The Penalty for Treason
Posted on Sep 4th, 2006 | 1 Comment | Read This Article »
Aldrich Ames and Benedict Arnold have the distinction of being the most notorious traitors in United States history, yet they still do not come close to the greatest traitor of all time, Judas Iscariot. Judas, a chosen disciple, spent his time traveling with Jesus, listening to His teachings, witnessing His miracles, stealing from His moneybag, yet still Judas decides to betray Him. For just thirty pieces of silver, Judas signaled to the authorities to arrest Jesus by a kiss. Judas in his shame gave back the money and went and hung himself. No wait! He bought a field and fell down and his body exploded. What???
There have been many 
Ever since there has been a Christian church, there have been people who take the concepts of Christianity and run off in some weird ways with them. One of the earliest can be seen in Acts 19:13-16 when the seven sons of Sceva borrow Jesus and Paul’s names to cast out demons. The end result involves a beating and fleeing in the nude. Another heresy that pops up a few times in history involves John 14:16-17 where Jesus promises to send a helper after him. The word helper in Greek is parakletos or more commonly the prophesied helper is called the Paraclete. Most orthodox Christians believe that the promised Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, which came at Pentecost. As I said earlier though there have always been people to take things from the Bible and spin them in a different direction.
Melchizedek is one of those people in the Bible that is shrouded in mystery. His story is found very briefly in Genesis 14:18-20. The story starts out with a battle between a group of kings led by Chedorlaomer versus the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flee, Lot is captured by Chedorlaomer. Abraham, the ever-protective uncle, was obviously unhappy with this turn of events, so he sends out 318 of his trained men to free Lot. Many people think that Abraham was just some nomad wandering the desert, but he goes out and defeats Chedorlaomer’s men, who had just defeated the Rephaim and the Emim (
Alright class, open your Bibles and turn to Mark, Chapter 16. Take a look at Mark 16:8-9. In your Bible there is a footnote in between verses 8 and 9. Mine says “Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20″. How many times have you just read right over that and not even considered it? The end of Mark has become a disputed topic and probably the most disputed section of text in the New Testament. Some think that the gospel of Mark should end at verse 8, while others like it to end with verse 20. The question debated being, did Mark actually write these verses or were they added later? We will look at the two major sides of this debate. The first side argues that the verses were not written by Mark and were added later so they should be removed from the Bible. The second side argues that these verses were inspired by God and should remain in the New Testament. This is still an ongoing debate by people much smarter than I, so we’re just going to look at the sides and then you’re on your own.