Glyn Thomas – författare

From an early age, the author has been fascinated by the origins of humanity and the solutions offered by religious beliefs concerning our existence beyond death. Understanding the Bible is critical for Christians, whilst incorporation (as the Old Testament) of the Jewish Torah, the Prophets and the Writings brings a common root with Judaism and also many commonalities with Islam. This book should be fascinating to all ''Peoples of the Book'', addressing many questions that arise in the minds of readers of the original Jewish holy scrolls. 

I have looked at many statements in the Torah and felt puzzled by clear misstatements, and many assertions which cannot be explained - even by invoking miracles. The awesome knowledge we have gained revealing the structure and evolution of the universe proves it was designed by an intelligent entity (aka God). I suggest this knowledge makes it impossible to reconcile the intellect of God as revealed to us, the character of Yahweh as recorded in the Torah and the character of Jesus shown by the Gospels. 

The coming decade may answer one of our greatest questions - the multiple missions planned to land on Mars may detect lyfe and critically whether its operating system is DNA or something else.

At a minimum, I hope it provokes deep thought and further study! 

For information and maps on this series: truthpublications.co.uk

The advent of printing in the 15th Century allowed common usage of the Bible, establishing its authority as the sole record of ancient history without competition from other sources for over 4 centuries. It was only in the 19th Century that we rediscovered how to understand ancient cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts from the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations. Gradually, translations of ancient original texts dating back up to 5000 years, far earlier than any fragments of the Old Testament, revealed the muddled record of history contained in the Bible. This is hardly surprising as Hebrew writing emerged only to 1000BC, when adopting the Phoenician alphabet. 

Perhaps surprisingly, even texts from the Monarchical period (1000BC to 597BC) generally appear to have been written, or at least heavily redacted, hundreds of years after the events recorded. Indeed, the bulk of the Old Testament scripture uses language and references clearly dating authorship to the time of the Exile (597BC to 538BC) or later.

When the priests in Babylon tried to craft the national foundation story from ancient oral traditions, they only had a hazy understanding of history and lacked any method of verification. In the Bible, the Exodus follows slavery under the Egyptians, but research for this book points to an Expulsion, followed later, by slavery under Egyptian rule.

Today we are experiencing global average sea levels rising by 3.4mm (0.13 inches) per annum - climate.nasa.gov. However, nearly 13,000 years ago an event occurred which caused sea levels to rise rapidly, maybe by 10m in a decade (1,000mm per annum), and certainly over a period of c1150 years by an average of around 17.5mm per annum. The event was the impact of a meteorite on the Hiawatha Glacier in north west Greenland which triggered a climatic phase named the Younger Dryas period. The impact event is dated to 10765BC (+/-50 years). The memory of rising sea levels, initially rising very rapidly as millions of cubic kilometres of ice were vaporised and the influx of fresh water disrupted sea currents, has come down to us in numerous legends - some 500 have been enumerated. The most famous being Noah and the story upon which Noah was based - the Sumerian hero, Utnapishtim. 

Conventional historians view human societies 13,000 years ago as simple hunter gatherers - no farming had started, therefore there was no surplus food to support other activities and therefore no urban societies. However, as examined in this book, there is surprising evidence of sophisticated human knowledge and settlements dating from prior to the Hiawatha impact and much to indicate some scattered survivors of the event. When this evidence is fully evaluated, conventional history will require radical rewriting. 

Christianity is built upon our understanding of Jesus role and teaching. This book seeks to prise away the many barnacles that have encrusted Christian beliefs so that the purity and simplicity of Jesus message can be appreciated. 

Many aspects of Christian belief have been invented - some for marketing purposes others for political ambitions. The virgin birth, the nativity story and the detailed genealogies of Jesus are clearly fabricated. Evidence points to a special sign concerning Jesus birth which convinced many He was a messiah - but it was not a star or comet which miraculously got suspended in geosynchronous earth orbit! 

Jesus original followers, called Nazarenes by contemporaries, founded the first Church, in Jerusalem. Under the leadership of James, Jesus brother, this church blossomed eastwards across what today are Syria, Iraq and India; and westwards across North Africa and up the Atlantic coast along north-west Iberia, southern France and the British Isles. 

Jesus teaching was embellished by Paul, who was repeatedly challenged by the leaders of Jesus'' church for inventing new doctrines. AD325 saw Pauline (Mark II) Christianity merged with Roman worship of Sol Invictus (Akkadian: Shamash) - changing the Sabbath to the day of the Sun, moving Christ''s birthday from mid-September to the annual festival of Sol Invictus and, under the new Trinity concept, even deifying Constantine as messiah and god elect. As Pontifex Maximus, Constantine became senior to the Bishop of Rome. 

For information and maps on this series: truthpublications.co.uk

Does the church teach Jesus message accurately? If not, how can we find what Jesus originally taught? Tough questions, to which careful research provides revealing answers.

Many know of terrible excesses committed by the Church using quasi military forces to carry out numerous purges over many centuries. Estimates of those professing to be Christian, tortured to death, burned at the stake or literally torn to pieces range from 30,000 to 300,000 under the Spanish Inquisition alone. Empowered by adoption as the state religion of the Roman Empire, religious dogma was enshrined in law - so disputing dogma attracted legal penalty. The law gave the Church full control over individual lives, dissent threatened this and triggered decisive action. Strenuous efforts were made to stamp out views deemed heretical - anyone believing such ideas and any texts containing such ideas were ruthlessly destroyed.  

The destruction of early Christian texts was indiscriminate - the earliest New Testament we have, the Codex Vaticanus dates from c325, some fragments of individual books have survived dating back as far as 150. The oldest surviving manuscripts have sections with controversial verses removed to obliterate original beliefs. We do know that there was a thriving range of commentary and dozens of gospels used by the early churches - but, we only have their titles and some phrases quoted in the writings of early church fathers. Why were heretical ideas stamped out with such fanatical zeal - what inconvenient truths were being hidden?

The Church continued inventing dogma until some insiders rebelled, triggering the Reformation. The pathway to Truth lies in understanding the heresies and finding which link back to Jesus teaching as shown by the few ancient texts recovered in the past century. 

For information & maps on this series: truthpublications.co.uk