ALMOST 2000 YEARS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, with a lot of controversy surrounding it!

Today we have 45,000 Denominational and non denominational Christian groups across the globe if you can even believe this! Amazingly, we do not think about this much. The funny thing about this is that there are 3 major overlying parent groups that make up these 45,000 groups and that is Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant parent groups.

Galatians 3:26 | NIV
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

Ephesians 4:1-6 | NIV
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

There are no instructions found in the New Testament Scriptures to create or start an organization or a collective called “a church”. There are no instructions found in the New Testament Scriptures telling believers to join “a church”! This is all from the traditions of man, not the instructions of God through His written word.

There is no unity in the so called Christian churches and that is why we now have so many denominations and sects. Everytime someone could not agree on a doctrinal issue, they decided to break away from that group and start their own group. This is not Biblical and it is actually the very thing that we are warned against. That is why we have so many different translations of the Bible now. This group has this set of manuscripts and texts that they derive their Bible translation from and that group over there has this set of manuscripts and texts that they build their Bible translation from. Is that Biblical? NOT AT ALL! Beware of deviation and deception my friends.

These 3 parent groups have a different set of books that make up their Bible Canon.

The Non-Orthodox Protestant Churches use the standard Canon which has 66 Books and excludes any of the Apocrypha books.

The 66 Books of the Standard Bible Canon of the Non-Orthodox Protestant Bible

The Catholic Church has the complete set of Apocrypha books (Total of Seven Books) along with the 66 Books of the standard Canon (39 Old Testament & 27 New Testament) for a Total of 73 Books

Apocrypha Books of the Catholic Bible

1. Tobit
2. Judith
3. Baruch
4. Sirach
5. 1 Maccabees
6. 2 Maccabees
7. Wisdom

The Protestant Orthodox Churches have a partial set of Apocrypha books which contains three books that are accepted by many Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches as canonical, but are regarded as non-canonical by the Catholic Church and are therefore not included in modern Catholic Bibles. The Orthodox Bibles have 69 Books in total.

Apocrypha Books of the Orthodox Bible

1. 1 Esdras
2. 2 Esdras
3. Prayer of Manasseh

The Disputed Letters of the Apostle Paul

The accepted and disputed authenticity of the New Testament Letters of Paul:

There are fourteen books attributed to Paul the Apostle called the Pauline Epistles in the New Testament. The majority of Bible Scholars decline Paul’s authorship of the Book of Hebrews which reduces the number to thirteen.

-There is a strong consensus among modern-day New Testament Bible Scholars that 7 of these letters are clearly authentic. The other 7 letters are shrouded in controversy and are scrutinized on the authenticity of authorship and their origin.

Status	Categorization	Epistle
Undisputed	Authentic Pauline Epistles	·         First Epistle to the Thessalonians
		·         Epistle to the Galatians
		·         First Epistle to the Corinthians
		·         Second Epistle to the Corinthians
		·         Epistle to the Philippians
		·         Epistle to Philemon
		·         Epistle to the Romans

There are 7 more letters that are attributed to Paul’s authorship that are disputed among the same modern day Biblical scholars.

Status	Categorisation	Epistle
Disputed	Deutero-Pauline epistles;	·         Epistle to the Ephesians
		·         Epistle to the Colossians
		·         Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
	Pastoral epistles;	·         First Epistle to Timothy
		·         Second Epistle to Timothy
		·         Epistle to Titus
	Anonymous sermon;	·         Epistle to the Hebrews

These seven disputed books of the New Testament have been labeled pseudepigraphical works by most critical scholars. Some scholars have proposed that Paul may have used an amanuensis, or a scribe, in writing the disputed letters, although such a solution would not explain the fact that the disputed letters appear to have been written at least a decade after Paul’s death.

There are two examples of pseudonymous letters written in Paul’s name apart from the New Testament epistles, the Epistle to the Laodiceans and 3 Corinthians.

The Epistle to the Hebrews is actually anonymous, but it has been traditionally attributed to Paul. The church father Origen of Alexandria rejected the Pauline authorship of Hebrews, instead asserting that, although the ideas expressed in the letter were genuinely Pauline, the letter itself had actually been written by someone else. Most modern scholars generally agree that Hebrews was not written by the apostle Paul. Various other possible authorships have been suggested.

Webpages that have in-depth commentary of this topic:

The Pauline Epistles: Known and Suspected Forgeries.

Sorry Christians: Our Bible Contains Fake Letters From Paul (And Peter)

https://www.bethinking.org/is-the-bible-reliable/forged-writing-in-the-name-of-god

https://directionjournal.org/44/1/inauthentic-letters-of-paul.html

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