.
The Anti-War Movement
at Union Square
This Socialist lady was on the steps at Union Square park, being screamed at by the patriotic mob because of her group's outspoken opposition to the impending war in Afghanistan. I found my way next to her and said: "I don't know if you have a religious opinion about these matters--she shot back, 'No!'--but it says in the Scriptures, 'Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and say all manner of evil things about you for righteousness' sake.'" She softened some and said "Thank you," and then found refuge among the rest of her group. Several of us spent the rest of the day there, after she and her friends left, taking some of the same heat, just as we had been since the towers fell and the High Holy Days began a few days afterwards. (How is it written: Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm throughout all of God's holy mountain...Joel 2:1,2). She and her comrades were courageous in their attempts to articulate what they believed to be the deeper socio-political and historic implications--all the causes-and-effects--of these unfolding events. The mob (not yet like the ones to come), blind and deaf, kept shouting back its litany of slogans and epithets. Some unwittingly took the bait and began to shout back. Nothing was resolved. America and the world moved closer to war that day, and every day since. (Joel 3:9-16, KJV). Perhaps by the time this letter is read the first young men and women will already be returning in body bags.
That weekend, at the demonstration in Washington, the situation was the same. For those who had never been to an anti-war (or anti-anything) demonstration it was an exhilarating experience. There were the young people, the colorful banners, the musicians and drummers and dancers, the Bread and Puppet and street theater groups, all sharing some collective belief that their presence there might make a real difference (which in the end it will of course, but), which it did not that day. The government and the media have become very skillful since the 60s in isolating and marginalizing all such activities, keeping them out of the mainstream of American consciousness. If one, however, had been involved in the civil-rights and anti-war movements of those years, they would have noticed immediately what was missing this weekend--a spiritual voice. There were no sound religious (and by this we actually mean prophetic) opinions being expressed there that day, partly because those who organized that day's activities by and large reject such sentiments, and are not warm to them. The religious, on the other hand, are by and large quite naive, and uncertain about matters of war themselves; and even when they voice their opposition to it they seem reluctant, or embarrassed, to get to the heart of the issue--afraid of making real waves--and wind up leaving God out of the equation as well.
(It is now March, 2003. Despite the demonstrations that are happening everywhere in the world against America's war in the Middle East, the preparation for war continues...No! it is actually at this very moment under way. Shock and Awe are presently raining down over Iraq...
.
Revelation 13:13.
The images are frightening and surreal. They are, nevertheless, the ongoing fulfillment of the prophecy at Revelation 13:13. The protests could not stop it. (One should not be accused of fundamentalism here, because we resort to biblical texts and use the language of the Scriptures to interpret what is happening in the world, but that is the problem one runs into when encountering those on the Left. These hear the language and are immediately repulsed by it. They mistake it for the same language that is being tossed around in fundamentalist's circles, and actually being used by the religious and political Right to justify these events, and want no part of it. It is quite understandable. Nevertheless, it is apparent that the kingdom of the Beast is already in place and that the battles leading to Armageddon have already begun. There is no other way, outside of divine reasoning, of making sense of the things that are now unfolding in the world).
Like their adversaries in the corporate-military state, and the Religious Right that supports it, the Left by and large has no use for the prophetic voice, and therefore are left without a clear interpretation of these events and remain without any means of making themselves heard beyond their own political circles. All the secular rhetoric that we heard in Washington on the 29th, despite all of its altruistic intent, is just that--politics, the very thing the American state feeds on, thus hardly threatening to the ruling powers because it does not touch the heartstrings or the mindset of the American people themselves. (Condoleeza Rice, in a recent response to the rising tide of protest in America, shrugged it off saying that the right to protest and speak up is the reason America is going to war in the first place. This rationale touches the thinking of the average American). At best such protests are an annoyance to the ruling establishment, but hardly capable of turning the rudder of American consciousness, or of ultimately carrying the day. And while religion must be held suspect at every turn, I rather suspect that our friends on the Left are more caught up in the intrigues of resistance--in the Bohemian milieu as it is--than it is in achieving real results, or of affecting a true, meaningful spiritual revolution in this country. Even Gorbachev realized that such a thing could only happen in America, but it cannot happen by ignoring the voice of the Spirit Herself, who--along with Her great powerful consort, the Heavenly Father, risen up everywhere in the earth now--is bringing all these things to pass to begin with (Matthew, chapter 24...KJV). These are the Divine Realities we speak of on the opening page of this work.
BUSH SHRUGS OFF WAR PROTESTS
by Joshua Levitt and Edward Alden
FEB. 16, 2003__Millions of protesters rallied at the weekend in Europe, Asia and the US to oppose American plans to attack Iraq, in the largest anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam war era. The rallies brought out more than 2m people in Spain, with similarly large turnouts in the UK, Germany and France.
But US officials on Sunday dismissed the growing popular opposition, insisting that the administration of President George W. Bush would continue to prepare for war with Iraq in the coming weeks. Condoleeza Rice, the president's national security adviser, said the demonstrations would not alter US determination to confront Saddam Hussein and help the Iraqi people, either with broad international support or with a narrower "coalition of the willing."
She acknowledged the right of the protesters to oppose US plans, but said on Fox News: "They're not saying what they think in Baghdad, because that's a regime that cuts people's tongues out if they say what they think."...
While organizers and police differed on the size of the turnouts, the protests were clearly the largest in a generation in Europe, and perhaps the largest in history...
BUSH SAYS HE'S UNMOVED BY HUGE GLOBAL DEMONSTRATIONS
by Richard W. Stevenson
WASHINGTON. Feb.18, 2003__President Bush dismissed antiwar demonstrations today as a factor in his plans for confronting Iraq and pressed ahead with a strategy to persuade reluctant allies that United Nations weapons inspections would not secure the disarmament of Saddam Hussein. In his first public comments about antiwar demonstrations by millions of people over the weekend in the United States and abroad, Mr. Bush said his overriding goal was to protect the American people and that leadership sometimes involved bucking public opinion.
"Size of protest -- it's like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group," Mr. Bush said in response to a reporter's question.
(A number of signs at the recent February demonstration at the United Nations in New York City said: "Send Jimmy, not bombs." Some have even suggested a Jimmy Carter For President Movement. This too is prophecy unfolding. It represents a flight many will unknowingly and unwarily take, from the blatant Darkness of the Bush administration if you will, to a state of Darkness that is subtle, and far more dangerous because it uses the rhetoric, and speaks the language of peace and reconciliation [conflict resolution], while it continues virtually unopposed to extend the American ethos and America's [not so secret] global and economic agenda throughout the world at large. Many in the Peace Community believe Carter is speaking the same language as they are, and were even instrumental in his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize which he has just been awarded. While Carter speaks of peace, he is not a pacifist. He is, in fact, what may be called an "extreme warrior," a nuclear warrior to be exact. He is for peace in the morning, so long as his agenda for peace remains viable, but will, among many others in the Western world, consent to war at the end of the day. "He said published reports that he had signed a petition opposing the war in Iraq were wrong...He didn't comment on Powell's address, but said Powell was 'caught in difficult circumstances'").
(It is now September, 2003. Iraq is in chaos, Afghanistan is falling back into the hands of insurgents and warlords, the world is in turmoil, thousands have perished and thousands are perishing everywhere. The young soldiers are coming home every day, one by one, two by two and three by three in shrouds. They have called for further vigils and demonstrations this month and next in New York City and Washington, D.C. We shall see)...
(October, 25, 2003: Protests across the country...no end in sight).
These great momentous (and wholly surreal) events are an unfolding of Divine Will, and are following precisely the historical script that was laid out in the mind of the seers and prophets, and all of the shamans of the earth, since the earliest times of recorded history. And because it is the religious institutions of this country themselves--those who claim to be the custodians of these ancient records--that are providing the great American Beast with all of its motivation and power, any attempt to shed a light on this unholy relationship, and to sever it, must be framed in the language the people and these institutions understand--the language of the Sacred Scriptures. And not only that, but these things must be expressed with a heart that beats the same as those who are in bondage to it all, with a heart that has been encompassed itself with these same social and religious infirmities. America is a religious nation, and is caught in the very throes, in the down-draughts if you will, of its own religious imagination. The purely-secular mind, and purely-political, can never resonate with this reality. Nor is it able to explore the landscape of the higher spiritual world that most Americans so confusedly believe they have found here on this continent--for which so many are also willing to die--having exchanged the pure Light for the gross (but subtle) Darkness as they have (Isaiah 5). If the Religious Right, however, is smitten with idolatry and child-like fear, and is (almost unwittingly) complicit in crimes against humanity, wholly attached to the American military and economic order as it is, the Left suffers from intellectual pride and downright disbelief in transcendent matters. The Right believes that God is on their side. The Left believes only in itself. It is sometimes difficult to say which of the two is more conflicted. (It's lonely out here in the middle)...
Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt (The prince of the Power of the Air...Eph.2:1-3)...Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as A WHALE IN THE SEAS: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy Feet, and fouledst their rivers
Thus saith the Lord God; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.
THEN WILL I LEAVE THEE UPON THE LAND, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and cause all the fowls of heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.
AND I WILL LAY THY FLESH UPON THE MOUNTAINS, AND FILL THE VALLEYS WITH THY HEIGHT...(Ezekiel 32:1-5).
__________
Know of a surety (Abraham) that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's (America), and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them Four Hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and after that they shall come out with a great substance...(Genesis 15:12-16).
...But if either could break into the mystical-geography and the epic, allegorical meanings of these sacred texts, giving place to the Presence of God in all of these affairs, they would be able to see exactly what is going on in the world around us. As the Father, the God of War Himself, is rising up in the East to bring a judgment of war against the powers of the Western world (as we have already noted in the Book of Joel), the Divine Mother is descending into our field of consciousness here in the West. She is bringing forth her next child. (Revelation 12:1,2. KJV). This Child is not only an emerging, higher (spiritual) state of human consciousness but it is an entirely new age. And more than that, it is a new Nation, one that shall be born (or re-born) out of the judgments of America (Great Egypt/Great Assyria/Great Babylon) itself...(Revelation 18). We are already experiencing the contractions:
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God...(Isaiah 66:8,9).
The waters of this unfolding reality broke on the morning of September 11th, as the world was preparing to sound the trumpet in the New Moon of the High Holy Days:
And there shall be upon every high mountain (every great nation), and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall...(Isaiah 30:25).
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For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?
Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the Fire, as thou hast heard, and live?
Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a Mighty Hand, and a Stretched Out Arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; and there is none else beside Him...(Deuteronomy 4:32-35).
__________
As a Woman with child in her ninth month bringing forth her child, within two or three hours of her birth great pains encompass her womb, which pains, when the Child cometh, they slack not a moment.
Even so shall the plagues be not slack to come upon the earth, and the earth shall mourn, and sorrows shall come upon it on every side.
My people, hear my words; make you ready to the battle, and in those evils be as pilgrims upon the earth...(2 Esdras 16:35-40...KJV).
THE TRIUMPH OF GOD
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FINAL AGE
They pay no heed to the real hidden meaning of things...They do not know the hidden meaning of what is actually taking place, nor have they ever learned the lessons of the past. Consequently, they have no knowledge of what is coming upon them and have done nothing to save their souls from the deeper implications of present events.
This, however, will symbolize things for you. What is going to happen is, as it were, that all iniquity is going to be shut up in the womb and prevented from coming to birth. Wrong is going to depart before Right, as darkness departs before light. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9). As smoke disappears and is no more, so will Wrong disappear for ever. But Right will be revealed like the Sun. The world will rest on a sound foundation. All who cling to (wrong interpretations) will cease to exist. The world will be filled with knowledge, and ignorance exist no more.
The thing is certain to come. The prophecy is true, and by this you will know that it will not be revoked: Do not all peoples hate wrongdoing? Yet, is it not rampant among them all? Are not the praises of truth sung by all nations? Yet is there a single race or tribe that really adheres to it? What nation likes to be oppressed by a stronger power? Or who wants his property plundered unjustly? Yet is there a single nation that has not oppressed its neighbor? Or where in the world will you find a people that has not plundered the property of another? The Dead Sea Scriptures, by Theodor H. Gaster, p.429.
There is only one nation on earth that is not guilty of these things: the one that is observing the true epic meaning of the Day of Atonement; the one that is in the process of being born (again). It is appearing out of the great darkness of this age into the Great Light of the age to come. At present, although it is hard to see right-off, the antiwar movement is actually energizing the Beast; it is providing it a rationale for waging war--so that others in the world can be free like Americans to speak out and protest. It is not to say that the people should stop speaking out against injustice and war (it is their duty), or should stop in the effort of consolidating their social and intellectual energies, in anticipation of all the things that are unfolding in the earth, but that it should all be put in its proper historical perspective. It is all leading to a spiritual climax--literally the birth of the coming age. The antiwar movement fails to take into account all that is unfolding, a Divinely ordained judgment against both--against the Islamic powers of the East and the Judao-Christian powers of the West.
Malachi, chapter 4.
As the conflicts increase, as the social crises deepen, as the divide between the Light and the Darkness becomes apparent, the sons and daughters of Light in the world will realize that the only alternative open to them is to come out of the present political order itself. Bring everyone out of it together and let it collapse. Come out of her my people...(Revelation, chapter 18. KJV).
THOSE PEACE DOVES ARE FLYING BLIND
By Cal Thomas
The "peace movement," moribund since the Vietnam War, is trying to jump-start itself over the conflict in the Persian Gulf. Back from the graves of obscurity they come, from Daniel Elsberg to Ramsay Clark, chanting the same old tired slogans that sound like mantras in the mouths of some Near-East mystic. They hope to reach a crescendo with a "massive" nationwide protest next month.
The peace movement always tries to seize the moral high ground by declaring itself against all war. This time, there's a new twist. Aware that the polls show overwhelming support for President Bush and the way he is handling the war, the peace movement says it is against the war--but for the troops. Nice try, but it won't work. The troops and the war go together.
Ethel Kennedy, who usually keeps quiet about such things, demonstrated the wisdom of that practice by telling Ladies Home Journal that America is guilty of "aggression" in the Persian Gulf. That's another thing the peace movement is famous for: blaming America first.
The demonstrators are constantly referred to in the press as "anti-war," but this is a serious misnomer. Everyone detests war. The difference is that most of us are willing to accept war if it is the only way to protect our highest values. These demonstrators see no values worth fighting for.
Some peace activists tell us that "war never solves anything." That will come as a surprise to those who fought World War II and to the people of Nazi-occupied Europe.
To be "anti-war" strips life of true moral concerns and accepts a view of man that denies the possibilities of human evil. To acknowledge evil is to acknowledge is too acknowledge goodness and the necessity to oppose evil's agenda, which seeks to impose itself on the good.
The peace movement pretends that negotiation, not confrontation, will produce the better world they seek, but that presumes each side has equally good intentions. What to do when one side is good (or at least not evil) and the other side is evil incarnate, they never say.
Among the many problems of the "peace movement" is its lack of ideas. It is an arid philosophy, devoid of content. As G.K. Chesterton noted, "The real point against pacifism is that it is not a cause at all, but only a weakening of all causes. It does not announce any aim; it only announces that it will never use certain means in pursuing any aim. It does not define its goal; it only defines a stopping place, beyond which nobody must go in the search for any goal."
Michael Novak, a rabid anti-war activist who wrote speeches for George McGovern during the Vietnam War, changed his view when he saw the boat people and the suffering of the Vietnamese under communism. "If love demands the defense of others (such that a failure to defend them can be a sin)," Novak writes, "both love and justice also command self-defense. Peace is sometimes unjust; war is sometimes morally imperative."
The peace movement is off base in the Persian Gulf conflict. It would tolerate the rape of Kuwait and the killing of innocent Kuwaitis because "peace" is preferable to fighting for an ideal. Reinhold Neibuhr accurately characterized their thinking: "There are two ways of denying our responsibilities to our fellow men. There is the way of imperialism, seeking to dominate them by our power. The other is the way of isolationism, seeking to withdraw from our responsibilities to them." Freedom cannot be separated from responsibility. Those who are free but fail to act responsibly when tyrants move move against the innocent cannot remain free for long, because totalitarians will not coexist with free people.
Conflict will remain a fact of human existence because of a flaw in the human character. The peace movement doesn't understand that because it sees self-preservation, rather than the preservation of ideas, as the highest good.
A LETTER TO THE ANTIWAR COMMUNITY IN AMERICA
(Written during the first American Invasion of Iraq, and in response to Cal Thomas)
(Submitted again during the American invasion of Afghanistan, and in response to the Antiwar Community's continued inability to interpret the meaning of present events).
To the antiwar community in America,
To that part of the civil-rights movement as well. To all who are pressing into God's kingdom. Stop! just long enough to see that your rhetoric is outworn. You are without power to affect any further change. You are without insight, and cut off from your (spiritual) roots (from the mysteries of the Tree of Life). And because of it the prophets of Ba'al are winning the day. Cal Thomas, one of the many voices of those who are presently imagining a divine victory for America and its conservative political (and "christian") agenda, completely without insight himself, is nevertheless able to say in a recent article entitled Those Peace Doves are Flying Blind: "Back from the graves they come...chanting the same old tired slogans." "The peace movement," he chides, "always tries to seize the moral high ground by declaring itself against all war. But this time there is a new twist...The peace movement says it is against the war...but for the troops." "Nice try," he says, but it won't work. The troops and the war go together." It seems that he is right, and that the sentiments of the American people support him. Well, why can't the peace movement seize the moral high ground? Because, like its warring counterparts on the Right, it has forsaken the Law (the Torah) and the very words of the prophets that have sprung from it. It has grown weary of God, and confused, and no longer believes what God has proclaimed of Himself through the prophets. The antiwar movement is lost in its own rhetoric, and much of it in a wash of ethics, and finds itself powerless and imprisoned as a result of its constant attempst to assimilate the doctrines and philosophies of fallen men with the precepts of God. The process got reversed along the way and it is we who got converted. And we don't know how to get un-converted without being charged with treason...
But accept the charge we must, for in the process we have set aside the transcendent mystery of the awesomeness and terrible majesty of God's Presence in the affairs of humankind. Isn't this the meaning of the events of the 20th century? Are there any powers or principalities, or does any single event transpire in the earth that is not ordained of God? (Not with God's "reluctant permission," as so many childishly reason, but realizing that all these events are direct manifestations of the Presence of God itself). Is not God bringing history to bear upon the mind of humanity, exactly as the prophets said He/She would? (Just because those on the political and religious Right are obsessed with the Bible, and use it to justify their worldly agendas, it is no sign that those of us on the other side of the Tree should abandon it). Did it not promise to unfold in a series of apocalyptic events? Well? Did not the apostle speak clearly of the terror of the Lord? And does not the birth of the coming age require the end of this age, this age of darkness, oppression, injustice, destruction and death?
If these things are so, then we may rightly ask Cal Thomas and his champion, the president, and all those advisors of his who are claiming to be sons of God: why do they not fear God, and the things that God is bringing to pass in the earth? (Romans 13:1-4). And, of course, they will give some earthly response but the simple truth is, they do not believe in God, at least not in the God who is One. They have come over the wall into the Judeao-Christian state of mind--not as the Good Shepherd who leads the flock by still waters--but to kill, to steal, and destroy. (John 10:9,10). And now they are caught. They have declared it themselves. They are for the war, but not for the troops...
(George W. Bush, the son, says that he has labored hard, and prayed hard, over the idea of sending these young men and women over seas to die--but he has decided to send them anyway). What do they claim happens to the souls of these young men and women fallen in battle? Do they imagine that they are transported to Paradise? Valhalla, yes, Paradise no. How could they be? For as the soul thinks, so is it. These young men and women are engaged in the wrong war, the war against other mortal beings. One must be engaged in the Greater Holy War, the war against "Self," to attain Paradise--indeed, they must be engaged in the Greater Holy War against human involvement in war itself to attain it. For only a true pacifist is able to open the doors of Heaven. And only a true pacifist will be able to fight their way through those events that are about to unfold in the world, attaining in the victory both the world to come, and the life to come. But this spiritual twist in ideas is complicated for many because the religious institutions they have come to trust in have long ago turned the teachings of the Gospel, and particularly Christ's Sermon on the Mount upside down (Matthew 5:1-17), and have long ago given the world a different set of precepts than the ones that were handed down by the early Church--(which now command unquestioning obedience to Caesar, which now partake in the politics of men, that approve of, and bless the rich and the powerful, and which now allow us to participate in the wars that men wage one against the other--or rather, that God wages against men because of their refusal to cease from war itself).
They are caught because of the fierce and historic delusion God has spread upon Western civilization, upon all who have followed the leaders of Christendom into these times...because they have believed a lie: one that has grown powerful, convincing men that they may participate in both the works of Light and the works of Darkness at the same time, that they may sit at both tables, and drink from both cups, and swing two swords, and that in the name of the God of Life they may perform the works of destruction and death. This is The Mystery of Iniquity fulfilled (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 Corinthians 10:20-22 KJV). And that God would not sever these children of Darkness from the children of Light in the last days. (Hebrews 4:12; Matthew 13:1-30). God has led them to believe that it is in their own hands to bring about their own fallen notions of peace and justice in the world, their new world order, all in face of the Scriptures which say: Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. They say that these words apply to Saddam Hussein, not themselves. They look into the mirror darkly. The Qur'an says: When it is said to them, make not mischief on the earth, they say, We, we only want to make peace. Of a surety they are the ones who make mischief but they realize it not. (Sura 2.11,12). It is also written: Freely or otherwise, the denizens of the heavens and of the earth submit to Him. (Sura 3.83). Is Hussein free to observe the higher precepts of Christ? Has he the mind of Christ? Has he completed the pilgrimage? No, he is the slave of God, a vessel of perfect disorder in the Hand of God. For what end? To draw those who profess to be in order, but who are not, up against Him in battle. Wasting and destruction are in their paths, the Ways of Peace know they not. (Isaiah 59:7,8). It also says: He will keep the Feet of His saints...for by strength shall no man prevail. (1 Samuel 2:1-10). So these great sons of Darkness are in violation of the Scriptures at every turn. Not perceiving the Presence of God in all of these events they are falling into the historical trap that God has set for them
But you already understand this. Anyone who claims to be a child of God, no matter who he or she is, or what their station in life, becomes subject to the precepts of that faith. That is, they become subject to the reality of Divine Law as it is unfolding in both the pages of Sacred Writ and the press of natural human events. And having laid their hands upon the written oracle of God, they are enjoined by these same words to obey it. In it is the precept: God will not hold him guiltless who professes the Name of the Lord in vain. These are no idle words, but ominous. Any man who saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. Regardless of all the lofty words one employs to convince men otherwise, and regardless of the terrible events God is creating everywhere around us, that person is a liar. For he that saith he abideth in him ought also to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:3-6). Would Jesus assent to the doctrines of Ba'al, even those so artfully expressed by Cal Thomas? And in addition to all this warmaking and killing in Jesus' name (these retaliations), what, we may ask, is the president doing sitting on a high throne in this world, one that his own professed master refused to sit on? (Matthew 4:8-10). These are serious questions for which the christian leaders of America will now be held accountable. (James, chapter 4 and 5).
But we must also bring ourselves into account. God's children must also come together with a single mind. Why are we confused about this war? some wars? all wars? war in general? Is there such a thing as a just war from a spiritual point of view? Of course not. Has there ever been? Of course not. God has never changed. Christianity's Just War theory is not a precept of Christ, but rather the result of Augustine's (and others) twisted and worldly imagination. But we fail to understand it or explain it in visible terms because we have forsaken half of God's revelation of Him and Herself to the world. In our struggle against war we have ruled out of our higher consciousness the fact that God is a Man of War, Yes, that is His Name. (Exodus 15:3). Some, using the language of the scriptures, blindly say that it is Satan who inspires war. But this is only true in a secondary or indirect way. Satan (the great Serpent), is that spirit in each of us individually, and in all of us collectively, that keeps us from seeing it is God who incites war in the earth. This spirit was vanquished for a time as Moses led Israel to the Foot of the Mountain to behold the countenance of God. (Exodus 19). But Israel soon fell back into the warring darkness, as Paul wrote: As examples to us against the last day (1 Corinthians 10:1-11, KJV), and as it was also written: If that light in thee be darkness, then how great the darkness. How great is the church's complicity in the affairs of the American empire, for it is now fallen almost completely away from Truth, and her children are literally being led out to engage the very Lord it professes in those very battles that the scriptures themselves say that God would bring to pass at the end of the age. (Micah 3:5). And the cycle of war continues because men will not lay down their arms and trust God to do likewise. The Gospel does not alter this reality but amplifies it. Happily it also heralds an end to this cycle, as well as a great paradox of history: Follow peace with ALL men, it says, without which no man shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14). And this is the paradox: The fierce and terrible God of War (YHVH of the Torah, the Allah of Islam and the Pantokrator over Russia, and the glorious Indra), will reveal Himself to none but children of perfect peace:
The Lord shall keep the Feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed...(1 Samuel 2:9,10).
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Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat
Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, blameless...(2 Peter 3:11-14).
This is the reason God has hidden Himself from the eyes of the rulers of the world, and particularly from the children of Cain since the very beginning (those whom Cal Thomas so laboriously praises), so that history could come to pass exactly as it has, and so that God could reveal Himself once again upon the plain of human events. Let's lift up our eyes and see God everywhere. It's quite easy. What humanity is doing collectively God is doing singularly. Be afraid. And then, of course, let the perfect love that God is creating in us cast out this fear. But so much retribution upon those who are still found searching the Scriptures for permission to violate these inner precepts of the Mystery of Christ--especially for permission to wage war and kill other human beings in the name of God, no matter what the cause, and especially in these last days--for they shall find it. God has given the children of Darkness permission to fulfill their heart's desire. He has placed it there, right squarely in the "letter" of the written word (as well as in all the "literal" implications of the Holy Qur'an):
Because they have not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths (the meanings of my Law), and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.
Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire (of war) all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord...(Ezekiel 20:24-26).
Thus Paul spared no emphasis in admonishing us: The Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. (2 Corinth.3:6; Romans 8:4-9). This means that the written law, unrightly divided and incorrectly understood--for it is an oracle in the ancient tradition--will lead one to destruction and death; while the underlying meanings of the written word, which the Holy Spirit reveals, lead to peace and life. They are all plain to them that have understanding, and right to them that find knowledge. (Prov.8:9). These meanings are complex, but once we have access to them they are not complicated. Just as every single soul is a mixture of dark elements and light (which is why it was said: Let them grow together), so the Holy Scriptures are a mixture of two traditions: a written and an oral, which finally must be rightly divided one from the other...
"Now the interpretation of the sacred scriptures is based on the under-meaning in the allegorical narratives. For these (those Essenes who also authored the Gospels) look on the whole of their law code as being like a living thing, having for a body the spoken commands, and for a soul the unseen thoughts stored up in the words (in which the rational soul of the student begins to contemplate things native to their own nature), the interpretation, as it were, in the mirror of the words and names, catching sight of the extraordinary beauties of the ideas contained in them, unwrapping and unrobing the symbols from them, and bringing to light the naked inner meanings for those who are able with a little suggestion to arrive at the intuition of the hidden sense from the apparent meaning." Philo, On The Contemplative Life.
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"Woe to those who see in the law, (thus in the Gospels), only simple narratives and ordinary words. Were this really the case, then we could even today comprise a law equally worthy of admiration. But it is all quite otherwise...Every word of the law contains an elevated sense and a sublime mystery...The narratives of the law are but the raiment in which it (the higher law) is clothed. Woe to him who mistakes the garment for the law itself.
It was to avert such a calamity that DaViD prayed, 'Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.' (Ps.119:18)." Introduction to the Zohar, The Kabbalah and its Symbolism, by Gershom Scholem.
And we discover that the one tradition is a reflection of the other, and that the Law of God is alive. It is a Living Oracle. It has a body, or an outer shell which is 'the letter." But this, as the body itself, must perish as the soul puts on the garments of the inner life. As it enters the spiritual realm the soul finds that Holy Writ is not a relic of some past age but alive in parable, metaphor and allegory, and in the hidden epic sense of things that underlie the outer sense of things. One looks around and discovers that the kingdom of God does indeed fill the whole earth, and that wicked men are indeed trying to storm it by force. But try as they might it is a fruitless exercise because the Door to it is not where they imagine it to be. (And certainly not in Palestine as the world can readily witness). Is it not made of Olive Wood? (1 Kings 6:31). This means that none can gain access to the meanings of the Oracle, or to the kingdom of God revealed in it, but children of perfect peace.
The spiritual soul also discovers the root of this confusion. It discovers that it is indeed called to be a warrior, and that it is enjoined by Scripture to make war in the earth. Not against the mortal life of other human beings, however, but against the empire of its own darkened nature. This is the meaning of the allegory of holy warfare. The theme is recurrent throughout the whole of ancient mythology, and throughout the Bible, from the time that Adam's lower nature (Cain) rose up to slay his higher nature (Abel) to this very present day. It is the import of Paul's words: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal--they are not swords that slay flesh, or guns, or tanks and planes, nor may they ever be--but the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. (2 Corinth.10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-17). But the children of Israel are sheep without shepherds (not all of them of course; the good shepherds are still leading their flocks by still waters), and along with the children of Darkness we see them all stumbling over the literal word. East and West they stumble; Christian, Jew and Muslim, all stumbling over the same Rock. And we discover, just as God has warned, that He is preparing to dash them all together like empty vessels, the great and small alike. The clash has already begun. Nevertheless, God is restraining Himself. This is why you are for the troops and against the war. In the process of history, indeed, in the events of our very own generation, our minds and the Mind of Christ have touched, and we have fallen in love...with Life itself. And we have learned (even if we will not yet admit it) to fear God, the Father of all spirits. (Judges 7:15-22; Psalm 2:9; Romans 9:17-33). But the great men of this age have neither love for God nor fear. You are for the troops because they are being led to the slaughter as sheep without a shepherd.
God has been drawing the mind of Christ-in-us toward Themselves since the time of Adam--the entire process taking shape over a course of time equal to man's ability to perceive and understand it--but also chasing it across these same pages of history in order to bring each of us to a certain balanced state of perfection in these last days. (Ephesians 4). The ways of peace before us, and behind us the fires of war. A Cloud before them (Heb.12), and a Pillar of Fire behind, to shew them the way they must go. (Exodus 13:21,22; Deut.1:33; 1 Cor.10:1-12). Is it not written of War itself: Our God is a Consuming Fire. (Deut.4:24; Heb.12:29).
(Please look into the world, consider the nations of the earth, and particularly those powerful nations who are in social, political, economic and military conflict with America. The sight and the thought of it is awesome to behold. Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are? (Job 22:12). It is He who founded His troop IN the earth. (Amos 9:6). How else could God end the age, or recall all the elements of Darkness which He set in the earth for our instruction, but by drawing them up against Himself--or rather, against each other? It is all the same. And will not God judge and purify all the children of Adam in the process? By shaking once and for all this proud and erring spirit of literalism out of us? Our own thoughts shall judge us. They will either accuse or excuse us in the day that the mysteries of God are revealed again. (Romans 2:1-16). For our own thoughts will find us following one or the other: the Spirit of Life and peace, or the spirit of death and destruction. And except for children and the simple-minded there shall be no middle ground. So let's all excuse ourselves, not only from our past transgressions--seeing how each of us had to come the way we came in order to get to where we are--but from these great unfolding affairs of God as well. Stand back and see the salvation of the Lord, and call others, family and friends, and everyone else, to come out from among them as well.
Who is the accuser? It is the spirit of antichrist. Will it not be revealed in the day of the Lord? It is not hard to see it. It has taken the high ground. It has become great and powerful in the earth, and in the name of God it opposes God. In the name of Christ it overturns and violates the sacred precepts of Christ. And what shall it do in the end thereof? (Deut. 31 and 32).
Cal Thomas says: "The peace movement pretends that negotiation, not confrontation, will produce the better world they seek. But that presumes each side has equally good intentions. What to do when one side is good (or at least not evil) (he means America), and the other side is evil incarnate they never say." (And of course, without realizing it, by the "other side" he means God...Romans 13). And then he says: "Among the many problems of the peace movement is its lack of ideas. It is an arid philosophy, devoid of content." So he forces us to take refuge in the word of God:
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe to them who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.
Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink...(Isaiah 5:20-22).
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See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my Hand to heaven, and say, I live forever.
If I whet my glittering sword, and mine Hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenge upon the enemy...(Deuteronomy 32:39-42; Daniel 12:6,7; Revelation 10:5).
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That they may know from the rising of the Sun, and from the West, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none else.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things...(Isaiah 45:6,7).
And God's pronouncements go on and on, from one book of Scripture to the next, right on into the reality of our own present day. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. This generation has. But let us understand these things with a mind coming to spiritual perfection. For God to create such great understanding and such true love as men are presently capable, God also had to create the conditions in which we presently find ourselves--the conditions out of which true understanding, true love and true peace can be born And let us not imagine that we could have come to our present state of mind in any other way, for we are still in the process of being created. The words at Genesis 2:1,2 are not fulfilled yet. (See Hebrews 4). This love is the fulfilling of the whole Law. And remember: despite Cal Thomas's attempt to persuade anyone otherwise, Those who endure to the end shall be saved.
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Just recently two young men very near and dear to me received notice from the Selective Service system that if they did not register for the draft within ten days (a fitting number in light of Revelation 2:10), they would be turned over to the Justice Department for prosecution. This threat, of course, is an ultimate crime against the individual conscience of these young men, forcing them to choose between prison and their most innate understanding of their relationship to God and the teachings of Christ. (Christians, as well as all others of course, are absolutely forbidden by the Spirit to participate in the act of human warfare, or in the violent shedding of human blood; and for that matter, neither are they allowed to offer themselves for alternative service to any nation in a time of war. The effect is the same). But in the absence of any clearly defined interpretation of these matters, and left for the most part to their own individual devices, with no visible communal or organized base, or means of legal support, and hesitating to be (what would seem to them) the only ones to be stepping forward at this time, they decided to sign. They have no intention, of course, of submitting themselves for induction into the armed services if they should ever be called, but have decided to wait, and take their stand along with the hundreds of thousands of others who will stand up against the Beast at that time. This is a very meaningful decision, and will prove to be a most timely one in the end. Nevertheless, it also sheds a light on the immediate shortcomings of the Antiwar Community in America. Where, or what is it all leading to? What happens after the war?....More of the same? Are the same people, and the same institutions left in charge of the world. Is the same old paradigm in place? the same philosophies and antagonisms? Is this it?
Those who are its chief voices, and its most ardent organizers, also possess a deep-seated reluctance to express the movement's aims in spiritual and prophetic terms, and therefore have no vivid expectations, or idea what a true spiritual revolution looks like, or where it could, or should lead. Of course we understand: no one is trying to be in charge of anything, and this is as it should be. Nevertheless, everyone knows that the present conflict in the world has everything to do with the present State of Israel, and beyond that with the very universal concept of Zion itself, and have not taken an active account of the cosmic, messianic ideas that are both attending this conflict and leading to its solution. But in truth, how could anyone do otherwise? the books were sealed. The present abrogation of the Law and the prophets, however, causes us to continue to express the movement's aims in terms of the present collapsing paradigm, and leaves us appealing to selective provisions of the American Bill of Rights and the Constitution on the one hand, and to the rhetoric of Marxism on the other--with only random verses from the Bible and the Qur'an included for good measure. The emerging synthesis (the Christ-conscious paradigm) makes use of this history, and then transcends it. It accomplishes at last what all else that has gone before it has failed to accomplish. For just as three-dimensional consciousness is a thing of the past, so all political and religious systems rooted in the material order must fail. (The dinosaurs are gone, the Titanic sank, the Towers fell, and so will this age collapse...and great shall be the fall of it...Matthew 7:22-27).
Unmindful of the spiritual shift that is really taking place in the earth, or of the events that are rapidly unfolding, the present leading voices of change in America have not approached the real field of battle and are leaving the high ground as it were to the politicians and the prophets of Ba'al--to those who are making use of the language of religion to advance their own national and global ambitions. (We are not asking for these voices of change to step down or disappear. Heaven knows they are standing in the breach, and are courageously filling the space that the "church" itself has abandoned. We just want them to learn the language, and perchance to become receptive to the spiritual realities that are unfolding in the world). Jimmy Carter, the spiritual voice of the Western/American globalist order, speaks peace, but he does not mean it in the extreme. (He is actually the one to watch). Clinton, of course, was not a believer either. He tried to work the system (the whole American order of things and the military-industrial complex that maintains it) from the Left--and then from the Center, and then...well he just gave in, and became one of them. Imagining, along with the liberal wing of the American church, and with various other factions on the Left, that he could actually change the system in some essentially 60s kind of way, he wound up a friend of neither. He wound up as irrelevant to the things that are unfolding in the earth as the Left will be if it does not shift its attention from the purely political realm to the spiritual. George W. Bush, on the other hand, has no pretense toward the Left whatsoever, and is marshaling his forces against the Day of the Lord--against the day of battle and war. As one pays very close attention to the rhetoric and the slogans, and all the cyber-jargon that are issuing forth from the White House and the Pentagon in our time, it is very plain to see that not only are repressive measures being put in place, but that they are all readying themselves for a war against Heaven itself. Learn the language, believe the Word
PUTTING GOD BACK IN POLITICS
by Jim Wallis
(Despite Jim Wallis's best intentions--his belief that the American body-politic can be made responsive to the reasonings of true spiritual thought--his own reasonings here are born of the doctrines of Ba'al and not of Christ. Instead of empowering the people to come out of the American order of things as they are commanded to in the Prophets (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Revelation 18...KJV), and to put on Christ for themselves, he would further entangle them, empowering the present political, economic and military order to continue its rule, leaving those who are presently in charge of the world, still in charge of it. As the Conservative Right hails its own champions, Wallis speaks the same (purely unspiritual) language, but employs the far more subtle language and reasonings of the Religious Left--far more subtle because they are closer to the reasonings of Christ.than those on the Right--the reasonings of antichrist nonetheless, James, chapter 4):
Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do (those who say they know Him) not see His days...(Job 24:1).
WASHINGTON__ As the Democratic candidates for president attend religious services for the holidays, their celebrations may be tempered by an uncomfortable fact : churchgoing Americans tend to vote Republican.
An overwhelming majority of Americans consider themselves to be religious. Yet according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, people who attend church more than once a week vote Republican by 63 to 37 percent; people who seldom or never attend vote Democrat by 62 to 38 percent. This disparity should concern Democrats--IF NOT AS A MATTER OF FAITH THEN AS A MATTER OF POLITICS. More important, it should concern anyone who cares about the role of religion in public life. By failing to engage the republicans in this debate, the Democrats impoverish us all.
President Bush and the Republicans clearly have an advantage with people of faith as the election year approaches. Republicans are more comfortable talking about religious values and issues, and they are quick to promise that their faith will affect their policies (even if, like their Democratic counterparts, they don't always follow through on their campaign promises). President Bush is as public and expressive about his faith as any recent occupant of the White House...The Democratic candidates, in contrast, seem uncomfortable with the subject of religion...They stumble over themselves to assure voters THAT WHILE THEY MAY BE PEOPLE OF FAITH (What faith?), THEY WON'T ALLOW THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS TO AFFECT THEIR POLITICAL VIEWS.
For too many Democrats, faith is private and has no implications for political life. But what kind of faith is that? Where would America be if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had kept his faith to himself? (There is a thicket of faulty reasoning here...African Americans in high political office, entrenched in capitalist circles...in military uniform. Willis sees no deep spiritual problem here). Howard Dean, the leading challenger to President Bush, illustrates the Democrats' problem. Dr. Dean recently said he left his church in Vermont over a dispute about a bike path, AND EXPLAINED THAT HIS FAITH DOES NOT INFORM HIS POLITICS. (Jimmy Carter recently said basically the same thing). He also said that the presidential race should stay away from the issues of 'guns, God and gays,' and focus on jobs, health care and foreign policy. By framing the issue in this way--declining to discuss overtly 'religious' topics--Dr. Dean allows Republicans to define the terms of the debate. The 'religious issues' in this election will be reduced to the Ten Commandments in public courthouses, marriage amendments, prayer in schools and, of course, abortion.
These issues are important. But faith informs policy in other areas as well. What about the biblical imperatives for social justice, the God who lifts up the poor, the Jesus who said, 'blessed are the peacemakers'? (Indeed, Isaiah 59...KJV). How a candidate deals with poverty is a religious issue (Indeed it is, 1 Samuel 2:1-10; James, chapter 5), and the Bush administration's failure to support poor working families should be named as a religious failure. (Let's see now...from George Washington to George W. Bush...Is there any hope in sight, short of the manifestation of God's truly Anointed ones)? Neglect of the environment is a religious issue. (What does it say? Revelation 11:18). Fighting pre-emptive and unilateral wars based on false claims is a religious issue (a fact not changed by the capture of Saddam Hussein). (What does it say? How could Bush resist? He is a vessel of perfect Darkness in the hands of God, as is Saddam Hussein...Joel 3:9-14).
Such issues could pose problems for the Bush administration among religious and nonreligious people alike--if someone were to define them in moral terms. The failure of the Democrats to do so is not just a political miscalculation. It shows they do not appreciate the contributions of religion to American life...
To reiterate...Proverbs 4:14-19, Isaiah, chapter 1-5. (KJV).
...The United States has a long history of religious faith supporting and literally driving progressive causes and movements. From the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage to civil rights, religion has led the way for social change. (2 Thessalonians, chapter 1 and 2...KJV). The separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. AMERICA'S SOCIAL FABRIC DEPENDS ON SUCH VALUES AND VISION TO SHAPE OUR POLITICS--A DEPENDENCE THE FOUNDERS RECOGNIZED (John, chapter 10)...
...It is indeed possible (and necessary) to express one's faith and convictions about public policy while still respecting the pluralism of American democracy. Rather than suggesting that we not talk about 'God,' Democrats should be arguing--on moral and even religious grounds--that all Americans should have economic security, health care and educational opportunity, and that true faith results in a compassionate concern for those on the margins.
Democrats should be saying that a just foreign AND MILITARY policy will not only work better, but also be MORE CONSISTENT WITH both OUR our democratic and SPIRITUAL VALUES. (These are the doctrines of Ba'al). And they must offer a moral alternative to a national security policy based primarily on fear, and say what most Americans intuitively know: that defeating terrorism is both practically and spiritually connected to the deeper work of addressing global poverty AND RESOLVING THE CONFLICTS THAT SOW THE BITTER SEEDS OF DESPAIR AND VIOLENCE. (This feeds directly into the Carter doctrine of Conflict Resolution...Ezekiel 21:25-27; Habakkuk 2:4-20).
Many of these policy choices can be informed and shaped by the faith of candidates and citizens--without transgressing the important boundaries of church and state. God is always personal, but never private. The Democrats are wrong to restrict religion to private to the private sphere--just as the Republicans are wrong to define it solely in terms of individual moral choices and sexual ethics. Allowing the Right to decide what is a religious issue would be both moral and political tragedy. Not everyone in America has the same religious values, of course. And many moral lessons are open to interpretation. But by withdrawing into secularism, the democrats deprive Americans of an important debate. The New York Times, December, 2003.
CALL FOR CIVILIZATION AMID DARKNESS OF WAR
By Jimmy Breslin
MARCH 21, 2004__I put on a sweater and went out in the afternoon sun to the anti-war rally downtown. It was in a strange place for a rally, lower Madison Avenue and then over to Sixth Avenue on a Saturday. THERE WAS NOBODY ON THE SIDEWALKS WATCHING THE PARADE. THE CITIZENS PROTESTING WALKED THROUGH SILENCE AND WITH ONLY THE SMALLEST CRIES OF PROTEST.
Whoever figured out the route did it with the idea of keeping the thing almost secret. You can blame Ray Kelly, the police commissioner who was able to plan and command and micromanage the rights of citizens to protest a war. The mayor gave a bit appearance...The issue will wind up in the middle of an election campaign when all jobs will be up for grabs. The charge will be robbing citizens of the chance for legitimate excitement during acts of importance.
Here yesterday was Linda Rosenberg, standing on Sixth Avenue with an anti-war sign, stickers on her coat and a pained look on her face. "I hear they had a million people marching in Rome. The apathy here here bothers me so much," she said....(In New York) there were only these straggling squads walking through streets of emptiness.
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