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In the past we have been strongly criticised by Christians for unfairly portraying their faith as murderous, which they declare is a faith of "love". In our defense, we have always pointed out that primarily we use the Christian bible to prove our point—the point being that organized religion has been and continues to be the greatest threat to human survival on this planet. With that in mind, I would like to quote an article in full from one of Egypt's oldest newspapers, Cairo's AL-AHRAM Weekly On-Line (10-16 April 2008, Issue No. 892). The article is titled Genocide announced: Bombs would fall under other circumstances, but when influential rabbis call for the total annihilation of the Palestinians the world watches without blinking, writes Saleh Al-Naami
As you read through this article, keep in mind that Israel's rabbis use as their authority the same book that forms the foundation of Christianity's New Testament. Also keep in mind that Jesus, who founded his messiahship on the Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim (the Tanakh, or, as Christians know it, the Old Testament) is quoted as declaring that he had not come to earth to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill—and that he had come to earth to bring a sword! Well, amen Jesus, for that you HAVE done!
"All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts." This was the religious opinion issued one week ago by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute, a long-established religious institute attended by students and soldiers in the Israeli settlements of the West Bank. In an article published by numerous religious Israeli newspapers two weeks ago and run by the liberal Haaretz on 26 March, Rosen asserted that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this stand. Rosen, an authority able to issue religious opinions for Jews, wrote that Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites that attacked the Israelite tribes on their way to Jerusalem after they had fled from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. He wrote that the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the Amalekites, and that this ruling is known in Jewish jurisprudence.Rosen's article, which created a lot of noise in Israel, included the text of the ruling in the Torah: "Annihilate the Amalekites from the beginning to the end. Kill them and wrest them from their possessions. Show them no mercy. Kill continuously, one after the other. Leave no child, plant, or tree. Kill their beasts, from camels to donkeys." Rosen adds that the Amalekites are not a particular race or religion, but rather all those who hate the Jews for religious or national motives. Rosen goes as far as saying that the "Amalekites will remain as long as there are Jews. In every age Amalekites will surface from other races to attack the Jews, and thus the war against them must be global." He urges application of the "Amalekites ruling" and says that the Jews must undertake to implement it in all eras because it is a "divine commandment".
Rosen does not hesitate to define the "Amalekites of this age" as the Palestinians. He writes, "those who kill students as they recite the Torah, and fire missiles on the city of Siderot, spread terror in the hearts of men and women. Those who dance over blood are the Amalekites, and we must respond with counter-hatred. We must uproot any trace of humanitarianism in dealing with them so that we emerge victorious."
The true outrage is that most of those authorised to issue Jewish religious opinions support the view of Rabbi Rosen, as confirmed by Haaretz newspaper. At the head of those supporting his opinion is Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the leading religious authority in Israel's religious national current, and former chief Eastern rabbi for Israel. Rosen's opinion also has the support of Rabbi Dov Lior, president of the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed and a candidate for the post of chief rabbi of Israel. A number of political leaders in Israel have also shown enthusiasm for the opinion, including Ori Lubiansky, head of the Jerusalem municipality.
There is no dispute among observers in Israel that the shooting in Jerusalem three weeks ago that killed eight Jewish students in a religious school was pivotal for Jewish authorities issuing religious opinions of a racist, hateful nature. The day following the Jerusalem incident, a number of rabbis led by Daniel Satobsky issued a religious opinion calling on Jewish youth and "all those who believe in the Torah" to take revenge on the Palestinians as hastily as possible. A week following the operation, a group of leading rabbis issued an unprecedented religious opinion permitting the Israeli army to bomb Palestinian civilian areas. The opinion is issued by the "Association of Rabbis of the Land of Israel" and states that Jewish religious law permits the bombing of Palestinian civilian residential areas if they are a source of attacks on Jewish residential areas. It reads, "when the residents of cities bordering settlements and Jewish centres fire shells at Jewish settlements with the aim of death and destruction, the Torah permits for shells to be fired on the sources of firing even if civilian residents are present there."
The opinion adds that sometimes it is necessary to respond with shelling to sources of fire immediately, without granting the Palestinian public prior warning. A week ago, Rabbi Eliyahu Kinvinsky, the second most senior authority in the Orthodox religious current, issued a religious opinion prohibiting the employment of Arabs, particularly in religious schools. This religious opinion followed another that had been issued by Rabbi Lior prohibiting the employment of Arabs and the renting of residential apartments to them in Jewish neighbourhoods. In order to provide a climate that allows Jewish extremist organisations to continue attacking Palestinian citizens, Rabbi Israel Ariel, one of the most prominent rabbis in the West Bank settlement complex, recently issued a religious opinion prohibiting religious Jews involved in attacks against Palestinians to appear before Israeli civil courts. According to this opinion, they must instead demand to appear before Torah courts that rule by Jewish religious law.
Haaretz newspaper noted that what Rabbi Ariel was trying to achieve through this religious opinion has in fact already taken place. The first instance of such a court in Kfar Saba ordered the release of a young Jewish woman called Tsevia Teshrael who attacked a Palestinian farmer in the middle of the West Bank. And there are Jewish religious authorities that glorify killing and praise terrorists, such as Rabbi Yitzhaq Ginsburg, a top rabbi in Israel who published a book entitled Baruch the Hero in memoriam of Baruch Goldstein, who committed the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994 when he opened fire and killed 29 Palestinians as they were performing the dawn prayer in Hebron in the southern West Bank. Ginsburg considers his act "honourable and glorious".
The danger of these religious opinions lies in the fact that the religious authorities issuing them have wide respect among religious Jewish youth. And while only 28 per cent of Israel's population is religious, more than 50 per cent of Israelis define themselves as conservative and grant major significance to opinions issued by Jewish religious authorities. According to a study conducted by the Social Sciences Department of Bar Elon University, more than 90 per cent of those who identify as religious believe that if state laws and government orders are incongruous with the content of religious opinions issued by rabbis, they must overlook the former and act in accordance with the latter.
What grants the racist religious opinions a deeper and far-reaching impact is the fact that for the last decade followers of the Zionist religious current, who form nearly 10 per cent of the population, have been seeking to take control of the army and security institutions. They are doing so through volunteering for service in special combat units. The spokesperson's office in the Israeli army says that although the percentage of followers of this current is low in the state's demographic makeup, they form more than 50 per cent of the officers in the Israeli army and more than 60 per cent of its special unit commanders. According to an opinion poll of religious officers and soldiers supervised by the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya and published last year, more than 95 per cent of religious soldiers and officers say that they will execute orders from the elected government and their leaders in the army only if they are in harmony with the religious opinions issued by leading rabbis and religious authorities.
Wasil Taha, Arab Knesset member from the Tajammu Party led by Azmi Bishara, says that these religious opinions lead to the committal of crimes. He mentions religious opinions issued by a number of rabbis in mid-1995 that led to the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at that time. "If that's what happens when religious opinions urge attacks against Jewish leaders such as Rabin, what will the situation be like when they urge attacks against Palestinian leaders and the Palestinian public?" he asks. "We, as Arab leaders, have begun to feel a lack of security following this flood of religious opinions, and we realise that the matter requires a great deal of caution in our movements as we are certain that there are those who seek to implement these opinions," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Taha dismisses those who ask about the role of the government and Israeli political cadre in confronting these extremist religious opinions. "The ministers in the Israeli government and the Knesset members compete to incite against the Palestinian public and don't hesitate to threaten expulsion of the Palestinians who live on their land in Israel and carry Israeli citizenship outside of Israel's borders, just as former deputy premier Avigdor Lieberman and representative Evi Etam did," Taha said. He notes that Palestinian citizens within Israel have begun to take extreme precautionary measures since the issue of these religious opinions, including security measures around mosques and public institutions and informing officials of public demonstrations so that members of Jewish terrorist organisations can be prevented from attacking participants. Taha holds that the sectors of the Palestinian population most likely to be harmed by these religious opinions are those living in the various cities populated by both Jews and Palestinians, such as Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramleh and Jerusalem.
Palestinian writer and researcher Abdul-Hakim Mufid, from the city Um Fahem, holds that the religious opinions of rabbis have gained major significance due to the harmony between official rhetoric and that of the rabbis. Mufid notes that official Israeli establishments have not tried to confront the "fascist" rhetoric expressed in these religious opinions even though they are capable of doing so. "Most of the rabbis who issue tyrannical religious opinions are official employees in state institutions and receive salaries from them. And the state has not held these rabbis accountable or sought to prohibit the issue of such opinions," he told the Weekly.
Mufid points out that when the official political institution is in a crisis, the Zionist consensus behind these religious opinions grows more intense, and offers as an example the religious opinions relied upon by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the early 1980s to justify his call to forcefully expel the Palestinians. Mufid adds that Israel in practice encourages all those who kill Palestinians, and points to the way that the Israeli government dealt with the recommendations of the Orr Commission that investigated the Israeli police's killing of 13 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship in October of 2000. The government closed the file even though the commission confirmed that the police had acted aggressively towards the Palestinian citizens. Mufid suggests that what makes the racist rhetoric the rabbis insist upon influential is the silence of leftist and liberal voices, and the lack of any direct mobilisation against it.
(© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved. Posted at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/892/re72.htm)
Last month Lawrence explained why he believed in a creator, so this month I'll explain why I believe in continually putting my boot heels to certain bible thumpers. To do this I could hide behind the excuse that religious fanatics are a danger to the whole fabric of world stability—which they are—but the truth is that the preaching of certain sanctimonious toads gets right up my nose and I find it impossible to sit still while they spread their poisonous gas!
Now, because I personally knew the old fraud, in the past my favorite target has been the late "Apostle & Pastor General" Herbert W. Armstrong, or "HWA" as he was known to the old Worldwide Church of God. However, even I am bright enough to know that beating a dead dog loses its effectiveness after awhile, and that any prudent person moves on to another target. For me, the next best thing to Herbie himself is HWA-wannabe, "Apostle, Prophet and Pastor General" of the Philadelphia Church of God, Gerald R. Flurry.
Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to expose old Gerry for what he is since all one has to do is to take a read in his religio-mag-rag, The Philadelphia Trumpet, to get a monthly dose of regurgitated Armstrongism at its worst. Be this as it may, Gerry's "From the Editor" in the April, 2008 issue really pushed me over the edge because it is a scathing attack on the George W. Bush regime for ... are you ready for this? ... for NOT declaring war on Iran!
I mean, come on here Gerry! What about all that Sermon-On-the-Mount crap in which your god commands you to love your enemies and to turn the other cheek? I know you religious types are well practiced at talking out of both sides of your mouth, but really, Gerry, this is a bit much—even for you—although come to think of it, you have boasted that you learned your craft at the feet of Herbie Armstrong, so maybe your article isn't that far out!
Gerry writes: "Who is behind the radical Islamic movement? Iran. We have been saying so for 14 years. The Iranians began state-sponsored terrorism. They continue to fuel the terrorist war in the Middle East. IRAN IS THE HEAD OF THE TERRORIST SNAKE! The only way to win the war on terror is to either subdue or conquer Iran.... Wouldn't it be far better to act now, before Iran gets nuclear weapons?" (Emphasis is Gerry's.)
First of all, unless he's a CIA secret agent, we can safely assume that Gerry has no inside knowledge of Iran's foreign policy, and that he is simply burping up George W. Bush's Israeli propaganda—the kind of lying crap that has us buried up to our bloody necks in a no-win Iraqi war (i.e., when George W. Bush and Israel assured us that Saddam Hussein was behind international state-sponsored terrorism, and possessed those infamous "weapons of mass destruction" and thus lied us into our present quagmire). It was America's fundamentalist preachers who stood behind Bush while he beat Israel's war drums, exhorting their faithful Christian sheep with so-called bible prophecy to justify attacking and murdering hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. That's why we have 4,000+ dead US soldiers and upwards of a trillion or two dollars in debt that will eventually destroy what's left of the good ol' US of A, thank you very much G. W. Bush and Gerald R. Flurry!
One of the most aggravating things for me is knowing that Herbie Armstrong taught young men that it was a sin to serve in the military, and during the Vietnam War provided letters and ministerial help to keep church members out of the US Armed Forces. Since he's made an idol of old Hebie Armstrong and mirrors everything the man taught, I can only assume that God's latest end-time apostle Gerry Flurry teaches his young men to be the same cringing cowards. In other words, Gerry, being the consummate hypocrite that he is, advocates a war in which neither he nor his followers will fight! Worse still he's promoting a war that could well spark world war three! And so Gerry talks the talk, but can be counted on to run and hide under his Herbert W. Armstrong "prayer rock" (see my Feb., 2008 opinion titled "Only Fools and Horse" to read about Herb's famous "prayer rock") when the shooting starts!
After denouncing the Middle East peace initiatives of past world leaders and promoting King David's alleged history of annihilation against the Philistines as a way to solve the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gerry concludes his article with this statement: "Are we too sophisticated today to choose King David and his way of life? Presently, America and Israel are choosing the Oslo Accord and the way of death."
Excuse me Gerry! Even your own bible says that David was a bloody murderer—so much so that your god prohibited him from building the temple in Jerusalem! (1 Chronicles 22:8: "But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.") For once the Lord was right since the details of the David myth is one long record of killing for gain, profit, revenge or lust. And so Gerry, how the hell can you, a self-proclaimed apostle and prophet, sit in the comfort of your cozy office and write crap about anyone choosing David and his way of life without slapping your Jesus in the face?
In Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5), we read this: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Pardon me Gerry, but it is because we have been following David's murderous way of life that we and the world are in the bloody messes that are engulfing the world as a whole! Instead of minding our own damned business, America, at the urging of bible-thumping war mongers like you, is digging itself deeper into a bottomless pit. In my opinion, you, Gerald Flurry, are a menace to the peace and safety of this country, and to the lives of our soldiers! And the way you tow the murderous Zionist line, I have to wonder just where lie your real loyalties? (Perchance, have you ever read these bible verses: Leviticus 24:17: "And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. Matthew 26:52: "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Luke 9:55: "But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."?)
Now folks, there is a way that you, the ordinary web surfer, can help men like Gerry Flurry. One need only subscribe to his free magazine, and urge all their friends to do likewise, since publishing and mailing out that rag will take money out of his budget to spread "God's word". Yes, it might be a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things, but it's better than just shaking our heads and doing absolutely nothing while Christian fundamentalists help drag us into another bloody and perhaps final Middle East war!
The message of this webpage makes us rather lonely out here in cyberspace. What I mean is that we are slammed by Christians for pointing out the deadly flaws in their holy book, and we are slammed by atheists for daring to admit that we believe in a creation, since by implication that means we believe in a creator. While we understand the reason behind Christians not liking us, when it comes to atheists what we have discovered is that many of these fine people are just as bigoted and fanatical as their Christian counterparts. In other words, for many if not most, atheism is as much a religion as Christianity. And so, here we are caught between two warring factions—damned if we do, damned if we don't!
That's why I thought that some of our readers would be interested in the reason why I don't buy the atheist line and why I believe in a creation and a creator. To do that let me start with a question: Do you remember the day you were born? Do you remember your mother's first words to you? Of course you don't! What a silly question—or is it?
I'm a long way from being a scientist in any fashion, but those who are highly educated in the appropriate fields can explain the fact that the human brain is fully operational at the time of birth, as are our eyes, nose, ears, mouth and all the rest of our bodily parts and functions. But the reason we don't remember anything at birth is that our brains had no knowledge; they had yet to be programmed. At birth we begin a lifetime process of learning new things, which continues until the last moment of our lives. Every one thousandth of a millisecond, 24 hours a day, the brain receives electrical signals from every part of the human body, as well as outside of the body. When the brain is alerted to potential good or bad, human reason, based on the amount of education/information one has accumulated, takes over and decides whether or not to act. The complexities of the human brain would fill a dozen textbooks, but the long and the short of the matter (no pun intended) is that man has only scratched the surface when it comes to understanding those complexities. The same can be said of other body parts, such as the eye.
Whatever the eye sees the brain interprets. Naturally, the interpretation is only as accurate as the the knowledge stored in the brain. If the knowledge is insufficient, then one is at a loss to interpret. Such a situation should inspire a normal person to research and acquire new knowledge, since that knowledge might well be vital to one's survival. Once acquired, this new knowledge is stored for future use—in other words, the brain has been programmed. The same process applies to the nose/smell, the ears/hearing and touch. My point is that the human body is marvelous beyond description, but if we are to believe the moribund theories of evolution, then it all just happened—came to be out of nothing.
The human body is just one reason why I can't believe in evolution. Nothing so unfathomably complex could have just happened, and every explanation of the evolutionary theories screams out this fact! The human body—the entire universe—tells us that it was designed, which then requires a creator. I will go beyond that and state that for most humans some kind of a sixth sense tells us that there is a spirit within that drives us to connect to the creative spirit that brought us to be. This explains why every culture in every age has invented religions—all and well if it weren't for that other spirit in man: greed! But this aside, you now know why I believe in a creator, although not the many thousands of gods one can find scattered around the world and in history; and it explains why we do what we do with this webpage.
Lawrence L. Anthony.
See these webpages for more information on the human brain:
www.fcs.uga.edu/ext/bbb/needtoknow/ch1/1_2faq2.htm
Human Brain—Neural Signaling and Connectivity in Visual System Development
To be sure there are many things in life that one may deem unpleasant. For me these would include the indescribably putrid smell of rotting potatoes; driving past a pig farm in Kansas on a hot summer day and the accumulated filth of a stopped-up toilet. To this select company I would add the religious rantings of Gerald Flurry, the self-proclaimed Pastor General of the Philadelphia Church of God. Just one of the reasons I dislike this pompous windbag and group him in the select company above is the god-like status he's taken to himself and the damage he inflicts on the poor deluded souls who follow him.
To demonstrate my complaint I will direct you to this website where one may find quotations from Gerald's writings promoting himself as something akin to divinity on earth. Actually the quotation that really sticks in my gizzard is Gerry's implication that his faithful should fall at his feet: "Think on 'the feet of him'—some man ... We need to see the beautiful feet of 'him'—the one bringing revelation ... God actually wants us to focus on this 'him' ... Not only should we see the man ... but also notice his feet.... Look at the beautiful feet of him." Well, sorry Gerry, not me! In fact, why don't you give me a call and I'll tell you what you can do with both your "beautiful" feet!
For me the most pathetic thing about little frumped-faced Gerry Flurry and his band of goose-stepping lieutenants is that they've managed to combine Flurry's selective biblical fear-mongering crap with Herbert W. Armstrong's old proven money-making religious formula and extract from their faithfully ignorant some 30 percent of their gross income, which has allowed Frumpie (like Herbert W. before him) to live in multi-million-dollar luxury out in a place called Edmond, Oklahoma.
Fine. We all know the old saying about a fool and his money. But to any of Flurry's followers with just a smattering of common sense, let me point out a fundamental flaw with your pastor general's trumpeted divine authority. As he never ceases to remind us, it is first and foremost derived from Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), whom Gerald claims to have succeeded. This is why Gerry devotes endless praise of HWA in his religio-mag-rag, The Philadelphia Trumpet, and why Herb's status in the Philadelphia Church of God is nothing short of demigod. In fact it explains why Flurry imported Herbert Armstrong's alleged "prayer rock" from a farm field outside Eugene, Oregon and had it planted on the campus of his Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond. Herbie's god-like status is why Gerry successfully fought a copyright case against the leadership of the Worldwide Church of God (Herbie's former, albeit now shrunken empire) to reprint Herb's crappy books. One of these is The Missing Dimension in Sex, which is a sexually explicit how-to book about the beauty of God-ordained sexual intercourse between a husband and wife. I single out this book because it is a monument to Herbert W. Armstrong's shameless hypocrisy.
First let me say that I find it hard to believe there is any minister associated with the old Worldwide Church of God that didn't know something about the perverted sex life of Herbert W. Armstrong, and that would include long-time WCG minister Gerald Flurry. I'm not speaking of rumor here. Even in my lowly position within Armstrong's Pasadena empire I was privy to more than just gossip.
During my years in Pasadena I had occasional limited exposure to HWA, which afforded me the opportunity to observe him in a number of situations—like the time I was in his lavish Pasadena mansion while he was hosting a student dinner. (It was his custom to occasionally invite senior college students to his mansion for dinner.) As the evening wore on, old Herb, slobbering drunk on Dom Pérignon Champagne, undertook one of his usual sex talks wherein he luridly described to his young male and female guests the "joys of marital sex". Despite the fact that we all had been taught to revere this old man as something akin to divinity on earth, speaking from my own view his talk was totally embarrassing—as embarrassing as the 1977 articles the 85-year-old darling began publishing in the Worldwide News shortly after he married 39-year-old divorcee Ramona Martin (thus violating his own prohibition against divorce and remarriage). Those articles were nothing more than the old sweetheart crowing about the ability of an 85 year old man to have sex with a young woman! Of course this was short-lived when the old geezer (as is common with old geezers who try making whoopee at that age) suffered a near-fatal massive heart attack from over-exertion. But these episodes don't hold a candle to Herbie's detestable history of incest, the details of which can be found at this link. For a decade back in the 30s and 40s, while weekly thumping his bible before his congregation, this man of God was regularly having forcible intercourse with his teenage daughter, Dorothy. (In fact, even after her marriage in 1943, "daddy" suggested to Dorothy that their "special relationship" need not end!) Although I heard a few whispers of this after I moved to Pasadena in 1975, I was made aware of the sickening details when former WCG minister David Robinson's 1980 book Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web was published. Needless to say, that book caused a major stir within the WCG ministry.
Since I was directly working for a man who was the highest ranking minister in Armstrong's WCG empire, and another who would eventually succeed Armstrong as pastor general, I went to them with questions about Robinson's allegations. Both freely admitted the truth, but assured me that Herbie had bitterly repented. Now, I knew Dave Robinson to be a man of integrity, which is why he published his book, and in subsequent conversations with him I was convinced of Armstrong's guilt in not only the matter of incest, but in other heinous acts of misconduct. In short the day came when I finally had to face the disillusioning fact that old Herbie Armstrong was a lying, thieving monster and the evidence is as plain as a buffalo turd on a sunny prairie for anyone who cares to look—and take a whiff. (This is why I went on to negotiate with Dave, and later his widow, to sell his book via my Commonwealth Books in Salt Lake City.) Undoubtedly Herb's undeniable guilt explains why his lawyers tried every dirty legal trick known to that disreputable profession to keep Dave's book out of print, although they never once denied its contents—nor did they sue for defamation. All of this is why I would find it hard to believe that long-time ex-WCG minister Gerald Flurry is ignorant of his idol's past. But whether or not he pleads ignorance or simple disbelief is a moot point. Herbert Armstrong's monstrous sexual predatory past speaks volumes about any man who would derive his alleged godly authority from such a creature!
This observation leads us to the February 2008 pro-Zionist issue of Gerald's The Philadelphia Trumpet. Writing with the same shameless straight-faced pro-Zionist rhetoric and half-truths as did his mentor and idol in the old Plain Truth religio-mag-rag, frumped-face Gerry spends five full pages huffing and puffing about the nasty way George W. Bush has been treating poor little Israel. What I mean is that Gerry uses carefully culled snippets of world "news" from Israeli sources combined with snippets of selective "history" and prophetic threats to make his supposed case. Let me give you an example of Gerald's dishonesty by quoting from page 1: "On Nov. 30, 2007, Caroline Glick wrote in her column for the Jerusalem Post: 'This week the Bush administration legitimized Arab anti-Semitism. In an effort to please the Saudis and their Arab brothers, the Bush administration agreed to physically separate the Jews from the Arabs at the Annapolis conference in a manner that aligns with the apartheid policies of the Arab world which prohibit Israelis from setting foot on Arab soil'"
Why is this quotation dishonest? Well, for a starter the state of Israel is perhaps the most racist, apartheid nation on earth and Flurry doesn't bother to even hint at that fact! (If anyone doubts this statement, there are numerous websites, books, etc. devoted to the hateful racist policies of this deadly hypocritical nation. One is The Life of an American Jew in Racist Marxist Israel by the late Jack Berstein.) Since Gerald has made numerous trips to Israel, we cannot suppose he's ignorant of life in racist, Marxist Israel where Palestinians are kept strictly segregated from Jews and treated like dogs, which of course is their defined status in the Talmud. (For anyone who would like the "plain truth" on what religious Jews believe and teach about non-Jews, it can be found in all its sickening glory in Prof. Israel Shahak's book Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of 3,000 Years.) Therefore, for Gerald to publish a five-page full color article moaning about alleged discriminations against Israelis at an Arab-Israeli conference at the hands of the Bush administration is nothing short of calculated hypocrisy! And when he offers subtitles like "Abandoning Israel" (p. 3), he masks the fact that the US government has given Israel over $100 billion in aid since 1949, and has built its army, navy and air force into the world's most modern fighting force, complete with nuclear weapons—and that George W. Bush has an unblemished record of being a lap dog for Israel since his first day in office. This appalling record of unquenched monetary and military generosity allows Israel to bully, torture and murder its Arab neighbors with few repercussions and it explains the primary reasons the Arab world hates the United States of America—not, as George W. Bush sold to gullible Americans after 911, because Arab terrorists "hate freedom and democracy!" In short, Gerald's pro-Zionist religio-mag-rag exposes him as either a stooge of the racist Zionism agenda, or a complete nincompoop!
Okay. For those of us who do not have our heads planted squarely up our ... well ... shall we say our "drainpipes" ... then we know enough to say to hell with Gerry's absurd self-importance and his selective rants. Thankfully this pathetic small-minded old darling's influence on the world is minute, and more thankfully he doesn't have the military power of a Shia Muslim cleric. In other words, Gerry and his little band of robots are but germs on the world stage—although I never forget that men like Pope Innocent III and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, were once little nobody religious fanatics who, through quirks of fate, found themselves deciding the fates of millions of trapped, helpless victims! What I want to focus on here is the real agenda that bible-thumping Christian fundamentalist fanatics fail to mention when they shamelessly prostitute themselves on behalf of the terrorist state of Israel.
What Flurry and his ilk don't want us to focus on is that Zionism IS NOT Judaism. Zionist Israel WAS NOT founded by religious Jews to serve Jehovah/YHWH. And factoring in so-called prophecy, a close examination of scripture will prove that the modern state of Israel doesn't even come close to fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. Israel was founded for a very different reason. Just one of the many eye-opening websites devoted to this subject is True Torah Jews Against Zionism where one may read the shocking evidence of what I have just stated. For example there is Zionism's role in the Holocaust and how Israel's future leaders could have saved the bulk of Europe's Jews from their horrible ordeal but instead chose to assist Hitler's plans to rid Europe of Jews in order to lay the foundations for a future state of Israel. In "THE ROLE OF ZIONISM IN THE HOLOCAUST" Rabbi Gedalya Liebermann writes: "These treacherous Zionist leaders betrayed their own flesh and blood. Zionism was never an option for Jewish salvation. Quite the opposite, it was a formula for human beings to be used as pawns for the power trip of several desperadoes. A perfidy! A betrayal beyond description! ... On the basis of their similar ideologies about ethnicity and nationhood, National Socialists and Zionists worked together for what each group believed was in its own national interests. This is just one example of the Zionist movements' collaboration with Hitler for the purpose of possibly receiving jurisdiction over a minute piece of earth, Palestine. And to top it all up, brainwashing! How far this unbelievable Zionist conspiracy has captured the Jewish masses, and how impossible it is for any different thought to penetrate their minds, even to the point of mere evaluation, can be seen in the vehemence of the reaction to any reproach. With blinded eyes and closed ears, any voice raised in protest and accusation is immediately suppressed and deafened by the thousandfold cry: 'Traitor,' 'Enemy of the Jewish People.'"
Folks, Israel was conceived by ruthless, communistic atheist Zionists who used Old Testament prophecy as a blueprint to scam trusting Christians and Jews into believing that modern Israel's existence was "bible prophecy" being fulfilled, when in reality the founders and their successors worked behind the scenes to actually fulfill an agenda of secular world domination. No. I'm not writing about a worldwide "Jewish conspiracy" here; it's a much, much larger picture that goes way beyond ethnic consideration. I'm writing about men and women—Jews and non-Jews—who are part of a larger group of soulless humans who have no loyalty to anything other than the vision of their new world order; I'm writing about men and women who will kill as many millions/billions as it takes to achieve their goal. I single out Israel because its founders and present leaders were/are key players in this coming new world order and because it uses ignorant trusting fundamentalist Christians and religious Jews as tools.
This is the thing that men like Gerry Flurry—either knowingly or unknowingly—keep us from discovering when they produce slick full-colored religio-mag-rags like The Philadelphia Trumpet. Knowingly or unknowingly they help the powers-that-be impliment their ever growing new world order monster.
In that vein, I would like to remind my readers of a law that was once near and dear to all true Americans. It was a law for which hundreds of thousands of American soldiers bled and died. Here it is: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Why this reminder? Let me tell you: While you and I had our attention diverted to other very important issues by the so-called news media—like the saga of Britney Spears and her child custody problems—another deadly assualt on what is left of the old United States of America occurred by our supposedly elected representatives. Instead of telling you myself, I'll offer a portion of an article by Paul Craig Roberts, who is the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. His article is titled Thinking For Yourself Is Now A Crime and is dated Monday, January 07, 2008. Here is a portion:
The assault on the US Constitution by the Democratic Party is as determined as the assault by the Republicans. On October 23, 2007, the House passed a bill sponsored by California Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman, chairwoman of a Homeland Security subcommittee, that overturns the constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression, association, and assembly.
The bill passed the House on a vote of 404-6. In the Senate the bill is sponsored by Maine Republican Susan Collins and apparently faces no meaningful opposition.
Harman's bill is called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. When HR 1955 becomes law, it will create a commission tasked with identifying extremist people, groups, and ideas. The commission will hold hearings around the country, taking testimony and compiling a list of dangerous people and beliefs. The bill will, in short, create massive terrorism in the United States. But the perpetrators of terrorism will not be Muslim terrorists; they will be government agents and fellow citizens.
We are beginning to see who will be the inmates of the detention centers being built in the US by Halliburton under government contract.
Who will be on the "extremist beliefs" list? The answer is: civil libertarians, critics of Israel, 9/11 skeptics, critics of the administration's wars and foreign policies, critics of the administration's use of kidnapping, rendition, torture and violation of the Geneva Conventions, and critics of the administration's spying on Americans. Anyone in the way of a powerful interest group—such as environmentalists opposing politically connected developers—is also a candidate for the list.... President Bush promises us that the wars he has launched will cause the "untamed fire of freedom" to "reach the darkest corners of our world." Meanwhile in America the fire of freedom has not only been tamed but also is being extinguished.
This reality slap in the face is necessary because under US law the words I've just written can now be interpreted as illegal, which means I now could find myself facing prosecution for speaking my mind—the First Amendment be damned! Hey! Don't roll your eyes and smirk! Consider the old Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran here. These were nations and/or peoples who were once more or less free until they fell by internal stealth, and I tell you now that lurking behind the "news" of Britney's custody woes is a sinister conspiracy and the real news that what's left of our nation is barely standing on one thin wobbly leg! Think about that over the coming months as Hillary, Obama, Mike, Rudy, Mitt, et al. spew their endless empty rhetoric about tax cuts, education and other select bilge water!
In previous articles I have used scripture to prove that Jesus was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. I've also shown the bible declaration that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That same bible also declares all scripture is given by the inspiration of God and that all Christians are to commanded to obey them or face death. We find that those words are established FOREVER, which explains why Christians are commanded not to add to or take away from the word of God. If you are a Christian you will understand those things—even more so than non-Christians since John 14:26 and 16:13 promises that faithful Christians will have the Holy Spirit to discern right from wrong, truth from falsehoods.
Previously I have shown the staunch scriptural commands for Christians to have NO doctrinal divisions, en example being found in 1 Corinthians 1:10: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." To be certain you understand what this means, I will dissect the scripture into five easy commands: In the name of Jesus Christ you are to:
Now folks, if Christians truly obeyed these commands there would be only one unified Christian church on earth! Anyone or anything outside that one church would be instantly recognizable as false! For a Christian there can be no middle ground here; either you believe your bible or you don't. Either there is ONE UNIFIED CHURCH ON EARTH, or there is not, which takes us to a man named Saul.
All Christians know the story of Saul, how he persecuted the New Testament Christians with a vengeance. We know the tale about him being struck down with blindness on the road to Damascus whereupon he was converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a newly-converted minister of the gospel, Saul was henceforth known as Paul. (Acts 9:1-20). In Acts 20:24 Paul gives us some insight: "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.25 And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." In Romans 1:1 Paul writes that he is "a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God." There's no mistaking Paul's new calling. He, like countless armies of missionaries before him, was on the road to preach Jesus Christ to a sinful world!
Do you want to know one of the major problems with missionaries? NONE of them have ever been faithful to the bible! NONE of them have ever taught in harmony with the other! NONE of them have ever been in the body of Christ! To this mass of frauds we can add the great Apostle Paul!
Okay; let me explain. Of Jesus, Psalms 33:4 teaches that "For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth."In John 17:17 Jesus prays to his father on behalf of his followers "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Matthew 24:35 explains that "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" Luke 16:17 clarifies: "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Since heaven and earth are still here, then a believing Christian must accept that the law/word of God is still in effect. They must accept Jesus' bluntly teaching that the laws of God were to be obeyed and would give a Christian the reward of eternal life. (John 12:47-50. See also Psalms 19:7, 119:44, James 1:17) Christians must accept that their bible plainly shows that the law (the ten commandments) is perfect and is forever. They must also accept that the law would give one eternal life—IF THEY REPENTED! (See Isa 55:7, Isa 1:18, Psalm 51:10, Psalm 23:6, Psalm 25:18, Psalm 32:1, Psalm 23:6, Isaiah 43:25, Micha 7:18)
Don't take my word for it, get out your bible—prove all things as you are commanded—and read for yourself that before the "sacrifice of Jesus" one could repent and be washed clean of their sins; a repentant sinner could also receive the "holy spirit" of God—all through the LAW! (Psalm 51:11, Psalm 23:6) Even more astonishing is that the Old Testament teaches that a repentant sinner would be resurrected into a spirit body, which is clearly taught in Psalm 17:15 and backed by Titus 1:2, Daniel 12:3, Psalm 16:11, Isaiah 60:20. The key was to live a sinless life, and when one did sin, to repent and be forgiven. To be crystal clear on this point, let's use the bible to define "sin," which we do in 1 John 3:4: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." (See Romans 7:14, Daniel 9:11, Numbers 15:31, 1Samuel 15:24, 2Chron. 24:20, Isaiah 42:24) So, "sin" was a transgression of God's law, but that same law clearly shows that BEFORE JESUS CHRIST one could be FORGIVEN of their sins!
All this explain why Jesus told a young man that all he had to do to gain eternal life was to keep the law. Jesus even enumerated some of the ten commandments to clarify his point: Matthew 19:16: "And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (See Exodus 20:1-17, Deut 6:24, Psalm 119:172, Psalm 119:142) We clearly see why Jesus declared to his followers that he had not come to destroy the law or the prophets: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17) Since the earth and heavens are still here, and since God does not change, then Christians must accept that the law of God is still in effect! (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8) The law, which so many Christians are taught to abhor, is the key to eternal life—if you BELIEVE YOUR BIBLE! All of this leads us back to Paul.
Did Paul keep to his calling? Was he a true disciple/servant of Jesus Christ?
One of the most blatant examples of Paul speaking against the teachings of Jesus is found in Galatians 2:16: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." There you have it folks! So much for Jesus' declaration that the heavens and earth would pass away before the law of God! So much for Paul's declaration that he was a servant of Jesus Christ! In fact, Paul backs his contradiction in Galatians 5:4: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." The New King James version translates the verse thus: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." Paul backs his condemnation of God's commandments in Ephesians 2: "14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." Not only does Paul toss out the commandments of God, he denies scriptures that clearly show access to God's spirit BEFORE the advent of Jesus! In other words, Paul flatly calls Jesus Christ a liar and makes him of no effect!
But it gets worse: Paul rebels against Jesus in Romans 1:17 when he declares that "the righteousness of God" is from faith and that the "just shall live by faith." Jesus said the opposite when he declared that "righteousness" is keeping the law of God! (Matthew 19:16-19)
There are numerous other blatant contradictions between the teachings of Paul and Jesus, but the above is sufficient to condemn Paul as a false teacher. More to the point, it is sufficient to reveal the bible as a book that should be closely examined (as 1 Thes 5:21 commands) to prove whether these things be true or no! Thesselonians is backed by 1 John 4: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." And Jesus weighs in on the point in Matthew 7:15-20: "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits." Also note Jesus' warning in Matthew 24:4: "And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many."
Professing Christians—those who fear the fires of hell—would do to recall Jesus' warning to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:2: "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars."
By his own words the great Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, clearly taught against the commandments of God, and the precepts of Jesus. By his own words we have proof that he taught a gospel other than the one delivered by Jesus. By his own words Paul condemned himself and all those who follow his writings because he made the commands of God of no effect by his traditions. (Mark 7:13) By his own words Paul condemns those who follow him to the frightful end foretold in Revelation 21:8 "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
What I'm not touching on here is the fact that there are two distinct, contradictory gospels in the New Testament. One stands boldly against the other. One is found in the life of Jesus and the other in the letters of Paul. Both can't be right. Even Paul recognized this when he wrote in 1 Timothy 4:1-2: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." "The latter times" of which Paul writes, was his own time, because Paul clearly taught that Christians in his time would live to see the second coming of Jesus, such as when he wrote 1 Thessalonians 4:17: "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Since Paul warned that in "latter times" false teachers would arise, he clearly was at war with the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and thus the New Testament words of Jesus Christ!
What a tangle the Christian "word of God" is; what an obvious fraud! If one truly desires to believe any part of the bible, I recommend that they take to heart the command to prove all things and hold fast that which is true. In other words folks, do your homework and stop relying on the teachings and assurances of men—your very life may depend on it!
I was born during the Great Depression, when life was hard! But despite the times, generally people were as good as their word. I grew up trusting my fellow man, and like all good red-blooded Americans, I had faith in my country. That's why I willingly went to Korea, where, as a front line combat soldier, I was eventually wounded. No matter; I truly believed I was fighting for freedom and democracy. Now, fast forward fifty years.
Since those starry-eyed days I've learned a lot about how things really work in this world. For instance, I've learned that Woodrow Wilson lied us into the First World War. I've learned that FDR did the same thing with Pearl Harbor. I've learned that the Korean War was a farce in which 54,000 of my buddies died for nothing. The same about Vietnam and every conflict up to the present disaster in Iraq. Lies and more lies, that is the stuff of which our lives are made! Is it any wonder that any sane person comes to question the biggest authority figure in Western Society—meaning the "holy bible?"
Let me ask you: Have you ever wondered why the bible has two covenants? I think this is an important question since the bible itself claims that every word is from God! It also tells us that God is perfect—infallible. Even more, the bible makes it plain that Jesus was the god, the creator of Old Testaments (John 1:1-3 Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus himself backs this up in John 8:58 when he said: "Verily, verily, [truly, truly] I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." And so it was Jesus Christ who was speaking to Moses in Exodus 3:14: "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
Hebrews 6:18 tells us "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie" while 1 Samuel 15:29 says "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent." Isaiah 40:8 assures us that the word of God stands forever: "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." This is backed by 1 Pet 1:25: "But the word of the lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
So if we are assured that the bible is perfect, it being directly from God (2 Timothy 3:16), and God doesn't change and is perfect (Samuel 22:31, Matthew 5:48), why then are there two covenants? Was there a problem with the first covenant?
Apparently there was, since we are to believe that God/Yahweh/I AM voided his first covenant and replaced it with a new one! This is even worse since we are told throughout the old covenant that it would last forever—something that is backed by Jesus himself in Matthew 5:18 when he said that not one jot or tittle will pass from the old covenant till all be fulfilled. Since the majority of OT prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, then by Jesus' own words we must accept that the old covenant is still in force! However, by reading through the New Testament we find that we are presented with a whole other covenant, essentially doing away with the old covenant.
Genesis 18:14 rhetorically asks: "Is any thing too hard for the lord?" Jeremiah 32:17 illuminates this: "Ah lord god! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." Luke 1:37 sums it up by simply stating: "For with God nothing shall be impossible." If God is infallible—Perfect as scripture declares, how could he make such a terrible mistake by giving humanity a flawed "old" covenant? Why did he need to correct his mistake with a "new" covenant? Come on! Wouldn't you think an infallible being could get it right the first time?
I know some will be arguing that it wasn't God who made the mistake; it was people not obeying God's word, which forced God to make another covenant to save a sinful world through the blood of Christ. That sound like a good argument, except that it doesn't hold water. I say this because the Old Testament is very clear that when the people came to God to have their sins (even the worst kind of sins) forgiven, God forgave them, made them clean and also gave them his holy spirit—and even eternal life! There was no need for the New Testament (Covenant) and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!
Notice these OT scriptures:
Sins Forgiven in the Old Testament:
Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
The Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) given to the people:
Psalm 51:11: "Hide Your face from my sins; blot out all my iniquities. 12 Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit. 13 Do not cast me out of Your presence, or take Your holy spirit away from me. 14 Let me again rejoice in Your help; let a vigorous spirit sustain me. 15 I will teach transgressors Your ways, that sinners may return to You."
Ezekiel 37:14: "And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the lord." (Ezekiel 36:27 Isaiah 63:11.)
Eternal Life Given To The People:
Psalm 91:14: "Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. 15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation."
Psalm 21: 4: "He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." Psalm 23: 6: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the lord for ever." Proverbs 12:28: "In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Psalm 30:2: "O lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. 3 O lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit."
How clear! In the Old Testament God (Yahweh) forgave sins; he gave his holy spirit to those who sought him; he gave them salvation unto life, for ever and ever. So why did this same god, who supposedly came to earth as the human Jesus Christ, do away with the so-called old covenant and institute a new covenant? Why all the nonsense of his dying for the sins of humanity, and the command that his believers had to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to obtain eternal life?
In fact, that last bit directly contradicts Jesus/Yahweh's eternal command back in Leviticus 17:10 when he promised to cut off anyone who tasted blood! Even worse, the same god bluntly stated that he didn't require sacrifice for his favor, as these scriptures prove:
Psalm 40:66: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required." Psalm 51:16: "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
Which is it? Does Jesus/Yahweh, or does he not, require blood sacrifices for salvation? Well, the old covenant states emphatically that he doesn't, only to be contradicted by the new which insists that he does! And so we see that the god who promises that he never changes (Malachi 3:6 Hebrews 13:8), does a major flipflop from one book to the next in his "infallible" word!
One way or the other, someone, somewhere is lying—BIG TIME!
As the final months of the George W. Bush administration at last come into view, those who have been sounding the alarms and sirens about this creature's dismal misdeeds are finally getting national exposure. I was heartened to read an Oct. 25, 2007 L.A. Times editorial in which the writer, Rosa Brooks, called for GWB to be confined to a mental institution. (Straitjacket Bush: The president's warmongering remarks on the Iranian threat suggest he is psychotic.) I don't agree, since I think the man and his cabinet should be brought to trial for high treason. However, things are rapidly coming down around GWB's ears. Hopefully (for the world's sake) it's not too late.
What still concerns me, and this is something that nearly all mainstream commentators overlook, is the source of President Bush's religious mania, which reflects shades of the Holy Inquisition and worse. Instead of harping on this subject yet again, I'll post a few paragraphs of a 2004 article in the Village Voice, along with the link, and suggest that you go there to see the potential danger of fundamentalist Christian lunacy. The only point I will make is that even if we're lucky enough to rid ourselves of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the elements that brought him to power will continue to dominate national politics—and make no mistake, these people are insane enough, and powerful enough, to drag the world into their Armageddon since they believe this "final conflict" will usher in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!
The Jesus Landing Pad
Bush White House checked with rapture
Christians before latest Israel move
by Rick Perlstein
May 18th, 2004 10:00 AM
It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level"—this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios. But now we know.
"Everything that you're discussing is information you're not supposed to have," barked Pentecostal minister Robert G. Upton when asked about the off-the-record briefing his delegation received on March 25. Details of that meeting appear in a confidential memo signed by Upton and obtained by the Voice.
The e-mailed meeting summary reveals NSC Near East and North African Affairs director Elliott Abrams sitting down with the Apostolic Congress and massaging their theological concerns. Claiming to be "the Christian Voice in the Nation's Capital," the members vociferously oppose the idea of a Palestinian state. They fear an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza might enable just that, and they object on the grounds that all of Old Testament Israel belongs to the Jews. Until Israel is intact and Solomon's temple rebuilt, they believe, Christ won't come back to earth.
Abrams attempted to assuage their concerns by stating that "the Gaza Strip had no significant Biblical influence such as Joseph's tomb or Rachel's tomb and therefore is a piece of land that can be sacrificed for the cause of peace."
Three weeks after the confab, President George W. Bush reversed long-standing U.S. policy, endorsing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank in exchange for Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with the Voice, Upton denied having written the document, though it was sent out from an e-mail account of one of his staffers and bears the organization's seal, which is nearly identical to the Great Seal of the United States. Its idiosyncratic grammar and punctuation tics also closely match those of texts on the Apostolic Congress's website, and Upton verified key details it recounted, including the number of participants in the meeting ("45 ministers including wives") and its conclusion "with a heart-moving send-off of the President in his Presidential helicopter."
Upton refused to confirm further details.
Affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church, the Apostolic Congress is part of an important and disciplined political constituency courted by recent Republican administrations. As a subset of the broader Christian Zionist movement, it has a lengthy history of opposition to any proposal that will not result in what it calls a "one-state solution" in Israel.
The White House's association with the congress, which has just posted a new staffer in Israel who may be running afoul of Israel's strict anti-missionary laws, also raises diplomatic concerns. Read the rest of the article.
Way back in the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy we read in some detail the warning that if a prophet arose who was a "dreamer of dreams" and who gave signs or worked wonders, i.e., worked miracles, and used these to lead someone into worshiping a god other than Jehovah, all the people were to kill the so-called prophet. Back then "killing" meant to bust open his skull with rocks. They called it stoning. Jehovah called it justice.
Going into more detail about killing false prophets, the eighteenth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy warned that if a prophet spoke something in the name of the Lord, which the Lord did not command him to speak—and especially if the "prophecy" didn't come to pass—that phony should die. Deuteronomy makes it clear that in ancient Israel the prophecy business was a precarious profession with bleak prospects for career advancements.
Since Malachi 3:6 assures us that the Lord never changes, then we know that these holy commands were in full force when a baby boy was born in a Bethlehem stable some 2,000 years ago—which wasn't too good since, like so many before him, the little Lord Jesus grew up and decided to go into the prophecy business.
Some thirty years later JC launched his career by performing conjuring tricks for the masses and soon attracted a band of disciples and other assorted camp followers. To the priesthood of his day conjuring tricks were a red flag since Deuteronomy 13 specifically warned about miracle-working prophets. Things grew deadly when JC elevated himself from prophet to deity and thereby was teaching Israel to follow a god other than the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—a direct affront to the law of God. Additionally he boldly taught that the god of Israel, who had proclaimed that he was one god, was in fact two; and that Israel's god had lied about not changing when he turned himself into a human baby born of a virgin.
According to the law of God, in the opening months of Jesus' career the priests of Israel had every right to drag him outside a city and bust open his head with rocks. But that's a point for another day. For now, I want to focus on the most glaring of all biblical proofs that Jesus Christ was a fraud by looking at his failed prophecies.
In Matthew 24 Jesus prophesied that the temple would be destroyed and that not one stone would be left on top another. Additionally he outlined a number of signs that would foreshadow this event. When his disciples asked when these things would happen, in verse 34 he boldly answered "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Numerous critics have pointed out that this is Jesus' first failed prophecy, since he did not return during his generation. The Christian comeback is that Jesus meant the generation in which his "signs" took place. Okay. Going with that excuse let's recall that one of these was that the Temple would be utterly destroyed, which happened in 70 A.D. Therefore, 70 A.D. was the cut off time for Jesus' second coming—and there would be no mistaking the event, as Matthew 24:27 makes clear: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. . . . 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Since this prophecy miserably failed, we really don't have need to continue. If he were alive today, all good bible believers would have no alternative but to take Jesus outside the city and bust open his head with rocks till he died. But, for all you die-hards (no pun intended), let's leave no doubts about this aspect of Jesus career.
In Matthew 16: 27 we read: "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. 28 Verily [truly] I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." In case some of you are a bit rusty in your Old English, Jesus was declaring truthfully that some of the people standing there listening to him would not die until they saw him returning to earth to establish his kingdom—a prophecy that is essential to Christian eschatology. I think it safe to assume that after the passage of 2,000 years, all those standing there have died and left us with proof of another failed prophecy.
Now Jesus wasn't content with two predictions of his return within the framework of his generation; in Matthew 26:64 he made another prophetic utterance when he was brought before the High Priest Caiaphas: "Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 66 What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.
Needless to say, Caiaphas and his crowd never saw Jesus coming back to earth in glory and power. Moreover, if you truly believe the word of God, he and his priests had every right to pass a sentence of death on Jesus—not that I'm agreeing with such nonsense! Had I lived then, and had I the power to work my will, I'd have knocked down the temple, turned the priests and scribes out into the street to work for a living, and abolished religion in toto (that's Latin for completely)!
Not only did Jesus thrice lie about his second coming, his disciples took up the cause, such as did John in Revelation 1 by prophesying that the Roman soldiers who stuck their spears in Jesus' side would live to see his return: "1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: . . . 7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."
Obviously the Roman soldiers who rammed their spears in Jesus' side never lived to see him returning to the earth in glory and power. And did you notice that John declared to all believers that the things he was prophesying were shortly to come to pass? John's predictions failed utterly, making him a candidate for a good old fashioned Christian head bashing! The same can be said for Paul, who (in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52) prophesied that some of his crowd would not die before the second coming of Jesus. This is repeated in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 where he stated that ". . . we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord . . . then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds . . ."
For anyone with a comprehension of English, there's no mistaking what Paul meant: during his lifetime and the lifetimes of his followers, some would live to see the second coming of Jesus. So Paul, too, is a candidate for a head bashing—if he weren't already dead!
Enough! If you will put aside Christian bias you will have to admit that all these scriptures promise a second coming during the lifetimes of their first century A.D. composers and believers. Now run to those "how it could have happened" Christian apologetic books if you want and buy into their lame excuses, but when taken with the mountain of other lies, contradictions and other biblical fallacies, excuse me for bluntly saying you'd have to be a born moron to keep waving your Jesus flag and waiting on his second coming!
As my friend Lawrence Anthony likes to point out, either Jesus lied, or he told the truth. Either his disciples lied or told the truth. Since almost 2,000 years have passed—some 50-60 generations—since Jesus and his disciples promised a second coming in their generation, we have rock-solid proof that Jesus lied. Of course, you could just forget that aspect of the story and continue on like the men of Galilee, mentioned in Acts 1:10-11, who stood there watching Jesus disappear into the clouds. When he was gone, and angel told them: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
Fortunately for angels, they are impervious to a good old fashioned Israelite head bashing!
Ask any devout Christian and they'll eagerly tell you that they expect to spend eternity in heaven at the feet of Jesus. Indeed, billions have lived and died with that great expectation lighting their earthly path. However the real tragedy is that by carefully reading the bible one will find that if they spend eternity with Jesus Christ, they will be in hell! I know them thar' words are fightin' words to most Christians, but if you profess to believe your bible, as all good Christians must, then you have no alternative but to accept the truth of my statement!
The reason the vast majority of Christians will find my accusation repulsive is because they have been taught to accept their religion on faith—faith in their church and its doctrine. In other words, they've not been taught to read the bible and prove all things—a habit that the bible teaches is essential for salvation.
First of all, both Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 teach that a Christian is to live by every word of God. This means that anyone desiring to be a true Christian must be careful to discover and follow every command of the bible if they expect to inherit the kingdom of God. Moreover, they must follow the command of I Thessalonians 5:21 and prove all things! These are two inconvenient biblical truths that most denominations fail to teach, which is understandable since it would cause a large portion of their followers to think for themselves! All of this leads us to one of the bible's leading liars.
In Matthew 19:16 we find the story of a young man coming to Jesus asking how to obtain eternal life. Had he asked any Christian minister, he would have been told to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior, to be baptized and to consume the sacraments (the blood and body of Jesus). However, Jesus told the boy that in order to receive eternal life he had to keep the commandments of God—those found in Exodus 20:1-17. 20. Specifically Jesus mentions NOT LYING as a precondition to receiving eternal life. At that point the young man assures Jesus that he had kept the commandments throughout his youth, to which Jesus adds another condition in verse 21: "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."
Any Christian who reads their bible without having some minister/priest interpret it for them, will notice that when Jesus added that last condition for eternal life, he was lying to the young man! Psalm 19:7 clearly teaches that the "law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: If the law of God is perfect, then keeping it would mean perfection! There was no need for any additional condition. Moreover, believers are commanded not to take away or add to the word of God:
"You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." Deuteronomy 4:2
"...the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." II Timothy 4:2-4
Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it." Deuteronomy 12:32
"Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar." Proverbs 30:5-6
"For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Revelation 22:18-19
I know this is a harsh accusation to the Christian ear, but I am speaking from the authority of the bible itself when I tell you that Jesus not only deliberately lied to the young man, he violated his own commandments by adding to his law!
Now this does present us with some serious problems. These come from reading Hebrews 6:18 where we are assured that it is impossible for God to lie, and in Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8 which further assures that God is the same yesterday today and for ever—he never changes. Since John 1:1-3,10, 14, Acts 17:24, John 8:58, Colossians 1:16 teaches that Jesus was the god of the Old Testament, then either the man dealing with the young man was an impostor or a bonafide liar! Even worse, when he and his disciples later added more conditions to the gift of eternal life (taking the sacraments), they were doing nothing more than weaving a tangled tissues of lies!
Now, if you want to argue that it was impossible to keep the commandments and receive eternal life—that only by the sacrifice of Christ could anyone gain eternal life—then you obviously haven't read your bible. I have shown in previous personals that the Old Testament boldly teaches that it was possible to be both forgiven of sin and rewarded with eternal life long before anyone had ever heard of Jesus or his supposed sacrifice on a cross! In other words, according to the Old Testament there was/is no need for a dead man on a stick for the forgiveness of sins. All one had to do was to pray for forgiveness with a contrite heart and it would be done.
There is no doubt that Jesus got caught in a bold-face lie when he explain the formula for eternal life to the young man. However, what the Christian must understand is that the Jesus of the Gospels was a habitual liar, such as when he promised his followers that if one asked, it would be given (Matthew 7:7); that if two people agree on earth about anything they would ask, it would be done for them by the Father in heaven (Matthew 18:19); that if one believingly asked for something in prayer, it would be theirs (Mark 11:24); and that whatever one asked in Jesus' name the Father would grant (John 14:13). Here are bold promises, but they are easily proven LIES by anyone who wants to put them to the test!
Okay, we could keep going on this track, but the examples above are sufficient to condemn the supposed son of God a liar, and a proven liar has but one fate, as Revelation 21:8 clearly spells out: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
There you have it! Plan on spending eternity with Jesus Christ if you want, but you had better pack an asbestos suit for the trip!
Jesus Christ openly boasted about having big connections in the Universe—a direct line to the big man himself! He boasted that all he needed to do was pray and he would get whatever he needed, such as he did in Matthew 26:53: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" Praying and receiving "twelve legions of angels" is quite an accomplishment! But, since the bible tells Christians that Jesus is to be the supreme example in all things, let's examine Jesus' boast a little closer.
Now all Christians know (or should know) what the bible tells us about God. For instance, Hebrews 6:18 says it's impossible for God to lie; Proverbs 30:5 tells us that every word of God is pure and we can trust it like a shield in battle; etc. So, when Jesus boasted that all he had to do was to pray to the Father in heaven to get instant satisfaction, Christians can count on that as truth as surely as we count on the sun rising in the east—or can they?
Starting with John 14:16 we find Jesus praying to his father in heaven: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." John 14:26 tells us who this "Comforter" is: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
Okay. So the "Comforter" is the Holy Ghost (HG), whom most Christians believe to be the third person of the Trinity and at one with Jesus and the Father, and Jesus promises that the HG will teach Christians "all things"! This fact is important since Jesus also prayed that all those who believed in him would represent complete unity of thought: John 17:20, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."
Here we have a vital assurance from Jesus himself, which is that all true Christians will be as one even as he and God the father are one! 1 Corinthians 1:10 backs up this assurance: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."
Jesus clearly teaches that there must be harmony throughout the bible and therefore in his church! And since Jesus prayed this of his father in heaven, it must be so—or else Jesus lied!
Now, is there any biblical evidence that Jesus' prayer was answered? There certainly is! First of all we turn to Matthew 16:17 where we see Jesus founding his earthly church: "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Note that Jesus not only laid the cornerstone of his church, but put Peter in full control. Not only that, Jesus gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which gave him immense power to bind and loose in heaven and earth—meaning he could make new rules and regulations that would be recognized by God as binding upon Christians as sure as any godly commandment! Most important to our question is that Acts 4:8 says that Peter was full of the Holy Ghost! The bible leaves no doubt Peter was a true believer a true Christian and that he was guided by the Holy Ghost.
Colossians 1:25 tells us that another man by the name of Paul (also known as Saul of Tarsus) was called by God to preach the gospel. Like Peter, he also received the gospel direct from Jesus (Galatians 1:10) and, like Peter, he was filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:9)—all well and good, except Jesus promised that the Holy Ghost would reveal the pure truth to those who were filled with the spirit, which meant that ALL who professed Jesus would be speaking and following ONE doctrine, with no divisions, etc. To this end Galations 2:7-14 is very blunt and revealing:
But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; 8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) 9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. 10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do. 11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. 12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. 13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. 14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
If the holy spirit was guiding Paul in his Galatians oratory, then Peter was wrong and a hypocrite—either that or Paul was wrong and a hypocrite! One way or the other the Holy Ghost failed to guide both men to ALL truth as Jesus plainly promised in John 14:26: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you"
To summarize, let's review the facts:
1.) Jesus Christ prayed to the Father in heaven to send the holy spirit to those that are true believers.
2.) The Holy Spirit was promised to guide all Christians to pure truth, to unity and harmony, and through the spirit ALL would be speaking the same thing.
3.) There would not be any confusion in the Church.
The bible itself gave us these facts of true Christianity and the bible itself tells us that the Holy Ghost utterly failed to guide Christianity's chief apostles and founders into unity and harmony of speaking the same thing and being at one with the Father and Jesus Christ! This is a serious indictment against the New Testament. In fact, this stark revelation alone spells but disaster for Christianity as a whole!
When we look around this world and find the countless thousands of Christian churches—all claiming to have the Holy Spirit—and not one of them agreeing with the others, then it is clear for all to see that Jesus Christ's prayer to his "Father in heaven" failed, and failed miserably! But this is no mystery to those of us who have done our homework. We have proven beyond doubt that Jesus Christ is a hoax; the Holy Spirit is a hoax; and indeed the entire bible is a hoax! The sooner the world is brought to this reality the sooner we'll all be able to see through the sea of lies in which we are now drowning!
Every week I receive at least four junk emails from crooks in some remote part of the globe telling stories of tragedy and woe. These tales always end with an offer of some fantastic enrichment if—if—I send my bank info so that my potential loot can be deposited directly in my checking account. Here's one such email (bad spelling, bad punctuation, bad grammar and all):
Beloved one in Christ Jesus,
Calvary greeting in the name of our Almighty God.
As you read this message, I don't want you to pity much about my health situation because I believe that we are strangers on this earth and one day, all of us will surely die to give account of our visit to the earth. My dear, writing this message to you now is not by my power, rather a divine direction from God Almighty who has chosen you for a great responsibility for his children, knowing too well that you will not betray his trust in you. I am assuring you that as you obey this call from God, he will surely meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
I am Mrs. Glory William from Cote d'Ivoire. I married to late Mr. William who was a successful business man. Through out our years of marriage, we were together in peace without a child. Upon this temptation of childless from Satan our enemy, we were obedient to the commandments of our Almighty God. During the time my husband was alive, he made a promise of donating of fund sum of ($39,500.000.00USD) Thirty Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) to our God for the benefit of his children in orphanage homes, children in Disability Organization and widows but as the case may be, he (my husband) did not leave to fulfil this promise. After the death of my beloved husband in few months ago, I submitted this mission of my beloved late husband into the hand of our Almighty God in prayers, which our God has choose you and review to me in prayers that you are the chosen one to be handle this fund for the promise of my husband to come to a fulfilment, that is why I contact you Now that I want to go for surgery operation because of effected cancer in my right breast, I want you to reply immediately with your personal information to enable me submit it to my late husband lawyer and instruct him to use your personal information to get all the documents covering this fund in the hand of the Finance Institute to your name and arrange for the transfer of the money to your account. As I receive your reply with your personal information, I will handle it to my late husband lawyer and advice him to open a direct communication with you. Fear not in this responsibility because this God is our God for ever and ever, he will be our guide even to the end (Psalm 48:14).
Remain blessed in the Lord. I will be waiting urgently for your reply immediately you finish reading this message from your sister in Christ Jesus.
Yours in Christ Jesus, Mrs. Glory William
Even though it would take a complete blockhead to fall for one of these schemes, I say that at least the crooks trying to steal my savings in one fell swoop are a more honest lot than those who preach Jesus and slowly drain people's hard-earned cash over the course of a lifetime! In fact, I will go much further in my indictment of organized religion as quintessential thievery since I truly feel that it is the underlying current moving this entire world toward a massive "final" conflict, or (if you please) Armageddon.
As it has been for ages past, dangerous religious fanaticism, either Jewish, Islamic or Christian is the real danger to our planet. Even though I have written oodles about the powerful fanatics who seem to dominate these faiths, and their destructive goals and accomplishments, and even though many have written to express their agreement that we are headed for a fundamentalist-made hell on earth, those of us who take the time to write or speak out see nothing but growing apathy in every nook and cranny.
While green groups raise millions for their various causes, the earth they profess to so dearly love—and every living thing therein—moves irreparably closer to the spark that will ignite world war three. Indeed, our situation brings to mind the words of the late General Douglas MacArthur, who stated during the surrender of Japan: "Men since the beginning of time have sought peace . . . military alliances, balances of powers, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh."
I agree. The problem is "theological" in the sense that religion is dragging this world to the ultimate conflict. It is all about our "last chance", which brings me to an announcement about this web page.
Over the past three months webmaster Linda Packer, bible consultant Lawrence Anthony, and yours truly have worked to completely redesign www.darrellwconder.com. This renewed effort is in response to the ever-growing insanity of the mad men you now have the throat of this world in their bloody clutches. Daily events drive home the painful truth that no pie-in-the-sky savior is coming in the clouds to save humanity from its own evil. What we are trying to accomplish here is not about Darrell Conder, nor is it about Lawrence Anthony or Linda Packer. It's about encouraging enough people to get behind us to spread a warning far and wide that we have little time left to act.
Yes, yes, yes; I've written this before, and no, no, no; this isn't a plea for donations. We've learned a long time ago that if one can't scare the hell out of people with threats of roasting alive in a pit with demons raping every orifice, then they will hold on to their $$$s tighter than a pit bull will to a mutton bone—even if it is potentially saving the world from bible-thumping lunatics. What we are asking of our readers is not at all difficult. Spread the word about this website via any available means. Bulletin boards, public debate forums, emails, newspaper ads or wherever your imagination takes you, but bring anyone you can corral to our watering hole and let them sip, if they dare. It may not sound like much, but the key is that we must all do something and do it soon!
Year in and out, we old folks face the somber reality that death is stalking us. What is it that the book of Job warns? Rich or poor, great or small, good or a complete bastard, the grave claims us all; and the grave holds nothing. That stark lesson came floating to mind last month when I read about the death of my old friend the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Now many of you will be surprised to learn that I considered Jerry a personal friend. Okay, I'll concede that the old boy had his problems. Sure, Jerry chummed with high-placed corrupt politicians and corporate fat cats of every stripe, and in the process lined his church's pockets with hundreds of millions of $$s. I will also concede that his meddling in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict added to the misery, destruction and death in the Middle East. I'll even go that extra mile and admit that he was a consummate hypocrite. By that I mean Jerry was smart enough to found a religious empire, which included a university, so he was assuredly smart enough to read and understand the bible and to realize that he wasn't living by or teaching others to live by its code.
In Matthew 4:4 Jesus warned that Christians needed to live by every word of God! Few Christians make even a feeble attempt at keeping that one; obviously Jerry didn't. When I say it was obvious, I'm thinking of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." I'm also thinking of Philippians 4:5: "Let your moderation be known unto all men." I think of those verses and tie them into Proverbs 23:21 & 28:7: "For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty." & "He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father."
One look at old Jerry would tell anyone that he didn't live by these godly precepts. Even worse, the bible tells us that Jerry's overindulgence may well have cost him admission through the Pearly Gates! (See Romans 13:13, I Peter 4:3 & Galatians 5:19-21.) Not that I personally have a problem with his stuffing his food hole with platefulls of fried things, but gluttony is strike one against Jerry going to be with the Lord.
Any astute Christian—meaning any Protestant or Catholic who has taken the time to prove his belief system—will know that their Sabbath day was changed from Saturday to Sunday by command of the Mother Church of Rome. Since I've written a detailed booklet on this subject, I won't go into the particulars; instead I will direct any interested party to the following webpage, which reproduces one of the most enlightening articles ever written on the subject: http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/chalng.htm. We all know that Jerry didn't keep the Sabbath of the god he professed—which was a direct violation of a key in the big ten commands. Jerry's dereliction of duty puts one in mind of Jesus' warning that in vain did Jerry worship him, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men"! (Matt 15:9) That's strike two against Jerry making it into Paradise!
Although I never shared a meal with my friend, I seriously doubt Jerry kept a kosher table—you know, abstaining from eating animal fats, rare steaks, lobster, cheeseburgers, shrimp, clams, oysters, ham, pork chops, etc. I doubt if he avoided cotton-polyester blended clothing, or cotton-wool blends, which (according to Lev 19:19) is another direct violation of God's word. I know damned well that Jerry didn't enforce the commands of Lev 15:16, which specifically target any male who has engaged in sexual intercourse, either with or without a wife, from entering a congregation. I mean, did Jerry stop his parishioners at the church-house door and ask if they had just engaged in sexual intercourse? Indeed, did he stop all women and inquire if they were menstruating? We all know he didn't, which violated God's command in Lev 15:19.
Even though his god commanded it, and his Lord and Savior set him the example, we all know that Jerry & Co. didn't keep the holy days, such as Yom Kippur, Rosh Hoshanah, etc. And we all know that he didn't demand stoning for those in his fellowship who committed adultery, thievery and other sexual sins—such as his former friend, Jim Bakker, whose PTL ministry Jerry scarfed up in 1987 when Jimmy was caught stealing millions of $$s, committing adultery, doing men and boys, etc., etc. On the other side of the coin, Jerry didn't advocate slavery, which his God condoned in some 321 bible verses. Since I could take these examples on for pages, suffice it to say that Jerry was not the ideal servant of the Most High. Strike three!
Yes, yes, yes; I know that if Jerry is standing before the judgement seat, he's pleading extenuating circumstances, such as the atonement of Jesus' precious blood . . . blah, blah, blah; but he's facing the same Jesus who explicitly told him to think not that "I've come to destroy the law, but to cement it"—the same Jesus who emphatically stated that not one dot of an "i" would be changed till his kingdom was established on earth!
Right about now his maker will be looking at the fact that Jerry trampled lawful holy commands under foot while he raked in hundreds of millions of $$s for preaching lies and offering false hope to a hopeless world; his maker will be looking at the fact that Jerry lived like a potentate on the backs of the ignorant poor (rarely are rich people stupid enough to fill church coffers, unless they're trying to buy favors). Hmm . . . it sounds rather bad for Jerry! But all of this is exactly why I consider Jerry Falwell a dear friend. You see, I believe in the old biblical principle that by their fruits you shall know them, and if it weren't for creatures like Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Garner Ted and Herbert W. Armstrong, Ted Haggard, etc., my task would be infinitely more difficult.
So, goodbye Jerry, wherever you are—either now decomposing in the grave that Job outlines, roasting with all your friends in the hell you preached, or whooping it up in Paradise where the Lord assures us you can't enter. (Even in death you just can't get away from those damned bible contradictions!)
Do you remember the movie Forrest Gump? Do you remember how people would frequently ask Forrest Gump if he was stupid or something? Well, the older I get the more I ask this question about people in general. For an example, let's take that "venerable" organization called Alcoholics Anonymous, which I select because recently I had a reason to be refocused in that direction.
From Dear Abby to Oprah just about everyone has recommend AA for a booze problem—and virtually every town of size has a local chapter, or whatever they call their group meetings. But what most people don't know is that AA is nothing more than a cleverly disguised religious cult that uses alcohol as an anchor to keep its members hooked for life. I won't waste time going through the history of AA—beginning with the sordid history of its founders/saints—nor will I offer some of the voluminous horror stories of abuse. Instead I will recommend to any interested reader the excellent article "Alcoholics Anonymous: Of Course It's a Cult! by Jack Trimpey (posted at: www.positiveatheism.org/rw/ofcourse.htm), and some additional information posted at www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult_a0.html and www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult_a4.html. These sources are sufficient to get any thinking person on the scent of the reality behind Alcoholics Anonymous. What I'm doing here is using AA as a prime example of why I've come to consider people, as a rule, as just plain stupid.
What is it inside us humans that make us so gullible for every scheme that comes drifting down the pike? The answer is elementary (to borrow an expression from Mr. Holmes): To a greater or lesser degree we all have the need to belong somewhere; we all seek the approval of others; we all want answers to seemingly impossible questions; and most of all we seek to avoid responsibility for our actions. Throughout history predatory sharks have been ever vigilant in crafting cults to fill these needs of the masses. These sharks created the world's first cults, and when their cults becomes large enough, they gained "respectability." This is how the cult of Christianity grew into the "respectable" Roman Catholic Church, and how the protestant cult grew into the "respectable" Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church and all the others; and this is how the perverts Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson took their "Alcoholics Anonymous" religious cult into worldwide "respectability."
If we are ever to be truly free of shackles, then we must open our eyes and take responsibility for every part of our lives. We must realize that in all things we are largely the products of someone else's programming, and we shall be in that state until the end of our lives if we don't break the chains that bind.
While we as a nation wearily endure the murder, mayhem and destruction of George W. Bush's "war on terror", it's easy to overlook the fuel that keeps this inept but dangerous war machine running at full speed—a major source being Christian right-wingers.
Okay; before you get your underpants in a twist, we're not talking about all right-wing Christians here—just the kooks who think it their God-given right to dictate politics to the rest of us! Listen, we have no problem with folks worshiping anything they want. But unfortunately for the world's security, a half billion or so worship a hateful, vindictive bloody god hanging on a stick who demands bloodletting and utter destruction as the price of his favor. Worse still are the fanatical millions who pay absolute obedience to this maniacal god, which is something that will ultimately spell doom for the whole planet.
One such fanatic happens to reside in the White House, and has told countless people that he talks to God, and carries out God's will—an excuse he gave when attacking Iraq. This revelation is horrific since we are talking about the same God whose ultimate plan for humanity is the Great Tribulation in which the entire planet is laid waste! Such a powerful man following such a murderous god should scare the living hell out of any thinking person, all of which leads us to the doomsdayers who spend billions preaching this murderous crap to masses of frightened morons. One of these preaching genocidists is the televangelist John Hagee.
Now brother John is not your average garden-variety moaning gospel-preaching televangelist, begging for money—although his exceptional girth does make him fit the image of an over-fed circus tent holy-roller. Brother John Hagee is the king of the Christian Zionist movement and rules his empire from his Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. He also pastors a global television ministry and has marketed dozens of best-selling books on end time gloom and doom to scare the holy shit out of the mentally-challenged. Of course it doesn't seem to matter much that his predictions of end time hell and misery are almost always wrong—a prime example being his ridiculous predictions of the Y2K scare. But that's not the point here.
Old John's Christian money empire is built on tales of coming world calamity that make WW II look like a Rose Garden tea party. End-of-the-world fear keeps the billions rolling into fundamentalist Christianity's coffers, which is then used by men like Hagee for political reasons—such as promoting the war machine of George W. Bush and his neo-con brethren. Indeed, Brother John seems to wallow in his political influence and frequently hints that he has met with high-placed government officials. This isn't just empty boasting.
Keeping in mind all the persistent talk of George W. Bush attacking Iran, let's note that Brother John was an honored guest at the March, 2007 American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which Fortune magazine ranks as the second most powerful political lobby group in the USA (second only to AARP). Here's a part of what Pastor Hagee had to say:
As you know, Iran poses a threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust. I have been saying on national television, in churches and auditoriums across America it is 1938; Iran is Germany and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler. Ladies and gentlemen we must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. The only way to win a nuclear war is to make certain it never starts. Iran's President has not limited his maniacal threats to Israel. He has also asked his fellow Iranians to imagine a world without America. This is a clear threat to destroy the United States of America. I have something to something to say to Iran's President or Iran: Mr. Ahmadinejad, don't threaten America.
Do not threaten Israel by saying they will pass away in a sudden storm. In the Bible when Pharaoh threatened the Jewish people of Egypt he became fish food in the Red Sea. When Haman threatened the Jews in Persia in modern-day Iran he and his sons hung from the gallows that he built for the Jews. Mr. Ahmadinejad's threats against Israel have a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy; you may be well speaking about your own demise when you talk about passing away with a sudden storm, but you are not talking about Israel's future.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is watching you. King David wrote that thou that keepeth Israel neither slumber nor sleeps. The Christians of America are not going to sit by in silence this time and watch you plod and plan a nuclear holocaust. There will never be another holocaust—not on our watch and never again.
(posted at:
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2007/03/john-hagee-address-at-aipac-conference.html)
Hagee went on to promise the Israelis that "50 million Christian Zionists" were stalwart supporters of Israel and would stand behind her.
Hagee's enthusiastic attendance at the AIPAC conference was a chance to rub elbows with the world's elite politicians, like Vice President Dick Cheney, who had the raw nerve to laud the former Israeli Prime Minister (and war criminal) Ariel Sharon as a great world leader (to the overwhelming applause of his listeners). Ominously Cheney's speech at the conference was a pep talk on why continuing the war in Iraq was good for Israel—a speech that was laced with menacing references to Iran.
Hagee's friend, Israeli Likud leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the conference and warned that Iranian President Ahmadinejad was preparing the ground for a second genocide of the Jewish people. Netanyahu said, "The key is genocide. Do we want to mobilize the world against Iran? The answer is yes, just as we should have mobilized the world against Hitler in the previous century."
We say that if doomsday preachers can use their ill-gotten tithes and offering to influence politics and promote international wars with high-ranking foreign government officials, then their accountability to the American people is long overdue! In fact, we say that men like Hagee should be investigated as agents of a foreign power! Now, before you start screeching about Constitutional rights here, consider that when preachers like Hagee cross the line between church and state, they lose the right to hide behind their freedom of religion excuse.
Think back to the time of George Bush's invasion of Iraq and his laying waste buildings and bodies: good Christian evangelicals everywhere hailed this as God's will and some even warned that if one opposed George W. Bush and the Iraqi war, then they were opposing God—a sentiment echoed by the man in the White House. Wonder out loud how much of Bush's agenda was influenced by so-called men of God? Wonder out loud if Pastor John Hagee was one of those whispering in George Bush's ear? Okay, the key to this whole equation is the modern nation/state of Israel.
For fundamentalist Christians the creation of the modern State of Israel is fulfillment of prophecy, and therefore is the major focal point of end-time preaching and political lobbying. This is why virtually all in the fundamentalist camp are squarely behind the notion that Israel can do no wrong—preaching that anyone who dares oppose Israel, opposes God himself. But what puts this belief on frightening ground is that the typical fundamentalist nut truly believes that the State of Israel is ultimately doomed—that millions of Israelis will be killed and their nation laid waste, all of which will ignite World War III. This belief comes from so-called prophetic scripture, and is why preacher men like Brother John are a very real danger to society. To be blunt, Hagee and those like him are working and praying to bring our world into a nuclear holocaust so that they can hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ! Moreover, their concern for Israel is for purely selfish reasons, as this excerpt from Gary North's column "The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the State of Israel" makes clear:
Nothing can or will be done by Christians to save Israel's Jews from this disaster, for all of the Christians will have been removed from this world three and a half years prior to the beginning of this 42-month period of tribulation. (The total period of seven years is interpreted as the fulfillment of the seventieth week of Daniel [Dan. 9:27].)
In order for most of today's Christians to escape physical death, two-thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim prophetic trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but which is the central motivation in the movement's support for Israel. It should be clear why they believe that Israel must be defended at all costs by the West. If Israel were militarily removed from history prior to the Rapture, then the strongest case for Christians' imminent escape from death would have to be abandoned. This would mean the indefinite delay of the Rapture. The fundamentalist movement thrives on the doctrine of the imminent Rapture, not the indefinitely postponed Rapture.
Every time you hear the phrase, "Jesus is coming back soon," you should mentally add, "and two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will be dead in 'soon plus 84 months.'" Fundamentalists really do believe that they probably will not die physically, but to secure this faith prophetically, they must defend the doctrine of an inevitable holocaust.
This specific motivation for the support of Israel is never preached from any fundamentalist pulpit. The faithful hear sermons—many, many sermons—on the pretribulation Rapture. On other occasions, they hear sermons on the Great Tribulation. But they do not hear the two themes put together: "We can avoid death, but only because two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will inevitably die in a future holocaust. America must therefore support the nation of Israel in order to keep the Israelis alive until after the Rapture." Fundamentalist ministers expect their congregations to put two and two together on their own. It would be politically incorrect to add up these figures in public.
(posted at http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/north7.html)
Perhaps it will finally start sinking in why men like John Hagee and his cohorts are such a threat to the survival of this planet, especially since Hagee, for the past year, has been chomping at the bit about a potential war with Iran, a nation he sees at Israel's worst enemy now that Iraq has been neutralized. One need not imagine too deeply to guess what those like Hagee are doing behind the scene to hasten a confrontation with Iran.
We say that it's time to understand the bible for what it truly is—a book of hate and death. We say that people preaching this hate and death are just damned dangerous! We say enough is enough!
I don't know about you, but I'm getting damned tired of being lied to and cheated at every twitch and turn! Nowadays it seems that dishonestly is a factor to consider in any circumstance, whether it's buying a crap burger at a fast food dump or dealing with the jackass next-door. The problem for me is that I'm from that old school where one has been programed to take people at face value. But I tell you what: I've been reamed enough over the last five decades to finally decide that enough is enough!
No more will yours truly accept smiles and kind words at face value; when some smiling jackal offers me some kind words I will be wondering what the hell the slime ball wants out of me! From now on I'm going to be looking for that concealed sharp-pointed instrument of destruction aimed squarely at the middle of my back!
A few months back I was in the process of writing off yet another "wonderful" person who had wasted a few years of my life with lies and double-dealings, when I decided to put the experience into perspective. As rotten to the core as this person turned out to be, I had to realize that at least the horror of that acquaintance wasn't comparable to the reaming I received at the hands of organized religion. Hey, being done over royally by a friend, lover or a mugger in an alley is nothing compared to what a preaching religious bastard can do to you in the name of God—and I'm living proof of that! But the pitiful part of that observation is that being done over by a preacher is something we can all avoid. Well, that last observation is both true and not so true.
Evidence proving the bible to be a profiteering handbook, written by spiritual pirates, is easily obtainable for anyone who has the interest to look; the downside of that enlightenment is that most of us have a built-in self-destruct mechanism, by which I mean that we have all been programmed from infancy to accept the word of any authority figure as gospel. If mommy and daddy taught you that something was right, then it was right! If your teacher told you the way things were and are, then it was beyond question. The same was doubly true for your minister, priest or rabbi. I mean, here were the men of God handing down truth from Mt. Sinai! How could they be anything but truthful? Well, I'm here to tell you that just like the jackass neighbor, a bastard boss man, or the underhanded, conniving former sweetheart, they should be trusted as far as you can toss a fifty pound sack of cow shit!
For the past ten years I have been on the Internet asking, reasoning and virtually begging people to check out for t