Ok open up the flood gates, here we go:
Cardinal Newman wrote:
"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection
of evil, and to transmute the instruments and appendages of demon
worship to an evangelical use... the rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should occassion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or
sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace."
("Development of Christian Doctrine" by Cardinal Newman, p.372)
Cardinal Newman admits in his book that; the "temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, holidays, and seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure (of priests, monks and nuns), images, and statues... are all of pagan origin." The Development of the Christian Religion Cardinal Newman p.359
admission:
The Star, 1994 Manila, Philippines
VATICAN CITY, Italy - The Vatican criticized a literal interpretation of the Bible and said the fundamentalist approach to scripture was a kind of intellectual suicide. A Vatican document said fundamentalism refuses to admit that the
**inspired Word of God has been expressed in human language... by human authors possessed of limited capacities and resources.**
The 125-page document, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, was written by the Pontifical Biblical Com-mission, a group of scholars who assist the Pope in the study of scripture.
Dr. Herbert Marsh, Nineteenth--Century English Bishop:
It is a certain fact that several readings in our common printed text are nothing more than alterations made by Origen, whose authority was so great in the Christian Church (A.D. 230) that emendations which he proposed, though, as he himself acknowledged, they were supported by the evidence of no manuscript, were very generally received.*
*Michaelis, Introduction to the New Testament, ed. Dr. Herbert Marsh (London, 1828), vol. 2, p. 368.
Johann Lorenz Von Mosheim, Eighteenth--Century Ecclesiastical Historian:
Not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons whose intentions perhaps were not bad, but whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all; productions appeared which were imposed upon the world by fraudulent men, [such] as the writings of the holy apostles.”*
* Von Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History (London, 1810), vol. 1, p. 109.
St. Gregory, Fourth--Century Bishop of Nazianzus, writing to St.Jerome: A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors have often said not what they thought, but what circumstances and necessity dictated.
7. C. F. Volney, The Ruins (Boston, 1872), p. 177.
Charles Chiniquy, a man who was 50 years in the Roman Church and 25 years a Roman priest said: "It was certainly our desire, as well as our interest, to believe them (the dogmas, precepts and practices of Rome). But how our faith was shaken, and how we felt troubled when Livy, Tacitus, Cicero, Virgil, Homer, etc., gave us evidence that the greater part of these things had their root and origin in paganism." Of course he meant by this, mystery Babylon.
He then went on to give an illustration and told how they had been told to trust in the scapulars (the sleeveless outer garment of a priest or monk), medals, holy water, etc., because they would keep them safe and aid in battling the temptations of life. But, how again their faith was shaken when in reading the Greek and Latin historians, they found the same things involved with the worship of Jupiter, Minerva, Diana and Venus (the mother-child cult).
Dr. Conyers Middleton, Eighteenth Century:
There never was any period of time in all ecclesiastical history in which so many rank heresies were publicly professed nor in which so many spurious books were forged and published by the Christians, under the names of Christ, and the apostles, and the apostolic writers, as in those primitive ages. Several of these forged books are frequently cited, and applied [in] defense of Christianity, by the most eminent fathers of the same ages, as true and genuine pieces.
8. Middleton, vol. 1, p. 59.
Dr. I. Hooykaas, Nineteenth--Century Reverend:
Not one of these five books (four Gospels and Acts) [was] really written by the person whose name it bears, and they are all of more recent date than the heading would lead us to suppose.
9. Drs. H. Oort, I. Hooykaas, and A. Kuneh, The Bible for Learners, trans. Philip A. Wieksteed (Boston, 1878), vol. 3, p. 24.
St. Faustus, Fifth--Century French Bishop:
Many things have been inserted by our ancestors in the speeches of our Lord which, though put forth under his name, agree not with his faith; especially since-as already it has been often proved-these things were written not by Christ, nor [by] his apostles, but a long while after their assumption, by I know not what sort of half Jews, not even agreeing with themselves, who made up their tale out of reports and opinions merely, and yet, fathering the whole upon the names of the apostles of the Lord or on those who were supposed to follow the apostles, they maliciously pretended that they had written their lies and conceits according to them.10
It is certain that the New Testament was not written by Christ himself, nor by his apostles, but a long while after them, by some unknown persons, who, lest they should not be credited when they wrote of affairs they were little acquainted with, affixed to their works the names of the apostles, or of such as were supposed to have been their companions, asserting that what they had written themselves was written according to these persons to whom they ascribed it.11
To strengthen belief in the resurrection of Jesus, St. Irenaeus invented many stories of others being raised from the dead.12
As Jeremiah Jones, an eighteenth--century reverend, comments:
Such pious frauds were very common among Christians even in the first three centuries; and a forgery of this nature, with the view above mentioned, seems natural and probable.13
10. Taylor, Diegesis, p. 66. 11. Ibid., p. 114. 12. Doane, p. 231. 13. Ibid.
"Should one continue to base one's life on a system of belief that--for all its occasional wisdom and frequent beauty--is demonstrably untrue?"
-- Charles Templeton, former right-hand man to Billy Graham in Farewell to God
Religion writer and former Anglican priest Tom Harpur admits he's sticking his neck out for proffering that someone named Jesus never walked this Earth
Following quotations from Catholic sources:
"If Christ Himself had written the book and set it forth as a text-book, so to speak, of His religion, we would rest securely in it, and have no need to inquire farther. That the Bible is not a book, like the Koran for instance, set forth by the founder of the religion as its authoritative exposition, is in fact the fundamental weakness of Bible Protestantism.
If Christ had intended His religion to be propagated and preserved by means of a book, can any conceivable reason be urged why He should not have written one? Of His ability to do so there can, for the Christian, be no question." (Plain Facts for Fair Minds, p. 26).
"Is it not strange that if Christianity were to be learned from the Bible only, that Christ himself never wrote a line or commanded his apostles to write; for their divine commission was not to write but to preach the gospel." (Question Box, p. 70).
"Christ gave his disciples no command to write, but only to teach." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 767).
The following statement illustrates the attitude of the early Church fathers towards truthful reporting and the gullibility of the masses:
St. Augustine, Fifth--Century Bishop:
I was already Bishop of Hippo when I went into Ethiopia with some servants of Christ there to preach the Gospel. In this country, we saw many men and women without heads, who had two great eyes in their breasts; and in countries still more southly, we saw people who had but one eye in their foreheads.14
14. Taylor, Syntagma of the Evidences of the Christian Religion (Boston, 1828), p. 33
"If Christ Himself had written the book and set it forth as a text-book, so to speak, of His religion, we would rest securely in it, and have no need to inquire farther. That the Bible is not a book, like the Koran for instance, set forth by the founder of the religion as its authoritative exposition, is in fact the fundamental weakness of Bible Protestantism.
If Christ had intended His religion to be propagated and preserved by means of a book, can any conceivable reason be urged why He should not have written one? Of His ability to do so there can, for the Christian, be no question." (Plain Facts for Fair Minds, p. 26).
"Is it not strange that if Christianity were to be learned from the Bible only, that Christ himself never wrote a line or commanded his apostles to write; for their divine commission was not to write but to preach the gospel." (Question Box, p. 70).
"Christ gave his disciples no command to write, but only to teach." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 767).
Emperor Julian stated, "If anyone should wish to know the truth with respect to you Christians, he will find your impiety to be made up partly of the Jewish audacity, and partly of the indifference and confusion of the Gentiles, and that you have put together not the best, but the worst characteristics of them both."6 According to these learned dissenters, the New Testament could rightly be called, "Gospel Fictions."7
foot note 7-Randel Helms, author of Gospel Fictions.
Albert Churchward said, "The canonical gospels can be shown to be a collection of sayings from the Egyptian Mythos and Eschatology."8 In Forgery in Christianity, Joseph Wheless states, "The gospels are all priestly forgeries over a century after their pretended dates."9 Those who concocted some of the hundreds of "alternative" gospels and epistles that were being kicked about during the first several centuries C.E. have even admitted that they had forged the documents.10 Forgery during the first centuries of the Church's existence was admittedly rampant, so common in fact that a new phrase was coined to describe it: "pious fraud."11
9-Forgery in Christianity by Joseph Wheless
10-Wheless quotes the Catholic Encyclopedia
11-Wheless, op cit. Mangasarian states: "The church historian, Mosheim, writes that, 'The Christian Fathers deemed it a pious act to employ deception and fraud.' [Ecclesiastical Hist., Vol. I, p. 347.]
I have the privilege to own an original copy of John Comly’s Journals. Printed 1853 but these quotes are from 1830. ( I left the spelling the way they had used in their era words that end in “or” they spelled “our” instead)the book is:
Life and Religious Labours of John Comly (of Byberry Pennsylvania). (he was a member & minister of the Religious Society of Friends..
P461: “How long will the Christian name be dishonoured by a traffic in human flesh? How long will the eastern shore of Maryland be disgraced by such advertisements as the above?”
P462:
“these evils contaminate society, Banish industry and improvement, and debase the character of man. Hence the agricultural interest and improvement of the soil is neglected.
We see today these same issues and problems arise but instead of holding back industry the Church holds back science and technology which is the new age of mans development and solution to our problems. We still see the problems with improving on things and changing for the good of society. The CHurch holds us back to wait for a dead man to snap us out of it when we ourselves are supposed to build the Kingdom or bring it closer from heaven (future perfected) down to earth (the present).
The following statement illustrates the attitude of the early Church fathers towards truthful reporting and the gullibility of the masses:
St. Augustine, Fifth--Century Bishop:
I was already Bishop of Hippo when I went into Ethiopia with some servants of Christ there to preach the Gospel. In this country, we saw many men and women without heads, who had two great eyes in their breasts; and in countries still more southly, we saw people who had but one eye in their foreheads.14
14. Taylor, Syntagma of the Evidences of the Christian Religion (Boston, 1828), p. 33
In a 3-day meeting of 60 scholars from around the world to treat a purely theological theme: "The Roots of anti-Judaism in the Christian Environment."
"The conference will focus on religious reasons for Jewish persecution rather than 'simple racial or political motivations,'" Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said in a speech.
"As if to dampen expectations, the Rev. Georges Cottier, a Vatican theologian who organized the conference, stressed that subject matter was 'anti-Judaism', not anti-Semitism.' "Cottier said anti-Judaism means the 'prejudices and pseudo-theological judgments which have long circulated' in Christian societies and that served as the 'pretext' for suffering inflicted on Jews.
"'These prejudices... stifled among many the capacity of evangelical reaction when the anti-Semitism of national socialism' surged through Europe, he said.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angelos based anti-Nazi group and my Activist Org, also has demanded that the Vatican open its World War II archives in connection with the conference."
