Douglas - Introduction

A RESPONSE TO CLAYTON DOUGLAS’ ANTI-PAUL ARTICLES, PUBLISHED IN HIS FREE AMERICAN NEWSMAGAZINE 

This past summer while Clifton was preparing the Open Letter in Response to H. Graber for publication in his Watchman’s Teaching Letters (which has been reproduced above), one of his readers sent him a couple of articles found in Free American Newsmagazine, which much like the trash Graber had produced, were written to attack and discredit Paul of Tarsus. These articles were published in the December, 2003 and January, 2004 issues, and written by Clayton R. Douglas, the magazine’s publisher. For the purpose of responding to them properly, the articles shall be fully and faithfully reproduced here. First, however, I shall respond to some of the statements made by Douglas in his December, 2003 “Publisher’s Corner”, in which he prepares his readers for his subsequent Paul-bashing articles, but which I shall not fully address.

Douglas lays the foundation for his statements by criticizing the jews as a race, where surely his intentions are good, yet I don’t see much point in debating any of the jews themselves on the topic, which he describes doing. It may be less frustrating and more productive to simply beat one’s head against the proverbial wall. Christ set a good example for us in this regard, for when the Edomite-jew Herod questioned Him at length concerning many things, “He answered him nothing” (Luke 23:9). Ditto before the Edomite high priests who questioned Him (Matt. 26:62-63, Mark 14:60-61). Why argue with the jews concerning good and evil? How could they, being evil, say anything good (Matt. 12:34)? Douglas goes on to refer to “the fact that Judeo-Christianity is almost an oxymoron”, and he would have been correct if he had only omitted the “almost”! Ignatius, the Christian bishop who wrote circa 110 A.D. (according to Thayer) said in his Epistle to the Magnesians at 3:11 (as found in The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden): “It is absurd to name Yahshua Christ, and to Judaize. For the Christian Religion did not embrace the Jewish, but the Jewish the Christian...”. Surely Ignatius understood that the Old Testament religion of our (we Saxons and Kelts and related peoples) Hebrew fathers was nothing more or less than Christianity before Christ. Judaism is a corrupted version of the Old Testament laws of Moses, adopted by pretenders and charlatans claiming to be something they aren’t, as Paul explains in Romans 9 and 2 Thes. 2, chapters poorly translated by blind, judaized exegetes.

From here Douglas goes on to attack the position assumed by many mainstream sects, that the “Bible” as we have it is infallible. Again, Douglas is pretty much on target, but as we will see later, some of his reasoning is wrong. First, basically there is nothing seriously wrong with many of the Greek manuscripts handed down to us through the ages. Copyists’ errors have occurred in many places, yet the vast majority of them are minor and of little consequence. In other places in some manuscripts synonyms were substituted, often only to replace archaic words with more common ones, or because of preferred variations in regional dialect. Nearly all of these are of no consequence. In some manuscripts difficult or poorly understood sentences were altered, and sometimes this presents a problem, but nowhere are the major tenets of the true Christian faith seriously challenged when the oldest, most reliable manuscripts are followed. More dangerously, spurious additions were made in several places, especially in Mark and John but many smaller ones in Luke, John’s epistles, and elsewhere, many of which made it into the King James Version and persist in more modern versions. Yet because many old manuscripts do not have most of these additions, and more so because archaeologists have more recently discovered many ancient papyri dating from the second through the fifth centuries to which we can compare our copies of ancient manuscripts, the errors and additions made in the texts can be detected, for the most part, and can be corrected or removed. The most glaring, and the lengthiest, examples of such spurious additions to the New Testament texts are found at Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11.

Yet for one who studies at length and in depth, it is fully evident that the consistency of the Word and the revelation of its prophecies are the best signs we have that – while not today found as perfect as in its original form – the books of the Bible (excluding Esther) surely were the inspired Word of Yahweh our God when they were written. Our biggest obstacle to understanding them is translation, and that all of the popular and published New Testament translations have been very poorly done, or at least contain a large quantity of serious errors, is highly demonstrable. And it is not only vague and subjective matters of exegesis (interpretation) that I would contend over, but also many issues of vocabulary and grammar, things which aren’t so fuzzily subjective.

To his credit, Douglas states that “While I believe that the Bible is a valuable, historically accurate document, as accurate as is possible for something done by the hand of man, it is not, for me, the end all and be all it is to mind-molded Christians.” This, if by ‘Bible’ he intends the modern published editions, certainly is true. Yet the greater truths of the Christian faith surely can be revealed through a proper and thorough study of our ancient manuscripts together with history, prophecy, archaeology and language.

Yet Douglas fails where further on he states, “There have been numerous translations, from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to Hebrew and finally to English and back again.” The jews of today contend that Aramaic was the primary language of Judaea, and that the N.T. books – at least many of them – were somehow originally written in Aramaic.” Both of these contentions are false. While it is apparent that most, if not nearly all, of the Judaeans of the Roman period were bilingual, Greek was the primary language for many, if not for the majority. The inscriptions of the period demonstrate this fully, and even the coins of Herod bore only Greek inscriptions, and even synagogues bore Greek inscriptions where corresponding Aramaic or Hebrew ones are not found (See Biblical Archaeology Review, July-August 2003 pp. 25 and 36). The consistency of all early Greek mss., and the internal textual evidence show that they were all, even Matthew, John, and Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews, originally written in Greek. The provenance of the earliest Aramaic (or “Syriac”) manuscripts known shows that they were translated from Greek into Aramaic, contrary to the claims of today’s jews. For brief discussions of this see the introduction to the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th edition (hereinafter simply the NA27), on pages 65-68. Aside from all of this, most of the Old Testament quotes found in the four Gospels and in Paul were taken from the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), and not from any Hebrew or Aramaic version. Although some quotes do more closely resemble translations from those versions, these are but few. The bottom line is that the entire New Testament was originally written in Greek, and our most ancient manuscripts and papyri, while not perfect, must be awfully close to the original accounts.

Then Douglas fails again where he says of the Bible “It has been edited, with many books left out, those writings in Thomas and Enoch banned from the sight of the masses ...” and goes on to criticize the King James Version. First, not all of the apocryphal or pseudepigraphal books (books which were for one reason or another omitted from the accepted canon at the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century) are worthy of equal credit. Each must be evaluated separately, and it certainly would be wise to do so before criticizing or promoting any of them! While the book commonly known as 1 Enoch contains text which is quoted at length by Jude, alluded to with certainty by Peter, and is quoted or alluded to often elsewhere in the New Testament (for which see the NA27 appendix Loci Citati Vel Allegati, pp. 804-805), it certainly seems that the lost Greek version (or perhaps a Hebrew version), of which some fragments still exist, should have been considered canonical. Yet I would not rely upon or promote with confidence the version from the Ethiopic which we have today, although versions of Enoch which may be more reliable were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But the so-called “Gospel of Thomas”, along with certain other documents discovered at Nag Hammadi, is nothing but one of those forgeries perpetrated in order to corrupt Christianity by the jewish sect of the Gnostics who were originally based at Alexandria. Failing miserably in the second and third centuries, the Gnostics have had much more success deceiving people today. And clowns such as the novelist Dan Brown have reaped millions by capitalizing on such deception, perpetuating ancient blasphemies.

Yet good or bad, none of these books were ever “banned from the sight of the masses”! Rather, as also happened to a good many valuable history books, once interest was lost in a book, for whatever reason, scribes simply stopped copying them. Because paper decays, books that fell out of popular favor (in other words, lost commercial viability) or which the organized church was not particularly interested in, simply and gradually vanished. While the King James Version originally contained 14 apocryphal books (not all of them deserving of merit) which were later removed and published only separately, the compilers of that version were certainly not responsible for errors made in the 4th century, at Nicaea, 1200 years beforehand.

Douglas also states: “I, personally, have never felt the need or the desire to attend church. Something about the people there struck me as hypocritical and judgmental. Nor I am [sic] a dedicated Bible scholar. I believe that a true knowledge of God is available for EVERYONE, from within, not from tangled, mangled teachings of various sects.”

Now first, for one who isn’t a “dedicated Bible scholar”, and for one who obviously isn’t a very good amateur historian, since he has events of the 4th century (decisions made at the Council of Nicaea) and the 17th century (publication of the King James Bible) confounded, Douglas surely goes out on a limb, because he is about to spend nearly 13 pages of his publication slamming Paul of Tarsus with all sorts of false accusations, amidst many other poorly conceived ideas and inaccurate statements. Now what sort of man would, as Douglas clearly does, announce an ignorance of something, and something so important as the Bible, and then spend so much time tearing apart large parts of it with such strong criticisms? If your thoughts contain something like “Only an idiot!”, then they are much like my own. Of course there are many subjects and events which I would have to profess an ignorance of, or have only a surface knowledge concerning. I dare not write about any of them, and especially with scathing criticism of the parties involved.

Yet Douglas is guilty of a far greater error, for he criticizes the development of Christianity, and goes on to say that he believes “EVERYONE” (his own emphasis) has available to them a “true knowledge of God”. Is such a statement true? Certainly Not! And it shows that Douglas is no true Christian, whether or not he claims to be. A Catholic, a Baptist, a Methodist or a Hindu may make such a statement, but no true Christian can.

Why did Christ speak in parables? To exclude certain people from obtaining a “true knowledge of God”! It is also quite evident that:

• There are people on this earth whom Christ does not know, regardless of whether or not those people claim to believe Him (i.e. Matt. 25:12, Luke 13:24-28).
• He came only for the “lost sheep” (Ezekiel chapter 34, Jeremiah chapter 50) of the “house” (i.e., “family”, Amos 3:2) of Israel (i.e. Matt. 10:6; 15:24; Luke 1:33, 54-55, 68-80).

No man may know Yahweh, God the Father, unless the Son (Yahshua Christ) allows it (i.e. Matt. 11:27, Luke 10:22). Paul certainly knew this, for at Hebrews 1:6, speaking of Christ, he quoted the Septuagint version of Deut. 32:43 (which is supported over the Masoretic Text by the Dead Sea Scrolls), of which the Greek says “All the messengers of God must worship Him.” So much for the false messengers of Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and all of the other pagan and godless cults!

The “sheep” are nations, as explained at Matt. 25:32 (where the word is §2<@l, in plural “ethnicities”), a parable consistent with that found at Matt. 13:47-50, where the “good” kind of fish (“kind” meaning “race”, γένος) are saved, and all the “bad” kinds destroyed. As Abraham was promised, his descendants became many nations, yet are all the same race. As Christ professes, no one may know Yahweh our God except through Him, and He admits only the sheep! See John chapters 10, 5:17-47, and 6:31-58. Those “goats” and “wolves” have no hope to see Yahweh, and face only eternal destruction.

So how can Douglas claim that EVERYONE may know God? If Douglas claims to be a Christian, and as Paul instructs us a Christian is one who consents to “wholesome words: the words of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:3 paraphrased A.V.), he’d better stop and consider these things. With certainty both Christ, and Paul, taught that NOT everyone could be a Christian. Yet if Douglas would purport not to be a Christian, then he’s at fault to a greater degree, attacking something that he not only lacks expertise in, but denies having any part of!

It is universalistic thinking such as Douglas’ that has allowed our Saxon nations to be infiltrated by jews and overrun with heathen aliens in the first place. Douglas should consider this also, and perhaps spend more of his time studying something that Paul of Tarsus very well knew: that the identity of the “sheep” nations descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, wrongly called “Gentiles” by all modern Judaized theologians and Bible translators, is certainly none but the true white Saxon, Keltic and related peoples of today!

This error alone, meaning Douglas’ universalism, should be enough to demonstrate that Douglas is not qualified to say much of anything concerning either the ancient history of our “Caucasian” race, or of Christianity and the Bible. Yet I shall complete a full critique of Douglas’ remarks concerning Paul of Tarsus, not merely because Douglas made them, but because like Graber, Douglas’ remarks represent a great part of the trash “scholarship” and blatant misconception being used in an attempt to further soil Christianity today, and little of it is new, but has now been echoed by jews and Christ-haters for over 1900 years! And like Graber, it may also be evident that the primary sources for the trash Douglas spews here are indeed jewish. Anti-Paulism is a jewish conception. And if they succeed in getting Christians to disregard Paul, then Luke and Mark shall follow immediately, and then they’ll set their sights on John! Certain jews have already begun campaigning against John. In the same manner, jewish Gnostics in the second century took Matthew’s gospel and shredded it, called it the “gospel of the Hebrews”, and disregarded the rest of what we call the New Testament. To that they began to add their forgeries and fairy tales, such as “Thomas” and “Mary Magdalene.” Graber and Douglas follow in their footsteps!

Douglas’ “Publisher’s Corner” goes on to make many blanket criticisms of Paul, calling him “forerunner to the Zionists we deal with today”, which is an absolute lie, and connecting him to the Catholic “church”, another lie. These and other fallacies shall be addressed later on when Douglas’ articles are addressed. But first, one last thing here I shall discuss. Douglas quotes a lengthy criticism of Friedrich Nietzsche concerning, and criticizing, Paul of Tarsus. Now it is likely that Nietzsche was a man of some intelligence, but he was also a critic of Christianity in general. He was also a critic of nationalism. I consider nationalism, true nationalism which is based upon ethnic (not geographic) identity, to be the political expression of one of those laws which Yahshua our God has written on our hearts: that we were to be a separate people, and not commit adultery. Yet his most famous and well-remembered quote is this bit of blasphemy: “God is dead.” No wonder the anti-Paulist jews love him. Jews too, are enemies of Christ, of Yahweh, of Paul, and of Nationalism! No wonder too, that Nietzsche ended up in an insane asylum in 1889, at the age of 45. I would not consider such a man to be a valid authority on Christianity at all. Where he claims that Paul was “the first Christian”, he denies not only Christ, but all of the prophets! These are the sorts of men whom the anti-Paulists always seem to follow. And how many they manage to deceive! What follows shall be a reproduction and criticism of Douglas’ articles written against Paul of Tarsus. To avoid confusion, all of Douglas’ original text shall appear in italics and all of the responses in normal type.