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 CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Who Decided the Bible Is the Word of God?.......... 3

Chapter 2 How Were the Old Testament Books Selected?....... 7

Chapter 3 Talk Out of Both Sides of Your Mount.................... 10

Chapter 4 Whose Law Is It Anyway?............................................. 17

Chapter 5 What Abut Matthew 5?................................................. 23

Chapter 6 What About John 5?....................................................... 26

Chapter 7 Then Why Was Jesus Crucified?.................................. 29

Chapter 8 How Were The New Testament Books Chosen?..... 35

Chapter 9 If It’s Not God’s Word Then What Is It? ................ 37

 Chapter 1

WHO DECIDED THAT THE

BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD?

“What is the Truth?” Tell me the truth!

I don’t care what it is, I want to know the truth!

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE.

1. The Bible is full of contradictions.
2. Jesus’ words and actions did not reflect the God that Moses and the
Prophets spoke about.
3. The Bible is the “God-breathed”, perfect, inherent Word of God.

Can you spot the lie?

First let me give some backstory of how this journey came about. On
April 4, 2000 I surrendered my life to Jesus. After that I began a journey of
discovering who Jesus was. I was told the best way to learn about God is
through His Word, which we call The Bible. So, I read it. There were some
very powerful things that I discovered and a lot of words of Jesus that made a
lot of sense to the Jesus that I know. The Jesus that pursued me even though
I was a “bad person” and turned my heart toward Himself. The Jesus that filled
me with love and gave me freedom from my fears and insecurities. The Jesus
that was a much better friend and Father than I could ever be.

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I started to read from the beginning of the Bible. I learned about a God
who created the world, and the sea, and the animals. A God who created
humans and marriage and love between people and God, and He was pleased.
But, apparently God wanted to test humans and planted trees to see what they
would do. They failed His test. Which an all-knowing God would have already
known would happen. Although He knew they would fail He still cursed men
and the snake that tempted them.

This single event sends God on a 4,000-year tirade. Now He demands

sacrifices for sin. BLOOD MUST BE SHED. He often needs tests to see
where His children are at. He tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, just to see if
he would do it. He floods the earth and drowns everyone except for one family
that He is not mad at. He wipes out cities because of their sin. He gives a very
extensive, detailed Law that commands people not to murder, yet instructs
those who don’t obey to be stoned to death and thrown into fire.

He hardens hearts and destroys millions of people including innocent

women and children. And then, one day, He has an incredibly DRASTIC
change of heart. He sends His Son to earth. With a message that He and the
Father are one. They’re exactly the same. He only does what He sees His Father
doing. Woah I’m scared! This guy is going to burn the earth to the ground with
fury! If God was that pissed in Heaven, imagine what His Son who is exactly
like Him, who gets His orders from His Father, is going to do now that He is
physically on earth!

But instead, He is loving. He is full of mercy. He is compassionate. He

doesn’t speak of killing sinners, in fact he rarely mentions sin because He’s
preoccupied with speaking about loving people. He says He’s not going to
judge anyone (John 8:15) and we shouldn’t judge anyone either. Instead of
killing people who mistreated Him like He has done for thousands of years,
now He doesn’t resist the murder of Himself, although He is innocent.

I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE

Now I’m confused… oh. I get it. God is bipolar. He has the most insane
mood swings of anyone in history. Right? No. Check His perfect Word. He is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Ok. I don’t quite see that, but if it’s in
the Bible then I know it’s true. For the next eighteen years I wrestled with this
burden. The Bible does not make sense to me but it’s imperative that I make
it true, because it is directly from God’s mouth, so it is 100% perfect and
accurate. A trick is, whenever you get really stuck you can just say

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 Who Decided That the Bible Is the Word of God?

something is “taken out of context” or “a poor translation”. Another popular

one is that “you must understand the customs of that time”. However, if it’s
something you like then there is no need for this. You can take these writings
as verbatim.

Like tithing for example, no one needs to adhere to the Old Testament
anymore when it comes to how to keep your beard or how women should
dress, but the one or two mentions of tithing in the Old Testament still apply
today in the modern church. How incredibly convenient! Ok I promised I
would not be sarcastic in this book. Where was I? Oh, so off I went for the
next eighteen years trying to work out the difficulties I had with the Bible being
the “God-breathed”, inherent Word of God, but so many things confused me.
The biggest being His actions in the Old Testament towards His children.

Along this journey I became a father myself. I would read the Bible and
look at my son, thinking, “I would never treat my son that way. If I’m a better
father than God than why am I even calling Him God?” I wouldn’t load him
up with rules and add the consequence of death if he did not obey. I would not
put him through grueling, painful tests, to see how he feels about me. How is
it that I am a better father than God Himself?

I asked people to explain how the Bible reflects the same God throughout
history and the best answers I could get is that, God the Father is the angry
judgmental one, but He has this really loving merciful Son, so He sent Him to
die because He requires bloodshed to forgive sin. “Why does He need
bloodshed and sacrifice to forgive?”, I asked. “Because He’s God and He can
do what He wants.”, I was told.

This just doesn’t make sense! But I learned that it was my Christian
responsibility to make it make sense. Although it seems completely
contradictory at times, it is imperative that I have an explanation for every
inconsistency in the Bible because IT IS GOD’S WORD!

BREAKING POINT
Then one day in early 2018, I hit a breaking point. We had some people
over and were having a worship night. We played YouTube videos of worship
music and I found myself doing it again. Alone with my thoughts I started
thinking… Why would God send a storm to judge the world and then Jesus
rebuke a storm? Does God create storms or send them away? Also, if the flood
happened in 2500 BC and Moses wrote it down in 1500 BC then how did that

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story get to him? Was it word of mouth? How does a thousand-year-old story
stay intact when it’s passed from generation to generation and then written on
stone in an ancient language, translated multiple times, and now I’m reading it
on my iPhone as if it’s verbatim? Who is this Job guy from the land of Uz?
Where is Uz? Where is his lineage? Why did God allow this? And how the fuck
could Job know about a conversation that the devil had with God? Where did
he get that information?

This was just the tip of the iceberg of my questions. So many of my

questions were going unanswered that I looked to God and said sternly, “What
is the Truth?” “Tell me the truth! I don’t care what it is, I want to know the
truth!” I said it and I meant it. I can’t take this anymore. The way I’ve been
taught does not make sense and I want to know what the truth really is! Then
a new question entered my mind that hadn’t before.

Who decided that the Bible is the Word of God?

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 Chapter 2

HOW WERE THE OLD

TESTAMENT BOOKS
SELECTED?

2,500 Years Ago, A Great Assembly Made

A Decision That Has Never Been Challenged!

So where did this collection of books come from? Who decided which books
should be included and who labeled it as the Word of God? Was it God
Himself? My search for these answers was equally shocking and disappointing.

First of all, I don’t even know what a “Testament” is. The Dictionary
gives two definitions.

1. “A person's will, especially the part relating to personal property.

2. “A covenant or dispensation (a divinely ordained order prevailing at a

particular period of history).”

So when we refer to this collection of Books as “The Old Testament”

we’re calling it “God’s old will and divine order for that time in History”. That
alone seems surprising for a God that never changes (Hebrews 13:8), but I first

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need to learn when the word “Testament” was added to the book. There are
full existing copies of King James Version of the Bible and they do not begin
with the title “The Old Testament”, instead they start with “The First Book of
Moses, called Genesis” and continue to list the books from there. Somewhere
in the last 400 years we stopped listing these as books of people, and started
listing them as God’s old and new divine order.

So my next question is, “Did Jesus ever say that the ‘Old Testament’ was
His Word”? I started asking some churchy friends about this and to my surprise
no one knew the answer. No one knew why exactly we call these book’s God’s
perfect Word and how exactly it was decided and by whom. When I started to
doubt that any of this is even legit, I heard things like, “I believe the Holy Spirit
guided people to make the right selection of books and preserved the writings.”
How ironic! These are the same people that doubt the miracles I’ve witnessed,
testimonies of miracles happening at my “crazy Charismatic Church”, and my
belief in speaking in tongues, but suddenly they have a new-found faith in the
power and creativity of the Holy Spirit! Again, how convenient!
I soon learned that people would get visibly angry and upset with me for
even suggesting the Bible is not inherent. Why is this so outrageous? Isn’t
Christianity a relationship with God? If my wife or friends had an
autobiography I wouldn’t need that to commune with them. That book would
be ok to reference, but I wouldn’t need it or let it overrule the personal
relationship I have with them. So why is questioning the Bible’s perfection so
offensive?

GIVE ME THE FACTS

I started with the Old Testament. Who wrote Genesis? After extensive
research I finally got my answer. And the answer is, “we’re not sure”. Most
assume Moses because his law is included in the first five books of the Old
Testament, so we said he authored all of it. The problem we believe these
events happened from 4,000 BC to 1,500 BC when Moses began to write “the
Word of God” on stone tablets and scrolls. How did he acquire facts from the
beginning of time if they happened thousands of years before he was alive?
Well… again… we don’t know. There are a lot of debates and theories of how
this happened with the most popular theories being, God told him face to face
or it was passed down via word-of-mouth for 2,500 years. Either way those
words WERE given to Moses, or whomever wrote Genesis, ABSOLUTELTY
PERFECTLY and without error, then copies were made by hand by scribes
several times over so the Law can be followed throughout Israel, then it was
translated to Greek (again this is all by hand for thousands more years), then it
was translated to English, and now it is available in EVERY language on your

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 How Were the Old Testament Books Selected?

mobile phone in sixty different versions and they are all absolutely
perfect, without error, and direct from God’s mouth.

Let’s say you believe all that is true, and I understand if you do, because
the Holy Spirit guided and directed the people and council of men that decided
which books should be included and which should be excluded from the Holy
Bible. Well, that position might also disappoint you. Again, the answer to the
question of, “How was the Old Testament canon compiled” is… “we’re not
sure”.

Most Jewish scholars believe the contents the Old Testament were
compiled by a Great Assembly of men in 450 BC and have remained
unchanged since that date. But many scholars disagree with that theory and
think it could have been as late as 200 AD, and some scholars doubt if the
assembly ever existed. Either way there is no record of the Holy Spirit being
involved in this decision. Also, the reconsideration of canonization of these
books didn’t happen even after Jesus came and brought the opposite message
and image of Himself.

That’s a little surprising. After everything Jesus said and did that
contradicted the Law, shouldn’t it have been looked at again and redetermined
if it was in fact the perfect Word of God?

Instead of people disregarding the Old Testament and realizing that it

didn’t add up with the words and actions of Jesus, they not only kept all of it
in the canon but added more to which we call the New Testament. Also, there
was a book called Book of Jubilees. It was written in 150 AD and the full
version of it was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, it was excluded
from the Old Testament canon because it says that Moses met with AN
ANGEL to get the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai and NOT God. Which is
possibly what Paul and Luke were reading since they also said the Law came
from angels (Galatians 3:19 and Acts 7:53).

I know what you’re thinking. We can’t disregard the Old Testament or

relook at its inherency because God gave the Law and Jesus came to fulfill it.
So, we need that to know what we’ve been saved from. Who ever said the Law
was perfect and from God? One person, Moses. Why have we lived 3,500 years
on the belief that one man heard correctly and perfectly when his writings are
so conflicting with Jesus’ nature and contradicting to the rest of the Bible?

Maybe you’re unaware of the contradictions that I’m referring to. So, I’ll
provide several examples.

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 Chapter 3

TALK OUT OF BOTH

SIDES OF YOUR MOUNT

The Murderous, Blood-thirsty, Deceiving,

Lying, Confusing, God of The Old Testament.

Let’s start with Genesis at the Tower of Babel which most people believe this
was written by Moses and here’s what he said happened.

Genesis 11:6-9 “The Lord said, ‘Come, let Us go down and there confuse
their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ Therefore,
its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all
the earth.”

1 Corinthians 14:33 “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.”

Pretty self-explanatory. Moses said that God authored confusion, but we

know that confusion is only used by the Devil.

Next one.

Exodus 4:11 “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Who gave human beings their
mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them
blind? Is it not I, the Lord?’”

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 Talk Out of Both Sides of Your Mount

Mark 9:25 “When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he
rebuked the impure spirit. ‘You deaf and mute spirit,’ He said, ‘I command
you, come out of him and never enter him again.’”

Moses said God told him that He makes people deaf, mute, and blind
then Jesus called the deaf and mute an “impure spirit” and rebuked it from a
young boy. We know that Jesus cannot rebuke and cast out spirits that he did
not give. (Matthew 12:26-28) Jesus cast out the evil spirits of Satan. So how
can He inflict deaf and mute and then rebuke the unclean spirit that is making
them that way? Moving on.

PERFECT LOVE CREATES FEAR?

Exodus 13:11-15 “And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land
of the Canaanites, that you shall give over the first offspring of every womb.
That is, all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. So, it shall
be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you
shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, that THE LORD KILLED
ALL THE FIRSTBORN in the land of Egypt, both THE FIRSTBORN OF
MAN and the firstborn of beast.”

Ezekiel 20:25-26 “I GAVE them other statutes that were NOT GOOD
and laws through which they could not live; I DEFILED THEM through their
gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with HORROR,
so they would know that I am the Lord.’”

What is Ezekiel saying! Is he saying that God is admitting to him that He

was wrong in giving people laws that were not good and too hard to follow?
He defiled His children by demanding them to sacrifice their children? And
why did He do all this? To FILL THEM WITH HORROR so they would
know He was God. This is my issue. Ezekiel sees that something is wrong here.
Killing our children and keeping these laws are not right. But, instead of just
saying Moses was mistaken or Moses heard God wrong, he says that God was
wrong, and God wanted to horrify His children, so they would know He is
God. Why is it so hard for us to look at the writings of Moses or anyone in the
Bible and just realize that they are not superhuman people who heard God
correctly 100% of the time? If someone made the claims that Moses and the
Prophets made today, you would say they were crazy, a false prophet, or maybe
even from the devil, but because 2,500 years ago, an assembly of men said that
these are God’s Word we feel the need to make them true.

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Exodus 20:13 “Thou shalt not murder”

12 chapters later…

Exodus 32:27-29 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each
man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one
end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ The Levites
did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people
died. Then Moses said, ‘You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you
were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.’”

This is only one of many times Moses said God not only instructed people
to murder but blessed them after they did. In this situation God told them to
kill their family, friends, and neighbors! Later in Joshua 11:20 we learn that,
when fighting the Canaanites, “For it was the Lord Himself who hardened their
hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally,
exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
Wow! Now God is hardening peoples heart and taking away free will. Now
they have no choice in the matter. God hardened their hearts without their
consent, so they had no choice but to be destroyed without mercy. And all the
killing was done by the Israelites whom God just instructed to not murder just
twelve chapters earlier!

CONFLICTING STORIES
Exodus 20:5 “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the
children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Ezekiel 18:19-20 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of
the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all
My statutes and observed them? The son shall not bear the guilt of the father,
nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall
be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

This is the one example of Moses claiming that God told him something
and 800 years later a Prophet says that God told him the opposite. Here’s
another example.

Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Verses 22-26 “Then the Lord said to
Moses, ‘An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it
your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. And

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 Talk Out of Both Sides of Your Mount

if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if
you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. Nor shall you go up by steps to
My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.”

Jeremiah 7:21-24 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘I DID
NOT speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them
out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. BUT THIS
IS WHAT I COMMANDED THEM, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be
your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have
commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline
their ear but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts and went
backward and not forward.’”

WOAH! This is a big one! This is my favorite because Jeremiah was

willing to hear God for himself and challenge what was believed as God’s
perfect words to Moses. Moses said God is demanding specific altars and
instructions of burnt offerings and sacrifices, however we learn 800 years later
from Jeremiah that God never said that to Moses and instead he told them to
“Obey My voice” but they did not want to listen. This example is one of the
most important in my opinion because, if you’re open to it, you can look at the
Bible with a new perspective. Moses was no different from you and me. He
sought the Lord and relayed what he believed the Lord was saying to him, but
he also mixed in his own view of God. He also probably feared that if he told
them to not sacrifice and just obey His voice that he wouldn’t be able to control
what they might hear. We see this all time today. Most church leaders want
hierarchy and control because it’s too scary for people to hear God for
themselves. Jeremiah’s revelation also lines up with Jesus’ words 600 years later
when he said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me” (John 10:27). Jesus didn’t say my sheep read my book or know my law,
He said they know His voice. Let’s keep going.

THOU SHALT KILL INFANTS

Exodus 23:7 “Do not put an innocent person to death.”

1 Samuel 15:2-3 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Go, attack the
Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put
to death men and women, children and infants.”

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“Children and infants”? Samuel claims that God is telling them not just
to murder, but to kill innocent children and infants? Yet another contradiction
and with an extreme lack of love and mercy.

Exodus 33:11 “The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks
to his friend.”

9 verses later…

Exodus 33:20 “God said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see
Me, and live.”

I know, I know. I’ve shown this to a lot of people and if you move the
words around and make the words figurative then you can find a way to make
it work. Just remember that Moses words were always meant to be literal. He
didn’t speak in parables, so this is a clear and immediate contradiction.

Numbers 28:11 “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘At the
beginnings of your months you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord: two
young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs’.”

Ezekiel 46:6 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘On the day of the New Moon it
shall be a young bull without blemish, six lambs, and a ram’.”

Moses said God told him 2 bulls and 7 lambs and Ezekiel said God told
him 1 bull and 6 lambs. This isn’t a huge deal, but because of it, many Jewish
scholars didn’t want Ezekiel included in the Old Testament because he
couldn’t get the numbers right. But later most agreed that neither were wrong,
but rather God just eased up on His requirements over time.

GO DECEIVE THEM
Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those
who deal truthfully are His delight.”

1 Kings 22:20-23 “And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into
attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ A spirit came forward,
stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘By what means?’ the Lord
asked. ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’
he said. ‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’ So
now THE LORD has put a DECEIVING spirit in the mouths of all these
prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”

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 Talk Out of Both Sides of Your Mount

We don’t really need a Proverb to see why this writing in 1 Kings is not
from God. We don’t know who the author of 1 Kings is, but his claims are
absurd. God is trying to think of way to bring death on an entire city but is out
of ideas until a random spirit approached him with an evil scheme of deception.
God likes the idea and sends him off to fill people’s mouths with lies. This is
not the only example of God spreading lies. He deceives prophets in Ezekiel
14:9 “I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand
upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” And even
in the end times He will lie again according to 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 “The
coming of the lawless one is with all power, signs, and lying wonders, because
they did not receive the love of the truth. And for this reason, GOD WILL
SEND them a STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe the lie.” God
will send a “strong delusion”? Paul is saying that Satan will send a “lawless one”
with lying wonders and God will also send a delusion so they will believe his
lies. These claims are outrageous! Let’s move on to another petty contradiction.

2 Kings 2:11 “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

John 3:13 “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from
heaven, that is, the Son of Man.”

Again, if we get creative we can explain this one away. This one is a little
boring so let’s find a more interesting one.

GOD SAID… SATAN SAID

2 Samuel 24:1 “The anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and
HE moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

As punishment for the census, which God told David to take, God sends
a plague that kills 70,000 Israelites.

1 Chronicles 21:1 Now SATAN stood up against Israel and moved

David to number Israel.

Huh? Both authors are writing about the same census that killed 70,000
people but one says it was a requested by God and the other by Satan. 2 Samuel
is believed to be written around 600 BC and 1 Chronicles around 300 BC. One
written by Samuel and Chronicles written by Ezra. If we didn’t create the idea
that the Bible is the perfect Word of God, then this could be easily explained.
Samuel thought God told him to kill but later it was understood that it was the
devil.

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 The Bible: The Inspired word Of Men

Honestly, that is understandable, and I can even relate to

misunderstanding to what God wanted. It didn’t result in the death of 70,000
people, but I get it.

Perhaps the answer for these contradictions are within the Bible itself.

Jeremiah 8:7-8 “My people do not know the ordinance of the Lord. How
can you say, ‘We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,’ when actually the
LYING PEN of the scribes has handled it falsely and MADE IT INTO A
LIE?”

I bet you haven’t heard that verse read too often. God tells Jeremiah that
His people don’t even know Him because they believed the Law which the
scribes wrote and copied falsely with a lying pen and, I’m assuming, their own
agenda. Remember, Moses’ words were copied over and over by hand through
scribes so who knows what was originally said and written. Yet we believe that
version that we use today is the perfect one even though it includes Jeremiah’s
writings that God told him it was written with a lie.

There’s dozens more OT discrepancies but we’ll stop there.

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 Chapter 4

WHOSE LAW IS IT ANYWAY?

Moses’ Law, The Jews Law, The Pharisees Law,

But Never God’s Law. The Careful Phrasing of Jesus.

We all know the story. God the Father was really pissed at sin for 4,000
years, then He had a HUGE change of heart and sent His nice, merciful, meek
Son to take away our sins on the cross, so we didn’t have to kill animals and
even our own children to make him satisfied enough to forgive our sins. So,
Jesus comes to Earth and what happens? Let’s take a break from Biblical
contradictions and look at what was written in the New Testament.

So, if God did not give the Law then why did Jesus have to die for our
sins? Well, first, can you tell me where in the Bible that JESUS said He came
to die for our sins? Do you know where it is? No. Because it’s not there. Let’s
start with John 1. Verse 29, John sees Jesus and says, “Behold! The Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world!” And Jesus says… nothing. Again,
in verse 35 John says “Behold! The Lamb of God!” and Jesus again says…
nothing. Why not? Why wouldn’t Jesus use this opportunity to agree with
John’s claims? Jesus said He was the Son of God, but He never said He was
the Lamb of God? He told people their sins were forgiven but it was before
He had died. So, the sins were taken away, but it was before the crucifixion.

So, what do the Gospels say, Jesus’ reasoning was for being on Earth?

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He came to save the lost. (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:9-10)

Proclaim Good News. (Luke 4:43)

To bring division with his message. (Luke 12:49-51)

He came to give life more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Testify to truth. (John 18:37)

To make the blind see and the one who see become blind. John 9:39
Jesus said, “INTO judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will
see and those who see will become blind.” This is always translated incorrectly
that Jesus said, “For Judgement I came into the world”. The Greek word for
“for” is “gar” like we see in John 3:16. However it is not seen in John 9:39. It
literally uses the word “eis” which is the word “into”.

To fulfill and put an end to. Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came
to demolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to demolish but to fulfill.”
Jesus came to fulfill “THE LAW”. He does not refer to His Law or God’s Law
but rather THE LAW. And it will soon be fulfilled and put to an end. There is
also a debate that Jesus said He came to “plēroō” the Law which could mean
“teach fully”.

To serve and to sacrifice. Mark 10:45 "The Son of Man did not come
to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom INSTEAD of many.”

FULFILL YOUR LAW

Ok. Let’s look at this. What is Jesus saying here? Is He saying that He is
dying so our sins will be forgiven because His Father requires bloodshed to
forgive sin? No. He is saying I have come to give my life as a ransom
INSTEAD of many. This is the first example I will use of looking at the
writings of the Gospel and notice what Jesus is NOT saying.

Here’s what we’ve learned so far, the Old Testament is a series of books,
written falsely by lying scribes, calls God a liar, loaded with murderous orders
from God, requires bloodshed to please God, and has a lot of contradictions.
Also, we know that the reason we believe it was God’s perfect Word is because
an assembly got together and decided that it was so.

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 Whose Law Is It Anyway?

Now imagine this. What if Jeremiah was right. What if God did not give
the orders for sacrifice? What if the scribes really did write lies in the Law with
a lying pen? What if God is watching people kill their children for 1,500 years
to fulfill a Law that He never gave? What if Jesus DID come to be a sacrifice
for many, but not because His Father required it, but rather so his children,
whom He loves, would stop killing their own children, stop stoning each other,
and stop burning their children with fire (Leviticus 21:9), because they think
that’s what He requires?

DIVINE DISSOCIATION
So, let’s look at examples of Jesus referring to the Old Testament in His
own words. Here’s where it gets interesting. Did you know that Jesus never
refers to the words of the Old Testament as God’s Word? In fact, He’s very
careful to never take ownership of it. Here’s what I’m talking about.

Luke 24:44 “All things must be fulfilled which were written in THE
LAW OF MOSES” Jesus is explaining why He had to die to the disciples and
he calls it The Law of Moses, not the Law of God.

John 8:17 Jesus speaking to the Pharisees. “It is also written in YOUR
LAW that the testimony of two men is true.” This is Jesus quoting
Deuteronomy 19:15 and referring to it, not as His Law, but the LAW OF THE
PHARISEES.

John 10: 34 Jesus speaking to religious Jews “Jesus answered them, “Is it
not written in YOUR LAW, ‘I said, ‘You are gods’?” Here Jesus quotes Psalms
82:6 and calls it the LAW OF THE JEWS, not His own.

John 15:25 Jesus is speaking about the World “But this is to fulfill what
is written in THEIR LAW: ‘They hated me without reason.’” Here Jesus quotes
Psalms 69:4 and calls it the LAW OF THE WORLD.

Mark 10:5 Speaking to the Pharisees “It was because your hearts were
hard that MOSES WROTE YOU THIS LAW,” Jesus replied.” Moses wrote
you this Law? Wouldn’t this be an appropriate time for Jesus to say that
because of your hearts were hard, I told Moses to write you this Law? Also,
this is one of many examples of Jesus referring to consequences of a hard heart,
which should rule out the Old Testament claims that God hardens people’s
hearts.

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 The Bible: The Inspired word Of Men

Jesus NEVER referred to it as His Law. He always called it “THE LAW”,

“YOUR LAW”, “THEIR LAW”, or “MOSES’ LAW”.

THE GOSPEL DELAYED

So, what am I saying, that only the Gospels are the perfect, inspired, God-
breathed Word of God? No. They’re not either, but they might be closer.
Remember that these writings are not direct quotes written down at the time
Jesus said them with the disciples witnessing them. Mark was believed to be
written around 65 AD, Matthew and Luke around 70 AD, and John around
100 AD. These books were written from memory 35-77 years after the events
happened. And, again there are a lot of inconsistencies with specifics between
the Gospels and the whole thing of copies being made by hand for centuries.
Yada, yada, yada.

Also, don’t forget that Mark and Luke weren’t even disciples! They
weren’t even there. Luke is a gentile who was a companion of Paul in 50 AD.
Why is he writing a Gospel? Most scholars believe that Luke used Mark’s
gospel as a reference in 65 AD and released his account in 90 AD. Mark was
Peter’s disciple and his Gospel is believed to be secondhand stories that he
heard from Peter. Also, each writer had an agenda and a slant. Matthew was a
Jew and wrote Jesus as quoting the Old Testament more than anyone else. He’s
the one who wrote Matthew 5 which says Jesus didn’t come to destroy the Law
but to fulfill it and no pen stroke will be taken away from it. Each Gospel has
stories and quotes that the other does not.

Another reason it doesn’t make sense that the Law is God’s Word is that
we all agree that Jesus’ enemies were not non-believers, but rather the ones
who held the scriptures the best. Does that make sense to you? Why is Jesus
constantly at war with the Pharisees and the teachers of His Law? If it’s really
God’s Word, then why is Jesus always rebuking them when they try to hold
Jesus to it? Shouldn’t this be the people group that He’s most proud of? The
Pharisees aren’t bad people they’re just mad at Jesus for constantly breaking
and disregarding the Law that He created, yet Jesus is always correcting and
rebuking them. The Pharisees are justified by the Law for wanting to stone
Jesus and ultimately crucified Him.

Look what Jesus says about them in Matthew 23:4 “They bind heavy
burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders”. They bind heavy
burdens? I thought God gave heavy burdens. I thought you gave Moses over
600 laws to abide by. Yet, “your yoke is easy, and your burden is light”.

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 Whose Law Is It Anyway?

Then Jesus goes on to give seven woes, not to sinners but rather “Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Why are the woes
aimed at the teachers of the Law instead of sinners? I thought God’s anger was
aimed at sin, not people who are teaching His Word.

Matthew 23 also reveals probably the greatest issue with the books of the
New Testament that came after the Gospel. Verses 8 and 10 “One is your
Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not be called teachers; for
One is your Teacher, the Christ.” Yet again Jesus is saying STOP LOOKING
FOR TEACHERS. Look to God for teaching NOT MEN. NOT A BOOK.

“Who do men say that I am?” All the smartest people around Peter were
saying Jesus was a reincarnated Prophet, but Jesus blessed Peter. Why?
Because, despite all the teachers around him, he looked to Heaven for the
answer and that’s where the correct answer was. “You’re the Christ. The Son
of the Living God!” Peter finally got what Jesus had been trying to get through
to His children for thousands of years. Look to God to teach you not men!

Didn’t I say that there was an issue with Matthew 23? Yes, but the issue
isn’t in Matthew. It what happens later in the Bible in Ephesians 4:11 where it
says, “Jesus Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” Ugh. Here we go again. Jesus just
said not to call anyone your teacher and now Paul is saying that Jesus gave
some to be teachers. Dammit Paul, can’t you read?

PAUL WROTE BEFORE THE GOSPEL

Well actually, no he can’t. Here’s what you probably don’t know. Paul
wrote this letter to the Ephesians in 60 AD, but as we already know, Mark was
the first to be written in 65 AD and Matthew in 70 AD. That means that Paul
is writing these letters 10 years before a Disciple even wrote what they
witnessed firsthand. If Paul was converted in 36 AD, then how does he know
what Jesus wanted? It couldn’t be through the gospels because they hadn’t been
written. Paul’s saying that Jesus gave some to be teachers, which I’m sure is
what he believed to be true. But 10 years later Matthew releases his book where
He recalls Jesus saying, none should be your teacher except for God.

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 The Bible: The Inspired word Of Men

Again, all of this is fine if you look at these things through the correct
lense. Paul’s writings are not the inspired words of God. They’re just letters.
Old letters, that someone found from around the time of Jesus. Some of his
writings are helpful and some of it is not, which is all fine, except yet again, we
took them, formed a council, and decided that they should be referred to as
God’s perfect Word.

God supposedly gave the rule of the Sabbath to Moses that no one even
light a fire in your home on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2-3), and anyone who does
any work on it should be PUT TO DEATH! Yet, Jesus heals and deliberately
picks grain on the Sabbath! I know, I know. This is all part of the great mood-
swing of AD.

Another interesting fact is that Jesus used the Old Testament to get rid
of the Devil. Matthew wrote that Jesus said “It is written” three times and then
quoted the Old Testament. That’s strange. Matthew and Luke claim to know
exactly what Jesus said although they weren’t even there. Also, Matthew said
The Devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple, then to the mountain top.
Luke says the Devil took him first to the mountain top, then to the pinnacle
of the temple. These small inconsistencies are seen throughout the four
Gospels, but more importantly remember they were not there, and why would
Jesus use what’s written to get rid of the Devil in this event and then use His
authority to cast out demons in all the other events?

So is true with Matthew’s sole recording of The Transfiguration. He said

they saw Jesus talking to two people and it Moses and Elijah. Moses left earth
1,400 years prior and Elijah 900 years, so how does he know what they even
look like? Jesus never said that was them, this is just what Matthew believed he
saw.

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 Chapter 5

WHAT ABOUT MATTHEW 5?

You Have Heard That It Was Said to Those of Old.

But I Say Something Else.

Assuming, that the Gospels are inherent you’re probably thinking, “what
about Matthew 5?” Matthew 5 begins with The Beatitudes. Blessing the meek,
the merciful, the peacemakers, etc. Then Jesus says I did not come to destroy
the Law. I did not come to destroy but rather to fulfill the Law and the
Prophets. Moses and the Prophets made a Law that required bloodshed for sin
to be forgiven and Jesus is coming to fulfill their Law. Jesus did not say I’ve
come to fulfill the Law of God, He said I’ve come to fulfill “THE LAW and
the Prophets”.

Next in verse 18 He says, “until heaven and earth disappear, not the
smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from
the Law until everything is accomplished.” I can’t be sure what Matthew is
writing here. First, He records Jesus as saying He will fulfill the Law, then he
said it won’t disappear until the end of time. It’s a little confusing.

I wrote more about the next section, but then deleted it because it was
too boring. So, let’s skip to the verbiage in verses 21-48. There is a clear
disassociation to the Law being the words of God. Look at how it is phrased.

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Verse 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall
not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ (Exodus
20:13) But I say” Then, Jesus proceeds to bring stronger Judgement.

Verse 27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall
not commit adultery.’ (Exodus 20:14) But I say” Then, Jesus proceeds to bring
stronger Judgement.

Verse 31 “It has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her
a certificate of divorce.’ (Deuteronomy 24:3) But I say” Then Jesus proceeds
to bring stronger Judgement.

Verse 33 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall
not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ (Leviticus 19:12)
But I say” Then Jesus proceeds to bring stronger Judgement.

Verse 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth.’ (Exodus 20:24) But I tell you” Then Jesus proceeds to bring
mercy and say the opposite and to turn the other cheek.

Verse 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say” Here Jesus quotes Psalm 139:21-22
“Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion
against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.”
Jesus says you should love your enemies to be perfect like God the Father is
perfect. Even though it contradicts David’s writings which are considered part
of The Father’s perfect Word.

SOMEONE TOLD YOU WRONG

So, what do we make of this? The reason I listed the way this because of
the way Jesus phrased it, “You have heard that it was said”. Does that sound
like someone who is quoting Himself? Shouldn’t He have phrased it as “I told
the men of old… but now I say this.” The fact that Jesus was careful to phrase
this way “You have heard that it was said” and then He quotes the Old
Testament, which are supposed to be His words, says a lot. This is not how
you reference something that recorded your words accurately. This is how you
reference something that recorded you inaccurately, and then He proceeds to
contradict or add onto what was written.

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 What About Matthew 5?

The issue with the examples of Jesus bringing stronger, harsher

judgement in this chapter is that it is yet another contradiction. John 12:47 “If
anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not
come to judge the world but to save the world.”

Matthew records Jesus sometimes giving harsher judgement in this

chapter and then showing extensive mercy. Then John said Jesus said He didn’t
come to judge. All-in-all this chapter could be used to prove many different
viewpoints but again it’s inconsistent with Jesus’ message and seems to go back
and forth of weather Jesus came to bring stricter judgement or limitless mercy.

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 Chapter 6

WHAT ABOUT JOHN 5?

You Search the Scriptures of Moses

Your Accuser Is Whom Your Hopes Are Set.

This chapter is another example of the written words of Jesus going back and
forth.

Verses 37-39 “You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen
His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He
sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” Here Jesus tells
the Jews who diligently search the scriptures that they do not have His words
abiding in them. These people knew the scriptures well, yet He said they have
never heard God’s voice. He also says the scriptures testified of Him.

This seems to be true because Jesus did read from Isaiah 61 in Luke 14:18-
19 and reveal to the synagogue that He fulfilled that writing of Isaiah. I truly
don’t believe that Jesus came to rip apart what people wrote about Him, but
He did want to shed light on what parts were accurate and which were not. He
said He didn’t come to judge and He didn’t judge the Law or the Prophets, but
His actions are very interesting in Luke 14. Let’s look at this closer.

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 What About John 5?

“He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had
opened the book, He found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the
Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are
oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ Then He closed the
book”.

Ok. What’s so interesting about that? Well, look at Isaiah 61:1-2 from
which He is reading. Here’s what is says.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed
Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the
prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
AND THE DAY OF VENGANCE OF OUR GOD.”

Woah! What was that last part? “And the day of vengeance of our God”.
Did Jesus forget that part? Isaiah’s prophesy spoke of Jesus preaching good
news, freedom, and healing, but also bringing a day of vengeance. But Jesus
wouldn’t recite that part. Why? Because that’s not why He came. So, what does
that mean? Would Jesus quote the parts the prophesies that were right about
Him and leave out the ones that weren’t. Well, yes, He just did.

SERIOUS ACCUSATION
Verse 45 “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. YOUR
ACCUSER IS MOSES, on whom your hopes are set.” Woah! First, realize that
Jesus is speaking to the Jews and strict keepers of the Law, who are setting out
to stone Him for healing on the Sabbath. If He’s not going to accuse them to
His Father, then that is good news for the rest of mankind. But the bigger
statement is that their accuser is Moses in whom their hopes are set. Woah!
Moses is their accuser? Jesus never even called the Devil an accuser. The only
person he referred to as this is Moses.

Honestly, I’ve read this in the Greek and His exact words are “is the one
accusing you Moses into whom you have relied on” All the translations have
inserted the word “there” “there is the one accusing you, Moses”. The word
“there” is not found here. Even with my beliefs, I don’t think Jesus called
Moses their accuser. This could easily be translated as a question. “Is the one
accusing you Moses, into whom you have relied on?”

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Either way this chapter ends with a confusing message again. All biblical
translations phrase Jesus as calling Moses their accuser and then next verse is
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But
if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

None of this is consistent. Calling Moses their accuser and then saying if
you believed Moses you would believe me. The problem with that is, they
clearly DID believe Moses, because He just said their hopes were set in him.
The Jews believed Moses writings very strongly, because Jesus just said they
searched the scriptures for eternal life (verse 39).

The only other thing to note is that John quotes Jesus as saying, “Moses
wrote ABOUT me”. ABOUT me and not FOR me and Moses claimed.
Interestingly, there are no examples of Moses writing about Jesus as the
Prophets did, but maybe it’s an example of Jesus reiterating that He and the
Father are one, which Moses did write ABOUT, even if it was accusatory. It
could be a stretch, but either way, cut John some slack. This was the last Gospel
written. It was 100 AD and John is doing this from memory, then the whole
handwritten copies for centuries thing and translations, etc.

This is getting boring. Let’s change the subject.

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 Chapter 7

THEN WHY DID JESUS

COME TO BE CRUCIFIED?

The Son of Man Has Authority on Earth to Forgive Sins,

But your Law Requires Bloodshed.

There are no instances of Jesus saying He came so sin can be forgiven, in fact
it’s quite the contrary. First let’s look at the picture Moses told of how petty
and intolerant God was about sin.

Exodus 21:15-17 Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be put

to death. Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death. Anyone who
curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

Exodus 22:20 He who sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord only, he
shall be utterly destroyed.

Exodus 35:2 The seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath
rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.

Leviticus 21:9 If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a

prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned to death.

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Deuteronomy 20:16-18 In the cities of the nations the Lord your God is
giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
Completely destroy them as the Lord your God has commanded you.
Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in
worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son

who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they
discipline him, then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You
must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

Deuteronomy 22:13-22 says if a woman is found not to be a virgin after

she is married, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there
the men of her town shall stone her to death. You must purge the evil from
among you. If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man
who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from
Israel.

There’s too many examples to list of God ordering people to be stoned,

burned, hands cut off, spitting in people’s faces (Deut. 25:7-10), but you get
the idea. God has no tolerance for sin and is very specific with His rules and
regulations. Then comes his Son, who is one with the Father, and they are the
same person with the Holy Spirit. The three-in-one. How did Jesus react to
sin?

KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS

Most of the time Jesus seemed very passive about sin. At most, he would
just paint with a broad stroke with “Go and sin no more” like he said in John
5:14 and again in John 8:11 with a woman caught in adultery! Woah! Everyone
that committed adultery was supposed to be publicly stoned according to Jesus.
Such a drastic change of heart!

I know what you’ve been taught. This is now a new covenant. This is the
other side of our bi-polar God. He used to be extremely intolerant and angry
at sin but now He’s the exact opposite. Of course! That makes much more
sense than the possibility that the Old Testament writings could have been
wrong about Him.

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 Then Why Did Jesus Come to Be Crucified?

So, why did Jesus die on the cross? And yes, I very much believe that He
did. But the real story is greater than the version you’ve been told. You’ve been
told that the Father required bloodshed to forgive sin, so Jesus came to die in
our place. Where did you get that from? “For God so loved the World that He
sent His only Son”. To die for our sins? No, it doesn’t say that yet that is what
our theology teaches. Let’s look further into this. We believe God needed Jesus
to die for our sins, so our sins could be forgiven. The problem with that is that
your theology contradicts your Bible.

Jesus forgave sin on multiple occasions. Matthew 9:2 Jesus said, “Son, be
of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Matthew wrote that Jesus said this
because He saw their faith although Jesus didn’t say that, but that is how
Matthew perceived it. It’s not important either way but this is interesting. What
Jesus said in the Greek was, be of good cheer; “apheontai” the sins of you.
Which means “have been forgiven” the sins of you. “Have been forgiven”.
Been forgiven is past tense. Jesus is informing this man that his sins have
already been forgiven. Weather you believe He just forgave his sins or they
already had been, two things are clear. He didn’t ask for forgiveness and Jesus
hadn’t died yet.

Another example is in Luke 7. Jesus is having dinner at a Pharisees house.

That’s surprising and so is this. A woman who the Pharisee referred to as a
sinner washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair. And Jesus told the Pharisee
that “apheontai” the many sins of her. Then He said to her “apheontai” the
sins of you. Again, HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN the sins of you. Yet again, this
woman did not ask for her sins to be forgiven but she did seem to be very
stressed about them. The Pharisee even said to Jesus if you were a Prophet you
would know that a sinner is touching you. The Pharisee showed the intolerance
to sin that he learned from Moses’ writings.

PERMISSION GRANTED?
The most interesting thing Jesus said about sin is in Mark 2:10. This is
Jesus about to heal on the Sabbath Jesus forgives the Paralytics sin and the
Pharisees get upset. Then Jesus tells them “I want you to know that the Son of
Man HAS AUTHORITY ON EARTH TO FORGIVE SINS.” What? Jesus
already has authority on earth to forgive sins? How does that fit mainstream
theology? So, Jesus is telling people their sins have already been forgiven and
He’s doing it just by saying it? Then why on earth would He die a brutal death
for sin that’s already been forgiven, and He already has authority over? Why
go through the crucifixion if it’s not necessary?

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I’ll answer that question in a moment, but first a few more examples.

First, I wanted to mention that right after Jesus reveals this in Mark 2, He
made Levi, the tax collector, one of his disciples. And he is seen dining at Levi’s
house and “many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus”. Which
confused the Scribes and Pharisees, as it should. Moses continuously said God
told Him “you must purge the evil from Israel and now Jesus is eating and
drinking with them and making them disciples.

NO SACRIFICE AT ALL
Look at Luke 15, the story of the Prodigal Son. The Son left to live a
Prodigal lifestyle and wasted all his possessions with lavish living. When he
returned he admitted “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”
But Jesus mentions no sacrifice for his sin in this story. Instead He says the
father kissed him, dressed him in a robe and jewelry and THE FATHER killed
a fattened calf so they can eat and be merry. The sacrifice needed to be made
by the sinful son, not the father, and an animal was killed so they can celebrate,
not as an offering.

What about when Jesus was hanging on the cross? Luke said Jesus told
His Father to forgive the people that were crucifying Him, for they know not
what they do. Jesus had authority to forgive sin, so I don’t know why He asked
the Father to do it? Also, Luke wasn’t there so I don’t know how he got this
information, but I do know that there’s no mention of them repenting or
asking for forgiveness.

Look at how Jesus handled Peter. The last time Jesus sees Peter before
He’s resurrected Peter cut someone’s ear of. He was probably trying to kill him
but just got his ear. Jesus just told them not to murder and to love their
enemies. Then the very next time Jesus sees Peter He tells him to feed and tend
to His sheep. He didn’t even mention Peter’s sin. He didn’t have him step
down from ministry, instead He gave Him greater instructions for Peter’s
ministry and calling.

So why DID Jesus die for our sins?

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 Then Why Did Jesus Come to Be Crucified?

If God did not give the Law in the first place and it is Moses Law and the
Pharisees Law and the Word’s Law, then why would He die to fulfill it.
Remember Jesus never said I’m dying because my Father requires it, He said
I’m dying to fulfill the scriptures. He also never said the scriptures were His
words, He said they were the words of Moses the accuser.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE
So, the Father and the Son are in Heaven watching their children murder
each other, kill innocent children, kill their firstborn sons, and stone each other,
to please a Law that God never even gave in the first place. They were
convinced that God required bloodshed to forgive. Even though Jesus told
them their sins were already forgiven, the Jews, not God, the Jews would not
be satisfied that they’re forgiven unless blood was shed. So, Jesus, in the
greatest act of humility, became a man and was crucified to fulfill a Law
that He nor His Father ever created. Wow! That’s love! That’s powerful!
That’s humility! That’s our God!

Jesus didn’t say He came to die because His Father requires death to
forgive, but everyone else did. Even after His death, Paul said that He dies for
our sins. How would Paul know? He wrote all those letters before the Gospels
were written. He didn’t walk with Jesus, so he could only speak through
popular belief. Also, don’t forget that Jesus mentioned twice in Luke that He
didn’t want to die Luke 12:50 “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how
distressed I am till it is accomplished!” and again in Luke 22:42 “Father, if it is
Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours,
be done.”

Why is Jesus so stressed? If this was His perfect system, then He should
be on board with following the rules. He stressed because it’s not His system.
His nature is love. His nature is mercy. His nature is grace, and because of that
He agreed to step into a system that was created out of a misunderstanding of
His desires. That is the only theory that makes rational sense. The theory of a
never-changing, yet bi-polar, contradicting, deceiving, mood-swing God is
outrageous and inconsistent!

Jesus also explained this in Luke 24:44, 46 “All things must be fulfilled
which were written in the LAW OF MOSES and the Prophets and the Psalms
concerning Me. Thus, it has been written, and thus it was necessary for the
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.”

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 The Bible: The Inspired word Of Men

Again, look at the verbiage. All things had to be fulfilled in MOSES’ LAW
and everything concerning him. Then He said because it was written it became
necessary for Christ to suffer these things. Because it was written not because
His Father commanded it. I know it’s crazy to think about that Jesus would do
this because someone wrote it and believed it, But He did! He never says it’s
God’s orders, He just says because it was written it became necessary. Pretty
remarkable!

Also, notice the verse between these statements, verse 45 says, “Then He
opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.” This is the last
thing Jesus did before He ascended. How different we do things today. We
make disciples and tell them to start reading the scriptures. Jesus did this at the
end because they weren’t ready. Also, if they needed their mind to be opened
to understand them, it would mean they hadn’t understood them before. They
THOUGHT they understood scripture, but if they were seeing it correctly they
wouldn’t need for their minds to be opened.

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 Chapter 8

HOW WERE THE NEW

TESTAMENT BOOKS CHOSEN?

The Gentiles Want A New Canon And

A Roman Emperor Wants Unity in The Church.

Then, how was the New Testament canon selected? Well, as you can
probably guess, it’s not that great of a story either. First off, in all my research
I have never seen the Holy Spirit mentioned once as a consultant in this
decision. Yet, often people say He helped create it and preserve it. The concept
of a New Testament canon began about 100 years after Jesus death with a man
from Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) named Marcion. He believed Jesus was
God and really liked Paul’s writings, but rejected the Hebrew Bible and their
mean, punishing God of Israel. He wanted a Gentile canon and he believed
Paul was the chief apostle, so he wanted one gospel Luke, (Paul’s disciple) and
one apostle, Paul. Take those two writings and you have a New testament
canon and disregard the Jewish one. His collection was rejected by the church
but his idea for a new canon was not. A French Bishop named Irenaeus said
there should be four gospels to represent the four directions of the wind.

For the next 200 years there were several different collections that were
believed to be the new God-breathed. There was also a lot of disputes about
including the books of Hebrews and Revelations.

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Eventually a list was formed in 325AD in Turkey by the Council of

Nicaea, but it wasn’t finalized. The decision for which books would be included
was based on “universal acceptance”. Basically, which books were being read
the most in church services? Again, this was not a decision that was divinely
inspired but rather based on popularity.

Most people conclude that the final decision was made in 331AD when
the Roman Emperor Constantine sent a letter, the text of which has survived,
to Bishop Eusebius in Caesarea asking him to arrange the production of fifty
bibles. These books were to be skillfully executed copies of "the divine
scriptures" on fine parchment for use in the churches of Constantinople, the
new Capitol of the Empire. Constantine not only promised to pay all the
expenses, he also provided two carriages to assure the swift shipment of the
completed copies for his personal inspection. So, they kept the Old Testament
canon as is, and went the list of books they had at the time and started printing
the same collection of 73 books that we still use today.

Or did they? Did I just say 73 books instead of 66? Yes. The Apocrypha,
which are seven addition books, were always included in the Bible. They were
even included in the first English version of the Bible in 1611, until The
National Bible Society of Scotland threatened to stop giving funds to the
printers of the English Bible (The British and Foreign Bible Society) if they
didn’t exclude it. So they did.

That’s the quick version. How do we know any of that’s true? Well we
don’t, but that’s the best we got, and it’s not very divine or inspirational. It’s a
rushed decision from a Roman Emperor who wanted unity in his churches,
and then a threat of a stoppage of funding from a Scottish Bible society which
knocked off seven more books.

Sorry to disappoint you.

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 Chapter 9

IF IT’S NOT GOD’S WORD

THEN WHAT IS IT?

The Imperfect Writings of Imperfect Men

Trying to Follow the Will of a Perfect God.

This is the whole point. The Bible is a collection of books from men who are
trying their best to hear God’s voice, learn what God is like, and seek His truth.
And just like us, some parts they get it right and some parts they get wrong.
Jesus focuses and testifies to the parts we get right and doesn’t focus on the
parts we get wrong, because He’s not a judgmental accuser! All the biblical
missteps would be fine if we didn’t take it upon ourselves to create a book and
call it the perfect, inherent Word of God. God never told us to do this, so why
did we? Why? Because we want to create an idol. Just like Moses and the
Pharisees, we don’t want to rely on God’s voice for direction because we can’t
control that. We want a Law. We want to compile a book of writings and slap
God’s name on it because we can control a completed book, even if it’s filled
with inconsistencies, contradictions, and a poor image of God. Because the
alternative is to rely on God’s voice and we can’t regulate that.

So, are we just supposed to cherry-pick the Bible and say some parts are
right and some parts are wrong? Well isn’t that what you do anyway? Isn’t that
what everyone does? We take the parts they agree with and say they’re accurate

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and then make excuses for the parts they don’t like and blame it on
mistranslation, tradition of the times, or say it’s out of context? I’m not writing
this to hurt your relationship with God, I’m writing it to make your relationship
healthy. Your theology is having you believe in this former-evil, unbalanced
God, all because of a book that is far from perfect has been presented to you
as God’s perfect Word.

At first this concept was very difficult for me. I even found myself lying
in bed getting mad at Moses for misleading me and trillions of others. My head
was spinning, and I asked God, “so why didn’t you just say, ‘Moses was
wrong’?”. He answered me and said, “because He wasn’t wrong.” Immediately
I knew what He was referring to. All the writers of the Bible weren’t wrong
because God judges the heart. Their heart wasn’t to mislead people, it was to
share what they believe God told them. Which is exactly what happens today
when anyone writes a book on following God. We need to read the Bible just
as we do any book written by a man. It’s ok to read it, but the truth is found in
Heaven. The truth is found in His voice.

So which parts are right and which parts are wrong? They’re all right.
Their right if you read them with the correct perspective. They’re not magical
books written by sub-human men. They’re just books and letters written by
people like you and me, who share what God has told them and what they
think is best for people. I don’t think Paul knew that when he wrote those
letters that we would find them and say that they’re right from God’s mouth.
In fact, he even admits it in 1 Corinthians 7:12 “I, not the Lord, say” and 2
Corinthians 8:10 “In this I give advice”. That’s not divinely inspired. That’s
just a guy giving advice. Also, Paul put a lot of Laws and rules BACK on
people. He gave a bunch in 1 Corinthians 7 and then in the last verse he says,
“I am presuming I have the Spirit of God”. What? He’s unsure he even has the
Spirit of God? Again, all of this wouldn’t be a problem if we would view these
as just letters, which is exactly what they are.

So, why is it so difficult for us to just admit that the Bible is a collection
of books written by men? Why did we have these councils get together and
decide which writings were God-breathed? This book these people have put
together and labeled it as perfect is far from it yet, were afraid to challenge its
weak roots because, “where would that leave us?”.

Well I can tell you where it left me. It left with the answer to the question
I asked God in the beginning of this journey. “What is the Truth?”.

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