The Catholic Church

The Early Christians

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.DD. – December 29, 2021

Christianity cannot be told without talking about the history of the early-Jesus movement, of which James, the brother of Jesus, was actively involved. Why was Paul leading in preaching Jesus' message? He never saw the human Jesus? If someone says to you today that Jesus appeared to him/her in a vision and that he/she is annointed to preach his teachings, what would be your reaction? And there are so many of them today masquerading as the Anointed Son of God. Anyway, by their fruits you will know them. Happy New Year to one and all.

The Early Jesus Movement

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – December 28, 2020

Christianity cannot be told without talking about the history of the early-Jesus movement, of which James, the brother of Jesus, was actively involved. Why was Paul leading in preaching Jesus' message? He never saw the human Jesus? If someone says to you today that Jesus appeared to him/her in a vision and that he/she is anointed to preach his teachings, what would be your reaction? And there are so many of them.

The Unsung Role of James, the Brother of Jesus, in the History of Christianity

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – December 30, 2020

Twenty years after the execution of Jesus, James presided over a council of the movement's leaders. The issue was whether they will remain a small Jewish sect or extend themselves to the Gentiles, as the newcomer Paul who had not seen the human Jesus advocated.

Why was Paul indeed leading in preaching and teaching Jesus' message then? Why not James, who was Jesus' brother and to whom Jesus entrusted his teachings?

Jesus forewarned them himself:

"See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not go after them." ~ Luke 21:8.

The Apostles have witnessed many times Jesus rebuking the Devil who was even quoting scriptures. And you can just imagine their reactions when it comes to Paul who just came out of nowhere.

The result of the meeting was the birth of early Christianity. James sided with Paul. He declared that Christianity should not confine itself to the Jews. Christianity is not a sector of Judaism.

Since then, Christianity became universal, holistic, and cosmic. It became a movement. There can be no more dogmatism, no more authoritarianism. Christianity is for the whole world and humanity.

But James became a threat to the Jewish religious order. He was still identified with that troublemaker Jesus. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, was finally arrested and stoned to death.

After that, James became lost in the history of Christianity. Paul specialized for the Gentiles, while Peter continued preaching along the Judeo-Christian tradition and proceeded to Rome.

But there is more to Christianity than what we know today. I am reminded of the snake in the Garden of Eden and the events happening in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Emerging Christianity After the Resurrection of Jesus and the Formation of the Institutional Church in the Year 200 AD

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – January 2, 2021

This could be disturbing than relaxing to welcome the year 2021. In the year 200 AD, there were unsung zealots and heroes who fought vehemently against the newly established Church Hierarchy. They were the first rebels, agent provocateurs as revealed in the gospel of Judas.

Who were they? And why was Judas chosen as the principal character and symbol of the revolutionaries?

The gospel of Judas was only discovered in 1978 as one of the discoveries in the Qumran cave, yet it's one of the most controversial and disturbing manuscripts in the history of Christianity.

Written in hieroglyphs, it reveals a shocking side of the teachings of Jesus after the latter's death and a darker side of the Institutional Church that emerged 200 years later.

Having been raised as a Catholic, I must admit I was personally disturbed by this revelation. But this is something I must resolve within me. Meanwhile, I allowed myself to go through the very long and intense narrative, pausing every now and then for some extended moments, sometimes days, to reflect on the impact it has on me.

Even the theologians and scientists themselves are too careful in their interpretations. Others are even at a loss of what to think and say and simply shrug their shoulders or exhibit puzzling faces.

Anyway, if you want this presentation entertaining, let me quote an excerpt of a dialogue in the Netflix. I did not make any insertions so you can hear them pure directly from the horses mouth, so to say. You may judge it for yourself. After long reflection, I also expressed my reactions here towards the end.

The dialogue expresses the interpretations of the distinguished scholars who were given direct access to the manuscripts.

They include theologians, prominent authors, researchers, specialists in ancient languages, professors with doctoral degrees at various universities, authenticators, keepers, custodians, conservators, and dealers of the manuscripts, including motivated buyers like Bill Gates and motivated sellers like the forgers.

Here goes the dialogue.

A: "...The message of the gospel of Judas is not simply an account that Jesus is betrayed by Judas but that his teachings are being betrayed after his death. The authors of the gospel of Judas are angry, but they're not angry at the events that transpired between Jesus and Judas. They're angry at the church leaders in the second century."

B: "It seems that the gospel of Judas is written as a criticism of mainstream Christians who are engaged in worships that are led by bishops, or clerics of one kind or another. And the authors of this text, don't like that kind of clericalism, they don't like that kind of religious service, and they are strongly discouraging people from participating in it."

C: "The gospel of Judas is polemic. It's a political smear against the people running the early church. An apostolic and institutional church, we know now as Christianity, was emerging. The gospel of Judas was kind of a narrative against this institutional Christianity.

D: "Written decades after the New Testament gospels, the gospel of Judas is less a story about Jesus than a condemnation of the leadership of the early church. It gives us an alternate picture of the formation of Christianity."

E: "It doesn't show Christianity as developing necessarily all harmoniously. There are dissenters. There are people who felt that things had got off on the wrong track. The gospel of Judas suggests that church leadership is mistaken, is more diabolic than divine."

F: "So controversial is the gospel of Judas that in 180 AD the Bishop of Leone declares it heresy. I can easily imagine the people throwing this text out as being heretical. If you were a member of orthodoxy in the second century and read this text, I can imagine you would be pretty upset. It's a pretty scathing indictment of your beliefs and what you're all about."

G: "Suppressed by the Church, the gospel of Judas lies buried for nearly two millennia. But history does not forgive Judas or forget his fate."

Why then is it called the gospel of Judas at all?

H: "The authors of the gospel of Judas chose Judas as the leading figure in the text, because Judas was a notorious figure. He was an attention getter in antiquity, as he is today. Anyone who would choose to write a gospel of Judas was certainly making a conscious decision to pick a figure who wasn't accepted by the orthodox church."

I: "The Judas character in the gospel of Judas Is not a great deal different from Judas as we see him on the pages of the New Testament. Judas has always been a complicated character."

J: "Ambiguity around Judas and the fascination has always been there. There's no way that the gospel writers would have made up a character in Jesus's inner circle who would have betrayed Jesus. He's not just a kind of a mythical person. Judas obviously is someone who's going through a lot of conflict. He's a real person with real emotions. He's a person who had great hopes in Jesus."

K: "These hopes were dashed. He colossally overreacted and so he led the Jewish authorities to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. But that's not the end of the story."

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My reflections....

I did not post this apocryphal manuscript to convince, convert, or disturb people. If I do, it's not my intention and I'm sorry. This reflection can be discarded.

I only feel this has to be disseminated since this has not been given enough coverage in our schools and media. After all, revelation is an ongoing process. It will come to us sooner or later and will find us once we are ready, no matter where we are, even if we are hiding in a rich man's palace.

Yes, the Judas gospel is radical and revolutionary. It's a defiance to any established institutions that decides what's good or not for the people. It tends towards highlighting the people's freedom of expression that was bestowed upon them after all by the Lord of Creation.

Indeed, the teachings of Jesus is beyond any established religion and institutional churches. We were born without any religion. We inherited one when these established religions started indoctrinating us. But can these established religions also be faulted considering the kind of religion and scribes prevailing then?

It could be that the early revolutionaries were protecting Jesus' teachings. Jesus himself was considered militant and radical during his time. And many of his apostles and disciples had imbibed this radical nature in Jesus.

To see an institutional church established by people who have not seen the human Jesus at all is to them demolishing a 200-year old tradition begun by the apostles and disciples themselves.

Worse, the revolutionaries have to become members of this emerging institutional religion, called Christianity, and those who refuse had to face excommunication, condemnation to hell, arrest, incarceration, or penalty by death.

To the early Church, this is an affront to the First and Original Christian belief.

I imagine myself alive during those times and my experiences in the seminary came to my mind fresh. I was involved in a radical labor movement that led me and my fellow seminarians to the streets in our priestly garb. I could undoubtedly be one of the early revolutionaries.

The sole purpose and concern of the early revolutionaries was to preach the message of Jesus in its purest form, undiluted by any authorities who, by their desire to rule the world and tame their followers, freely issues decrees and pronouncements that decide the fate of its followers.

The gospel of Judas could have given us another form and picture of what Christianity would be today but it's growth got stunted. Somebody nipped its bud before it could flourish and blossom into a lovely rose.

This is the path I've been personally taking, distilling Jesus' teachings of its human impurities, separating the remaining loose chaff from the grain, as they say. But does this mean I am abandoning my Christian faith. By no means. In fact, as I journey into the unknown horizon, my understanding about the teachings of Jesus has been tremendously enriched.

But I still have a long way to go and I have no assurance of what the final outcome of my journey would be. Along the way, however, I have known many new things never before I imagined I would have understood about the cosmic Jesus.

I began to realize that there are things happening in Christianity today that can only be understood and appreciated by journeying beyond today's established religions.

It looks like a long journey but the changes I encountered along the way always keep on adding up and becoming bigger.

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Full text of "The Lost Gospel Of Judas.pdf (PDFy mirror)""https://archive.org/.../The+Lost+Gospel+Of+Judas_djvu.txt

The Catholic Church is Heavily Hurting!

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - October 24, 2020

Let the damage control do its work. Our Catholic Church is heavily hurting, already badly battered by priests abusing children. Will the interpretations "civil union", "same-sex marriage", "civil coexistence", and "mutual union" help clarify the original Spanish term "conviviencia civil"? Sadly, no. Confusion still reigns. We are left on our own to resolve the confusion. Be joyful. We are living in a world of confusion.

Holy Innocents Day and We Still Continue to Kill the Innocents

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – December 28, 2021

Today, we look back in time to recall to mind the 144,000 children slaughtered by King Herod in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus. We are celebrating those dastardly acts of the plotters who were scheming for the downfall of a little child because of the fear that the child would eventually become the King of the Jews.

Today, this is still happening manifesting itself in various forms like abortion, inefficient and unjust child health-care systems, one-child policy, pre-arranged marriages, child abuse, extortion, and do nothing about child kidnapping, homeless children, street children, human trafficking, and selling of new-born infants. By our silence we have tolerated these hideous deeds. We're in effect killing the child Jesus again and again, this time on a massive scale.

What a grim commemoration to end the year 2021. In effect, we are joyously celebrating the killers as heroes for we are preventing the innocents, the would-be leaders, to take over the place of our Presidents, Kings, Monarchs, and Prime Ministers. We are no better than King Herod and the pagans. We are no better than the Presidents, Prime Ministers, and the perpetrators of this hideous crime today. By our indifference, we have become accomplices. We have become allies with those commiting the crime. We are equally guilty.

We just celebrated the birth of our Lord three days ago. Now, we are killing the holy infant, literally throwing him to the pit of the lava not unlike the rituals done by the ancient pagans to appease their gods and goddesses. But what can we do on our part?

We can start by including the welfare of our children as part of our daily consciousness, treating them in our family as Jesus himself admonished us: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” ~ Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14 and Luke 18:16.

Our children are the embodiment of who we are. It is to them that we channel our legacy to the future. They are the personification of our dreams, visions, and aspirations. It is to them that we entrust the future of humanity. They are our future leaders. They are the shapers of our envisioned New World.

Whether they will in the end become good and life-altering leaders depends on what we are transmitting and doing to them now.

Is the Vatican dancing with LUCIFER?

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – September 18, 2021

For outsiders would often ask why should your Vatican name a telescope after a devil? Are the two dancing to the same tune?

The answer....

Yes, the Vatican is known to have a telescope known as LUCIFER a cute monicker, some say. But LUCIFER is really an acronym for Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research (LUCIFER). It used to be "LUCIFER in the Sky."

The Google dictionary says that in Greek, LUCIFER means phosphorus. In Chemistry, the chemical element of atomic number 15 is a poisonous, combustible nonmetal. It ignites spontaneously in the air and glows in the dark. As this happens, people sometimes see figures and attribute this as a ghost, similar to what we see in St. Elmo's fire.

But in classical mythology, LUCIFER is symbolized as the morning star, which is associated with the planet Venus at dawn and personified as a male figure bearing a torch whose fire (light) never ends.

The term LUCIFER, in fact, comes from two Latin words, namely:

1. lux, luc- (‘light’) and

2. -fer (‘bearing’)

In the Old English, they jointly mean "light-bringing, morning star" or shinning star, rather than a name, LUCIFER.

Yet, why do Christians continue to interpret LUCIFER as the Devil?

Christians believe that the devil was once a beautiful angel named LUCIFER who defied God and fell from grace. As Isaiah 14:12 says:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations.”

But no further elucidation has been propounded since then. Thus, the dancing of Vatican and LUCIFER continues to this day. It remains stuck in the mindset of many people over the millennia.

Sadly, this dancing of good and evil is immortalized and staged right within us in our memories. And it will remain so for as long as we are here in our Earthly abode.

I am both good and evil. You are both good and evil. We can both dance together as good and evil.

See me as evil and I can dance with you as evil. See me as good and I can dance with you as good.

How to disentangle ourselves from this endless vicious dance with the good and evil is a challenge each one of us has to address.

But we know that in everything we want to do, we are always free to choose between the two opposing poles. We can always choose who or what we want to be.

How I wish we can synchronize our choices and align them to the Ultimate Synchronizer residing in a place where there's no more distinction between the synchronizer and synchronized.

For everybody is dancing endlessly to the music without anybody hearing the sounds of the music. Yet, unknown to the dancers, every bodily motion, gesture, swaying, twisting, and bending they make is perfectly aligned to the cosmic laws and principles. And everything they do is perfectly choreographed by an invisible and inaudible Pied Piper.

The Catholic Church has a machinery that is much expansive and powerful than that of the government

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – September 21, 2021

At the lowest level, usually at the village level, it has a chapel frequented by a priest during Sundays and holidays. The biggest attraction is during the feast of the patron saint where celebration can last for days, even weeks.

On ordinary days, the parishioners, especially those in the remotest areas, are left on their own without a priest. But the image of the patron saint remains practically alone in the dusty chapel, lighted only by a flickering candle.

People are nowhere to be found. Deserted and secluded, the chapel remains empty, lucky it is if it is used by animals and pets as a place of refuge at night and during inclement weather. I wonder if people, especially the children, youth, and adolescents, know their patron saint at all.

Parishioners may have never realized the full power of their patron saints. Several accounts have demonstrated that they can work wonders and miracles.

If managed to their maximum, patrons can dislodged overstaying political leaders as demonstrated in the First People Power Revolution in the Philippines, and replicated several times across the globe.

In their own limited way, the parish priests can be effective vehicles to inspire the people to be more active in their devotion to their patron saints. They can intercede for their people. We need only to plead to them relentlessly as a people, as Jesus asked the blind man what he needed.

Sadly, several priests, even cardinals, archbishops, bishops, are saddled with their own personal limitations and problems, even as others are driving luxurious cars, seen dining in places where only the outrageous, obscenely extravagantly rich and famous frequent (not all).

We are again left on our own. We can't trust the Church Hierarchy, even as we can no longer trust the pharmacists, medical doctors, medical reps (not all) as well as our politicians (not all). The Churches, Medical Associations, Pharmaceuticals, as well as Governments can no longer be our safe haven.

At the global level, the World Health Organizations (WHO), the United Nations (UN), the World Bank (WB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seem inept and inutile as they had all been saddled with the enormity of the problems the world is facing today.

The pandemics have gone wild and are getting uncontrollable. They require the cooperation of all institutions and countries.

Every individual has done its part to saving our selves, our people, and our world. And everybody is doing its role and part, though limited, to keep on moving courageously in this direction, no matter the risk.

As the election nears, we can only use our vote wisely, even if it means voting only for those with the lesser evil.