April 2016 – Page 6 – TrueFreeThinker

Deoxyribonucleic Acid:
It appears that some of the unfounded claims of the documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus are supposed to be excused due to reliance on “science.” DNA research is a science but the documentary’s conclusions are not scientific. Here is one such claim made by DSC,

“The film also documents DNA extraction from human residue found in two of the ossuaries and reveals new evidence that throws light on Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene.”1

If you found my DNA how could you prove that it was mine? You would have to extract DNA from me and match it up. Finding DNA in an ossuary that says Yeshua does not tell us who this Yeshua was.Note this interesting comment by Simcha Jacobovici regarding “Ossuary 80/503 ‘Yeshua bar Yosef’ – ‘Jesus, Son of Joseph'”:

“there is a large cross mark right next to the name ‘Jesus.’ A cross, deliberately carved. The archaeologists, however, immediately and ever since, dismissed this as a mason’s mark. Besides, they say, Christians didn’t use crosses until the time of Constantine in the 4th century. This ‘Jesus, Son of Joseph’ ossuary couldn’t belong to that Jesus, son of Joseph. Back in 1926, another ‘Jesus, son of Joseph’ ossuary was discovered_[it] is on display at the Israel Museum. It is in no way connected with Jesus of Nazareth but instead is on display to send a message: don’t get excited if you find archaeological mention of any ‘Jesus.’ The name is common.”2

[He emphasized the word “that”]

Simply stated, since there is no independent DNA control sample the storytelling in the documentary about Jesus, His alleged wife and His alleged child are simply unfounded and merely disguised as science.
We are told that since the DNA in the Yeshua and the Mariamne ossuary does not match the best explanation, considering that they are in a family tomb and yet not genealogically related, is that they were husband and wife. But how do we know this? Because it fits the theory. In fact, Yose may have been married to Mariamne and Yeshua could have been their son. Then Yeshua could have been married to Maria and had a son named Yehuda.

For proof that Jesus was married the documentary relies heavily on The Acts of Philip. They particularly rely on the most complete version of the text ever found.
In 1974 AD a 700 year old manuscript of the 4th century text of The Acts of Philip that contained “an early description of Mary Magdalene, unmarked by later Christian tradition.” Think about it; some three centuries after the time of Jesus and Mary Magdalene a text was written. We then find a manuscript that dates to circa fourteenth century which is considered the most reliable version. At this point we may state that the skeptics will instantly embrace, accept, exalt and proclaim the absolute truth of any text that contradicts the New Testament. They do this by establishing different standards for that which will back up what they already believe; if it contradicts the New Testament it must be true-clearly, this is a substandard double standard. Therefore, they consider The Acts of Philip to be, pardon the pun, gospel truth (in this regard my essay of the gospel of Judas may be relevant). In reality, The Acts of Philip does not mention “Mary Magdalene” but it does include some interesting stories about the conversion of a talking leopard and goat.

Of course, we have no historical evidence that Jesus was married or that He had a child. I wrote about this in “Their Own Whims and Lusts” – Liberal Scholars and Jesus’ Marriage. Ah, but there is no evidence because it was kept secret-lack of evidence is not evidence, we cannot say that we know that it is true because there is no evidence.

“The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, part 5 of 10

Statistical Probability:We again find personal interpretations of evidence being passed off as scientific conclusions. Statistical probability is a mathematical discipline but it is only as accurate as the numbers that are being used.

Let us begin with James Cameron’s sensationalistic claims. On NBC’s “Today,” he claimed that statisticians favored the documentary’s conclusions about the ossuaries “in the range of a couple of million to one.”1

Also, note that DSC claims that “A statistical study commissioned by the broadcasters_concludes that the probability factor is 600 to 1 in favor of this tomb being the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.”2

Moreover, “Cameron and Jacobovici said statisticians who have looked at markings on the bone boxes estimate that the probability that the remains uncovered in 1980 are not those of Joseph, Mary, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, a son of Jesus and other relatives are more than 100 to 1.”3

On Larry King’s show Simcha Jacobovici claimed that the stats were “2,000,000 to 1” in favor.

The claims were: “a couple of million to one,” “600 to 1,” “100 to 1,” “2,000,000 to one.”
This poses quite a statistical discrepancy.

Moreover, the calculation are based “on a few assumptions: that the Maria on one of the ossuaries is the mother of the Jesus found on another box, that Mariamne is his wife and that Joseph (inscribed as the nickname Jose) is his brother.”4

Darrell Bock (author of “Breaking the Da Vinci Code”) notes,

“Joseph is the second most common male name in the period. Jesus is the sixth. Matthew’s the ninth,” “Mary is the most popular female name – 21 percent of the female names of the period. So, you’re dealing with a lot of familiar names.”5

Also, note that Bar Ilan University’s Amos Kloner,

“is adamant there is no evidence to support claims that it was the burial site of Jesus_’I’m a scholar. I do scholarly work which has nothing to do with documentary film-making’ he told AFP in a telephone interview_
‘Who says that ‘Maria’ is Magdalena and ‘Judah’ is the son of Jesus? It cannot be proved. These are very popular and common names from the 1st century BC,’ said the academic at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. Kloner said that of 900 burial caves found within four kilometres (two and a half miles) of Jerusalem’s Old City and from the same era, the name Jesus or Yeshu was found 71 times, and that ‘Jesus son of Joseph’ had also been found.”6

At the end of the essay Archeological Identity Theft the author makes short work of the statistical calculations.

An anti-missionary Rabbi's manipulative fight for Jewish souls

We conclude, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, considering pop-research on the issue of the historical Jesus and Jesus mythicism with regards to some Atheists who have taken to the utterly radical view that Jesus never even existed. I have been considering Michael Paulkovich and Raphael Lataster and, in this case, I got into a comment section discussion within an article written by YouTube celebrity Atheist AaronRa that was simply titled “Jesus never existed” November 3, 2015 AD.

See my article Historical Jesus – two centuries worth of citations wherein I chronicled 205 texts that reference Jesus dating from pre 70 AD to 200-250 AD.

Having reviewed the facts of the matter (with very many more references provide in Jewish and Christian? Is Messianic Judaism Possible? ) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s claim that “Even if he continues to keep all of the rituals, it is the same as if he abandoned Judaism completely…A Jew who accepts Christianity might want to call himself a ‘Jewish Christian,’ but he is no longer a Jew,” is shown to be just what Rabbi Federow said it was as he gave the store away by admitting that Kaplan’s book “was written to fight the efforts of Christian missionaries” which is the only reason that Federow quoted him, because it only states one side of the issue, the side that Federow wants people to think is the only side: his side.

Likewise with Maimonides (aka Rabbi Moses ben Maimon aka the Rambam) as he too was an anti-Christian polemicist who, of course, Rabbi Federow not only still considers him a Jew but an authority who is “very very well respected” and, in fact, one of the “two Orthodox rabbinic authorities” which are good enough for him to make his bias one sided polemical point.

So, Federow asserts that “A Jew who serves false gods is considered like a gentile in all regards and is not comparable to a Jew who violated another transgression punishable by being stoned to death” and yet, these are the very same Jews who within the Tanakh are constantly being called back by God from serving false gods. It is accurate that “An apostate who worships false gods is considered to be an apostate with regard to the entire Torah” but we have seen that these apostates are actually still Jewish since as per the Encyclopedia Judaica, the Halakah and the Talmud, “In Jewish religious law, it is technically impossible for a Jew…to change his religion. Even though a Jew undergoes the rites of admission to another religious faith and formally renounces the Jewish religion he remains—as far as the Halakah is concerned—a Jew, albeit a sinner (Sanh. 44a)…For the born Jew, Judaism is not a matter of choice…in the technical halakhic sense, apostasy is impossible.”

Thus, the Atheist Maimonides “considered the worship of Jesus to have been idolatry” since for some odd reason an Atheist is concerned about idolatry. Yet, the point is that Jewish Christians recognize that the God of the Bible is one. Christian theology 101 is to firmly establish the Tanakh’s monotheism. Thus, Jewish Christians believe that they worship the God of the Tanakh and are thus, not apostates and still Jews.

“The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, part 9 of 10

Erudite Elucidators?:
John Dominic Crossan is the co-founder and former co-chair of “The Jesus Seminar.” He makes his obligatory appearance in the documentary in order to make one statement:

“If the bones of Jesus were to be found in an ossuary in Jerusalem tomorrow. Without doubt, let’s say they are definitely agreed to be the bones of Jesus. Would that destroy Christian faith? It certainly would not destroy my Christian faith. I leave what happens to bodies up to God.”

[He emphasized the word “my”]

Note that on June 26, 2000 ABC aired “Peter Jennings Reporting: The Search for Jesus” in which John Dominic Crossan stated that crucifixion was feared because it “was not simply that it made you suffer a lot. It meant that you didn’t get buried. That’s what made it one of the supreme Roman penalties-lack of burial.” Crossan believes that Jesus’ body was simply thrown in the city dump and was eaten by wild dogs.

Firstly, let us note that the problem with this statement is lack of evidence. Moreover, the evidence we do have on this subject proves him wrong and proves the Bible right. In 1968 the remains of a crucified man named Yhohnn (or Yohann) Yehohanan were found in an ossuary at Giv’at ha-Mivtar in Jerusalem. This find proved many details of the biblical account including a large nail imbedded through the heel bone and still embedded into a piece the wood, broken shin bones and burial in a family grave.

In 2000 John Dominic Crossan’s expertise informed us that crucifixion victims did not get buried. In 2007 Crossan’s expertise informed us that Jesus may have been buried and may be found. It would appear that the only thing that could challenge Crossan’s faith would be if the New Testament were to be taken in a literal, traditional, orthodox manner and if he would consider other historical and archeological evidence.

Another expert who seems to be up for anything is James Tabor of whom Ben Witherington comments thusly:

“What should we make of James Tabor’s being co-opted into this project? You will remember his book which came out last year The Jesus Dynasty. In that book he had quite a good deal to say about the Talpiot Tomb, and about Panthera being the father of Jesus, and about Jesus being buried in Galilee, and of course nothing about a ossuary which claims that Joseph is the father of Jesus.”1

While it is certainly difficult to discern a person’s mood and unacceptable to determine the motive of their heart; James Tabor appeared to be almost capricious or belittling at times:

“When He’s first buried it’s in a temporary tomb. And later, unless He somehow magically disappears and goes to heaven, which is a position of Christian faith, but if you’re gonna be historical and realistic, uh, He, He was put in a, would be put in a permanent place.”

The very cornerstone of the Christian faith is referred to as magical; well, we have been told worse. Notice his preconceived notion; “historical” and “realistic” does not allow the magical. You may say “Rightly so,” but do keep in mind that he is presenting us with an a priori commitment to naturalism/materialism. Unless it has been proven that naturalism/materialism is absolute we cannot simply dismiss the “magical.” It is a false dichotomy to juxtapose “historical” and “realistic” on the one hand and “magical” aka miraculous or supernatural on the other whilst asserting that never the twain shall meet.

He also states,

“Tell you something very interesting, there’re two genealogies of Jesus. Everybody reads the formal genealogy of Joseph_but the other genealogy is imbedded in Luke, people don’t notice it much, it’s Luke chapter three, you gotta turn a few pages.”

Who would have thunk it? Apparently, in two thousand years only James Tabor and a handful of people have noticed the genealogy in Luke. This reminds me of the author who wrote, “in a little-known passage of the Bible, the credit for killing Goliath is actually given to somebody completely different – David’s champion Elhanan”-“little known”?

We seem to be dealing with experts for whom any non-New Testament theory de jour will do.

‹ “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, part 8 of 10 up

A Rabbi's bias on who is a Jew and anti-missionaries

We continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, considering pop-research on the issue of the historical Jesus and Jesus mythicism with regards to some Atheists who have taken to the utterly radical view that Jesus never even existed. I have been considering Michael Paulkovich and Raphael Lataster and, in this case, I got into a comment section discussion within an article written by YouTube celebrity Atheist AaronRa that was simply titled “Jesus never existed” November 3, 2015 AD.

See my article Historical Jesus – two centuries worth of citations wherein I chronicled 205 texts that reference Jesus dating from pre 70 AD to 200-250 AD.

Here is Rabbi Stuart Federow’s reply (a note a sic. on all the entire quotation):

Ken, i am trying to give materials to Jews with which they can respond to the efforts of Christian missionaries. I am trying to write a website that shows the errors of Christiantiy, including the ruse that one can be a Jew and a Christian at the same time. For my purpose, there is only one viewpoint.

You know there is no other group for which this lie is made, in order to obtain converts? There is no organization for ex-catholics called, “Baptist Catholics” where they would claim they remain catholics but are also now Baptists. There is no group called “Muslims With No Mohammad But Rather With Jesus” no one makes the claim that if one was a muslim but becomes a christian they can still be muslims. The Jews are not a race, one can convert To Judaism and become a Jew, and if one is a Jew and converts to another faith, they are no longer a Jew.

Furthermore, the rabbis, when the times required it, were much more strict. Those times are now. For any Jew who cares about Judaism, who cares about Jews, who cares about maintaining our distinctive Jewish values and faith in the face of hundreds of millions of dollars (by their own accounting!), spent to missionize the Jews, and with over a hundred messianic “synagogues” in Israel itself, yes, it is time now to be strict. These missionaries follow Paul’s dictum to be deceitful in order to make converts, by their understanding of I Corinthians 9! They change their christian names to something that sounds Jewish, like Tuvia Zaretsky of “jews” for Jesus Los Angeles, who was born with the name Lloyd Carson, to make themselves appear to have been Jewish! From my perspective this is a war for souls. And i will use whatever i can to win that fight.

In Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s book, The Real Messiah, which, also, was written to fight the efforts of Christian missionaries like the “Jews” for jesus, he states “”Even if he continues to keep all of the rituals, it is the same as if he abandoned Judaism completely…A Jew who accepts Christianity might want to call himself a ‘Jewish Christian,’ but he is no longer a Jew,”” Rabbi Kaplan references Maimonides to back up his statement. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was a very very well respected rabbi in the most orthodox of Jewish circles, and he referenced Maimonides, also very very well respected, and you can see the quotation from Maimonides:::
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/912360/jewish/Avodat-Kocha… “”Halacha 5

A Jew who serves false gods is considered like a gentile in all regards and is not comparable to a Jew who violated another transgression punishable by being stoned to death. An apostate who worships false gods is considered to be an apostate with regard to the entire Torah.””

Maimonides considered the worship of Jesus to have been idolatry. These two Orthodox rabbinic authorities are good enough for me and for my website. I have no intention of changing it.

Before dissecting his statement, here was my reply which seems to have ended our exchange as he did not write back:

Very well, I see your point. I was just thinking that if your purpose is to “give materials to Jews with which they can respond to the efforts of Christian missionaries” then, of course, Jews will use your materials to respond to the efforts of Christian missionaries.

However, I foresee the problem being that a Christian missionary or layperson could easily find information which contradicts your “one viewpoint,” such as just about any Jewish encyclopedia, and that could result in the Jew coming across as not very well informed. It could even lead to Jew to think that they have been misled by the Rabbis to whom they look for guidance.

In the next segment, I will dissect his statements.

Dan Barker and Bertrand Russell: The Dynamic Duo of Demonstrably Deleterious Delusion (8 Part Series)

“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’
Says the LORD”-Isaiah 1:18

The ringside bell chimes again for this, round 3, of our tag team extravaganza. Round 1 featured Sam Harris and Bertrand Russell, round 2 featured Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher. Bertrand Russell is back for the 3rd round and has teamed up with Dan Barker with regards to the issue of reason, logic, rationale, intelligence, etc.

In part 1 Sam Harris was piggybacking on Bertrand Russell’s arguments. In part 2 there was a discussion between Prof. Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher. In this case I am the one combining the pair since their contentions meet up at the issue of reason, logic, rationale, intelligence, etc.

Bertrand Russell’s contribution to this duo actually consist of merely one sentence, one very telling sentence which reads thusly,

“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.”

Bertrand Russell

The portion which Dan Barker will contribute is a series of statements that he has made in many forms from the written to statements within debates and goes something like this from his debate with Michael Horner on the question, “Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?“1:

“Barker: The freedom to think for myself was what was so seductive about freethinking and atheism. The bible says we should bring ‘every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ.’ The bible says ‘Lean not on your own understanding.’ The bible is anti-intellectual. The bible wants us to be like children. I don’t like that. I have a mind; I want to use it. One of the biggest sins is to doubt, according to Christianity. The freedom to think for myself, to be able to be free of the restraints of Christianity or any other religious tradition. That me that’s attractive [sic]; the idea that I’m not going to be eternally condemned because I have a question. The idea . . . who created hell? I mean, that hell that exists is there because God must have created it. Jesus phrased it in terms of weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, a physical place where we will have teeth, right? This hell, I don’t believe this hell exists. I think it’s . . . I’m surprised that in the 20th century, here we have an educated man who believes there is such a place as hell! I mean, really! Mike, really — this is the 20th century. We use our minds. We use intellect, we use science, and you’re taking some mish-mash writings from some ancient book by people who were religiously motivated, and you think it’s true! You should be ashamed of yourself. In any event, atheism for me represents the freedom to think. It represents the freedom to search all avenues and follow the path wherever it leads. And if it leads back to Jesus, I’ll go there. I’m not fighting God. If it leads there, I’ll happily go there. I’m not stupid. I’m not dumb. I’m not closing my mind. I don’t hate the whole concept of it.

I do think the God of the bible is beneath dignity and beneath moral respect, the way he treats people, the way he acted, the way he committed genocide, the way he devalued women, and on and on. The way Jesus encouraged owning and beating slaves. For example, he never once spoke out against slavery in his entire life. And I could go on and on and show the shortcomings of Christianity, but that would be a different debate as well. Atheism brings me up to zero, and then things like humanism or feminism or social issues give me a purpose in life to go on and make this world a better place.” [ellipses in original]

Michael Horner

Let us consider Michael Horner’s response before I offer my own:

“The Bible is not anti-intellectual. That is just a misrepresentation of the Scriptures. As I said, it implies that there’s plenty of evidence for God’s existence and the other Christian truth claims. But the problem with atheism . . . I mean, I agree with Dan that the issue of truth is really what is most important here, you know, which view is true: Christianity, or atheism, or some other view. And I think the evidence does show that the Christian hypothesis has much more evidence in its favor than atheism does. But there’s another level here that can be looked at, and that is, even if the evidence for and against Christianity or atheism, if they were equal, they kind of balanced each other out, say, the second level here is that atheism cannot provide a basis or a foundation for ultimate significance, meaning and purpose and human dignity and objective morality.

Whereas Christianity succeeds precisely in those same spots where atheism breaks down. So it’s completely irrational to adopt a world view that can’t give you a foundation for these very values that we need to live with day by day. All the atheist can do is play Let’s Pretend. There’s no ultimate meaning, purpose, significance to the universe, but let’s pretend there’s meaning and purpose, and I’ll choose to do this today to give my life meaning. But it’s just a game of Let’s Pretend.” [ellipses in original]

In the next portion we will dissect Dan Barker’s comments.

Sam Harris

Sam Harris – Neuroscientist for Atheism

Sam Harris – Nietzsche’s Madman

Sam Harris – Ten Myths, Truths About Atheism’s Apologetics

Sam Harris – The Dehumanizer

Sam Harris – The Rape Comments

Sam Harris – The Seriously Funny Project

Sam Harris “The Moral Landscape” aka “The End of Morality”, part 1 of 2

Sam Harris: Instigator At Large

Sam Harris: Let Him Who is Without Faith Cast the First Stone

Sam Harris: Mythunderstandings (7 Part Series)

Should Sam Harris appear on “Hell’s Kitchen”?

Sweet Home Chicago and Christians Studied

The Holocaust and the Blame

The New Atheism: A Quest of Confusion-Part I

The New Atheists on Francis Collins – Soteriological Chain of Causation

The Quadripartite Equine Riders, part 1 of 11

Too Sexy for My Theology? On the New Atheist Obsession with Sex

VIDEO: Atheism and rape – a disturbing compilation

VIDEO: Atheists Bill Maher and Sam Harris slam Islam

VIDEO: Bill Maher slams Islam and is smacked down by guests

Atheist Quotes / Atheism Quotes – Sam Harris Quotes

Below are some choice quotes by Sam Harris (and a couple about Sam Harris).

This post may grow if and when I can manage to stomach tainting my mind by calling into remembrance the vast amounts of Sam Harris’ bio-chemically educed brain secretions expressed as writing that I have read or if anyone places some good quotes into the comments section.

About Sam Harris:

Sam Harris is so superlatively wrong that it will require the development of esoteric mathematics operating simultaneously in multiple dimensions to fully comprehend the orders of magnitude of his wrongness.1

Under pressure, Harris reveals ideological biases that will trouble some readers_He seems to loathe Islam with a fury the more surprising because he doesn’t seem to know much about it. (His quotes on the subject stem mostly from the works of Bernard Lewis and a university Web site.)2

By Sam Harris:

If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, Harris explains, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion.3

there’s nothing more natural than rape. Human beings rape, chimpanzees rape, orangutans rape, rape clearly is part of an evolutionary strategy to get your genes into the next generation if you’re a male. You can’t move from that Darwinian fact about us to defend rape as a good practice. I mean no-one would be tempted to do that; we have transcended that part of our evolutionary history in repudiating it.4

Where are the women’s rights groups?

you can get a rationale for killing people for adultery out of the New Testament.5

Just who is “you”? No one has for 2,000 years my dear sir.

[Bertrand Russell] had it right when he made the following observation: “The Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used to baptize Indian infants and then immediately dash their brains out: by this means they secured these infants went to Heaven.” No orthodox Christian can find any logical reason for condemning their action, although all nowadays do so. In countless ways the doctrine of personal immortality in its Christian form has had disastrous effects upon morals.6

Sad to note the results of the oxygen deprived brain secretions of someone whose mind is stuck in well within the box atheist group think.

The gravity of Jewish suffering over the ages, culminating in the Holocaust, makes it almost impossible to entertain any suggestion that Jews might have brought their troubles upon themselves. This is, however, in a rather narrow sense, the truth.7

Where are the outcries of the anti-anti-Semites?

The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat and for whom a wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology.

Another fine atheist talking point. Yet, another atheist talking point that discredits the atheist while leaving the Bible unscathed. See the post: Positive Atheism – Cliff Walker: The Flat Earth Falls Flat

Jesus Christ-who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens-can now be eaten in the form of a cracker.

Words like “God” and “Allah” must go the way of “Apollo” and “Baal,” or they will unmake our world_Faith-based religion must suffer the same slide into obsolescence.8

Let us add accidents that cause the universe and everything in it to the list.

When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths. Only then will the practice of raising our children to believe that they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu be broadly recognized as the ludicrous obscenity that it is.9

Ya vol!

making religious certitude look stupid will be exploited, and we’ll start laughing at people who believe_We’ll laugh at them in a way that will be synonymous with excluding them from our halls of power.10

Ya vol!-again.

Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.11

Ya vol!-for real.

Once the neurology of belief becomes clear_religious faith will be exposed for what it is: a humble species of terrestrial credulity.

If we better understood the workings of the human brain, we would undoubtedly discover lawful connections between our states of consciousness, our modes of conduct, and the various ways we use our attention. If we ever develop such a science, most of our religious texts will be no more useful to mystics than they now are to astronomers.12

Those are big ifs but good enough for the atheist who imagines himself into affirming atheism. This is evidence that he did not become a neuroscientist in order to practice unbiased science but in order to attempt to affirm his particular sect of atheism.

God’s counsel to parents is refreshingly straightforward: whenever children get out of line, we should beat them with a rod (Proverbs 13:24, 20:30, and 23:13-14).13

Superb emotive well within the box atheist group think yet, utterly unbiblical.

Introduction to the Baha'i Faith – The Key Players

Introduction to the Key Persons and
Institution Behind the Baha’i Faith

The Baha’i Faith developed as an offshoot of the Babi Faith, which developed as an offshoot of Shaykhism, which developed as an offshoot of Ithna-‘Ashariyyih, which developed as an offshoot of Sufism, which developed as an offshoot of Shi’ite, which developed as a denomination of Islam. In order to understand the Baha’i Faith we must get to know some key persons.

The Shrine of the Bab

The Bab:
Siyyid or Mirza Ali Muhammad came to be known as the Bab, which means the Gate or Door. He was born in 1819 and was executed in 1850. He founded the Babi Faith and his major work is called the Bayan in which he abolished certain Muslim laws and replaced them with new ones.
The Bab is said to be Emmanuel, the most exalted Word and the return of both Elijah the prophet and John the Baptist.
In 1844 the Bab proclaimed that a Manifestation of God would come in 19 years. Although some sources claim that he estimated 1,511 years.

The Shrine of Baha’u’llah

Baha’u’llah:
Mirza Hoseyn Ali came to be known as Baha’u’llah, which means the Splendor or Glory of Allah. He lived 1817-1892. In 1863 Baha’u’llah proclaimed himself to be the Manifestation of God spoken of by the Bab. The Bab is said to be the forerunner to Baha’u’llah just as John the Baptist was the forerunner to Jesus.

Baha’u’llah is referred to as the return of Christ, Lord of the Kingdom of Revelation, the Greatest Name, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, the Comforter, Spirit of Truth, and refers to his own Manifestation as that of the Lord of Hosts, the Maker and Redeemer of the world.

Perhaps most importantly, Baha’u’llah is also referred to as the Prince of this World (here is a hint, see John 12:30-33; 14:28-31; 16:7-11; also see Ephesians 2:2 and 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4).

Baha’u’llah came up with the doctrine called ‘Most Great Infallibility‘ in which he states that a Manifestation, such as himself, is infallible and if anyone claims to be a Manifestation before 1,000 years has passed from 1863 AD, that person is a lying impostor. Since he claimed to be the Second Coming of Christ, what we see here is a redefinition of the 1,000 year reign.

`Abdu’l-Baha:
`Abbas Effendi came to be known as `Abdu’l-Baha, which means Servant of the Glory. He is referred to as the center of Baha’u’llah’s covenant and lived 1844-1921.He was Baha’u’llah’s son and was appointed by him as the sole interpreter of his teachings. During his life it was said that he was supplying the entire world with guidance. He is referred to as The Perfect Exemplar because he lived a life more perfect than any other man.

“`Abdu’l-Baha, the Center of Baha’u’llah’s covenant and the unerring interpreter of his word.”

1 shoghi20effendi2c20true20freethinker-1122850

Shoghi Effendi:
Shoghi Effendi Rabbani was known as the Guardian and lived 1897-1957.
He was `Abdu’l-Baha’s grandson and directed the Baha’i from 1921-1957 in the USA. He was appointed by `Abdu’l-Baha to be the sole interpreter of Baha’u’llah’s teachings. After him no other individual was appointed as interpreter of Baha’u’llah’s teachings but the Baha’i set up administration.

the20universal20house20of20justice2c20true20freethinker-4534008

The Universal House of Justice

Administration:
The Universal House of Justice is Baha’ism’s international administration and consists of nine (male) members; it is the highest Baha’i institution (they are considered infallible). National Spiritual Assemblies is the national administration. Local Spiritual Assemblies is the local administration. Elected members head all of these.

See my various books here.

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Month: April 2016

Dan Barker

“The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, part 4 of 10