The military in the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and other countries have become all volunteer. When a country has an all volunteer army it is easier to get into war, because the only people who are fighting want to fight. A citizen army and a Congressional declaration of war guarantees a country will not become involved in expeditions that are contrary to the country's will.
Israel, yesterday took a big step forward to guarantee its army remains a citizen force. Not only is there a draft in Israel, and Sweden and Switzerland, but now there will be no religious deferment. If there is no religious deferment the government will find it easier to make peace with their neighbors.
I congratulate the Supreme Constitutional Court of Israel for making this ruling. It strengthens democracy in this tiny country.
Discussions of political and religious issues from a biblical point of view
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Kiddush according to the Nasoreans: A Eucharistic Meal
Kiddush means sanctification. It is the first service of the Shabbat. It is the time when we remember Passover and when we make the Thanksgiving sacrifice (Eucharist). What is the meaning of this ritual?
To begin this discussion, we read in Exodus 12:14: "This day shall be a zikaron for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution." Zikaron means remembrance. It is like the bequest of an estate or the marriage ring. It stands in for the entire event of a person's relationship with another. It is a small part of the entire event. But Exodus goes on to explain: "On this day you shall explain to your son,'This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt'. 13:8. The Haggadah of the Seder Meal has four questions and it explains that if you ask the question, "What does this mean to you?" you place yourself outside of the community, because the Lord wants to emphasize that what he did at the Passover is an eternal act, done for each descendant of Jacob throughout eternity. It is the belief of the Kabbalah that every Jew who would ever live was present at the Passover and at the reading of the Torah in front of Mt. Sinai. Our reincarnated souls were present to assent to the Passover, by placing the blood on the door, and to the covenant by saying yes to it at Mt. Sinai. The concept of zikaron then takes on a greater meaning, because the Event, the Passover, happened to me, not to my ancestors alone, but to me. I remember what G-d did for me.
Two elements of the Seder Meal are important for the remembrance, the zikaron. They are the Matzah or bread and the four cups of kosher wine, which is a strong wine. We bless the first cup with the Kiddush prayer and sanctify the cup and the day as a holy day. We drink the first cup. Then we break the middle loaf of bread in a stack of three loaves and hide away one half of the bread. The remaining bread is blessed and eaten. Then we bless the second cup called the Cup of Telling or Maggid. It is drunk. Then we have the meal. After the meal, the third cup called the cup of blessing or redemption and it is drunk. Lastly, the cup of praise or the Hallel cup is taken.
Paul called by us the Liar is the first to write about the Seder that Yeshua (Jesus) celebrated. It is normally called the Last Supper. He begins his discussion of the Eucharist, also called Communion or the Lord's Supper, in 1 Corinthians 10. He says, "The Cup of Blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" 10:16. The word that is used here for participation is koinonia, a Greek word meaning participation and fellowship and communion. So Paul is saying that when we eat the bread and drink the cup we have returned to the Last Supper and joined with Yeshua in the event. All of those at that table were in koinonia; they participated fully in the event. And the event itself was a participation, a zikaron, of the original Passover. Paul continues with his story in chapter 11 where he says, "For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in anamnesis of me." 11:24. The word anamnesis is the Greek word for the Hebrew word zikaron. Jesus is saying that he has become the Paschal Lamb that is the center of this meal and the Matzah is embued with the meaning of the Body of the Lamb. The whole event is renewed. No longer are we talking about the Exodus Passover, but now we talk about the Renewed Exodus. Jesus is the blood on the door in the form of a cross. Jesus is the Bread of the Feast. Paul goes on, 'In the same way, also the cup, after the supper, saying, 'This is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in anamnesis of me.'"11:25. Jesus is saying then that the Cup of blessing has become the blood of the Paschal Lamb, the same blood that is marked on the door in the form of a cross. When we drink it, we renew the covenant we made with Yeshua and G-d at the time of the Passover and Sinai.
The last element of this Event is the concept of its ever presence among us. When we do Passover, we relive the event and for those of us who are followers of Yeshua, we also recall and relive the events that happened later, his arrest, his trial, his death, his resurrection, his ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Shavuot, at our personal Mt. Sinai. Many will say however that Yeshua is not present really in these events, that he does not show up again when we celebrate them. For those people, G-d did not do these mighty acts for them. Like the evil child of Passover, they are not part of the Chosen of G-d. They are outside of the community. But Paul's response is timely. He says, "For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself." 11:29. Just as at the event at Emmaus, where Luke records that Cleophas his uncle and another were joined by Yeshua as they walked, they did not recognize him until he took the bread and broke it and gave it to them. Luke 24:13-32. So the eyes of faith will open our hearts to the real presence of Yeshua in the Seder Meal as both the Master of the Meal and the Paschal Lamb.
Weekly, Jews all over the world, on Friday evening at sundown renew this zikaron of Passover in the Kiddush cup. The bread and wine consumed bring those present into communion not only with each other but with the Paschal Lamb that was slain. He said that where two or more are met together in his name, He would also be and that is not symbolically, but actually. Our sins are taken away during that service if we truly repent and we are sustained and nourished with the remembrance of the events surrounding that day.
The claim has been made from the early times of the church that this understanding of Yeshua as being the bread and blood is cannibalism. John 6:53-55 makes it absolutely clear that Yeshua is telling us to eat his flesh and blood. However, it is John that tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of G-d. Now, how can Jesus really be a Lamb. He is the Lamb, the Pascha, of Passover in the same way he is both the Archangel of the Presence, who led Israel in the Desert and a Cloud of Fire and Smoke. He is both the Pascha and a Man and we eat the Pascha not the Man.
Without the saving power of the Eucharist, which the Clementine letters openly assert is the replacement of the Mosaic sacrifice, we are still in our sins, because Hebrews 6 says that after we have been baptized and confirmed and we sin we are crucifying Christ again. Only the Nasorean Sect has this true understanding of Eucharist and the Pharisees are still in their sins.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Moving to the Desert
It is time to tell the story of why I moved from Kansas City to Council Grove, Kansas.
About a year and a half ago, the Voice said to me, "Barry, you must move from Kansas City." I asked why and it said, "Terrible things are going to happen in Kansas City and in most cities in the world. The cities are going to lose their power and very quickly they will revert to barbarism. The strong men will eat the bodies of babies in the city streets and all the citizens will be slaves or dead." It was very hard to believe what I was hearing, but being a logical and reasonable person and being also a faithful believer and follower of the Voice, I began to make inquiries about one hundred miles south of Kansas City to try to find a place to open a law office. I was going to first commute one day a week and then slowly move to the new area.
My first attempts failed. I waited another six months and during that entire time there was no new business. My money was being used up to get buy and I was starting to live on credit. Then the Voice again spoke on this subject and told me to move out of Kansas City. I went out about forty miles to the West and began looking for office space. I did not find anything. I went another five months. Still there was no new business and I was out of money. I had enough money in August to pay the rent, but I could not pay the utilities, the gasoline bills, the credit cards, buy food, or anything else.
Joshua said to me that I should apply for Section 8 housing where I could take my dog. I found two such places that had openings -- one in Council Grove and one in Lincoln. I went to see them both, but Council Grove was clearly to be preferred. On August 8, 2011, I signed the contract for Council Grove. On August 11, 2011, I started getting cases again and money started flowing in. It has not stopped.
I found a small town of 3,000 in a county of 7,000. These are good people. They are unsophisticated. The have simple faith -- false faith in false gods, but they believe in their false god well. They do good things and live good lives. I have gotten involved in this community in the last six months and the Lord begins to show me what he wants to do. He reminds me that Jesus sent his 72 disciples to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He specifically said not to go to the Gentiles that could not understand the message. The Lord wants me to begin an active ministry to those who I find are of the Lost Sheep. I find that about 120 years ago many Jewish people came here from Russia and eastern Europe. They converted to Christianity, but they still are descendants of Jacob and are therefore to come home to the truth. See Jeremiah 16: 14-15; and 23: 7-8. It is time to bring these people throughout central Kansas back to the Torah and to the Meshiach of Melchizedek, Yeshua ha Meshiach, who is Jesus our Lord. It is time to call these people back to the faith of the Apostles.
You will find that the website: www.nasori.org; this blog; and a twitter account have been joined and a new push is on to bring the truth to the world. Join us and bring your friends. To those close by, we offer the Kiddush on Friday nights and if enough want it Havdalah on Saturday evening.
About a year and a half ago, the Voice said to me, "Barry, you must move from Kansas City." I asked why and it said, "Terrible things are going to happen in Kansas City and in most cities in the world. The cities are going to lose their power and very quickly they will revert to barbarism. The strong men will eat the bodies of babies in the city streets and all the citizens will be slaves or dead." It was very hard to believe what I was hearing, but being a logical and reasonable person and being also a faithful believer and follower of the Voice, I began to make inquiries about one hundred miles south of Kansas City to try to find a place to open a law office. I was going to first commute one day a week and then slowly move to the new area.
My first attempts failed. I waited another six months and during that entire time there was no new business. My money was being used up to get buy and I was starting to live on credit. Then the Voice again spoke on this subject and told me to move out of Kansas City. I went out about forty miles to the West and began looking for office space. I did not find anything. I went another five months. Still there was no new business and I was out of money. I had enough money in August to pay the rent, but I could not pay the utilities, the gasoline bills, the credit cards, buy food, or anything else.
Joshua said to me that I should apply for Section 8 housing where I could take my dog. I found two such places that had openings -- one in Council Grove and one in Lincoln. I went to see them both, but Council Grove was clearly to be preferred. On August 8, 2011, I signed the contract for Council Grove. On August 11, 2011, I started getting cases again and money started flowing in. It has not stopped.
I found a small town of 3,000 in a county of 7,000. These are good people. They are unsophisticated. The have simple faith -- false faith in false gods, but they believe in their false god well. They do good things and live good lives. I have gotten involved in this community in the last six months and the Lord begins to show me what he wants to do. He reminds me that Jesus sent his 72 disciples to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He specifically said not to go to the Gentiles that could not understand the message. The Lord wants me to begin an active ministry to those who I find are of the Lost Sheep. I find that about 120 years ago many Jewish people came here from Russia and eastern Europe. They converted to Christianity, but they still are descendants of Jacob and are therefore to come home to the truth. See Jeremiah 16: 14-15; and 23: 7-8. It is time to bring these people throughout central Kansas back to the Torah and to the Meshiach of Melchizedek, Yeshua ha Meshiach, who is Jesus our Lord. It is time to call these people back to the faith of the Apostles.
You will find that the website: www.nasori.org; this blog; and a twitter account have been joined and a new push is on to bring the truth to the world. Join us and bring your friends. To those close by, we offer the Kiddush on Friday nights and if enough want it Havdalah on Saturday evening.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Letting Assad Stay
Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria. He is said to be a dictator, just like his father, and he may well be just like his father. However, it is because he is like his father that he should be allowed to stay in power until a solution to a more serious problem can be found. You see, there are 2.2 million Alawites and Druze and 1.9 million Christians and a small number of Jews among the 19.7 million people. The Sunni majority have attempted genocide on the Alawites and Druze four times in the past and with an almost certain take over by Islamists, if Bashar al-Assad is replaced, there will be genocide again.
We have seen that in Egypt the 8 million Coptic Christians have been attacked and their churches burned after the revolution. These things did not happen under the previous regime. We have seen in Tunisia threats against the Jewish minority which did not happen under the previous regime. In Iran, we have seen the Jews and Christians harassed and mistreated by the Shi'ite regime which never happened under the Shah. Until some outside body can assure the safety of over 25% of the people who will be in jeopardy, no regime change should take place.
It is time that the people see that Western and especially American diplomacy in the Middle East have been a failure. American activities have guaranteed that the people did not progress toward democracy or stability. In fact, American activities have given some of our worst enemies access to advanced weaponry to use against us. Israel no longer trusts us. They are busy building new bridges with Cyprus, India, Greece, and Bulgaria because we are no longer faithful friends. Turkey under the generals was a supporter of the West, but under the religious government it is a friend of Iran. In fact, Iran is a democracy. It is just as good a democracy as Pakistan, Jordan, Greece, Hungary, and Russia. Yet because Iran is anti-American, it is not considered a democracy. Democracy, to be successful, requires the development of democratic, secular, institutions in advance of the establishment of democracy.
War between Israel and Iran is inevitable. The world should stay out of that war. Let Iran fire its one nuke at Israel. Let Israel fire ten in response. Let the Iranians overthrow their leadership in the aftermath. None of the Iranian nukes will get through, even though some of the other missiles will. Israel will be punished because of its refusal to keep the Sabbath and its refusal to remove unkosher food from its markets. But Israel will survive. Iran will be smaller after the war. Kurdistan will be formed as a result of the war.
We must realize that if Israel is let to have a free hand, Hizballah and Hamas will cease to exist along with most of their supporters. Several million enemies of Israel will die. Israel will annex the West Bank and the Palestinian problem will be resolved in a different, more drastic manner. Israel will follow the Chinese example and outlaw the birth of more than two children per Israeli, including Palestinian, families. This will maintain the status quo.
Ron Paul would allow the inevitable to happen. Elect him to the Presidency.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Was Jesus Crazy?
The New American Bible says at Mark 3:21: When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." So, what was it that made Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters think that he was crazy. The answer to this question lies in a recollection of who Jesus was and what he believed. First, we have to remember that Jesus was a Nasorean. Matthew 2:23. The Nasoreans had been around for at least 100 years by the time Jesus was born and had a definite point of view. One of the points of view held by the Nasoreans as set forth in the Community Rule is the idea that there would be three pillars which would rule the Nasorean community. Jesus believed that the Priestly Pillar would be John the Baptist, the Kingly Pillar was be Himself, and the Prophetic Pillar would be his brother, Jacob (James the Just).
Jesus had been raised his entire life to believe in the three pillars and he believed strongly in the importance of each member of the triumvirate. Matthew has the story out of proper chronology. The proper chronology was Jesus was baptized by John, John was arrested, and Jesus went into the wilderness to be tested. See Matthew 4. Why did Jesus go into the wilderness? The paradigm that Jesus believed had been shattered. John was gone and Jesus did not understand how he could be a King without a High Priest. He went into the desert to die. He was overwhelmed. His world was completely mixed up. It is reasonable to believe that Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters believed as he did. They were committed to the idea of the three pillars.
While in the desert, like Elijah in his faith crisis, Jesus was visited by the Archangel Gavriel. He spoke to Jesus and said: "Jesus do you remember the prophecies concerning Melchizedek." Jesus said that he did. For the record, let us review those prophecies:
Melchizedek will return as the Messiah who will declare a day of favor from the Lord, announcing good news, salvation from the Enemy, comforting the mourning, and freeing the captives. 11Q 13 in the Dead Sea Scrolls, called the Coming of Melchizedek. Again:
The heavens and the earth will listen to His Messiah, and none therein will stray from the commandments of the Holy Ones. ... Over the Evyon (the Poor) His spirit will hover and will renew the faithful with his power. ... He will liberate the captives, restore sight to the blind, straighten the bent. ... For he will heal the wounded, and revive the dead and bring news to the Evyon (the Poor). 4Q521 from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
So Jesus believed that when Melchizedek returned he would do all these things. Now another name for the Nasoreans was the Poor or Evyoni. The Archangel then said to Jesus, you are Melchizedek returned, you are the Priest-King of Jerusalem. You are the Messiah that was to come again. Restore the ancient sacrifices and the ancient ways.
Jesus returned from the Wilderness filled with new ideas about who he was and what he was to do. Those ideas were radically different than the ideas he had been raised with. Those ideas would seem like madness to his relatives and to the Nasoreans. Those ideas would split the Nasorean Movement into those who supported Jesus and saw John as the precursor and those who thought Jesus was Satanic and John was the Messiah. The split continues even today between the Christians and the Mandaeans.
Jesus went to Capernaum, not home to Nazareth. He began to preach as the Archangel had reminded him. He began to cast out demons and heal the sick. His mother and brothers and sisters came to see what he was doing. It all sounded wrong, different. They at first rejected him and even the Pharisees claimed he was possessed by Baalzebul. But Jesus was not crazy. He was the most sane of men. And from that time on, he was Melchizedek returned aiming to return to Jerusalem.
Jesus set out on a different mission than the one prescribed for the Davidic Messiah. Those who wrote later were not steeped in the literature of the Nasoreans, so they made up a Messiah that resembled the Messiah of David, but they failed to realize that Jesus was a different Messiah entirely. The last act of that Messiah was to change the Mosaic Sacrifice forever, to end the bloody sacrifice of animals and to restore the Melchizedekan sacrifice of bread and wine. In the Clementine letters we are told specifically that the early church understood that the Eucharist was the replacement for the bloody sacrifice and the Eucharist is a sacrifice of bread and wine. Jesus was the Messiah of Melchizedek and he did all that that Messiah was to do. He was the Christ, an Elohim that descended from Heaven, and returned to Heaven as the Eternal High Priest, just like Melchizedek had been.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Saved From What?
When a Jew says that he is seeking salvation he means that he wants to be free from his sins under the Torah and be brought into peace with the Holy One of Israel. However, Jesus was a Nazorean and the Nazoreans, also known as the Essenes, believed that a Messiah would soon come to the world and He would bring warfare and mass destruction. Jesus promised his disciples that he must die and rise from the dead. He promised them that He would come again on the clouds and with him would come a huge army of angels. Salvation for him meant that those who followed the Torah and believed in Him would be saved during the coming war and destruction. Membership in the Church was therefore an insurance policy that when all the coming war and destruction overcame the world, you would be saved. However, Jesus promised that he would come again to fulfill these prophecies before the last apostle died.
By 95 CE, the last of the Apostles, Jude Thaddeus, called Thomas, was the only one of the Apostles still living and the events had not occurred. Instead the land of Israel had been devastated by the Roman armies and no angels had appeared to protect the people and save them. The Church leaders who had removed themselves from Jerusalem after the death of James decided that they must have misunderstood what Jesus was saying. As a result, the Gospel of John was written and in it salvation was redefined.
In John's Gospel, one will be saved from hell by belief in the Name of Jesus. The book centers not so much upon what Jesus did but rather on who he was and also on how He performed the signs that He performed. Jesus was going to send the Holy Spirit as a comforter to protect believers until the time came for Jesus to return. The book of John did believe in the imminent return of Jesus, but it decided that there would be no signs that would give us a clue as to when that time would be.
In 2 Peter, the author, writing the last of the canonical letters, argues that Jesus is not slow. After all, for G-d a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. People were losing faith in this religion of Jesus because not only did the religion, now co-opted by Pauline heresy, not have a strong moral and ethical basis, but in addition the prophecies of Jesus had appeared to be false in that they had not come to pass in the time he had said they would.
The Revelation of St. John was written by a disciple of a disciple of John according to Eusebius in his Ecclesia Historia. Eusebius doubted that it was an inspired book but rather argued that it was a false prophecy and should not be admitted into the then incomplete canon of Scripture. However, in order to keep further erosion of the Church, the pagan Emperor Constantine the Great conspired and tricked the Council of Nicaea into accepting the book into the Canon instead of Enoch, a book which was considered sacred by the Nasoreans and by Jesus and his family as is demonstrated by the Letter of Jude. It was necessary to have Revelation in order to give Christians an imaginary something to be saved from even though Jesus did not mean salvation from an afterlife hell but rather salvation from a current everyday real hell on Earth.
So what do we do with Christianity? First of all, we return to the Gospel of Matthew and to the Torah which Jesus left us with a command to do much better than the Pharisees. See Matthew 5:19-21. Second, we require Gentiles to be circumcised and to keep the Sabbath and kosher laws. Isaiah 56:1-7. Third, we start saying the Eucharist around a pot luck meal on Friday just after sundown. Fourth, we abolish Paul and everything tainted by him and restore the ancient books of the Nazorean faith. Then and only then will Gentiles and Jews be saved from hell and the destruction when Messiah Jesus returns.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
A Modern Parable: The Crumbling Basilica of the Nativity
Jesus made a habit of teaching in parables. In the modern age, the church that claims Him as its Lord has a story to tell that is very much a parable on what is left behind in His Name.
Some 1650 years ago, St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She started a trend that continues to this very day at the rate of over 3,000,000 people per year. Those who come to the Holy Land come to see many things but the most popular places are the places that Jesus walked and performed his miracles. Two of the most beloved places are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Basilica of the Nativity. Because of their importance, several denominations claim the right to be present at these churches. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, the Armenians, and the Coptics claim equal authority and at the Basilica of the Nativity, the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, and the Armenians claim equal rights.
These competing claims have created a tradition which says that the denomination which makes a repair has ownership rights to that which is repaired. This tradition has been a major obstacle to maintenance at both churches. The Basilica of the Nativity was built in the fourth century and torn down and rebuilt in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian. For 1500 years, the Basilica, once adorned with mosaics and artwork, has been neglected due to this tradition. Since 1461, it has been noted that the roof is in disrepair, that the beams are rotting away, that the roof leaks and is destroying the mosaics and artwork, and that the competing parties cannot agree to repair any of the problems.
The problem has become so acute that the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a mostly Muslim group, has decided that the 2,000,000 visitors yearly to the Basilica are in grave danger. This danger threatens the very economy in the West Bank. The Muslims cannot afford to wait for the Christians to deal with their problems anymore. So, despite the poverty and needs of the people of the West Bank, the PLO has decided that the roof must be repaired at the cost of $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. This is money that is meant for the starving poor, but in order to guarantee that there will be some tourist dollars, the PLO must spend the money to save the roof of a Christian church. What a disgrace.
The parable is that Jesus prayed in the Gospel of John that Christians would all be in agreement even as He and His Father were in agreement. At the first, it seemed as if his prayer was being answered, but just as this shiny new church built 1500 years ago has become decrepit and dangerous so also has the Christian faith become decrepit and dangerous. Various branches of the faith -- Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, and Protestant -- have ignored the words of Jesus and allowed their petty differences to keep them from what is important. Jesus told them that on the day of Judgment they would be judged by how they feed the poor, visited the sick and prisoner, and showed forth love to each other. But in our modern day, we are left with Muslims, despised due to terrorists, to fix the Holy Sites of the Christianity. The Church where Jesus was born has joined the homeless and the wealth that has come to those who claim his name is spent on warfare rather than peace.
Perhaps, today is a good day to change all of this. For just one penny per Christian person, $20,000,000 can be raised to fix the Basilica of the Nativity and make it safe for the faithful. The seamless garment conceived by Jesus and represented by the clothes he wore to his execution may begin to be repaired by a joint act of all Christians to repair his birthplace. We should be shamed that we spend more money in America keeping up the shrines to Lincoln, Washington, Grant, Kennedy, and Martin Luther King than what it would take to repair the birthplace of Jesus the Christ.
Merry Christmas
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Argument for the Cicumcision of Gentiles
The Book of Acts written by Luke, the secretary of Paul, alleges that the Council of Jerusalem authorized the Gentiles to join the Church without the requirement of circumcision. I want to consider whether this alleged act of the Council is in fact the Will of G-d.
Abram was a Gentile. When he was 99 years old, El the Almighty appeared to him and made a covenant with him promising to make him the Father of Nations and to give him the Land of Canaan. In return, El required that all the males of Abram's house must be circumcised, including the slaves of the house. So, G-d El specifically required that those who would attach themselves to Abraham must be circumcised whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Genesis 17:9-14. Now the Jews understood that this covenant required them to circumcise their sons and the Arabs likewise understood that they must circumcise their sons. So, how do we reconcile the claim that the Holy Spirit, the representative of El, would allow for Gentiles to follow El or Yeshua without being circumcised.
The Prophecies of Isaiah as included in the book by his name are heavily quoted as proof-texts to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah. One passage in the Prophet Isaiah is Chapter 56:1-8 in which the Prophet prophesies that the Gentiles would become believers. A reflection on that Chapter would be useful in this current discussion.
One possible translation of the Isaiah 56:1-7 is: "Thus says YHVH: Observe what is right, do what is just; for My Jesus is about to come, my Justice, about to be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, the Son of Man who holds to it; who keeps the Sabbath free from profanation, and his hand from any evildoing. Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to YHVH, 'YHVH will surely exclude me from his people'; nor let the eunuch say, 'See I am a dry tree.' For thus says YHVH: To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to MY Covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a Name better than Sons and Daughters; an eternal, imperishable Name will I give them. And the foreigners who join themselves to YHVH ministering to him, loving the Name of YHVH, and becoming his servants -- all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to My Covenant, them I will bring to MY HOLY MOUNTAIN and make joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER; their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for MY HOUSE shall be called A HOUSE OF PRAYER for all peoples."
The Prophet specifically says that during the time of the coming of His Jesus a pouring out of the Spirit will allow the Gentiles to be joined to YHVH provided they do certain things: First, keep the Sabbath free from profanation; second, hold fast to His Covenant; third, love the Name of YHVH and become YHVH's servants; fourth, offer sacrifices. Now, we know that one must keep a Sabbath rest on the Sabbath day, Saturday. We know that we are to love YHVH with all our heart, mind and soul. But what does YHVH mean when he says "hold fast to MY COVENANT". The Gentiles did not have a covenant with YHVH to keep the Torah. But they did have a covenant to be circumcised, see Genesis above. Thus, the Covenant which the foreigner, the eunuch and all the Gentiles must keep is circumcision.
Some will try to argue that Jesus never required that Gentiles keep the covenant of circumcision and I would agree that he never directly said that. But, he did allude to the requirement to be circumcised. At Mark 11:15-17, Mark records the cleansing in the Temple. This alleged cleansing was not in the Temple proper, but was rather in the Court of Gentiles. Jesus says: " Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Jesus is therefore quoting from Isaiah 56:1-7 where it is promised that the Court of Gentiles would be called a HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES. Isaiah specifically mentions that all of this will occur on Mt. Zion, the Holy Mountain, and that it will occur in the Court of Gentiles and it promises that the sacrifices of the Gentiles will be more acceptable than those of the Jews because of their Love of the Name of YHVH. Now the Name of YHVH is the Archangel of the Presence. See Exodus 23:21. And the Archangel of the Presence is Jesus. So we see that Jesus is the one upon who the Name of YHVH rests and that he is therefore the personification of the Name. Jesus had all of this in mind when he was cleansing the Temple.
This is one more proof that the lies of Paul and his cohorts must be denied. We know as a fact that James taught that all must be circumcised in order to become members of the House of Jesus and Abraham. Paul lies when he says that circumcision of Gentiles is not required.
In order for Gentiles to be accepted into the Nasorean faith, they must be mikvahed (baptised) in the name of Abraham and Yeshua (Jesus), they must be circumcised, they must keep the Sabbath, and they must offer the sacrifices of the Church.
Abram was a Gentile. When he was 99 years old, El the Almighty appeared to him and made a covenant with him promising to make him the Father of Nations and to give him the Land of Canaan. In return, El required that all the males of Abram's house must be circumcised, including the slaves of the house. So, G-d El specifically required that those who would attach themselves to Abraham must be circumcised whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Genesis 17:9-14. Now the Jews understood that this covenant required them to circumcise their sons and the Arabs likewise understood that they must circumcise their sons. So, how do we reconcile the claim that the Holy Spirit, the representative of El, would allow for Gentiles to follow El or Yeshua without being circumcised.
The Prophecies of Isaiah as included in the book by his name are heavily quoted as proof-texts to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah. One passage in the Prophet Isaiah is Chapter 56:1-8 in which the Prophet prophesies that the Gentiles would become believers. A reflection on that Chapter would be useful in this current discussion.
One possible translation of the Isaiah 56:1-7 is: "Thus says YHVH: Observe what is right, do what is just; for My Jesus is about to come, my Justice, about to be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, the Son of Man who holds to it; who keeps the Sabbath free from profanation, and his hand from any evildoing. Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to YHVH, 'YHVH will surely exclude me from his people'; nor let the eunuch say, 'See I am a dry tree.' For thus says YHVH: To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to MY Covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a Name better than Sons and Daughters; an eternal, imperishable Name will I give them. And the foreigners who join themselves to YHVH ministering to him, loving the Name of YHVH, and becoming his servants -- all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to My Covenant, them I will bring to MY HOLY MOUNTAIN and make joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER; their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for MY HOUSE shall be called A HOUSE OF PRAYER for all peoples."
The Prophet specifically says that during the time of the coming of His Jesus a pouring out of the Spirit will allow the Gentiles to be joined to YHVH provided they do certain things: First, keep the Sabbath free from profanation; second, hold fast to His Covenant; third, love the Name of YHVH and become YHVH's servants; fourth, offer sacrifices. Now, we know that one must keep a Sabbath rest on the Sabbath day, Saturday. We know that we are to love YHVH with all our heart, mind and soul. But what does YHVH mean when he says "hold fast to MY COVENANT". The Gentiles did not have a covenant with YHVH to keep the Torah. But they did have a covenant to be circumcised, see Genesis above. Thus, the Covenant which the foreigner, the eunuch and all the Gentiles must keep is circumcision.
Some will try to argue that Jesus never required that Gentiles keep the covenant of circumcision and I would agree that he never directly said that. But, he did allude to the requirement to be circumcised. At Mark 11:15-17, Mark records the cleansing in the Temple. This alleged cleansing was not in the Temple proper, but was rather in the Court of Gentiles. Jesus says: " Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Jesus is therefore quoting from Isaiah 56:1-7 where it is promised that the Court of Gentiles would be called a HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES. Isaiah specifically mentions that all of this will occur on Mt. Zion, the Holy Mountain, and that it will occur in the Court of Gentiles and it promises that the sacrifices of the Gentiles will be more acceptable than those of the Jews because of their Love of the Name of YHVH. Now the Name of YHVH is the Archangel of the Presence. See Exodus 23:21. And the Archangel of the Presence is Jesus. So we see that Jesus is the one upon who the Name of YHVH rests and that he is therefore the personification of the Name. Jesus had all of this in mind when he was cleansing the Temple.
This is one more proof that the lies of Paul and his cohorts must be denied. We know as a fact that James taught that all must be circumcised in order to become members of the House of Jesus and Abraham. Paul lies when he says that circumcision of Gentiles is not required.
In order for Gentiles to be accepted into the Nasorean faith, they must be mikvahed (baptised) in the name of Abraham and Yeshua (Jesus), they must be circumcised, they must keep the Sabbath, and they must offer the sacrifices of the Church.
Monday, October 17, 2011
State of Missouri vs. the Roman Catholic Church
The Constitution forbids Congress or the States or the Local Governments from inhibiting the free exercise of religion. Passing a law which makes the Church an arm of the State is unconstitutional. Making a Pastor decide between obeying a law and helping a person in his care is wrong and illegal. The State of Missouri and the County Prosecutor of Jackson County, Missouri wanted Bishop Finn and the Catholic Church to tell them that Father Shawn Ratigan had downloaded pictures of a little girl who was naked. The Church and Bishop Finn did that, but they did not do it until they had tried to act as a loving Pastor toward Fr. Ratigan. Bishop Finn acted correctly and the State is wrong to criticize.
Consider that in 325 A.D., Constantine the Great made the Church an arm of the State and down that slippery slope we saw freedom of religion vanish. Consider that the Catholic Church strongly opposes the lawful treatment of illegals in this country. Consider that if the Bishop can be held accountable for not turning Father Ratigan over until he had exhausted his Pastoral duties to him then he can be held guilty for not turning in the illegals in his congregations. Consider those things he does which the Church approves but the State does not. Do we really want to go down the slippery slope of allowing the State to decide what the Church should do? I for one dislike Bishop Finn but I for one support him in this crisis. If religious people do not stand up now, they will eventually see the State dictating what they can believe and do. What is the difference between Fascist Germany and Communist Russia if we start interfering with the lawful work of the Church?
Now here is what I propose. The Pope should place Jackson County, Missouri under interdict. He should refuse to allow Masses to be said, people to be buried, children to be baptized, people to be confirmed and stop his Priests and Nuns from performing any act until the People of Jackson County recall the County Prosecutor and the Judge who is hearing this case. He should order Catholics to refuse to recognize the government of Jackson County, Missouri until it restores freedom of religion. He should excommunicate those catholics who were members of that illegal Grand Jury. He should withdraw his Papal Legate and should appeal to the International Court to arrest the criminal Prosecutor who is orchestrating this outrage. The Pope should make it clear the separation of Church and State is a two way street. If the State wants to be involved in the Church, the Church can get involved in the State and shut it down.
biwh
Consider that in 325 A.D., Constantine the Great made the Church an arm of the State and down that slippery slope we saw freedom of religion vanish. Consider that the Catholic Church strongly opposes the lawful treatment of illegals in this country. Consider that if the Bishop can be held accountable for not turning Father Ratigan over until he had exhausted his Pastoral duties to him then he can be held guilty for not turning in the illegals in his congregations. Consider those things he does which the Church approves but the State does not. Do we really want to go down the slippery slope of allowing the State to decide what the Church should do? I for one dislike Bishop Finn but I for one support him in this crisis. If religious people do not stand up now, they will eventually see the State dictating what they can believe and do. What is the difference between Fascist Germany and Communist Russia if we start interfering with the lawful work of the Church?
Now here is what I propose. The Pope should place Jackson County, Missouri under interdict. He should refuse to allow Masses to be said, people to be buried, children to be baptized, people to be confirmed and stop his Priests and Nuns from performing any act until the People of Jackson County recall the County Prosecutor and the Judge who is hearing this case. He should order Catholics to refuse to recognize the government of Jackson County, Missouri until it restores freedom of religion. He should excommunicate those catholics who were members of that illegal Grand Jury. He should withdraw his Papal Legate and should appeal to the International Court to arrest the criminal Prosecutor who is orchestrating this outrage. The Pope should make it clear the separation of Church and State is a two way street. If the State wants to be involved in the Church, the Church can get involved in the State and shut it down.
biwh
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monarchy vs. Democracy
Every Jewish prayer begins: "Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu melech ha olam ..." This means Blessed are you O Lord, our G-d, King of the World. James, Paul, and Peter aspire to be slaves of G-d and Yeshua ha Meshiach. e.g. James 1:1. Somewhere along the way Americans and Europeans came to believe that Heaven is a democracy and entrance was guaranteed for those who believed in Heaven. Where did that come from?
Acts 2:44 clearly says that the primitive Church was a commune run on the communist principle of each according to his need. It was interesting that all the early church were loafers and spent their time praying and waiting for the Jesus to return.
The claims of religious people that G-d supports democracy are false. Hell is a democracy. It is chaotic and fraught with difficulties. The orderly Kingdom of Heaven is an autocratic theocracy with G-d as King and Yeshua as Prime Minister and Regent. The Lord knows your every thought and always has. The thought police are in full control. The fact that they gently at first try to correct us and keep us on the Path doing what G-d Wills is followed by more drastic acts when we refuse.
The claims that G-d supports capitalism, a system built upon greed and focused more on greed in America by the so-called American Dream, are also false. G-d supports work. He supports sharing. He supports everyone contributing. He supports inventions to make life easier, but he supports giving them away rather than accumulating large amounts of wealth in return for their creation.
The best system of government is one with a divinely appointed Judge who is both Prophet and Arbiter. This government has no bureaucracy and the decisions of the Judge are enforced by G-d and the People who accept that this person is the one appointed by G-d. This system would be sort of an Ayatollah Khomeini without the support of the State of Iran or the Pope without the structure of the Church.
When the Meshiach comes, according to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians, He will Rule and Reign. He will come with an army. He will enforce his Will for 1,000 years. Most, the vast majority, who have never learned to accept the Hand of G-d on their heads, will chafe under His Rule. When the Rule ends, as Revelation reports, the Devil will have easy pickings and most people will follow him and his promises of democracy and freedom. Those people will die forever.
What is a religious person to do. First, vote for the person who is godly. (This should give you much pause and difficulty.) Second, ask whether our acts contribute to the reign of G-d or to the reign of Satan. Third, live in accordance with the Golden Rule mediated by the 613 Mitzvoth of the Torah. Fourth, challenge every claim.
If every one followed these rules, the world would change and the Meshiach would never come because Heaven would descend to earth now. This world will never happen. It did not happen for the idealistic communist or the Adam Smith capitalist or the devout Christian. It cannot happen until Meshiach comes.
Acts 2:44 clearly says that the primitive Church was a commune run on the communist principle of each according to his need. It was interesting that all the early church were loafers and spent their time praying and waiting for the Jesus to return.
The claims of religious people that G-d supports democracy are false. Hell is a democracy. It is chaotic and fraught with difficulties. The orderly Kingdom of Heaven is an autocratic theocracy with G-d as King and Yeshua as Prime Minister and Regent. The Lord knows your every thought and always has. The thought police are in full control. The fact that they gently at first try to correct us and keep us on the Path doing what G-d Wills is followed by more drastic acts when we refuse.
The claims that G-d supports capitalism, a system built upon greed and focused more on greed in America by the so-called American Dream, are also false. G-d supports work. He supports sharing. He supports everyone contributing. He supports inventions to make life easier, but he supports giving them away rather than accumulating large amounts of wealth in return for their creation.
The best system of government is one with a divinely appointed Judge who is both Prophet and Arbiter. This government has no bureaucracy and the decisions of the Judge are enforced by G-d and the People who accept that this person is the one appointed by G-d. This system would be sort of an Ayatollah Khomeini without the support of the State of Iran or the Pope without the structure of the Church.
When the Meshiach comes, according to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians, He will Rule and Reign. He will come with an army. He will enforce his Will for 1,000 years. Most, the vast majority, who have never learned to accept the Hand of G-d on their heads, will chafe under His Rule. When the Rule ends, as Revelation reports, the Devil will have easy pickings and most people will follow him and his promises of democracy and freedom. Those people will die forever.
What is a religious person to do. First, vote for the person who is godly. (This should give you much pause and difficulty.) Second, ask whether our acts contribute to the reign of G-d or to the reign of Satan. Third, live in accordance with the Golden Rule mediated by the 613 Mitzvoth of the Torah. Fourth, challenge every claim.
If every one followed these rules, the world would change and the Meshiach would never come because Heaven would descend to earth now. This world will never happen. It did not happen for the idealistic communist or the Adam Smith capitalist or the devout Christian. It cannot happen until Meshiach comes.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Haters and Scripture
I went to the Council Grove Christian Church, a fundamentalist independent church which functions under the governance of a local board, and found a congregation that thrives on hate. I was almost taken in. I went for two weeks and my treatment was open and welcoming. This week a small video was shown that showed the nation of Qatar. The Pastor decried the wealth of the Qatari and the fact that they invited persons from other Asian nations to work for their people. He stated that the people were crying out for G-d and that they needed Jesus. I noticed that in the evening they would have a supposed expert on Communism that would tell you why it was still a threat and next week someone would talk about Mormonism. Such falsehoods here expressed made me wonder whether their smiling faces were all the way to trick the Rabbi into coming their direction.
Jesus never once spoke against any other religious faith. He spoke about Jews and how Jews should act, not believe. Some churches thrive on instilling fear in their people and then like a parasite they feed off of that fear and stroke it and teach it. It is much easier to teach hate and fear than it is to teach the duty to love ones neighbor. In Jesus day, the Mormons of the day were called Samaritans (still are) and the Jews hated them, not because they did not keep the Torah, but because they were not following the authorities in Jerusalem. Mormons have many laudable qualities, openness being excepted as they have none. They are getting back what they give, but lest someone throw a stone at my house, which I believe is built on rock and out of stone, I will defend the right of a person to follow their teachings. I am not afraid of a defeated "ism" or an "ism" like capitalism which has no protection against greed. I have no fear of Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. My faith is right for me and the existence of contrary views does not challenge me.
I went to the web site of this Council Grove Christian Church and found that they believe that the bible is inerrant. For those of you that still feel that the bible does not have any errors, I recommend Bart Ehrman's new book Forged. This book will show you why the Bible is not free from errors. In fact he argues strongly that forgeries made it into the new testament. Based upon his criteria, the book of Deuteronomy is a forgery and was not sanctioned by Moses. However, I have told you before, the only portion of the scripture which was written from on high were the 613 mitzvot or commandments. All the rest of scripture is written by man and must be read within the context of its writing so that you can discern what comes from G-d and what does not.
Council Grove is not the desert or the wilderness in a physical since, but Council Grove, Kansas is intellectually the desert and yet there are those who seek to water in this desert. Mrs. McClintock asked me to lead a group which would talk about the hot issues of the day: political, scientific, and religious. There are those who hunger for truth here.
So long from the desert.
Jesus never once spoke against any other religious faith. He spoke about Jews and how Jews should act, not believe. Some churches thrive on instilling fear in their people and then like a parasite they feed off of that fear and stroke it and teach it. It is much easier to teach hate and fear than it is to teach the duty to love ones neighbor. In Jesus day, the Mormons of the day were called Samaritans (still are) and the Jews hated them, not because they did not keep the Torah, but because they were not following the authorities in Jerusalem. Mormons have many laudable qualities, openness being excepted as they have none. They are getting back what they give, but lest someone throw a stone at my house, which I believe is built on rock and out of stone, I will defend the right of a person to follow their teachings. I am not afraid of a defeated "ism" or an "ism" like capitalism which has no protection against greed. I have no fear of Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. My faith is right for me and the existence of contrary views does not challenge me.
I went to the web site of this Council Grove Christian Church and found that they believe that the bible is inerrant. For those of you that still feel that the bible does not have any errors, I recommend Bart Ehrman's new book Forged. This book will show you why the Bible is not free from errors. In fact he argues strongly that forgeries made it into the new testament. Based upon his criteria, the book of Deuteronomy is a forgery and was not sanctioned by Moses. However, I have told you before, the only portion of the scripture which was written from on high were the 613 mitzvot or commandments. All the rest of scripture is written by man and must be read within the context of its writing so that you can discern what comes from G-d and what does not.
Council Grove is not the desert or the wilderness in a physical since, but Council Grove, Kansas is intellectually the desert and yet there are those who seek to water in this desert. Mrs. McClintock asked me to lead a group which would talk about the hot issues of the day: political, scientific, and religious. There are those who hunger for truth here.
So long from the desert.
Friday, September 16, 2011
The Move to the Wilderness
I have told my readers my opinion of what will soon happen in Kansas City. The events in Paris, Berlin, London, and Philadelphia presage what will become the norm in a few months throughout the world. I have moved. I have put at the minimum 25 miles between me and the first good sized town. Fort Riley with 40,000 troops to protect me and maintain order is just 37 miles away. This little town has only 3,000 people.
What I have discovered already is a town where a man's word is his bond, where life is a little slower, where people are more friendly, and where everyone knows something about everyone else. It will be an adjustment for someone who has lived in the big city for the last 53 years of his life. However, I see the hand of G-d in what I have done. I am secure and can pay my immediate necessities: housing, food, utilities, telephone, internet, and cable and still have a few dollars to pay on my debt. I am able to work and may soon get cases to keep my going. All in all, life is much better than a month ago.
I urge each of you to think about what you will do when order breaks down in the big city. Plan your escape.
What I have discovered already is a town where a man's word is his bond, where life is a little slower, where people are more friendly, and where everyone knows something about everyone else. It will be an adjustment for someone who has lived in the big city for the last 53 years of his life. However, I see the hand of G-d in what I have done. I am secure and can pay my immediate necessities: housing, food, utilities, telephone, internet, and cable and still have a few dollars to pay on my debt. I am able to work and may soon get cases to keep my going. All in all, life is much better than a month ago.
I urge each of you to think about what you will do when order breaks down in the big city. Plan your escape.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
GUNS ARE NOT ALIVE!
I was shocked today. I have often listened to people who complain how people were killed in our community and we have many who are killed. I heard Alvin Brooks, former Mayor Pro Tempore and long time head of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Crime (In the ghetto) and he said that we need to get guns off of the street because they killed people. As I greatly respect Alvin but do not think that he always shows logic and reason in his statements, I decided that I would try to discover if he was correct.
I went to my son, who has a concealed carry permit, and asked if I could see his gun. He brought it out and I held it in my hand. It felt cold and lifeless. That feeling brought concern to me, but I pushed on toward my goal of trying to decide if guns killed people. I spoke distinctly and slowly in English and asked the gun whether it had ever killed someone. It did not speak to me. I asked again louder thinking it did not hear me, after all a gun makes a loud noise that can hurt hearing. Still it did not speak. I shook the gun. It did not speak. Finally, my grandson said to me," Grandpa, guns are not alive." I was shocked. It was clear that guns could not kill people because even a child knew that they were not alive.
Having solved that problem and knowing that guns were not alive. I then sought the source of this fallacious opinion. I discovered that in all dictatorial countries, guns were not allowed. I discovered that China and Iran restrict guns to the police and to the voluntary army. I discovered that seldom are volunteer armies subject to the will of the people and that they most often follow their leaders into doing criminal and illegal acts of terror on human and animal populations. They, of course, do not like for any weapon to be in the hands of the people. I discovered that the police and sheriffs organizations in America are opposed to the populace having guns and that almost universally people fear and hate the police. I discovered that the American armed forces train young, often ignorant, poorly educated minorities and lower socially and economically deprived people to murder others if commanded by their leaders. I discovered that they were taught not to think and to obey without thought. I concluded that people, especially people who are brainwashed into murdering other people without compunction or sorrow, kill people and that their weapons have never killed anyone.
Having resolved the question of who would teach this fallacious argumentation, I concluded that the enemy was those who held power against the will of the people and that our founding fathers intended that the people should have guns to overthrow those same authorities when they violated the will of the founding fathers. As I was then able to conclude that the police, the army, and the politicians in Washington were the source of this idea, then they must want to set aside the Second Amendment which grants me and every citizen the right to keep and bear arms.
As my sons know, I took an oath when I became a lawyer to defend against these domestic enemies of the Constitution. I believe and hope that those of you who read my blog will want to have all of these people arrested and tried for treason. I do believe that there is no chance of rehabilitation for treasonous individuals and that they should be summarily executed when they profess their treason. I would prefer that we execute 1,000 at a time on national television during the six o'clock hour so that our children could see what happens to those who hate the Constitution.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Decommissioning and Crime
The United States government is able to maintain itself in three wars at the same time because the armed forces are entirely volunteer. The majority of people only become involved in the wars by paying outrageous taxes to support those wars. None of our current wars have been approved by the people are been as a resolution declaring war even though they are against sovereign states. Thus, each of the current wars are illegal under international law and immoral from the standpoint of the commandment against murder. We train young, mostly poor, troubled people to fight in these wars. We make them into deadly warriors. We use euphemisms of targets, enemy combatants, insurgents instead of calling them people. We teach these people how to kill without mercy and without mental reservation. We have seen how these people sometimes forget that they are suppose to be helping the citizens of these other countries to be free of bad political leaders and we substitute crazed warriors for the previous strongmen of the dictator.
When these same people come home, it has been estimated that 30% suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Put correctly, this illness is a direct result of the rewiring that the brain goes through in the combat situation where the person perceives any threat and reacts with deadly force. These people go through no process of rewiring their brains. They are still functioning in an heightened states of alertness and paranoia. Threats perceived at home are not treated by the brain any differently than those threats were treated in the combat situation. Thus, the failure to decommission this warrior and return him to civilian life causes many to break and some to commit violent crime. They self medicate and fall deeper into depression from which many never recover. As many as 20% of Vietnam veterans, who participated in a similar war, eventually spent time in jail.
There should be new ways of dealing with these people. When a person returns from a combat zone and returns to civilian life, they should go through a six week training course to help them care about people again, to help them learn to exercise civil control of their emotions, to help them alleviate the effects of war induced paranoia, and to identify those who need more serious psychological help. Persons who begin to show danger signs like DUI arrests, drug arrests, petty criminality, and domestic violence should be shunted into programs to deal with their underlying pain and suffering. They should get psychological care rather than incarceration. Persons who commit murder as an estimated 1,000 have done who had PTSD should be incarcerated in mental institutions specializing in deprogramming veterans. We should be willing to pay as much to decommission a soldier as we did to train him for war.
Incarceration as Punishment
In America, the last use of corporal punishment occurred in Delaware in 1952. The Supreme Court considered the act of flogging to be both cruel and unusual and outlawed it. In all of the States of the Union the punishment for crime is now either imprisonment or death. In almost all of those states the vast majority are incarcerated in a space of less than 8' x 4' with another prisoner sharing the space. As a result of incarceration of men, who constitute the vast majority of the prison population, more than 140,000 of the men are subjected to rape out of the estimated 230,000 that are raped in a given year. Because of the gangs and the use of violence and intimidation, almost all the men and women are forced into a degree of slavery and learn to be more violent, more street savvy, and more evil. There is no real effort at rehabilitation and therefore most institutions are neither correctional nor penitential; they are simply prisons. People are put into prison primarily because someone in society is afraid of them and not because they have committed a crime. Fear, which dominates life in our so-called free society, is much more manifest in our decision to incarcerate. The yearly cost of incarceration is between $45,000 and $55,000 per prisoner per year. There are more than 2,000,000 persons in prison in America. thus the cost of imprisonment is roughly $110,000,000,000 per year. That amount exceeds the amount of the deficit in the state budgets by more than 30%. Because we provide so few public defenders and pay them so poorly, many people go to jail that would not go to jail if they could afford lawyers that did not have case loads of 120 cases per year.
It is hard to claim that our current prisons provide humane living arrangements. Our pets are treated better than our prisoners. It is hard to justify the incarceration of persons who possess drugs, who commit embezzlement, who set up Ponzi schemes, and who are not violent in their actions. The only possible reason for incarcerating these people is because we are afraid of them. Restoring corporal punishment for non-violent crimes would reduce the outlay for prisons by at least one half, would keep the offender from being trained in worse behavior by more dominant and violent criminals, and would allow for almost immediate return of the offender to his job so that he could support his family and self. The current prison method is unscriptural and contrary to the revealed Word of G-d. The current prison method encourages rape and slavery. The current system makes no since in the case of rapists who are subsequently raped. Why don't their rapists get punished?
From my high mountain, I urge Congress and the various state legislatures to specifically restore corporal punishment as a method of reducing prison overcrowding. I propose that all violent sex offenders be housed together in one person cells and be more closely watched. I propose that life sentences be abolished and each prisoner be judged by his ability to make progress toward rehabilitation as is done in Europe. Lastly, I urge conjugal visits for all prisoners who are in civil unions or marriages at the time of their incarceration.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Resurrection?
Paul says in 1 Corinthians:
"For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for your sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures...." 15:3-4.
He then cites the witnesses to the resurrection. Then he says:
"And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith." 15:14.
Paul makes this issue the key one and challenges us to either have faith in not only Yeshua's resurrection, but also in the future resurrection of all people or to reject his teaching.
However, it is right to discuss what kind of resurrection Paul is talking about. Today, we are use to reviving people whose hearts have stopped and restoring them to life. So the idea of reviving the dead is not so miraculous or awe-inspiring as it was in the first century of the common era. Paul says that the body is "sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." 1 Cor. 15:44. Paul says unequivocably that we shall all be changed. 1 Cor. 15:52.
The resurrection therefore is not a physical, but a spiritual, resurrection for Paul. He denies that there will be a physical resurrection as the Prophet Job says: "And in my flesh I shall see G-d;..." Job 19:26. So what kind of resurrection did Yeshua have?
There are three possibilities: first, he could have been revived. We have all heard about the conspiracy to falsify his death with drugs that even today would still the heart to the point that he would seem dead. Counter drugs could be used to restart his body along with chest massage. Matthew addresses this issue when it says that the Sanhedrin ordered the guards to say that his disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep. Matt. 28:13. Matthew could be the one falsifying the event or the Sanhedrin, but there is other evidence for the claim that Yeshua was revived. Suzanne Olsson in her book Jesus in Kashmir argues that he went to India after his rising. The Ainu have a strong tradition of Yeshua having come to Japan after the resurrection. In both of these cases, Yeshua was flesh and blood and died again. He was not taken up in the clouds as Luke claims. Acts 1:9.
Second, Yeshua could have risen in a spiritual body. While we do not know a lot about spiritual bodies, angels and elementals have spiritual bodies. John and Paul make this argument. I have just set forth the Pauline argument. John says: "Jesus said to her (Mary Magdalene), 'Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.'" John 20:17.The nature of a spiritual body is such that it can eat just as Luke argues Yeshua did, it is more than capable of walking through doors and walls, and can disappear as Yeshua did on the road to Emmaus.
Third, Yeshua did not rise at all. This position is supported by archaeological evidence, the Muslims, and those who do not believe in the resurrection. Archaeological evidence exists that there is a family tomb in Talpiot, Israel which contains sarcophagi that belonged to a family with many of the family names of Yeshua's relatives and of Yeshua himself. There is additional evidence that indicates that one of the sarcophagi, now in the custody of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was stolen before it was transferred into their care. That sarcaphogus is the one belonging to Ya'akov ha Tzaddik, James the Just. The patina in the engraved name matches that of the engravings in the tomb. Under this theory Yeshua died a death, whether natural or otherwise, and was buried and not resurrected.
The Muslim position is that it was not Yeshua who was crucified, but rather someone that looked like him. We know that there was someone who looked like Yeshua and that was Yehudah, his brother, called Thomas or the twin. Yeshua could have exchanged places with his brother and lived on. We know that Thomas was the most important of the Apostles in that he established the churches in Adiabene, Armenia, Chaldea, Persia, Afghanistan, and India. It is not beyond belief that Yeshua merely assumed his brother's name and continued on this ministry in exile.
Lastly, there are many scholars who claim that the whole story is a myth. There is no evidence except in the Bible, which is self-serving, to show that Yeshua ever existed. Josephus acknowledges the existence of James, but not Jesus. None of the other historians of the period acknowledge Jesus.
The Nasoreans have no opinion as a body on this subject. We believe that Yeshua suffered on the cross, that he bled, and that his blood was sufficient to change the covenant with G-d that every Jew takes at circumcision so that the bloody sacrifice was ended. We believe that this was the purpose of his suffering and that it caused the more universal sacrifice of bread and wine as offered by Melchizedek to be restored. Whether he died or not is irrelevant. All the theology that Paul puts forth is irrelevant as he is irrelevant.
One thing for sure. Paul as the earliest person to argue for the resurrection of Yeshua would not be allowed to testify as he had no personal knowledge of the event. Luke, his secretary, likewise was not present at any of the events and is not a credible witness. The traditions of Mark are based upon the simple statement made by the angel that Yeshua had been raised without any explanation as to the form of his resurrection which could be either one or two. Matthew's school follows Mark but elaborates. The Hebrew Matthew makes clear that the angel said that Yeshua had arisen and then they meet a spiritual person whom they recognize as Yeshua, but some of the disciples do not recognize him in Galilee. Matthew 28:17. Matthews position is in favor of a spiritual resurrection.
Two other sources must be considered, that of John and that of the Didache. John argues for a spiritual resurrection as well. Not even Mary Magdalene knew who he was. John 20:14. The spiritual body is not the same as the physical body and is changed. All the Johannine witnesses speak of seeing someone who did not look like Yeshua. The author of the Didache, Shimon ha Tzaddik, the brother of Yeshua, seems not to have known about the resurrection either as he does not mention it.
The only credible traditions, that is, apostolic traditions, therefore, support the idea of a spiritual resurrection. None support the physical resurrection of Yeshua. Therefore, we can assume that Jesus was not resurrected as is argued by the Job, in such a way that he would see G-d in his flesh. The so-called miracle of the Resurrection of Yeshua is insufficient for rational people to believe in the story of Yeshua. Like the disciples, we must recognize Yeshua in the breaking of the bread, in our personal experiences, in our personal presence at the cross. Any other form of belief is faulty and based upon supposition and lie.
I believe that Yeshua was executed, was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb for a rest. I believe that the intent was to revive him some 38 hours later. I believe that the purchase of the materials necessary to revive him was accomplished before dawn. See Mark 16:1. I believe that they failed to revive him, but that his spiritual body appeared to them and stayed with them for fifty days and then disappeared. There were no witnesses that could say to a court of law, "I have seen his body." In fact, the most that they could say was I saw someone that did not look like him which I became convinced was him and believed that he was risen. I have encountered this resurrected Christ and I know Him and declare Him real, but I cannot prove him and cannot witness past my own experience.
You are left with Paul's conundrum. If Jesus was not resurrected, then your faith is false.
"For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for your sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures...." 15:3-4.
He then cites the witnesses to the resurrection. Then he says:
"And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith." 15:14.
Paul makes this issue the key one and challenges us to either have faith in not only Yeshua's resurrection, but also in the future resurrection of all people or to reject his teaching.
However, it is right to discuss what kind of resurrection Paul is talking about. Today, we are use to reviving people whose hearts have stopped and restoring them to life. So the idea of reviving the dead is not so miraculous or awe-inspiring as it was in the first century of the common era. Paul says that the body is "sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." 1 Cor. 15:44. Paul says unequivocably that we shall all be changed. 1 Cor. 15:52.
The resurrection therefore is not a physical, but a spiritual, resurrection for Paul. He denies that there will be a physical resurrection as the Prophet Job says: "And in my flesh I shall see G-d;..." Job 19:26. So what kind of resurrection did Yeshua have?
There are three possibilities: first, he could have been revived. We have all heard about the conspiracy to falsify his death with drugs that even today would still the heart to the point that he would seem dead. Counter drugs could be used to restart his body along with chest massage. Matthew addresses this issue when it says that the Sanhedrin ordered the guards to say that his disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep. Matt. 28:13. Matthew could be the one falsifying the event or the Sanhedrin, but there is other evidence for the claim that Yeshua was revived. Suzanne Olsson in her book Jesus in Kashmir argues that he went to India after his rising. The Ainu have a strong tradition of Yeshua having come to Japan after the resurrection. In both of these cases, Yeshua was flesh and blood and died again. He was not taken up in the clouds as Luke claims. Acts 1:9.
Second, Yeshua could have risen in a spiritual body. While we do not know a lot about spiritual bodies, angels and elementals have spiritual bodies. John and Paul make this argument. I have just set forth the Pauline argument. John says: "Jesus said to her (Mary Magdalene), 'Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.'" John 20:17.The nature of a spiritual body is such that it can eat just as Luke argues Yeshua did, it is more than capable of walking through doors and walls, and can disappear as Yeshua did on the road to Emmaus.
Third, Yeshua did not rise at all. This position is supported by archaeological evidence, the Muslims, and those who do not believe in the resurrection. Archaeological evidence exists that there is a family tomb in Talpiot, Israel which contains sarcophagi that belonged to a family with many of the family names of Yeshua's relatives and of Yeshua himself. There is additional evidence that indicates that one of the sarcophagi, now in the custody of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was stolen before it was transferred into their care. That sarcaphogus is the one belonging to Ya'akov ha Tzaddik, James the Just. The patina in the engraved name matches that of the engravings in the tomb. Under this theory Yeshua died a death, whether natural or otherwise, and was buried and not resurrected.
The Muslim position is that it was not Yeshua who was crucified, but rather someone that looked like him. We know that there was someone who looked like Yeshua and that was Yehudah, his brother, called Thomas or the twin. Yeshua could have exchanged places with his brother and lived on. We know that Thomas was the most important of the Apostles in that he established the churches in Adiabene, Armenia, Chaldea, Persia, Afghanistan, and India. It is not beyond belief that Yeshua merely assumed his brother's name and continued on this ministry in exile.
Lastly, there are many scholars who claim that the whole story is a myth. There is no evidence except in the Bible, which is self-serving, to show that Yeshua ever existed. Josephus acknowledges the existence of James, but not Jesus. None of the other historians of the period acknowledge Jesus.
The Nasoreans have no opinion as a body on this subject. We believe that Yeshua suffered on the cross, that he bled, and that his blood was sufficient to change the covenant with G-d that every Jew takes at circumcision so that the bloody sacrifice was ended. We believe that this was the purpose of his suffering and that it caused the more universal sacrifice of bread and wine as offered by Melchizedek to be restored. Whether he died or not is irrelevant. All the theology that Paul puts forth is irrelevant as he is irrelevant.
One thing for sure. Paul as the earliest person to argue for the resurrection of Yeshua would not be allowed to testify as he had no personal knowledge of the event. Luke, his secretary, likewise was not present at any of the events and is not a credible witness. The traditions of Mark are based upon the simple statement made by the angel that Yeshua had been raised without any explanation as to the form of his resurrection which could be either one or two. Matthew's school follows Mark but elaborates. The Hebrew Matthew makes clear that the angel said that Yeshua had arisen and then they meet a spiritual person whom they recognize as Yeshua, but some of the disciples do not recognize him in Galilee. Matthew 28:17. Matthews position is in favor of a spiritual resurrection.
Two other sources must be considered, that of John and that of the Didache. John argues for a spiritual resurrection as well. Not even Mary Magdalene knew who he was. John 20:14. The spiritual body is not the same as the physical body and is changed. All the Johannine witnesses speak of seeing someone who did not look like Yeshua. The author of the Didache, Shimon ha Tzaddik, the brother of Yeshua, seems not to have known about the resurrection either as he does not mention it.
The only credible traditions, that is, apostolic traditions, therefore, support the idea of a spiritual resurrection. None support the physical resurrection of Yeshua. Therefore, we can assume that Jesus was not resurrected as is argued by the Job, in such a way that he would see G-d in his flesh. The so-called miracle of the Resurrection of Yeshua is insufficient for rational people to believe in the story of Yeshua. Like the disciples, we must recognize Yeshua in the breaking of the bread, in our personal experiences, in our personal presence at the cross. Any other form of belief is faulty and based upon supposition and lie.
I believe that Yeshua was executed, was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb for a rest. I believe that the intent was to revive him some 38 hours later. I believe that the purchase of the materials necessary to revive him was accomplished before dawn. See Mark 16:1. I believe that they failed to revive him, but that his spiritual body appeared to them and stayed with them for fifty days and then disappeared. There were no witnesses that could say to a court of law, "I have seen his body." In fact, the most that they could say was I saw someone that did not look like him which I became convinced was him and believed that he was risen. I have encountered this resurrected Christ and I know Him and declare Him real, but I cannot prove him and cannot witness past my own experience.
You are left with Paul's conundrum. If Jesus was not resurrected, then your faith is false.
Monday, April 18, 2011
A Covenant With All of Us
Deuteronomy 5:1-5 says: "Moses called all Israel, and said to them, 'Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak in your ears today, learn them, and be careful to do them. YHVH, our G-d, cut with us a covenant at Horeb. Not with our fathers did YHVH cut this covenant, but with us, even us present here today, all of us alive. Face to face YHVH spoke with you on the mount in the midst of the fire. I stood between YHVH and you at that time, to declare to you the word of YHVH, because your were afraid from the fire of his face and did not go up the mountain."
These words form the basic theology of Israel. It is important that we make a differentiation between the descendants of Ya'akov and Israel. Only those who were present at the giving of the Torah are Israel, not those others who reject the Torah and follow their own way. Moses says that the covenant was made not with our fathers alone, but with all of us who were alive. What is meant by those words is that our souls were alive and present at the mountain. Not just our fathers were present, but every one who would ever be born and be called Israel was present at the mountain. This shocking revelation explains a difficult concept. The Jewish people have fluctuated between several million and twenty two million over the last 3,000 years. When our numbers get up, and there are no more souls to put into those who are Israel, then some of the Jews must die so that Israel might increase. There is a finite number of souls of Israel set in stone and all Israel will be saved.
The Torah is only binding on Israel. It is not binding on those not of Israel. The reason why it is not binding is two fold: first, YHVH is our G-d and not the G-d of other nations. Each nation has its own G-d and our nation has the greatest of the Sons of the G-d El and his name is YHVH. See Deuteronomy 32:8-9 in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Israel is dispersed among the nations. There are always some of Israel who are not members of the Jewish faith, but have the blood of Israel and are destined to be saved. G-d made a covenant with the people who were at Horeb for all of eternity and that covenant was made in blood, the blood of circumcision. Only those who take upon themselves the cutting and agree to "hear" the covenant are Israel.
This great theological statement is made clear in the discussion of the four questions during the Passover Haggadah. Only when we join in the obedience to the covenant are we part of Israel. Those who say why do you do things are putting themselves outside of Israel. Those who ask why we do things are claiming the Torah for themselves and making themselves Israel.
Much of the so-called Jewish people today are apostates. The central heresy is the idea that sacrifice has ended. We, Nasoreans, agree with the teachings in Clement's Recognitions; the bloody sacrifice was never meant to be the sacrifice of Israel and was only given by Moses until the coming of the one like him who would change the Torah. That person was Yeshua ha Meshiach. He adopted the sacrifice of Melchizedek and restored the sacrifice of bread and wine. The apostate Jews still worry about mixing milk and meat because they are centered on the blood of animals. They pervert the words of Torah which forbids the boiling of a kid in its mother's milk into this fantastical set of laws on eating dairy with meat. There is no such concern when one does not have the bloody sacrifice abolished by Yeshua on the cross.
The covenant with YHVH forbids us to add to or take away from the Torah. The great danger in interpreting either prophecy or scripture is that we will vary from the words and try to make meaning where no meaning exists. The least variation possible is the best variation.
On this feast of Passover, it is time for the false lies of the Rabbinicals to be passed over and the truth of Nasoreanism to be adopted. Let the Archangel of the Presence, Yeshua ha Meshiach, who is YHVH himself, change your lives and become true Israelites today.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Expenditures for Medical Care By the Government Is A Mistake
The world's population passed the one billion mark around 1750. Due to medical advances the population grew another one billion by 1950. It grew to six billion by 2000. By 2050, it will grow to ten billion. The world can only comfortably support ten billion people. However, medical advances increase life spans yearly and in the United States the average life span is 78 years. At the rate that we are going, we may reach the ten billion mark long before 2050.
In the past, there were several natural ways to control population growth: famine, disease, and war. In an industrial society, homosexuality is a way to thin the gene pool and control population growth. However, due to the decrease in the numbers of people who die from famine, disease, and war, the population will continue to grow exponentially.
Medicare and expenditures on medical research are funds which could be used to benefit mankind but instead are funds which are being used to maintain substandard genes in the gene pool. The cost of the sick is destroying the viability of our country. The money being used to fund medicare for the poor and medical research for the rich could be used to get people to the Moon, Mars, Mercury, the Jovian Moons, the Saturnian Moons, and the Uranian Moons. The scientific research could then be focussed on maintaining not only the survival of our species, but the improvement of the gene pool.
Medicare expenditures are funded from the general fund and from medicare taxes. If the taxes were not taken from wages to pay for medicare, the poor would not live so long because they would not have the medical care to maintain themselves excessively. Diabetes, heart conditions, and cancer would go untreated and the number of mouths would decrease. The taxes could be used then to support space programs which would guarantee the success not only of our nation in space, but also guarantee the success of our species.
Evolutionary theory presupposes that those with medical problems not only will die, but must die. The artificial methods we are using to keep alive the weak and sick are destructive to the species and to the world we live on. Lest someone think I am looking out for myself instead of others, let me say that I have not been able to afford medical insurance for the past 26 years and I have cancer and very high blood pressure. I can no longer afford diets as the cost of food has risen so high and I can not afford the almost $1,500 a year a doctor's diet costs.I have no thyroid. I will probably rid the world of my useless mouth some time this year; in fact, I came close on Friday and Saturday when my blood pressure hit 174/97. I am speaking about my mother who at 87 eats up a disproportionately large amount of medical services paid for by the Veteran's Administration. I am speaking of my three sons who have serious kidney problems. Our lives are detrimental to the gene pool and they take excessive food from others.
I am not saying that rich people cannot voluntarily give to medical research, but I am saying that they should not get a tax deduction for doing so. I am not saying that drug companies should not peddle their wares, but they will not do the medical research because the money well will dry up when medicare is not paying for their expensive drugs. I am saying that one hundred billion per year will make the United States the only space power and will guarantee that we will control the Moon, Mars, Mercury, etc. I am saying that we will be doing the work of evolution and nature by guaranteeing the continuance of the human species.
I am betting that my point of view will be a distinct minority. Human beings think about their own self-interest first. Self-interest is part of the evolutionary plan as well. Humans will continue to pay out large amounts of money to save their loved ones, to guarantee that some genetic abnormality in their own genes will continue, to guarantee that their bleeding hearts will feel better when they concern themselves about people who cannot feed themselves a half a planet away, and to guarantee that the new, expensive drugs keep coming for fear that they may need them someday. Such a way is folly. Such a way is destruction not only of the species, but of the planet we live on.
Many will say, Rabbi, this does not sound very loving, very religious, but Yeshua said that the poor would be with us always. Those he healed were among the 38% that the placibo effect will heal. He had no solutions for a population growth rate unhindered by serious warfare, disease, and famine. Yeshua taught us to trust in G-d and I have trusted in him for healing. I trust that G-d will take me when my time comes. I do not believe in artificially prolonging life when my death might allow the species to continue. I am concerned that we cannot move more than a few hundred thousands to the Moon, Mars, Mercury, etc. I am concerned that the population is growing at the rate of 75 million per year. When Yeshua was here, there were only 100 million on the planet and plenty of places to go if you wanted a different or better life. That is no longer possible. Now is the time when we must voluntarily decide not to keep everyone alive indefinitely. Now is the time when we must cull the genetic pool of those with genetic predispositions to serious illness, which drains our economy and redirects research away from useful areas. Now is the time to allow nature and G-d to do their work.
Consider Kansas City. There are 25,000 people with no homes here. There are 50,000 who depend on handouts to eat. There are thousands who get medical care weekly. Think of the resources that they are taking from society. Think about the way those resources could be expended for the growth of the human species, that is, all of us. We could raise two hundred million dollars a year just from Kansas City for space research and the establishment of colonies off-planet.
This is the time of year when we remember not only the Exodus from Egypt, but the death of a martyr. It is time when we remember freedom, even though the freedom the Jews got from leaving Egypt would not be remembered as good for at least another fifty years. The martyr told us to die for others. The Exodus taught us to make difficult, life-changing, and dangerous choices so that the future could be better. Now is the time for us to do these things. We must stop helping other countries to have more children. We must stop keeping alive those who will die without aiding society in any way. We must stop directing funds to medical research and start looking out for the future of our species. We must let people like me die. I should willing accept my fate and so should you.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Revolution in the Near East
Democracy cannot be imported to a country just because the people want to rule their own affairs. The United States was able to be democratic only because the British had a tradition of democracy. It was that tradition of democracy that allowed Freemasonry to exist in Britain. It was that tradition of democracy that allowed colonial parliaments in the United States. One cannot import American or other democratic systems to countries which have no democratic institutions.
The United States is unique among the world in that it has a functioning, although much weakened, Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights protects the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The idea of tolerance inherent in the Bill of Rights is unique to the United States and has spread to many other democratic countries where it has more or less functional importance.
Tolerance is not a Muslim concept. When one replaces a Hussein or a Qaddafi, what are we supporting instead. Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria have no tradition of tolerance. The NATO no fly zone is suppose to protect civilians and yet civilians on both sides of the conflict are being harmed and it is hard to claim that there are civilians in Libya today. By giving the Egyptian majority control, who is going to protect the Coptic minority? Who is going to protect the Alawite minority in Syria? Who is going to protect the Sunni minority in Bahrain? Who is going to protect the Hashemi minority in Jordan? Iraq is close to being a failed state and its failure center on the Shia majority's unwillingness to protect the rights and liberties of Kurds and Sunnis in Iraq.
The United States should stay out of the way while these events occur. It is not clear that the changes which are occurring is good for America or Israel. I support the removal of Qaddafi only if he is replaced by a body committed to tolerance, to secularization of institutions, and to protecting the supporters of Qaddafi from war crimes like the one which happened in Benghazi yesterday. I do not support removing the Khalifi regime in Bahrain. I do not support the removing of the Hashemite King in Jordan and replacing him with Palestinian interlopers. I do not support removing Bashar if there is no institution left to protect the Alawites, which he does now. The proposed democratic movements are tyrannical and incompatible with the beliefs of a modern civilized society. Just as Turkey, which came so far under the secular rule of the military, is now on the verge of becoming a Islamic state and losing every connection with Europe, so we see what has happened in Lebanon and Gaza.
A curse on democracy without a Bill of Rights.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Purim
Today is Purim. It is a holiday that was created to commemorate the acts of Esther and Haman after they allegedly happened in the period during the destruction of the Temple and the return of the nobles to the land. There are certain very important lessons to be learned from this whole story.
The first lesson is centered on Hadassah, Esther as she is called in Persian. She is the descendant of Saul, the first king of Israel, and is therefore old aristocracy. Her family was taken as captives by Nebuchadnezzar's army after the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. According to the story, her parents were dead and her Uncle Mordechai raised her. She became the wife of the Persian King whom the story calls Ahasuerus, but whom history knows as Artaxerxes II. In this story, Esther represents King Saul in an age old battle to deal with the archenemies of the Jewish people, the Amalekites. Her predecessor, King Saul, who was king more than 500 years before, failed to destroy King Agag of the Amalekites. Because of his refusal to commit final genocide, Agag had relations with two women on the night between his capture and Samuel's execution of him. Haman is now going to destroy the Jews in reparation for the almost complete annihilation of his people some 500 years before. It is left to Esther to act for Saul.
According to the story, Esther succeeds. Haman and his sons are killed. But the story is not finished for some of his children must have lived and some of the Amalekites continued. History tells us that the Amalekites are the children of Esau, brother of Jabob, and that they hated the Jews from the beginning. They lived in Petra and they sought to hurt the Jews throughout history. The people who call themselves Palestinians are descendants of these people. So the Amalekites plague the Jews still after 3,000 and as they have said, they wish still to destroy their cousins and drive them into the sea.
The story of Esther is an incomplete one. Mordechai warns Esther that failure to save her people will finally cost the full destruction of the House of Saul. She saves her people that time. However, they continue even today to plague the Chosen. And the spirit of the Amalekites, with their bloodlust, their insensible desire to have the Land given to Jacob, their desire to wipe out Judah has never changed and can only end in the final destruction of one people or another.
There are those who ignore G-d in dealing with the political situations of the current day. They do it foolishly and at great cost. There will be no peace in Israel until the Amalekites are gone and that will not happen until the son of David comes to finish the deed.
Another lesson can be found in the story of the Purim or lots that were drawn to decide the day of the Jews destruction. The lot was chosen on Nisan 13. Now Scripture says that the Passover lamb is to be set aside on Nisan 10, but killed on Nisan 14. After the Nobility was removed from the land by Nebuchadnezzar, they had no way to determine the calendar and it began to drift due to the inability to determine when the year began. By the time of Yeshua ben Yotsef, the drift was significant. The Qumran Covenanters celebrated a different day from the Pharisee day. For them Nisan 14 was one day earlier in the year of Yeshua's death than the Pharisees and John leads us to believe that Yeshua celebrated the feast one day earlier. So Yeshua was killed not on Nisan 14, but on Nisan 13 in Pharisee calendar. The Lot was chosen on the day that Yeshua was killed. Yeshua then becomes the sacrificial Jew, the one to be killed by Pur and thus avoid the annihilation of his people. As Yeshua claimed to be the son of David, he acted for David in this matter for it was David who replaced Saul on the Throne and Yeshua became Priest-King of David's Kingdom, Jerusalem, after his anointed by G-d at the Jordan River during his baptism.
This story continues. How it will end is beyond are understanding. What appears to be happening as the whole world turns against Israel is an illusion. No one can know how G-d will work it out, but He will work it out and we will see his Glory.
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