Art Bulla: Roman Catholic Apologist

[RetroProphet]

>>>> Re: A Letter Written by Jesus to Abgar,
>>>> Prince of the Edessences
>>>>
>>>> The Abgar-Jesus Legend is generally seen as being
>>>> propaganda accompanying the earliest conversion of a king
>>>> to Christianity, Abgar VIII of Edessa, circa 180 AD, which
>>>> is a genuinely historical event.
>>>>
>>>> According to the Legend, Jesus corresponded with Abgar V,
>>>> who ruled Edessa from 4BC-7AD and again 13-50AD.
>>>>
>>>> It is not unusual to find efforts made to strengthen
>>>> new establishments of Christianity with concocted evidence
>>>> of earlier wondrous events, for the purpose of generating
>>>> excitement and legitimacy for the new religion.
>>>>
>>>> It is interesting to note that despite Abgar V's supposed
>>>> devotion to Christ, and the fact that he reigned perhaps
>>>> 15 years after his miracle cure by Thaddeus, the coins
>>>> minted during his reign featured symbols associated
>>>> with Baal-worship.
>>>>
>>>> The first Christian crosses appear on the coinage of
>>>> Abgar VIII, 130 years later; he also took the name
>>>> Lucius Aelius Septimius Megas Abgar, honoring his
>>>> Roman masters. Give unto Caesar...
>>>>
>>>> As for the earliest extant versions of the legend, the
>>>> following will shed some light:
>>>>
>>>> ===
>>>> The Abgar Legend between East and West:
>>>> the First Christian Kingdom or the
>>>> Apostolic Origin of the Church
>>>> http://www.consulex.hu/ms/events/workshops/2002rulership21.html
>>>> -----
>>>> EXCERPT
>>>> ---
>>>> "The extant most archaic forms of the Legend are the
>>>> excerpts from the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius
>>>> in Greek (end of the 4th century), and the Doctrina Addai
>>>> in Syriac (the dating of the latter is not clear; various
>>>> authors have estimated it differently - from the second half
>>>> of the fourth century to the middle of the sixth century).
>>>>
>>>> Some scholars suppose that the Legend reflects a real
>>>> situation, which took place at the beginning of the
>>>> Christian era in Syria and Mesopotamia and was connected
>>>> with the activities of the Jewish-Christian communities
>>>> in Adiabene and Osrhoene. Currently, most scholars assume
>>>> that the Legend witnesses the history of Mesopotamia in
>>>> the third century, during the reign of King Abgar VIII
>>>> bar Manu (AD 177-212). Shortly after that period Osrhoene
>>>> lost its independence and was incorporated into the
>>>> Roman Empire. As it seems, the adoption of the new
>>>> religion was the only way for the ruler of that country
>>>> to oppose the increasing power of the Empire."
>>>> ===
>>>>
>>>> RetroProphet
>>>>
>>
>>>
>>>It is no legend, saith the Lord. You are a perverse liar,
>>>saith the Lord and ought to be destroyed. Your Darwinist
>>>point of view, a version of priestcraft which you practice
>>>is threatened by the truth, hence your need to pettyfog and
>>>anklebite continually like a barking dog. Depart genitle
>>>dog. Go bark among the dogs like unto you.
>>>
>>>Art Bulla
>>>
>>
>> That's it?
>>
>> No wonder you labor under under the illusion that
>> you have never lost a theological debate. You think
>> that your "saith the Lord" is sufficient to settle any point.
>>
>> Only a simpleton would accept the claims of the earliest
>> Roman Catholic propagandists at face value and completely
>> ignore the primary roles they played in the political
>> religious power plays that dominate that era of history.
>>
>> This is not something that is shrouded in mystery;
>> it is well-known and -documented history, and it is
>> merely the story of how Christianity suppressed its
>> early pluralism in favor of emergent catholic orthodoxy,
>> resolving the major conflict between two rival Christianities:
>> one Jewish in orientation, led by Simon Peter; the other Gentile,
>> led by Paul. The first kept the Jewish Law and saw Jesus as
>> a nationalistic Messiah. The second saw the Law as passé and
>> understood Jesus in an internationalized, "spiritualized" way.
>>
>> Most of the New Testament writings lined up on either side
>> of this great divide, and the rest were part of a later
>> effort to paper over the differences once the two factions
>> had buried the hatchet and merged into catholic orthodoxy.
>>
>> Considering that the very core of your own theological stance
>> is the calling into question of corrupted religious traditions,
>> the irony of your blindness to that very thing in formulating
>> your own religion is truly sublime.
>>
>> Following is the true historical context of what you believe
>> to be a genuine letter written by Jesus, explaining it for
>> what it was: one of the countless concocted propaganda tools
>> created to be utilized in the political struggle to establish
>> and legitimize the catholic orthodox brand of Christianity
>> throughout the Roman Empire.
>>
>> It is nothing more than that.
>>
>> ===
>> Excerpt from
>> Reconstructing Christian Origins
>> by Robert M. Price
>> http://tinyurl.com/3j3gz
>>
>> In several major segments of the Mediterranean world,
>> the first kind of Christianity to set up shop and hang
>> out the shingle was not what we know as catholic orthodoxy
>> at all, but rather one or another variety of so-called heresy.
>>
>> On this or that frontier of Christian expansion, "Christianity"
>> simply meant Marcionism, Ebionism, Encratism, Gnosticism.
>> The resultant picture, of course, was antipodal to the
>> traditional version of Eusebius, Constantine's apologist and
>> pet theologian, whereby "heresy" had appeared only after the
>> apostles had planted catholic orthodoxy all over the
>> Roman Empire.
>>
>> Eusebius had it that the apostles had passed on the doctrine
>> of Jesus to their handpicked successors, the bishops, who
>> handed it on to their own successors, and so on into Eusebius'
>> own time. The "heretics" he libeled as eccentrics and
>> troublemakers who cooked up perverse and baseless views,
>> leavening the lump of orthodoxy for want of anything
>> better to do.
>>
>> Walter Bauer began his demonstration of the artificiality
>> of this scenario by focusing on Edessa, a major center of
>> early Christianity in eastern Syria. He showed how the
>> Chronicle of Edessa records as events of note the births
>> or arrivals of Marcion, Bardesanes, and Mani before it ever
>> gets around to mentioning the establishment of a church
>> building by the first representative of orthodoxy.
>>
>> Eusebius himself has nothing to say of any early orthodox
>> Christianity in the area, though he cannot help mentioning
>> the early ministry of Bardesanes and the circulation there
>> of the Diatessaron of Tatian (a compilation of Matthew, Mark,
>> Luke, John, and a bit of Thomas into a single narrative),
>> which Eusebius considered heretical.
>>
>> [which is ironic considering that the other early
>> source for the Legend is the Syriac "Doctrina Addai"
>> (which is contempory with Eusebius, at best) wherein Jesus'
>> supposed reply contains paraphrases from the Gospels that
>> are actually from the Diatessaron of Tatian. The fact that
>> the Diatessarion was compiled in the late 2nd century
>> demonstrates that even if the legend predates Eusebius'
>> knowledge of it, it still could not predate the c180 A.D.
>> date of the first Edessa king to convert to Christianity,
>> as I stated in my earlier post. -RP]
>>
>> Justin Martyr and heresiologists tell us the embarrassing
>> fact that the name "Christian" in Edessa was the exclusive
>> property of the Marcionites, and that the apparently
>> late-arriving orthodox had to be satisfied with being
>> called "Palutians" after the first orthodox bishop Palut.
>> In fact, this remained the state of affairs until the
>> Muslim conquest! A note from contemporary Greater Armenia
>> makes clear that "heresy" was in the vast majority in
>> the region.
>>
>> In light of these facts, Bauer deduced that the famous
>> apocryphal correspondence between King Abgarus of Edessa
>> and Jesus (in which the king, having heard of Jewish plots
>> on Jesus' life, invites him to take refuge in Edessa) must
>> have originated as a spurious pedigree for apostolic
>> orthodoxy in Edessa dating back already to the time of
>> Jesus and his apostle Addai (Thaddaeus), whom he sent
>> to Abgarus with his "Thanks, but no thanks" reply.
>>
>> ===
>>
>> RetroProphet
>>

>
>Only a simpleton would accept the anti-Christ propangandist,
>Charles Darwin. Pinheaded nitwit.
>
>Art Bulla
>

Again, you have nothing to say on the subject at hand.

You have been forced into defending a demonstrated
fraudulent concoction of a Roman Catholic apologist,
which you offered into evidence as a thread topic,
and you have no idea how to get out of it.

You have lost this theological debate.