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“The history of life is well condensed in these immortal postulates: ‘There are seven hills
on which the holy city shall be built; there are seven sure foundation stones on which the
universal church shall stand.’ The words I speak are not my own; they are the words of
him whose will I do.”
“And from men of low estate I will select twelve men, who represent twelve immortal
thoughts, and these will be the model of the church. And when a better age shall come,
the universal church will stand upon the seven postulates. And in the name of God, our
Father God, the kingdom of the soul shall be established on the seven hills. And all the
peoples, tribes, and tongues of the earth shall enter in. The prince of peace will take his
seat upon the throne of power; the triune God will then be All in All.”
He returned to Palestine when he was 29 years old, and the remainder of the narrative pretty
much parallels the New Testament, except that the Jewish priests and elders are portrayed as
supporting him, and Pilate is the one working behind the scenes to bring about his death. The
text then ends with the persecution of his followers, and the disciples being sent forth to preach.
According to tradition, Issa died when he was 125 years old.
In 367, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria made a list of writings which were to become what
we now know as the New Testament. His selections were ratified by the Church Council of
Hippo in 393, and again four years later, by the Council of Carthage. Therefore certain ‘books’
were left out, and were ‘lost’ even though some may have been historically accurate. One of the
primary duties of the Church fathers between the 7th and 12th centuries was to obtain
manuscripts from collections in Eastern countries, which contained information that differed
from the version accepted and taught by the Church. These original documents may still be in the
Vatican archives.
The first mention of the resurrection of Jesus appears in 1 Corinthians 15:3- 8, because it is
believed that this was actually written about ten years before Mark was written. Therefore the
stories concerning the resurrection of Jesus were unknown to Paul. In 1 Corinthians 9:1, Paul
says: “...have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” yet there is no historical reference that he knew
Jesus. The word “seen” was translated from the Greek word ‘ophthe,’ which means to have one’s
eyes opened to realms beyond this physical world, which refers to visions. It is the same verb
which is used by Isaiah (Isa. 6:1) when he said: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne...” It was
also used in Luke 24:34 to say that Jesus “appeared to Simon” and in the Book of Acts to
describe the resurrection. Paul never spoke of a physical resurrection, because in light of the
proper translation, it was only in a spiritual resurrection, where Jesus now “sitteth on the right
hand of God.” (Col. 3:10)
Nearly a hundred “gospels” appeared during the first three centuries, and to preserve
continuity and protect the new Christian religion, the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John were chosen. Despite some gaps and contradictions, they were very similar. These books
were not written during Jesus’ lifetime, but date from a time of major revolution in Judea, 66-74
and 132-135, and the earlier writings that they had been based upon have since been lost.
The argument has been made, that though some apocryphal gospels are derived from some
sects that are doctrinely different from Christianity, their appearance, some in the early 2nd
century, suggest that they were closer to the actual events than the four gospels, and possibly
more historically accurate.