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                                 December 10, 1990

                                    WHATIF.ASC
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                                     What If?

                                  by Vendyl Jones

       Have you ever  thought of what Christianity would be today if we had
       no New Testament?  Perhaps, one might  question  if  there  would be
       such a faith as the Christian faith without the New Testament.

       What do you suppose might happen if all the New Testaments  were  to
       vanish?  Could we go on?  Could we survive?

       Yet, the early church, from the days of the apostles till the fourth
       century had no  New Testament as a collection of 27 books. There are
       two things the so called "New Testament Church" did not have.

       The first thing is the New Testament and the second is "a church."

       Primal Christians had only the Torah. The five books of Moses.

       They had the twenty-two books of the Prophets and Holy Writings that
       included Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song  of  Songs, Ruth, Lamentations,
       Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel,  Ezra-Nehemiah and the  two  books  of
       Chronicles.

       Then, of course,  they  had  and  used  the  fourteen  books  of the
       Apocrypha. They met and worshipped with the Jews in the Synagogues.

       Many times we read in the New Testament statements such as:

                     " . . .  the scripture saith . . . .." Or
                        " . . . it is written . . . .." Or
                      " . . . what saith the law . . . .." Or
                     " . . . thus saith the L-rd . . . .." Or
                      " . . . as the prophet said . .  . .."

       When many read these statements,  they  think  it  is  referring  to
       Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or one of the New Testament epistles.

                                      Not so!

       The New Testament  did not exist in those days. The  only  scripture
       they had was the Tanach and Apocrypha.


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       The New Testament church only had the Hebrew Scripture.

       If there was  a church in your community by any name, who had a sign
       in front that read:

                 "This church only teaches from the Old Testament"

       what would be the response of the  community?    What  would be your
       response?   Would you dare to visit that church?  Would you consider
       becoming a member?

       Do you think that church's pastor would be invited to join the local
       ministerial association?   Probably not!

       Yet, can we not put that sign on every church mentioned  in Acts and
       the Pauline epistles?

       Any church today  that  posted  and  practiced  such a sign "we only
       study the Old Testament" would be considered a cult or an occult.

       Some people would become very angry  immediately,  not  giving  it a
       second thought and brand it as heresy.

       While when the more moderate would only feel a little  sick  at  the
       stomach for such a blatant statement.

       They would be turned off by such a thought.  That is only natural!

       That is exactly  the  response the primitive churches got from their
       communities!

       Do you know of any church today dedicated to in-depth constant study
       of the Torah, Prophets and Holy Writings  of the Tanach or so called
       Old Testament?

       Do you know any church that would treat the scriptures as the Older
       Testaments and the  Newer  Testaments as it was so  amply  state  by
       Rabbi Zalman Shechtcher-Shalomi?

       Originally the writers  of  the  Newer  Testament,  all were Jewish,
       viewed the Older Testament of the  Hebrew  Scriptures as the supreme
       authority of what they wrote.

       Much later their   writings   became  the  Newer  Testament.   Their
       authority was in Torah primarily, enforced by the Prophets and Holy
       Writings.

       Their Newer Testament  writings  never  showed  or claimed supremacy
       over the Older Testament!

       They did all their writing in the  Jewish  mind-set.  This  attitude
       always concedes all authority to the Torah!

       It never irritates  or  challenges  the  authority   of  the  Hebrew
       Scriptures.

       Unfortunately, when the  Byzantines,  in  the  fourth  century after
       Jesus, removed the apostolic writings  from  the Jewish mind-set and
       forced them into a Greco Roman mind-set everything changed.

                                      Page 2





       First, they collected 27 of many writings and called the collection,
       for the first time the "New Testament."

       The monks inverted  the  authority  and  made  the  "New  Testament"
       superior to the Hebrew's sacred scripture that they titled the "Old
       Testament" for the first time.

       This implied that the "new" had now replaced the "old." The Jewish
       Holy Scripture was now obsolete and abrogated by the New Testament.

       Hereafter, the monks only used the  Jewish Bible to try to prove the
       validity of their  New  Testament.  They  used  the  text  they  had
       abrogated and nullified.

       The purpose of the B'nai No'ach Study Program is to help the non-Jew
       understand what the  Word  of  G-d means to him. It is an attempt to
       get Christians to return to the scriptures and learn "the first
       principles of the oracle of G-d."

       B'nai No'ach is not church. It is an attempt to fill the void the
       church has not filled in people's  lives.  B'nai  No'ach  is  not  a
       prayer meeting nor a praise and worship event. It  is  not  and does
       not take the place of church.

       At all cost  we  must  avoid  making  B'nai  No'ach  another sect or
       denomination. B'nai No'ach is our effort to help you to know G-d and
       know his living Word.

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       Vendyl Jones is  the  original inspiration  for  the  Indiana  Jones
       character of the movies.

       In real life,  Vendyl  is  director  of  the  Institute  for  Judeo-
       Christian Research located  in Arlington, Texas.  John Hill operates
       the I.J.C.R. BBS at 1-817-346-1038.

       We have had the honor of meeting with  Vendyl and his beautiful wife
       Zahava as well  as  John Hill and others of their group.   They  are
       fine people with a noble purpose in life.

       Other files on KeelyNet relate to ARK or NOAH which give some detail
       at to the scope of their activities.

       We recommend that  you  contact  their  BBS  or  group  for a deeper
       understanding of the meaning and practice of Torah.

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         If you have comments or other information  relating to such topics
         as  this paper covers,  please  upload to KeelyNet  or send to the
         Vangard  Sciences address  as  listed  on the  first  page.
              Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.

           Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
                             Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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