When I was growing up, I was taught at school that the Dark Ages were dark because… well, they were dark! In fact, one might have been forgiven for thinking that it was all the Bible and ‘those religious peoples’ fault. A kind of mixture of superstition and religion was to blame. A partial truth actually – but partial truth, a little truth and a little untruth is often more misleading and dangerous than not knowing any truth at all. A tiny amount of arsenic will poison the whole glass or pure water.
We were never told the real reason or exactly why the Dark Ages were dark, probably because our teachers were not aware themselves of the real reason, but over time I began to study what was missing from this period of time that is present now, where in the West at least, despite all it’s crime and darkness, there is now on the surface at least, some semblance of civility and law and order (I assumed this ‘civility’ was not because human DNA and hence human nature had changed since the Dark Ages).
I had always suspected that this period of unimaginable poverty of spirit, lack of knowledge and suffering was probably to do with there not being many Bibles about, certainly not ones that ordinary (or elite) people could read, and as a result the goodness and teachings of this book to treat your neighbour as you yourself would expect to be treated, had not been allowed to seep into and cleanse and literally disinfect society, culture, law and it’s law-makers from superstition and paganism and cruelty to your fellow man.
The biggest racket of all time?
Sure enough, when I looked into the history, not only were there no Bibles around, but I discovered (of course many Christians and historians have known this for centuries but I had no idea of this history from my pastors or day to day church attendance) there was a systematic campaign to stop Bibles in native language get into the hands of the ordinary folk who were thirsty for truth and freedom, but a systematic campaign to get rid of all such people and their scriptures forever, and leave the forgiveness of sins not to God and the one mediator between man and God – Jesus – as the Bible says, but keep people forever returning to priests and indebted to the organised church for forgiveness of their sins by subtly changing the word ‘repentance’ in The Bible to ‘penance’. I mean what sane persons or organisation would attempt to sell forgiveness?
I love God, Christ, The Bible. art, painting, playing music, improvising music, guitar (first instrument), drumming (not very good at it:), and anything musical or art related. Quick note – my articles are usually spun off in minutes so forgive any errors – hopefully you get the essence of the article and I’ll pick up mistakes later. If you want to write of 101ChristianMagazine and inspire and edify Christians with articles on faith, general news, hobbies or anything that interests you email me at: epgb101@gmail.com:)
