1T3M - The First
Testament of the Third Millennium
Synopsis
The
Impact of God on Third Millennium Mankind
The old religions in a modern world
are not evolving to fit the lives of people today. Ancient cultures defined God, then Religion . . . the best they could do
2000 to 5000 years ago . . . then "locked-in" for all time their unsophisticated belief systems. It worked, more
or less, for 2000 years, but the archaic belief systems are running out of gas as mankind enters the Third Millennium,
and need to evolve if they wish to remain relevant long into the future. The relevance of old belief systems
is in doubt as mankind ventures into the Third Millennium.
How Man Envisions God
Concepts of God have been different
at different times in history, and between the various cultures throughout history. Yet there are amazing similarities between
the belief systems for cultures that were isolated by geography and never knew anything about each other as their cultures
and beliefs formed. These differences and similarities
reveal to us the evolution of our concepts of God (which takes time to develop), and also something about the source
for the concepts (something within us all that stimulates and nurtures our growing concepts of God). There is growing
speculation that our God Concept may be made possible by a ‘God Gene’ in our
DNA, or by some sophisticated development in the growing human brain.
Envisioning God in the Third Millennium
The evolving concept of God was
stimulated by observing the Creation. The information He placed all around us to trigger and stimulate the God-ready brain
to formulate an ever-growing concept of our Creator and our Source.
Is modern man beginning to recognize God's designed-in "code" for his Creation? Is it the stimulus to our
repeated efforts to create our Code for Living, in our various religions and in our community laws, our Rules
for Living? Did the spiritual God decide
to exist in physical form in His physical Creation? To experience it for some purpose known only to Him?
Are we His eyes and ears and legs as He experiences His physical Creation? Or is this physical Creation a stage, a backdrop,
for us to act on in this magnificent "production"?
Are we the ultimate form of life in this Creation, or is the code of DNA the ultimate life form while
se are simply "vehicles" for DNA to ride on as it makes it's way on the journey of life? Is this physical Creation what it was intended to become, or is it
like a soup, still cooking and yet to achieve it's full flavor?
Mimicking the Creation /Discovering the
Architecture in God's Design
As mankind matures and his designs become more and more
sophisticated, do our creations mimic the Creator's designs? In the architecture of man's designs, do we see a hint of the
architecture of God's designs? As we design artificial
intelligence, do we reveal hints of how God designed us? As science unwraps the secrets of Creation, do we come closer to
seeing our Creator? Is that part of His plan for revealing Himself to us?
Is science alien to God? Third Millennium
children of God will certainly come to the realization that science is a tool provided by the Creator for mankind to use to
better understand the Creation
The "Official Version"
People believe what they believe,
but most people may not know why it is that they believe what they believe. People have a weakness, or a soft spot, for the “official story”,
for the "official version" of events. They are not taught otherwise. If some powerful or elite or "expert" group says something is so, it seems
to sell to the public in a way that defies any logic about how people normally come to believe or reject some information.
No matter how intelligent a person might be, or how well educated otherwise, no matter how critical one appears to be when
confronted with new information, no matter how much 'sense' something may make to a person . . . if the official establishment
in the culture demands that something is so and says that "this is the official story", then that
version of the story is usually widely accepted.
The "Official Version" for Christians
There was no evidence from the time of Jesus' life to substantiate the later
claim that he walked on water (and the other "magic and miracles" in the Gospels). One can't imagine
that someone as important as Jesus, performing miracles outside the laws of the physical universe, would have no contemporary
accounts written about him. The Romans were great
record keepers. Their records detailed all the marvels they encountered in the far-flung Empire. Certainly if there was a
man in their midst who could defy the laws of the physical universe, the Romans would have a keen interest and document such
an extraordinary find. The "evidence"
of the extraordinary, super-human man-god, defying the very laws of the physical universe, only appeared
several generations after Jesus' death. The mythology of God in physical form had been widely propagated
throughout cultures for millennia. The true origins of Christianity involve borrowing from man-gods
from earlier times including Horus, Osirus, and Krishna to give us the
Jesus of Paul’s ‘vision’, he of virgin birth who could
walk on water and raise the dead, he who rose on the third day, etc. All
borrowed from the previous man-gods and not characteristics of any real Jesus . . . or Yeshua
. . . or un-named Galileans who began to reform their older belief system and were the genesis for the development
of Christianity in the following centuries in Rome. Finally the Jewish reformers and their followers and their follower’s
followers had evolved past the Old Testament and gave us the ‘old’ New Testament. Galilean
reform hijacked by pagan Rome. The "evidence"
of the super-human man-god depicted in the Gospels is the Gospels themselves.
The Gospels became the "official version" of religion in the Roman Empire, and
what followed is history as we know it. Third
Millennium Christians will come to know the Gospels as faith documents, and not as the documentaries
they were purported to be.
Who Was This Jesus?
Was there a real historic Jesus, and is the Gospels version even close to who this
man really was?
Do the Gospels depict an accurate biography of a real man and his teachings, or are the Gospels
really faith documents, each
meant
for a specific audience in pagan, gentile Rome?
If there are any suspicions about the "magic" and "miracles"
passages in the Gospels, then what confidence can one have in the
rest of the Gospels stories?
Did the Gospels
finally make real the much anticipated messiah, when in reality he never existed, or if that man
(or men) did exist
he
or they were never identified as the messiah by their peers and immediate followers?
Superstition to Mythology to Religion
The flocks of the various
religious organizations are 'taught' religion . . . THE one and only religion (the one they belong to, The One
True Religion). But they are not taught
about religion, or the evolution of religious beliefs since the dawn of man's history.
The flocks are not taught about the evolution of man's concept
of God as humans evolved over eons of time and through various
circumstances and conditions, in different regions around the world.
The flocks are not taught that the concept
of God went through a cycle of evolution that went from superstition to mythology to
Religion, with lot's of fear and idolatry
and paganism mixed in along the way, in the dynamic of the blending of cultures and
belief systems among neighboring groups. The
Evolution of Christianity in the Third Millennium
Thomas Jefferson and the Founding
Fathers fervently believed in Political Freedom and Religious Freedom for all citizens, and did their best in their
time to provide such freedoms in the Constitution and in their other writings and life’s work. The Jefferson Bible in the early 1800's, as
crude as it was, was a prediction about the future of Christianity, even if Thomas Jefferson may not have known it at the
time. Society then wasn't yet ready to understand. Jefferson only removed the "magic" and "miracles"
passages from the Gospels, as a small but growing number of educated and enlightened men of his time believed
was appropriate. But the second century religion
handed down to us in the "old" New Testament is hitting a brick wall as mankind enters the Third
Millennium. Mankind has evolved far, far beyond our ancestors of 2000 years ago, and our religion must also evolve
to fit the evolving children of God. If Christianity is to remain relevant in the Third Millennium, or even
survive, we must have a true understanding of the origins and history of Christianity. We must have Testaments from our
time, relevant to man's evolving concept of God. Third Millennium Testaments and Third Millennium
Bibles, for Third Millennium children of God. Christianity
must have an open Bible with Testaments in the Third Millennium reflecting mankind's awareness of God in
our lives as we continue to evolve.
The First Testament of the Third Millennium (1T3M)
The first Testament of a new 'open' Christian Bible. A statement of our understanding of the origins and history
of Christianity, and the history of Religion. Expressing our need to "un-filter" the 2000
years of our separation from the religious reformer who we honor with the name Christianity . . . the real Jesus (or Yeshua),
or the group of un-named men over several generations, who moved his/their followers beyond the closed doctrine of Judaism. Such religious reformers either evolve their religion, or they
may become religious separatists and move beyond the old beliefs of their long-ago ancestors. Mankind's developing concept of God was not 'complete' or 'finished' when the
first superstitions appeared, and was not yet 'complete' with the religious doctrine that existed in the early First Millennium.
The early religions are steps in the continuing evolution of
mankind's growing awareness of God, and are not intended to forever determine man's ultimate concept of God. Mankind will
continue to evolve, and so must his religion evolve with him. The evolution of religious belief systems must
include the evolution of Christianity, or Christianity may become irrelevant.
Fraternities of Men
How many religions, with their sects, groups, and sub-groups are there in the world
today at the beginning of the Third Millennium? (Hint . . . nobody knows for sure but the number is well
into the thousands). What is it that makes them "separate" groups? Is it their beliefs? Or . . . is it only
their beliefs that make them separate religious groups or sub-groups? Are they reflecting that many different gods? . . . No !! For the most part, the vast majority of all these religious
groups are talking about the same one . . . but there are certainly a number of different accounts of Him, some very subtle
differences in their accounts of Him and in their beliefs and practices and rituals. And some nuances in their reasons for
their existence as "separate" groups. Why? What
factors caused so many different groups and sub-groups worshipping the same God? In eons past, when the major religions were
formed, it may have been simply regional or cultural differences, or the geographically-induced lack of transportation and
communication that accounted for numerous separate, even if similar, groups. However, the number of different groups is accelerating very rapidly in the last one or two centuries, especially
in the Christian world. Certainly not due to the isolation of the groups because of geography or transportation or communication
issues. Some factor that is more modern has
caused the dramatic rise in the number of religious groups (certainly in the Christian world . . . Might these modern factors
also eventually affect the other religions in a similar way)?
Might it simply be the somewhat recent arrival of political freedom and religious freedom in the western societies
(where Christianity has been dominant) that caused the huge rise in the number of religious groups? Might the One God be recognized by thousands of 'free' Fraternities of Men who carved
out their slices of "flock pie" because they could do so in an environment of religious freedom? The opposite
of the self-appointed fraternities of men who ruled religion and society for millennia. Might the arrival of these fraternities of men break the "lock"
that has been imposed upon God's children by the old stagnant religious organizations (the select, self-appointed, "few"
fraternities of men who were in effect a religious cartel)?
And when that happens, might that stimulate and nurture the continued evolution of man's still developing concept of
the Creator, after that evolution was stifled for so many centuries by the self-appointed few who dominated religion in a
world without freedom? Might religious freedom require decentralization of authority, taking
it back from the religious authorities and their religious establishments that placed themselves
between God’s children and their Creator?
