following the death of Constantine….such as the council of Rome in 382AD conducted by the sons and daughter of Constantine, we must consider the validity of the writings compiled as authentic first account descriptions. However, after more than 300 years, this would have been an almost impossibility. The Dead Sea scrolls hidden in a cave in Qumran would most likely depict a clearer picture of the times than would have the scriptures that Constantine and company would have compiled, because these writings had been hidden from the Romans and stayed hidden until they were found in the 1950s.
Jesus of Nazareth was an Essene Jew and the Essenes believed that God was sending a messiah or God-man to free their people from the Romans. This was a “fight fire with fire” concept, as Constantine was also a God-man or son of God. Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t the only messiah that was proclaimed during these turbulent times, but there was another also named Jesus or as I will refer to him in this text as Yeshua (pronounced Jeshua, Jesus or Joshua) from Syria who was martyred by the Romans just a few years later than was Jesus of Nazareth. Both of these men were Essenes, both were vehemently opposed to Roman occupation and both were mystics who claimed to have the power of God. The actions of both of these great men were consolidated into and as one man in the texts that were offered to the Roman church by Constantine and company, in those days as the “New Way” or what we now call the bible.
The Romans, like the Nazi’s, sought out the Essenes and destroyed them. The Essenes were the biggest threat to the Romans and it makes logical sense that we would know less about them than any anti Roman political group; the Romans simply erased the Essenes from history! However, had the Nazi’s been successful, they would have erased the Jews from history. Unlike the Nazi’s, the Romans actually did control the civilized world for almost 500 years in the western empire, well over a thousand years in the eastern empire and therefore, had plenty of time to rearrange history in order to control power.
The bible or the New Way, was a way for Constantine to identify and unite with his enemies, a way for him to embrace the doctrines of his brother God-man Jesus, a way for him to turn the attention of his Christian brethren away from the true killers of Jesus and turn them both on their new common enemy, the Jews! After all, in the rewrites of scripture, the Romans were not guilty of condemning and executing Jesus only proxy to his Jewish persecutors. The Romans found no guilt in Jesus, they even attempted to release him and it was the Jews that pushed the issue; the Romans simply enforced Roman law as it was presented to them from the prosecution, the Jews!
Constantine, through the propaganda of the written word, brought the Christians and the Romans into a united nation by consolidating the writings of his enemies and glorifying them and embracing them as his own. The Roman Church or New Way created with this new text, a common enemy… the Jews!
If we are to find God, it will not be done by reading the writings of another; it will be done by the internal search of each individual. Our journey towards God is a lonely trek but truth is absolute; therefore, when we take our own personal journey inside, when the time comes, as soon it must, we all emerge on the same path. Paradise is not a place for societies or religions, it is a place where everyone has come to the same conclusions based on their own industry and desire for truth. Everything can be traced to a singularity through logic; even God can be figured out. There is only one way, one explanation that defines our existence, it is there for us all to find and in so doing, open up the next door of our evolution.