A Philadelphia Apologetic

Book excerpt: A Philadelphia Apologetic, Volume Four continues the subject matter of Volume Three in addressing the bifurcation of truth, with "truth" in New Testament Greek being the negation of what has been concealed. Although APA was intended to be a three volume text, once it became evident in Volume Three that the Book of Acts was a Sophist novel, not factual history of the early Christian Church, rereading of other canonical texts opened APA to being multiple volumes. This Volume Four principally addresses Matthew's Gospel. As stated in Volume Three, in doubled voiced discourse there is factual truth (what is true for an event driven timeline) as well as literary truth in the "space" above a horizontal timeline, with literary truth making no claim for historicity. The genealogy of Christ that begins Matthew's Gospel is not factually true (it lacks historicity) as shown in this Volume Four, but nevertheless is literarily true for the indwelling Christ Jesus that gives life to the Elect. Thus, the synoptic problem that has Matthew copying from Mark's Gospel permits, where Matthew deviates from Mark, deconstruction of Matthew to show that Matthew's Gospel was never intended to be read literally (as a historically correct biography of Jesus), but was from its composition intended to be read metaphorically as the biography of the indwelling Christ Jesus, the spirit of Christ that gives eternal life to the previously dead inner self of the person truly born of God. And when Matthew's Gospel is the biography of the indwelling Christ, it is also the spiritual biography of the disciple. In doubled voice discourse, words form the skeleton of a story produced in the reader's mind for as long as suspension of disbelief continues, meaning for Matthew's Gospel that as long as disciples believe Matthew is true, it is true. If disbelief returns, the indwelling Christ is not raised from death and the soul remains numbered among the dead who bury the dead of themselves.