Washington, D.C, District of Columbia Mar 25, 2024 (Issuewire.com) - For decades, Christians have increasingly found themselves alienated by mainstream denominations that have drifted away from the core tenets of Christian doctrine and dogma and as a result they have been presented with stark options: become atheists or remain in theological limbo.
But according to a growing number of biblical scholars and academics they've always had another choice that until very recently had been hidden from them. In fact, it was almost erased from history. Theologians know it today as The Very First Bible, transcribed from Greek in 144 A.D., and it served as the cornerstone of faith for millions of the first Christians. Its core canon consists of The Gospel of The Lord - the revelation received by the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus and the original ten epistles: Galatians, Thessalonians (1&2), Philemon, Romans, Colossians, Philippians, Corinthians (1&2) and Laodiceans.
Aside from having only one gospel and ten books, the faithful are immediately struck by another key difference between The Very First Bible and the much larger, edited version (ballooning to four gospels and 73 books) created by the Catholic Church hundreds of years later and released in 382 A.D. - that difference being no 'Old Testament' and alien religion stapled to the front of the Christian bible. For the Pre-Nicene Christians these were the golden years when the faithful had their own religion, their own God (as revealed to us only by Jesus Christ) and their own bible. But that all changed following the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. when a damnatio memoriae was issued by Roman Emperor Constantine to have all copies of The Very First Bible hunted down and destroyed. And the Pre-Nicene churches using the bible, like the Marcionite Christian Church, were ordered to disband under penalty of death or exile.
Fortunately, some copies did survive. And thanks to the efforts of the Pre-Nicene Christian Ecclesia (PCE), the governing group tasked with raising awareness of the true roots of Christianity, lapsed Christians and atheists alike are reconnecting with the Pre-Nicene faith and The Very First Bible. "You might say they're reading the bible again for the first time," says Bishop Andrew Theophilus of the Marcionite Christian Church based in Greece. "Stapling two different religions together as was done with the Tanakh/Old Testament and the edited Christian canon only serves to create a confusing bible. And that confusion is one of the reasons so many have left mainstream denominations," explained Bishop Theophilus.
Darren Kelama, Outreach Director for the PCE and host of the Pre-Nicene Perspective radio and television shows, agrees. "We seem to have reached a point where a blinding veil has been removed from Christians and it's becoming increasingly obvious to them that 'Yahweh' and his barbaric antics as described in the Old Testament have nothing to do with Jesus Christ," says Kelama. "It's like trying to blend oil and water. When people are called to Jesus and salvation they never asked for the theological equivalent of Charles Manson with a real estate license to be made part of the package."
As part of their outreach mission, PCE is delivering copies of the The Very First Bible and its accompanying liturgical guide (Mass, Baptism & Prayers of the First Christians) for free in ebook and PDF formats. PCE has also assisted the Marcionite Christian Church in translating the first bible into Spanish, French and Portuguese. Priests and pastors looking to reconnect their congregations back to original Christian canon are urged to contact the Pre-Nicene Christian Ecclesia for assistance.
Media Contact
Darren Kelama, Outreach Director *****@marcionitechurch.org http://marcionitechurch.org
