THE IMPORTANCE OF "THE FIRST CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION" BY ST. AUGUSTINE AROUND 405 A.D. - COMMENTS BY ERASMUS OF AMERICA - FEB. 5, 2014

THE IMPORTANCE OF "THE FIRST CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION" BY ST. AUGUSTINE AROUND  405 A.D. - COMMENTS BY ERASMUS OF AMERICA - FEB. 5, 2014

''He who walks with wise men becomes wise.'' - Proverbs 13:20 

     My main interest in this early instruction book explaining the Christian faith to the unbeliever wanting to become a Christian is that St. Augustine did not write his personal opinions in what Christianity was teaching then. In fact, one of the teachings that he wrote in this small book was contrary to some extent to what he later came to in conclusion on one important aspect of Bible prophecy. He wrote this instructional booklet because he was requested to by his friend Deogratias, a deacon friend of his from Carthage. St. Augustine in this catechical instruction booklet wrote on the millenarian doctrine as shown in the Epistle of St. Barnabas (15:4) where there are seven millennia or epochs of world history represented by the seven days of Creation. Each day represented one thousand years. At the time St. Augustine was a champion of this early teaching of Christianity. Later on he changed his position in De civ. Dei 2:5 and instead interpreted the days as allegorical and not realistic in meaning. Irenaeus in Adv. haer. 52.3 wrote on this concept of Bible prophecy which was firmly rooted in Jewish tradition. Hippolytus wrote on this six day literal chronological system of interpreting Bible prophecy in Com. in Dan. 4:23.6. And Cyprian wrote on this literal 6 day system of understanding Bible prophecy in Ad Fortunatum, praef. 2. Lactanius wrote on this day concept of Bible prophecy in Inst. div. 7:14.9. Ambose taught the same 6 day system of understaning Bible prophecy in Expos. Ev. sec. Luc. 7:7. Jerome who wrote the Vulgate translation of the Bible wrote on this 6 day system of understanding Bible prophecy in Ep. 140.8.

     I think sometimes that Bible scholars such as St. Augustine wanted to force an issue to rule against a position widely taught in early Christianity. The Apostle Paul said to allow differences of religious opinion in Christianity so long as fundamental teachings that first Christianity was founded upon were respected and upheld. You could worship God on Saturday or Sunday and be upright before God according to first Christianity. An example is the Christian worship service held by the Apostle Paul on Sunday and recorded in the Bible where the young man on the rafter on the third floor fell asleep, dropped down to the first floor and was dead until the Apostle Paul prayed him back to life. The Apostle Paul had preached a long sermon to the gathering of worshippers on Sunday, the Lord's Day as early Christianity called it, and the young man had gotten sleepy and then fell to his death below, but brought back to life by the Apostle Paul who pronounced that he was now fine and the Sunday worship service then continued as recorded in the New Testament. An interesting thing is shown in early recorded Christian history. Back then Christians often liked long and learned sermons which were religious lectures and would listen to sermons even two and three hours long or even some longer. Today the people do not have the patience for long sermons like this. But first Christianity was very hungry to learn everything they could of the teachings of Christianity as taught and left by the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

     The Apostle Paul taught in the New Testament that it was fine to be a meat eater in Christianity and fine to be a vegetarian in Christianity. But in differences of religious beliefs in Christianity which did not affect main Christianity, you should live by the private standards or private beliefs you believe in or else you turn into sin what God had not required of you and made sin if you did this thing before God that you believed you should not do! God does judge you heavily by the standards you believe in for yourself as a Christian as the Apostle Paul taught in the New Testament! 

      St. Augustine wrote in this small instructional booklet many interesting angles taught by early Christianity including the following which was a standard teaching of first historic Apostolic Christianity: "Now this law was given to the Jews in ten commandments, which they call the Decalogue. And these again are reduced to two, namely, that we should love God with our whole heart, and with our whole mind; and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves." For that on these two commandments depend the whole law and the Prophets the Lord Himself has both said in the Gospel and made manifest by His own example." But these commandments expanded under standards of Christ such if you hate someone and want to murder them, you have already committed murder in the eyes of God. And if you lusted for another man's wife, you had already committed adultery with her in the eyes of God. And if you lie about someone in order to try and destroy them in society, this is a form of murder before God. If you steal money from someone in order to try and kill them by bankrupting them in life, this is a form of murder in the eyes of God.

     Another of his comments in this instructional booklet showing what the churches taught in his era, St. Augustine wrote: "He (Jesus) shall separate all the holy from the unholy, not only from those who have refused to believe in Him, but also from those who have believed in Him in vain and without fruit (good works done in the right spirit). To the one group He shall give an eternal kingdom with Him, but to the other, eternal punishment with the devil. But as no joy in temporal things can be found in any measure like to the joy of eternal life which the saints are to receive, so no torment of temporal punishment can be compared to the everlasting torments of the wicked."

     "And so, brother, strengthen yourself, in the name and help of Him in whom you trust, against the tongues of those who mock at our faith, out of whose mouths the devil speaks seductive words, bent as he is, above all, on making a mockery of our faith in the resurrection."

     These quotes above give a little flavor of how early Christianity taught and expressed their teachings given them by the Apostles of Jesus Christ. I wrote the book "The Early Roots Of Apostolic Christianity" By Erasmus Of America (my pen name showing I stand for reform but not division and destruction of Christianity as some wolves  in sheep's clothing do while pretending to be dedicated Christians). My book is listed on my website and I tell the truth as I found it in the early official writings of Christianity regardless if I stepped on some Catholic or Protestant sources in the process. For example, early Christianity wanted you to marry once and not divorce. But also where it applied such as a non-Christian married to a Christian turned the marriage into torture like from hell for the Christian, you had the Pauline Privilege taught by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. You could divorce and remain single or else marry again. But if you married again, you must "'only marry in the Lord" which meant only marry a Christian and not a pagan as an upright Christian. You could still take Holy Communion as a Christian if you remarried under the Pauline Privilege as named long ago and I even heard Pat Robertson of the 700 Club recently mention the Pauline Privilege as allowed under the terms mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. 

      And now for one final round of stepping on toes of some scholars who might not be happy I brought out this angle from the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was once asked whether this man was born blind for his sins or else the sins of his parents. This question was based on the ancient teaching of reincarnation which was popular in Asia and some of the Middle East and of Rome among the learned who also apparently believed in it. Jesus evaded any direct answer on the basis for this question, but said that this man was born blind that God might be glorified through him (once he was healed of blindness by a Miracle of God performed by Jesus!). This illustrates that Jesus did not always speak on all issues of what people believed in but for reasons of policy avoided getting into some side issues that maybe had no profit spiritually to go into and would only divide the people if He spoke on them.  

     The Jews of 2,000 years ago practiced birth control with primitive but basically effective tactics. This was not to not have children but to have them responsibly as you could afford to raise more children. This is a different angle than marrying and avoid having children as God wanted from marriage as a general principle. The sin of the man in Genesis who "spilled his seed" was he would not have children by his brother's wife to raise children for his brother instead of himself. His sin was refusing to follow through on the custom to raise children in the name of your brother instead of yourself, not "spilling his seed" in this case. Young men going through puberty may have sexual dreams generated by nature while they sleep and it is not a sin if their body responds while they sleep. And from this position that men and women have natural sexual instincts built into them when they are born does not make it a sin to have sexual instincts as they grow up. The sin is to abuse the sexual drive when it is intended by God to lead mankind into marriage to continue the human race on earth. Sex outside of marriage with others is labelled sin by the Bible. And Genesis says that God made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, not Adam and Steve to marry each other which God did not intend.

     When the Roman Catholic Church sanctions the "rhythm method" of controlling how many children you have in marriage, the principle is already established that within moral standards birth control is sanctioned even for marriage when done correctly and for the right moral reasons. Sex is not to be abused nor is it to be demonized when God built the sexual drive in both man and woman so they would have children and raise families under the plan and standard of God.

      Because I am an economist by thinking, I see birth control if done within moral standards acceptible if done for the right reasons. Uncontrolled population explosion in a nation is not good and can lead to the collapse of an economy, famine in the land, civil war or revolution, or general poverty among most of the people which I do not consider good for the people paying the harsh price for the uncontrolled population explosion in their nation. Lest any misunderstand me, I also consider it potential national suicide to have a policy where you try to not have enough population for future generations to maintain the survival and well-being of your nation and race.

      I know that general Christian scholars are scared to death to cover the topic of birth control like I just did, but I think Albert Schweitzer stated it well, "Christianity must be founded upon thinking!" I am a mature Christian and economist and I sense no moral wrong when sex is discussed in Christianity like I just did! I do not believe in moral license in sexual issues nor in a sexual policy so restrictive as to make sex in marriage a "duty" but not sharing love with one another. When not driven to moral excess and the obviously unnatural, "All is lawful in marriage" between the married couple! And as the New Testament teaches, the husband should not deny sex to his wife when she wants it and the wife should not deny sex to her husband when he wants it. And parents are to raise their children firmly with wise, loving discipline but also told to not "provoke your children to wrath" by how you treat them as children of yours!

      As last one Christian scholar takes the bull by the horns and talks with maturity and moral responsibility about sex in a nation and how to have it with moral approval by God. God did not give us sex so we would never have it nor use it in marriage. And truthfully when a married couple shares total intimacy with each other because they want to, they are expressing their love for each other and nothing wrong with that! There are many saints who were married including some of the Apostles including Peter. And there have been many saints who renounced sex in their life as a sacifice to serve Jesus more fully in time, etc. Either policy could still produce fine Christian followers of Jesus who would please Jesus greatly by their fine moral character as Christians.

      To have sex courses in school to teach and push sexual perversion as "normal sex" is double-talk trying to incite the youth both young men and women to have sex outside of marriage and lose their moral convictions as they feel they have now lost their salvation with God. The Bible says to raise your children in "The Ways Of The Lord" meaning having prayers to God and reading of the Bible in school for moral education to give moral values to your children. Either the original King James Bible or else a good translation from the Catholic Vulgate Bible would be fine versions to use in Bible courses. An economic study of I think in 1987 concluded that labor probably lost over one trillion dollars a year in wages due to prayer and the Bible being outlawed from the public schools of America. And that means that business has a one trillion dollar smaller annual market to sell to nationally! It is not a free ride to try and outlaw God from America! And as for any children of atheists or other religious convictions, they can be exempted from such religious practices in school. However, I predict that these children will later be mad at their parents where they see the children with moral values make more money in jobs than them and have better marriages and family lives than them.

      No minority should have the claimed legal right to outlaw the practice of religion representing the majority of the people in the nation. And the majority does not the legal right to use force to shove down the throats of non-believers to study their faith or else under law! God populates Heaven with those who follow God by free choice, not by those who became followers of God or else had their heads chopped off in the nation! I have tried by this report to help lay down the foundation restoring sound values to Christianity where it has lost its strength because it has forgotten its roots and what Christianity stood for in the beginning!

      And early Christianity heavily taught that we had the God-given right to exert political control over the government we lived under if we could. Bishop Irenaeus, one of the first three labeled "Defenders of Apostolic Christianity," wrote on this around 140 years or so after Christ! I wrote the proposed Omni Law (full name "The Omnibus Civil Rights Act For America") as the next amendment to be passed and added to the U.S. Constitution. This restores the founding Christian principles of America in 1776 back into national power such as your God-given right "to property and to contract" as the Founding Fathers of America established the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constution and U.S. Bill of Rights upon!

      Share this report with others and pass around in America. The Christian based movement started here in America will spread to much of the world once the rest of the world witnesses how Christian moral values skyrockets our econony, freedom, and greatness as a nation in the process. Let America be the nation which spreads the Gospel to all the world by its outstanding moral example and stunning success as a nation under the founding Christian principles of 1776 put back into power in America! As the Continental Congress running the American Revolution once said as the main reason for the American Revolution was so that America could spread the Christian Gospel to all the world once the American people won the American Revolution against Great Britain! How our "poltically correct" public schools censor your true national history from you!

      Our national website is www.fastboomamericaneconomy.com Our email is fastboomamericaneconomy.com@gmail.com  Our mailing address for those sending in payments by mail instead of through our website is: NIFI, P.O. Box 1465, Seneca, SC 29679 . Make checks, etc. out to NIFI and tell us what the payment is for whether a product from our website or else our Omni Law Loan Program which also is helping to finance our Omni Law Drive in America. 

     As for the RV of foreign currencies which is supposed to occur at any time, once the Omni Law is passed, if it has not occurred, we have a trick currency policy that we can set up fast and suddenly American currency is once more the undisputed leading currency of the world and all other currencies in the world drop in basic value against the new American dollar policy. And if privileged circles cashed in secretly by secret approval of Congress, we can initiate a legal policy to recover this graft money and turn it over to the Americans holding the RV currencies they were swindled of its basic value they were supposed to be paid like the super rich. If the RV occurs now, we then have no need to show the clever hand we have we can play in currency policy and suddenly America decides the value of other foreign currencies, not foreign currencies decide the value of American money.  

      "Knowledge is power" when correctly applied!

      Yours For God And Country, Erasmus Of America (pen name for that economist who is worldy wise and not just academically wise! By the way, speaking worldly wisdom, how much do backers of the Omni Law Loan Program and purchasers of products also getting  credit in the Omni Law Loan Program also get with a $180 trillion settlement figure? 10% of $180 trillion is $18 trillion which divides pretty nicely for those getting their share of this $18 trillion divided pro-rata between them based upon their share in credit in the Omni Law Loan Program? I assume that is called retirement money for those getting it! And as an economist, I know both how to force quick financial ruling our way and where to get the $180 trillion we will recover from angles you don't know about now or realize can be done! Of course, we may let land grants take away a bit of the total from $180 trillion, but whatever the final settlement figure is, your share of the 10% of settlement funds going your way should put a smile on your face! Federal sources will not be smiling as they did not see how we were going to be able to collect the vast sum owed us then!)