You are invited to send a letter to the editor with your comments, suggestions or criticisms. Your letter may be posted to our Rants and Raves page along with our reply (if any). We reserve the right to edit all letters for clarity, or for space. Additionally, if the sender requests, we will post names, email addresses or other revealing information. This request needs to be clearly stated in all correspondence. Otherwise, all revealing information will NOT be posted to this website.
When we were born, our brains were, in effect, like newly-manufactured computers—just waiting for programming. The first phase of our programming came from our parents. If we were lucky, we had parents who took a balanced, impartial approach towards our programming, for instance, not indoctrinating us with a religious belief, but teaching us to "prove all things." The second phase of our programming came at school. If we were lucky, we attended a school system that took a balanced, impartial approach towards programming its students. The third phase came from friends and acquaintances. If we were lucky, we had friends and acquaintances who were balanced, impartial sorts who fairly researched and discussed their beliefs before imparting their wisdom to their peers. The fourth phase came from radio, television and the printed media. If we were lucky, we watched, listened to and read only those sources that impartially presented all the facts and allowed us to form our own educated opinion.
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as balanced, impartial programming. From cradle to grave our brains are carefully programmed by biased and often sinister forces that care for nothing but their own particular agenda. And thus I was programmed to unquestionably believe in God, country, and the American way. If it had a parental, school, church or government stamp of approval, I accepted it beyond question, which was the kind of programming that took me right into the U.S. Army when I turned 18.
Like thousands of other programmed robots, in 1950 I patriotically trudged off to basic training where I received even more programming—including the techniques of killing for my country. A few months later I was freezing my tail off in Alaska when the Communist North Koreans overran South Korea and President Harry Truman promised to restore freedom and democracy. Being the dumb, naive kid that I was, I immediately volunteered to go over to Korea and kill for God and country.
One of the first indications that things weren't quite the way I had been told came when our unit went on the hunt for a company of North Korean soldiers who had ambushed and killed some American troops. When the nk retreated into a mine, our squad leader decided to go in and destroy the enemy by blowing up the mine. First, however, he had to obtain permission from a faceless someone up in the chain of command. Eventually the order came for us to withdraw and leave the enemy and not, under any circumstances, cause damage to the mine—because it belonged to the American Dupont Corporation. In other words, when it came to a choice between American corporate profits and the lives of American soldiers, big business got the lollipop and we grunts got the body bags!
Many years have come and gone since those days, and I could fill a large book with the countless other disillusionments that awaited me—like learning that America's reason for going into Korea was based on a lie, as was our reasons for going into the First World War, the Second World War and Vietnam. That's why it was no surprise to me when I learned that the reason for George W. Bush invading Iraq at the cost of nearly 5,000 dead American soldiers, was based on a lie.
The fact is that most of what we learned from our mother and father, in the public schools, in the entertainment and news media, and especially in church, was pure propaganda—a lie! True, in the case of our parents and to a large degree even the public schools (at least in my time), the propaganda was taught out of an ignorance of the truth. But in the case of the mass media, their disseminated "truth" was and remains a calculated lie in conjunction with church, government and big business. For those of you who have done your homework, this info is no surprise. You know that these entities are essentially one and the same organism working for a common agenda—an agenda that is leading this world to the brink of disaster.
At www.darrellwconder.com our focus is on one part of that "axis of evil," if I may borrow an expression from their own propaganda arsenal. Our focus is on organized religion, which has, from the time of Constantine, the Holy Inquisition and right on through to the two world wars and Iraq, worked hand-in-hand with the forces of mass media, government and big business for a one-world government.
The unfathomable success of this axis of evil is easily explained by the fact that the bulk of the Western world has had nearly two millennia of state-sponsored insidious Christian brainwashing. The result is the "mine is not to reason why; mine is but to do and die" mentality. It is the mindless faith and obedience of the ignorant masses that allows evil people in positions of "authority" to wave the flag and talk of "God and country" as they work their deadly will on this world.
Since 1995 we at www.darrellwconder.com have been proving to any interested person that the bible is the most easily-proved book of lies and fairy tales ever written. We have also used history and current events to show that the blatant religious alliance between church and state has been effectively used to hasten the coming New World Order. But often our message goes over the heads of most readers who want to know why we "attack" their religious faith. We always explain that we aren't attacking their faith; that indeed we are staunch defenders of anyone's right to believe anything they want as long as it doesn't interfere with the rights of others. We do, however, go after the bible to prove that the so-called message of Christ's love is but a smoke screen to hide the real agenda of Christianity.
So-called Judeo-Christianity has never been a meek, mild-mannered group of Jesus believers whose only desire has been to share the "love of Jesus Christ" with their fellow man. Billions of gallons of human blood will attest to this fact. That's why we at www.darrellwconder.com do what we do. Like you, we are trapped on this planet with the diabolical greed and corruption of organized religion and government, and, we truly believe, if someone, somehow doesn't apply the brakes to the damned lie of Christ, it will eventually destroy life as we know it.
As always, we urge you not to accept our word for this, but to have the courage to think outside the box and do you own homework. As we all enter the final phase of the coming new world order, what you discover might one day save your life!
Nearly forty years ago America was rocked by a series of horrific murders in the hills above Los Angeles. For those of you who are too young to remember, I'll fill you in very briefly on what are known as the Tate/Labianca Murders. On August 9, 1969 four members of Charles Manson's so-called "family" drove from the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth to Bel Air, an affluent community in the foothills just above Hollywood. Their destination was 10050 Cielo Drive, a home rented by film director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate. It was in the early morning hours that Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkle made their way up the drive where Steve Parent, a young man unlucky enough to have been visiting the caretaker, was coming down the drive in his father's white 1966 Nash Rambler. Watson shot him point blank several times and left him there to die. Leaving Linda Kasabian outside to keep watch, the rest of the murderous gang broke into the house and began wandering around to see who was inside. They found Polanski's friend Wojciech Frykowski asleep on the living room couch, Sharon Tate and friend Jay Sebring talking in one of the bedrooms, and Frykowski's girlfriend, coffee heiress Abigail Folger reading in another. Susan Atkins, brandishing a hunting knife, herded them all into the living room where they were forced to sit together on the floor with Frykowski. Tex Watson had slung a long rope over one of the exposed ceiling beams. He brought Jay Sebring to his feet and tied one end of the rope around his neck. As he began tying the other end of the rope around Sharon Tate's neck, Sebring protested loudly, saying, "can't you see that she's pregnant?" Watson turned and shot Sebring and then stabbed his lifeless body multiple times. Now, all hell broke loose with Frykowski running out the front door and Folger running out the back door. Watson and Krenwinkle chased them down. Abigail Folger was stabbed many times until she died. Frykowski was stabbed, shot and bludgeoned to death.
Now only Sharon Tate was alive. Just two weeks from her delivery date, Sharon pleaded for the life of her child. Susan Atkins, who was guarding her while the killings went on outside, told Tate that she had no mercy for her or for her child. When Watson returned he stabbed Sharon Tate sixteen times while Susan Atkins held her.
The following night, while Los Angeles residents were still reeling from the five murders on Cielo Drive, Manson himself, along with the four from the previous night and two others—Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan—drove around Los Feliz and settled on a house they'd previously "creepy-crawled" (broken into and prowled undetected by its sleeping occupants) on Waverly Drive. Leno Labianca was asleep on the couch and his wife Rosemary was sleeping in their bedroom. Manson tied them up and gave instructions to Watson to kill them. He then returned to the Spahn Ranch while his family slaughtered the defenseless couple.
Those of us who followed the trial can remember the fear that chilled us as we heard the accounts of the merciless killings but most especially the murder of the beautiful actress and her unborn child. How could Susan Atkins, a young woman just twenty years old, feel nothing but murderous excitement in the face of another woman's heartrending cries for mercy for her baby? I won't attempt to explain how a person could be so brainwashed, so twisted by the near constant influence of LSD and other drugs, into believing that such a thing as the slaughter that happened at Cielo Drive on that Summer night was a righteous deed.
Since those two days in August 1969 the mystique surrounding Manson and his cult has never waned. There are fan clubs devoted to the idolization of the Manson Family and its beswastika'd leader "Charlie." One could call it a cult, or even a religion. Movies and documentaries have been made, some quite recently, keeping the Tate/Labianca murders in the public consciousness. But for most people Charles Manson is the Devil incarnate—or something close to it. Certainly, a Christian would never equate Manson with the God they have been taught to equate with love and mercy. In fact, to suggest such a thing to any normal well adjusted person would get you an immediate and very negative response.
The question I'm posing to you is: what if Charles Manson was God? Silly question or not, just humor me for a minute. What if Manson walked right out of Corcoran State Prison, where he's carrying out a life sentence, unscathed by bullets or any other means to stop him? What if he rose up in Glory and Majesty into the sky so that "all eyes could see" him and what if all the armies of the world gathered together to stop him but to no avail? What if Manson then demanded your worship and adoration in exchange for eternal life in Heaven? Would you bow down to worship and adore him? If not, why not? Because he's evil? The Devil surely has awesome powers and because Charles Manson is evil he must be the Devil, not God, right? How would you be able to tell which is the Devil and which is God (assuming that either one exist in the first place)?
To answer the question, we need the facts. What exactly did Manson do? Raised in greater Los Angeles, I had more than my fair share of interest in the Manson case. I read the books and watched the documentaries and developed a deep admiration for Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney in the Manson murder case. I'd always wondered why a group of teenagers and young adults who started out as the typical "Hippies" of the late sixties—the kind of people who were deeply searching for meaning in life and usually ended up studying Zen Buddhism or following one of the many Indian "gurus" of the era—could join up with someone as obviously deranged as Charlie Manson. How did Manson transform a group of peacenik Flower Children from Haight Ashbury into a murderous and psychotic mob? Now, the first thing that happened was that a young person was told about Charlie by one of the "family" members and enticed onto the Spahn Ranch, or wherever they were living at the time. Then, they would be introduced to Manson who would at first behave towards them in a loving humble way. After a while Manson would begin a process of destroying their ego by degrees and breaking them down (classic mind control/military training technique) so that they could be rebuilt to his specifications. Of course, plenty of sex and drugs played a major factor. Life at the Manson compound was filled with community spirit, love, little children, music, and daily sermons by Manson. The faithful believed in Charlie's divinity, extrapolating from his name that he was the literal "son of man." Some of the cult members claim that Manson raised birds from the dead. They believe that he could see into the future. Above all, they believed that "Charlie is Love."
It was only about six months before the Tate/Labianca killings that Manson began talking about "Helter Skelter," a song on the Beatles' White Album which Charlie took to mean apocalyptic race war. It did not take him long to convince his followers that such a war was inevitable and even necessary. He taught a mixture of Christian religion and rock-and-roll. He believed that the Blacks would rise up against the Whites and slaughter them all while his "family" hid out in the desert. He believed and taught that his "family" would grow to 144,000 and that Charlie and the Beatles would lead them in seizing power from the Blacks and everybody would live happily ever after. But in order to ignite such a race war he and his followers would need to get the killing started, and blame it on the Blacks. It took some doing, but Manson, according to several of his followers, taught the "family" that killing their victims was the ultimate act of love towards them. (In doing this, Manson stepped beyond the teaching of "the Lord" in the "Old Testament" because that god never taught his "children" that killing their enemies was an act of love. Those killings were merely an extension of the long list of rituals designed to keep the Israelites clean and pure and set aside from the rest of the world.) He'd already brainwashed them into being willing to die for him. Now, he said, if they were willing to die they must also be willing to kill. Manson succeeded in seamlessly blending love with death and killing—at least with most of the "family."
So, why should all this concern you? What, as my mom used to say, does this have to do with the price of peas in Ethiopia? Who cares about how a bunch of dope-smoking, acid-head hippies back in the sixties allowed some deranged ex-con to dupe them? Well, I'd like to try to put it into perspective for the average person, and especially for the average Christian. To do that, we'll need to look at what the Lord says in His "Good Book." So, open your Bible up to Deuteronomy 7:1 and read it. For those of you who don't own a Bible, here's what it says: "When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 2) And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: you must utterly annihilate them." This is just one of many times the "Lord" commands the utter annihilation of a people—a genocide—down to the pregnant women and newborn babies. And always the command to "show no pity" and "have no mercy." Just picture it. A family asleep in their home one night long, long ago in the coveted land of Canaan. A man and his pregnant wife were sleeping in their bed and two good friends from another town who'd stopped to visit for a few days were asleep in another room. Suddenly the front door crashes open and four wild-eyed crazies rush in with swords and long knives, gleaming and dripping with blood. Imagine the screams and pleas for mercy as the hacking and slicing began? Imagine such pleas falling on deaf ears as the killers in their righteous zeal hacked away at the men and then sliced open the pregnant belly of the woman, dashing her unborn child against the bloody wall. There's no need to describe the scene in more detail because it's already been graphically portrayed in real life, in our own time, on August 9th 1969 on 10050 Cielo Drive. If you truly want to glimpse the biblical god then multiply the Manson murders thousands of times over.
Charles Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkle killed to please their god. In their own minds, theirs was a righteous cause. Some may ask how dare I compare the Manson-ordered killings to the God-ordered killings? I do so because there is only one difference between them: If you believe in the biblical "God," then you believe he is all-powerful whereas Charles Manson is mortal and serving a life sentence behind bars. Other than that, there is no difference between either personality. In fact, it reminds me of the often quoted explanation from Isaiah 55:8-9 that "God’s ways are not our ways." All I can say is thank whatever power does actually influence this Universe or else the entire planet would be full of Charles Mansons!
Yep! Another presidential election, and more of the same old tired worn rhetoric. So, what else is new? Well, actually, this time around there is something new. For the first time in our history dumbed-down Americans are allowing computer programmers to "elect" the next president of the United States—or, more precisely, they are allowing those who pay the programmers to make the decision.
Certainly, American elections (more or less) always have been a farce, going back to the days when G. Washington's buddies planted him in the presidency. But roll over Georgie because the new computer voting machines will take all the fuss & muss out of cheating, which means that you might as well write your choice on a piece of toilet paper, use it appropriately, and then drop it into the old crapper & flush because voting at ye old polling station won't effect the outcome of the 2008 presidential election one way or the other. More simply put, it's all a done deal.
Anyone interested enough to turn off their 175 channels, hand-held video game, or whatever their main distraction is, can easily discover the corruption behind American politics. So-called candidates are carefully hand-picked and offered to voters to foster the illusion that Americans have a bonafide democracy. This means that both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are essentially one and the same "candidate," although sporting two different party labels, and the "winner" will be dancing to the tune of his master's voice, just as has that great disgrace, George W. Bush.
The inconvenient truth is that had Al Gore been "elected" president instead of George W. Bush, this country would have still wound up in Afghanistan and Iraq. We still would be facing the economic nightmare looming in our immediate future. The difference would have been the names and faces, but our soldiers still would be dying in a far away desert for lies and the liars who sold them. Our country still would be in eminent danger of economic collapse. The coverup lies of 9/11 still would have the government's "official" stamp of approval.
If it ever truly existed, government for the people and by the people in the good old U.S. of A. is as dead as 3-year-old camel turd on the Sahara Desert!
Okay, another presidential election and here come those damned little annoying stickers & signs asking "Who Would Jesus Vote For?" That's another way of asking which lying, corrupt, puppet would the Good Lord support?
Those of us who truly know the Lord and his word, know that the lies and corruptions wouldn't bother Jesus in the least, since he too shares these traits with our esteemed presidential hopefuls. As Lawrence Anthony is fond of reminding people, the New Testament proves Jesus Christ to be the biggest fraud, liar and pervert in history—and what profit has the Christ lie brought those who sell it! The same can be said for those who, every four years, sell Americans the fallacious concept of a new patriot in the White House. The difference between religion and politics is that the Jesus crowd has a 2000-year record of deceit that makes both McCain & Obama look like amateurs in a circus sideshow.
You know what? For once I'm going to give Christians an answer to their rhetorical question. Since Jesus and American politics are kindred spirits, and, pretending for a moment that there really is such a creature sitting somewhere "up there" on a throne awaiting a second coming, if Jesus did vote in the 2008 presidential elections, then he'd surely support the bigger of the two frauds. To my way of thinking that means John McCain, only because dear old Johnny has decades more experience perfecting his craft than does Barack. And so, if there really were a Jesus, and if he really had any input, come January 2009 we'd be sure to see President McCain in the White House!
Now, be sure to get out there and vote in November—and, come Sunday morn, be sure to attend the church of your choice, since both are a colossal waste of time and offer the same result: an exercise in futility!
(For some revealing info on McCain's character, read: JOHN McCAIN—THE MOST FLAWED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN HISTORY by Roland C. Eyears at: www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com Background on Sen. Obama can be found at this link: www.humanevents.com)
The tragic fact is that this world is full of liars and their lies. From the lowest government office right up to the White House, almost everything of importance is founded upon one long tissue of lies—perpetuated by the so-called news media, and compounded by our public schools. In this world, liars and lies are business as usual. It's always been that way, and, as long as there are two humans left alive on this planet, always will be so. And so it is with religion.
If you're a fundamentalist Christian you believe humanity began in the Garden of Eden and fell because of a lying talking snake. What you don't believe, although your bible plainly shows it to be so, is that the snake (serpent) did not lie. It was God who lied: he lied to Adam when he promised that in the day Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he would die. Adam lived for 930 more years. In fact, the serpent went on to tell Adam and Eve the truth when he said that by eating the forbidden fruit, they would become as God, to know good and evil. God confirms this when he says to his fellow gods that "behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good from evil." (Genesis 3:22)
For a bible believer, it doesn't bode well to profess belief in a book that begins with a lie, especially when Jesus himself proclaimed that a Christian must live by every word of God—that their eternal salvation depended on it! (Matthew 4:4).
Proverbs 19:5 tells us that "A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape." This is backed by Revelation 21:8 that boldly proclaims that "all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." In other words, you bible is telling you that lying is a serious business, and that those who practice this abomination will be cast into the lake of fire! And yet nearly every Christian on this planet practices and perpetuates lies when they accept the "word of God" without bothering to verify its authenticity or it's veracity—when they fail to follow the bible's command to prove all things and to hold fast to that which is good! (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
If you profess to be a Christian, then you are duty bound to prove the bible, starting in Genesis 1:1 and going all the way to the last jot and tittle of Revelation. There is no other way around it, else you are a liar and the truth is not in you! And if the truth is not in you, then you are headed to the terrible lake of fire, or so says your bible. It's that simple.
Speaking of lies, I hope all of you will check out Darrell's new article: British Israelism: the lie that won't die. In his article, Darrell briefly covers one of the most insidious false teachings ever to infest Christianity, namely the belief that the Anglo-Saxon peoples are descended from the lost ten tribes of Israel.
Even though this website is at war with organized religion, we are not and never have been at war with people's personal faith. We will always staunchly defend a person's right to believe and preach what they want. What motivates us to do what we do are those people who organize and use their "faith" as a weapon against those who do not share their views. Among the most militant and fraudulent—and perhaps the most dangerous—religious movements on earth is the one known as Zionism.
Although Darrell, Lawrence and I have spoken out about the dangers of Zionism on numerous occasions over the past thirteen years, it is well worth the effort to keep reminding our readers that this menace is real, and it's growing stronger by the day. This month we will do that by linking to an excellent article posted on True Torah Jews Against Zionism. Please read it with an open mind.
We implore and beseech our Jewish brethren to realize that the Zionists are not the saviors of the Jewish People and guarantors of their safety, but rather the instigators and original cause of Jewish suffering in the Holy Land and worldwide. The idea that Zionism and the State of “Israel” is the protector of Jews is probably the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the Jewish People. Indeed, where else since 1945 have Jews been in such physical danger as in the Zionist state?!
Jews are enjoined by their religious laws to be loyal to the country of which they are citizens. Ever since the destruction of the holy Temple in Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish People some two thousand years ago, we have been enjoined to be scrupulously loyal to the countries we reside in. One of the great biblical prophets, Jeremiah, in chapter 29 of his book proclaimed G-d's message to all the exiled; verse seven reads, "Seek out the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray for it to the Almighty, for through its welfare will you have welfare." This has been a cornerstone of Jewish morality throughout our history to this very day.
Torah-true Jews wish to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors in every country among the community of nations, including in historic Palestine. They deplore acts and policies of violence carried out by those who, misusing the name of Israel our forefather, have substituted the ideal of chauvinist nationalism for the eternal values of the Torah, the eternal divinely bestowed inheritance of the Jewish people.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
According the New Testament Jesus was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. (John 1:1-3,10, 14, John 8: 58, Act 17:24, Colossians 1:16.) It was JC who created the heavens and the earth, who performed all the miracles and other acts in the OT, which more often than not include a lot of bloodshed. But we'll ignore that part since Christians argue that "he's God and can do anything he pleases!" I want to focus on one aspect of JC's past, which is found in the opening chapter of the bible: the Creation.
In Jeremiah 32:17 we read "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." This scripture is shored up by Proverbs 3:19 which tells us: "The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens."
And so, by his "wisdom" the LORD (that's the title the old King James translators gave Jehovah, or Yahweh) planned and created the earth. By his "understanding" did he create the heavens. In other words, Jesus took pains to get it all right! And we know it was all right since Mark 10:27 assures us that "with God all things are possible" and 1 Corinthians 14:33 adds "For God is not the author of confusion!"
These NT verses get their inspiration from Isaiah 45:18: "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else."
When Isaiah says that JC didn't create the world in "vain," the writer is using the Hebrew word "tohu" which is the same word found in Genesis 1:2: "And the earth was void [tohu] and without form [bohu].") But Isaiah presents us with a problem because it directly contradicts Genesis 1:2 which tells us that JC DID create the world in "vain" or in "bohu" or in "chaos" and/or "confusion!" Both scriptures can't be right! One or the other is false—a fraud!
These embarrassing scriptures have spawned a "how it could have happened" tale amongst Christians, known by many as the "Gap Theory." In this hodgepodge ministers have raked up Isaiah 14:12 and theorize how Lucifer caused earth's destruction, or "chaos," when he revolted against God in heaven—the battle eventually coming down here when JC cast the Devil and his fallen angels to earth. Why on earth JC brought this battle down here so it could ruin the planet is anyone's guess. Either it was intentional, or JC didn't have the power to protect his planet. Nevertheless, the theory is that between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 there is a "gap" of many millions of years, and when we read of the creation in the 1:3 etc., we are really reading about a "recreation" of the earth's surface. This nonsense is easily disposed of, as Darrell has done in his Old Testament study Things You've Never Heard In Church Series: Genesis: In the Beginning!
My reason for covering some old territory here is to drive home the point that all is not right with the bible. Someone, somewhere is NOT telling the truth! If you truly believe in Jesus Christ then you must point the finger of blame in his direction. If you half believe, half doubt, then for heaven's sake don't you think it's time to do your homework and make an educated decision?
In his famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus made the following promises: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:7-11)
Commenting on these promises, Mark Twain observed that "There are upwards of a thousand lies in the Bible. But this is probably the biggest. How many desperate, frightened, broken-hearted parents have watched their children die while begging God to help?"
For any dedicated "the bible is God's word" Christian, Twain's observation and challenge should inspire them to put the word of God to the test. If Jesus was telling the truth, then you can make a request of your father in heaven and it shall be given. If it's not given, then Jesus lied. That's the simple equation.
Now, I'm not talking about the Janis Joplin syndrome here. (In her song "Mercedes Benz" Joplin pleaded "Oh lord, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?") I'm talking about asking your father in heaven for something good, like healing a suffering child dying in some wretched hospital, or helping a struggling family about to lose their home to foreclosure. Surely God will not ignore such an unselfish prayer.
Okay. That's it for this month. Yes, I know it's a short opinion piece, but when something can be said in a handful of words, then my philosophy is not to muddy up the watering hole with a lot of tail chasing. Oh, there is one thing I will add: If you decided to try out Jesus' promise, do me a favor and send me an advanced email telling me what it is you'll be praying for. If you can prove your prayer was answered, we'll seriously reconsider our stand here at dwc.com. If we don't hear from you, then I rest my case!
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!
Click here for more information
NEW!
Rival Caesars
by
Desmond Dilg
