Very soon after Christ's return to heaven, Satan began to bring error into the church. The apostle Paul had said, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29,30.

One of the ways that Satan spread error was through a well-respected college in Alexandria, which was located in Northern Africa.

For more than 200 years before Jesus came to earth, there were Jewish leaders who went to this school. They were taught to compromise with pagan ideas and to accept the use of tradition along with the Hebrew scriptures. That is why many of the leaders in Israel did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah when He came. They were looking for a Messiah who would defeat the Romans and make Israel strong and prosperous.

The Alexandrian college taught what is called the allegorical method of Bible study. Rather than accepting things in the Bible as real, they were taught to make them represent something. An example of this type of teaching comes from Rabbi Zakkai (around AD 70) where he taught that unclean animals listed in the Old Testament, such as the hare and the pig, referred to Greece and Rome rather than to the actual animals.

Clement, one of the best-known teachers at Alexandria (AD194), and his famous pupil, Origen, taught students to allegorize the Bible. They taught that the Bishop of Rome (the pope) was the supreme leader and there was no salvation if you did not belong to the Roman Church. Origen said, “Both Jews and Christians believe that the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit, but we disagree with the interpretation of what is contained in it. Nor do we live like the Jews, since we consider that it is not the literal interpretation of the law which contains the spirit of the legislation.” (CopticChurch.net).

Even today people question whether the Bible can be taken literally. Many question whether the literal six days of creation can be believed as Moses wrote them in Genesis. This is not new.

Origen wrote almost two thousand years ago, “Could any man of sound judgment suppose that the first, second, and third days (of creation) had an evening and a morning, when there were as yet no sun or moon or stars? Could anyone be so unintelligent as to think that God made a paradise somewhere in the east and planted it with trees, like a farmer, or that in that paradise he put a tree of life, a tree you could see and know with your senses, a tree you could derive life from by eating its fruit with the teeth in your head? When the Bible says that God used to walk in paradise in the evening or that Adam hid behind a tree, no one, I think, will question that these are only fictitious stories of things that never actually happened, and that figuratively they refer to certain mysteries.” (CopticChurch.net)

But we are warned in Revelation 22:18 that, “If any man shall add unto these things [in God's Word], God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.”

We know that Satan and his agents have worked hard to cover up evidence. Dr. Carl Baugh tells about a huge seam of coal that men were digging in the United States. They uncovered many large human bones that were with all the coal. This was powerful evidence of a flood, so it was ordered that this coal mine be flooded. Today there is a dam sitting over this site.

Within 100 years of Paul’s death, Tertullian (AD150 ? 235), a church leader, was teaching oblations (special ceremonies) for the dead, making the sign of the cross on the forehead, and dipping people in the water three times to baptize. For those who questioned his practices he wrote: “If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as the strengthener, and faith as their observer.” Truth Triumphant 53.

Just 200 years after Jesus went back to heaven there came a crisis. Would the people choose to follow the scriptures and obey them as they were written or tradition?

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