Written by Allan Cronshaw

The Shepherd of Hermas

APOSTOLIC FATHERS (trans. and ed., J. B. Lightfoot)

The Paradox of Belief & Unbelief

Atheists and Believers are each opposite sides of the Paradox of Shared Reality - a Paradox where both are right, and both are equally in error. In possessing fragments of truth -- while rejecting the opposing paradoxical fragment -- neither the Atheist or Believer is able to grasp the Higher Truth of Spiritual Enlightenment. In the same way that the Child of Higher Truth must be born from the divided reality of it's parents, the below Intro written by the Brother of Yeshua/Jesus, and the Text of the first century writing known as the Shepherd of Hermas, have the power to overcome the gulf of division between believer and non-believer. In discovering the great wisdom that most modern believers reject -- a wisdom that was so clearly defined in the original teachings of Jesus and TheWay -- the reader will become aware of a reality they never knew existed. You will ask: How can believers be so blind -- and unbelievers so uninformed as to the facts as presented by the earliest of Church authorities? Are you willing to open the mind in pursuit of Higher Truth? Are you ready to understand why the Church Father Origen who is referred to as the greatest Christian theologian after the Apostles, called the blind believers of today idiots? Why Augustine said they were slaves to signs they did not comprehend the meaning of? Why the Apostle Peter warned that you can easily get the Bible to say anything you virtually want it to read? And in realization of this fact, whey the Church Father Origen called the literal text of the Bible worthless? Stating the truth that every Atheist believes, that the text of the Bible is untrue? Why Eusbius would have categorized the modern believer as misguided people of very small intelligence? What is written herein will utterly shock you, when you learn what modern Christians have closed their hearts and minds to the reality of!

If it is true that the Shepherd of Hermas was the most widely accepted and used Book by the earliest of non-Jewish followers of Jesus, then it is also true that what Jesus taught has very little in common with what Christians believe today.   And if this is true, then the Atheist and non-believers who oppose Christianity, do not find fault and oppose what Jesus taught -- but rather, the manmade doctrines of the Church of Constantine that came into existence in the fourth century (see The Death Of the Religion of Jesus).   

Every believer and non-believer has the ability to prove the Truth beyond any doubt whatsoever by virtue of their own spiritual experiences.   And while it is true that the modern believer has alienated themselves to the Truth by virtue of the adoption of manmade beliefs and doctrine, those unbelievers who oppose them are equally imbued with error.   And while each individual has the ability to prove the Truth for themselves, the Laws that control this world would inhibit them from revealing this Higher Truth to either the body of believers, or their unbelieving brothers and sisters.   Therefore, being able to point out the error of others does not in and of itself constitute Truth, because both the believer and unbeliever dwell in a divided reality where each possesses valid facts that are rejected by their opposites, each remains equally in error!   Most believers need what many unbelievers possess, and most unbelievers have been themselves alienated from the Higher Truths by virtue of the same government secular forces that ruled the Church for over a thousand years.   

Index

 

The Shepherd

FIRST BOOK: VISIONS

• FIRST VISION -- AGAINST FILTHY AND PROUD THOUGHTS, AND THE CARELESSNESS OF HERMAS IN CHASTISING HIS SONS.
• SECOND VISION -- AGAIN, OF HIS NEGLECT IN CHASTISING HIS TALKATIVE WIFE AND HIS LUSTFUL SONS, AND OF HIS CHARACTER.
• THIRD VISION -- CONCERNING THE BUILDING OF THE TRIUMPHANT CHURCH, AND THE VARIOUS CLASSES OF REPROBATE MEN.
• FOURTH VISION -- CONCERNING THE TRIAL AND TRIBULATION THAT ARE TO COME UPON MEN.
• FIFTH VISION -- CONCERNING THE COMMANDMENTS.

SECOND BOOK: COMMANDMENTS

• FIRST COMMANDMENT -- ON FAITH IN GOD.
• SECOND COMMANDMENT -- ON AVOIDING EVIL-SPEAKING, AND ON GIVING ALMS IN SIMPLICITY.
• THIRD COMMANDMENT -- ON AVOIDING FALSEHOOD, AND ON THE REPENTANCE OF HERMAS FOR HIS DISSIMULATION.
• FOURTH COMMANDMENT -- ON PUTTING ONE'S WIFE AWAY FOR ADULTERY.
• FIFTH COMMANDMENT -- OF SADNESS OF HEART, AND OF PATIENCE.
• SIXTH COMMANDMENT -- HOW TO RECOGNISE THE TWO SPIRITS ATTENDANT ON EACH MAN, AND HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE SUGGESTIONS OF THE ONE FROM THOSE OF THE OTHER.
• SEVENTH COMMANDMENT -- ON FEARING GOD, AND NOT FEARING THE DEVIL.
• EIGHTH COMMANDMENT -- WE OUGHT TO SHUN THAT WHICH IS EVIL, AND DO THAT WHICH IS GOOD.
• NINTH COMMANDMENT -- PRAYER MUST BE MADE TO GOD WITHOUT CEASING AND WITH UNWAVERING CONFIDENCE.
• TENTH COMMANDMENT -- OF GRIEF, AND NOT GRIEVING THE SPIRIT OF GOD WHICH IS IN US.
• ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT -- THE SPIRIT AND PROPHETS TO BE TRIED BY THEIR WORKS; ALSO OF THE TWO KINDS OF SPIRIT.
• TWELFTH COMMANDMENT -- ON THE TWOFOLD DESIRE. THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD CAN BE KEPT, AND BELIEVERS OUGHT NOT TO FEAR THE DEVIL.

THIRD BOOK: PARABLES

• FIRST PARABLE -- AS IN THIS WORLD WE HAVE NO ABIDING CITY, WE OUGHT TO SEEK ONE TO COME.
• SECOND PARABLE -- AS THE VINE IS SUPPORTED BY THE ELM, SO IS THE RICH MAN HELPER BY THE PRAYER OF THE POOR.
• THIRD PARABLE -- AS IN WINTER GREEN TREES CANNOT BE DISTINGUISHED FROM WITHERED, SO IN THIS WORLD NEITHER CAN THE JUST FROM THE UNJUST.
• FOURTH PARABLE -- AS IN SUMMER LIVING TREES ARE DISTINGUISHED FROM WITHERED BY FRUIT AND LIVING LEAVES, SO IN THE WORLD TO COME THE JUST DIFFER FROM THE UNJUST IN HAPPINESS.
• FIFTH PARABLE -- OF TRUE FASTING AND ITS REWARD: ALSO OF PURITY OF BODY.
• SIXTH PARABLE -- OF THE TWO CLASSES OF VOLUPTUOUS MEN, AND OF THEIR DEATH, FALLING AWAY, AND THE DURATION OF THEIR PUNISHMENT.
• SEVENTH PARABLE -- THEY WHO REPENT MUST BRING FORTH FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE.
• EIGHTH PARABLE -- THE SINS OF THE ELECT AND OF THE PENITENT ARE OF MANY KINDS, BUT ALL WILL BE REWARDED ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE OF THEIR REPENTANCE AND GOOD WORKS.
• NINTH PARABLE -- THE GREAT MYSTERIES IN THE BUILDING OF THE MILITANT AND TRIUMPHANT CHURCH,
• TENTH PARABLE -- CONCERNING REPENTANCE AND ALMS-GIVING.

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