Expert: John of AllFaith - 11/17/2010

Question
Dear John,
Every great religion has it's own language the Jews have Hebrew,Islam has Arabic,and Christianity Latin. Latin is still the official language of the Catholic Church and there is still no J in the Latin alphabet. According to the World book encyclopedia the letter J was the last letter of the English alphabet developed around 1600 A.D. So you are wrong on the name change of Jesus by the Catholic Church. If you listen to a latin Mass Christ's name is still pronounce with a Y sound not a J. The inscription on the top of the crucifix is INRI not JNRJ because be it says Iesus Nazorean Rex(king)Iews,there is no j in hebrew for the word Jews. So the post Reformation devolopement of the language of a Protestant country England does not reconcile with your claim the Catholic Church had anything to do with the revising of the name Jesus.
Peter had his own ship when Christ called him, Christ taught off that same ship to the crowds. The area in a Catholic church where the pews are located is called the Nave latin for boat. Some of the other Apostles had their own boats, but after the resurrection when Christ came to appear to the Apostles they where on Peter's boat not Jame's or Paul's (John 21:1-25),in the same reading he told Peter to feed and tend Christ's sheep not James or Paul and St. John in verse 25 says says not everything Christ did is contained in scripture.
You claim Catholic holidays are based on pagan holidays,but Baptist following Catholic Tradition, celebrate Christ Mass and Easter and even attend service on Sunday if the case of paganism is true why don't they change them? Sunday was the day of Christ's ressurection,Christ's Mass(Protestants changed it to Christmas for obvious reasons,and in protestant countries it has truly became a celebration of pagan materialism)in honor of Christ humbling Himself to to take on human flesh to be the perfect Sacrifice for our sins. Easter is the celebration of the suffering,death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.    
   Saint Cyprian Bishop and Martyr in 246 A.D. said "If whoever was outside the ark of Noah was able to escape he too who is outside the Catholic Church escapes. Saint Augustine in 395 A.D. you can practice the things of the Catholic Church outside the Catholic Church but no salvation is obtained. If the practices of the Catholic Church are pagan as you say why do Baptists who are Anglican in origin still practice them? Baptists have no Magesterium to set policy so they can do whatever they want. Luther even claimed how wrong the Catholic Church was but failed to implement anything in his church that improved or unified it more than Christ's Church. He left behind the Eucharist(Christ himself)which the Unity of the Church is maintained and the authority of the Church. The proof is out there for all to see. Over 100 different Lutheran denominations and untold Baptist variations of Smyth's teachings,but there is 500 years later One,Holy Catholic,and Apostolic Church,2000 years of setting the standard for others to follow because the sure foundation is Christ. History has to be factual or its useless.    
                                 Dominus Vobiscum,(The Lord be with you.)
                                      Glen  

Answer
Hi Glen,

-- the Jews have Hebrew,Islam has Arabic,and Christianity Latin. Latin is still the official language of the Catholic Church and there is still no J in the Latin alphabet.

The language of Christianity is Latin (Western Catholic) and Greek (Eastern Orthodox Catholic and for the main body of Scriptures) as well as Aramaic (Eastern Churches and the Peshitta). Christianity is a hodgepodge religion taken from different sources and languages. It does not have a primary language like Judaism and Islam.

--- So you are wrong on the name change of Jesus by the Catholic Church.

You did not read what I wrote carefully enough. The Vatican changed the name Y'shua to Iesous not to Jesus. Jesus is a translation of Iesous that was added to the English form as I wrote. In the original 1611 KJV it is still presented as Iesus (Iesous).

Matthew 1:1  The booke of the generation of Iesus Christ, the sonne of Dauid, the sonne of Abraham.

--- If you listen to a latin Mass Christ's name is still pronounce with a Y sound not a J.

The Latin mass uses the name Iesous not Y'shua. The Ie and Y sound similar but his name is Y'shua (Yeshua) not Iesous (nor Yesous). Later today I plan to post a study on this vary topic. I finished it last night and will do a final edit in a few minutes before posting it.

---... The inscription on the top of the crucifix is INRI not JNRJ because be it says Iesus Nazorean Rex(king)Iews,there is no j in hebrew for the word Jews.

My very point.
His name is not Iesus Nazorean it is Y'shua Netzer.

The Bible (KJV) tells us at Matthew 1:21  And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. The name Y'shua means this, the name Jesus (Iesus) does not.

--- Peter had his own ship when Christ called him, Christ taught off that same ship to the crowds.

You were using the term ship as a metaphor surely. Peter had a small fishing boat. That has nothing to do with the issue at hand. Peter was not called to be the head of a new religion nor to be the  lead Apostle as I've explained.

--- The area in a Catholic church where the pews are located is called the Nave latin for boat.

Which also is not biblical.

--- ... (John 21:1-25),in the same reading he told Peter to feed and tend Christ's sheep not James or Paul and St. John in verse 25 says says not everything Christ did is contained in scripture.

In that reading we find Y'shua concerned about Peter's continuing loyalty and fidelity. That is why he stresses the point. Peter was not the a strongest of Believers:

Galatians 2:9  And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
2:10  Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
2:12  For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

So Y'shua had good reason for concern about Peter.

Then, back to John 21, we see that Yochanan (John) was the disciples Y'shua loved and trusted, not Peter. All the disciples were called to feed his sheep (Matthew 28:19, 20) but Y'shua was concerned about Peter more than the rest. he had, after all, denied him three times on the night the Master was arrested. The Catholic Church established its claim on the weakest of the Apostles and with absolutely no scriptural authority to begin a new religion. The disciples were and remained devout Jews.

--- You claim Catholic holidays are based on pagan holidays,but Baptist following Catholic Tradition, celebrate Christ Mass and Easter and even attend service on Sunday if the case of paganism is true why don't they change them?

It is true of them. The Nicolaitan heresies (Revelation 2:6, 15 etc) have infected all areas of what we today call Christianity in all its branches, including the Baptists.

Sunday is a prime example of this Nicolaitan apostasy. Sunday was sacred to Constantine because he worshiped Sol Invictus the sun god until the day he died. On March 7, 321 C.E. Constantine decreed dies Solis (Sun day, the day of the sun) to be the official Roman day of rest and worship. The Bible is clear that Shabbat (the Sabbath) is the day for worship and it was kept by Y'shua and all of his talmidim (disciples). The vast majority of Christians in all denominations have abandoned the biblical day of worship.

--- ...if the case of paganism is true why don't they change them?

You'd have to ask them. Some do, for instance the Seventh Day Baptists, the Seventh day Adventists, most "Messianics" etc. The Bible is clear but traditions are strong and many would rather observe tradition than the Bible. This is not only true of Catholics.

--- ...Christ's Mass(Protestants changed it to Christmas for obvious reasons,and in protestant countries it has truly became a celebration of pagan materialism)..

Christmas is Saturnalia. Pagan materialism has always been its main goal. Protestants simply followed the Catholics' lead.

--- Easter is the celebration of the suffering,death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.    

Easter is the Pagan Ostara. The biblical holiday is Pesach, which Y'shua and his talmidim observed just during the week leading up to his being impaled (he died on a stauros or stake not a Pagan cross according to the Bible).

The quotes from the "church fathers" are not biblical. The Bible is to be our authority. Some of the early leaders were devout Believers in Y'shua, many were not. Many of these men were Nicolaitans who were intent on destroying the Way from the inside. Also, they used the word catholic meaning universal. There was no "Catholic Church" until Constantine invented it.

Note how the "church father" Epiphanius chided the followers of Y'shua who refused to embrace the growing Nicolaitan movement:

But these sectarians... did not call themselves Christians -- but "Nazarenes," ... However they are simply complete Jews. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do... They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion -- except for their belief in Messiah, if you please! For they acknowledge both the
resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that G-d is one, and that his son is Yeshua the Messiah. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the Prophets, and the... Writings... are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by the Jews. They are different from the Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Messiah; but since they are still fettered by the Law--circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest-- they are not in accord with Christians.... they are nothing but Jews.... They have the Goodnews according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written.
(Epiphanius; Panarion 29)

--- If the practices of the Catholic Church are pagan as you say why do Baptists who are Anglican in origin still practice them?

Because by the time the various groups left the Catholic Church they had fully embraced the essential heresies established by them. These groups wanted to reform the Catholic Church not understanding that what was needed was a return to biblical religion. They lacked understanding of what the Nicolaitan "church fathers" had actually done and so they continued in them.

To be clear I am not attacking the Catholic Church. I am saying there was a wholesale sale-out of the Jewish sect established by Y'shua and his talmidim.

---...Baptists have no Magesterium to set policy so they can do whatever they want.

The concept of a Magesterium as conceived in Catholic terms is a violation of the B'rit Hadashah (New Covenant) established in the New Testament. (I Timothy 2:5)  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The idea of a universal church wielding the kind of authority claimed by the Vatican is anti-biblical hence rejected by most non-Catholics Christians.

--- He left behind the Eucharist(Christ himself)

Another common Pagan doctrine adopted by Catholicism. Y'shua is not a cracker nor a sip of wine. At the Pesach Seder Y'shua added remembrance of himself to the rite. Catholics turned this into the Communion rite borrowing from the Pagan wine and bread esbat rites.

---... but there is 500 years later One,Holy Catholic,and Apostolic Church,2000 years of setting the standard for others to follow because the sure foundation is Christ. History has to be factual or its useless.

This also is not correct.

When the Universal Church was created by Constantine the Churches of the Roman Empire were delegated to the ruling bishops of the region: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In time the Bishop of Rome proclaimed himself heir to the Throne of Saint Peter (an unbiblical concept) and Ultimate Potentate of the entire Church (in open defiance of I Timothy 2:5). How, Pope Leo argued, could the One Church have more than One head? He proclaimed himself to be the One and only Pope (papa) of the world.

Once the split was finalized Rome excommunicated the Eastern churches (Eastern Orthodoxy) and they effectively excommunicated Rome and its churches (although the East continues to accept Rome as a legitimate patriarchate according to the original 4th century ruling). Each patriarchate claimed to be an equal member in "the original church built by Jesus." The non-Roman Eastern Churches continued to recognize the others and are today commonly known as the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church, although Constantinople has always been given deference among them.

This "Great Schism" was long in the making, its currents had been evident for many years before the split between the Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches of "the One Apostolic Church" finally became official in 1054 in part due to the ravages both sides suffered at the hands of the Islamic Ummah.

In 1054, Roman Catholic legates sent by Pope Leo IX traveled east. They formally demanded the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, cease from using Greek and to embrace Latin as the official Church language. They also, on the authority of Pope Leo IX, denied Cerularius the title "Ecumenical Patriarch." The leading Eastern Patriarch was ordered, on pain of excommunication, to recognize the Church of Rome's claim as the head patriarchate and Mother Church of the world. Cerularius honorably refused this breach in tradition and was officially (from Rome's perspective) excommunicated.

Ecumenical Patriarch Cerularius responded to this affront by excommunicated Cardinal Humbert and the other legates sent by Pope Leo IX and effectively cut the East off from the Western Church.

So the Church was only "united" for a brief time and NEVER did it recognize Papal authority as a body as you suggest.

Maranatha,
~ John of AllFaith