Early Church Fathers’ quotes that push us to look deeper…

Most Christians are unaware that a few early Church Fathers were against a literal interpretation of Scripture, that it needed to be spiritually interpreted or discerned.

Over many centuries, the text became understood in a literal fashion to speak to a certain “class” of believers to increase the number of followers and tithers. The ones that would not be able to understand the spiritual aspect needed a literal one to promote the continued rise of Christianity. The Church was quite accomplished in this task. So much so that in the future, clergy were kept from the key of knowledge to continue to promote this agenda. Read below for some startling quotes that should, at least, make you start to look deeper into history to find out why these statements would even be made in the first place.

Early church fathers’ quotes:

St. Augustine

(Wikipedia) Saint Augustine of Hippo (/ɔːˈɡʌstɪn/; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430)[1] was a Roman African, early Christian theologian and philosopher from Numidia whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy.

“That which is known as the Christian religion existed among the ancients, and never did not exist.” (Retractt. I XIII, cited by Dr. Alan Boyd Kuhn in his “Shadow of the Third Century.” Elizabeth NJ, Academy Press 1949, Pg. 3)

“I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not influence me to do so.” Against the Letter of Mani 5, 6, 397 AD.

“There is no way of preserving the literal sense of the first chapter of Genesis without impiety and attributing things to God unworthy of Him.”

Pope Leo X

(Wikipedia) Pope Leo X (11 December 1475 – 1 December 1521), born Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, was Pope from 9 March 1513 to his death in 1521.[1]

“It has served us well, this myth of Christ.” Vatican Librarian, Cardinal Baronius in the Annales Ecclesiastici 1597, a history of the church.

Diaries & Records of:

Pietro Cardinal Bembo (Letters and Comments on Pope Leo X, 1842.)

Paelo Cardinal Giovio (De Vita Leonis Decimi. op cit.) Bembo & Giovio were both witnesses to the quote.

Origen

(Wikipedia) Origen Adamantius: Origen founded the Christian School of Caesarea, where he taught logic, cosmology, natural history, and theology, and became regarded by the churches of Palestine and Arabia as the ultimate authority on all matters of theology. He was tortured for his faith during the Decian persecution in 250 and died three to four years later from his injuries.

“The Scriptures were of little use to those who understood them literally, as they are written.” Higgins Anacalypsis II, Page 270

In “On First Principles,” IV.15 Origen writes:

“Now who is there, pray, possessed of understanding, that will regard the statement as appropriate, that the first day, and the second, and the third, in which also both evening and morning are mentioned, existed without sun, and moon, and stars— the first day even without a sky?

And who is found so ignorant as to suppose that God, as if He had been a husbandman, planted trees in paradise, in Eden towards the east, and a tree of life in it, i.e., a visible and palpable tree of wood, so that anyone eating of it with bodily teeth should obtain life, and, eating again of another tree, should come to the knowledge of good and evil?

No one, I think, can doubt that the statement that God walked in the afternoon in paradise, and that Adam lay hid under a tree, is related figuratively in Scripture, that some mystical meaning may be indicated by it.

The departure of Cain from the presence of the Lord will manifestly cause a careful reader to inquire what is the presence of God, and how anyone can go out from it.

The same style of Scriptural narrative occurs abundantly in the Gospels, as when the devil is said to have placed Jesus on a lofty mountain, that he might show Him from thence all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. How could it literally come to pass, either that Jesus should be led up by the devil into a high mountain, or that the latter should show him all the kingdoms of the world (as if they were lying beneath his bodily eyes, and adjacent to one mountain), i.e., the kingdoms of the Persians, and Scythians, and Indians? Or how could he show in what manner the kings of these kingdoms are glorified by men? And many other instances similar to this will be found in the Gospels by anyone who will read them with attention, and will observe in those narratives which appear to be literally recorded, there inserted and interwoven things which cannot be admitted historically, but which may be accepted in a spiritual signification.”

St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria

(Wikipedia) Athanasius of Alexandria (/ˌæθəˈneɪʃəs/; Greek: Ἀθανάσιος ἈλεξανδρείαςAthanásios Alexandrías; Coptic: or [2]; c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor or, primarily in the Coptic Orthodox Church, Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria (as Athanasius I). His on-again-off-again episcopate spanned 45 years (c. 8 June 328 – 2 May 373), of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when his episcopate was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.

“Should we understand sacred writ according to the letter, we should fall into the most enormous blasphemies.” Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871) p.266

St. Eusebius

(Wikipedia) Eusebius of Caesarea (/juːˈsiːbiəs/; Greek: Εὐσέβιος τῆς Καισαρείας, Eusébios tés Kaisareías; ad 260/265 – 339/340), also known as Eusebius Pamphili (from the Greek: Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμϕίλου), was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD.

“It will sometimes be necessary to use falsehood for the benefit of those who need such a mode of treatment.” (Chp. 31, Book 12 of Prae Paratio Evangelica).

Some of those, I’m sure, shook some of you, but they are authentic, verified and well-documented.