The Age of Reason Bible Study/Christian history

is free, and has been arming Christians with truth against apostasy since 1999 by standing for the truth, the authority, and the necessity of the Bible.

Most Christians don’t know the Bible and therefore must base their Christianity and their lives on Reason, morality, conservatism, tradition, “family values”, and by honestly and sincerely doing what they think is right and good. Sadly, that is exactly how atheists live their lives.

This site, TheSwordbearer.org, is for Christian warriors who stand without fear or apology for the truth, the authority, and the necessity of the Bible. It is for soldiers who respectfully serve God by taking Him at His word, who exalt faith over Reason, and who put duty and obedience before Self. It is for veterans who have seen the error, the vanity, and the futility of barking up the ever-growing, ever-changing, Reason-based Tree of Knowledge that flourishes along the broad, scholastically-garnished halls of “theology.” (CLICK HERE for an example of scholars bragging about the radical doctrinal changes they’ve made that you and I didn't know about.) This ministry is for comrades who, having laid aside the dubious weight of every book of thus-saith-man theology that did beset them, now confidently run the race with patience along the narrow and humble path of belief by faithfully and obediently choosing thus-saith-the-Lord Bible study. It is for Swordbearers who can see the growing apathy and apostasy in modern Christianity, and are interested in Bible study, doctrine, and Christian history. This site hosts The Age of Reason (AOR) Bible study, which combines a Bible study/Christian history (AOR) with the Holy Bible (KJV), which results in a uniquely-convenient, time-saving, all-in-one free Bible study with all Scripture references one-click QuikLinked directly to the appropriate verses in the Bible.

(To read a short summation of how the doctrinal ignorance and indifference of modern Christianity

made The Swordbearer ministry necessary, CLICK HERE.)

The Age of Reason teaches 1) the Bible (the big picture as well as doctrine), 2) world history from a Biblical perspective, 3) the Christian walk, and 4) it shows how and why our modern New Testament churches have used Reason to become carnal and doctrinally corrupt (as you saw if you went to the first link above).

The AOR has been chosen by a Bible Institute as a textbook for both preachers and pewsters, and it has been selected for Bible Study Groups and Christian Book Clubs and Discussion Groups. The AOR puts Christianity into perspective historically and shows how doctrine was corrupted as faith in what the Bible says was undermined by Reason. When you finish this complete Bible study you will have a mature understanding of the Bible, God, doctrine, world history, Christianity, and what this war is all about.

(For you young and inexperienced soldiers who are about to leave because you aren’t quite ready to tackle a comprehensive Bible study, remember this site: you won’t find a complete Bible study anywhere else that presents the pure doctrinal truth of Bible literalism in an unbiased, straightforward manner that doesn’t waste your time beating around the bush. You may not like all of it and you may not accept all of it…but at least you’ll no longer be in the dark, will understand why so many Bible-believing veterans are saying the modern church has been led astray by theology’s arrogant dismissal of believing Bible study, and will find out that Bible study (as distinguished from theology) is just walking with God one wonder-filled, nurturing step at a time as the simple beauty of reading and believing produces the spiritual fulfillment and confidence of getting to know Him through His own word. You’ll see how amazing, satisfying, and fulfilling feeding on God’s word can be, and will acquire a big-picture understanding that will help you grow more quickly. May God bless your quest to become one of His faithful soldiers.)

You need to understand why Christianity is supposed to be based on authority (God is our King) and obedience (we are His servants) rather than on “knowing right and wrong.” Knowing is when a member of Christ’s body doesn’t consult his Master/Head to find out how to live, because he thinks he already knows...and thereby the member becomes another head who usurps God’s lordship and robs Him of His glory – which is precisely why God declared the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to be off limits – as explained on page 3 of chapter H1, Lucifer's Rebellion. And you need to understand that morality, Reason, tradition, family values, and liberal and conservative social and political activism are all based on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than on the word of God. You will learn that the apostasy of the Bible-preaching Pharisees and Sadducees was not an anomaly; well-meaning Christians and their preachers today are at least as ignorantly apostate and doctrinally corrupt as they were back then because modern Christians know even less Bible than did the Pharisees. (Why is it that we have a tendency to lazily assume other preachers and pewsters have been the kind of dedicated, motivated, responsible, knowledgeable experts on Bible doctrines that we have never cared enough to become?) That’s why modern Christians are so verbose about social and political issues but cannot intelligently participate in discussions about the very Bible doctrines they were commanded to master and earnestly contend for.

In the 13th century the Pope decided Colossians 2:8 no longer applied and ordered Thomas Aquinas to incorporate Greek philosophy into Christianity – even though it had been banned by all of God’s people (including the Lord Jesus Christ in Col 2:8) for 1,500 years since the Greek philosophers dreamed it up. Philosophy defined Reason as the secular/scientific pursuit of "unbiased

truth," which is also called Humanism – and declared it to be necessary in order to know good and evil. Years later John Calvin and the other Protestant leaders (who grew up in the Church of Rome where they became enthusiastic believers in Greek philosophy) applied that Reason to church and national governments in order to overthrow the authority of shepherds and monarchs – beginning with the beheading of Britain’s King Charles I in 1649. Reason was also used to radically change society (via democracy), economics (via capitalism), and Christianity (via theology). Theology was the new and popular “science” that “modernized” and “intellectualized” Christianity by applying Reason to the Bible in order to change what God literally says into what He “really meant” to say…but didn’t. Ironically, theology actually discouraged personal Bible study and caused widespread ignorance, apathy, and apostasy by convincing Christians that the Holy Spirit no longer reveals His word to humble believers who rely on His Book alone; He now reveals His truth only to theologians who think taking God’s word literally is “ignorant, old-fashioned, and unsophisticated” and therefore spend most of their time reading lots of other books by men. This incorporation of philosophy/Reason/humanism into every facet of Western civilization is called by historians and theologians “The Enlightenment” and “The Age of Reason.” This resulted, incredibly enough, in Christian society’s acceptance of “self-evident truths” based on the forbidden fruit’s instinctive humanistic knowledge of right and wrong, which is summed up by philosophy’s well-known heresy that “man is the measure of all things.” These self-evident truths gradually displaced the Bible as the practical, legal, and governmental foundations of our lives. In other words, Self subtly became our god – even as we continued rendering lip service to the Bible.

When Self rules it results in men doing what they honestly think is right (Judges 21:25) rather than what God thinks is right (1 Kings 14:8). And that makes us focus on being “a good person” rather than being an obedient servant of God. Being a “good” person depends on knowing what good is, and Reason has convinced us we already know good and evil! The problem with being an obedient servant is it depends on doing the will of our Master...which requires learning the Bible. So we came up with substitutes for knowing the Bible by accepting Reason-based humanistic

behavioral guides such as morality, family values, and conservative social and religious traditions. That is how Christians who are so woefully ignorant of the Bible can be so infuriatingly self-righteous.

We can escape apostasy only by faithfully learning, believing, and doing the word of God: We must die to Self and let God become our Lord again. The message of The Age of Reason is so important I’ve made it easy to study: You may freely download the entire Age of Reason Bible Study, or download individual chapters, or – if you prefer hard copies – purchase The Age of Reason.

Today many Christians, when looking for a Bible study, are not humbly looking for something that will train them up in the way they should go by teaching them the hard truths of God; they are smugly looking for something that will tickle their ears by assuring them that, in spite of their appalling ignorance of the word of God, they are somehow already on the path of righteousness. They want to read, not study; and they want to agree, not learn. In other words, they prefer “Bible studies” they don’t need because they already know and agree with everything in them! This Bible study attempts to please God, not man: The Age of Reason is a no-nonsense, straight-talking Bible study and Christian history that will help you grow more rapidly as a Christian and feel more confident about doctrine. But it is also going to show that all denominations, including yours, are infected by Greek Reason. The Age of Reason is not the usual shallow, easy-going, soft-spoken, superficial, commercialized, hypocritical, phony, and oh-so-popular ear-tickling drivel so common in pulpits and Christian bookstores. One pastor put it this way:

“The Age of Reason is a wonderful and unique blend of historical and doctrinal truths that hits hard at what are popularly known as conservative and fundamental viewpoints. AOR peels the hide off hypocrisy and apostasy. It exposes shallow man-made theology. AOR is for neither weak-hearted brethren nor those who are uncomfortable having their long-held denominational traditions or personal convictions challenged in the light of Biblical evidence.”

And all of you faithful Bible believers will be able to appreciate the underlined part of this testimonial:

“As a preacher who has faithfully studied the Bible and also read many books by other Christian authors about doctrine, history, and the Christian walk, I was skeptical when I received your book. I was sure it would be filled with the same sweet nothings that now cause me to throw away most Christian books as wastes of time. But right away I could tell you were different: You actually have something to say and you never hesitate to come right out and say it – all the way through your book… Eventually I realized you really were onto something very important…”

Many “Christian” books today have commercial and proselytizing motives behind them, but the only purpose of The Age of Reason is to glorify God and edify His church by helping individuals like you who love Him. If you are a young Christian, parts of this book will be too much for you to handle at first, but you can study and grow at your own pace. If you are the kind of sincere Christian who wants to understand what Christianity is all about and why the dark last days are dark, you should study The Age of Reason. Even if you think your church has done an excellent job teaching you and training you up into a mature Christian warrior who is properly knowledgeable of the Bible and confidently armed for the war, you should get this free book. For those of you who do not believe in the authority of the Bible, however, there is no point in getting AOR, because I make my case based on Thus saith the Lord – chapter and verse – rather than on what modern Christians think.

Promoting Bible study over theology

because of the truth, the authority,

and the necessity of the Bible.