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2012 A.D.: From Adam to You! No Big Journey At All!

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2012 A.D.:  From Adam To You....Not A Tough Connection To Make!

 

 

  We live in a society where the Sabbath tradition of the Jews is almost totally unobserved by Christians.  That's kind of a shame, really.  And maybe much more than that.  Perhaps it is a great sin.  Look what it has led to:

  For one thing, the 4th commandment said to honor the Sabbath by resting on that day.  And that meant not just you, but your workers and your animals.  So, we can guess that aside from pleasing God, who pronounced that He rested on the 7th day after laboring to produce 'the Creation' for 6 days, but also He told us that we would rest as well.  We would rest on that day, and our thoughts would often turn to God, and to how He was the Creator, of how all of creation was from Him, and that it was His labor which produced it.  You can see where a culture like that would never have listened to Charles Darwin.  God's work of creation was to be memorialized forever.  Satan would never have been able to shift the credit elsewhere, away from God, if man had continued to constantly memorialize the 7th Day, as we were commanded to do.

  The first man (Adam) and the first woman (Eve) would have told their sons and daughters all about it.  When the children learned to talk, they soon enough would have asked "Why do we rest on Sabbath?"  And Adam and Eve would have told them about the Creation, how God had done it all in 6 days. 

  When those children grew up,  they would have had children, and the question would have come up again.  And it would have been answered again, by people who were quite certain of their answer.  And on and on. 

  Before the Great Flood, some people were living over 900 years.  According to Biblical Chronology (which I am thoroughly convinced is accurate) the entire span of time from Adam to the Great Flood was about 1,655 years give or take a dozen.  So, on the day that the flood occurred, there would have been an old man who knew another old man that had known Adam personally.  In fact, Methusaleh, who lived 969 years, is said in some extra-Biblical traditions to have died just when the flood started.  He would or could have personally met Adam.  The same for the oldest ladies and Eve at the time the Great Flood occurred, I'm guessing. 

  So, on the day that the Great Flood occurred, there were people on the Ark that had it on good authority that the Creation account was no myth....it was reality.  They could have known a man (like Methusaleh, for instance, that might have once told them "I knew Adam, and he told me personally all about it!" 

  And after the Great Flood even Noah himself lived 350 additional years.  If the Great Flood occurred in about the time we refer to as 2,400 B.C., then Noah's boys, who had lived 100 years before the flood, and had known the people that lived before the flood, those boys of Noah's could have given a truthful first hand historical account of it all, even of the times before the flood, until sometime less than 2,000 years before Jesus was born, when they finally got old and died.

  But some people who aren't regular Bible readers may not have read the Gospel of Luke yet.  Luke Chapter 3 has an interesting section, in that it gives Jesus' ancestry from Jesus back to Adam, and then one more step to God.  If you include Jesus and God, the total number of generations is 77 in the Bible I used, and probably other Bibles.  At least I counted it twice, and came up with the same number each time.  Double seven, and seven is a number with good associations in the Bible.  The Sabbath is the 7th Day.  Jesus is also called 'the Word', and a certain scripture says that God's word is like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified 7 times.  It has a purity connotation too, apparently.  Enoch the great teacher was the seventh generation of man including Adam, and he walked with God instead of dying....sort of a foreshadowing of Jesus.  Non-Biblical writings say Enoch was taken up to heaven during his life, there was taught things which God wanted him to then return to Earth and pass on.  And then, after Enoch had returned and passed on those teachings from God to man, Enoch was taken up to heaven again, this time for good.  The Book of Enoch is one place to read about that if it interests you.  It may or may not be true, but it was once a widely consulted book, from what I have readl.  We are on the cusp, right now, of the 7th 1,000 year period since Creation, according to Biblical chronology. 

  Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that tracing the lineage from God to Adam, and then dad to son to son until Joseph, Jesus' earthly dad, is easy.  It's given to us, man by man, name by name, in Luke.  No work required!  So, we live in a world where scientists say that the Earth is billions of years old.  They pretend to posess great knowledge in opposition to God's historical time line as given in the Torah and the Gospels.  And they are just wrong, wrong, wrong.  The Bible, there in the Gospel of Luke, provides the names from Jesus' Earth dad clear back to Noah, and from Noah back to Adam, and one more step, to God the Holy Father.  It specifically names the names!  From Luke chapter 3:

21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,

the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat,

the son of Levi, the son of Melki,

the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,

25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos,

the son of Nahum, the son of Esli,

the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath,

the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein,

the son of Josek, the son of Joda,

27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa,

the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,

the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melki,

the son of Addi, the son of Cosam,

the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,

29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer,

the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat,

the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon,

the son of Judah, the son of Joseph,

the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,

31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna,

the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan,

the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse,

the son of Obed, the son of Boaz,

the son of Salmon,[d] the son of Nahshon,

33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram,[e]

the son of Hezron, the son of Perez,

the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob,

the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham,

the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu,

the son of Peleg, the son of Eber,

the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan,

the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem,

the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,

37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch,

the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel,

the son of Kenan, 38 the son of Enosh,

the son of Seth, the son of Adam,

the son of God.

  

  The path from Jesus to Adam was a plain one, well preserved by the Jews.  Jesus' first followers were mostly Jews. 

  All of the ancient cultures seem to have been in pretty good agreement that there was a Great Flood, and hundreds of cultures (literally hundreds) held the belief that only one boat load of people were allowed to survive.  Granted, some of them had the story pretty mangled.  But, the thread was there, over and over again. 

  Two thousand years ago the historian Josephus told the Romans, in a book now called 'The Antiquities of the Jews', how (by what path of descendance) each of the major Mediterranean cultures of his time had descended from Noah.  He was not confused by it all.  As a learned Jewish man of the tribe of Levi, he simply had been taught where all of the neighboring nations had come from, man by man by man, to the founder by which they were named.  Josephus essentially said that the only reason that the ancestry of the nations seemed confusing to people in his day was that the Greeks, during the centuries when they were the dominant empire in the Mediterranean area, had renamed so many cultures with names that sounded good in their language, or with names that gave fabricated glory to the Greeks somehow.  Empires tend to do those sorts of things.   

  So, all of this confusion about the ancestry of humans is just Satanic crap, and the community of scientists is merely the latest group hi-jacked by Satan to spread his lies against God's truth.  Scientists have the same soul as any of us, and they too are being harmed horribly on the spiritual plane by this twisted nonsense of the billions-year-old Earth, and the Creation that built itself by chance.  They will lose salvation, and their work, their horrible misleadings, will cause hundreds of millions to miss out on their salvation also.  Men will trust the ludicrous fantasies of scientists, and men will suffer forever in the Lake of Fire.  It's a horrible and largely unbelieved truth, but the Bible makes no bones about it, and the Bible has proven itself reliable over and again against all comers to be accurate, and able to predict the future.  No other book on Earth has that heritage, that unblemished string of successes.  Yet people doubt it's message to the permanent harm of their very own soul. 

  But think of this:  how about a line of descendance from Jesus to you?  How hard would that be to come up with?  I don't mean a line of blood descendance.... citizenship in heaven is a spiritual citizenship.  So, how hard would it be to put together a line of spiritual descendance from Christian you, back to Christ, man (or woman) by man by man from you to Jesus?  Not so hard, it turns out! 

  And if you can go man by man from you to Christ, you have already seen that the Gospel of Luke shows you one way, one path through which you can travel man by man by man back to Adam and then God. 

  Let's try one.  Let's work out a path from Adam to you.  Let's go Catholic first.  Catholic is pretty easy.  Thank you, Catholics!!

  Christ knew Peter, obviously.  Peter (Simon) was one of His Apostles.  Catholics say that Peter was the first Bishop of the early Roman church.  Some other historians say that yes, Peter was there in Rome, and an eminent and important figure, of course, but not actually the Bishop.  Well, I'm not even going to really worry about that.  I am just going to say that Peter knew Paul, and that both Peter and Paul spent a lot of time in Rome and were said to have both been killed there under Nero in the 60's A.D. time frame.  Of all that I ever read about their executions, there seems to be very little disagreement to their death in Rome under Nero.  And both Paul and Peter were well known figures to the Christians in Rome.  They had personally known Jesus!  They converted many of those early Christians in Rome, I'm sure!  The Bible attests to Paul's preaching in Rome for about two years before his first trial.  And he was freed that time, but years later had to undergo a second trial there, and was then, as a result of that second trial, executed they say.  Beheaded apparently.  

  So was Peter the first Bishop of Rome (a position that came to be referred to as Pope)?  There's many who say yes, but nearly all claim that Peter and Paul spent much time in Rome, and died there, and Peter and Paul knew each other.  So, whoever was the first Bishop, Peter either was that man, or knew him personally.  If not, Paul surely knew that first Roman Bishop.  So, here is a list, from the Catholic Encyclopedia Online, of the Popes spanning the centuries from Peter's and Paul's time until our own:

  1. St. Peter (32-67)
  2. St. Linus (67-76)
  3. St. Anacletus (Cletus) (76-88)
  4. St. Clement I (88-97)
  5. St. Evaristus (97-105)
  6. St. Alexander I (105-115)
  7. St. Sixtus I (115-125) Also called Xystus I
  8. St. Telesphorus (125-136)
  9. St. Hyginus (136-140)
  10. St. Pius I (140-155)
  11. St. Anicetus (155-166)
  12. St. Soter (166-175)
  13. St. Eleutherius (175-189)
  14. St. Victor I (189-199)
  15. St. Zephyrinus (199-217)
  16. St. Callistus I (217-22) Callistus and the following three popes were opposed by St. Hippolytus, antipope (217-236)
  17. St. Urban I (222-30)
  18. St. Pontain (230-35)
  19. St. Anterus (235-36)
  20. St. Fabian (236-50)
  21. St. Cornelius (251-53) Opposed by Novatian, antipope (251)
  22. St. Lucius I (253-54)
  23. St. Stephen I (254-257)
  24. St. Sixtus II (257-258)
  25. St. Dionysius (260-268)
  26. St. Felix I (269-274)
  27. St. Eutychian (275-283)
  28. St. Caius (283-296) Also called Gaius
  29. St. Marcellinus (296-304)
  30. St. Marcellus I (308-309)
  31. St. Eusebius (309 or 310)
  32. St. Miltiades (311-14)
  33. St. Sylvester I (314-35)
  34. St. Marcus (336)
  35. St. Julius I (337-52)
  36. Liberius (352-66) Opposed by Felix II, antipope (355-365)
  37. St. Damasus I (366-83) Opposed by Ursicinus, antipope (366-367)
  38. St. Siricius (384-99)
  39. St. Anastasius I (399-401)
  40. St. Innocent I (401-17)
  41. St. Zosimus (417-18)
  42. St. Boniface I (418-22) Opposed by Eulalius, antipope (418-419)
  43. St. Celestine I (422-32)
  44. St. Sixtus III (432-40)
  45. St. Leo I (the Great) (440-61)
  46. St. Hilarius (461-68)
  47. St. Simplicius (468-83)
  48. St. Felix III (II) (483-92)
  49. St. Gelasius I (492-96)
  50. Anastasius II (496-98)
  51. St. Symmachus (498-514) Opposed by Laurentius, antipope (498-501)
  52. St. Hormisdas (514-23)
  53. St. John I (523-26)
  54. St. Felix IV (III) (526-30)
  55. Boniface II (530-32) Opposed by Dioscorus, antipope (530)
  56. John II (533-35)
  57. St. Agapetus I (535-36) Also called Agapitus I
  58. St. Silverius (536-37)
  59. Vigilius (537-55)
  60. Pelagius I (556-61)
  61. John III (561-74)
  62. Benedict I (575-79)
  63. Pelagius II (579-90)
  64. St. Gregory I (the Great) (590-604)
  65. Sabinian (604-606)
  66. Boniface III (607)
  67. St. Boniface IV (608-15)
  68. St. Deusdedit (Adeodatus I) (615-18)
  69. Boniface V (619-25)
  70. Honorius I (625-38)
  71. Severinus (640)
  72. John IV (640-42)
  73. Theodore I (642-49)
  74. St. Martin I (649-55)
  75. St. Eugene I (655-57)
  76. St. Vitalian (657-72)
  77. Adeodatus (II) (672-76)
  78. Donus (676-78)
  79. St. Agatho (678-81)
  80. St. Leo II (682-83)
  81. St. Benedict II (684-85)
  82. John V (685-86)
  83. Conon (686-87)
  84. St. Sergius I (687-701) Opposed by Theodore and Paschal, antipopes (687)
  85. John VI (701-05)
  86. John VII (705-07)
  87. Sisinnius (708)
  88. Constantine (708-15)
  89. St. Gregory II (715-31)
  90. St. Gregory III (731-41)
  91. St. Zachary (741-52)
  92. Stephen II (752) Because he died before being consecrated, many authoritative lists omit him
  93. Stephen III (752-57)
  94. St. Paul I (757-67)
  95. Stephen IV (767-72) Opposed by Constantine II (767) and Philip (768), antipopes (767)
  96. Adrian I (772-95)
  97. St. Leo III (795-816)
  98. Stephen V (816-17)
  99. St. Paschal I (817-24)
  100. Eugene II (824-27)
  101. Valentine (827)
  102. Gregory IV (827-44)
  103. Sergius II (844-47) Opposed by John, antipope (855)
  104. St. Leo IV (847-55)
  105. Benedict III (855-58) Opposed by Anastasius, antipope (855)
  106. St. Nicholas I (the Great) (858-67)
  107. Adrian II (867-72)
  108. John VIII (872-82)
  109. Marinus I (882-84)
  110. St. Adrian III (884-85)
  111. Stephen VI (885-91)
  112. Formosus (891-96)
  113. Boniface VI (896)
  114. Stephen VII (896-97)
  115. Romanus (897)
  116. Theodore II (897)
  117. John IX (898-900)
  118. Benedict IV (900-03)
  119. Leo V (903) Opposed by Christopher, antipope (903-904)
  120. Sergius III (904-11)
  121. Anastasius III (911-13)
  122. Lando (913-14)
  123. John X (914-28)
  124. Leo VI (928)
  125. Stephen VIII (929-31)
  126. John XI (931-35)
  127. Leo VII (936-39)
  128. Stephen IX (939-42)
  129. Marinus II (942-46)
  130. Agapetus II (946-55)
  131. John XII (955-63)
  132. Leo VIII (963-64)
  133. Benedict V (964)
  134. John XIII (965-72)
  135. Benedict VI (973-74)
  136. Benedict VII (974-83) Benedict and John XIV were opposed by Boniface VII, antipope (974; 984-985)
  137. John XIV (983-84)
  138. John XV (985-96)
  139. Gregory V (996-99) Opposed by John XVI, antipope (997-998)
  140. Sylvester II (999-1003)
  141. John XVII (1003)
  142. John XVIII (1003-09)
  143. Sergius IV (1009-12)
  144. Benedict VIII (1012-24) Opposed by Gregory, antipope (1012)
  145. John XIX (1024-32)
  146. Benedict IX (1032-45) He appears on this list three separate times, because he was twice deposed and restored
  147. Sylvester III (1045) Considered by some to be an antipope
  148. Benedict IX (1045)
  149. Gregory VI (1045-46)
  150. Clement II (1046-47)
  151. Benedict IX (1047-48)
  152. Damasus II (1048)
  153. St. Leo IX (1049-54)
  154. Victor II (1055-57)
  155. Stephen X (1057-58)
  156. Nicholas II (1058-61) Opposed by Benedict X, antipope (1058)
  157. Alexander II (1061-73) Opposed by Honorius II, antipope (1061-1072)
  158. St. Gregory VII (1073-85) Gregory and the following three popes were opposed by Guibert ("Clement III"), antipope (1080-1100)
  159. Blessed Victor III (1086-87)
  160. Blessed Urban II (1088-99)
  161. Paschal II (1099-1118) Opposed by Theodoric (1100), Aleric (1102) and Maginulf ("Sylvester IV", 1105-1111), antipopes (1100)
  162. Gelasius II (1118-19) Opposed by Burdin ("Gregory VIII"), antipope (1118)
  163. Callistus II (1119-24)
  164. Honorius II (1124-30) Opposed by Celestine II, antipope (1124)
  165. Innocent II (1130-43) Opposed by Anacletus II (1130-1138) and Gregory Conti ("Victor IV") (1138), antipopes (1138)
  166. Celestine II (1143-44)
  167. Lucius II (1144-45)
  168. Blessed Eugene III (1145-53)
  169. Anastasius IV (1153-54)
  170. Adrian IV (1154-59)
  171. Alexander III (1159-81) Opposed by Octavius ("Victor IV") (1159-1164), Pascal III (1165-1168), Callistus III (1168-1177) and Innocent III (1178-1180), antipopes
  172. Lucius III (1181-85)
  173. Urban III (1185-87)
  174. Gregory VIII (1187)
  175. Clement III (1187-91)
  176. Celestine III (1191-98)
  177. Innocent III (1198-1216)
  178. Honorius III (1216-27)
  179. Gregory IX (1227-41)
  180. Celestine IV (1241)
  181. Innocent IV (1243-54)
  182. Alexander IV (1254-61)
  183. Urban IV (1261-64)
  184. Clement IV (1265-68)
  185. Blessed Gregory X (1271-76)
  186. Blessed Innocent V (1276)
  187. Adrian V (1276)
  188. John XXI (1276-77)
  189. Nicholas III (1277-80)
  190. Martin IV (1281-85)
  191. Honorius IV (1285-87)
  192. Nicholas IV (1288-92)
  193. St. Celestine V (1294)
  194. Boniface VIII (1294-1303)
  195. Blessed Benedict XI (1303-04)
  196. Clement V (1305-14)
  197. John XXII (1316-34) Opposed by Nicholas V, antipope (1328-1330)
  198. Benedict XII (1334-42)
  199. Clement VI (1342-52)
  200. Innocent VI (1352-62)
  201. Blessed Urban V (1362-70)
  202. Gregory XI (1370-78)
  203. Urban VI (1378-89) Opposed by Robert of Geneva ("Clement VII"), antipope (1378-1394)
  204. Boniface IX (1389-1404) Opposed by Robert of Geneva ("Clement VII") (1378-1394), Pedro de Luna ("Benedict XIII") (1394-1417) and Baldassare Cossa ("John XXIII") (1400-1415), antipopes
  205. Innocent VII (1404-06) Opposed by Pedro de Luna ("Benedict XIII") (1394-1417) and Baldassare Cossa ("John XXIII") (1400-1415), antipopes
  206. Gregory XII (1406-15) Opposed by Pedro de Luna ("Benedict XIII") (1394-1417), Baldassare Cossa ("John XXIII") (1400-1415), and Pietro Philarghi ("Alexander V") (1409-1410), antipopes
  207. Martin V (1417-31)
  208. Eugene IV (1431-47) Opposed by Amadeus of Savoy ("Felix V"), antipope (1439-1449)
  209. Nicholas V (1447-55)
  210. Callistus III (1455-58)
  211. Pius II (1458-64)
  212. Paul II (1464-71)
  213. Sixtus IV (1471-84)
  214. Innocent VIII (1484-92)
  215. Alexander VI (1492-1503)
  216. Pius III (1503)
  217. Julius II (1503-13)
  218. Leo X (1513-21)
  219. Adrian VI (1522-23)
  220. Clement VII (1523-34)
  221. Paul III (1534-49)
  222. Julius III (1550-55)
  223. Marcellus II (1555)
  224. Paul IV (1555-59)
  225. Pius IV (1559-65)
  226. St. Pius V (1566-72)
  227. Gregory XIII (1572-85)
  228. Sixtus V (1585-90)
  229. Urban VII (1590)
  230. Gregory XIV (1590-91)
  231. Innocent IX (1591)
  232. Clement VIII (1592-1605)
  233. Leo XI (1605)
  234. Paul V (1605-21)
  235. Gregory XV (1621-23)
  236. Urban VIII (1623-44)
  237. Innocent X (1644-55)
  238. Alexander VII (1655-67)
  239. Clement IX (1667-69)
  240. Clement X (1670-76)
  241. Blessed Innocent XI (1676-89)
  242. Alexander VIII (1689-91)
  243. Innocent XII (1691-1700)
  244. Clement XI (1700-21)
  245. Innocent XIII (1721-24)
  246. Benedict XIII (1724-30)
  247. Clement XII (1730-40)
  248. Benedict XIV (1740-58)
  249. Clement XIII (1758-69)
  250. Clement XIV (1769-74)
  251. Pius VI (1775-99)
  252. Pius VII (1800-23)
  253. Leo XII (1823-29)
  254. Pius VIII (1829-30)
  255. Gregory XVI (1831-46)
  256. Blessed Pius IX (1846-78)
  257. Leo XIII (1878-1903)
  258. St. Pius X (1903-14)
  259. Benedict XV (1914-22) Biographies of Benedict XV and his successors will be added at a later date
  260. Pius XI (1922-39)
  261. Pius XII (1939-58)
  262. Blessed John XXIII (1958-63)
  263. Paul VI (1963-78)
  264. John Paul I (1978)
  265. John Paul II (1978-2005)
  266. Benedict XVI (2005—)

  So, that list of Catholic Bishops, or Popes as we call them, stretch man to man to man from Jesus' Apostles (who knew Jesus personally, obviously) to the present German Pope, who was named Joseph A. Ratzinger before assuming his Papal name.  Popes are usually elected when they are already pretty advanced in years, so it takes a lot more Popes to bridge this 2,000 year gap than if we knew your actual genetic family tree back 2,000 years. 

  There have been a few  bitterly fought battles of Papal succession, but in every case I think it's both fair and obvious that there was personal acquaintance from friend to friend or at least enemy to enemy between these Popes, or there was at the very least some mutual church Prelate or perfunctory that knew both the last Pope and the new Pope.  Bishops in Italy, for instance would have been such a person in nearly all cases.  So, if I was to study this very closely, and were to find that two of the Popes never personally met (perhaps a possibility) then I could just as easily find the name of a man or woman who had known both, and was a Catholic Christian their own selves.  My point is, there might or might not need to be a couple more names on this list to get a perfect acquaintance to acquaintance flow of known persons, but I'll bet if I needed them, I could easily find them.   

  Now you may not be Catholic, but you probably know a Catholic personally.  If you do, then we are set:  you know them, they are personally acquainted with their Parish Priest, the Priest knows the Monseigneur and / or the local Bishop personally, the bishop knows his Cardinal personally, and the Cardinal knows the present Pope personally, or has at least met the Pope, or knows a Cardinal who has.  Boom!!!  You have just spiritually connected yourself, soul by soul by soul through known names of real people, back through about 2,000 years of time to Jesus, and from Jesus, back through about 2,400 more years of time to Noah, and through Noah you have 9 more souls back into time, about 1,650 years of time, and then you have arrived at Adam in his first days, and Adam's soul was made on the 6th Day of Creation by God, with (according to the first Chapter of the Gospel of John) Jesus (the Word) there with God the Father when all things were made by the Father through Jesus.

  So, using a combination of blood relation from God thru Adam to Jesus, and then spiritual 'personal acquaintance' and succession from the earliest Roman Popes up until the Present Pope, and then spiritual personal acquaintance from the present Pope to your areas Cardinal, to your areas Bishop, Monseigneur, Priest, and then you, or that Catholic friend of yours, you have travelled face to face from Adam to yourself in a path that included about 350 people  (+ or - 1 or 2 people.)  There were 77 generations from God thru Adam to Jesus the Earthly Messiah, and then 266 Popes, a Cardinal, a Bishop, a Monseigneur, a Priest, and then either you (if you are Catholic or know a Catholic Priest) or some Catholic that you know personally.  About 350 connections, and you are 6,000 years back in time at the beginning of it all.  And did you notice that you were able to know every single name, excepting perhaps the Priest, Monseigneur, Bishop, and Cardinal?  If you happen to know those names as well, then you know the names of everyone, and so you personally know that there is in at least one path that leads back to the very beginning of it all.  Wild, huh?

  Here is a second path you could take, using Luke 3 once again to get from God to Adam to Jesus, and then travelling through the Church of Antioch's leaders until we arrive at our time.  Antioch had the Apostle Peter as their leader also, in the years before he left and went to Rome.  Antioch also had, in it's early days, the man named Simon (or Simeon) of Cyrene, who carried Jesus' cross part of the way, and Simon's sons were early leaders of the church in Antioch.  It was in Antioch that Jesus' followers were first referred to as Christians.  This is from Wikipedia after a search of "bishops of the church of Antioch": 

  1. Peter the Apostle (ca. 37–ca. 53)
  2. Evodius (ca. 53–ca. 69)
  3. Ignatius (ca. 70–ca. 107), who was martyred in the reign of Trajan. His seven epistles are unique sources for the early Church.
  4. Heron (107–127)
  5. Cornelius (127–154)
  6. Eros (154–169)
  7. Theophilus (ca. 169–ca. 182)
  8. Maximus I (182–191)
  9. Serapion (191–211)
  10. Ascelpiades the Confessor (211–220)
  11. Philetus (220–231)
  12. Zebinnus (231–237)
  13. Babylas the Martyr (237–ca. 250), who,according to Nicephorus,[2] was martyred in the reign of Decius.
  14. Fabius (253–256)
  15. Demetrius (ca. 256–uncertain), who was taken captive by the Persians under Shapur
  16. Paul of Samosata (260–268) supported by Zenobia, deposed by Emperor Aurelian; in Paul's time Lucian of Antioch was head of the Antiochene catechetical school[3]
  17. Domnus I (268/9–273/4) supported by Emperor Aurelian
  18. Timaeus (273/4–282)
  19. Cyril I (283–303)
  20. Tyrannus (304–314)
  21. Vitalis (314–320)
  22. Philogonus (320–323)
  23. Eustathius (324–330), formerly Bishop of Beroea, a steadfast opponent of Arianism; he was disposed in 327 and banished in 329. However, the adherents of the Nicene creed considered him the rightful bishop until his death.
  24. Paulinus (330, six months), formerly bishop of Tyre, Semi-Arian and friend of Eusebius of Caesarea
  25. Eulalius (331–332)
  26. Euphronius (332–333)
  27. Flacillus or Facellius (333–342), in whose time renovations were made to the great church of Antioch, according to Nicephorus.
  28. Stephanus I of Antioch (342–344), Arian and opponent of Athanasius of Alexandria, deposed in 344.
  29. Leontius the Eunuch (344–358), Arian
  30. Eudoxius (358–359), formerly bishop of Germanicia, later (360–370) bishop of Constantinople, Homoian
  31. Annanios (359), immediately deposed
  32. Meletius (360—361), Semi-Arian, deposed in the reign of Valens for Homoiousian leanings

The Meletian group

The largest grouping, centred around the deposed bishop Meletius. It moved towards an acceptance of the Nicene creed and participated in the Council of Constantinople, but was not recognized by Alexandria or Rome:

  • Meletius (362–381), who attended the second Council of Constantinople.
  • Flavian I (381–404), he obtained the recognition of Alexandria and Rome in 399
  • Porphyrus (404–412)
  • Alexander (412–417), he ended the schism with the Eustathians in 415.

  Here, at this point in the Church of Antioch's history, there was a schism...a parting of the ways.  I continued above with one branch of that schism called the Meletians, not out of favor or disfavor for their views, but merely because they are referred to as the largest branch of those who broke apart into seperate groups.

    Next, one path of succession continues as follows:

The Syriac Non-Chalcedonians recognized Severus as the legitimate Patriarch until his death in 538. In 544, Non-Chalcedonian leader Jacob Baradaeus consecrated Sergius of Tella as bishop of Antioch, opening the lasting schism between the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Orthodox Church.

  Repeating 2 names from the above list, here is a continuatio0n of the leadership, but now it is under the name of the Greek Orthodox Church.

          Paul II (518-521)

After 1098, the Patriachate was in exile, at first at Constantinople, having been replaced by a Latin Patriarch.

With Theodosius, the Patriachate returned to Antioch.

With Ignatius, the Patriachate transferred to Damascus.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch split into two factions in 1724 as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church broke communion with the Orthodox Church and established communion with the Catholic Church (see List of Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchs of Antioch)

[edit] Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch after 1724

  So, once again, we have travelled from God the Holy Father, to Adam, on through 4,000 years to Jesus, then through the Church of Antioch, through one of its schismed groups, and then through the Greek Orthodox church leadership until reaching our own very time.  Once again, you have only to know a person that attends the Greek Orthodox Church, they will know the Priest, the priest will know a couple of more levels of leadership, and then that person will know Ignatius, the last name on the list just above.  

  Billions of years....don't think so Scientists!!!  A long string of people who were taught not to lie, and especially not to lie about things pertaining to God, have attested that your Johnny Come Lately theories about Evolution and a 'billions of years old' Earth are just a deadly fiction, a charade, ignorance disguised as enlightenment.

  All is God's.  It always has been.  Many men in most generations, and some men in every generation, have provided a continuous string of people who successively bore the knowledge, the true knowledge, through the centuries and into our present day.  Your heritage is not some inconceivably ancient march through a vast plethora of dimly lit primordial centuries.  It is not a succession of decreasingly complex life forms leading backwards through uncountable years until you come upon Andy the Amoeba, who was accidentally created in his entirety when lightening hit a mud puddle rich in just the right organic substances.  That may be the utterly ludicrous intellectual diarrhea that Scientists have managed to somehow foist off on a people grown wicked and ungrateful towards Yahweh their maker.  But it is certainly not truth at any level.  Science has shown itself delusionally unskilled at history, I believe, in a way that has cost tens of millions of people their faith in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and thereby has most likely also cost them their eternal  lives in heaven, diverting their soul, tragically, to the Lake of Fire that the Bible speaks of, unless they are somehow offered some mercy not expressed in the Bible.  Rejectors of Jesus...the best, final, and only remaining path to salvation...lose all. 

  We are created.  It is obvious.  All life forms are created.  It is clearly evident now....it should have always been, if only we'd have stayed faithful to God....but it certainly is clearly evident again now.  We can probe so deeply into how things are made that we know the truth without any intellectually honest room for doubt:  we are created beings.  So, trust that science does scientific things with rather amazing skill, but that they are dangerously abysmal at delving into the origin of things.  Don't let the ignorance that leads them to Hell lead you to Hell also. 

  We've all been given a path back to God, and that path is Jesus.  He is the Son of God who came and lived among us in a suit of flesh, just such as we wear, yet He did not sin as he walked and taught and healed and forgave sin.  Through becoming Jesus' bond slave we can be shielded from the wrath that our individual sins have earned for us.  We can even be cleansed and be made an eternal member of the family of God.  But....only through Jesus, and only through the specific covenant - under the specific conditions - offered by Jesus.  How can we know Christianity isn't just another religion?  Believe the Word, believe the Love it speaks of, believe the Miracles that have surrounded Christianity no matter where in this world it was taken, and then, have some Faith!  God deserves some Faith, don't you think?  Look how we have treated His long-suffering mercy towards us!  With contempt, taking a mile for every inch of leeway that He offered!!  Let's repent of that, while we can! 

 

 

 

    

     

   
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