T.L.C.   Just a moment ago when referring to the followers as sheep, you used the words “as I have written in their Bible.”   Did you have a hand in writing the Bible?

Big D   Well, actually no, but my agents played a role in editing it.

T.L.C.   So?   What’s the big deal in that?

Big D   The big deal is that the final message so strongly preached about today as the literal word of God is significantly different from the words that were originally written.   Like any book of that nature, all I had to do was get my agents to:

u    Cut out a word here and there,

u    Change the spelling slightly and create a different word
with a different meaning,

u    Drop a line or two,

u    Add a word, a phrase or a few sentences,

u    Reverse the order of some phrases,

u    Leave out a couple of controversial passages, 
such as those referring to reincarnation,

and the book takes on a significantly new meaning.

T.L.C.   Would church leaders actually do something like that? 

Big D   Remember, Stoney, I, as The Great God Money, and my three favorite archangels, Ego, Fame, and Power, have been around for a long, long time, so I hope, for your sake, you ask that question as a reporter soliciting documentation for a story and not out of personal naiveté.

T.L.C.   Of course, for corroboration’s sake.

Big D   Good. I’ll give you a glimpse into the culture of that day, and then you won’t need to ask if the church elders would edit the Christian Bible.

Big D   To start with, we have to look at the culture and the times in which the Bible was written.   The collection of letters and books that now constitute the Bible was written in, what to us today is a foreign language, in an ancient, non-technical, agrarian culture, for people who were almost completely illiterate, uneducated and who were highly superstitious.   The culture in which and for which the Bible was written was so vastly different from our current civilization that these ancient times are almost impossible for us to imagine today.

Although much of the Bible was probably intended as symbolic metaphors and teaching stories designed for its own time and culture, it is today being interpreted literally, word for word, by the anti-abortionists in a context°  that is totally foreign to that in which it was written.^[1]

And, what is today referred to as the Christian Bible was not put together in its present form until about 300 A.D.   During that 300-year period and in the context of the times, do you suppose any of the original truths could have gotten distorted or lost? 

T.L.C.   Most humans can't remember what happened last week, so bringing the complete story forward three hundred years with perfect accuracy was an all but impossible task.   

Big D   In the context of the times 2,000 years ago, I'd label that as an absolutely impossible task.   Let’s move on to the topic of the church altering the content of the Christian Bible.   If the following story doesn’t answer your question, nothing will. 

T.L.C.   OK. I’m listening.

Big D   First, let me set the scene.   As you well know,  knowledge and people who think for themselves  are a serious threat to the control and dominance of any political hierarchy based on fantasy, manipulation, and illusion.   In the early years of the Roman Catholic Church, books were the holders and purveyors of knowledge.   They were the major enemy of the so-called truth that was being peddled by the political/religious  hierarchy of that era.   Books were also an easy target for paranoid minds to focus on.

T.L.C.   So with books as the whipping boys of the day, what happened?

Big D   In 400 A.D., the library at Alexandria was by far the greatest storehouse of information that the world had ever known.   As the Roman Catholic Church solidified its financial power and its political control, the church leaders claimed that they already knew with absolute irrefutable certainty, all and everything that there was to know.

T.L.C.   What a ridiculous statement.

Big D   If you think that’s ridiculous, wait till you hear what they did to support their fantasy.   The library at Alexandria proved the ignorance and the arrogance of their absurd claims, and so in 415 A.D., the head of the library was murdered by mindless, church followers and all of the books in this great library were burned under orders from the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.   To justify their criminal behavior, the church leaders declared the entire contents of this great library to be symbols of anti-Christian paganism, as heresy, and as unnecessary.^[2]

Such a wanton act of vandalism against all of humankind is equivalent, by today's standards, to burning every book in every home, office and library in the entire world and then erasing the content of every computer memory bank in the entire world. 

The hands-on perpetrator of this absurd act of murder and arson was Cyril, the Roman Catholic Church's Archbishop of Alexandria.   For his devoted service to Rome, he was declared a saint by the church.

T.L.C.   Are you serious? 

Big D   Absolutely!   Check the historical records for yourself.   This type of arrogant disregard for knowledge and for the rights of others was the direct cause of, or was a major contributing factor in creating the 900-year period called the "Dark Ages."^[3] 

In keeping with the anti-abortionists’ anti-sexual nature and their tendency to support violence in the name of "God" and their cause, it might be noted that the head of the library at Alexandria was a brilliant and beautiful woman named Hypatia.   Here’s a quote from Cosmos By Carl Sagan, page 336:

.

Can you think of anything more sexually perverted than stripping a beautiful woman naked and then murdering her?

T.L.C.   Yes.

Big D   Oh!   Did I miss something?

T.L.C.   What is even more sexually perverted is stripping a beautiful woman naked and then murdering her in the name of God.

Big D   Thank you.   I stand corrected. 

So now tell me, Stoney, considering the political climate of those times, do you think the original biblical writings could have been edited somewhere along the way?

T.L.C.   Given the historical evidence regarding the type of behavior that the early church leader engaged in, I’d guess that at some alterations probably occurred.

Big D   Probable, my ass Stoney!   Copernicus, Galileo, Hipatia and the library at Alexandria aren’t enough proof?   Here’s a murderous mob with the means, the motive, the opportunity, a track record of multiple acts of murder, the power and the ability to get away every kind of criminal behavior you can imagine, and you still doubt that they would change the wording in a book that was their number one tool of manipulation and control, a book that was their number one tool for amassing wealth and power.   You’ve got to be putting me on. 

Probably!   Just listen to yourself.   You sound like the anti-choice sheep.   I can see I’ve been wasting my time talking to you.

She stands up and turns to leave.   As she‘s walking away, she looks back at me and mutters, more to herself than to me, “What does it take to wake you humans up?”  My instant reaction to her body language, voice tone, and words is, "This is a bluff  and an attempt or her part to regain control," so I lean back silently and watch.   After she has walked about ten steps, I speak.

T.L.C.   Big D, that’s a cute ass you’re peddling today.

She ignores me, continues walking, and I wait silently to see how this is going to play out.   She walks out into the ocean and disappears under the water.   After about a minute, I begin to wonder if I’ve miscalculated and blown my opportunity to bring her back.   My doubt vanishes when I hear a voice behind me.

English Bible William Tyndale         English Bible William Tyndale         ...

Did God Change His Mind?   Why is it that, prior to about 1870, the Roman Catholic Church said that an independent life began three months after conception, and now they say an independent life begins at conception?   Did God change His mind?   Can Divine Truth be arbitrarily changed at the whim of the Roman Catholic hierarchy?.

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Modern Bible Editing:   Here's a quote from Chapter VII of Facts From History About Our King James Bible,   Written and Published by Rev. Ronald D. Lesley, Th. M., D.D. and available on the internet at  http://www.fbinstitute.com/engbible/7.html..

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