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Oh, for the good old days!


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"It is our will that all peoples ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans... this is the religion followed by bishop Damasus of Rome and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity: that is, according to the apostolic discipline of the evangelical doctrine, we shall believe in the single dieity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost under the concept of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity.

"We command that persons who follow this rule shall embrace the name of catholic Christians. The rest, however, whom We judge demented and insane, shall carry the infamy of heretical dogmas. Their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by Divine Vengence, and secondly by the retribution of hostility which We shall assume in accordance with the Divine Judgment."

This is the text of an edict handed down from the Roman emperor Theodosius in January, 380 A.D., quoted by Charles Freeman on page 25 of A.D. 381.

This edict was a startling reversal of the toleration that had marked the whole of the Roman Empire to this point. It was the end of freedom of conscience and freedom of speech for well over 1000 years.

Love,

Steve

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Help me understand this please, I be missing something, I think. My call is to the body, they of the body know who they are; but I think, you think that I should make this call to the world? No, our Father would not want that to happen, their is no way the world will give up that spirit teaching, but those who have ears to hear of the body, will. But I think the body would not want to be enslaved to this, The Way shoved their face's into Chapter and Verse, and look what happen to them, too many people wearing robes, I just think people wearing robes, just makes one want to go and buy a trumpet? But that is what I think, it is cool that you believe in your heart this matter, but just do not get that number; the day of Yahweh is close. It just seems, that the road you want to go on to get in heaven, is a ruff road, full of way to many unknown things; but remember, the power from on high will not be on the earth. I would not know want to do without it, it is all I know. Good luck. I just hate to see you make this your goal in life, can we help you out, their are a lot a great folks here, to help the best they know how; I do not know, the day of Yahweh, I guess I would run for the hills, run for my life. The body was betrayed by a man, Martindale, so my call is to tell the body that Martindale betrayed them, and all the Martindale clone's still teaching that spirit teaching, Martindale was told to rewrite all the books of the way, but Martindale said no way. Their is a place for you, but my call is not for you, their is no way you will give up your spirit teaching; and you were not betrayed, like the way the body was betrayed by Martindale. Had Martindale did what he was told to do, The Way changing before the worlds eye's, throwing everything off the table, starting all over; you had that in your doctrine in a way, that Luther dude, where did that get the world, more spirit teachings? In the body we have a lot of people that throw salt at Yahweh's face, but when Yahweh is in need, they walked away, Martindale clones; so some of those of the body will miss out, but that is on those salt throwers; but steve, things are not much better here ether, but come join us, I will just keep trying to make this call "Dump that spirit teaching", it is on those Martindale clones now, those salt throwers at Yahweh's face.

Edited by teachmevp
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The tip of a very large iceberg, I think, Steve.

There was a lot going on then as well, leading up to that date.

And not that those things are not still happening.

A big deal back then, and leading up to the Crusades of the 11th through 13th centuries.

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I never cease to be amazed at the certainty some believers exhibit - be it the fourth century Romans or GS posters today - about a book as malleable or inscrutable (and even filled with palpable errors) as The Bible.

How can one possibly be so goddammed certain about something when theres so many equally intelligent and dedicated scholars with wildly diverse ideas about what it means?

And, in a larger sense, why would an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God come up with an instruction book that was so obtuse? Maybe He's just got a sick sense of humor?

I dunno...

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And, in a larger sense, why would an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God come up with an instruction book that was so obtuse? Maybe He's just got a sick sense of humor?

I dunno...

Now, George. You know perfectly well that this is the reason PFAL was given to Wierwille, via theopneustos. :biglaugh:

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God first

thanks George Aar

Are you talking about me

about of mighty word "some Christians"

because your wrong is your put into any group that blindly worship a book over God's words

so i ask you

because christian are playing with book other know God bigger than that

with love and a holy kiss Roy

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that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans... this is the religion followed by bishop Damasus of Rome

Love,

Steve

Steve I think that this statement is false. The church was never founded by Peter. He was the pebble. The church was founded by Jesus Christ. He was the rock.

Edited by Human without the bean
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Sooo....

Say a group of local believers decides to pool their resources and build a fellowship hall. Everything is hunkey-dorey.

Then two of the group's members disagree with each other over some point of doctrine. Perhaps one says there was an Aramaic substrate, and another contends that the original autographs were in Greek. Neither one can understand why the other is being so pig-headed and obtuse. Their disagreement flares throughout the group, and soon there are two camps who cannot stand the sight of each other, much less sharing the same fellowship hall.

They decide to split. Which group gets to keep the hall? After all, it was a substantial investment.

They go down to the courthouse and ask a judge to decide. The judge thinks the New Testament was originally composed in King James English. The judge is going to flip a coin to make the decision, but the leader of the Greek autograph faction convinces the judge his group will be able to campaign more effectively for the judge during the upcoming election than the Aramaic faction will. So the judge decides that the Greek autograph faction gets to keep the building. All of the other leaders of groups that own fellowship halls in the town start teaching the Greek autograph position, because they don't want to lose their buildings.

That's why Theodosius declared the Nicean position to be orthodox, and anybody who held differently to be a deranged, insane heretic.

That's why "Their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches" (be eligible to receive a subsidy, or in our culture, they would lose their tax-exempt status).

Before the late fourth century, it was simply assumed that if a person became a Christian, that is, if a person received baptism, then that person was saved and his immortal soul would automatically go to heaven when he died. When Theodosius said Christians who disagreed with him would "be smitten... with Divine Vengence", he was declaring that Christians would be sent to Hell eternally on his say so.

The Roman legal system had no provisions for dealing with differences of opinion (the original meaning of the word "heresy"), so the magistrates had to resort to laws regarding maleficium (cursing through sorcerous means) to enforce orthodoxy. Theological disagreements turned into literal "witch-hunts".

Love,

Steve

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