Hidden Bible Taboos Forbidden By Organized Christianity

An unconventional, complicated examination of Christianity.  “What if there was a way to read and really understand the Bible that has been kept hidden for centuries by the professional religious leaders of our mainstream [church]?” Slobodzien asks at the start of the latest edition of his exhaustively researched book. The work began as an essay on the recurrence of the number seven in the Bible (the Seven Deadly Sins, the seven pillars of God’s wisdom, and so on), but it has since grown to its present, extremely detailed state, which incorporates everything from the Apocrypha to the apocalypse to Chinese numerology, Mayan rituals and legends of Atlantis. The author relates it all to 21st-century science and society, spotlighting such varied concepts as quantum physics, dark energy, addiction theory, and the Bible’s stances on alcohol and sex. His main focus on “forms and numbers” leads him into some very complicated research, which he presents with clarity and infectious enthusiasm, but his ultimate goal is simplicity rather than profusion. He frequently mentions the torturous dogma of non-Christian religions (“[T]he Jewish Pharisees believed that they had to obey 613 religious commandments or taboos against specific behaviors to have a right relationship with God”) and stresses that “Jesus came to bring us something new—the New Covenant,” adding: “He did not come to bring us another organized religion called Christianity with temples and a priesthood like Judaism.” Some conclusions he draws may strike readers as bizarre (particularly his contention that the Nazis brought about the Holocaust as revenge against the Jews for their ancient crimes against Aryan culture), and on the whole, his book has little to say to non-Christians or atheists. However, Christian readers will likely find his criticisms of organized religions provocative and his frequent calls to an inner, personal faith, free from the “toxic” perversions of organized religions, reassuring. A spirited revisionist look at Christian doctrine.