The Historical
"Black Hole"...
The word "History", is in
reality, "His-Story"!
Has "His-Story" ended?
Yes, "His-story" did end after the Book
of Revelation was finished and it did not begin again until 1521 when the
Reformation started!
That is, so we are told to believe by some non-Catholics, but NOT by GOD.
His-story ended when the Book of Revelation was finished, but however,
there were one or two documents written over that 1400+ year period, and
they believe, "If I can use (twist) them to my advantage, I'll do
so", say some anti-Catholics. "If I cannot use them, then they
simply did not exist", the same anti-Catholics say.
Did "His-Story" really end with the completion of the last book
of the Bible, or do the events of "His-Story" march on and accumulate
unbroken and unfettered throughout all time?
Well what does Holy Scripture say about the "end of His-Story"?
"But when he, the Spirit of Truth, has
come, he will (future tense) teach
you all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever
he will hear he will speak,
AND THE THINGS THAT ARE TO COME HE WILL DECLARE TO YOU."
John 16:13
Holy Scripture clearly says that His-Story will continue into the future.
How far into the future? Let us examine another verse.
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you; and
behold,
I AM WITH YOU ALL DAYS, EVEN UNTIL THE CONSUMMATION OF THE WORLD."
Matthew 28:19-20
Verse 20 means, "He will be with us every day in every century until
the end of time with no gaps".
Does that sound like a time limit has been imposed by GOD on "His-Story"?
No time limit was imposed by GOD, but a time limit was imposed by man,
according to some anti-Catholics, since they have created a veritable "Black
Hole" of "His-Story" from the time the last book of the
Bible was written about 95-100 A.D., until 1521, a period of over 1420
years.
If something is not in the Bible, then I will simply reject it. That is
the false thinking of some non-Catholics.
What does Holy Scripture say regarding "everything
is in it"?
"Many other signs also Jesus worked in
the sight of his disciples,
WHICH ARE NOT WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK."
John 20:30
"There are, however, many other things
that Jesus did; but if everyone of these should be written, not even the
world itself, I think, could hold the books that would have to be written."
John 21:25
Some questions for those who refuse to believe anything, if they cannot
find it in the Bible. Tell me then, how can you find answers to these questions?
1. Show me in the Bible the list of inspired books in it? If you cannot
find such a list then how do you know the book you call the Bible is the
Bible?
2. Show me in the Bible where the word "Trinity" is defined?
If you cannot find the word in the Bible, then why do you believe in the
doctrine? From where did the word "Trinity" come?
3. Same question for the word "Incarnate"?
4. Show me in the Bible where the Bible tells you that all the books within
it are inspired?
5. Show me in the Bible where Jesus said what Luke said He said in this
verse?
"...and REMEMBER the WORD of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said,
'It is more blessed to give than to receive'." Acts 20:35
6. Show me in Scripture the reference
of Matthew 2:23 that "he shall be called a Nazarene"?
7. Show me in Scripture the reference of Matthew 5:43 that "you shall
hate your enemy"?
8. Show me in Scripture the reference of 2Timothy 3:8 that "Jamnes
and Mambres resisted Moses"? 9. Tell me,
where did your Bible come from? Documents please?
10. Since you believe all Scripture is inspired, then show me where the
Bible excludes the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas? Cant find
it? Then why are these books not in your Bible?
11. Show me the verses which say the Bible claims to be the sole authority
for Christians in matters of faith and morals?
As you can clearly see, the Bible is far from complete.
Some very important questions simply cannot be answered with Scripture
alone. Some of these are examples of Apostolic Tradition, for which we
are commanded to keep by WORD or by letter in 2Thessalonians 2:15. Apostolic
tradition is quite removed from man-made tradition.
Now, where would you go to find the answers to the questions I have
just put forth?
Will you just simply ignore the questions and prefer to have no answers?
Or do you honestly want to seek the truth?
What have we learned from Holy Scripture
so far?
1. That Scripture says "His-Story" will continue until the end
of time, and with no gaps whatsoever.
2. That Scripture says that learning will continue until we have been taught
all things.
3. That Scripture says, and shows us that everything is NOT within its
pages.
What
then, is this "Historical
Black Hole"?
It is
the 1420 plus years of "His-Story" from the time of the finishing
of the Book of Revelation, until Martin Luther came along and started the
Protestant Reformation. These 1420 years are filled with genuine historical
documents that are suppressed by the leaders of most of the 33,800*
non-Catholic ecclesial communities.
*World Christianity
Encyclopedia, April 2001.
What do these leaders of the 33,800 ecclesial communities tell, or refrain
from telling their flocks?
1. They do not teach their subjects that genuine historical documents for
this time period even exist.
2. There are literally thousands of historical documents written by hundreds
down through the ages.
3. The documents are available for all to see, "But
there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing
hidden that will not be made known."
Luke 12:2
4. If any of their subjects find that these documents do exist, they are
told not to read them.
5. They are told that they will become corrupted if they do read them.
Their subjects are purposely kept in "Spiritual Darkness".
6. The truth is, however, that whoever reads these documents will find
the real truth for themselves and not what someone else just tells
them is the truth.
7. We are all obligated to search for the truth (1Timothy 2:4). Since truth
is a person (John 14:6), if you have not searched for the truth, then you
have not found the truth, and thus you have not found the person who is
GOD.
You cannot find the fullness of truth by ignoring 1420 years of His-Story.
"For they have not received the love
of truth that they might be saved. Therefore GOD sends them a misleading
influence that they may believe falsehood, that all may be judged who have
not believed the truth, but have preferred wickedness."
2Thessalonians 2:10-12
Who, or what, is this misleading influence? Holy Scripture gives us the
answer to this question...
"For the WRATH of GOD is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness
OF THOSE MEN WHO IN WICKEDNESS HOLD BACK THE TRUTH OF GOD."
Romans 1:18
Some of the various authors of genuine historical documents
are:
Josephus (Flavius Josephus 37-101 A.D.) was a Jew and a Jewish historian.
He wrote many books about Jewish history from their very beginnings until
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.. His writings are valued by scholars,
as some of what he wrote is the only source for several of the historical
events. He also dated the events which very few writers in the early times
did. In his book XVIII, chapter 3, he wrote of Jesus Christ:
"About this time lived Jesus, a man full of wisdom, if indeed one
may call Him a man. For He was the doer of incredible things, and the teacher
of such as gladly received the truth. He thus attracted to Himself many
Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. On the accusation of
the leading men of our people, Pilate condemned Him to death upon the cross;
nevertheless those who had previously loved Him still remained faithful
to Him. For on the third day He again appeared to them living, just as,
in addition to a thousand other marvelous things, prophets sent by God
had foretold. And to the present day the race of those who call themselves
Christians after Him has not ceased."
Evodius was the first Bishop of Antioch, and he is credited
with being the first person to call the followers of Christ, "Christians",
as shown in Acts 12:26. See Eusebius, book 3, chapter 22.
Saint Ignatius (35-107), the second Bishop of Antioch wrote a letter to
the Smyrneans in 107
A.D..
In this letter is recorded the first known use of the words "Catholic
Church"...
Paragraph #8
"You must all follow the lead of the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed
that of the Father; follow the presbytery as you would the Apostles; reverence
the deacons as you would God's commandment. Let no one do anything touching
the Church, apart from the bishop. Let that celebration of the Eucharist
be considered valid which is held under the bishop or anyone to whom he
has committed it. Where the bishop appears,
there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic
Church. It is not permitted without authorization
from the bishop either to baptize or to hold an agape; but whatever he
approves is also pleasing to God. Thus everything you do will be proof
against danger and valid."
Some non-Catholics teach that the Catholic Church did not even come into
existence until the Emperor of Rome, Constantine, issued the "Edict
of Milan"*
in 313 A.D..
How then, can they explain this letter of Saint Ignatius written over 200
years earlier?
Here is an additional sampling of titles of writings**
where the Catholic Church is mentioned by name, and with all of them penned
before 313 A.D.:
Martyrdom of St. Polycarp 16:2. J77,79,80a,81a, 155
A.D.
Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 7:17:107:3. J435, 202
A.D.
Cyprian, Letter to Florentius 66:69:8. J587, 254
A.D.
Lactantius, Divine Institutions 4:30:1. J637, 304
A.D.
*The "Edict of Milan",
available on the Internet for all to see, did not "start" the
Catholic Church, but merely allowed the open existence of Christianity.
It allowed Christianity to continue without fear of Roman persecution.
Prior to this event, Christians were persecuted mercilessly by both the
Romans and the Jews, and they had to practice the faith underground, and
in secret.
Read the "Edict of Milan" for yourself
and you will see the truth of what I said.
**The "J"
numbers refer to Jurgens book set, "The Faith of the Early Fathers".
All of the writings listed above are available on the Internet for free.
Saint Justin the martyr (105-165), is recognized as the
"First Christian Apologist".
He wrote extensively in the defense of the early Church.
Saint Irenaeus (140-202), wrote a monumental volume entitled
"Against Heresies" which scholars use to this day. Yes, there
were heretics then also, and right from the very beginning of Christianity.
Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339), is called, "The
Father of Church History", and wrote 10 volumes of the history of
the Catholic Church. His His-Storical writings span the time period from
before the birth of Jesus Christ until about 330 A.D.. He quoted some of
the writings of Josephus.
Saint Athanasius (295-373), Bishop of Alexandria. Read
about how he championed the Church against the heresy of Arianism. In his
Festal Letter #39, which he wrote in 367, is a list of the New Testament
Canon, which just
a few years later was accepted by the Church.
Saint Jerome (341-420), was the person who gave the world
the first Bible with both Old and New Testaments, the "Latin Vulgate"
in 404. The Vulgate is the official Bible of the Catholic Church to this
day. Saint Jerome has many other outstanding writings to his credit.
Saint Augustine (354-430), one of the greatest writers
in defense of the Church of all time. He wrote hundreds of documents and
mentioned the Catholic Church by name over 300 times.
His "Confessions" is considered to be one of the most outstanding
works ever written.
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), was one of the greatest
Christian thinkers of all time. His monumental "Summa Theologica"
embraces practically every facet of Christianity. In it he presents the
objections to Christian doctrine and then gives the supporting arguments.
His "Summa" is widely used by serious scholars and is considered
to be one of the greatest writings of all time.
This is only a small sampling of the plethora of genuine
historical documents written by early Christians, and these writings are
available for everyone to study.
A comprehensive list of genuine historical documents with many different
writers and covering many subjects, can be seen here.
There are URL's posted in that file, that will allow you to find these
writings and see for yourself the wealth of genuine historical documents
that are just a click away.
There are also voluminous writings of Christianity by
Roman, Greek, Jewish and other authors of the time, such as Pliny, Tacitus,
and the Jewish Talmud.
How can anyone who is serious about their salvation afford
to ignore these treasures from the past?
"And you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:32
Half of the Truth
is no truth at all.
How then, can you get the full truth if you ignore 1420 plus years of genuine
historical documents?
Cardinal John Newman, a convert from Anglicanism said it best in regards
to historical documents:
"To be deep in history is to cease to
be Protestant."
That is the real reason why non-Catholic ministers and elders tell their
flocks to ignore the "Black Hole" of "His-Story". You
see, there is absolutely nothing written about the 33,800 ecclesial communities
during this 1420 year period, as none of them existed then, but there are
plentiful writings of Christianity and of the Church which Jesus Christ
founded. "His-Story" flowed from century to century with no "gaps"
whatsoever. The only "Historical Black Holes" which exist, are
those in the minds of some who choose to ignore 1420 plus years of historical
writings, and, as mentioned earlier from Romans 1:18, "...who
in wickedness hold back the truth of GOD."
Do you ignore the history of your country? No? Then why do you ignore the
history of Christianity? Christian history is of much greater value for
you, as it will gratuitously profit you in your quest for eternal salvation.
"What is it that has
been? The same thing that shall be. What is it that has been done? The
same thing that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is
any man able to say: Behold this is new; for it has already gone before
in the ages that were before us. There is no remembrance of former things;
nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be
any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end."
Ecclesiastes 1:10-11
So why would anyone want to ignore the former things? We can profit enormously
from what has been accomplished by milenniums of ancestral writings by
thousands of others who went before us. One of the worlds great scientists
was asked how he was able to accomplish so much in his lifetime.
He replied, "It was because I stood upon
the shoulders of giants".
Could he still have soared as he had done, by ignoring the scientific giants
that lived before him?
Wouldn't the same logic also apply to us regarding the theological giants
who lived before our time?
Those who ignore
history fail to profit from its good deeds, and are doomed to repeat its
mistakes.
No one should allow themselves
to be dragged into the "Black Hole"
of spiritual
darkness.
"If we say that we have fellowship with
Him, and walk in darkness,
we lie, and are not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as
He also is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."
1John 1:6-7
"Because you have rejected knowledge,
I will reject you,
that you shall not do the office of priesthood to me."
Hosea 4:6
©
Written by Bob Stanley, May 7, 2001
Updated May 29, 2001
Back
to Home Page...