The first time anything appeared at Magic City Morning Star News in relation to R.P.BenDedek, it was a press release which Ken picked up from a PressWire service.

Subsequent to that, and after picking up and printing a few of my social commentaries from the KingsCalendar Website, Ken agreed to my offer to write the 'Stories from China' articles.

I have in my time at Magic City, also written some letters pertaining to issues published at Magic City News. I have, during this time, received a number of emails, some of them nice, and some of them not so nice.

But the ones that I dislike the most are the ones that come from ignorant people who have glanced at my website, and without investigating their own assertions, accuse me of either being a religious fundamentalist, or worse, of being a soul damned to hell for preaching against the infallibility of the Bible.

I use the word 'ignorant' in its literal sense, for in fact, both of these accusations are based in ignorance. Just for the record, I would like to briefly explain to both camps, my actual position.

BenDedek the Religious fundamentalist.

Coming from a mixed religious (and racial) background, I am very tolerant of people's religious beliefs, even when I completely disagree with them, and it is partly because of my interest in various religious beliefs, that I have throughout my life, studied not only in different religious institutions, but have studied different religious beliefs.

I am a fundamentalist, only when it comes to believing that people should put their money where there mouth is, when they start claiming to belong to the one and only true religion. If one really believes that, they have no right to live 'outside' the tenets of that religion.

As far as the Bible is concerned, I am truly a fundamentalist, only in that I do believe in the God of Abraham, and that the record we have of his involvement in the history of the world, is a true record, of the true God.

This does not mean however, that I ascribe to any particular religious affiliation, or hold to any school of 'theological beliefs'. My faith is my own, and the older I get, the stronger it grows. It is a personal faith that is not dependent upon any particular religious affiliation, and nor is it a type of faith which seeks to convert everyone to my way of thinking.

Those who see me as forcing religious fundamentalism down anyone's throat are wrong. Every time I have written anything at Magic City News in relation to the Bible or Morality, its' ultimate theme was not religion, but social cohesion and stability.

BenDedek the Heretic.

If those who believe that I am going to Hell are correct, then I certainly hope that my theology on hell is the right one, for personally my beliefs in relation to the salvation of Christ as presented in the New Testament, lead me to conclude either that no one will go to hell, or that those who do will be annihilated.

The basis for damning me to hell, rests upon the belief, that the 'King's Calendar' claims that the Bible is fallible, and that one cannot trust anything written in it. The claim derives from personal perspectives held by both EXTREME sides of the Biblical Infallibility argument. In fact, the King's Calendar' claim is that the 'historical' reliability of the Scriptures is now demonstrated; a claim well and truly rebutted by all researchers to date.

Many believers and unbelievers believe that if every single thing in the Bible is not exactly and literally true, then the Bible is false, and God ceases to be. This is not my belief.

I believe that the Old Testament historical records are in fact a true historical record, of the Almighty's dealings with Israel and the world. I believe that it is inspired by God. What I do not believe is that He personally 'dictated' it, and arranged every word and letter specifically in that order. This is not a refutation of God. I don't believe that God wants our dependence to be on a book, but upon Him. The book is the guide, not the objective.

BenDedek the Chronological Historian.

The Kingscalendar is not a work that seeks to destroy belief in God, and nor is it a book which promotes religion. It is a discovery touching upon the admitted chronological problems contained in the Bible, particularly in relation to the books of Kings and Chronicles, which by their own admissions, are compilations from a variety of different sources, which are named, but which no longer exist.

What the book demonstrates is, that prior to the canonisation of the Scriptures, at a time when all the writings of Israel were being collated, the Hasidim transliterated the chronological records, to conceal and or to extend the perceived length of Israel's History.

Now that the data has been converted back into its original form, the historical record does in fact align with known history, and where it doesn't, it is demonstrated that secular chronologies at those points, are without demonstrative evidence.

So let me state for the record: I am not affiliated with any fundamentalist or evangelical religious group, and while I don't hold to an elitist concept of Biblical Infallibility, I do hold that the record is reliable, and does in fact render a true account of God's dealing with Israel and the world.

So please, if you are going to damn me to hell, or accuse me of religious extremism, please provide me with either the evidence, or at least with an email address that allows me to reply. 

R.P.Bendedek

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
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R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China. King's Calendar Social Commentaries may be found at: http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=331

The King's Calendar is a chronological study, of people and events listed in the Bible, Josephus, and The Damascus Document of the Essenes. It both confirms and challenges many cherished concepts in relation to Biblical Infallibility and Bible History, The Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Josephus, the Reign of Nebuchadrezzar, Moses and the Exodus, Jeremiah's Seventy year prophecy of the Babylonian Exile, Daniel's Vision of Seventy weeks, and discrepancies between the Septuagint and Masoretic Texts of the Bible.