The Epistle of Galatians is one of the genuine letters of St Paul in the Christian Bible, written within Paul's lifetime. It describes his conversion to Christianity (via a vision), and how he didn't actually go meet the disciples in Jerusalem for 3 years after. It's main message is that you don't have to be a Jew to convert to Christianity. Here's ( Read more... )

The Old Testament book of Micah, from the 8th century BCE, called for a popular revolt against the rich and powerful in Jerusalem and Samaria, who were abusing the poor. The original text, over a few hundred years, had various editors add comments, including the final 2 chapters. Christians took some of the concepts and used them as prophecies of ( Read more... )

A new page! Christian organisations have opposed christmas more than any other group, over the centuries - here are some of the most signficant such events, and some of their arguments as to why they don't support the Christian re-imagining of the ancient pagan midwinter festival. "Christians Against Christmas" by Vexen Crabtree
The contents menu is ( Read more... )

I've shortened the introduction to the Book of Job and added a section on dating & authorship. The contents menu of The Book of Job is now:

1. Authorship and Structure
2. God Testing People in The Bible
3. God as the Author of Evil: Are Satan and God Interchangeable?
4. The 42 chapters of Job (1070 verses)
   1. Job 1 (22 verses) - Job was blameless. The LORD allowed ( Read more... )

A new page! Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah together make for a very unhappy period, although many of the stories told are not truly historical.

Here's the contents of the page "The Bible's History Books Covering 1100-950 BCE".

( Read more... )

A new page! "The Nasorean Mandaeans / Sabians (1st Century BCE+)"The Nasoreans were founded in the 1st century BCE as followers of John the Baptist, speaking Aramaic. They are often called Mandaeans. In Muslim countries, they are called Sabians, where they have been heavily and violently persecuted. The largest communities are 10,000 - 20,000 in ( Read more... )

Hosea explains that the reason he had sex with and married a licentious woman is because God told him to, also, God is going to punish everyone. On: http://www.humanreligions.info/hosea.html.

Oppressed heavily by the Catholic Church, the Cathari, or Albigenses, preached a humble Christianity without accepting Christian power, abuses or politics. "The Cathars / Albigenses (12th-15th Century Christianity)"
The contents menu is:

1. From Bulgaria to Italy, France and Belgium
2. Beliefs Stemming from 2nd Century Christianity
3. Violently Oppressed by the ( Read more... )

New page - "The 'Wisdom' Books of the Bible: Click for a short summary of Job, Psalms, Prayer of Manasseh, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach).

"Christianity in the UK: The Newest Minority Religion"From 1900 to 2020, UK membership of Christian churches fell from 33% to 9%. Although many Christians are not formal members, between 1989 and 2005, one third of all Christians in England stopped going to church on Sundays, leaving only 6% of the total population doing so. A 2007 poll found that ( Read more... )