Before delving right into the Bible itself, it's important to grasp and understanding why the Bible came into existence and who is the main character and the purpose over 40 writers had compiling the original 73 books over a span of 2000 yrs beginning with Moses compiling Genesis through the writings of the apostle John in Revelation on the Isle of Patmos in 95 A.D.

   

In a word, the answer is the "logos", the word, Jesus. (John 1:1,14) Every book, chapter and verse all point to the coming, the arrival, and reason for His incarnation, His coming to earth in the flesh, God's son, the second person of God, "Let 'US' make man in 'OUR' image." So, He, the son, was with Almighty God in the beginning long before He arrived on earth. All that was written from Genesis to Malachi, the Old Testament, contained the major events leading to Jesus Christ arrival, including every detail of His geneology, and the 365 recorded prophesies directly pointing to Jesus as the foretold Messiah up to the day of His birth on earth, so there was no doubt who He was.

(365 PROPHESIES) This is just one of many sources. 

    

As you move through this website you'll notice words and verses highlighted in (BLUE) Click on them to find the source material. Note: Only the Douay-Rheims version is referenced.

    

According to the most reliable early historians of the first few centuries, Jesus was born circa 2 B.C. and was crucified circa 33 A.D. (FYI; there is no zero year between B.C. and A.D) His public ministry began when He was 30 yrs old and lasted 3 1/2 yrs. Jesus chose 12 apostles but thousands became His disciples. During those years His apostles and disciples recorded events surrounding His ministry, but it took nearly 400 years for the entire canon scriptures of 73 books, letters, and gospels originally in Hebrew and Aramaic the Old Testament, and the Greek scripyures, the New Testament and translated into the common language of the Roman Empire at the time, Latin in 382 A.D. These historic documents are referred by the Church fathers and scholars as "sacred canon scripture" from the Greek word "kanon", meaning 'rule of faith'.

    

"Who had the authority to determine which writings were to be 'canonized', to be considered sacread scripture, centuries after all the apostles and other Bible writers died? 

     

Jesus established His Church with Peter as the chief apostle (Matt. 16:18) at Pentecost, so only those appointed by that Church would have the approval and authority of Christ and the Holy Ghost (Spirit) to decide which writings would be included in the Bible. And once the Bible was completed, no one had the right or authority to change, add to or take away one letter of these scriptures. (Deut.4:2, and Rev.22:19). Translierating words of the Bible from one language to another, as St Jerome did is not translating or modifying it in any way. 

    

What happened to these apostles and early ChurchAccording to early Church history and secular historians of the first few centuries, all the apostle and faithful Church fathers of Jesus' Church were "martyred" at the hands Romans and the Jews. Jesus revealed it was the unfaithful Israelite Jews who killed the prophets and He warned His disciples that the Jews would be the very ones who would orchestrate the murder of His disciples at the hands of the pagan Romans just as they did to Jesus at His crucifixion. Notice, Jesus 'prophesied it here.

   

"... you (Jews) are the sons of them that killed the prophets. Serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? Behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them "you will" put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: Upon you will come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar." [Matthew 23:31-35] This is not 'antisemetic' but fact.

    

As soon as the first century ended, a great persecution broke out on all Christians. 

et's start by going back nearly 2000 years to the year 382 A.D., and consider what a man named Jerome, a priest of Christ Church was asked to do by another man, Damasus I, the bishop of Rome, to transliterate all the books of the Old and New Testament from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into one collection into Latin. Why Latin? It was the common language of the Roman Empire at that time, just as the common language all over the world today is English. Why? Because English is the common language of United States and England, the dual world powers, and they control most of the wealth today. According to history, from 382 A.D. until the 16th century, there was only one translation of the Bible Jerome translated into Latin Vulgate. Then in 1450 A.D. Johannes Gutenberg, a German inventor crafted the first printing press and began printing the actual Latin Jerome Bible into German and later, into English. Why German? Gutenberg was German, and what is now Germany, was the center of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries, the Habsberg Empire, the center of Christianity in Europe until the late 1800's. England too was connected to the Holy Roman Empire and a strong Christian country before the split by King Henry VIII and the Protestant Revolution.

   

Up until the 16th century, there were only a handful of handwritten copies of Jerome's Latin Vulgate Bible from the 4th century. It took centuries for copies to appear from monasteries and institutions of religious orders of the Church before outsiders could even see them. It wasn't a secret, but rather treasured by the Church and guarded to make sure Jerome's Latin Vulgate wasn't destroyed or changed by heretics. Even after the Gutenberg's printing press was created, it took many years to reprint these new Bibles into various languages for all to read, French, Italian, Spanish, etc. And few outside the priests and bishops in the Church possessed a Bible for a few good reasons, most were illiterate and couldn't afford a printed Bible for themselves. Even many priests and local bishops outside Rome did not have their own copies of the Bible. So, this brings up the question; "How did Christians for all those centuries learn of Christ and the teachings of the prophets and apostles without their own Bible for reference? Suffice to say, few Christians knew how to read Latin much less have access to this massive work. While Jesus and His apostles were on earth, they didn't carry around copies of the Bible, not even the Torah, the books of Moses, in scrolls. They simply spoke about the words of Christ when HE was on earth. When Jesus quoted the Old Testament prophecies and words of Moses and the prophets, it was from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, and there's no reference to Jesus carrying around any books or scrolls to refer to. HE was the logos. He inspired the writings of the Old and New Testaments, so He knew exactly what was in them. Yet Jesus Himself quoted from the Septuagint version which was familiar with most Jews He spoke to.

   

The apostle St Paul told us how the apostles taught in 2 Thessalonians 2:14. He referred to it as "traditions" of the Church, both written and "oral teachings". The average common "laity" Christians at that time were totally dependent upon the teachings of bishops and priests to "transmit" the things Jesus taught, not translate. This is why Jesus Christ gave "ALL authority on earth", "the keys of the His kingdom" to His chief apostle, Peter first and to the eleven other apostles of Christ. (Matthew 16:19 Matthew 11:27, Matthew 28:18 and John 3:35) And after they died, the keys were passed on to other disciples and Church Fathers. (More on this later)

 

At Pentecost 33 A.D., the Holy Ghost (Spirit), proceeded from the Father through the Son, Jesus (John 15:26) and it was the Holy Spirit "who" gave the apostles the ability to preach and teach in many languages. In turn, it was Jesus who gave Peter, the keys, i.e., "all" authority on earth to transmit knowledge to understand sacred scripture. Whatever Peter taught was bound on earth, and bound in heaven. This is what "the keys" were for, not literal keys. Peter was given the authority to govern the entire Church, including the other apostles on matters of faith and morals. The other apostles looked to Peter as having the final say on matters of faith and morals. This didn't mean that Peter was "infallible", a term misapplied by Pius IX in 1875. This was never the teaching of Christ and the early apostles, that Popes are infallible, i.e., never error. Rather, on matters of faith and morals, Peter merely was given authority to transmit what Christ taught on these matters. The apostles merely wrote down what Jesus instructed them to transmit by guidance of the Holy Spirit, God's paraclete. 

   

Before Jesus came to earth, He possessed "divine nature", as with the Father and the Holy Ghost, BUT when He became flesh, "incarnate", Jesus then assumed the unique quality of attaining "human nature". Not even the Father in heaven or the Holy Ghost possess that distinction, "fully divine AND fully man." This didn't give Jesus more authority, power, or supremacy then the Father or the Holy Ghost, nor is HE (Jesus) less than His Father in heaven, but equal. (John 5:18) Jesus assumed human nature for a purpose, obtaining a unique quality, giving all humanity the full assurance that He (Jesus) is fully aware of their nature, their sinful condition inherited from Adam, and to demonstrate to mankind the compassion and love for humans in this state, offering them forgiveness. 

   

As early as the third century, certain priests of the early Church already began questioning the equality of the Father and the Son, as one in the same. (John 10:30) They assumed authority to alter Christ teaching and began to "speculate" to find alternate interpretations of apostolic writings, on their own. For example, one priest, Arius, a student of Melitius, bishop of Lycopolis in Egypt, took it upon himself to teach that Jesus was no more than a "creation" of "God the Father." Arius put forth the notion, "ON HIS OWN", that the word "begotten" meant something different from what the apostles taught that Jesus had the same substance, essence, and nature of that "God the Father" from the beginning with the Father. Arius deviated from this original teachings and he began teaching that Jesus was not God incarnate (flesh) at all, but merely an after thought of God, just another son of God, like Lucifer and other angels. Arius taught that Jesus Christ was not at all equal to, or with God the Father from the beginning, as Moses said in Genesis or the apostle John taught in John 1:1, and John 10:30. 

 

Arianism was only one of the many false teachings, "heresies", that caused great riffs in the early Church. These groups came up with their own scriptural exogesis, "interpretations" of scripture. This teaching also denies the authority Christ gave to St Peter and his apostolic successors by circumvening them and branching out on their own, "ex ecclesia", outside the Church. These false religious orders also claim that because the word "trinity" doesn't appear in the Bible, it is a Catholic construct, and a false teaching. The words 'Trinity' is equivalent of the Latin word Trinitas, which was coined by the early Christian writer Tertullian, meaning something like 'the tripleness', referring to the oneness of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three individual persons in one nature, "divine." This has been the understanding since the first century among Christians (Catholics). They accept this teaching since it was St Peter who was given ALL authority on earth to teach this and all doctrines and dogma of the Church that Christ established at Pentacost in 33 A.D. Peter taught that Jesus Christ is, as He Himself said to the high priest Caiaphas while on trial in the Sanhedrin, "I AM". It was this same "I AM", Jesus, in his prehuman existence, who was there with Moses on Mt. Sinai when HE said to Moses, "Tell them, (the Israelites held bondage in Egypt, "I AM that I AM". Jesus also made it clear to a group of Israelites at the temple when he said to them, "Before Abraham, I AM." For saying that, they wanted to stone Jesus to death, because He identified Himself as "I AM", God the Son, God incarnate, God in the flesh. Many today still cling to Arianism, though they don't refer to it as such.

 

As you continue to explore into this "vault" of information, notice scriptures highlighted in blue. Click on them and it will take you straight to the original Douay Rheims Bible.

   

The challenge is when we read scripture alone, as Peter points out, "... in them (scripture) ... there are things hard to understand, which the 'unlearned' and 'unstable' wrest (distort) to their own destruction." (2 Peter 3:16) Reading scripture is a start, but without proper guidance it's impossible to find answers to questions like the ones below, which the Popes have answered.

1.   How did we get here? Creation or evolution? (Can we prove it?)

2.   Who has final authority who we can we trust for answers?

3.   What does it mean to be "saved"?

4.   What does EENS in the background mean? Why is it important?

   

There are also many links to other websites, and YouTube videos, on theology, philosophy, Christology, to science, and history. Although you don't have to go there, you'll find many of these other sites are not highlighted on Google or mainstream academia. (More on that later) 

   

Just as Jesus had enemies, His chief enemy being Satan the devil, so too does His Church and the faithful of his Church have enemies. These enemies have tried for 19 centuries to hide, block and distort the truth from the masses. However, as Jesus promised, if we continue to sincerely "seek, ask, and knock", the truth will be revealed to us in due time. Many resist the truth, often because of fear about what they don't know. However, the thing to fear most is ignorance and fearing the unknown. But as King Solomon of ancient Israel said, "Fear is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)

   

Regardless what denomination of Christianity you follow, chances are, you still have many questions you haven't found answers to yet. Although you may not find all your answers here, these may prove to be like breadcrumbs that can lead you to other places to find what you are truly looking for. But the answers can only be found if you never give up, since as Jesus said at John 17:3, "This is your life."