Galilean Gospel 3: DOGMA: NEST of VIPERS

This episode addresses the danger of dogmas that contradict the eternal truth revealed by Jesus Christ, acting as a barrier between people and God, much like the oppressive rules and requirements of the Temple authorities did in of Jesus' time. ​ 

Key points include:

1. Dogma vs. Eternal Truth: Dogma is changeable and fallible, while eternal truth, as revealed by Jesus, is unchangeable. ​
2. Criticism of Religious Authorities: The document compares modern dogma-makers to Pharisees, demonstrating how they create barriers to God's Truth. ​
3. Scriptural Interpretation: Shows how certain Bible translations and study notes often state denominational dogma and alter Jesus' actual teachings. ​
4. Nicene Creed and Dogma: The podcast presents a Nicene Creed that includes only Jesus' words and actions, removing dogmatic additions. ​
5. Jesus' Mission: Was/is essentially revealing the Truth of the connection and interaction between we in the material world and the kingdom of God, rather than being cast as a victim or sacrificial lamb. ​

The overarching theme is a call to set aside dogma and focus on the direct teachings of Jesus, free from human-imposed interpretations and rules.

KYRIE SAYS:  This replaces the first and very poor podcast. I'm also tossing out the 15-minute limit that came about so I could put them on Reddit. If people want to listen, they can come here or wherever this is hosted.

Check the transcript for clarity, some examples are hard to visualize solely through audible presentation.  ​

THIS PODCAST IS NOT MONETIZED. LINKS:
Contact: kyriedicentis@gmail.com
CLOUD OF UNKNOWING Evelyn Underhill edition - free
HERETIC'S REDDIT HOME
Revelations of Divine Love [free PDF] Julian of Norwich
What the Gehenna?
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross

Transcript

Kyrie Discentis: 0:00

This is Dogma, Nest of Vipers, New and Improved. My first effort, I believe, was, in a word, really terrible. And it's a good topic, and it's important for us to discuss it. And I wasn't very organized, and a lot of other things happened. So, I'm trying to do this again. I am doing it again, and we will see if it comes out much better. I always start with these remarks and take them out, and I think this time I won't, because I never have a chance to just talk to you, and I really would like to. So I have my clinky bracelet that I can't take off because it's one of those medical ones and it keeps hitting on the desk. I have warm water. So when I start to sound bad, I can stop and have some and hope that helps.

Kyrie Discentis: 1:09

Let's talk about vipers and dogma and danger and how to find what we really want to find. so that we can follow the Lord, so that we can become like him, because that's what being a Christian really is. I read that today, and I agreed with it. So here we go. ... Vipers? Does that seem extreme, for a thing as common as dogma? Jesus revealed eternal truth to us, the way things work between eternity and creation. But dogma is generated by human decision, a pronouncement of men, a requirement of belief, of speech, a thing that has gotten many killed if they didn't agree, which we already talked about in earlier episodes. In one case, cited here, dogma later changed. And the guy they tortured to death was found to be correct and is now a saint. Oopsie.

Kyrie Discentis: 2:27

Dogma is not infallible because it is changeable. No matter how many insist at one time or another that it isn't. Dogma that claims to know the nature or mind of God is, in fact, the basest heresy, the Antichrist proclamations contradicting Jesus, who clearly stated, "No man knows the Father except the Son", in Matthew 11.27. ... Eternal truth is just that, eternal, unchangeable. Jesus' mission was to reveal to us that truth, God's truth, the way to perfection in God through divine love. Human agendas concerned obtaining wealth and exerting power over life and death, and even people's lives beyond death.

Kyrie Discentis: 3:39

So why nest of vipers? Because All the dogma-maker-control addicts are simply the Pharisees of Jesus' time, dressed in different clothes. Jesus wasn't name-calling. There is a specific meaning here. From Matthew 23, ..."'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!' You lock the kingdom of heaven away from men. You refuse to enter yourselves and do not allow entrance to those trying to enter." ... Dogma and the dogma makers keep people from God. Jesus went on for about a dozen verses castigating the Pharisees for their ungodly ways— imposing demands antithetical to the teachings of Abraham or Moses. By such actions, they cannot enter the kingdom, and by such beliefs, keep others from entering.

Kyrie Discentis: 4:46

Jesus said, "Woe to you, blind guides! If you say, One swears by the altar, it means nothing. But if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is bound to his duty. Which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it. One who swears by the temple swears by it and by He who dwells in it. One who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who is seated on it. ... "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. On the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. You serpents, you brood of vipers! How will you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?"

Kyrie Discentis: 6:06

So now we get to it. Whitewashed tombs with dead men's bones. It was only by following the prescribed sequence of events after death that the deceased could be assured of some day awakening in the bosom of Abraham in heaven. Unless there were vipers. Ah, but for those vipers. It is in the practice of some snakes to nest in and live in rocks, such as those piled outside a tomb dug into a rock wall. Some of those snakes were vipers, deadly, and their presence could keep people away. Unable to entomb a body in time, it blocked their designated way to the path of resurrection. ... All these dogma makers and rule inventors create our vipers: dogmatic behaviors and beliefs that, like actual vipers, keep us from God's kingdom and so demand the children of God serve them. That's what they thought in Jesus' time. But Jesus knew better, telling the scribes and the Pharisees they kept people from God. The endless rituals and costly sacrifices were a barrier between them and the approval of Hashem. Just as the temple curtain separated all but the high priest from the Holy of Holies, in which Shekinah, the Spirit of God, resided. ... That would be the same curtain torn in two when Jesus commended His Spirit to the Father from the cross.

Kyrie Discentis: 8:00

Let's compare the present to Jesus' initial statement. The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. They proclaim that they speak for Moses and so were allowed to make new laws and dogmas and sacrifices. But Moses only brought them God's law. which even I don't recall including how white the doves had to be to sacrifice on an altar that didn't exist in a Temple that also didn't exist when Moses lived on earth.

Kyrie Discentis: 8:41

Here's part of the introduction to the 255 infallible dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. ..."The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the church alone." ... Entrusted by whom? They just decided to sit down in Jesus' chair? Jesus never told anyone to go ask anyone else to interpret His Word. He was fine with people not understanding, as he explained when he was speaking about why He spoke in parables.

Kyrie Discentis: 9:25

The introduction wraps up with, "This authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." ... Is it? Did Jesus say you could bandy his human name around like that to validate yourselves? To whom? People you want to do what you say or you'll toss them out and they'll never get to heaven? If you let them live.

Kyrie Discentis: 9:49

Between the people and the Lord stood and still stands a barrier of a church, which is now not a word for the group of followers of Jesus, but a body of human men. That is, the Christian faithful do not follow Jesus. They follow the pronouncements of men speaking for Jesus, just as the scribes and Pharisees did. Claimed for themselves the right to speak for Moses. Let's see how well they did that. ... Among the 255 dogmas promulgated by men claiming to speak for God, we find #121: "God, by an eternal resolve of his will, predestines certain men on account of their foreseen sins to eternal rejection."

Kyrie Discentis: 10:48

Wait ... what? John said at 14.9, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus said that. "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." John 12.32

Kyrie Discentis: 11:14

If you find Dogma 121 as ludicrous as I do, then you might ask if this, or dogmas in general, can really affect how people understand the Gospels. His words are the same when we read them, aren't they? The words aren't the same, depending on what English translations you read, but that's the podcast after this one. And it's a false assumption that most people who say they follow Jesus read Scripture themselves. They watch social media videos about Scripture, maybe read a post on Reddit or see an Instagram short. But in the past, people? They didn't have copies of Gospels. When they became available, people didn't read them. Priests and pastors read parts that they interpreted for the people. The American Bible Society, which keeps track of such things, defines Bible users as people who use the Bible at least three to four times each *year* on their own outside of a church setting. And as low as that standard is, the ABS 2022 report showed the number of Bible users had dropped significantly: nearly 26 million in the previous year.

Kyrie Discentis: 12:44

As for those who want to understand Gospels, consider the commentaries. Readers of study Bibles that have extensive notes will find the notes adhere to the dogma of the denomination, not to the Savior's words in Scripture. But the users of the study Bibles don't know that, as they are uneducated in the Gospels, which is why they are reading study Bibles in the first place, and why they are so vulnerable to the explanatory notes. Here is a verse from the popular Nelson study Bible, NKJV, with no less than 66 editors and contributors, over 90% of whom have advanced degrees from a variety of theological programs. The majority represent a wide swath of the dogmatically sola scriptura/ scriptural infallibility set of believers. Canonical scripture is the only source of Jesus' teaching for them.

Kyrie Discentis: 14:02

Now this Bible, the NKJV Nelson Study Bible, includes many specific and separate notes on individual verses in the Gospels. Matthew 5:21 - "You have heard it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment'. The NKJV, the New King James Version, was first published in in 1982, and the publisher's site states it is a modernization of the King James Version of 1611 using the same underlying Greek text for the New Testament. In 1982, the publisher said: "The translators sought to preserve the original intended purity of the King James Version in its communication of God's word to man." ... Compare this to the KJV, they both used the Textus Receptus, the same Greek version. .. "Ye have heard it said that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

Kyrie Discentis: 15:37

So sometime between 1611 and 1982, both using the same source, the words got switched around. In 1611, them of old time said something about killing. The words were from some unknown person back then. In 1982, those of old were told something about murder. Well, so what? Why does it matter? BECAUSE OF THE NOTE on the verse in the Nelson Study Bible. Quote, "You have heard", [that's in bold and quoted], NOTE: "'You have heard' refers to the teaching of various rabbis rather than to that of Moses. Jesus was questioning the interpretation of the Jewish scholars, but not the Old Testament itself. Jesus is referring to the teaching of various rabbis in times of old or old times." What rabbis? Which Jewish scholars? Rabbis didn't appear until after 70 A.D. and the destruction of the second temple. Jesus could not be referring to rabbis that didn't exist in while he was Incarnate, especially because the Greek for of old, *archaeos*, means: that that has been from the beginning, original, primal, old, ancient ... Before the rabbis, respected elders who taught or explained Torah or commented on other scrolls were called *rabboni*, or teacher. But this is a far different role than the rabbis who took over leadership of the Hebrew/ Jewish faith after the temple was destroyed and the Jewish leaders were scattered or arrested or killed. These were the rabbis, some of whose writings were gathered in the Mishnah hundreds of years later. A highly respected book. Commentary.

Kyrie Discentis: 18:14

But they had to sell this point, those who wrote the Nelson Study Bible notes, that Jesus was questioning the interpretation of Jewish scholars, not the Old Testament itself. You can't have scriptural infallibility, a concrete doctrine, if Jesus questions it. Of course, he also says Moses was wrong to allow divorce. And if someone divorces a spouse, they commit adultery. Also, in the very same NKJV verse, found at the Blue Letter Bible site, there are links at the verse to Exodus 20, 13. "Thou shall not kill" -- anyone. which Moses himself told the people as a direct quote from God. You would think at least one of all those scholars would have known you shall not murder was indeed something Moses said instead of something a lot of rabbis who didn't exist had commented about.

Kyrie Discentis: 19:35

The arguments about the use of the word murder here instead of kill seem to go on eternally. I don't want to spend 20 minutes rehashing it, but in this context, since Jesus is quoting Moses, the Hebrew here is rendered in English Raja or Rasa. In the book of Exodus, this word appears 18 times in 18 verses. It is always translated into English as kill. Who translated it as that in your Bible? Jerome, when he rewrote the Old Testament in Latin. You see, Hebrew didn't have a single unique word that meant "slay intentionally". For example, in Exodus 21.14, "But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from my altar that he may die." ... They describe what we call murder sometimes in a phrase, but always in multiple words. In the Ten Commandments, murder is an English word that is not a translation of any Hebrew word. There's only one word in Hebrew, and it's kill. You can use it for killing an animal or killing a person or probably killing your instinct to commit murder.

Kyrie Discentis: 21:08

Enough of that. Anyway, in the verse that follows the one we just talked about, Jesus says, Matthew 5: 22, "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the counsel. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire."

Kyrie Discentis: 21:33

THE NOTE on 522: "The scribes and Pharisees said that a person who referred to another as raca, meaning empty head, was in danger of being sued for liable before the council or the Sanhedrin. On the other hand, Jesus said that whoever calls another a fool will have to answer to God. That is not to say that calling someone a fool will condemn a believer to eternal punishment in hell. Rather, Jesus was saying that to utter such words is to place oneself in a worse condition at the time of "judgement." The note says THEY ARE NOT IN DANGER OF GOING TO HELL EVEN THOUGH JESUS SAID THEY WERE IN DANGER OF GOING TO HELL. ... That's what he said. Well, actually, the word is Gehenna, but the NKJV uses hell for several words they think mean endless punishment. (Jesus never said any word that meant endless punishment.) Then they tell us that Jesus didn't *really* say that. The thing that He said that's printed in their Bible that they're commenting on, where He says that they're in danger of hellfire. Then they tell us Jesus didn't really say that, and what Jesus really meant was, "don't call people names, or you'll have to move back in line before you get into heaven". That is, name-calling is no big deal.

Kyrie Discentis: 23:01

Is it? Is it such a big deal, diverting people from the gospel of Jesus Christ? The scripture must be infallible, and Jesus is correcting it. Jesus' meaning must be twisted into something that not only doesn't contradict the Old Testament, but allows people to sin, to become angry, and call others denigrating names. Those who do this meet the definition of the word Antichrist. Were these commenters trying to get black men hung from trees, or a young gay man stoned to death tied to a fence? They certainly did not recall that name-calling, characterizing a person or group as lesser or unworthy or dangerous, is how things like holocausts happen.. Unless, of course, they had recalled that very well. THEY LIED. I think we all know who Jesus said the father of lies is. We could say they simply want people to come to and stay in their churches. And it's too hard. It's too hard. It's too difficult. to walk that narrow path and never lie or call someone a name or refuse to kill a stranger if you get drafted. But then they are preventing people from knowing Jesus, knowing the true eternal God. VIPERS.

Kyrie Discentis: 25:04

Here's the hard part for us, though. How do we take dogma we've had inserted into our minds practically from birth and set it aside, at least for a while, to objectively consider the gospel of Jesus Christ? There are many of the 255 dogmas that the Catholic Church has unofficially set aside, but they just stopped mentioning them. They had declared themselves infallible. So, Like the people commenting in the Nelson NKJV, they couldn't just say, "Jesus came to give everyone the real gospel, and well, it's just not okay to kill people." I mean, how are you going to, you know, mount a war against Muslims if you can't tell everybody to go kill someone? How are you going to start up a persecution of heretics and burn all their stuff and burn them along with it? You're not allowed to kill people. That's no fun.

Kyrie Discentis: 26:04

But as far as we go, here's an example: What if we take the Nicene Creed and remove all the parts that don't reflect the words or actions of Jesus incarnate? ... "I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord—Jesus Christ. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered death and was buried. He ascended into heaven and His kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, and life in the world to come. Amen."

Kyrie Discentis: 27:00

What if Jesus' Incarnation was something more, something different, and something very simple to understand?

Kyrie Discentis: 27:12

Mark 1.38 "Jesus said to them, 'Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also, for this is what I came for."

Kyrie Discentis: 27:24

John 18.37 "Jesus answered, 'For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.'"

Kyrie Discentis: 27:44

I want us... I want us to look at the incarnation as if we were some random first century Gentile who never heard of Jesus of Nazareth. And we stop at an inn for the night and sit at a table for dinner near another table where a few men are talking over wine and bread and soup. We overhear one of them.

Kyrie Discentis: 28:08

"So then John was arrested and this Jesus guy comes from Galilee. He cured some leper instantly. I swear, I saw it myself. Then he told everybody he had a message from God. 'This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is among you' ..."