August, 2025

Lake Louise Mirror — Banff National Park, Alberta
The church was before the Bible.
I know that I have said that already,
but it is not catching on,
and it is the most outstanding bit of revelation that has ever come along, and people are like, "Okay, but that doesn't impact my life at all."

People are happy where they are.
Revelation only works with people who have had it up to here with their life.
So, I keep pounding away.
Because that's the way I am.

First the church (That would be the Church of Rome,
which became The Roman Catholic Church),
then the Bible.

The church wrote the Bible, created the Bible, composed the Bible over the first 397 (Or 393, or 401--the sources are vague about this), but very adamant that the Bible was sealed against anything new getting into the Bible somewhere between 393 and 401 BCE.

Nothing new all those years.

And then I come along saying, First the CHURCH, then the BIBLE!
That's new. Brand new. No one has ever said that. Ask around. You'll see!

In 397 (I'm being bold here), the Pope of the Church of Rome said, "Okay, we can live with this selection of Books in the Bible). We can make this work just fine."

And that was that. the Bible was closed off from all new ideas. From 397 to 2,500. Which comes to 2,103 years.

Same old Same old all that time.

And I'll tell you what that amounted to:

YOU ALL ARE GOING TO HELL IF YOU DON'T COME BACK HERE (to the church) NEXT WEEK AND HEAR THAT YOU ARE ALL GOING TO HELL IF YOU DON'T COME BACK HERE NEXT WEEK AND HEAR THAT YOU ARE ALL GOING TO HELL IF YOU DON'T COME BACK HERE NEXT WEEK AND HEAR...

The church--all churches--has/have been saying this for 10,9356 weeks, not counting leap years. It is all the church has to say, and the church can justify saying it very well based only on the Bible it christened in 397 BCE.

And then, Jim Dollar comes along and says, "Wait a minute! You are just making that up because it pays you so handsomely to say it because all these people are giving you their money every week for all those weeks so you will save them from hell. But the Church came first! The Church decided what the Bible would say, and the Bible says exactly what the Church wanted the Bible to say, which is to say, "Without the Church, everybody goes to hell!"

And you can see why the Church would not want that to get out.

So, pass the word.

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

2 thoughts on “August, 2025

  1. Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above only sky ( and thank you for all the Jim Dollar skies )

    Sent from my iPhone

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    Liked by 1 person

  2. The truth has always been known. Here’s this from Psalms 49:7– “No one can redeem the life of another, or give to God a ransom for their life.”

    And this from Deut. 24:16 — Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents–each will die for their own sin.”

    Funny, huh, that no one has ever heard those texts preached?

    Like

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