Ted Wixted commenced speaking from his own soapbox in the Brisbane Public Forum on 11 February 1962, and soon after issued the first of some 50 numbered pamphlets.
These pamphlets cover various subjects, including the Bible, church doctrine, Roman Catholic political intrigue, the Vietnam War, intrigue related to the Public Forum, civil liberties, a code of ethics, etc.
An account of Ted’s forum activities and the context in which pamphlets were issued will be provided at a later date.
The pamphlets in this first post (Nos 1, 2, 26, 39, 40) focus on religion. The remainder will be added to this website progressively.
January 2008
Pamphlets 11, 19, 21 and 25 have now been added to this website (see below).
Pamphlet 11 was first issued in 1963 as a challenge to clergy in the State of Queensland. In subsequent years it was issued in other Australian States, with wording amended to suit the changed geographical locations. For example, the NSW edition was published with the title ‘An Open Letter to the Clergy of New South Wales’ with a Sydney postal address.
Pamphlet 21 quotes Josephus from Antiquities Book 11 chapter 4, also Book 10 chapter 10. These references appear to correspond to Antiquities Book 11 chapter 5 verse 2, also Book 10 chapter 9 in some editions available today.
Pamphlet 25 was only ever published in an abridged form. For years this pamphlet was a mainstay of Ted’s stand at the Public Forum. Its propositions met with sustained and trenchant opposition from church people, not least because of what it said about Isaiah 7:14. Of course what the churches once strenuously opposed on this matter, they now virtually concede, as illustrated in the Archbishop of Canterbury BBC interview.May 2008
Pamphlets 3, 4, 5, 6 and Ted’s article The Olympics – The Greeks… and a Hebrew Bible have now been added to this section (see list below).
Ted distributed copies of The Olympics article on the second day he spoke in the public forum. This article is one of several he had published in a local newspaper, The Clarion, in the years before the public forum. Although unnumbered, it is counted as his first “pamphlet” issued in the forum. The following week he issued the first of his contemporary, numbered forum pamphlets.
Pamphlet 6 is the annual report of Ted’s first year in the forum. He had good reason to understand his role there as a “job” he had been given, one that must done properly and thoroughly. Pamphlets and other written material would ensure a permanent record, and also that what he had undertaken could not be concealed or misrepresented later on.
The reader may sense from these early pamphlets some of the life and intellectual vigour that attended the forum meetings.
February 2009
Pamphlets 10 and 15 have now been added to this section (see list below).
The first of these two pamphlets deals with what the Bible says about Latinism.The second is a chart setting out Rome’s relative insignificance in the Ecumenical Councils before 900 AD. A more detailed treatment of Rome’s role in the early centuries of church history is found in A Cameo of History and The Credentials of the Roman Church that appear in the Other Wixted writings section.
August 2009
Pamphlets 7, 8 and 9 have now been added to this section (see list below).
Pamphlets 7 and 8 cast the churches as opponents of the Messiah (i.e. Anointed). Pamphlet 9 is about the politics surrounding the Brisbane Public Forum in 1963.
Note: there appears to be an obvious typographical error in the hard copy of Pamphlet 7. Accordingly, I have changed the third line of the ‘Attached Card’ to read ‘Matthew 1:23…’ in place of ‘Matthew 1:25…’.March 2012
Ted issued six numbered pamphlets in each of his first seven years in the Public Forum. The three pamphlets issued from February to July 1964 (Nos. 12, 13, 14) have been added here (see list below).
Pamphlet 12 is the report on Ted’s second year in the Public Forum. It also deals with the strange case of the farmer who was committed to the Goodna Mental Hospital in 1929.
Pamphlet 13 is about some old bones mentioned in a school textbook, while Pamphlet 14 makes points about messianic prophecy.
April 2013
Pamphlets
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