Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Acts

Is the history in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) reliable?

The Renewed Covenant is basically divided into four sections.  The Gospels work together like a perfect four part harmony to form the first section, that tells about what the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) did on this Earth.  The Acts make up the second section, that tells about how the Apostles of Truth spread the news about what the Man of Truth did, and established congregations from Jerusalem to Rome.  The Epistles make up the third section, that contains the letters that the Apostles of Truth wrote to those congregations, as well as other congregations, that they started as far away as Babylon, to explain how to follow the Man of Truth.  The Revelation tells about the events that will bring about the everlasting, global kingdom, that the Man of Truth will reign over.  These four sections all fit together, to form a well built house, called the Renewed Covenant.

All four sections of the Renewed Covenant contain history, just like the sections of the Original Covenant (Tanakh aka The Old Testament) all contain history.  However, similar to the way that the bulk of the history in the Original Covenant is contained in the Writings of History, so also is the bulk of the history in the Renewed Covenant contained in The Acts.  If the history in The Acts is reliable, then it is reasonable that the history in all of the Renewed Covenant is reliable.

In order to understand the history in The Acts, it is necessary to understand what happened before it.  The events in the Renewed Covenant are tied to what happened in the Original Covenant, because they are The Inseparable Covenants that are contained in The Indestructible Book, called the Book of Truth (The Bible).  The Gospels tell about the events that tie these two covenants together.  So a brief overview of the events in the Gospel is necessary, in order to understand the events that occurred in the Acts.  The Gospels set the stage for the Acts in the following manner:

The Gospels begin with showing, how the Man of Truth was in line to be the king of Israel, by showing how he descended from Abraham (Abram), King David, and the last king of the two tribe kingdom of Judah, as recorded in the Original Covenant (Matthew 1:1-16).  They tell of how the Man of Truth was born at the time, place, and manner, described by the Prophets of Truth, in their books, in the Original Covenant (Matthew 1:18-25).  They tell of how Caesar Augustus, first Emperor of the Roman Empire, caused everyone to go their ancestral home to be taxed, so that the Man of Truth was born in Bethlehem, instead of Nazareth (Luke 2:1-7).

They tell of how Herod the Great sought to kill the Man of Truth as a toddler, because Magi from the East had told him, that the Man of Truth was born to be the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-18).  They tell of how the Man of Truth was taken to Galilee to live, after Herod the Great died, to escape being in the area ruled by his son, Archelaus (Matthew 2:19-22).

They of how, during a very narrow time frame, during the fifteen year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the next Emperor of Rome, while Pilate was governor of Judea (who was appointed when Archelaus was deposed), Herod Antipas (the son of Herod the Great) was still the Tetrarch of Galilee, Philip (the son of Herod the Great) was still the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias was the still the tetrarch of Abilene, and both Annas and Caiaphas still acted as the High Priest in Jerusalem, that John the Baptist (Yochanon the Mikveh Man) began calling people to repentance and baptizing them (Luke 3:1-3).

They tell of how the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) had raised up John the Baptist as a Prophet of Truth, after the Jewish people had been without without a Prophet of Truth, since the time of Nehemiah (Matthew 11:11-13).  They tell of how the common people in Israel recognized, that John the Baptist was a Prophet of Truth (Matthew 21:26).  They tell of how Herod Antipas imprisoned John the Baptist, because John the Baptist had rebuked Herod Antipas, for violating the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law), by marrying the wife of his brother Philip (not the Tetrarch), even though Philip was still alive (Mark 6:17-18).  They tell of how Herodias, the wife of Philip, who Herod had married contrary to the Law of Truth, carried out a plot, through her daughter, to have John the Baptist beheaded (Mark 6:19-28).

They tell about how the Pharisees taught their own commandments, instead of the commandments of the Law of Truth (Matthew 15:1-9).  They tell of how the Herodians, who supported the rule of Herod the Great and his descendants, sought to have peaceful submission to the Roman occupation (Mark 12:13-17).  They tell of a group called the Zealots, who waged a war of terror to free Israel from Roman occupation, one of whom followed the Man of Truth (Luke 6:15).  They tell about how the Sadducees taught that there is no resurrection, and how the Man of Truth showed them the resurrection, using the Law of Truth, because that was the only part of the Original Covenant, that they accepted as being from the Father of Truth (Luke 20:27-38).

They tell about Pontius Pilate, the Roman appointed governor of Judaea, after Archelaus (son of Herod the Great) was deposed by the Roman Emperor (Matthew 27:2).  They tell of how, Pilate was in the custom of releasing one prisoner, for the Passover (Pesach), but the Jewish people chose a murderer named Barabbas, instead of the Man of Truth (Mark 15:6-15).  They tell of the brutality of Pilate, in dealing with Jewish enemies of Rome (Luke 13:1-3).  They tell of how, Pilate sent the Man of Truth to Herod Antipas, to be tried, because the Man of Truth was from the territory, that was ruled by Herod Antipas (Luke 23:6-10).  They tell of how, this act caused Pilate, who replaced the brother of Herod Antipas as ruler of Judea, and Herod Antipas to become friends, instead of remaining enemies (Luke 23:11-12).  They tell of how, Pilate caused the Man of Truth to crucified, a Roman execution method, at the insistence of the religious leaders of Israel, on the day of the preparation for Passover (John 19:10-18).  They tell of how, Pilate wrote the accusation, for which the Man of Truth was crucified, in the two official languages of the Roman Empire, plus the common local language, as required by Roman Law, and that under Roman Law, Pilate could not change the accusation later (John 19:19-22).

They tell of how, a rich man named Joseph of Arimathaea, asked Pilate for the body of the Man of Truth, and then buried the Man of Truth in his own tomb, before sunset, the same day (Matthew 27:57-61).  They tell of how, the religious leaders asked Pilate, for Roman soldiers to guard the tomb for three days, to be sure that the followers of the Man of Truth did not steal it, and then claim that he rose again (Matthew 27:62-66).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth rose from the dead on the third day, and began showing himself to his followers (Mark 16:1-9).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth, then appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, a village that was less than four miles from Jerusalem, and then appeared to the eleven remaining original Apostles of Truth (Luke 24:9-43).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth did many other things to prove, that he had really rose from the dead (John 21:24-25).

They tell of how, the Man of Truth commissioned his followers, to baptize new followers from all nations, and to teach them to obey his commandments (Matthew 28:18-20).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth commissioned his followers, to tell everyone the Good News about what he had done, and that supernatural signs would occur to prove their testimony (Mark 16:15-18).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth commissioned his followers, to show others, that everything that had happened to him, was done to fulfill what was written of the Messiah of Israel, in the Original Covenant, to preach repentance, that brings about the forgiveness of sin, and to wait for the baptism of the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost), before carrying out the rest of his commission, to tell the world (Luke 24:44-49).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth admonished his followers, to carry out his commission, regardless of what happened to them (John 21:18-23).

They tell of how, after the Man of Truth finished commissioning his followers, that he returned back to Heaven, and they began carrying out the commission, that he had given them (Mark 16:19-20).  They tell of how, the Man of Truth blessed his followers, right before he left the Earth, and how they went to Jerusalem, to wait for the baptism of the Spirit of Truth, as the first step in carrying out the Great Commission (Luke 24:50-53).

The events in Acts are a history, of how the followers of the Man of Truth, especially the Apostles of Truth, spread the Good News from Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, to Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, by doing their part, to carry out the Great Commission.

The first thing to understand about The Acts, is that they were written as history. The author, Luke the Jew (Lucas aka Ohr) had written his Gospel, as a history for a man named "Theophilus", even though others had already written about these events, in a non-historical order (Luke 1:1-4).  The Acts are a sequel to his Gospel, as a history of the events, that lead to the Gospel being spread throughout much of the Roman Empire, and finally being taken to Rome, that was written for the same man (Acts 1:1-4).  The Acts can be summarized as follows:

The Man of Truth returned to Heaven from the Mount of Olives, and his followers went to Jerusalem, which was the distance, that people could walk on the Sabbath, to wait for the baptism of the Spirit of Truth (Acts 1:5-14).  Then on Pentecost, they were baptized in the Spirit of Truth, and began to tell Jews from all over the world, who were in Jerusalem for that Feast of Truth, about the Man of Truth, in the languages of the countries, where those Jews lived, even though the followers of the Man of Truth, could not speak any of those languages, on their own (Acts 2:1-11).

During those days, Peter the Jew (Cephas aka Simon aka Simeon aka The Apostle Peter) and John the Jew (Yochanon ben Zebedee aka The Apostle John) healed a man born lame, at the gate of the Temple called "Beautiful", and then preached from the Porch of Solomon, inside the Temple, about how the Man of Truth was the Messiah of Israel, who Moses and the Prophets had spoken about, in the Original Covenant. (Acts 3).  So they were arrested by the Temple authorities, tried by Annas, Caiaphas, and their family, but finally threatened, and let go, since everyone in Jerusalem knew, that the man who was healed, had been lame for more than forty years, and afterwards, when they reported what had happened, it prompted some, like Barnabas the Jew (Joses of Cyprus aka the Apostle Barnabas), to sell some of their property, to take care of the Children of Truth (Acts 4).  So the Apostles of Truth resumed preaching the Good News in the Temple, with signs to prove their message was from the Father of Truth, until they were again arrested and tried, and finally beaten - despite the advice of Gamaliel, the most respected Jewish religious leader in the world, that the Temple authorities should do nothing to them, because if the Father of Truth had not sent them, then their movement would collapse, like the revolts of Theudas and Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:12-40).

Then Stephen, who had been appointed to distribute food with Philip the Evangelist, disputed in the synagogues of Jews from outside of Israel, to prove that the Man of Truth was the Messiah of Israel, and since the religious leaders could not prevail against him, he was arrested on false charges, and brought before the Temple authorities to stand trial (Acts 6:1-15).  Stephen remind the Temple authorities of the history of the rebellion of their fathers recorded in the Original Covenant, then said that they were acting just like their fathers, when they murdered the Man of Truth, because they did not keep the Law of Truth, so they dragged him out of the Temple, and stoned him to death, while Paul the Jew (Shaul aka Saul aka The Apostle Paul) watched over their clothes (Acts 7).

Then Paul the Jew lead a great persecution, against the Children of Truth, that caused Stephen the Evangelist to go to Samaria, to preach the Good News, where Peter the Jew and John the Jew then went, to baptize people in the Spirit of Truth, then Stephen went to Gaza, to preach to an Ethiopian Jew, and then finally continue preaching the Good News, in every village from Azotus to Caesarea (Acts 8). Paul the Jew then went to Damascus, to extend his persecution, but was arrested by the Man of Truth, who revealed that he was the Messiah of Israel, so Paul the Jew began preaching the Good News in Damascus, until he had to flee for his life, then preached the Good News in Jerusalem, until he had to flee for his life to Tarsus, after which time Peter the Jew went to Joppa, to preach the Good News (Acts 9).

While Peter the Jew was in Joppa, he had a vision from the Father of Truth, that told him to go to Caesarea, with the men that had been sent by Cornelius the Gentile, and when he preached the Good News, Cornelius the Gentile was baptized in the Spirit of Truth, to prove that the Good News, was also for the Gentiles (Acts 10).  So Barnabas the Jew was sent to Antioch, with Good News about the Gentiles, then he went to Tarsus to get Paul the Jew, to help him preach the Good News to the Gentiles in Antioch, until Agabus and other Prophets of Truth, came from Jerusalem, to warn of a famine that would come upon the entire Roman Empire, in the days of Claudius Caesar, which prompt the Children of Truth in Antioch, to take up a collection, and to have it taken to the Children of Truth in Jerusalem, by Barnabas the Jew and Paul the Jew (Acts 11).

Then Herod Agrippa I persecuted the Children of Truth, including Peter the Jew, until an Angel of Truth killed him, with a terrible plague in Caesarea, for accepting worship from people, which lead to Barnabas the Jew and Paul the Jew returning to Antioch, with Mark the Jew (Acts 12).  Then Barnabas the Jew and Paul the Jew were commissioned by the Spirit of Truth, to go on a mission trip to the Gentiles, so they took Mark the Jew with them to Cyprus, where they brought Sergius Paulus, the governor, into the House of Truth, before going to Perga, where Mark the Jew left them to return to Jerusalem, and then these two went to preach the Good News, to Jews and Gentiles in Antioch Pisidia, before finally going to Iconium, the major city of southern Galatia (Acts 13). They then preached the Good News there, until they had to flee for their lives to Lystra, where they preached the Good News, until they had to flee for their lives to Derbe, and then ordained leaders among the congregations in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch Pisidia, and Perga, as they made their way back to Antioch (Acts 14).

Then some men from Judaea came to Antioch, to tell people, that the Gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved, so Paul the Jew and Barnabas the Jew went to Jerusalem, to settle the matter, where Peter the Jew and James the Jew (Ya'acob ben Yoseph aka James the Just aka The Apostle James), both confirmed, that the Gentiles did not need to do any such thing, then sent a letter stating their decision with witnesses, one of whom was Silas the Jew (Shaul aka Silvanus aka The Apostle Silas), to return with Paul the Jew and Barnabas the Jew to Antioch, which lead to Paul the Jew and Silas the Jew returning to the congregations, that Paul the Jew had started with Barnabas the Jew (Acts 15).  When they made it to Derbe, Timothy the Jew (Kidar-Elohim aka Timotheus aka The Apostle Timothy) joined them, as they continued to deliver the letter, from the Apostles of Truth in Jerusalem, concerning the Gentiles to the congregations, until they started new congregations in Phrygia and Mysia, on their way to Troas, where Luke the Jew joined them, as they made their way to Phillipi, where Lydia the Jew came into the House of Truth, and then lodged them, until they were imprisoned, and eventually had to leave Phillipi (Acts 16).  Then Paul the Jew, Silas the Jew, and Timothy the Jew, went to Thessaloniki, the capital of Macedonia, preached the Good News there, until they had to flee for their lives to Berea, preached the Good News there, until Paul the Jew had to flee for his life to Athens, where he continued to preach the Good News (Acts 17).  Then Paul the Jew went to Corinth, the capital of Achaia, where Silas the Jew and Timothy the Jew joined him, to preach the Good News, while lodging with Aquila and Priscilla, who had moved to Corinth, because Claudius Caesar had expelled all Jews from Rome, until Paul the Jew was brought by Jewish enemies to Gallio, the governor, for trial, prompting Paul the Jew to go to Ephesus, the capital of Asia, where he left Aquila and Priscilla, in charge of a congregation that he started, while he went on to Caesarea and Jerusalem, on his way back to Antioch (Acts 18:1-22).

Then Paul the Jew visited the congregations in Galatia and Phrygia, that he had started, while Apollos the Jew came to Ephesus, to preach the Good News, where Aquila and Priscilla informed him, that the Good News was also for the Gentiles, and about the baptism of the Spirit of Truth, then commended him to the congregations of Achaia, where he went to preach the Good News (Acts 18:23-28).  Then Paul the Jew went to Ephesus, where he baptized people in the Spirit of Truth, disputed in the synagogue and yeshiva of Ephesus, to prove that the Man of Truth was the Messiah of Israel, and performed supernatural signs, to confirm his message, then sent Timothy the Jew and Erastus of Corinth ahead of him to Macedonia, then Gauis the Jew and Aristarchus the Jew, who had traveled with him, since he had left Macedonia on his second mission, and Alexander the Jew, were dragged into the theater to face punishment, because Paul the Jew had preached to the Gentiles of Ephesus, that idols were worthless, which had prompted the idol makers to start a riot, by accusing his companions of speaking against Diana of the Ephesians, but his companions were cleared of all charges (Acts 19).  Then Paul the Jew went to Macedonia (Philippi, Thessaloniki, Berea), went across Macedonia, into Greece (Epirus and Achaia (Athens, Corinth), then sent from Corinth some of his companions, like Gaius the Jew, Timothy the Jew, and Trophimus the Gentile, ahead to Troas, then returned to Philippi, where Luke the Jew once again joined him, then went to Troas, then went with his companions to Miletus, and sent for the elders of Ephesus, so he could them warn them, of approaching danger, since he would not see them again (Acts 20).  Then the company of Paul the Jew went with him to Caesarea, where they stayed with Philip the Evangelist, where Agabus the Prophet of Truth warned him, that he would be handed over to the Romans, if he went to Jerusalem, but Paul the Jew went to Jerusalem anyways (Acts 21:1-17).

Paul the Jew then went to the Temple, to fulfill a Nazarite vow, at the advice of the Apostles of Truth, to prove that he had taught nothing contrary to the Law of Truth, then he was falsely accused of polluting the Temple, by bringing in Trophimus the Gentile, which set off a riot, that almost got him killed, but he was rescued by the Roman centurion in charge of Temple security, who allowed him to speak to the Jewish crowd (Acts 21:18-40).  So Paul the Jew told the Jewish crowd, in Hebrew, about how he had been taught by Gamaliel the Pharisee, then persecuted the Children of Truth in Jerusalem, then went to Damascus to extend his persecution, but was arrested by the Man of Truth, who revealed that he was the Messiah of Israel, then returned to Jerusalem, where the Man of Truth said, that he was being sent far away, to preach the Good News to the Gentiles, at which point the crowd again began to riot, so the Roman centurion rescued him again, and placed him in protected custody, until Paul the Jew appeared before the Temple authorities (Acts 22).  When Paul the Jew began his defense, Ananias the High Priest (son of Annas) commanded Paul the Jew to struck, for which Paul the Jew prophesied, that Ananias the High Priest would be struck down by the Father of Truth, for acting contrary to the Law of Truth, then he set off a riot between the Pharisees and Sadducees, when he pointed out that, he was also a Pharisee, who had only been arrested for preaching the resurrection, that Pharisees taught, which caused the Roman centurion, to rescue him again, who that night learned, of a plot to kill Paul the Jew while he was in transit, so the Roman centurion sent him to Caesarea, to stand trail in the prescence of the governor, after the Temple authorities arrived (Acts 23).

When the Temple authorities arrived, they accused Paul the Jew to Felix, the governor, of stirring up Jews everywhere against Rome, then polluting the Temple, contrary to the Law of Truth, to which Paul the Jew answered back, that these were false and improvable charges, for he had not polluted the Temple, nor had done anything contrary to either Rome, or the Law of Truth, and that the real reason he was on trial, was for preaching the Good News, which caused Felix, to place Paul the Jew in protective custody for two years, during which time he talked to Felix and his wife Drusilla, about the Man of Truth, until Porcius Festus replaced Felix as governor (Acts 24).  When Festus went to Jerusalem, the Temple authorities tried, to get Paul the Jew moved to Jerusalem, so they could kill him in transit, but instead, were forced to go to Caesarea, where they made the same accusations, that they had made before Felix, to which Paul the Jew answered, that he had not done anything against Rome, or the Temple, or the Law of Truth, so Festus asked Paul the Jew, about going to Jerusalem to stand trial, but Paul the Jew reminded Festus, that he was a Roman citizen, then appealed to be tried before Caesar (Nero), so Felix had no choice, but to sent him to Rome, but first asked Herod Agrippa II, and his wife Bernice, to hear Paul the Jew, since Festus had found no Roman law, that Paul the Jew had broken, to put in the accusation, that would be read to Caesar (Acts 25).  Paul the Jew first pointed out to Herod Agrippa II, that he was a Pharisee,who had previously persecuted the Children of Truth, until the Man of Truth had arrested him on the road to Damascus, where the Man of Truth revealed, that he was the Messiah of Israel, then commissioned Paul the Jew, to preach the Good News, which was the real reason, that he was now on trial, finally ending his defense, with an appeal to Herod Agrippa II, to come into the House of Truth, so Herod Agrippa II found him innocent of all charges, but the appeal of Paul the Jew to Caesar (Nero) was already on record (Acts 26).

So Paul the Jew was put on a ship, to go to Rome, where he was joined by his traveling companions, including Luke the Jew, who sailed with him to Crete, where they were laid over, giving Paul the Jew time, to preach the Good News there, until they left Crete, only to be caught up in a seasonal storm called Euroclydon, that shipwrecked them on an island (Acts 27).  While on the island of Melita (Malta), Paul the Jew performed supernatural signs, to bring people into the House of Truth, like when he healed the father of Publius, who ruled Malta, then they sailed to Italy, where he encountered many people, who were already in the House of Truth, as he was taken to Rome, where he preached the Good News to the Jews first, then the Gentiles, during the two years of house arrest, that occurred, while he waited to appear before Caesar (Nero) (Acts 28).

So the Acts, and the rest of the Renewed Covenant, record many events that occurred, during the less than one hundred year time span, that started about a year before the birth of the Man of Truth, and ended when John the Jew was exiled on the island of Patmos.  The Acts, as well as parts of the Renewed Covenant, like the Gospel of Luke, tell about a long series of events, and gives the order, in which those events occurred, along with anchor events, like the death of Herod Agrippa I, that can be used to establish exactly, when these events occurred, often to the exact day.

The Renewed covenant names many people, who were involved in the events, and the places, where the events occurred.

For example, all seven of the Herodian kings, from Herod the Great to Herod Agrippa II, are named in it.  Also, three of the first four Emperors of Rome are named, and the fifth Emperor, Nero, is alluded to in it.  The names of Roman governors, over various Roman providences, are also named: Pontius Pilate, Felix, Festus, Sergius Paulus, and Gallio.  It names other rulers, like Lysanias and Publius, along with what they ruled over, are named as well.  The names are also given, of the wives of many of these people, like Herodias, Drusilla, and Bernice.

The names of more than fifty cities are given within its pages, often with information about the history, or culture, or character, of that city.  The political entities that contained these cities, are named as well, even though many of them cease to exist, as political entities, such as many of the Roman providences, within a few hundred years, after the events, that are recorded in the Renewed Covenant.   Many of them have no reference, outside of documents that were written, within one hundred years of their demise.  They simply vanished into history.

It tells about political/religious groups, like the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots.  It tells about religious leaders like Annas, Caiaphas, Gamaliel, and Ananias.  It tells about revolts, like those lead by Thuedas, and Judas of Galilee.  It even tells about weather events, like Euroclydon.

This is all very precise and detailed information, that can be verified.  The events recorded in the Renewed Covenant, are not like events in the Return of the King, that supposedly occurred on Middle Earth, or events that left no trace of evidence, like those found in the Book of Mormon.  These are not religious events, that you have to take on blind faith, like those in The Greatest Fairy Tale Ever Told.  The simple fact is, that whether or not these events are true, can be determined by anyone, who is willing to make the effort.

There is even more archaeological evidence of these events, than almost any other event, from the same time period.  Names of people, like Pilate and Erastus, have been found, literally been carved in stone, with evidence that they did, what the Renewed Covenant says, they did.  Even though, huge cities written about in the Acts, like Ephesus, disappeared for more than fifteen years, they have been found.  Roman structures, like aqueducts, roads, forums, and coliseums still exist, some times almost completely intact, to this day.  There just seems to be no end, to the archaeological evidence, to support the events, given in the Acts, and the rest of the Renewed Covenant.

More than that, there is an amazing amount of documentation, that has survived from that time period, from other sources, outside of the Book of Truth.  These sources are not just from inside the Roman Empire, but also from the Parthian Empire to the east, and even outside of both of these empires.  These are not just Latin, and Greek documents, but also documents written in Aramaic, and Arabic.  The details of the events given in the Renewed Covenant, like the death of John the Baptist, the death of Herod Agrippa I, and the death of Ananias the High Priest, that occurred when the Father of Truth poured out the judgment, that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem, are all confirmed in these external documents, as being accurately recorded, in the Renewed Covenant.

These documents, almost always confirm the events in the Renewed Covenant, although some of them are difficult to translate.  In fact, Luke the Jew is considered, to be one of the greatest historians of the first century Roman Empire, because in the few instances, where there have appeared to be discrepancies between his account and the account of others, archaeological evidence has always came down on his side.

It turns out that the Roman Empire really did exist, as recorded in the Acts, and that events recorded in the Acts, really did occur in the Roman Empire.  The provinces of the Roman Empire had the names recorded in the Renewed Covenant, had the capitals recorded in the Renewed Covenant, were ruled by the people recorded in the Renewed Covenant, at the times recorded in the Renewed Covenant, and those rulers did the actions recorded in the Renewed Covenant.  The details about Roman law, Roman culture, Jewish law, Jewish culture, Greek culture, and the cultures of other ethnic groups, recorded in the Renewed Covenant, have all been proven to be accurate.

It is all proof, that most of the Renewed Covenant was written, by eye witnesses of the events, while the rest was written, by accumulating eye witness accounts of events, to determine the facts.  These are considered to be the first, and second most reliable sources of history, by historians.  The fact that there is so much evidence, that these were real events, that were witnessed by real eye witnesses, and then verified as accurate, before being written down, should leave no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person, that the history recorded in the Renewed Covenant, most of which is in the Acts, is reliable history.

The truth is, that all of history either rises or falls, on the accuracy of the Book of Truth, because if it is not accurate history, then the techniques used by historians, to determine accurate history, cannot be trusted. If these techniques do not produce similar results, when applied to different historical sources that have similar collaborating evidence, then these techniques are useless, and so are their results.

In other words, the objectivity of those techniques can be established, by whether or not they produce the same results, for the stories with similar collaborating evidence, like the story of Julius Caesar and the story in the Acts.  Objectivity requires, that the techniques produce the same results, when they are applied to the same quality of materials, regardless of the bias, of those using the techniques.  For example, if applying these techniques to the story of Julius Caesar, found in various historical sources, shows that the facts of that story are accurate, then applying those same techniques, to the story in the Acts, would also show that the facts of that story are accurate.

The fact is, that there is more historical evidence of the events, surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of the Man of Truth, than there is about the life of Julius Caesar.  (There are 10 documents that record the events of the life of Julius Caesar, with the oldest copy being about a thousand years after his death.  There are over 13,000 surviving documents that mention the Resurrection, with the youngest copy being only 300 years after the Resurrection.  The oldest copy is less than five years after the Resurrection.) The only real question is, whether or not you will benefit, from this accurate historical record.  It is not enough to just acknowledge the facts.  You must act on the facts, in order to come into the House of Truth.

You must surrender control of your life to the Man of Truth, to come into the House of Truth, because you believe that the Father of Truth, raised the Man of Truth from the dead (Romans 10:9).  This is not blind faith, but rather believing reliable history, that was recorded by actual eyewitness, in the Renewed Covenant, mostly in the Acts, so you could come into the House of Truth (2 Peter 1:16).

Come into the House of Truth!













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Monday, August 24, 2015

The Renewed Covenant

Are there books in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) that should not be there?

The canon of the Renewed Covenant has remained unchanged until this present time even though there have been many attempts to remove some of the books from the canon of the Renewed Covenant that was handed down from the time of the Apostles of Truth.  There is an unbroken chain of evidence about the canon of the Renewed Covenant.

The oldest complete Greek codex of the Renewed Covenant still in existence was completed in 330 AD and is today known as the Codex Sinaiticus.  The Codex Vaticanus is about 30 years older but a few of the verses have vanished from age as the pages became faded on the outer edges and a few of the pages were made centuries later to replace pages that were becoming unreadable.  However, the contents of it were thoroughly document before they were replaced and this codex was used by Westcott and Hort to create their Greek New Testament in 1881.  Both of these complete codices of the Renewed Covenant contained the exact same books that are listed in the canon of modern copies of the Renewed Covenant along with two other codices that are almost as old.

That there are complete copies that are barely two hundred years older than the originals still in existence alone is remarkable when you consider that the oldest complete copies of every secular work from the same time period in existence today, like the writings of Tacitus, were copied more than a thousand years after the originals were written.

The oldest complete Syriac (Aramaic) translation of the Renewed Covenant is from 534 AD and it contains all of the books listed in the canon of modern copies of the Renewed Covenant.

The Muratorian fragment, that was composed around 150 AD, lists most of the books in the modern canon of the Renewed Covenant as being part of the Renewed Covenant, although a few books are missing. The list on this manuscript was obviously started on a page before it and was continued on the page after it.  Neither of those pages had survived when it was discovered in 1740 or so.   So it is entirely possible that those books were listed on the missing pages.

There are also many incomplete Greek codices and manuscripts that date all of the way back to about 125 AD - which is a mere thirty years after the last book of the Renewed Covenant was written.  Among these manuscripts is every single book in the modern canon of the Renewed Covenant and every single word of every single book.  The archeological evidence shows that there is nothing in the modern copies of the Renewed Covenant that should not be there.

The historical evidence mirrors the physical evidence.  Many early sources state that the exact same canon of the Renewed Covenant that was in use then is still in use today.

Papias of Hierapolis, a disciple of John the Jew (Yochanon ben Zebedee aka The Apostle John), wrote a five volume dissertation on the teachings of the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) contained in the Gospels and the rest of the Renewed Covenant called "The Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord".  Although this work was last reported as existing in its entirety in the Middle Ages, some of the sources that quote from it state that it contained writings about all of the books in the Renewed Covenant.   This shows that all of these books in the canon of the Renewed Covenant were in existence before he began writing his dissertation around 100 AD and that none of these books could have been added to the canon of the Renewed Covenant after he died in 163 AD. 

Papias wrote that his sources were some of the Apostle of Truth, people who had talked to the Apostles of Truth, other people mentioned in the books of the Renewed Covenant, and people who had talked to these other people mentioned in the books of the Renewed Covenant.  He said that these living sources were preferable to the written resources that he also encountered.  This gives witness that there other written sources prior to his own dissertation that supported the canon of the Renewed Covenant as well.

Documents of writers from the Middle Ages use the dissertation of Papias to show that the canon of the Renewed Covenant was formed by the Apostles of Truth themselves as it was being written, with the complete canon being passed on to Papias and others by John the Jew, after he wrote the book of Revelation that completed the canon of the Renewed Covenant.  Papias also wrote that the Gospel of Matthew the Jew (Mattiyahu aka Levi) was originally written in Hebrew while all the rest of the books in the canon of the Renewed Covenant were originally written in Greek as explained further in The Language of the Renewed Covenant.

Papias further explained that no books after the time of the Apostles of Truth were accepted as scripture.  He said that for this reason no other books were allowed in the canon of the Renewed Covenant - even though many Gentiles, particular those who spoke Latin, tried to change the canon of the Renewed Covenant.  In particular, they sought to remove certain books that they questioned, since those books contradicted some of their doctrines.

Justin Martyr wrote, before his death in 150 AD, that the Children of Truth (those who obey The Father of Truth because they love Him) were using the writings of the Prophets of Truth and the writings of the Apostles of Truth as the foundation of doctrine in their services.  Around 200 AD, Origen quoted from all 27 books that are in the modern canon of the Renewed Covenant.  The list just goes on and on.  In fact, there are enough quotes from these 27 books of the Renewed Covenant, in manuscripts that were written before 300 AD, by a great host of authors, to almost completely reconstruct the entire Renewed Covenant from these quotes alone.

Without dispute in 367 AD, Athanasius of Alexandria wrote the entire list of books in the Renewed Covenant, and gave that list the name "Canon" which means "accepted list".  This was about 35 years after, the oldest complete codex in existence today, containing those same books, was compiled.

All of this historical evidence matches what the Renewed Covenant says about itself.

Paul the Jew (Shaul aka Saul aka The Apostle Paul) started the church at Hierapolis, where Papias was born, when he started the churches at Colosse and Laodicea (Colossians 4:13).  Paul the Jew had been sent to the Gentiles while John the Jew and Peter the Jew (Cephas aka Simon aka Simeon aka The Apostle Peter) were sent to the Jews (Galatians 2:7-9).  John the Jew was later sent to Laodicea, which was packed with Jews, where he had previously been, so he could have easily began disciplining Papias of Hierapolis, who was likely a Jew also, on his first visit (Revelation 1:11).

There were Greek speaking Jews dispersed among the Gentiles, throughout the areas where the books of the Renewed Covenant were first written and read (John 7:35).  It was common for some of these Jews to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem where all of the authors of the Renewed Covenant were either residing at times or visiting at other times (Acts 2:5-11).  The Jews had been committed with keeping the Word of Truth that came from the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) so they would have been the original guardians of the canon of the Renewed Covenant (Romans 3:1-2). 

These guardians of the canon of the Renewed Covenant would have been in Jerusalem where there was a synagogue of Greek speaking Jews (Acts 6:9).  They would have been in Mesopotamia (Babylon), Phrygia (Colosse, Laodicea, Hierapolis) and Crete - where Greek speaking Jews in Jerusalem made a pilgrimage from (Acts 2:9-10).    They would have been in Galatia (southern) where there was a synagogue of Greek speaking Jews in its principle city of Iconium (Acts 14:1).  They would have been in Philippi - even though the Greek speaking Jews there had to meet by the river since there were not enough Jews there to to form a synagogue (Acts 16:12-13).  They would have been in Thessaloniki where there was a synagogue of Greek speaking Jews (Acts 17:1).  They would have been in Corinth where there was a synagogue of Greek speaking Jews (Acts 18:1-4).  They would have been in Ephesus where there was a synagogue of Greek speaking Jews (Acts 18:19).  They would have been in Rome where many Greek speaking Jews lived when Paul the Jew arrived there (Acts 28:16-17).  They would have been in Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Asia, and Galatia (northern) where the greatest concentration of Greek speaking Jews in the world lived when Peter the Jew was sent there before arriving in Babylon (1 Peter 1:1).

In short, there were Jewish disciples in every place where the books of the Renewed Covenant were written, as well as every place where epistles were originally sent to, before they were copied for general distribution, because the Jews were always given the Good News first in every place the Apostles of Truth went, including Paul the Jew (Romans 1:16). 

The Apostles of Truth wrote the Renewed Covenant so that people could believe the Good News about the Man of Truth (John 20:30-31).  The Apostles of Truth knew that the Good News that they witnessed and wrote about was scripture that belonged in the Book of Truth (1 Corinthians 15:1-9).  The Apostles of Truth wrote that the Children of Truth were to use the writings of the Prophets of Truth and the writings of the Apostles of Truth as the foundation of doctrine in their services (Ephesians 2:20-22).  The Apostles of Truth knew that their own writings in the Renewed Covenant, were as much scripture that belonged in the Book of Truth, as the writings of the Prophets of Truth in the Original Covenant (Tanach aka The Old Testament) (2 Peter 3:15-17).

So the story of the formation and preservation of the canon Renewed Covenant, that is found by examining the writings of Papias and others, is completely consistent with the contents of the Renewed Covenant itself.  There is nothing contrary in their report, that the Apostles of Truth themselves established which of their own writings (books) were scripture.  There is nothing contrary in their report, that the Greek speakers, who were undoubtedly Jews, prevented anyone - especially Latin speakers - from adding other books to the Renewed Covenant.  There is nothing contrary in their report, that the contents of the Renewed Covenant were preserved through these effortsm until the time of the oldest extant complete copy of the Renewed Covenant was written.

There is also the actions that the Children of Truth in Judaea, in the years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, that should remove all doubt by themselves.

Josephus records that starting around 63 AD, the Children of Truth in Jerusalem started moving away from Jerusalem, and he also lists five separate occasions, when they could have escaped, after the Romans began their initial attack in 66 AD.  Eusebius records that the majority escaped to a city named "Pella".

Pella was a city in an area of heavily wooded hills and valleys, located in the autonomous region of Decapolis, east of the Sea of Galilee, and on the opposite side of the Jordan River from Galilee and Samaria.  It was rebuilt shortly after Alexander the Great had conquered the area, and was renamed after the city in Greece where he was born.  Many of the Greeks in Pella had come into the House of Truth, and so they welcomed their Jewish brothers - even though Jewish rebels had attacked Pella earlier.

When the Romans came to put down the Great Revolt, the rest of the Children of Truth in Judaea fled to Pella as well, before the Romans besieged Jerusalem.  The Romans not only destroyed Jerusalem, but also many other walled cities and villages, when they crushed the Great Revolt.  However, they did not attack a single city in the autonomous region of Decapolis, due to it being an area where Greeks lived instead of Jews.  It is an indisputable fact, that Pella grew tremondously in population around the time that Jerusalem was destroyed, and that the caves in the area are full of Christian symbols.

The reason that the Jewish Children of Truth escaped the terrible destruction, that came upon the other Jews, is that they had acted on the warnings of the Man of Truth, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem that he gave in 31 AD.  Therefore their actions show, that it is impossible for those warnings to have been written, after the destruction of Jerusalem, because the Jewish Children of Truth escaped that destruction, by acting on those warnings.

The Renewed Covenant records those warnings to this day.  They include the instructions to flee to the mountains when the Roman armies came to Jerusalem, because it would lead to many dying, and many others being taken captive to far away lands (Luke 21:20-24).

So there could not be any books slipped into the canon of the Renewed Covenant that were written later than 95 AD, because the first qualification for a book to be accepted in the canon of the Renewed Covenant, was that it was written by an Apostle of Truth.

The certainty, that there were no books slipped into the Renewed Covenant, is further shown by examining the Renewed Covenant, to see if all of the books fit together.  Careful examination will show that they fit together to form a well built house.

Not only that, but the Original Covenant also gives witness, that no books were slipped into the Renewed Covenant somehow.

The well built house formed by the books of the Renewed Covenant, does not exist in a vacuum, but rather rests atop a tree of wondrous strength, called the Original Covenant.  This well built house is secured to the tree of wondrous strength by the everlasting covenant that the Father of Truth made with Abraham (Abram).

So the Original Covenant also gives witness that no books were slipped into the Renewed Covenant somehow.

Every single book in the Renewed Covenant refers to the contents of Original Covenant in some manner.  There are almost 300 direct quotes from the Original Covenant in the Renewed Covenant.  There are many more references to people and events written about in the Original Covenant, than that in the Renewed Covenant. There are thousands of allusions to the contents of the Original Covenant in the Renewed Covenant - including more than 620 such allusions in the Revelation alone.

So the Original Covenant shows that no books were slipped into the Renewed Covenant because it is quoted, referred to, and alluded to, in every book in the Renewed Covenant, and it has already been shown that all of the books of the Renewed Covenant are tied together.

The Original Covenant said, in the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law), that the the Father of Truth would one day circumcise the hearts of people, so they could keep His commandments (Deuteronomy 30:6).  The Original Covenant said, that He would give people a new heart of flesh that could keep the commandments of the Law of Truth, to replace the heart of stone that could not respond to the Spirit of Truth (Ezekiel 11:19-20).  The Original Covenant said, that the Spirit of Truth would live in people, to cause them to keep the commandments of the Law of Truth (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

The Original Covenant told, that the Renewed Covenant was going to be made with the people of Israel to bring these things about (Jeremiah 31:27-34).  ["B'rit Chadashah" translated here as "New Covenant" literally means "Renewed Covenant".]  This Renewed Covenant was made, because the people of Israel could not keep the commandments, that were originally given in the Original Covenant (Hebrews 8:8-12).  ["Diatheken Kainen" translated here as "New Covenant" literally means "Renewed Covenant".]

The Father of Truth has circumcised the hearts of people in the Renewed Covenant, so they can keep the righteous commandments of the Law of Truth (Romans 2:25-29).  The Original Covenant could not cause people to keep the righteous commandments in the Law of Truth, because people do not have the power to do so on their own, but the Renewed Covenant can cause people to keep those same commandments, because the Spirit of Truth gives them the power to do so (Romans 8:3-5).  The Renewed Covenant, is the Spirit of Truth writing the same laws on the tables of the heart, that bring life through people being able to keep these commandments, that were written on the tables of stone, that brought death though people not being able to keep the letter of these commandments (2 Corinthians 3:3-7).   The same laws that were written on stone in the Original Covenant, are written on the hearts of people in the Renewed Covenant (Hebrews 10:15-17).

So the unchanging law written on tables of stone in the Original Covenant, is written on the hearts of the Children of Truth in the Renewed Covenant.  It is not a new covenant that contains new commandments.  It is that the same laws, written externally on stone in the Original Covenant, were renewed, by being written internally on the heart in the Renewed Covenant.  Since The Gospels, The Acts, The Epistles and The Revelation, show how the heart was renewed, so that the commandments, written in stone in the Original Covenant, can be kept, by being written on the heart instead, I call the collection of these books, "The Renewed Covenant".

The Gospels tell about how the Man of Truth fulfilled all that was written about what he would do on this Earth, in the Original Covenant (Luke 24:44-48).  The Acts tell about how the Apostles of Truth went about persuading people, that the Man of Truth was the one written about in the Original Covenant (Acts 28:22-24).  The Epistles reveal the plan that was hidden in Original Covenant, to save the entire human race through faith in the Man of Truth (Romans 16:25-27).  The Revelation reveals the events, that will usher in the return of the Man of Truth to this Earth to rule over it forever, reward the Children of Truth and destroy the Children of Lies, to bring about all that was promised, in the Original Covenant (Revelation 11:15-18).

So the books of the Renewed Covenant complete the story that the books of the Original Covenant began.  These two collections of books cannot stand alone because they are The Inseparable Covenants.

The Man of Truth did not come to do away with the Law of Truth, found in the Original Covenant, but to make it possible for people to keep these commandments, in the way his Father had always intended, through a Renewed Covenant (Matthew 5:17-19).  He only spoke the commandments that his Father gave him to speak in the Renewed Covenant (John 12:49-50). He came to take away our disobedience, to the commandments of the Law of Truth, through the Renewed Covenant (1 John 3:4-6).

The Man of Truth said, that he would give the Spirit of Truth to live in anyone, who decided to keep those commandments, in the Renewed Covenant (John 14:15-17).   The Spirit of Truth causes everyone, who comes into the House of Truth, to be able to fulfill the righteous commandments of the Law of Truth, in the Renewed Covenant (Romans 8:1-4).  Those who fulfill the righteous commandments of the Law of Truth, by being under the control of the Spirit of Truth, in the Renewed Covenant, are not under the Law of Truth, in the Original Covenant (Galatians 5:16-18).

In the Renewed Covenant, the mind is renewed, to more clearly understand what the Father of Truth desires, when we surrendering control of our bodies to do the will of the Father of Truth (Romans 12:1-2).  In the Renewed Covenant, the inside person is renewed everyday, by remembering that the Children of Truth will be raised from the dead, like the Man of Truth (2 Corinthians 4:13-16).  In the Renewed Covenant, the spirit of the mind is renewed, by replacing the old person, who was ruled by the desires of the flesh, with a new person, who is ruled by a desire to please the Father of Truth (Ephesians 4:22-24).  In the Renewed Covenant, the new person is renewed in knowledge, so that it is possible, to replace the old person, who lives on the inside (Colossians 3:8-10).  In the Renewed Covenant, we are renewed, by the Spirit of Truth, because of the grace of the Father of Truth, in giving us the Man of Truth (Titus 3:4-6).

All of these benefits of the Renewed Covenant, cannot begin until you come into the House of Truth (John 3:3-5).  You come into the House of Truth, when you are born again by the Spirit of Truth (John 3:6-8).  You are born again by the Spirit of Truth, when you surrender control of your life to the Man of Truth, because you believe the message of the Renewed Covenant, that he was raised from the dead by the Father of Truth (Romans 10:8-10).

Come into the House of Truth!




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