Seeing as that we may be nearing the apocalypse (with financial collapse, World War 3, and plandemics upon us) I thought it might be a good idea to open The Good Book and get right with God.
Perhaps I'm too skeptical, or just lacking in faith, but as I scan through the passages, I can't help but think that I may not be reading the original words of Jesus and his Apostles, and how Bitcoin could have solved this problem.
Regardless of the accuracy, I think something that has permeated society for millennia is worth our attention, especially considering how Christianity has been marginalized in society in recent decades, along with the traditional values of marriage and family that it espouses. (One has to wonder if this has been done intentionally to corrupt our society, while masquerading as "progress".)
Keep in mind that I'm not a religious scholar, and aside from some biblical stories that I was exposed to in my youth, my journey into Christianity is just beginning. The brief overview I'm about to give you is based on my own research, which may or may not be historically accurate.
As they say, history is written by the victors, and that could imply the corruption of sacred scriptures, if doing so could result in attaining more control over the populace.
The Bible
The Bible, on which the Abrahamic religions are based, is divided into two sections:
- The Old Testament, which was written in Biblical Hebrew between 1200 and 200 BC, discusses the plight of the Israelites and their covenants with God, and is of particular importance to those who practice Judaism.
- The New Testament, on the other hand, is more relevant to the Christian faith, and was originally written in the first century AD (in ancient Greek) by a number of Apostles who followed the teachings of Jesus.
When pondering how accurately today's Bible conveys Jesus' original message, consider how it was necessary to translate the scriptures into multiple languages throughout twenty centuries (English didn't even exist until the 5th century AD, and it has evolved a lot since then).
If you have ever studied a foreign language in depth, especially one significantly different from your own (such as Chinese or Japanese in the case of a native English speaker), you will appreciate how much meaning can get lost in a translation.
The loss is amplified when we translate from ancient foreign languages into the modern ones that we are accustomed to today.
The bottom line is, if you didn't grow up in an ancient society, much of the meaning within its language will be foreign to you, and you will not grasp the original message from the translation.
In addition to this unintentional loss of meaning through translations, consider too that due to our tribal nature, we have disagreed on the proper interpretation of Jesus' words, and the institutions that formed around His teachings.
Religious Schisms
After Christ's death, Saint Peter and Saint Paul were key figures in spreading Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, and over time the Catholic Church was established. Conflicts emerged within the Church over the centuries, and the Eastern Orthodox Church formed around 1000 AD.
From there we had the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, in which new sects of Christianity developed including Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Quakers, Methodists, and so on. Each dissenting group was in opposition to the Catholic Church's methods, and had its own ideas of how Christianity should be practiced.
In more recent centuries, new Christian denominations have materialized such as the Mormons, founded in the early 1800s by Joseph Smith, a man who claimed to be a prophet called by God to restore the true gospel. We also have the Jehovah's Witnesses, who came forth from the "Bible Study movement" of the 1870s, and also interpreted the scriptures differently.
Even Islam originates from the patriarch Abraham, just as Christianity and Judaism do. The Prophet Muhammad appeared around 7th century AD to claim that parts of the Bible had been corrupted, and rewrote the scriptures as "the last and final messenger of God". After his death, the Sunnis and the Shias were divided over who should succeed Muhammad as the religious leader of the Muslim community, resulting in the two schisms, each of which now have their own branches.
Given all these divisions that have occurred over the centuries, how can we know for certain that any of the modern day religions are actually preaching the original word of Jesus (and the other prophets)?
The sad fact is that we'll never know with full certainty how the holy scriptures have been mistakenly mis-translated, or intentionally altered throughout the ages.
Bitcoin Emerges
Many people probably wonder what Bitcoin, a.k.a. "magical Internet money", has to do with religion, because from the perspective of many outsiders, the followers of cryptocurrencies are led primarily by their greed for fiat riches, rather than by noble aspirations.
However, once a person sees past the unsustainable debt-based fiat money system, he realizes that crypto can be used for much more than just money. Moreover, strong brotherhoods have formed in crypto communities, due in part to the fact that men are being shunned from modern day society.
Similar to the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, cryptocurrencies have experienced many schisms throughout their relatively short history, which (like religion) has highlighted our tribal nature:
- From Bitcoin has emerged Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Gold, and more.
- From Ethereum Classic has formed Ethereum, from which Ethereum PoW emerged.
- Hive (where this blog post was published) forked from Steem.
- Zcash was forked into Zclassic, which then forked again to form ZenCash (currently called Horizen).
The above are just a few examples of project forks that resulted from community disagreements, and we'll likely see further division of cryptocurrencies as time goes on and disputes arise.
An Immutable Multi-Chain World Is Inevitable
By studying religious history, and witnessing present-day crypto forks for ourselves, we can conclude that humans are indeed tribal by nature. Therefore, we can safely assume that not all "Altcoins" will go to zero against Bitcoin. The strongest ones with devote communities will survive alongside Bitcoin, just like the ancient religions and their various denominations.
Not only will the future be multi-chain, but the history of our new blockchain-based world will be verifiable into perpetuity. Due to its decentralized nature, Bitcoin/crypto will be able to survive future wars intact, and prevent any possible victors from rewriting the history that has been inscribed into censorship-resistant blockchains.
Two thousands years from now (if we have indeed avoided Armageddon) our descendants will still be able to interpret the first fully verifiable message in history:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
I imagine English will have probably changed quite a bit by then, or have been replaced entirely by new languages. Even so, anyone with the will to study "old English" in the future will be able to look back and understand the original message inscribed into Bitcoin's genesis block, along with the other immutable writings of our current era.
Combining Scripture With Crypto
Despite the potential inaccuracies of the modern Bible, we can still attempt to glean the wise words of Jesus from the scriptures, and cherish them in our hearts. For I do believe there is a truth which Jesus was trying to convey to us, and that his truth "shall set us free" from the web of deceit we are facing today.
With all that said, perhaps instead of an impending apocalypse, we are simply witnessing a major turning point in human history. One in which we phase out debt-based currency for crypto, a new economy, and a "trustless" form of recorded history.
Until next time...
If you found this article to be interesting, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the HIVE blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
Resources
Images Courtesy of Venice AI [1]
Image of Bitcoin Fracturing [2]