"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round,. Because I saw his shadow on the moon and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church" -~Ferdinand Magellan*
if u see anybody else outside of yourself as your savior this is erroneous. its the anti christ. the beast from the bible is the surface virus (it jumps from nervous system to nervous system and human optic fiber analogous tissue). this is why the indigo evolution is had. (i forgot the name of the tissue that is analogous to optical fiber in our bodies, there is an article i read somewhere in consciousazine.com which made me aware of its name, i was just trying to give the idea of information exchange between bodies and how this relates to the surface virus which is the beast notion from the bible)
ah found the pic again.fascia optics !
ah found the pic again.fascia optics !
Dont be a spastic, the bibles hard to interpret, spiritual reality is symbolic.
Calls them anarchists and communists in the same sentence........... I don't think this person knows what anarchy is or what communism is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuAAaB_C8kQ
haha yeh JESUS TURNING WATER TO WINE, ONE OF HIS MIRACLES, WAS THE FERMENTATION PROCESS I BET SHOWN TO SOME DUMB WHO SPREAD THE CHINESE WHISPERS WORD.
"In the late 1700s Lavoisier showed that in the process of transforming sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide (as in wine). The first solid evidence of the living nature of yeast appeared between 1837 and 1838 when three publications appeared by C. Cagniard de la Tour, T. Swann, and F. Kuetzing, each of whom independently concluded as a result of microscopic investigations that yeast was a living organism that reproduced by budding. "
~http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/fermentation.php
LOOK ALL IM SAYIN IS.. LIKE THIS GUY WILLIAM, THAT JESUS WAS A HIPPIE. (JESUS ALSO WORE A HOODIE )
haha yeh JESUS TURNING WATER TO WINE, ONE OF HIS MIRACLES, WAS THE FERMENTATION PROCESS I BET SHOWN TO SOME DUMB WHO SPREAD THE CHINESE WHISPERS WORD.
"In the late 1700s Lavoisier showed that in the process of transforming sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide (as in wine). The first solid evidence of the living nature of yeast appeared between 1837 and 1838 when three publications appeared by C. Cagniard de la Tour, T. Swann, and F. Kuetzing, each of whom independently concluded as a result of microscopic investigations that yeast was a living organism that reproduced by budding. "
~http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/fermentation.php
LOOK ALL IM SAYIN IS.. LIKE THIS GUY WILLIAM, THAT JESUS WAS A HIPPIE. (JESUS ALSO WORE A HOODIE )
The Devil Hell n Heaven
Chyeh... have to go here... it surfaced and showed itself .. so
(People only care about material things not the lives of fellow human beings, you lost your way... fell down a hole.. yet u say... there's some other destination which is hell.. right now for billions of people "life" here~now is equivalent to hell or hellish states, "neck up you parrot" squawk your own squawk.. you follower..)
So i know my elders love their like cartoons and distractions and fear.. yeh.. nice picture above shows their notion of hell.. a brainwashed notion they attained not from direct experience but from brainwash! :D in bible study class? or from their brainwashed parents? or some where like this..
Sorry to ruin the party..
So the Devil is the ego, and notice how that pictures real busy? yea? ever meditated? seen what happens then? less... clutter,,anyone?
seeing this yet?
Hell is also in the lower notion (i mean even in its own sense or in the bible) so hence body relative or what new age spiritual people term 3D (3rd dimensional) that being a lower end dimension in dense physicality..
Remember heavens a nirvanic white (uncluttered :) seen any clutter in heaven ? pics? ifso makes the pic feel a little less heavenly and peacefull no?)
*hell; its like a burning circuit overload. brain fire, the nervous system shorting out etc.
seeing this yet?
SO back to the picture, cluttered being relavant to before mediating when you really need to (so there u go now u can go do your own research find out if im right or if im trying to brainwash you, instead of u just beliebing me lika belieber in bible class)
can i get an amen?
:)
So cluttered are pictures of hell, this is relative to the nervous systems spuratic thoughts and why many of us choose (keyword here since we r talking about and dissolving brainwash eh) to meditate into.. mm peace...
so u can see very clearly hell is indeed as its own notion persists 'lower' dimensionally' speaking, its hellish?? when you wana sleep and all those thoughts WONT SHUT THE FUCK UP! isnt it?
devil hades and hell all notions relating to this dense physical perspective from the bodies organic portal type view.
When the ego dissolves u become a higher self or something, this is this notion of christ, remember they all chanting oh christ will return these christians.. yeh well IT has its an archetypy or resonance or whatever not a person, so christ is presently (2013) returning its ass off! :0 im a christ ian but not a christian, something along the lines of a christians core intentionality (which no despite all evidence not to rape little boys).
When the ego dissolves in buddhism also then u become higher self, now outside of any religions! in reality of life or real life, u astral plane u see things in the third eye zone u 'ascend' as the popular term going around. this is your cosmic christ or higher self its all different nomenclatures and angles on the same phenomena/neunomena; that of 'christing' or ego dis-identifying.
The ego is the devil, well fuck do u see your higher self needing to masturbate over that porn or? eat that junk food.. no.
so there u have it succinct.
~b.couwenberg over n out
"The Greates trick the devil ever pulled was to make u believe he doesnt exist" and so hence u identify as the ego. thinking what r u talking about thats me.. incorrect
Comments:
Dean Tobin: And what is more dangerous? The devil you know or the devil you don't?
Consciousazine: just as i say with sharks when surfing, its the shark u cant see u r worried about
Sunčicaa Proljetna
ha ha. Not boring I see. Devil is in all kind of varietes , devil is all Which makes us UNpleased and Bad. So yes, its the >legion<
Ben Couwenberg
yeh your talking of the beast as the bible calls it now.. the surface virus i call it..legion of sleepwalkers, but we all have this. sleep is part of all present consciousness.
remember the grim reaper is always shown as a bone skull, thats because "its like they are made of denser stuff than us, i mean its like u can part these people like wheat" BAHAHHA yeaahhh ~ t.mckenna.
The higher light body is exactly that ! the ego body is the denser notion. bone heads.
The universe is polar.. its bi polar lol!
and so henceforth skitzoprheny is an inbuilt function. like write only universal code.
now for once im not writing to appease the critics.. i always aim at the skeptics.. usually..
this time i just to say to the trodden.. the bi polar labeled the adhd labeled the this and the thats the skitzophrenic labeled and this.. DONT LET THEM PUT THOSE LABELS ON YOU AND PERPETUATE TRAUMA.
for they are the i would say misguided.. but its actually a case of guidlessness.. they are the lower.. they are the surface virus perpetuating its own hellish state.
now for once im not writing to appease the critics.. i always aim at the skeptics.. usually..
this time i just to say to the trodden.. the bi polar labeled the adhd labeled the this and the thats the skitzophrenic labeled and this.. DONT LET THEM PUT THOSE LABELS ON YOU AND PERPETUATE TRAUMA.
for they are the i would say misguided.. but its actually a case of guidlessness.. they are the lower.. they are the surface virus perpetuating its own hellish state.
book _The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross_ by John M. Allegro. A dense work of etymology tracing the roots of christianity back to Sumerian fertility cults, with particular focus on the possible central position of psychedelic mushrooms in mystery rites among early christians. Valuable analysis of the sexual connotations of mushroom morphology, and of encrypted mushroom-related information in the _New Testament_. Allegro was one of the original Dead Sea Scrolls scholars. ~http://fusionanomaly.net/mushrooms.html
Two more babies stricken with herpes after ritual ultra-orthodox Jewish oral blood sucking circumcision
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304793/Two-babies-stricken-HERPES-ritual-oral-blood-sucking-circumcision-New-York-City.html
Religion gets u "into"
Heaven huh.. hm
Indigo Evolution
sober drunken words !:D <3
Satan i think is the body. so now i understand hell heaven and the devil (ego). ~benjamin couwenberg
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/spiritualwarfare666/Kai%20Purr%20Writings.pdf < what made me realize "satan i think is the body".
The uniting of the Pingala and Ida nerves (twin serpents)
remember the bible says we r all dead in our sins?
Well thats an organic portal reference. sensed stored electrical waves r not conscious of themsleves.
the bodys sensed stored electrical waves .. u can be the transverser...consciousness
"mind over matter' rears its head again.
Jen Hall I Believe that this idea that we're all born of Sin was made up from the male ego domineering energy of Christianity in order to oppress the female energy!
Ben Couwenberg yeh def, but i think sin is just what bodies do. bodies,they r not conscious of themselves, and notice when souls identify as this they can do terrible things like rape etc the body has addictions
HEAVEN= "My love is unconditional, your action is irrelevant"~ Osho *
Satan i think is the body. so now i understand hell heaven and the devil (ego). ~benjamin couwenberg
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/spiritualwarfare666/Kai%20Purr%20Writings.pdf < what made me realize "satan i think is the body".
The uniting of the Pingala and Ida nerves (twin serpents)
remember the bible says we r all dead in our sins?
Well thats an organic portal reference. sensed stored electrical waves r not conscious of themsleves.
the bodys sensed stored electrical waves .. u can be the transverser...consciousness
"mind over matter' rears its head again.
Jen Hall I Believe that this idea that we're all born of Sin was made up from the male ego domineering energy of Christianity in order to oppress the female energy!
Ben Couwenberg yeh def, but i think sin is just what bodies do. bodies,they r not conscious of themselves, and notice when souls identify as this they can do terrible things like rape etc the body has addictions
HEAVEN= "My love is unconditional, your action is irrelevant"~ Osho *
to me this sort of thing is intuitive, along the lines of ofcourse ppl fudged with history, ofcourse texts are edited an so on.
dont accept the bullshit: and theres also always so many interpetations arguable, so hence look to the moment of now for truths coinciding with old texts to understand them, or just 'hell' throw them away and get on with direct experience !
Helen Demetriou "The Devil had no horns before the fourth century of the Christian era. It is a purely Patristic invention arising from their desire to connect the god Pan, and the pagan Fauns and Satyrs, with their Satanic legend. The demons of Heathendom were as hornless and as tailless as the Archangel Michael himself in the imaginations of his worshippers. The "horns" were, in pagan symbolism, an emblem of divine power and creation, and of fertility in nature. Hence the ram's horns of Ammon, of Bacchus, and of Moses on ancient medals, and the cow's horns of Isis and Diana, etc., etc., and of the Lord God of the Prophets of Israel himself. For Habakkuk gives the evidence that this symbolism was accepted by the "chosen people" as much as by the Gentiles. In Chapter III that prophet speaks of the "Holy One from Mount Paran," of the Lord God who "comes from Teman, and whose brightness was as the light," and who had "horns coming out of his hand."
When one reads, moreover, the Hebrew text of Isaiah, and finds that no Lucifer is mentioned at all in Chapter XIV., v. 12, but simply text Hillel, "a bright star," one can hardly refrain from wondering that educated people should be still ignorant enough at the close of our century to associate a radiant planet--or anything else in nature for the matter of that--with the DEVIL!9"
-Helena Blavatsky
dont accept the bullshit: and theres also always so many interpetations arguable, so hence look to the moment of now for truths coinciding with old texts to understand them, or just 'hell' throw them away and get on with direct experience !
Helen Demetriou "The Devil had no horns before the fourth century of the Christian era. It is a purely Patristic invention arising from their desire to connect the god Pan, and the pagan Fauns and Satyrs, with their Satanic legend. The demons of Heathendom were as hornless and as tailless as the Archangel Michael himself in the imaginations of his worshippers. The "horns" were, in pagan symbolism, an emblem of divine power and creation, and of fertility in nature. Hence the ram's horns of Ammon, of Bacchus, and of Moses on ancient medals, and the cow's horns of Isis and Diana, etc., etc., and of the Lord God of the Prophets of Israel himself. For Habakkuk gives the evidence that this symbolism was accepted by the "chosen people" as much as by the Gentiles. In Chapter III that prophet speaks of the "Holy One from Mount Paran," of the Lord God who "comes from Teman, and whose brightness was as the light," and who had "horns coming out of his hand."
When one reads, moreover, the Hebrew text of Isaiah, and finds that no Lucifer is mentioned at all in Chapter XIV., v. 12, but simply text Hillel, "a bright star," one can hardly refrain from wondering that educated people should be still ignorant enough at the close of our century to associate a radiant planet--or anything else in nature for the matter of that--with the DEVIL!9"
-Helena Blavatsky
Ben Couwenberg: so i think now because i sense nomenclature gnosticly, satan is body, luzifer is brain monkey mind, the devil is the ego, and hell is what all those three can make when they are in the truffles of a skitzophrenic state and interfering with one anothers confusion. thanks guys at the end of history here u have made it all clear, my satanist friends dajana fitos and her crew (with their "hail satan" comments lol, fanatic much! )
, big love for being who u r every perspective and angle is important in order to fit the pieces together... i go by no moniker, i am nothing and no one.
~picture: a piece of me, the silver surfer; who is a cosmic nuat, or psychonuat; the throws of cosmic ecstaticus whom comes after homo sapien.
Ben Couwenberg: the silver surfers, were the ones who surfed the concresence to the eschaton.
, big love for being who u r every perspective and angle is important in order to fit the pieces together... i go by no moniker, i am nothing and no one.
~picture: a piece of me, the silver surfer; who is a cosmic nuat, or psychonuat; the throws of cosmic ecstaticus whom comes after homo sapien.
Ben Couwenberg: the silver surfers, were the ones who surfed the concresence to the eschaton.
The Dark Side of CHRISTIAN HISTORY
Helen Ellerbe
"This is simply a book that everyone must sit down and read,,
-Alice Walker
This book is dedicated to
freedom and human dignity.
Contents:
Preface i
Introduction 1
ONE Seeds of Tyranny 4
TWO Political Maneuvering:
Making Christianity Palatable
to the Romans
14
THREE Deciding Upon Doctrine:
Sex, Free Will, Reincarnation
and the Use of Force
30
FOUR The Church Takes Over:
The Dark Ages
41
FIVE The Church Fights Change:
The Middle Ages
54
SIX Controlling the Human Spirit:
The Inquisition and Slavery
76
SEVEN The Reformation:
Converting the Populace
93
EIGHT The Witch Hunts:
The End of Magic and Miracles
114
NINE Alienation From Nature 139
TEN A World Without God 165
ELEVEN Conclusion 185
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustration Credits
189
208
213
220
Preface
In June of 1995 the Chicago Tribune reported that Pope John
Paul II had urged the Roman Catholic Church to seize the
"particularly propitious" occasion of the new millennium to
recognize "the dark side of its history."1 In a 1994 confidential
letter to cardinals which was later leaked to the Italian press, he
asked,
How can one remain silent about the many forms
of violence perpetrated in the name of the
faith—wars of religion, tribunals of the
Inquisition and other forms of violations of the
rights of persons?2
Unfortunately, too many have remained silent. Several years
ago I listened in amazement as an acquaintance spoke of how the
Christian Church had embodied the best of Western civilization
and how it had brought peace and understanding to the people it
touched. He seemed entirely unaware of the Church's dark past.
I decided to prepare a short presentation chronicling the dark
side of Christian history—a presentation to help balance the
perception that organized Christianity has historically lived up to
its professed principles and ideals.
I assumed that I would easily find all the information
necessary for this presentation at the bookstore, but was soon
shocked to find so little available on the subject. While historians
have certainly written about the dark side of Christian history,
their words have largely stayed within the confines of academe.
And few have written of Christianity's role in creating a world
in which people feel alienated from the sacred. Why, at a time
when so many are searching for deeper spiritual meaning, isn't
there more accessible information about the history of the
institutions which are purported to convey such spiritual truth?
Without understanding the dark side of religious history, one
might think that religion and spirituality are one and the same.
Yet, organized religion has a very long history of curtailing and
containing spirituality, one's personal and private relationship
with God, the sacred, or the divine.
This book is what became of that short presentation. My
intention is to offer, not a complete picture of Christian history,
but only the side which hurt so many and did such damage to
spirituality. It is in no way intended to diminish the beautiful
work that countless Christian men and women have done to truly
help others. And it is certainly not intended as a defense of or
tribute to any other religion.
Helen Ellerbe
February 1996
Introduction
The Christian church has left a legacy, a world view, that
permeates every aspect of Western society, both secular and
religious. It is a legacy that fosters sexism, racism, the intolerance
of difference, and the desecration of the natural environment.
The Church, throughout much of its history, has demonstrated
a disregard for human freedom, dignity, and selfdetermination.
It has attempted to control, contain and confine
spirituality, the relationship between an individual and God. As
a result, Christianity has helped to create a society in which
people are alienated not only from each other but also from the
divine.
This Christianity—called "orthodox Christianity" here—is
embedded in the belief in a singular, solely masculine, authoritarian
God who demands unquestioning obedience and who
mercilessly punishes dissent. Orthodox Christians believe that
fear is essential to sustain what they perceive to be a divinely
ordained hierarchical order in which a celestial God reigns
singularly at a pinnacle, far removed from the earth and all
humankind.
While orthodox Christianity originally represented but one of
many sets of early Christian beliefs, it was these Christians who
came to wield political power. By adapting their Christianity to
appeal to the Roman government, they won unprecedented
authority and privilege. Their church became known as the
Church. This newly acquired power enabled them to enforce
conformity to their practices. Persecuting those who did not
conform, however, required the Church to clarify its own doctrine and ideology, to define exactly what was and was not
heresy. In doing so, the Church consistently chose tenets and
ideologies that best supported its control over the individual and
society.
As it took over leadership in Europe and the Roman Empire
collapsed, the Church all but wiped out education, technology,
science, medicine, history, art and commerce. The Church
amassed enormous wealth as the rest of society languished in the
dark ages. When dramatic social changes after the turn of the
millennium brought an end to the isolation of the era, the Church
fought to maintain its supremacy and control. It rallied an
increasingly dissident society against perceived enemies,
instigating attacks upon Muslims, Eastern Orthodox Christians,
and Jews. When these crusades failed to subdue dissent, the
Church turned its force against European society itself, launching
a brutal assault upon southern France and instituting the Inquisition.
The crusades and even the early centuries of the Inquisition
did little to teach people a true understanding of orthodox
Christianity. It was the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic
Counter Reformation that accomplished this. Only during the
Reformation did the populace of Europe adopt more than a
veneer of Christianity. The Reformation terrified people with
threats of the devil and witchcraft. The common perception that
the physical world was imbued with God's presence and with
magic was replaced during the Reformation with a new belief
that divine assistance was no longer possible and that the
physical world belonged only to the devil. It was a three hundred
year holocaust against all who dared believe in divine assistance
and magic that finally secured the conversion of Europe to
orthodox Christianity.
By convincing people that God was separate from the physical
world, orthodox Christianity—perhaps unwittingly—laid the
foundation for the modern world, a world believed to be mechanical and determined, a world in which God is at most a
remote and impersonal creator. People came to attribute their
sense of powerlessness, not so much to their sinful human nature
as to their insignificance in such a world. The theories of
scientists and philosophers such as Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes
and Charles Darwin reinforced orthodox Christian beliefs such
as the inevitability of struggle and the necessity for domination.
Such beliefs, however, are now proving not only to have serious
drawbacks, but also to be scientifically limited.
Orthodox Christianity has also had devastating impact upon
humanity's relationship with nature. As people began to believe
that God was removed from and disdainful of the physical world,
they lost their reverence for nature. Holidays, which had helped
people integrate the seasons with their lives, were changed into
solemn commemorations of biblical events bearing no connection
to the earth's cycles. The perception of time changed so that it
no longer seemed related to seasonal cycles. Newtonian science
seemed to confirm that the earth was no more than the inevitable
result of the mechanistic operation of inanimate components; it
confirmed that the earth lacked sanctity.
The dark side of Christian history can help us understand the
severing of our connection with the sacred. It can teach us of the
most insidious and damaging slavery of all: the control of people
through dictating and containing their spirituality. This ignored
side of history can illuminate the ideas and beliefs which foster
the denigration of human rights, the intolerance of difference,
and the desecration of the natural environment. Once recognized,
we can prevent such beliefs from ever wreaking such destruction
again. When we understand how we have come to be separated
from the divine, we can begin to heal not only the scars, but the
very alienation itself.
Seeds of Tyranny
100 - 400 C.E.
Those who sought to control spirituality, to restrict personal
relationships with God, gained prominence within the first
centuries of the Christian era. Their beliefs formed the ideological
foundation for much of the dark side of the Christian
church's history. Committed to the belief in singular supremacy,
these orthodox Christians thought that fear and submission to
hierarchical authority were imperative. Not all Christians agreed.
In fact, contrary to the conventional depiction of the first
centuries of Christianity as a time of harmony and unity, early
Christians disagreed about everything from the nature of God
and the roles of men and women to the way one finds enlightenment.
Perhaps most pivotal to the group of Christians who would
triumph—called "orthodox Christians" here*—was the belief in
a singular supremacy, the belief that divinity is manifest in only
one image. The belief in a singular God differed radically from
the widespread belief that divinity could be manifest in a
multiplicity of forms and images. As people believe that God can
* The use of the term "orthodox" in this book refers to the traditional ideology
within most denominations of Christianity, not to any specific church or
denomination.
have but one face, so they tend to believe that worth or godliness
among humans can also have but one face. Different genders,
races, classes, or beliefs are all ordered as better-than or lessthan
one another. Even the notion of two differing opinions
existing harmoniously becomes foreign; one must prevail and be
superior to the other.
Within such a belief structure, God is understood to reign
singularly from the pinnacle of a hierarchy based not upon love
and support, but upon fear. The Bible repeatedly exhorts people
to fear God: "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this
is the whole duty of man."1 "Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord."2 "Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power
to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him."3 The third
century Church Father, Tertullian, could not imagine how God
could not demand fear:
But how are you going to love, without some
fear that you do not love? Surely [such a God]
is neither your Father, towards whom your love
for duty's sake should be consistent with fear
because of His power; nor your proper Lord,
whom you should love for His humanity and fear
as your teacher.4
One's beliefs about God have impact upon one's beliefs about
society. As the Lord's Prayer states, God's will should "be done
on earth as it is in heaven." Orthodox Christians believed that
people should fear their earthly ruler as they fear God. The
fourth century St. John Chrysostom describes the absolute
necessity for fear:
...if you were to deprive the world of magistrates
and the fear that comes from them, houses, cities
and nations would fall upon one another in
unrestrained confusion, there being no one to
repress, or repel, or persuade them to be peaceful
through the fear of punishment.5
To the orthodox, fear was essential to maintaining order.
Christians, such as the second century Marcion, who stressed
the merciful, forgiving and loving nature of God, found themselves
at odds with the orthodox. In orthodox Christian eyes,
God must be prone to anger and demand discipline and punishment.
Tertullian wrote:
Now, if [Marcion's God] is susceptible of no
feeling of rivalry, or anger, or damage, or
injury, as one who refrains from exercising
judicial power, I cannot tell how any system of
discipline—and that, too, a plenary one—can be
consistent in him.6
Scholars have suggested that the first line of the Christian creed,
"I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth," was originally written to exclude Marcion's followers by
emphasizing the monotheistic and judgmental nature of God.7
Orthodox Christians placed great importance upon the
singular authority of the bishop, upon rankings within the clergy,
and upon distinction between the clergy and the laity. As there
is only one God in heaven, declared the first century bishop,
Ignatius of Antioch, so there can be only one bishop in the
Church.8 "Your bishop presides in the place of God, and your
[priests] in the place... of the apostles," he wrote. "Apart from
these, there is no church."9 Such beliefs and attitudes, however,
were certainly not shared by all Christians. The orthodox
emphasized rank to such an extent that one Gnostic Christian
wrote of them: "They wanted to command one another, outrivalling
one another in their vain ambition," lusting "for power
over one another," "each one imagining that he is superior to the
others."10
Not all Christians accepted the belief in singular supremacy.
Some Gnostic Christians understood God to be multi-faceted,
having both masculine and feminine aspects. Some thought of the
divine as a dyad; one side being "the Ineffable, the Depth, the Primal Father" while the other side was "Grace, Silence, the
Womb and Mother of the All."11 In the Gnostic Apocryphon of
John, a vision of God appears saying, "I am the Father, I am the
Mother, I am the Child."12 Theodotus, a Gnostic teacher, said,
"each one knows the Lord after his own fashion, and not all in
the same way."13 To root out Gnostic Christians from the
orthodox, the second century orthodox Bishop Irenaeus encouraged
Christians to "confess with the tongue one God the
Father."14
Without the belief in singular supremacy, it followed that
Gnostic Christians would also reject hierarchical order and strict
rankings within their church. In contrast to the orthodox Ignatius
of Antioch who believed that the rankings of bishop, priest and
deacon mirrored the heavenly hierarchy,15 some Gnostic Christians
did not even differentiate between clergy and laity, much
less between stations of the clergy. Tertullian described the
Gnostics:
So today one man is bishop and tomorrow
another; the person who is a deacon today,
tomorrow is a reader; the one who is a priest
today is a layman tomorrow; for even on the
laity they impose the functions of priesthood!16
And:
...they all have access equally, they listen
equally, they pray equally—even pagans, if any
happen to come... They also share the kiss of
peace with all who come...17
Within an orthodox belief structure, there is no understanding
of shared authority and supremacy between genders; one must be
superior to the other. Perceiving the singular face of God to be
male, orthodox Christians considered male supremacy an
extension of heavenly order. St. Augustine wrote in the early
fifth century, "we must conclude, that a husband is meant to rule
over his wife as the spirit rules over the flesh."18 In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tried to explain the reason for
male supremacy:
For a man did not originally spring from
woman, but woman was made out of man; and
was not created for woman's sake, but woman
for the sake of man.19
As late as 1977, Pope Paul VI still explained that women were
barred from the priesthood "because our Lord was a man."20
Among the orthodox, women were to take submissive roles.
In the first letter to Timothy, St. Paul says:
Let a woman learn in silence with all
submissiveness, I permit no woman to teach or
to have authority over men; she is to keep
silent.21
When Christian monks in the fourth century hacked the great
scholar Hypatia to death with oyster shells, St. Cyril explained
that it was because she was an iniquitous female who had
presumed, against God's commandments, to teach men.22
There were early Christians, however, who embraced neither
the idea that God is exclusively male, nor the concept of male
supremacy. An early group known as the Essenes, many of
whose writings have been discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls,
thought of divinity as having a feminine aspect. In the Essene
Gospel of Peace, Jesus says, "I will lead you into the kingdom
of our Mother's angels..."23 A Gnostic text tells how Eve, the
daughter of Sophia who had wished the first heavenly light into
the world, gives life to Adam:
...[Eve] said, 'Adam, live! Rise up on the
earth!' Immediately her word became a deed.
For when Adam rose up, immediately he opened
his eyes. When he saw her, he said, 'You will be
called "the mother of the living" because you
are the one who gave me life.'24
Not all early Christian women accepted subservient roles.
While Gnostics held a wide range of views, several of their
writings refer to Mary Magdalene as one of the most important
leaders of the early Christian movement. Some believed that she
was the first to see Jesus Christ resurrected and that she
challenged Peter's authority as part of the emerging Church
hierarchy. Tertullian was appalled at the role of women among
Gnostics:
The... women of the heretics, how wanton they
are! For they are bold enough to teach, to
dispute, to enact exorcisms, to undertake cures
—it may be even to baptize!25
Another point of contention among Christians dealt with the
nature of truth and how an individual might become enlightened.
Much of this argument centered around the resurrection of
Christ, around whether it was Christ's physical body or his spirit
that had been resurrected. Orthodox Christians insisted that it
had been Christ's physical body, to use Tertullian's words, his
"flesh suffused with blood, built up with bones, interwoven with
nerves, entwined with veins... "26 They believed that since it was
Christ's physical body, the resurrection was a one-time
occurrence, never to be experienced again.
The orthodox insisted that one could learn of Christ only
through those who had experienced this resurrection, the
Apostles, or those men appointed as their successors. This
confined power and authority to a small few and established a
specific chain of command.27 It restricted the avenues through
which one could discover God. Orthodox, catholic ("universal")
Christians claimed to be those appointed successors of the
Apostles and thus the only ones who could enlighten others.
Bishop Irenaeus declared:
It is incumbent to obey the priests who are in the
Church... those who possess the succession from
the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the
certain gift of truth.28
To this day the Pope traces his authority and primacy to Peter
himself, "first of the apostles," since he was "first witness of the
resurrection."29
Some Gnostics, however, called the belief in the resurrection
of Christ's literal, physical body rather than his spirit the "faith
of fools."30 They took issue both with the idea that anyone had
seen Christ in physical body after the resurrection as well as with
the assertion that Peter had been the first to experience the
resurrected Christ. Even the canonized gospels of Mark and John
relate how Jesus first appeared, not to Peter or to the Apostles,
but to Mary Magdalene.31 By Jesus's saying to Mary "Touch me
not,"32 some think that Jesus implied he was in spirit form rather
than in physical body. Believing Christ's spirit to have been
resurrected suggests that anyone, regardless of his or her rank,
could experience or "see the Lord" in dreams or visions.
Anyone could become empowered with the same authority as the
Apostles.33 Anyone could have access to and develop his or her
own relationship with God.
Christians disagreed about the very nature of truth. To the
orthodox, who believed that truth could come only through the
successors of the Apostles, truth was static and never-changing.
It had been revealed only once at the resurrection. Consequently,
they thought that one should learn of God only through the
Church, not from personal inquiry and not from one's own
experience. Blind faith was considered more important than
personal understanding. Bishop Irenaeus cautioned not to seek
answers "such as every one discovers for himself," but rather to
accept in faith that which the Church teaches and which "can be
clearly, unambiguously and harmoniously understood by all."34
He wrote, "If... we cannot discover explanations of all those
things in Scripture... we should leave things of that nature to
God who created us, being most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect."35 Tertullian declared:
We want no curious disputation after possessing
Christ Jesus, no inquisition after enjoying the
gospel! With our faith, we desire no further
belief.36
One should unquestioningly accept and submit to whatever the
Church teaches.
Indeed, orthodox Christians deemed rigorous personal pursuit
of truth and understanding an indication of heresy. As Tertullian
wrote:
This rule... was taught by Christ, and raises
amongst ourselves no other questions than those
which heresies introduce, and which make men
heretics.37
And:
But on what ground are heretics strangers and
enemies to the apostles, if it be not from the
difference of their teaching, which each
individual of his own mere will has either
advanced or received?38
Since the orthodox believed truth to be known only to the
successors of the Apostles, one could learn of it only by
accepting the Church's teachings in blind faith.
Others, however, believing that Christ's spirit and presence
could be experienced by anyone at any time, considered truth to
be dynamic and ever-increasing. Some Gnostics believed that
truth and Gnosis or "knowledge" was found, not by looking to
the Church, but by looking within oneself. Self-knowledge would
lead to knowing God. A Gnostic teacher named Monoimus
wrote:
Look for (God) by taking yourself as the starting
point... Learn the sources of sorrow, joy, love,
hate... If you carefully investigate these matters
you will find him in yourself.39
The first century Simon Magus taught that within each human
being dwells "the Boundless power, which... is the root of the
universe."40 The path to enlightenment involved not simply
accepting the words of the Church on faith, but an active
personal search for understanding. A Gnostic text reads "...the
rational soul who wearied herself in seeking—she learned about
God."41
These Christians believed self-exploration to be imperative to
one's spiritual path. In the Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas,
Jesus says:
If you bring forth what is within you, what you
bring forth will save you. If you do not bring
forth what is within you, what you do not bring
forth will destroy you.42
They believed that searching could dispel the ignorance that
produced a nightmarish existence in which one is caught in
"many illusions" and experiences "terror and confusion and
instability and doubt and division. "43 The Gospel of Truth reads:
ignorance... brought about anguish and terror.
And the anguish grew solid like a fog, so that no
one was able to see.44
Searching within oneself could bring the knowledge and
enlightenment to dispel such ignorance. They believed that Jesus
had encouraged self-exploration. Jesus said, "Seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" and "the Kingdom
of God is within you."45
Just as the orthodox wanted to control truth, so they wanted
strict control over who could dispense that truth. Early
Christians differed sharply about the role of the Church. Gnostic
Christians who valued personal exploration believed that the
structure of the Church should remain flexible, while orthodox
Christians insisted upon strict adherence to a singular Church.46
Bishop Irenaeus insisted there could be only one church, and
outside that church "there is no salvation."47 He said of the Church, "she is the entrance to life, all others are thieves and
robbers."48 Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, wrote, "Let no man
deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived
of the bread of God. "49 And Clement, the Bishop of Rome from
90-100 C.E., argued that God alone rules all things, that He lays
down the law, punishing rebels and rewarding the obedient, and
that His authority is delegated to Church leaders. Clement went
as far as to say that whoever disobeys these divinely ordained
authorities has disobeyed God Himself and should receive the
death penalty.50
Long before the Church's attempt to control spirituality would
take its devastating toll, the seeds of its tyranny were evident in
the ideology of early orthodox Christians. Their belief in
singular supremacy limited the way one could understand God
and it eliminated any representation of shared supremacy. It
encouraged a fear-based authoritarian structure that segregates
people into positions of superiority or inferiority, restricts
personal empowerment, and demands unquestioning obedience.
Although orthodox Christians represented only one of many
early branches, within a few centuries they had effectively
suppressed the diversity of early beliefs and ideas. Orthodox
Christian beliefs became synonymous with Christianity itself.
http://ethosworld.com/library/Ellerbe-The-Dark-Side-of-Christian-History-(1995).pdf
Atheists aren’t concerned with rising up and seizing control of anything. All we want is for a fair and balanced society, a world governed by reason and equality instead of an ancient outdated history book. Yes, we continue to battle christians for the foreseeable future on numerous subjects, but only because christians continue to insist everyone else play by the rules of their kooky cult. Atheists are a direct threat to them because we’re the biggest reminder that people can live perfectly happy, good lives without a god. So even though atheists haven’t done anything other than enforce the separation of church and state, they’re discriminated against and looked down on by the rest of society.~jenny lane
Hell is other people.
I only believe one thing out of a humans mouth : vomit.
~unknown
Stay low, stay quiet, keep it simple, don't expect too much, enjoy what you have.
~Dean Koontz
Betrayed and wronged in
everything,
I’ll flee this bitter world
where vice is king,
And seek some spot
unpeopled and apart
Where I’ll be free to have an
honest heart.
~Molière
What is Man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
~jenny lane
By four o'clock, I've discounted suicide in favor of killing everyone else in the entire world instead.
~Warren Ellis
I'm tired of this back-slappin' "isn't humanity
neat" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes.
I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around.
~Charles Bukowski
I only believe one thing out of a humans mouth : vomit.
~unknown
Stay low, stay quiet, keep it simple, don't expect too much, enjoy what you have.
~Dean Koontz
Betrayed and wronged in
everything,
I’ll flee this bitter world
where vice is king,
And seek some spot
unpeopled and apart
Where I’ll be free to have an
honest heart.
~Molière
What is Man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
~jenny lane
By four o'clock, I've discounted suicide in favor of killing everyone else in the entire world instead.
~Warren Ellis
I'm tired of this back-slappin' "isn't humanity
neat" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes.
I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around.
~Charles Bukowski
War is hell on earth. no picture needed. u get the picture.