Leigh Jackson.
Christianity is Catholicism, and Catholicism is Christianity
Although not always as apparent to me as it now is, Christianity is Catholicism, and Catholicism is Christianity. To evaluate Christianity, it is necessary to evaluate Catholicism. I say this because, it is a matter of fact, that for some 1500 years of this Era there was but one "True Church" of Christ; and that Church 96 claims with conscious pride the origin and authorship of all the New Testament Books, out of its own Holy bosom, by its own canonized Saints, and it yet claims to be the only true, "Christian" Church. The New Testament Books are, therefore, distinctively Catholic documents.
Further, the Catholic Church, itself engaged in forgery 97 regarding the Books of the New Testament and in all the documents of religious dogma and propaganda and did itself perpetrate all the pious frauds and is their chief beneficiary. All the other Christian sects are sprung or severed from the original "One True Church;" all other forms of the Christian religion originated by secession from the "True Church," and their founders.
All these Protestant sects, therefore, with full knowledge of the guilty facts and partakers in the frauds, found their claim to Divinity - and priestly emoluments - upon and through those tainted titles, and thus must fully share the guilt as accomplices after the fact. The "Reformed" Sects, on breaking away from the old Monopoly of Forgery, appropriated the least clumsy and more plausible of the pious Counterfeit of Christianity, and for the centuries since have industriously and knowingly been engaged in passing the stolen counterfeit upon their own unsuspecting flocks; they are therefore equally guilty with the original Forgers of the Faith.
A definition by a high ecclesiastical authority may appropriately be cited, as it thoroughly defines the chronic clerical crime. The Catholic Encyclopedia thus defines the crime:
"Canon law connects forgery and the use of forged documents, on the presumption that he who would make use of such documents must be either the author or instigator of the forgery. In canon law forgery consists not only in the fabrication or substitution of an entirely false document, but even by partial substitution, or by any alteration affecting the sense and bearing of an authentic document or any substantial point, such as names, dates, signature, seal, favor granted, by erasure, by scratching out or writing one word over another, and the like."
Under every phase and phrase of this its own clerics legal definition, the Church is guilty. The proofs of this indictment are marvelously easy in one sense, since they are to be found in amplest record of history and accredited ecclesiastic authorities, and in abounding incautious admissions made by the Recredited spokesmen of the Accused. Unfortunately these damning things of the Church are scattered through many clerical volumes and concealed in many archives, and are not well known to the pious or preoccupied layman. The findings do not lend themselves to abstracts or summaries or sound bytes. The Holy Catholic Church has been at it for 2000 years, although the earlier "Church history" is where most of the dirt started. To properly portray even this requires volumes.
Although not a true student of Catholicism, I have observed them for many years and have read a fair amount on the subject. Catholicism is repugnant to the very core. It was not until recently, however, that it became so very clear to me that Catholicism is the basis for my (former) Christianity. This is worse than finding that your mother is a whore. In that case, you could at least still rise above your circumstances. However, as a Christian you cannot rise above your circumstances - they are what they are. Protestantism is a full partaker of the fraud of Christianity. You cannot untangle this mess, because this mess is, and always has been, nothing more than a tangle - by definition. At one time I thought that the true first original church was on the right path and that Catholicism had veered from that path. This was not - and is not true - it never has been true - this is part of the mythology. There is only one path, and that path is Catholicism - Protestantism is merely varying degrees of watered down Catholicism. You cannot get from the beginning to the present without treading that path. You can weed out all the objectionable aspects of Catholicism, but what you have left is still just another religious myth. Watering down a myth doesn’t create a truth - it merely remains a watered-down myth.
The pious frauds of the theologians have been thus early systematized and raised to the dignity of a regular doctrine. The church has been hard at work lying in their zeal for God’s honor, and to their own dishonor. They have presumed at the price of their soul to assert dogmatically whatever first comes into their head. There is nothing so easy as by sheer volubility to deceive a common crowd or an uneducated congregation.
So gross and prevalent was the clerical habit of pious lies and pretenses "to the glory of God," that St. Augustine, about 395 A.D., wrote a reproving treatise to the Clergy, De Mendacio (On Lying), which he found necessary to supplement in 420 A.D. with another book, Contra Mendacium (Against Lying). While Augustine disapproves of downright lying even to trap heretics - a practice seemingly much in vogue among the good Christians: "It is more pernicious for Catholics to lie that they may catch heretics, than for heretics to lie that they may not be found out by Catholics."
Many spurious books were forged in the earliest times of the Church, in the name of Christ and his apostles, which passed upon all the Fathers as genuine and divine through several successive ages. Those who have given any attention to the history of mankind, have come to realize that the greatest zealots in religion, or the leaders of sects and parties (whatever purity or principles they pretend to have) did not hesitate to make use of a commodious lie for the advancement of what they call the truth. And with regard to these very Fathers, there is not one of them, as an eminent writer of ecclesiastical history declares, who made any scruple in those ages of using the hyperbolical style to advance the honor of God and the salvation of men.
During that gloomy period when the only scholars in Europe were priest and monks (who conscientiously believed that no amount of falsehood was reprehensible which conduced to the edification of the people) created writings (especially their histories) which were the wildest of fables, so grotesque and at the same time so audacious, that they were the wonder of succeeding ages; and the very men who scattered these fictions broadcast over Christendom, taught at the same time that credulity was a virtue and skepticism a crime.
The Fathers laid down as a distinct proposition that pious frauds were justifiable and even laudable. Even if they had not laid this down they would nevertheless have practiced them as a necessary consequence of their doctrine of exclusive salvation. Immediately all ecclesiastical literature became tainted with a spirit of the most unblushing falsehoods. Heathenism was to be combated, and therefore prophecies of Christ by Orpheus and the Sibyls were forged and lying wonders multiplied. Heretics were to be convinced; therefore interpolations of old writings - or complete forgeries - were habitually opposed to the forged Gospels. This tendency triumphed wherever the supreme importance of dogmas was held. Generation after generation it became more universal. It continued till the very sense of truth and the very love of truth seemed blotted out from the minds of men. Thus the tangled web of fraud, forgery and imposture was woven.
It becomes obvious that the confessed debasing principle of the Church, that the maintenance of its creed is superior to the principles of morality. Ecclesiastical history consists of nothing but the wickedness of the governing clergy. The universality of the frauds and impostures of the Church (herein barely hinted at), taint and corrupt every phase of the Church and of the ecclesiastical propaganda of the Faith. As is well said by Middleton in commenting on these and like pious practices of the Holy Church: "And no man surely can doubt, but that those, who would either forge, or make use of forged books, would, in the same cause, and for the same ends, make use of forged miracles" (A Free Inquiry, Introd. Discourse, p. lxxxvii); as well as of forged Gospels, Epistles, Creeds, Saint-tales - vast extensions of pious frauds.
The shame and guilt of the "Holy Church" can be taken verbatim from the Church’s own histories and historians. These clerical works of confession and confusion are for the most part three ponderous sets of volumes; they are readily accessible for any who would care to spend the time to dig them out. It is doubtful if many will do this (myself included). It is even doubtful that anyone has even read my simple easily read and straight-forward document to this point (If you have, congratulate yourself for being more of a scholar, and more anxious to know the truth, than the majority of Christians - you are probably in the upper 1%.). But for any who care to delve into first-hand research on the subject for further instances, go to some good libraries and bookshops; such as the libraries of the Union Theological Seminary and of Columbia University, in New York City and read:
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers; First and Second Series; many volumes; same publishers.
The Ante-Nicene Fathers; A Collection of the extant Writings of all the Founders of Christianity down to the Council of Nicaea, or Nice, in 325 A.D. American Reprint, eight volumes. The Christian Literature Publishing Co., Buffalo, N.Y., 1885.
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers; First and Second Series; many volumes; same publishers.
The Catholic Encyclopedia; fifteen volumes and index, published under the Imprimatur of Archbishop Farley; New York, Robert Appleton Co., 1907-9.
The Encyclopedia Biblica, four volumes; Adam & Charles Black, London, 1899; American Reprint, The Macmillan Co., New York, 1914.
The clerical confessions of lies and frauds in the ponderous volumes of the Catholic Encyclopedia alone suffice, and to spare, to wreck the Church and to destroy utterly the Christian religion.
In defense of Catholics (which still doesn’t let them off the hook) is that they after all did totally control Christianity for 1500 years. Then along came Luther’s Protestant Reformation which was essentially a frontal attack upon Catholicism, but not necessarily more correct, nor any inspired by God, than was Catholicism:
Most Protestants by now, unless they are terribly naive, have heard of the Catholic Inquisition which was murderous and cruel beyond the imagination and done under the guise of it being God’s will. So the only interpretation which could be given is that our "loving" Christian God was ultimately responsible for the torturing and killing of "the heretics" - which by definition was anyone who didn’t believe in, and fully accept the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings - it was a matter of believe it or die. But what many present day Protestants may not know 98 (even if they are not naive) is that Protestants became just about as murderous and cruel as the Catholics - for the same reason - of doing God’s will:
Auguste Comte also writes:
"What makes, however, Protestant persecutions specially revolting is the fact that they were absolutely inconsistent with the primary doctrine of Protestantism - the right of private judgment in matters of religious belief! Nothing can be more illogical than at one moment to assert that one may interpret the Bible to suit himself, and at the next to torture and kill him for having done so! [The Double Standard of Protestant Anti-Catholic "Inquisition Polemics" (John Stoddard)]
Volumes are written about Luther and his cruelty. The death-penalty for heresy rested on the highest Lutheran authority . . . The views of the other reformers (i.e. Calvin) on the persecution and bringing to justice of heretics were merely the outgrowth of Luther's plan; they contributed nothing fresh. Luther’s writings were essentially the early basis for the development of antisemitism in Germany, which ultimately led to the Holocaust. Here was a Christian nation led by Hitler who was greatly influenced by Martin Luther,99 the founder of Protestantism - so there is a very real dark-side to Christianity, which spawned the Dark Ages and the Inquisition, the Holocaust, etc.
What an ugly, barbarous, pagan religion is Christianity, when the whole truth of it is known. But then this is the case with most all other man-made religions (there really is no other kind), have had their very repulsive side as well, portraying ugly, vindictive gods. Christian apologists and the organized church in general have done a wonderful PR job in portraying the Christian God as a loving, caring, wonderful God. This is not too unlike the early portrayal (during World War Two, in the United States) of Joseph Stalin (Russia was our ally) as being a kindly old grandfather type with sparkling eyes, smoking a curved pipe. appearing to be every bit a friendly as Santa Clause - but later we find that he may have murdered more of his nations citizens than did Adolph Hitler. So, Joseph Stalin wasn’t as he was portrayed to be - at all. Neither is God, as truly portrayed in scripture. The question is whether this is God’s portrayal of Himself, or man’s portrayal of an imaginary god. It is entirely possible that there truly is an ultimate high God, who has never revealed Himself (He/She/It/They??) to mankind. We can only speculate about that. There is no speculation required concerning the god of the bible - He never existed.
Footnotes:
96 For nineteen centuries the popes at the head of the Roman
church have influenced the history of Christianity. It was not
until 384 that the bishop of Rome called himself Pope for the
first time.
97 No other people in history have been such indefatigable and for the most part clumsy forgers as the Christians. Mosheim: "It was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the interests of religion might be promoted." Dean Milman: "It was admitted and avowed that to deceive into Christianity was so valuable a service as to hallow deceit itself." Lecky: "the deliberate and apparently perfectly unscrupulous forgery of a whole literature....The Fathers laid down as a distinct proposition [sic] that pious frauds were justifiable and even laudable....it continued till the very sense of truth and the very love of truth seemed blotted out from the minds of men." Edersheim (a Christian Jew): "It will scarcely be credited how general the falsification of signatures and documents had become." Tyndall: "When arguments of proofs were needed...a document was discovered which met the case, and on which the name of an apostle or of some authoritative contemporary of the apostles was boldly inscribed. The end being held to justify the means, there is no lack of manufactured testimony." Origen himself proved that certain passages in Josephus, which represented him as having heard favorable things about Jesus, were forged interpolations.
98 What does the average Protestant know of Protestant atrocities in the centuries succeeding the Reformation? Nothing, unless he makes a special study of the subject . . . Yet they are perfectly well known to every scholar. This is not something that is taught from either the pulpit, nor in Sunday School class, or even in most so-called Christian books. What is taught is that the Christian God is a God of love, which is a totally inadequate, and basically untrue depiction, according to scripture.
99 The Anglican Dean Inge, of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, did not hesitate to say . . 'If we wish to find a scapegoat on whose shoulders we may lay the miseries which Germany has brought on the world, I am more and more convinced that the worst evil genius of that country, is not Hitler or Bismarck or Frederick the Great, but Martin Luther.'