THE TENSION BETWEEN
ALLEGORICAL GNOSTICISM AND THE LITERALISM OF LATER EMERGING WESTERN
CHRISTIANITY
Let us never forget
that religious movements tend to embrace two opposing poles, which I call
"Allegorical Gnosticism" and "Literalism",
with particular individuals inhabiting the whole spectrum between the two
extremes. This classification is important because Gnostics from different
religious traditions (Gentile and Jewish) have far more in common with
each other than they do with the Literalists within their own tradition.
While Literalists from different religions clearly hold conflicting
beliefs, Gnostics from all traditions use different conceptual
vocabularies to articulate a common understanding. When this "literalized"
form of Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the brutal
Roman Empire, the original mysticism of the followers of Jesus was
distorted almost beyond recognition and formed into dogmatic creeds of
what was to become the "imitation church." When this "literalized"
form of Christianity was adopted by Rome at its official religion the
original Christians and followers of Jesus were violently suppressed,
their scriptures burned and their memory all but erased by the fires of
Rome. The Roman Church fabricated its own account of the origins of
Christianity, still believed today, which dismisses the first Christians
as a minor cult of obscure heretics. Western Christianity would win the
war both with Israel and the Jews; both theologically and militarily. With
this comes a "New Divine Revelation" from Roman pens which
challenges and replaces the wisdom and religious beliefs of the Jews which
existed over two thousand years ago and beyond as far back as Egypt. Sadly
Western Christianity will triumph over the "Gnosis" of the
ancients and Judaism; the religion of the historical Jesus. Soon Rome is
re-interpreting existing "religious allegories" in a "literal"
sense and creating their own religious literature (the New Testament) in
response to existing Gnostic religious writings which will tell the world
a story about a "Literal Divine Christ" which is untrue to both
the existing Gnostic understanding of God as well as His "Christ."
This website is the story about the Roman re-interpretation of these prior
religious beliefs and understandings of God (Gnosticism and Judaism) which
finds ultimate expression in the Roman New Testament.
The sad reality that faces such a student who undertakes such a
serious study of the New Testament is that you will see that much that you
have been "literally" taught and accepted most of your Christian
life from the pages of this New Testament is the false "reinterpretation"
of Divine Truths best explained and understood when left as "allegory"
and "myth." You will see that most of Christian sacred doctrines
has little in common with the Yeshua [Jesus[ of history and his faith in
God as Jew. Such hatred of the Jew and his Torah [Law] by the early
Gentile and Roman Church has spawned the greatest cover-up of previously
existing Divine Truth in the history of mankind; the truth concerning the
Jesus of history and the expected Jewish Messiah. In the place of the
Jewish Messiah we have been sold "Christ of Faith" of Rome's
making. When this "Christ of Faith" is "literalized"
then we encounter the counterfeit and lose the intended meaning once held
by the ancients. We can lay the blame for our misunderstanding today
squarely upon the New Testament which is a mixture of "theologies"
that overlap and present a blurred and distorted vision not only of the
Jewish Messiah but the Jesus of history as well. It is time someone deal
with these issues and sorts this out for the average reader. By God's help
I plan on doing just that.
QUESTIONS NEEDING ANSWERS BEFORE WE PUT OUR
FAITH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:
- How did the New Testament
itself as a collection of writings come into being and what were the
factors behind it?
- Why the need for a New
Testament anyway since salvation was already available to the Jew and
Gentile in their respective Covenants with God?
- Who collected the writings
which were to be included in the New Testament, and on what principles?
- What was the religious
belief and religious belief system of the person who first saw the need
for a New Testament and who gave us the "FIRST" New Testament?
- How did this religious belief
system of the originator of the "FIRST" New Testament differ
from the religious belief system of James & the Jerusalem Church &
Jesus?
- Who found it necessary
to respond to this "FIRST" New Testament with a "SECOND"
New Testament that contradicted and corrected this prior one in many
places and who was he?
- What was the motives
of the writer of the "SECOND" New Testament and where did
these other books come from which were not previously available to the
first collector?
- Were there new "theologies"
added in subsequent additions to the "FIRST" New Testaments
and how did the "theologies" differ and change from what the
Jewish Church and Jesus believed?
- What "replacement
religious" doctrines can be discerned and seen in the "SECOND"
New Testament writings and later collections of supplements which were
later added to existing prior "New Testaments"?
- What circumstances led to the
fixing of a list, or canon, of authoritative books?
- What religious beliefs were
lost from "the faith once given to the Saints" by the "literalization"
of prior allegorical religious beliefs held by the Gnostics and the
Jews?
This is not going to be an easy or a quick study. The answers to
these questions as well as many other we will encounter on this website
will be only discerned by historical research. Our object is to find out
what historical research reveals about the origin of the New Testament
canon and the earliest meanings of "the Christ" as held by the
earliest followers of Jesus before Rome corrupted such concepts in the
second and later centuries.
bennoah1@airmail.net
