| Not only do WINNERS write history, but history is | | | | 2-Marcionites who felt the Bible was the Gospel of |
| constantly being REVISED. As a political science and | | | | Luke without chapter 1&2 and ten letters of Paul |
| history major that gave me my BA in college, I have to | | | | (less, I, II Timothy and Titus). Paul was their supreme |
| wonder how much of history is FACTUAL. However, | | | | commander. |
| my intent here is about religious history which has a | | | | 3-Gnostic (Valentinian) Christians who preferred John, |
| particularly shady approach to the past. Before I | | | | Gospel of Thomas, Mary, Phillip, and the Gospel Of |
| launch, let me reiterate that I see the Bible as | | | | Truth. |
| SACRED and by Bible, I am talking about both the | | | | 4-Ebionites who felt the Bible was the Gospel of |
| Christian (pick a translation) and Catholic Bible: be it | | | | Ebionites and Hebrews. |
| sixty six or seventy two books. | | | | 5-Montanists who believe many things from many |
| Did I mention I see many of the lost gospels as sacred | | | | books including: that the soul was not pre-existent- |
| too? :-) | | | | Jesus totally human, not of virgin birth, and was akin to |
| The road to canonicity was a long one and well | | | | today\'s Modern day Pentecostals. |
| traveled. Pope Damasus I isam often considered to be | | | | 6-Proto-Orthodox who were the forerunners of |
| the father of the modern Catholic canon. Thus some | | | | today’s thinking, creeds and the Bible we now |
| 350 years after the death of Jesus twenty seven | | | | have. |
| books are decided on by a combination of several | | | | The proto-orthodox won. One can take the position |
| emperors, particularly Constantine and Justinian, and | | | | that God decided who would win (where\'s the free |
| the winners of the \"canonicity battle\". The players in | | | | will in that?) or we can take the position that the most |
| that battle were primarily as follows: | | | | powerful group won, and that the canon that we have |
| 1-Jewish-Christian Adoptionists who felt the Bible was | | | | today, while sacred and full of wise spiritual counsel, is |
| the book Hebrews, Matthew without chapters 1 and 2, | | | | in now way infallible nor the final word. |
| and the Hebrew Old Testament. They saw Paul as a | | | | We have the Spirt-Consciousness of God for that. |
| heretic. | | | | Are you using it? |