LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- By Kenneth Stepp

Since much of what I write about in my Churchiness series brings fundamentalist Christians out to attack or insult me (in love of course.... right), this one will no doubt be the worst for such things. But sharing truth seems like the right thing to do, considering we serve a God of truth. Or at least proclaim we do.

Since beginning my studies of ancient manuscripts and credible new testament scholars, one thing sticks out more than anything else. Christian fundamentalism is considered the heehaw class in scholardom. It isn't that fundamentalist leaders aren't smart. It is more that they keep their flocks in the dark to push their agenda's. And it works.

Fundamentalism, much to the chagrin of true scholarship globally is growing by leaps and bounds. Not because they teach truth. But because they teach popular non truths that grow congregations. Couple that with "Leadership", which has taken an almost cult like presence in fundamental churches worldwide. And you have enormous growth.

I am going to dive into this, pointing out things that are widely known, proven, and in all mainstream seminaries taught everywhere. Fundamentalist organizations control knowledge by keeping these things out of their schools.

The Trinity

The trinity was not specifically taught in the scriptures or even mentioned. The first time it was put in the bible was in 1516 by a humanist scholar named Erasmus. He refused to put it into his first edition of the English bible because the manuscripts only had a Latin version, meaning it was added later, after the church inserted it into their doctrine. Church leaders produced a Greek version of the story (out of thin air), and forced him to put it in his second edition.

Although widely known. This is kept hidden, or dismissed as heretical in fundamentalism globally.

The Gospel Of John

Yep. The entire thing. How do we know this wasn't written by John the apostle? Because John couldn't write. He was illiterate. What do fundamentalist say? He dictated it. Wow! Not even close. First, it is written in classical Greek, John spoke Aramaic, not Greek. Also. It was written by someone highly educated. Not dictated from a person that could not read or write. Second. The writer never claimed to be John the apostle. Just someone named John. Scholars fought hard to keep it out of the canonical text.

Jesus And The Woman Taken In Adultery

This is a great story. In the best and oldest manuscripts, it was written in what would be considered the margin. The scribes put it there because the story had value as a metaphor of the heart of Jesus, in their opinion. Over time it was put into scripture. This often happened because all scribes did things their way. If they believed or wanted doctrine in, they simply wrote it in.

The Empty Tomb In Mark

Mark's gospel ends with, the women were told to go and tell the others, but they were very afraid and did not. PERIOD! Wow, really? That is a terrible way to end it. And that is exactly what the scribes thought. So they added the last twelve verses. In these verses, they tell some big familiar things. Go preach to every living being, you can handle snakes and drink poison. That is a significant addition. And completely made up.

More to come. Writing in bite sized bits is hard for me. But I must do that to get published in my various press rooms.

k@kstepp.com