Chapter Excerpts
CHAPTER ONE
Hebrew Truth Abandoned
The Christianity practised today would be unrecognisable to Jesus of Nazareth and his earliest followers. Where Jesus proclaimed a message of repentance and the coming Kingdom of God firmly rooted in Jewish Scripture, modern Christianity presents a complex theological system shaped by Greek philosophy and pagan religious practices. This transformation did not occur overnight, nor was it accidental. Instead, it was a gradual but deliberate departure from the faith's Jewish roots, influenced by Greek philosophy, pagan religious customs, and the political aims of Gentile church leaders seeking to make Christianity more acceptable to a pagan audience.
To grasp the full extent of this transformation, we must first examine the Jewish renewal movement Jesus led. He was a Jewish teacher who observed the Torah, worshipped in synagogues and the Temple, and called his fellow Jews to renewed faithfulness to their covenant with God. His earliest followers were Jews, who saw no contradiction between following Jesus and maintaining their Jewish faith. Gathering in Jerusalem under the leadership of James, they continued to observe the Sabbath, celebrate the biblical festivals, and live according to Jewish law, while proclaiming Jesus as the promised Messiah.
This original vision was fundamentally altered as Christianity spread beyond Judea into the Greek world. The gospel that had been proclaimed in the synagogues of Galilee now encountered traditions and belief systems that would profoundly reshape its message. Greek concepts of divine mediators, immortal souls, and cosmic salvation gradually replaced the Jewish focus on repentance and the coming Kingdom of God on earth. Pagan festivals celebrating solar deities and fertility goddesses were absorbed, and rebranded as Christian holy days. Where Jesus had affirmed that the greatest commandment was to worship the one God alone (Mark 12:29), this simple monotheism gave way to complex doctrines that required an education in Greek philosophy to understand.
The institutional church that emerged from this process wielded enormous political and social power but had lost touch with its spiritual roots. By the fourth century, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the transformation was complete. Jesus' original message had become a state-backed institution, concerned with enforcing doctrinal conformity. The Jewish Christians who had preserved the original understanding of Jesus' message were marginalised as heretics, their writings destroyed, and their communities scattered. What remained was a Christianity shaped by Greek thought, paganised in its practices, and divorced from the Jewish foundation that had given it birth.
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CHAPTER TWO
Death and Resurrection
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would present the argument that the immortal soul
doctrine is not biblical but derives from Greek philosophy, particularly Platonism.]
[It would examine key biblical passages that describe death as sleep and resurrection
as awakening, contrasting this with the Greek concept of an immortal soul that
escapes the body at death.]
[The excerpt would demonstrate how Hebrew thought viewed humans as unified beings
rather than the Greek dualism of body and soul.]
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CHAPTER THREE
The Oneness of God
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would lay out the logical problems with Trinitarian
doctrine, showing how it attempts to claim God is simultaneously one being and
three persons.]
[It would examine the Shema and other biblical declarations of God's absolute
oneness, demonstrating how the Trinity requires qualifications and reinterpretations
that contradict the plain meaning of these texts.]
[The excerpt would introduce the historical development of Trinitarian theology
and its dependence on Greek philosophical categories.]
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CHAPTER FOUR
The Reformation Examined
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would analyze how the Protestant Reformation,
while challenging Rome's authority, perpetuated fundamental doctrinal errors
inherited from earlier centuries.]
[It would examine Calvin's theological system and its dependence on Platonic
philosophy through Augustine, showing continuity with Catholic foundations
despite the Reformers' protests.]
[The excerpt would discuss the persecution of theological dissidents like
Servetus, revealing how the Reformation maintained intolerance for questioning
established doctrines.]
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CHAPTER FIVE
Atonement and Reconciliation
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would present the central problem with penal
substitution theory: if the cross was necessary for forgiveness, then Jesus'
declarations of forgiveness during his ministry become problematic.]
[It would examine instances where Jesus pronounced people forgiven, saved, and
freed in the present tense, before his death and resurrection.]
[The excerpt would introduce alternative understandings of atonement more consistent
with Jesus' actual teaching and practice.]
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CHAPTER SIX
Modern Revival Movements
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would recount the historical case of Alfred and
Lillian Garr, early Pentecostal missionaries who believed they had received the
gift of speaking Indian languages supernaturally.]
[It would describe their arrival in Calcutta and the complete failure of their
supposed linguistic abilities to function as actual communication.]
[The excerpt would analyze how the movement redefined the gift of tongues when
faced with this and similar failures, maintaining the doctrine despite contradicting
evidence.]
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Prophecy and Fulfilment
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would examine Jesus' statement that "this generation
will not pass away" and the hermeneutical gymnastics required by futurist
interpretations.]
[It would show how dispensationalist theology requires clear, unambiguous language
to mean the opposite of what it plainly states—not the generation Jesus addressed,
but one living two millennia later.]
[The excerpt would present alternative interpretations that take Jesus' timeframe
statements at face value.]
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Return to the Faith of Jesus
[Placeholder text: This excerpt would focus on James, who led the Jerusalem church
for three decades and knew Jesus personally, as a window into the original movement.]
[It would examine the epistle of James and what it reveals about the earliest
Christian community's beliefs and practices—and how different these were from
what Christianity became after Gentile domination.]
[The excerpt would conclude by pointing toward recovery of the original faith
through careful attention to these earliest sources.]
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