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Bible is a Lie and Other Lies: Responding to Nick Zei Arguments Against Revelation | YBT015 CWP085
What if the prophecies that have shaped millennia were not divine mandates but tools for control? Here we respond to and refute popular Instagram "Spiritualist" Nick Zei @Nick.Zei. We Explore this provocative question as we unravel the relationship between the Book of Revelation and historical narratives, challenging the notion that these prophecies were fabricated to manipulate and dominate. We delve into the misconceptions surrounding biblical narratives, especially those about Jesus and early Christianity, while drawing on insights from scholars like Dan McClellan. This episode promises a critical examination of how certain beliefs have been perpetuated and questions the accuracy of widely held interpretations.
Join us as we dissect the influence of key historical figures like Saint Athanasius of Alexandria and their alleged roles in shaping the Biblical canon. We debunk myths about their authoritative power and address misunderstandings about persecution in early Christianity, revealing how exile, not execution, was often the fate of major heretics in the east. This dialogue invites you to reconsider the narratives you've accepted and encourages a nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics between early Christianity and other religious traditions. Whether you're a scholar, skeptic, or seeker, this discussion is poised to enlighten and challenge your views on prophecy, history, and belief.
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Journey to Orthodoxy requested that somebody refute this nonsense. Here goes.
Speaker 2:Most important truths, hidden in plain sight of all time. Watch this. This prophecy is how they enslave us, how they dominate. Why is this important? Well, the harsh truth that nobody wants to talk about, but I will Is it exactly what they're doing with the book of Revelation in the Bible. You see, they created the prophecy.
Speaker 1:They created. He keeps saying that Pay attention to that, who's they? He never actually defines who that is To play it out and enslave you through it.
Speaker 2:Why? So that they can create that timeline in this reality through your belief. How could they do that? I'll show you, watch this. But it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1:It. Do that. I'll show you Watch this, but it hasn't happened yet. Actually it has happened. I love how he plays clips from modern Hollywood movies as if it's pointing to some, you know, esoteric, deep state notion of Christian eschatology. It's absolutely asinine you just haven't accepted it.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't accept it. Well, I don't accept it. You see, that?
Speaker 1:Did you see that, David? I know that you saw that. Have you read a modern Hollywood script? Do you really think that Hollywood?
Speaker 2:script writers are sophisticated enough or interested in prophecy fulfillment. It is taking a possible future and making it, Amplifying it, transmitting it like a feedback loop. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy and it's called mass indoctrination.
Speaker 1:How convenient that he's immune to this mass indoctrination.
Speaker 2:We fell for it over time because think about it there was no internet, there was no access to other religious traditions easily.
Speaker 1:No internet, so no access to other religious traditions. Is he serious? The conflict and friction between the nascent but growing Christianity against the Greek paganism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, other forms of Judaism is rampant throughout the time period and is well documented across the known world at the time.
Speaker 2:And remember certain narratives about the Bible and Jesus were pushed so hard that either you believed in it or they persecuted you.
Speaker 1:Literally the exact opposite of what he's saying is true. For the first two centuries, 200 years of Christian Church, they were persecuted for their faith. They weren't killing people who didn't agree with them.
Speaker 2:They were being killed for living and practicing their faith and the reality is, is that was the motivation for why Revelation even made it into the Bible originally, according to Dan McClellan, who's a scholar on the Bible and religion.
Speaker 1:I can't believe he cites Dan McClellan.
Speaker 2:Dan McClellan is a quasi-Mormon who takes very higher critical critiques of the Old and New Testaments and I would not place very much confidence at all in anything that Dan McClellan says or writes Athanasius of Alexandria used the Book of Revelation as a tool and in his Festal Letter that he wrote at the end of the 4th century CE, which became probably the single most authoritative early canon list, he finished the list off with the Book of Revelation and then, in the style of the Book of Revelation, prohibited adding to or taking away from his list.
Speaker 1:Hogwash. Athanasius had no authority to do so. He was not pope of the entire Christian church, he was a bishop of Alexandria, which was a particular region, and in that region what he said of course had some influence. But Christianity at the time had already spread into India, into Africa and all over and beyond what we knew to be the Roman Empire. To think that Athanasius alone could do such a prescription for the church is utter hogwash.
Speaker 2:And remember certain narratives about the Bible and Jesus were pushed so hard that either you believed in it or they persecuted you.
Speaker 1:Though there are rare examples of executions in the East, they were never the norm and they were never widespread. In fact, the proof of this is that all the major heretics were not executed. Rather, they were typically exiled. Neither Arius, nestorius, severus or Barlaum were executed. In fact, you have Origen himself, who later, after his death, was labeled as an anathema heretic. He in fact died because he was persecuted for his Christian faith.
Speaker 2:Logically, we have to question the validity of the entire Bible.
Speaker 1:In short, just about every single thing this guy says is utter hogwash and does not comport with ecclesiastical and scholarly church history.
Speaker 2:We know that the intent of Athanasius was not giving us the truth of Jesus' message, but rather to have his version win.
Speaker 1:Athanasius was drawing from the list that had been passed down to him. Look at Eusebius.
Speaker 2:So then, logically, we have to question the validity of the entire Bible and the books that were added into it and the books that were left out of it on purpose, such as the book of Enoch the book of Enoch is in the Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Speaker 1:I will point to one great book, the biblical Canon lists from early Christianity texts and analysis. This is from Oxford Press, highly recommend.
Speaker 2:This is a huge point, since we know that the intent was not moral of Athanasius, but from shadow.
Speaker 1:Please get away from the madness Find an Orthodox church near you today. Christianity preserved for 2,000 years.