Tag: Paul
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Alien Jesus?

You’ve probably seen these guys (and girls) online. They are sometimes assembled into small congregations and even find some success in the weirder parts of the USA (Los Angeles.) They are driven by the belief in both Christianity AND Extra-Terrestrials and have merged them into one fascinating new belief system; Jesus was an alien.
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Understanding Jesus: Separating Faith from Early Christian Influence

If you grew up in (or are currently a member of) a protestant church, you have probably been allowed to believe that your faith has been relatively unchanged throughout the millennia. Catholicism (your church’s grand-pappy) has had a colorful history filled with all manner of exciting events among them the councils. The catholic councils would…
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The Lost Gospel: Q

First of all, No. This has nothing to do with the conspiracy theory bearing the same letter as a name. During studies of Christian origins, one is very quickly guaranteed to run into the term Q-source quite often when discussing the synoptic gospels. Q stands for “Quelle”, the German word for “source.” It is a…
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Papias of Hieropolis

Papias of Hieropolis is more than just an amazing name for your next child; he may be one of the most important players in early Christian history that you have (probably) never heard of. It is through him that what little we know about the author of the “main” gospel, Mark, comes to us today.…
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Thecla; the First First-Woman of the Church.
For as long as anyone can remember, Mary the mother of Jesus has held the position of the highest revered woman of the Church. By sheer volume, more prayers are said to her than any other person; including Jesus. In the early Church however, there was another woman who contended for that honor. Thecla. The…
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Part 1.5: The Man Behind (most of) the New Testament; Paul.
Before we go any further into the individual components of the New Testament, it may be helpful to learn a little bit about the man who is (either directly or indirectly) behind most of it: Paul. It is true that I tend to take a bit of a cynical tone towards his actual knowledge of…
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Part 1: Assembling the New Testament…

Growing up as an evangelical Christian. my sole resource for information on Jesus was the New Testament. From Sunday school and the pulpit came lectures from the epistles of Paul and the four gospels. It took several decades for me to learn that there is a wealth of other material concerning our favorite first century…
