Tuesday, March 6, 2018

The Second Coming: As the long years passed and one generation of disappointed Jews was gathered unto its Fathers and one was followed by another, the believers in the"Promise Second Coming" for the establishment of the Jewish Kingdom grew restless, and made pertinent complaints, " saying, where is the promise of his coming?" for since the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."[ 2 Peter,ii,4 ]. It was at critical juncture, to revive and stimulate the jaded hope of the Jewish believers and to spread the propaganda amongst the all-believing Pagan, that the written Christ-tales began to be worked up by the Christian propagandist. Before their admiring eyes they had for models the " whole literature" of Jewish apocryphal or forged writings, plus the Pagan Oracles: with immense zeal and industry they set about to imitate the example before them, and reforge these Jewish and heathen forgeries to a more definite christian use, and to forge anew, another whole literature of distinctively christian forgeries and fabulous history of Christ." In this form of propaganda the Christians proved themselves to be apt pupils of the Jews. So common indeed, had become in early Christian times the invention of such oracles that Celsus terms " Christian Sibyllistai , believers in sibyls, or sibyl- mongerers"[ EB..i,246 ] that is, peddlers of Christian forgeries in pagan form[ Ib.p.261]. We have seen that the Hebrew Old Testament itself " revealed no formal notion of inspiration" though, we are assured, that the later Jews must have possessed the idea"[CE.iii,269]; thus only an idea or notion somehow acquired, but not through divine illumination, for as we read of all the mass of Jewish holy forgeries" each of them has at one time or another been treated as canonical or divinely inspired".[EB.i.250]." There are no indications in the New Testament of a definite new canon bequeathed by the Apostles to the church, or of a strong self-witness to divine inspiration", admits the CE.[iii,274]; that is, there is nothing in the 27 booklets which would lead to the suspicion of their " inspiration of truth...Forgery in Christianity!!..J.Wheless...

No comments: