The Hidden Divide: Imbedded Agendas

By Clarence F. Oakley Jr.

I agree with you on all the points you have listed. Yet, I still need the local congregation.
-anonymous

The Christian Right group of Churches have been consistently losing members for the last twenty years, and do not have an inkling of the cause. They have joined with the Republicans to try and enforce their will upon society. They have failed in the last two elections as indicated by the election of Barak Obama. This of course gives rise to speculation about the root basis for their beliefs and actions. This group of people claim allegiance to the whole Bible and claim that it is Gods Word.
Many people, in light of modern knowledge, are laughing at these old time beliefs. Our society is in need of a credible way of life. The Bible has the right answer, but it is mixed in with much misleading information that the Churches have used to control society.
The Churches have organized in such a way as to eliminate criticism. They have assumed the office of Gods representative and members can be punished for disobeying their edicts using discrimination and loss of fellowship. The Christian Right groups have refused to study and update their antiquated standards. This book is written to encourage the first step of this change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481748872

Clarence F. Oakley Jr.

I am called Frank by my friends. I attended a small Presbyterian College (Clinton, SC) in the early 1950’s, graduating in Business, Minored in Bible (mostly Old Testament). Before and after graduating I read mostly the New Testament, directing my thoughts on the influence of the Bible on politics and our citizens. I have been amazed at the failures of the Churches and politicians to address the needs of the ordinary citizens of our nation. The Churches are losing members at a consistent rate, and the Republican Party is in disarray. This book leads to a good answer.

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PART 1

A NEW BEGINNING

There is much confusion among Church members because most have not really read the Bible with understanding. Some say that it is too complicated or too deep for them to study. Most appear to think that it is just easier to attend Church and study their Church lessons. It would not even occur to most members that there may be other messages in the Bible besides the ones they have gotten in their particular Church Denomination.

First of all, most of us know that the Bible is divided into two sections: The Old Testament and The New Testament. This is what has confused most Christians. Most people will think that since both Testaments are in the same book that both are equal and viable. The Testaments are different, different times, different people, and different views of God. Some Christian Denominations use the King James edition of the Bible that uses the English Language as it was in the Elizabethan time of history (around 1600 AD). This confuses many people and discourages them from reading the Bible.

The basic element of the Jewish worship revolved around the Temple. The Temple was a lavish structure and was a place of worship for the people. The central part of the temple was the Tabernacle where only Jews could enter. The women were segregated from the men in the first section. Jewish males could enter. There was a general section for the priest. Then the Holy of Holies that contained the Ark of the Covenant (a gold trimmed box about 50 inches by 30 inches by 30 inches deep) that was supposed to be the dwelling place of their god. Only the main priest could enter the Most Holiest Place once a year and plead for the sins of the people. Any person touching the Ark of the Covenant would be killed (the Bible implies that their god would do the killing).

The Holy of Holies, where their god dwelled, was separated from the rest of Tabernacle by a Curtain (veil) decorated with angels (cherubim). This veil was to keep anyone except the High Priest from entering the presence of God. At the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, the veil was torn apart by some mysterious force to indicate that anyone could enter the presence of God, and negated the Old Testament law of the temple. The Jews refused to accept this message and continued their same Fundamental Way.

The rituals of this worship program were strictly enforced and extreme measures were used to ensure obedience. The Jews were and are a close knit clan. They as individuals have accepted the ways that have been imbedded on their minds and hearts for thousands of years. Each person has learned to live under the system and have accepted it as their rule for life. They believe their scriptures to be the word of their god and most of them tolerate the laws that have been levied on them. They were and are extremely Fundamental, believing their lives must be governed by their scriptures only. They cannot recognize the Holy Spirit because of their belief in scriptures (the Old Testament).

Their Scriptures go to great measures explaining the method of the Sacrificial System that was carried on by the Temple Priest. There was a Burnt Offering Alter in the temple to sacrifice animals to god. The animals had to be the most prime of the people’s flocks or herds. The sacrificial method was firmly ingrained on the people’s minds. Due to the Christian Church leaders belief that the Old Testament is linked to the New Testament, they brought forth the erroneous belief that Jesus was a Sacrifice for God.

I was attending the Presbyterian College in 1951, and took the following passage from their Bible Dictionary. It indicates that the Jewish Temple veil still separates God from their Lay people. Of course, the passage is in Old English that is hard to understand. This passage directly contradicts the New Testament because it omits the last part of the verse. The last part states: which veil is done away with in Christ. This is one of the ways that people are mislead concerning the correct interpretation of the Bible.

"Old Testament is the first of the two portions into which the Bible is naturally divided. The title was borrowed from the Apostle Paul, who in 11 Corinthians 3:14, says: For until this day remained the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away with in Christ was not printed in their Bible Dictionary. They used a part verse to prove a deception.

Vail seems to be the Elizabethan spelling for veil. The veil here is referring to the veil (curtain) that separated the Holy of Holies, or the place where God was dwelling, from any person other than the High Priest. The person that wrote this was implying that only the priest, preacher, or minister could legitimately pray directly to God in our present time frame. Maybe this is the reason that many people request the preacher or minister of the Church to pray for them instead of praying themselves. Lies and half truths cannot be the basis for our religion.

The Old Testament was and is the overall foundation of the Jewish religion and contains thousands of Jewish Laws. The Priests were experts on the Old Testament and were very protective of their religion because it was a means of controlling the population of that time. They were enraged when Jesus appeared and threatened everything they had been masters of for thousands of years, and fought tooth and nail to retain their power.

The Old Testament is a history of Israel and Jewish beliefs based on the traditions of Israel. The message of the Old Testament is that of a retributive God, a God who will punish a person for their sins in their present life. This results in people themselves acting in a retributive manner, getting even with someone that hurts you. Some of the Old Testament stories are really gruesome, and should not be repeated. Most Christians have been led mostly by the Old Testament stories about David and other characters of the Old Testament. It all results in a message that is contrary to the New Testament. Such as:

We believe that Muslim extremists do horrible acts. These types of acts are in the Old Testament, which is included in the Muslim belief, and also claimed to be the will of their god by the Christians who claim the whole Bible is the word of god. Ignorance of the true meaning of the whole Bible belief does God exempt people from their liability and damage to the human race. The following is a story that exemplifies these abominable beliefs.

1SAMUEL 15:2: Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.

1SAMUEL 15:3: ‘Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’

1SAMUEL 15:8: And he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

1SAMUEL 15:9: But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

1SAMUEL 15:11: I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not carried out My commands. And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night.

The Muslims are against anyone who does not believe as they do. They believe that God approves of the terrorism that is carried on in the name of the God that is portrayed in the Old Testament.

Another instance of a belief that is based solely on the Old Testament is the Tithe. The Christian Churches have claimed that each Christian should give one tenth of their earnings to the Church. The origin of this demand should enlighten Christians of the deception that has been a burden to them for thousands of years. This is another story that has been used deceptively to be a basis for the tithe.

Abraham was called Abram when he lived in Ur. His brother Lot was taken captive by pagan kings, so Abram took his army and went after him. He was successful in defeating the enemies and recovered Lot along with the wealth and people of the enemy. The Bible states that he encountered Melchizedek, a high priest of their god, who demanded one tenth of Abram’s spoils of war. Abram gave a tenth of the spoils of war, not a tenth of his legitimate earnings. This was called a tithe, and has been misinterpreted to mean that all Christians should give a tithe of one tenth of their earnings to the Church.

GENESIS 14:12: And they also took Lot, Abram’s nephew, and his possessions and departed, for he was living in Sodom.

GENESIS 14:14: And when Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

GENESIS 14:16: And he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people.

GENESIS 14:18: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.

GENESIS 14:19: And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;

GENESIS 14:20: And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tenth of all.

Churches have collected billions of dollars from their members, and as Thomas Jefferson said, things have not changed much in the Christian era. The Church Organizations all seek to rule our nation by Bible rule that puts us in danger of regressing to Old Testament beliefs.

Early Christian leaders misinterpreted the Bible for their own benefit by setting the basis of the Church on the Trinity and the Old Testament. This system has been taught for over seventeen hundred years by all the Churches and is now resulting in the failure of the Christian Church. This illegitimate belief system must be changed to the Words of Jesus to be reconcilable with God our Father. The Church must be reorganized to stand forever.

Scholars believe that the present has to evolve from the past, resulting in their mistaken view that the Old Testament and even some pagan religious beliefs are a viable source for ministry.

Most services at Churches, when reading their Scriptures, will read first from the Old Testament then from the New Testament indicating that they believe the whole Bible is God’s Word. Their belief is not founded on the Bible but on Scholarly studies in Universities. They use misguided reasoning to convince their students that many of their wrong beliefs are true. They use enough truth to make their statements seem plausible, but use oblique (or indirect) falsehoods to misguide their students.

The third chapter of Second Corinthians contains a complete explanation of the sins of the Old Testament. Why would the modern Judeo-Christian Church deny the validity of God’s words?

At one time in their history, Presbyterians indicated that the New Testament (Gospel) surpassed the Old Testament (Law) and was a new religion, just as Jesus said it should be. Over a period of time they deemed it necessary to include the Old Testament (Jewish history) as being equal to the Gospel. Beginning about 300 years ago, Harvard University began teaching the combined religion (Jewish intertwined with the New Gospel). It seems that all Universities, Colleges, and Seminaries have formed an impenetrable wall to ostracize anyone that would deny their views. They have been very effective, because they have become all powerful in Scripture, money, and politics.

The book of Matthew, in the Bible, begins with a genealogy of Jewish ancestors. This is hard to explain because Paul stated that we should not pay attention to genealogies. I would venture to say that since the Catholic Church had control of the Scriptures for hundreds of years, that these genealogies were added by their scribes to prove that the New Testament legitimately followed the Old Testament. It was very important to the Church that the Old Scriptures be tied to the Gospel, because the Church was based on Law, the same as in the Old Testament. This is a plausible explanation because the end result of their Church beliefs of today indicates someone manipulated the Scripture. The New Testament is based on the teachings of Jesus and demands to be separate from the Old Scriptures.

The New Testament is about the life and words of Jesus and Paul of Tarsus. Their messages are different and of a more peaceful nature. Jesus said:

1CORINTHIANS 13:4: Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

1CORINTHIANS 13:5: does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

1CORINTHIANS 13:6: does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

1CORINTHIANS 13:7: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1CORINTHIANS 13:13: But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Jesus came with a New Covenant or a new message. His message to everyone was: the old Jewish Way was not what God wanted. The Jews vehemently resisted and had Jesus killed. They tried to abort God’s message that Jesus brought to them. They continued under the Law in their Old Testament (Scripture).

Jesus did not claim to be perfect, and Paul likewise writes about the trouble he had in following God’s instructions. Jesus and Paul both were highly educated in Jewish religion and history. Neither could change the thinking of their people, yet both have given enough knowledge to greatly affect the world’s populations in a very effective way. They opened the thought process to a Godly lifestyle for all people. They told about the Holy Spirit that can enlighten everyone that will believe and plug in their spiritual telephone line. Jesus and Paul brought the world enough knowledge of God to accomplish truth and peace.

The words in the Bible are confusing. It is a matter of defining God and what He desires of humans. Jesus was ordered killed by the Jewish leaders, and Paul of Tarsus was hounded by the Jews for telling about Jesus and his New Covenant. The confusion that has resulted is that the Judeo Christians cannot understand that the Holy Spirit can indwell in a person and protect them from evil thoughts. After a person has accepted God the Father, and the words of Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in them and guides them through their heart and conscience. This is a direct powerful spiritual connection that will abide with the Christian and guide them through their daily lives. Secular people, or unreligious people, can see the difference in the new Christian’s life, but cannot understand it unless they become a true Christian living by the Gospel themselves.

The power to resist evil is not entirely free. The connection with the Holy Spirit must not be abused; forgiveness comes, but God really knows what is in a person’s heart and mind. Pretending and play-like will not work. It takes a dedicated, heart-felt effort in a person’s daily life. The change makes it all worthwhile, with it a person’s values, credibility and character will improve dramatically; so much so, that people that knew the old person will readily see the big improvement.

THE OLD TESTAMENT VS THE NEW TESTAMENT

The Bible is a collection of books that are believed to be relevant to humanity as a moral guide. Some believe that God himself is author of the books, and these claim that the Bible is infallible. Most people of Christendom believe that the Bible is sacred, so much so, that they will resist anyone that attempts to critically evaluate any part of it, even though there are parts, especially in the Old Testament, that stand out as very improbable, and some that defy moral rationality. Churches put extreme pressure on anyone that would question their views and interpretations of the Bible, and yet it seems that all Denominations claim that their doctrines are the way to heaven.

All the Churches claim the Bible as the Canon Law, as set by church leaders in about 300 AD. There were many manuscripts written by different people in different countries. Some were excluded from the established Bible