Peter believed in Sola Scriptura 2 Peter 1:19. Also, the Shroud of Turin is a fraud.

John 20 says he was wrapped in more than one linen cloth.. And a separate handkerchief for His head. That’s at least 3.
I don’t know what the shroud is maybe great but its not Jesus.

Cockcrow said:

2 Peter 1:19 “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:” Peter who saw Jesus transfigured said that the bible is more sure than that. Roman Catholics falsely call Peter their first "pope" but yet Peter taught Sola Scriptura (Latin for Bible alone) yet Roman Catholic Apologists like Trent Horn rail against Sola Scriptura and you have to use other books and look at all these signs, statues and fake miracles. They hate Bible alone, they despise bible alone you can see it in their face.

Recently I have been seeing these so called "Shroud of Turin" videos and catholics are hitting people hard with this wicked false sign lying wonder. Jesus said in Matthew 12:39 “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:” Jesus said hey you evil generation looking for all these signs and miracles and Shroud of Turin, apparitions of Mary, crying statues, bleeding hosts, and all that other mystical garbage.

Catholics look for all of these false signs and that Shroud thing, I think it could be the Antichrist actually because he will do signs and lying wonders what a great way to draw in Catholics for that deception then to say "see its me from the Shroud" this long haired (thats a sin on a man 1 Cor 11) false Jesus that you see in paintings for thousands of years it makes sense that the Antichrist would look like that. I saw one video on it and they were saying "look this is proof its a Jew from Jerusalem" and thats when the Lightbulb came on for me that hey this could be the Antichrists image.

2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Roman Catholics like to claim Peter but they reject Peter, you don't believe Peter. and Peter also never told you to pray to Mary or dead believers, or bow down to statues. Salvation is faith alone in Christ alone John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” One mediator not Mary, not saints, no its the Lord Jesus Christ directly, you don't need any intercessors , no you pray to Jesus you say, Dear Jesus.

1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Click to expand...

What makes you say Peter believed in Sola Scriptura ?

Cockcrow said:

Because he said we have a more sure word of Prophecy. Meaning more sure than what Peter saw with his eyes the transfiguration, he says even more sure than that, is the bible. Whereas Anti-Sola Scriptura people believe in the signs, false miracles, extra biblical revelations.

Click to expand...

I still don't see sola scriptura in that, but even if it were, when Peter spoke the only scripture was the OT. Also if you believe in sola scriptura [ which I believe to be false ] show me in the OT that man was suppose to write a New Testament and that this new group of books was to be included, because no place in the OT scriptures is man told to include more books, that must be taken on faith not on scripture.

as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. - 2 Peter 3:16

Now all men, having the same judgment, some, following the Word speaking, frame for themselves proofs; while others, giving themselves up to pleasures, wrest Scripture, in accordance with their lusts.

Clement Of Alexandria

Does what I bolded ring true for you?

The new covenant and the messiah was prophesied in the OT. A prophet like Moses. Most of the prophets were written about why not the messiah. The OT is a shadow of the NT.

Cockcrow said:

Peter said that Pauls epistles are scripture 2 Peter 3:15-16 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Click to expand...

So if all of Paul's epistles are scripture why were some left out of the canon? It seems as if you are saying is that the OT scriptures are more real or authoritative than the transfiguration ? I believe all truth is Gods truth and 1+1=2 is just as much a Gods truth as scripture.

Cockcrow said:

this long haired (thats a sin on a man 1 Cor 11)

Click to expand...

Really...it is a sin on all men? Sampson, John the baptizer, Elijah all had long hair.

Cockcrow said:

Peter taught Sola Scriptura (Latin for Bible alone)

Click to expand...

I reckon you have to chuck the New Testament, then, because that's the only "Bible" St. Peter had.

Cockcrow said:

yet Roman Catholic Apologists like Trent Horn rail against Sola Scriptura and you have to use other books and look at all these signs, statues and fake miracles. They hate Bible alone, they despise bible alone you can see it in their face.

Click to expand...

The best argument I can see against "Bible Alone" is that the Bible doesn't define a "Bible". We all pretty much agree that what the Bible is based on Holy Tradition, which you in fact despise (I can see it in your face). There's nothing in Holy Writ that says "Here's what constitutes Holy Writ". A lot of those old Catholic geezers who you so much despise hammered it out over centuries, moved by the Holy Spirit. you'd make it sound as though it dropped from the sky, accompanied by God's voice booming out "Here's the manual , y'all!"

Cockcrow said:

Recently I have been seeing these so called "Shroud of Turin" videos and catholics are hitting people hard with this wicked false sign lying wonder.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the image on the Shroud (yeah, I capitalized it, dratted Anglo-Catholic that I am) is probably some other poor guy who was scourged within an inch of death, had something jammed on his head akin to a hat with spikes on the inside, crucified, and stabbed, Hey, it might just be a grisly work of art. If so, the bloke who did it had techniques of painting that no one has seen before or since.

But anyway, it's probably just a coincidence, or a rank forgery, or both, right? And if we Catholics (Roman and otherwise) think it might be authentic, it isn't really any skin off your nose, is it? It either is or it ain't. If is isn't, well, we got gulled into believing it was genuine. If we got played, then it's no matter. All it did was turn our focus toward our Lord Christ, and His sacrifice for us. Hard to find any fault with that, IMO.

Cockcrow said:

Jesus said in Matthew 12:39 “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign

Click to expand...

Don't need an impossible-to-recreate-painting of a tortured and crucified man to fill that bill. We've got billions of altogether unCatholic Christians searching for Signs of the End in every newscast and weather report. Are you equally as enraged at them as you are with those of us who believe that the Shroud just might be our Lord's burial burial cloth?

Cockcrow said:

; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:” Jesus said hey you evil generation looking for all these signs and miracles and Shroud of Turin, apparitions of Mary, crying statues, bleeding hosts, and all that other mystical garbage.

Click to expand...

Yep, we need to God to keep silent. Don't need nothing to get the good, stolid, unflappable Anerican Potestants worked up.

Cockcrow said:

Catholics look for all of these false signs and that Shroud thing, I think it could be the Antichrist

Click to expand...

Of course, because Signs of the End are specifically omitted trom the lists of "signs" that the evil and adulterous are looking for, and a firm belief in The Antichrist, and the Power of Satan are Protestant staples.

Cockcrow said:

actually because he will do signs and lying wonders what a great way to draw in Catholics

Click to expand...

Says he who Is telling us what signs he anticipates seeing the AC pull off. Oh, but That's Different.

Cockcrow said:

for that deception then to say "see its me from the Shroud" this long haired (thats a sin on a man

Click to expand...

I may try that now! I'll dress up as the image on the Shroud, and run around proclaiming that I'm Christ Returned, and then take a religious survey of those who buy into my pitch. If I was a betting man, I'd get more bites from Prots than I would from Catholics, but I might not, quien sabe? I mean, after all, it's y'all who use Imminent Return as a sales pitch, innit?

Cockcrow said:

1 Cor 11) false Jesus that you see in paintings for thousands of years it makes sense that the Antichrist would look like that.

Click to expand...

I reckon a little plastic surgery and a white robe would get it done, and you wou;dn't need to talk about the Shroud at all. After all, how many people have actually paid any attention to it?

Cockcrow said:

I saw one video on it and they were saying "look this is proof its a Jew from Jerusalem" and thats when the Lightbulb came on for me that hey this could be the Antichrists image.

Click to expand...

Wow, that could really be a... wait for it...sign!

Cockcrow said:

2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Click to expand...

Sounds more like a Pentecostalist "revivalist" than some bloke running around the streets wearing a Jesus costume. Your mileage will probably vary.

Cockcrow said:

Roman Catholics like to claim Peter but they reject Peter, you don't believe Peter. and Peter also never told you to pray to Mary or dead believers, or bow down to statues.

Click to expand...

He never told your lot to ask Brother Jummy to pray for them, either, and if you believe that the Blessed Virgin is dead, then you obviously disagree with St. Paul, who maintained that to be absent from the Body was to be present with the Lord. Then again, the Blessed Vigin may have been assumed bodily into Heaven. She wouldn't be the first, would she?

Cockcrow said:

Salvation is faith alone in Christ alone John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Click to expand...

And you better not believe that God performs unauthorized miracles that might possibly offend Protestant sensibilities.

Cockcrow said:

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”

Click to expand...

So by cracky, you'd better not be caught asking anyone else to pray for you, in Heaven or on Earth!

Cockcrow said:

One mediator not Mary, not saints,

Click to expand...

Not old Miz Johnson, nor Preacher Jummy, not the prayer Tean at your church, or anybody else but God and Jesus. But if old Miz Johnson does pray for you, do you reckon it does any harm?

Anyway, lemme just distill this down. You don't like Catholics of any variety. Got it. I grew up in that kind of environment, and know it well. I don't want some, I've already had any. It's a common commodity, although not so prevalent in these partshere as it used to be. I grew up with "White Only" signs, and my Korean mom being referred to as "that d**m Jap". The anti-Catholic bigotry was just part of that same background noise. Half a century or so later, trying to dress it up with pious posturing doesn't change it a bit. It's same rubbish that kept Christians whose beliefs didn't really differ that much in any substantive way separated and at sword's points. But I reckon That's What God Really Wants", right? He wants holy war between the Baptists (Yay!), and the Lutherans (Boo!); between the Holy Rollers (Hurray!) and the Romanists (Shame!), the Dunkers and the Sprinklers, the Kneelers and the Shouters. St Paul said "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.", but around here he'd have had to choose a side, and it had better of been the right one, else we'd have had no time and no kind words for him.

There, I'm typed out.

Cockcrow said:

2 Peter 1:19 “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:” Peter who saw Jesus transfigured said that the bible is more sure than that. Roman Catholics falsely call Peter their first "pope" but yet Peter taught Sola Scriptura (Latin for Bible alone) yet Roman Catholic Apologists like Trent Horn rail against Sola Scriptura and you have to use other books and look at all these signs, statues and fake miracles. They hate Bible alone, they despise bible alone you can see it in their face.

Recently I have been seeing these so called "Shroud of Turin" videos and catholics are hitting people hard with this wicked false sign lying wonder. Jesus said in Matthew 12:39 “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:” Jesus said hey you evil generation looking for all these signs and miracles and Shroud of Turin, apparitions of Mary, crying statues, bleeding hosts, and all that other mystical garbage.

Catholics look for all of these false signs and that Shroud thing, I think it could be the Antichrist actually because he will do signs and lying wonders what a great way to draw in Catholics for that deception then to say "see its me from the Shroud" this long haired (thats a sin on a man 1 Cor 11) false Jesus that you see in paintings for thousands of years it makes sense that the Antichrist would look like that. I saw one video on it and they were saying "look this is proof its a Jew from Jerusalem" and thats when the Lightbulb came on for me that hey this could be the Antichrists image.

2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Roman Catholics like to claim Peter but they reject Peter, you don't believe Peter. and Peter also never told you to pray to Mary or dead believers, or bow down to statues. Salvation is faith alone in Christ alone John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” One mediator not Mary, not saints, no its the Lord Jesus Christ directly, you don't need any intercessors , no you pray to Jesus you say, Dear Jesus.

1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Click to expand...

I believe the Shroud of Turin has been dated to around the Medieval period if I'm not mistaken.

Jermayn said:

I believe the Shroud of Turin has been dated to around the Medieval period if I'm not mistaken.

Click to expand...

that was proven to have been from inaccurate sampling. We know from historical evidence (mainly art and tradition) that the eastern Churches had ownership of the shroud long before it was stolen during the Crusades...

Jipsah said:

I reckon you have to chuck the New Testament, then, because that's the only "Bible" St. Peter had.

The best argument I can see for "Bible Alone" is that the Bible doesn't define a "Bible". We all pretty much agree with what the Bible is based on Holy Tradition, which you in fact despise (I can see it in your face). There's nothing in Holy Writ that says "Here's what constitutes Holy Writ". A lot of those old Catholic geezers who you so much despise hammered it out over centuries, moved by the Holy Spirit. YOu'd make it sound like it dropped from the sky, accompanied by God'sv oice booming out "Here's the manual , y'all!"

Yeah, the image on the Shroud (yeah, I capitalized it, dratted Anglo-Catholic that I am) is probably some other poor guy who was scourged within an inch of death, had something jammed on his head akin to a hat with spikes on the inside, crucified, and stabbed, Hey, it might just be a grisly work of art. If so, the bloke who did it had techniques of painting that no one has seen before or since.

But anyway, it's probably just a coincidence, or a rank forgery, or both, right? And if we Catholics (Roman and otherwise) think it might be authentic, it isn't really any skin off your nose, is it? It either is or it ain't. If is isn't, well, we got gulled into believing it was genuine. It we got played, then it's no matter. All it did was bring our focus on our Lord Christ, and His sacrifice for us. Hard to find any fault with that, IMO.


Don't need an impossible-to-recreate-painting of a tortured and crucified man to fill that bill. We've got billions of altogether unCatholic Christians searching for Signs of the End in every newscast and weather report. Are you equally as enraged at them as you are with those of us who believe that the shround just might be our Lord's burial shround burial cloth?

Yep, we need to God to keep silent. Don't need nothing to get the good, stolid, unflappable Anerican Potestants worked up.

Of course, because Signs of the End are specifically omitted trom the lists of "signs" that the evil and adulterous are looking for, and a firm belief in The Antichrist, an nd the Power of Satan are Protestant staples.

Says he who Is telling us what signs he anticipates seeing the AC pull off. But that's different.

I may try that now! I'll dress up as the image on the Shround, and run around proclaiming that I'm Christ Returned, and then take a religious survey of those who buy into my pitch. If I was a betting man, I'd get more bites from Prots than I would from Catholics, but I might not, quien sabe?

I reckon a little plastic surgery and a white robe would get it done, and you wou;dn't need to talk about the Shroud at all. After all, how many people have actually paid any attention to it.

Wow, rhat'd really be a... wait for it...sign!

Sounds more like a Pentecostalist "revivalist" than some bloke running around the streets wearing a Jesus costume. Your mileage will probably vary.

He never told your lot to ask Brother Jummy to pray for them, either, and if you believe that the Blessed Virgin is dead, then you obviously disagree with St. Paul, who maintained that to be absent from the Body was to be present with the Lord.

And you better not believet God performs unauthorized miraclest hat might possibly offend Protestant sensibilities.

So by cracky, you'd better not be caught asking anyone else to pray for you, in Heaven or on Earth!

Not old Miz Johnson, nor Preacher Jummy, not nobarietyody but God and Jesus. But if old Miz Johnson does pray for you, do you reckon it does any harm?

Anyway, lemme just distill this down. You don't like Catholics of any variety. Got it. I grew up in that kind of environment, and know it well. I don't want some, I've already had any. It's a common commodity, although not so prevalent here than it used to be. I grew up with "White Only" signs, and my Korean mom being referred to as "that d**m Jap". The anti-Catholic bigotry was just part of that same background noise. Half a century or so later, trying to dress it up with pious posturing doesn't change it a bit. It's same rubbish that kept Christians whose beliefs didn't really differ that much in any substantive way separated an dat sword's points. But I reckon That's What God Really Wants", right? He wasn't holy war between the Baptists (Yay!), and the Lutherans (Boo!); between the Holy Rollers (Hurray!) and the Romanists (Shame!), the Dunkers and the Sprinklers, the Kneelers and the Shouters. St Paul said "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.", but he'd have had to choose a side, and it had better of been the right one, else we'd have had no time and no kind words for him.

There, I'm typed out.

Click to expand...

I am not Catholic but I have to say I agree with a lot of what you said! There is one Church, man has divided ourselves into groups that war with each other. This is what Paul warned about, the whole I follow this guy and you follow that guy thing, we have divided ourselves and boy does the enemy like the infighting, it keeps us fighting each other rather than the true enemy. God being infinite there is no person or group of persons who have 100% of God figured out, we are all on a journey , some hands some feet others eyes, nose, ect. We are called to be fruit inspectors, if the fruit is good accept it, if its bad reject it, and know we each will stand before God and give an account to him and no one else.
As long as the division keeps up we will never be as effective for the Kingdom as we should be.

Jeff Saunders said:

I am not Catholic but I have to say I agree with a lot of what you said! There is one Church, man has divided ourselves into groups that war with each other. This is what Paul warned about, the whole I follow this guy and you follow that guy thing, we have divided ourselves and boy does the enemy like the infighting, it keeps us fighting each other rather than the true enemy. God being infinite there is no person or group of persons who have 100% of God figured out, we are all on a journey , some hands some feet others eyes, nose, ect. We are called to be fruit inspectors, if the fruit is good accept it, if its bad reject it, and know we each will stand before God and give an account to him and no one else.
As long as the division keeps up we will never be as effective for the Kingdom as we should be.

Click to expand...

Thanks bruv!

Jermayn said:

I believe the Shroud of Turin has been dated to around the Medieval period if I'm not mistaken.

Click to expand...

No, that was commonly accepted back in the 70s, but has been pretty much shot down now.

Jipsah said:

No, that was commonly accepted back in the 70s, but has been pretty much shot down now.

Click to expand...

In...

Who needs a shroud when we have this unique blessing?

John 20:29 NIV

"Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

And out...

*smile*

Jeff Saunders said:

I am not Catholic but I have to say I agree with a lot of what you said!

Click to expand...

@Jipsah is Anglican, indeed @Jipsah correct me if I am wrong, but you are a high church Anglican in the Episcopal Church? Catholic in the sense that Anglicans are undoubtedly part of the Body of Christ, and also in the Anglo-Catholic sense, but also the heir of the traditional English Protestantism that gave us the King James Version that Restorationists and other people who have an objection to the Roman Catholic Church love to quote from, and several other beautiful translations of Scripture such as the Coverdale Psalter.

I am Orthodox, not Roman Catholic, and I agree with everything my friends @Jipsah and @Yeshua HaDerekh, a fellow member of my church, have said.

The interesting fact is that while the poster objects to Roman Catholicism, they are making statements that are theologically offensive to the majority of non-Catholic Christians. Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism are the second, third and fourth largest communities of Christians after the Roman Catholic Church, and Oriental Orthodoxy, which is closely related to Eastern Orthodoxy, is approximately the seventh largest, possibly the sixth largest, after the Reformed Christians and one other very loose denominational grouping, which is so loose I would argue it does not even count. But insofar as not all Reformed Christians are in communion, whereas nearly all Eastern Orthodox and all Oriental Orthodox are in full communion, along with the vast majority of Anglicans, and among Lutherans there are some churches which are members of both the LWF and the ILC if memory serves, so if we talk about churches in full communion, then the Oriental Orthodox probably are the fifth largest.

Joseph G said:

"Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Click to expand...

That blessing is not negated by the Shroud of Turin not by the other icon of Christ that appeared under miraculous circumstances, the Acheiropoieta, nor any other icon of Christ our True God (nearly all of which are based on those two, for example, the celebrated sixth century icon of Christ Pantocrator at the miraculously God-preserved Orthodox Monastery of St. Catharine of Sinai in the middle of the Sinai peninsula, which is surrounded by otherwise hostile Bedouin tribes, who nonetheless regard the monastery with affection, some being Christian, for the monks provide medical services to the Bedouins (and also operate a small number of chapels in the area catering to the Christian minority among the Bedouin Arabs, whose own survival is itself miraculous).

This is because the blessing in question applies to all of us who have not seen Christ and touched his wounds in the manner of St. Thomas the Apostle. However, St. Thomas himself was also greatly blessed, who evangelized along the trade route through Syria and Mesopotamia, crossing the border into the hostile Persian Empire, and from thence into the hostile Hindu states, in so doing being the founder of the Church in Edessa, Nineveh, Seleucia-Cstesiphon, Basra and in Kerala, India (this trade route was frequently plied by Jewish merchants, and indeed the first Jews arrived in Kerala not long after Alexander the Great established contact with India, with a Jewish community, known as the Kochin Jews, definitely existing by the 2nd century BC, and continuing to thrive until the late 20th century, when most of the younger members of the community migrated to Israel or elsewhere, although the Jews still own the Paradesi synagogue. Additionally, around 400,000 members of the millions of Mar Thoma Christians who are members of those churches descended from that founded by St. Thomas the Apostle are of pure Jewish descent and are endogamous, being survivors of a fourth century shipwreck.

St. Thomas himself received a crown of martyrdom in Kerala in 53 AD when an enraged Maharajah threw a javelin at him, and the site of his martyrdom is the location of the oldest church building I am personally aware of, albeit one unfortunately heavily modified beyond recognition by the Portuguese following their conquest of Kerala (at which time they also tried to convert the Mar Thoma Christians, who were members of the Church of the East, to Roman Catholicism; a very large number resisted, and most became members of the Syriac Orthodox Church*, to the extent that at present there are more Mar Thoma Christians in the Syriac Orthodox church than their are Suroye (people in the Middle East in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and the Holy Land who speak or historically spoke Aramaic as their vernacular language, and who still worship primarily in Classical Syriac Aramaic, which was the prevalent Aramaic dialect among Christians in the first millenium - at present, the largest Christian Aramaic dialect is Neo Assyrian Eastern Neo Aramaic, spoken by 700,000 members of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East**, predominantly in Iraq and Persia, and perhaps by some Syriac Orthodox of the Suroye ethnic group in that region as well, and the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East also worship in Classical Syriac.

All of these Aramaic language churches that i have mentioned were founded by St. Thomas together with his disciples Addai and Mari.

* Some Mar Thoma Christians later rejoined the descendants of the Church of the East, those being the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East. The Syriac Orthodox Church is much larger in India, however, and slightly larger in the Middle East, except in Iraq, however, more members of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East speak vernacular Aramaic, roughly 700,000. A few tens of thousands of Syriac Orthodox speak a Western Aramaic dialect known as Turoyo, whereas those in the Holy Land, who primarily live in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, speak another Western Aramaic dialect which is similar to the Aramaic spoken by Jewish communities that have historically resided in the Holy Land, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and neighboring towns, for centuries prior to the Zionist movement and the formation of the State of Israel, and also another dialect spoken by Muslims living in approximately the same language. However, all of these Aramaic dialects are in danger, due to increased use of Arabic and Hebrew.

** The Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East are what remains of what was once the largest church, geographically, before a massive genocide initiated by the Mongol-Turkic Islamic warlord Tamerlane and continued by his sons, Unlike most genocidal warlords, Tamerlane is buried in a lavish shrine in Uzbekistan and is lauded as a national hero, which strikes me as horrifying, especially when we consider that the Church of the East used to reach all the way from the island of Socotra off the south coast of Yemen in the Southwest, to the Caucaus region and Iran in the Northwest, across Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayas to Mongolia in the Northeast, China in the Far East and Tibet at the Southeastern end (there being archaeological evidence of the church in all these places I have mentioned. This massive genocide of Christians is rivaled in scale only by the genocide against Armenians, Syriac and Assyrian Christans (who call it the Sayfo) and Pontic Greeks in 1915 waged by the Ottoman Empire, who decided despite the absence of any violent resistance from the Christians that they would side with the Allies instead of the Central Powers, as the Hashemite Bedouin Muslims had done in the region of Mecca and Medina and Jordan, and on that basis attempted to kill the Christians, but unlike the Hashemite freedom fighters who died in battle, the Christians were killed defenselessly: men, women and children, in acts of unspeakable murder and mayhem of the sort the Ottoman Empire had developed a reputation for (in Syriac the genocide is referred to as the Sayfo, meaning Sword in Aramaic, which is all you need to know about what transpired).

However every martyr from this genocide won the priceless crown of martyrdom according to the words of Christ our True God, who did promise that anyone who confesses Him before men, He will confess before the Father. The Armenians, Syriacs, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks could have saved themselves, as could the members of the Church of the East 800 years previously, by converting to Islam, but they did not, following in the example of St. Thomas the Apostle.