"Faith at the point of a gun isn't faith, it's violent coercion. "



It would take more than a lifetime to read, comprehend, interpret, decipher, and  actualize the Bibile written by man....

BOOK 
(OR DIVISION)
CHAPTERS  VERSES   UNNUMBERED VERSES
TOTAL 1189  31,103   +137
 Old Testament 929  23,145   +137
 New Testament 260  7958   
       
 Genesis 50 1533  
 Exodus 40 1213  
 Leviticus 27 859  
 Numbers 36 1288  
 Deuteronomy 34 959  
 Joshua 24 658  
 Judges 21 618  
 Ruth 4 85  
 1 Samuel 31 810  
 2 Samuel 24 695  
 1 Kings 22 816  
 2 Kings 25 719  
 1 Chronicles 29 942  
 2 Chronicles 36 822  
 Ezra 10 280  
 Nehemiah 13 406  
 Esther 10 167  
 Job 42 1070  
 Psalms 150 2461 +137
 Proverbs 31 915  
 Ecclesiastes 12 222  
 Song of Songs 8 117  
 Isaiah 66 1292  
 Jeremiah 52 1364  
 Lamentations 5 154  
 Ezekiel 48 1273  
 Daniel 12 357  
 Hosea 14 197  
 Joel 3 73  
 Amos 9 146  
 Obadiah 1 21  
 Jonah 4 48  
 Micah 7 105  
 Nahum 3 47  
 Habakkuk 3 56  
 Zephaniah 3 53  
 Haggai 2 38  
 Zechariah 14 211  
 Malachi 4 55  
 Matthew 28 1071  
 Mark 16 678  
 Luke 24 1151  
 John 21 879  
 Acts 28 1007  
 Romans 16 433  
 1 Corinthians 16 437  
 2 Corinthians 13 257  
 Galatians 6 149  
 Ephesians 6 155  
 Philippians 4 104  
 Colossians 4 95  
 1 Thessalonians 5 89  
 2 Thessalonians 3 47  
 1 Timothy 6 113  
 2 Timothy 4 83  
 Titus 3 46  
 Philemon 1 25  
 Hebrews 13 303  
 James 5 108  
 1 Peter 5 105  
 2 Peter 3 61  
 1 John 5 105  
 2 John 1 13  
 3 John 1 (14 or) 15  
 Jude 1 25  
 Revelation 22 404  


And minutes to understand the importance of following the 10 Commandments of Christ.

Division of the Ten Commandments by religion/denomination
Commandment Jewish (Talmudic)**** Anglican, Reformed, and other Christian Orthodox Catholic, Lutheran**
I am the Lord your God 1 preface 1 1
You shall have no other gods before me 2 1
You shall not make for yourself an idol 2 2
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God 3 3 3 2
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy 4 4 4 3
Honor your father and mother 5 5 5 4
You shall not murder* 6 6 6 5
You shall not commit adultery 7 7 7 6
You shall not steal*** 8 8 8 7
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor 9 9 9 8
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife 10 10 10 9
You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor 10

In Islam Moses (Musa) is venerated as one of the greatest prophets of God. However, Islam also teaches that the texts of the Torah and the Gospels have been corrupted from their divine originals over the years, due to carelessness and self-interest. Despite this purported corruption, messages from the Torah and the Gospels still coincide closely with certain verses in the Qur'an. This is by-and-large the case with the Ten Commandments. Consequently, despite the Ten Commandments not being explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an they are substantially similar to the following verses in the Qur'an (using Jewish numbering of the Commandments):

  1. "There is no other god beside God." (Qur'an 47:19)
  2. "My Lord, make this a peaceful land, and protect me and my children from worshiping idols." (Qur'an 14:35)
  3. "And make not Allah's (name) an excuse in your oaths against doing good, or acting rightly, or making peace between persons; for Allah is One Who heareth and knoweth all things." (Qur'an 2:224) This quranic verse is not entirely analogous to the Old Testament's "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God..." Verse 2:224 is explained by the Prophet Muhammad as: "If anyone takes a solemn oath [that he would do or refrain from doing such-and such a thing], and thereupon realizes that something else would be a more righteous course, then let him do that which is more righteous, and let him break his oath and then atone for it" (Bukhari and Muslim; and other variants of the same Tradition in other compilations).
  4. "O you who believe, when the Congregational Prayer (Salat Al-Jumu`ah) is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of GOD, and drop all business." (Qur'an 62:9)
    The Sabbath was relinquished with the revelation of the Quran. Muslims are told in the Quran that the Sabbath was only decreed for the Jews. (Qur'an 16:124) God, however, ordered Muslims to make every effort and drop all businesses to attend the congregational (Friday) prayer. The Submitters may tend to their business during the rest of the day.
  5. "....and your parents shall be honoured. As long as one or both of them live, you shall never (even) say to them, "Uff" (the slightest gesture of annoyance), nor shall you shout at them; you shall treat them amicably." (Qur'an 17:23)
  6. "....anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he murdered all the people." (Qur'an 5:32)
  7. "You shall not commit adultery; it is a gross sin, and an evil behaviour." (Qur'an 17:32)
  8. "They shall not steal." (Al-Mumtahanah 60: 12) and "The thief, male or female, you shall cut off their hands as a punishment for their crime, and to serve as an example from God. God is Almighty, Most Wise." (Qur'an 5:38)
  9. "Do not withhold any testimony by concealing what you had witnessed. Anyone who withholds a testimony is sinful at heart." (Qur'an 2:283)
  10. "And do not covet what we bestowed upon any other people. Such are temporary ornaments of this life, whereby we put them to the test. What your Lord provides for you is far better, and everlasting." (Qur'an 20:131)

Protestant view

For those Christians who believe that the Ten Commandments continue to be binding for Christians (see also Old Testament—Christian view of the Law), their negative and positive content can be summarized as follows.

Exodus 20:

Preface: vs 1–2
Implies the obligation to keep all of the commandments of God, in gratitude because of the abundance of his mercy.
Forbids ingratitude to God and denial that he is our God.
  1. vs 3
    Enjoins that God must be known and acknowledged to be the only true God, and our God; and, to worship him and to make him known as he has been made known to us.
    Forbids not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and as our God; and forbids giving worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.
  2. vs 4–6
    Requires receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God has appointed; and zeal in resisting those who would corrupt worship; because of God's ownership of us, and interest in our salvation.
    Prohibits the worshiping of God by images, or by confusion of any creature with God, or any other way not appointed in his Word. (According to the traditional presbyterian and reformed view, this commandment also prohibits any man-made inventions to worship, which formed a basis for their criticism of Roman Catholic liturgies.)
  3. vs 7
    Enjoins a holy and a reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.
    Forbids all abuse of anything by which God makes Himself known. Some Protestants, especially in the tradition of pacifism, read this Commandment as forbidding any and all oaths, including judicial oaths and oaths of allegiance to a government, noting that human weakness cannot foretell whether such oaths will in fact be vain.
  4. vs 8–11
    Requires setting apart to God such set times as are appointed in his Word. Many Protestants are increasingly concerned that the values of the marketplace do not dominate entirely, and deprive people of leisure and energy needed for worship, for the creation of civilized culture. The setting of time apart from and free from the demands of commerce is one of the foundations of a decent human society. See Sabbath.
    Forbids the omission, or careless performance, of the religious duties, using the day for idleness, or for doing that which is in itself sinful; and prohibits requiring of others any such omission, or transgression, on the designated day.
  5. vs 12
    The only commandment with explicitly positive content, rather than a prohibition; it connects all of the temporal blessings of God, with reverence for and obedience to authority, and especially for father and mother.
    Forbids doing anything against, or failing to give, the honor and duty which belongs to anyone, whether because they possess authority or because they are subject to authority.
  6. vs 13
    Requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.
    Forbids taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor, unjustly (Just taking of life includes self-defense, executions by the magistrate and times of war.); and, anything that tends toward depriving life. By extension it condemns even verbal abuse and anger, as exmplified by Christ's interpretation in the sermon on the mount.
  7. vs 14
    Enjoins protection of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.
    Forbids all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions.
  8. vs 15
    Requires a defense of all lawful things that further the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
    Prohibits whatever deprives our neighbor, or ourselves, of lawfully gained wealth or outward estate.
  9. vs 16
    Requires the maintaining and promoting of truth between people, and of our neighbor’s good name and our own, especially in witness-bearing.
    Forbids whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own, or our neighbor’s, good name.
  10. vs 17
    Enjoins contentment with our own condition, and a charitable attitude toward our neighbor and all that is his, being thankful for his sake that he has whatever is beneficial to him, as we are for those things that benefit us.
    Forbids discontent or envy, prohibits any grief over the betterment of our neighbor's estate, and all inordinate desires to obtain for ourselves, or scheming to wrest for our benefit, anything that is his.

Jesus Christ vs. Orthodoxy

The Evangelicals have been "re-translating" everything, including the Bible, for the past 20 to 30 years.

But you see, this has happened before. Many times.

In Christianity, the first instance was when there was a major schism between the Catholics and the non-Catholic followers of Jesus' teachings between 150 and 400 a.d..

Catholicism was actually founded on the teachings of an Italian by the name of Iraneaus, who wrote five treatises condemning anyone who didn't believe as he did. He accused anyone who disagreed with his right-wing slant on Jesus of "doing the work of the devil" and of being "blasphemers and heretics." Of course, this was exactly what Jesus Christ was accused of by a bunch of right-wingers just prior to his crucifixion. I guess Iraneaus missed the irony of his adopting the same mentality and same language as the killers of Jesus. But out of Iraneaus' teachings arose the teachings of the Catholic Church.

So, when did the Catholic Church pull a "re-translation" stunt like the Evangelicals today? Originally, there were a whole lot of gospels, letters, notes, etc. that were generated by the disciples who followed Jesus. Both male and female disciples close to Jesus wrote down what he taught and demonstrated. They wanted to remember and help posterity remember. Both male and female disciples of Jesus spread out and talked to people about Jesus.

After Iraneaus, though, a hard-core, right-wing branch of Christianity arose, led by a bunch of extremely orthodox men. These orthodox men, like the Evangelicals today and the Orthodox Jews at the time of Jesus, viewed women as subservient and submissive to the more superior men.

So, around 300 a.d. when the Orthodox "catholi" Christians met to hash out what would go into their Christian canon, they kept only 4 gospels, some letters from the more Orthodox followers of Jesus and a dream account...and trashed all the other writings numbering into the hundreds, if not thousands, of letters, gospels, or whatever generated by less-orthodox followers of Jesus in the preceding two and a half centuries.

You see, these Orthodox "catholi" "re-translated" the teachings of Jesus to fit their Orthodox Mindset, just as Evangelicals are doing today. The Orthodox "catholi" 1700 years ago did it by ruling that anything about Jesus that they found disagreeable or even offensive would not appear in their authorized canon. And these Orthodox "catholi" went after the unauthorized accounts of Jesus' life and teachings with a vengeance. And they also, in the Roman Empire, went after all the "heathens and pagans and infidels" who worshipped Roman Gods before Emperor Constantine converted.

Can you imagine how much bloodshed occurred in the century or two that it took for the Orthodox "catholi" to forcefully convert, at sword and spear point, the Roman Empire into what they called, the Holy Roman Empire? How many men, women and children must have been brutally butchered to establish Orthodox, male-dominated Catholicism as the state religion of the Roman Empire?

This is the biggest secret of the Catholic Church. Just look at how the recent Vatican report on the church horrors during the Spanish Inquisition was watered-down by the present pope.

Anyway, as far as the Catholic canon goes, notice how what Jesus taught (the four gospels) is buried between the Old Testament and the letters written by some of Jesus' more orthodox, right-wing followers in the Catholic Douay version of the bible. Why? This actually indicates the schism that occurred in the early Christian movement. Some Christians focused entirely on what Jesus taught and demonstrated, while using the Old Testament as a possible reference source, but not as canon. Other Christians, Iraneaus and the "catholi," however, studied the Old Testament extensively and then tried to "fit," "re-translate," what Jesus taught back into Judaism...like the pouring wine into bottles parable. So, through the brutal, forceful actions of the "catholi" we ended up with Judeo-Christianity, instead of Christianity that Jesus taught.

And we are seeing this same "re-translation" by the Orthodox, both Protestant and Catholic, today, which will only lead to another major schism.

Except, this time around, the Orthodox types are attempting to "re-translate" Democracy by "re-translating" the U.S. Constitution to "fit" their hard-core, right-wing, orthodox state of mind. In other words, Jesus Christ and all that he taught is about to be Crucified all over again by a bunch of orthodox right-wingers who cannot tolerate anything in their "midst" that contradicts or challenges their hard-core, rigid, orthodox mindset.

Don't you find it incredible that history just keeps repeating itself over and over again, with all the horrors in the world repeatedly generated by orthodox right-wingers who fervently believe that censorship will somehow lead to their salvation?

Jesus didn't censor. This is how I can tell who are the "True Christians" and who are the false ones. And, of course, the Orthodox-types inevitably only censor "The Truth" which will hardly lead to their salvation. Go figure.

Posted by: The Oracle at May 14, 2005 09:44 PM