What I Didn’t Learn in Church
I grew up in church. I was that barefoot kid running around the sanctuary after a service as if I owned the place. I took naps in pews between services, I could tell you all the snack options in the nursery, and I knew all the best secret hiding places in the church building. I was a true church brat.
With all of the time I spent in church, not to mention the Christian schools I attended, I always thought I knew everything about the Bible. I don’t say this to sound “holier-than-thou.” I really thought I knew everything there was to know about the Bible. I could finish a pastor’s sermon after hearing the first point. I could quote verses to support just about any aspect of life. I thought I knew it all.
However, I recently came across some teaching that I was never taught. I wasn’t even told it existed. It’s the Near East literature that was written about a thousand years before Genesis. Some examples are the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Atra-Hasis Epic, and Enuma Elish. The similarities between these writings and the Bible are incredible. There are also differences, mainly related to the issue of monotheism.
I wasn’t even taught about the Apocrypha, which the Bible itself quotes! If the writers of the Bible found the Apocryphal works to be reliable enough to use as a source, then why aren’t Christians taught to study these works?
Is it possible that the early church and the Council of Nicea chose books to place in the Bible that fit with their agenda? Why are the other books hidden and forgotten about? These are questions I believe each person must answer for himself. We must be willing to look at what we’ve been taught, and haven’t been taught, with fresh eyes. Forget all the preconceived ideas that the church has placed in your head, and do the research for yourself. I guarantee it will be a rewarding experience to uncover truths you never knew before.
But even in the Christian religion, much of its real meaning is hidden by words that are misleading and symbols that but few understand.
Ernest Holmes
Dinah you have opened your mind and you are on the right path. Dan Brown does not have anything on the things you are going to learn.
Im proud of you!
Dimitri
Here is something you wont learn in school.
Paul v.s Jesus….Oh no!!! I said something that may tick some people off. OOPS
Here it is. For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlucDUgMusI
The “D”
I only wish that when I was 25, 5 year’s after graduating with a B.A. in theology, that I would have known/discovered what you are presenting here in regards to the hidden agenda of the early church and Council of Nicea. Yet, it was not until recently I made such discoveries.
I’ve always known about the Apocrypha, yet we were also taught in seminary to look at them as “historical writings” and nothing more. It was not until after my 33 years of ministry that I finally pushed away from everything I learned, since the age of 5, and began looking at things with “fresh eyes”. It has truly been a “rewarding experience”