TYRUS AND CYRUS

Ancient Britain and Japan

(Ezekiel 28:14 and Isaiah 45:1)

The Great Leviathan...Job 41.

"O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are all children, and there is no such thing as an old Greek. 'What do you mean by that?' inquired Solon. 'You are all young in mind,' came the reply: 'you have no belief rooted in the old tradition, and no knowledge hoary with age. And the reason is this. There have been and will be many different calamities to destroy mankind, the greatest of them by fire and water, lesser ones by countless other means. Your own story of how Phaethon, child of the sun, harnessed his father's chariot, but was unable to guide it along his father's course and so burnt up things on the earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt, is a mythical version of the truth that there is at long intervals a variation in the course of heavenly and a consequent widespread destruction by fire of things on the earth…

Our records tell how your city checked a great power which arrogantly advanced from its base in the Atlantic ocean to attack the cities of Europe and Asia. For in those days the Atlantic was navigable. There was an island (a continent), opposite the strait which you call (so you say) the Pillars of Hercules, an island larger than Libya and Asia combined; from it travelers in those days could reach the other islands, and from them the whole opposite continent which surrounds what can truly be called the ocean. For the sea within the strait we are talking about is like a lake with a narrow entrance; the outer ocean is the real ocean and the land which entirely surrounds it is properly termed continent.

On this island of Atlantis had risen a powerful and remarkable dynasty of kings, who ruled the whole island, and many other islands as well and parts of the continent; in addition it controlled within the strait, Libya (Africa) up to the borders of Egypt and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This dynasty, gathering its whole power together, attempted to enslave at a single stroke, your country and ours and all the territory within the strait… At a later time there was earthquakes and floods of extraordinary violence, and in a single dreadful day and night all your fighting men were swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis was similarly swallowed up by the sea and vanished; this is why the sea in that area is to this day impassable to navigation, which is hindered by mud just below the surface, the remains of a sunken island." (see Job 41:30). The Timaeus, Plato.

Since we now know that the bluestones which were used in Stonehenge II came from Wales, we might conclude that at this early date these people already had considerable expertise in navigation to travel the ocean waters around Britain. The most sensible transport route from Wales to the site of Stonehenge is by water...

As more Beaker People came into Britain, the various cultures blended to form a new one, the Wessex culture. By 1,000 B.C. (the time of D.V.D. and Solomon) Britain had a Bronze Age culture which was dominated by a wealthy, powerful, aristocracy WHOSE TRADE EXTENDED TO CENTRAL EUROPE, Ireland, Crete, and Greece..." The Stonehenge Chronicles, p.87.

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"Like them are the writers who tell of the Sidonians on the Persian Gulf, or somehwere else on Oceanus, and who place the wanderings of Menelaus, and likewise the Phoenicians out on Oceanus. And not the least reason for not believing them (Strabo will shortsightedly say) is the fact that they contradict one another. For some say even the Sidonians who are our neighbors are colonists from the Sidonians out on Oceanus...but some hold that the Sidonians on Oceanus are colonists from our Phoenicia." Strabo's Geography I.2.35.

Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.

And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of the rock.

It shall be a place for the SPREADING OF NETS IN THE MIDST OF THE SEA: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations...(Ezekiel 26:1-5).

The word of the Lord came again, saying,

Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;

And say unto Tyrus, O thou that are situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of Perfect Beauty...(Ezekiel 27:1-3)...

When one studies all there is to study about the ancient Phoenicians (including all that is not known about them, or that is purely speculative), one will realize, first of all how these ancient mariners were plying their sea-trade far out in the Atlantic in early times (long before they entered the Mediterranean Sea), how their base of operations was ancient Britain and the Webstern coasts of Europe and how the place-names we associate with these sea-farers in the Mediterranean were carried with them from the West and relocated there. And by studying the words of the prophets one will also begin to understand how these Tyrenian-Phoenicians were the progenitors of all commercial wickedness in the world--a wickedness that is now coming to its own powerful conclusion in the earth. Nevertheless, the most adept among those ancient Phoenicians knew the way to Eden and back, and assisted the prophets in the formulation of the Hebrew mysteries--the mysteries of Light and the mysteries of Darkness.

Just as every soul is composed of both spirit and flesh--and the one cannot live on earth without the other--so it says that Solomon made a league between the children of Israel and the subjects of Hiram, king of Tyre, charging them together to build a House for God (2 Chronicles 2). And as we discover the historical and cosmological dimensions of this Temple--how they extend from the furthest East to the Western ends of the earth, and into the fulness of these times--and as we learn how to open the books of the Prophets in their proper order--we will not only understand Britain and America's joint role in these great epic affairs, but we will be able to see the spirit of this Hiram appearing again, at precisely the right time in history, to fulfill and complete these matters--these great hidden works of Darkness. (Open the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries as these mysteries began to return full-circle to their place of origin here at the Western ends of the earth)...

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; UNTO THE PLACE FROM WHENCE THE RIVERS COME, THITHER THEY RETURN AGAIN...(Ecclesiastes 1:1-7).

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; THOU SEALEST UP THE SUM (compare Hebrews 8:1, KJV), full of Wisdom and perfect in Beauty.

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering...

THOU ART THE ANOINTED CHERUB THAT COVERETH; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the Holy Mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee...(Ezekiel 28:12-15)...

For not only did the medieval order of the Knights Templars depart from the true center of the Mystery of Jerusalem when they left Europe in search of it; and not only did these knights fill the Eastern world at that time with their own occult, yet chivalrous intrigues (needless to mention the procession of kings and princes, and other hordes of bloodthirsty crusaders sent by the Pontifs of Rome, who trampled over the Mystery on their way to the East as well), but their successors in England and America, the "worthy practitioners and Grand Masters of the Masonic Lodge," filled the world Westward with these same occult (hidden...and particularly from themselves) interests, as it is written: Beware, lest that light in thee be darkness, then how great that darkness:

"It was natural that imaginative stone masons, long before the development of anything like our modern fraternity, should have felt a kinship with the great builders of this age. It was natural also that they acknowledge a peculiar attraction for the most famous and glorious of all building enterprises, King Solomon's Temple and citadel." The History of, and Introduction to the Masonic Creed and Belief, from the Masonic Bible.

For, see (saith God to Moses), that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount...(Hebrews 8:1-5; Exodus 25:9; Ex.26:30).

"The requisite of constructive creative thought is faith. 'Therefore I say unto you, what things whatsoever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive, and ye shall receive.' Particularly note the two tenses. First 'believe ye receive,' present tense, 'and ye SHALL receive,' future tense.

This portion of the degree allegorically depicts this power of thought. The narrator, breaking into the middle of the story, informs the Candidate he represents a certain person. Of what has gone before the Candidate is not told; if he is curious he may turn to the Bible and begin the tale. A Temple is under construction and partially completed. Three Grand Masters are in charge of the construction. Who are these three, and what is their symbolical significance? We, too, may turn to the Bible for our answer...

'And King Solomon went and fetched Hiram out of Tyre, he was a widow's son...and he was filled with Wisdom and Understanding, and cunning to work all works of (material things). And he came to King Solomon and he wrought all his works.'

To understand the foregoing passage we must know the symbology employed in the Bible. The masses of the ancients regarded the Sun as a god, the more enlightened as a symbol of God. Gold, because of its color, was the symbol of the Sun. Likewise brass, being more plentiful and of a similar color, was often substituted for gold. In the process of mental evolution the Sun, because of its position in the 'above,' assumed an ethical aspect of the spiritual and likewise those materials which symbolized the Sun. In this sense the Biblical statement that "Hiram was filled with Wisdom and Understanding, and cunning to work all works of brass' actually informs us that he was cunning, or skilled, to 'work all works' spiritual. Together with the other two we have the Spiritual, Psychical and Physical. Man alone is composed of these Three components, thus the symbolical meaning of the Temple is clear.

The "Sanctum Sanctorum' of each individual is the secret chamber of the soul into which one should 'habitually' retire. This individual Holy of Holies is UNFINISHED, for few have attained those spiritual heights which are the FINISHED WORK. The Grand Master is typical of the objective mind which retires to the secret closet of its own innermost being--withdrawing from the material world, there to 'draw designs upon the trestle-board'--the receptive subjective mind, which but waits for the imprint of those 'designs for living.' The 'craft' is Universal Mind which develops the plan drawn. The process of building the Temple is the development of character, the evolving of the real (spiritual) individual." Freemasonry, Its Hidden Meanings, by George H. Steinmetz, pp.162-165.

"NATIONAL CATHEDRAL FINISHED AT LAST"...was a headline in the nation's newspapers a few years back. George Bush was pictured on the steps of the National Cathedral pointing up to the last stone being put in place. The article read:

The Washington National Cathedral begun at the dawn of the century, was formally completed Saturday with President Bush overseeing the laying of the final stone atop what he called "this symbol of our nation's spiritual life."

Bush told the crowd, "We have constructed here this symbol of our nation's spiritual life. A symbol which combines the permanence of stone and of God, both of which will outlast men, and memories." Sept.30, 1990.

Of course these great men payed no heed to the words at Matthew 24:1,2. How could they? Nor to the fact that the great king of Babylon, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, is entombed there in that great Masonic ediface in Washington D.C. There was also a very solemn and inspiring service at the great Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City after the Persian Gulf War, commemorating the successful commission of this war and honoring the political and military leaders who carried it out...

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God...(Luke 16:15). Is it that there is nothing of true spiritual value happening inside here? Or that no true words are ever spoken here, or true sentiments ever expressed here? No, it is just that all these words and sentiments are spoken and expressed in the context of Darkness--GREAT DARKNESS.

Needless to say there was also no heed payed to the voices of dissent that were being raised outside. Nor was any mind given to the drumbeat of reason that was being sounded in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House during those days. Neither has much more than passing attention been paid to those enduring and courageous individuals who have been maintaining an un-broken 22-year vigil now directly across the street from the White House, as a witness against the very things that are now unfolding in the world. (www.prop1.org)

A cold winter day in Washington, D.C. Concepcion, William, Ellen or any one of their supporters and friends, are sitting right here out of sight (wrapped in blankets, under plastic tarps at night), staring across the street at the same bleak reality, holding out in our place, as witnesses against the occupants of that house. Is has been their sincere belief all these years that the things that are unfolding in the earth did not have to come to pass, if only the American people could have been wakened to an understanding the Dark forces that are operating from that residence. It is their present hope (against hope it seems) that the American people will not be party to the further diabolic schemes that are being imagined over there, ideas that are just as destined to provoke the God of Heaven to rain down Fire over America--over every industrial and commercial center, and every military installation in the entire nation--as the prophets saw. The people must pay very serious attention to the words at Revelation, chapter 18. They are already unfolding.

(And now the same is true: As was the father, so is the son). The war itself was being sanctioned and blessed by those in the highest places of American political and religious life. The children of Israel, however, were commanded to have no part whatsoever in these affairs:

ISAIAH 14.

Ye were sometimes Darkness, but now are ye the children of Light...Have NO FELLOWSHIP with the Unfruitful Works of Darkness, but rather reprove them. (Ephesians 5:8-11)...

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood (as the sons of Darkness do), but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the Darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high (political and religious) places...(Ephesians 6:10-17).

But though these works are of the highest order of Darkness--for the very reason that they are being carried out in the name of Christ--they also, nevertheless, create the conditions that lead to Light. (The greater the Darkness the greater the Light that is born out of it). These leaders and the great churchmen who support them, have come to the end of the age, and now finding themselves caught in the great snare that God has laid for them, have no other recourse but to reveal themselves and what spirit they are, as it is written: All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own (and everyone else's ) hurt. (Ecclesiastes 8:9). Whoever is of the Light will come out of the Darkness. Whoever is of the Darkness will betray the Light (Hebrews 6:1-8). Everyone's works shall be manifested. (1 Corinthians 2:10-17; 1 Thessalonans, chapter 5). It is also written: Come out from among them my people. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Revelation, chapter 18. KJV)...

For he (and this means, they) as God is sitting in the Temple of God, shewing himself that he is God...(2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).

But how can we come out from among them? We are all caught inside of this great vicious system--inside of the belly of the great Beast. (And of course, the question will arise, where do we go when we come out? And the answer to this will appear with events as they unfold. We will meet at the Center). The initial motivation to come out of this system should be spiritual, and rooted in our individual as well as collective sense of what true righteousness and justice is, and, obversely, what the world looks like in the absense of it. (It looks exactly like the world as it presently exists). Our motives must ultimate be rooted in a firm belief in the teachings handed down on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5 to 7), and if we are Jews, in a proper understanding of the words of the Prophets--thus not only in a corresponding sense of God's Terrible Presence in the world, but in a thorough understanding of the direct relationship that exists in the earth between injustice, war, and the present ruling capitalistic (Zionist) order. (The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a prophetic indictment of the entire religious, economic, political and military order that has come to power in the Western world in these last days).

As the Word became flesh and dwells among us (and that means, in us), so the whole mystery of God's righteousness eventually comes right down to economics--and not only with the way that each and every person relates materially to every other person in the world, but in the way that all of us together relate to the Earth itself, our Mother, and all of Her resources. It is in the great interest of all these things that God has brought the world to its impending economic crisis, not only to bring the very necessary judgments upon the present world-order (for all of its historical injustices, and so that it will be clearly apparent to every future generation what God will never tolerate again), but also to bring us out of captivity, to deliver us out of a system from which we cannot otherwise deliver ourselves. (We do not subscribe to all of the reasonings of Russel Walker, there is a lot that he does not understand, but nevertheless):

The US Has Already Lost The War
By Russel Walker

While most people are watching pictures of Baghdad and Iraq on TV for the latest war developments, they simply do not realize that the US has already lost the war. The US has a 6.4 trillion-dollar national debt which is growing. The monthly deficit of payments is about 35 billion. In the last 6 months the US dollar has fallen about 20% against all major currencies. The Euro has become the currency of choice for many nations, challenging the dollar for world financial domination. Bankruptcies are at an all time high.

Many states are having the worst financial crisis in their histories. Conservative estimates reckon that an Iraqi war will cost US taxpayers between $200 and $300 billion dollars. This will occur: even as elderly Americans on fixed incomes live in poverty, unable to afford proper medications and care * even as our environment, our schools, highways, mass transit, and railroads deteriorate from lack of funds * even as the quality of American life sinks so that the quality of Israeli life, based on the illegal occupation of Palestinian land (condemned by U.N. resolutions), may improve. * even as Red China continues to improve its industrial progress and offer more items including rockets and nuclear bombs to a world market for sale. * even as US industry continues to shut plants and lay off workers. * even while we give foreign aid of about 15 billion a year with new proposals to increase the foreign aid beyond that figure. * even as the stock market continues its three-year slide with no bottom insight. * even as petroleum prices are about as high as they have ever been

The United States is collapsing around our ears. It's mixture of politically correct lunacy, corporate fascism, media spin control and economic decay is simply not sustainable for much longer. What the whore media parades as strength is really weakness. What we are told is wbisdom is simply stupidity. What we are told about economic prosperity is in reality a rigged fraud, careening into a black hole of bankruptcy. Our deliberately undermined economic system will soon come crashing down, just as our historic enemies (whoever these are) have carefully planned.

The US Has Lost Its Soul It is estimated that with the first Gulf War and the ensuing 10 years of bombing that Iraq h as lost about 1.4 million people. That will make some sickies happy but the US has told every lie, paid any bribe, killed any woman, child and non-combatant without regard for the sanctity of life or any of the basic values of Western Civilization. Rumsfield calls this freedom. I call it evil.

I have seen many news clips of thousands of Iraqis in the streets with automatic weapons. How many people in the streets in the US do you see with automatic weapons? For a couple of minutes maybe followed by 10 years in jail. Bush calls this liberty. I call it utter hypocrisy. We will see a long lasting guerrilla war to remove the alien occupation force from the land. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Bush rebuilds Iraq that no one will be allowed to have automatic weapons except the alien foreign masters who will be hated for their omnibus criminality. Bush talks about ending terrorism. I thought that is what Afghanistan was supposed to do. Instead the US uses 'Shock and Awe' super MOAB (Mother of all Bombs) to terrorize a civilian population. Fortunately, it has not worked.

If you or I were to try to bribe a government official it would be a violation of the Hobbs Act. Bush can offer bribes in the billions (of taxpayer's money) to many governmental officials and still be regarded as an honest Christian man. I can only conclude that you can fool some of the people all of the time. Bush talks about the weapons of mass destruction. Well, the US is the all-time world leader in this field. We nuked the Japs. We used Agent Orange and other herbicides in Viet Nam. Agent Orange was both a biological and chemical killer. Every shell used gunpowder or a substitute for its propulsion. That is the use of chemistry as an agent of destruction pure and simple.

We allegedly have a First Amendment in this country. When it comes to the proselytizing and furthering the aims of Zionism then nothing can come in its way. Just as Trent Lott spoke the truth only to sell his soul due to newspaper pressure, Jim Moran knew the score but he also would not stand up for his beliefs. Every other Congressman and Senator should have stood up for Moran but they knew what had happened to James Trafficant and were afraid. The Bible talks about the 'fear of the jews' five times. Some things never appear to change. The bottom line is that when the US fights for the Jews, we loose all sense of morality and decency and forfeit any right to call ourselves Christian. Sincerely yours, Russell Walker

(There are Jews who are not Zionists, and one should not confuse the one with the other). It is the ability to distinguish what is spiritual from its literal and material framework that sets the children of Light apart from the children of Darkness; but it is not merely the ability to perceive spiritual reality that sets them apart, but to be guided by the precepts of that reality. In other words, it is of little value to merely know that another dimension to reality, or to the sacred Scriptures, exists (as the Masonic Order does), unless we allow ourselves to be ruled by the higher precepts of that reality (as the Masonic Order does not). It is of little value to know that the Temple is spiritual (as most Christians profess) if one continues to kill and oppress others within the walls of this Temple, in violation of the precepts layed down by the God who resides in this Temple. Or if one assists in the establishment of a new nation, and new laws, which supplant and overturn the ordinances of that people--Israel--whose Temple it is (as the American nation did when it came to power in the 18th century...Deut.4:1-24); or if one, contrary to the Law, sets up a throne in the midst of the Temple, as the American nation also did when it made George Washington and all the subsequent sons of Darkness to sit upon it one after another.

These great merchant-princes are the final object of God's righteous judgments in the earth, not only because they have mindlessly taken hold of the oracles of God, forcibly conscripting them into their own service, but because in the Name of God they have disregarded the precepts of God. The whole of them from Britain to America, and now beyond, have violated the Tao of Economics and Trade by failing to consider the direct relationship that exists between World Commerce and the Invisible Presence of God in the world. By their continuous refusal to hear the voices of the oppressed, and those who have also spoken on behalf of the oppressed, and on behalf of the Earth, they have made light of the fact that the long-suffering God is also a God of Justice, and of fierce and terrible retribution (and that retribution is now being poured out). They have made light of the words: For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, NOW will I arise saith the Lord; I will set them in safety from them that puffeth at them...The wicked walk on every side, WHILE THE VILEST MEN ARE EXALTED. (Psalm 12:1-8).

Who hath taken this counsel against thee Tyre, the Crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffikers are the honourable of the earth? (Isaiah 23:8).

The sons of Hiram and the children of Israel labored together. (1 Kings 5; 2 Chron.2). The men of Tyre "carried burdens and hewed in the mountains." The children of Israel carried the burdens of men's souls, and hewed out of their hearts any affections they might have developed for the empire--the great Mountain--that was being created in the earth. Thus we learn the double-meaning of the words "hewing in the mountains." (2 Chron.2:10, 18). And to "cutting timber." The sons of Tyre cut and cut and they are still cutting. They built and they built and they are still building...

And seeing how deaf they are to the cries of those who continually plead for the Earth--for the state of the sacred environment in which we live--the very Lord of Nature Herself must stop them, otherwise they would have the earth completely cut, totally stripped, and beyond repair, with all their cutting and hewing, and with all their building and building. Nevertheless, these sons of Darkness were commanded by God to build an empire, so build they must. How else could God demonstrate to us what things They hate unless They showed them to us? Number the towers, says the Psalms, so that ye can tell it to the generation after. And how else until they got them built--to the very top? (Understand Isaiah 30:25). And how else could we see the plastic and neon corporate culture for what it is, which we have become, without seeing it for ourselves, in ourselves, in all of its madness and perverse splendor? One that produces plastic and neon children in its own decadent image, who are outwardly and brilliantly alive, while inwardly and spiritually dead? This happens to a people who are unmindful of who gives them their slogans and symbols, and who in turn sends their children off to fight and die to preserve "their way of life." (How did we become convinced that all of this is "our way of life")? How is that we as a people do not realize that our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, fathers and uncles, are being sent away to die in foreign lands so that these Corporations, might live forever, and so that the great names of this Corporate culture, and the great towers they have built as memorials to themselves, might also stand into eternity. It is all very evil.

The Corporate structure of America (of the entire Western world) is a dark image of that truly Corporate Mystery which hovers invisibly above us--whose own Limbs extend into and control, not only the entire economic reality of our times but the whole vibrant fabric of Life itself. The Western world would have this Power unto itself. It has witnessed what it began to believe was the downfall of its only real rival, Soviet Communism, and has been trying ever since to extend its own doctrines and philosophies in that direction, to seal the victory. The Western world is already feeling the consequences of this (futile) attempt. (Joel 3:9-14). And if God would yield to them there are certain religious figures in America, who would breath the Holy Spirit right into the Body-politic of the American Corporate-state. (1 Corinth.14:6-9; Ezek.16:17, 33). God, of course, has no intention of yielding, as both the Scriptures and coming world events will clearly testify. The entire American experience has come to pass so that when the future merchants of Tyre come calling to these shores they will say of the economic order that men have labored under in this age: This is (indeed) Ca-bul forever. (1 Kings 9:13; Rev.18:10-19).

Not only did the sons of Tyre and Sidon (the British and the Dutch) establish a nation by force on this continent in our times, but their spiritual forbears were the same who also induced Ahab (after the mind of Israel had fallen back out of Europe into the East in those ancient times), to take the Vineyard of Na'both by force (1 Kings 21), thus bringing the mind of Israel to the English Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the whole dilemma of Jewish Zionism in the 20th century. Just as the American continent does not belong to the American people (but is stolen), that land in the East is not the land promised to the children of Israel either. It belongs to the Palestinian people, or to those of them who would have it. (See the chapter on Ephraim Gone Backwards):

And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.

And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Ne'bat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Eth'bal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Ba'al, and worshipped him...(1 Kings 16:30,31).

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But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?

And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I WILL NOT GIVE THEE MY VINEYARD.

And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry. I WILL GIVE THEE THE VINEYARD OF NABOTH THE JEZREELITE....

And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, TO TAKE POSSESSION OF IT.

And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

Arise and go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Nabaoth, whither he has gone down to possess it.

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, THUS SAITH THE LORD, HAST THOU KILLED, AND ALSO TAKEN POSSESSION?...

And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? AND HE ANSWERED, I HAVE FOUND YOU (all of you)...(1 Kings 21).

Who is this Jezebel? She is "World Commerce." When the Phoenicians sailed into and colonized the Mediterranean they brought with them their merchant ways. And when these ways were married into the thought-stream of Israel the sins of Israel increased, greatly! And they have increased to this very day. For this Jezebel has found her way to the West, and now rules from the Financial institutions of America, the Commercial media, and the American school system which is tied to them, and which pours children continually into her clutches:

I know thy works, and charity, and services, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds,

And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give every one of you according to your works...(Revelation 2:19-23).

The author of The West and the World, A Topical History of Civilization, in a chapter entitled "The Origins of Capitalism: Markets, Logic, and Desire" (seeing through all of the pretenses and deceptions presently associated with the term "compassionate conservatism"), describes the true foundations of the American economic order:

"The theorists of emerging capitalist society, from Thomas Hobbs to Adam Smith, imagined that selfishness, competition, bargaining, and private ownership were eternal traits of human nature, characteristic of all of human history, (continued)...

Jesus answered, and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

The Wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth (see Ecclesiastes 1:3-10), so is everyone that is born of the Spirit...(John 3:3-14).

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God...(Romans 12:2).

...The discoveries of human diversity and evolving economic institutions were largely discoveries of the nineteenth century...But it was probably the experience of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century that made European thinkers generally aware of the importance of human change--especially economic change. (continued)...

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (from one end of the age to the other), I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies ... (Psalm 23:4,5).

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They did not destroy the nations (out of their own hearts), concerning whom the Lord commanded them:

But they were mingled among the heathen, AND LEARNED THEIR WORKS.

And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils (see Deuteronomy 32:16-20; 1 Corinthians 10:20-22),

And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

THUS WERE THEY DEFILED WITH THEIR OWN WORKS, AND WENT A WHORING WITH THEIR OWN INVENTIONS.

Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people, insomuch as He abhorred His own inheritance...(Psalm 106:34-40; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

...The nineteenth century was the golden age of historical study, the study of evolution and origins, and the first age to suggest that human nature itself might have changed from one age to the next. The world of Darwin and Marx and anthropology could no longer imagine that all inclinations or institutions of capitalist society had existed for all time.

Defenders of the new economy--groups like the English Manchester liberals and utilitarians who spoke for the middle class of merchants and manufacturers--developed a new assumption of the naturalness of capitalist ideas and behavior which was more consistent with the historical consciousness of their age. (continued)...

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned...(1 Cor.2:13-15).

...They reasoned in effect that although capitalism had not always existed, the instinctual need and logic of capitalism had always existed, and that history was the development of that desire and logic. Their ideas were so influential that they have become almost the 'common sense' of twentieth-century Americans...

Beware (therefore) lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the rudiment of the world, and the traditions of men, and not after Christ...(Colossians 2:8).

...They imagined that primitive trading had merely become more complex over the years, that people gradually found it easier to attach price tags (or money values) to the things they bartered, and that local trade led to national and finally international trade, as the new knowledge of marketing techniques grew. (continued)...

Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, SUPPOSING THAT GAIN IS GODLINESS, from such withdraw thyself.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment let us therewith be content

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But thou a man of God, flee these things...(1 Timothy 6:5-11).

...In effect, these defenders of the new system were arguing that if capitalism had not always existed at least a natural human inclination to barter had become more sophisticated. In many ways (they said) this was yet another version of human nature.

Many of us still today assume that capitalism developed logically from the inside out, from the simple to the complex, from the local to the foreign, and from the small scale to the world scale. (continued)...

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"They pay no heed to the real hidden meanings of things, but divert themselves instead with all kinds of iniquitous arcane lore…They do not know the hidden meaning of what is actually taking place, nor have they ever understood 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. As smoke disappears and is no more, so will Wrong disappear forever. But Right will be revealed like the Sun. The world will rest on the sound Foundation. All who cling to rarefied arcane lore 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 may 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 like 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 Gaster, p.429

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Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the Stars of heaven...Thy crowned are as the Locusts and thy captains as the great Grasshoppers which camp in the hedges on a cold day. But when the Sun ariseth they flee away, and there place is not known where it is...(Nahum 3:16).

...We assume for instance that barter exchanges among friends led gradually to more efficient money exchanges, that local trade became more monetized as it became more complex, that such capitalist institutions as money, markets, prices, profit, and private property expanded from village to city to state to world as they proved their superiority over simpler ways. There is something very comforting in that assumption. It allows us to think that capitalism began among friends, that it originated in small groups, and that it expanded naturally and gradually because people wanted it...

Actually nothing is further from the truth. One of the most amazing things about the history of capitalism is that most people fought every step of its expansion. The clergyman, the artisan, the farmer, the villager, the worker, the landlord (?), the tenant, and even many of the slowly emerging middle class fought the expansion of capitalism because it seemed to come from the outside to threaten the local and traditional ways." The West and the World, by Kevin Reilly.

Please consider the chapters in this work entitled: "Capitalism," and "Education and the Second Wave."

WHO SHALL LIVE?

Ezekiel, chapter 18.

1) The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,

2) What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten soup grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?

3) As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.

4) Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: THE SOUL THAT SINNETH IT SHALL DIE.

5) But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,

6) And hath not eaten upon the mountains (upon the high places of the nations of the world), neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel (to the ideas, the philosophies, and the ways of these nations, or to the great names and famous personalities that embody these ways), neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife (not merely wives in the physical sense of the word, but one's system of belief, and their religious traditions and holy places--their Church which is the repository of every people's seeds of spiritual awareness), neither hath come near to a menstruous woman (which means: near to that great religious whore of Babylon, whose womb is totally devoid of future life, and who stains with her flow of blood--the blood of her own sons and daughters--everything she touches...see Revelation 17 and Ezekiel 16).

7) And hath not oppressed ANY, and hath restored to (every single) debtor his pledge, hath spoiled NONE by violence, hath (always) given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment...

If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for He that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they...

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their (own) hurt...(Ecclesiastes 5:8-13).

8) He that hath not given forth upon usury...

If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by me, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him any usury.

(And) if thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge (be aware: the man is the raiment of the soul; his clothes are the raiment of the man; his house is the raiment of the clothes; and the land is the raiment of the house), thou shalt deliver it unto him BEFORE THE SUN GOETH DOWN;

For that is his covering. It is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear, for I am gracious...(Exodus 22:25-27).

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Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore (one who sells "her" services to strangers...understand the meaning), or the price of a dog (one who returns to his own vomit...2 Peter 2) into the house of the Lord for any vow; for even both of these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

THOU SHALT NOT LEND UPON USURY TO THY BROTHER, usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury.

(And here lies a trap that the Spirit has legislated into the Torah): Unto a stranger thou may lend upon usury, BUT UNTO THY BROTHER THOU SHALT NOT LEND UPON USURY; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou go to possess it. (The question then follows:: Who is my brother? The simple answer: If I reason to myself that every single person on earth is not my brother and my sister, in the highest sense of the word, or if I should try to manipulate this law to suit my own wicked ways, than I testify with my own mouth, and through my own deeds, that I am an oppressor and not a child of God)...(Deut.23:18-21).

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But if the servant say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink with the drunken (those drunk with power and authority over others).

The Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder (see Hebrews 4:12), and will appoint him his portion among the unbelievers...(Luke 12:45,46).

__________

For the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the servant (the slave) of the lender...(Proverbs 22:7).

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I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury... (Jeremiah 15:10).

8) Neither hath taken any increase...(which means that one has not, or rather does not make his living upon the labors and wages of other men, neither as an employer or an investor):

God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no not one.

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as bread? They have not called upon God...(Psalm 53:4).

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In thee (Jerusalem) they have taken gifts to shed blood, THOU HAST TAKEN USURY AND INCREASE, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord...

The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully...

The time is come, the day draweth nigh, let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is upon the multitude thereof.

The seller shall not return to that which is sold...for the vision is touching the whole multitude...neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life...

Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels, because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity...(Ezekiel 22).

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My son defraud not the poor of his living ( make sure you have given him everything he has earned for himself with his own hands, and make sure you give him back what he has been earning for you also, which you may have been unwittingly stealing from him, supposing you have a right to it), and make not the needy to wait long.

Make not a hungry soul sorrowful, neither provoke a man in his distress.

Add not more trouble to an heart that is vexed, and defer not to give to him that is in need.

Reject not the supplication of the afflicted, neither turn thy face from a poor man.

Turn not away thine eye from the needy, and give him no occasion to curse thee.

For if he curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, his prayer shall be heard of Him that made him...

Let it not grieve thee to bow down thine ear to the poor, and give him a friendly answer with meekness.

DELIVER HIM THAT SUFFERETH WRONG FROM THE HAND OF THE OPPRESSOR, AND BE NOT FAINT HEARTED WHEN THOU SITTEST IN JUDGMENT...(Ecclesiasticus 4:1-9).

8, 9) And hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and hath executed true judgment between man and man.

Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, HE SHALL LIVE, SAITH THE LORD...(Ezekiel 18:1-9).

BIG WHEELS TURNING

CAPITALISM NOT ONLY WON, IT TURNED INTO A MARVELOUS MACHINE OF PROSPERITY, LED BY PEOPLE WHO COULD TAKE AN IDEA AND TURN IT INTO AN INDUSTRY

by Norman Pearlstine

"Make money, be proud of it; make more money, be prouder of it." Henry Luce, 1937

With those words, this magazine's co-founder joined Calvin Coolidge ("The chief business of the American people is business"), former General Motors president Charles E. Wilson ("What is good for...General Motors is good for the country") and, alas, Wall Street's Gorden Gekko ("Greed...is good. Greed is right. Greed works") in defining and defending the 20th century as the century of business.

This issue, TIME's third in a series of five that chronicles the 100 most influential people in the century, is devoted to 20 remarkable builders and titans (giants) who most embody capitalism and its triumphs...From Henry Ford at one end of the century to Bill Gates at the other, these 20 influenced lives far beyond the business world. Indeed, TIME defines the business realm broadly, including anyone who works for a living, and our list extends to the world of sports...organized labor...and even organized crime.

It is no accident that our list is almost entirely American... TIME, December 7, 1998.

IN THE FINANCIAL WORLD GREED RULES SUPREME

EDITOR, TIMES-DISPATCH: I've never imagined I would agree with Molly Ivans [December 1 column, "Bankers' Stupidity Spreads Economic Crisis"] But her comments about the stupidity of bankers was accurate.

Today's world of banking (not to mention the rest of the financial industry) is rapacious and monopolistic. Greed rules. Even in Richmond we see what used to be community banks pursuing their relentless search for higher profits and executive perks. It seems as if the banks never can be big enough.

Prior to the Great Depression, the financial industry went through an untamed cycle of growth until its house of cards collapsed. Now, the financial wizards of Wall Street and Main Street alike opine that this time is different. They say that huge financial conglomerates that combine banks, brokerages, and insurance companies will provide better services to more customers at lower prices.

Why, then do we see ever higher fees and deteriorating customer service? More important, how well are we protected from these "behemoths" as they try to centralize and control our personal financial affairs? Lou Gorr, Richmond.

Alas, Alas, that great City Babylon...Revelation 18.

And I say unto you make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail; they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is also unjust in much.

If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

No servant can serve two masters (the gods of America, and the God of the Universe), for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON...(Luke 16:9-15).

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And while the flesh was between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people; and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague...and He destroyed the chosen men of Israel...(Numbers 11:31-33; 1 Corinth.10:1-12).

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"Do thou therefore bear fruit in SUMMER, that it may be known, but abstain from overmuch business, and thou shalt never fall into any sin, for they that busy themselves over much, sin much; being distracted about their business and in no wise serving their own Lord. Shepherd of Hermes, 4th Parable.

Businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my Father...(Gospel of Thomas 64).

THE EPHAH

And the songs of the Temple shall be howling in that day...Hear ye this O you who swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land to fail,

Saying when will the New Moon be gone, that we may sell corn; and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, MAKING THE EPHAH SMALL, and the shekel great, and falsifying the Balances by deceit...(Amos 8: 4,5).

Psalm 69:9-11; Prov.11:1-11; Isaiah 5; Jer.7:9111; Amos 5:11-14; Micah 6:11,12.

"At THE FINAL JUBILEE, therefore God will in fact be restoring them to what is actually theirs; they will indeed 'return everyone to his patrimony.'

As for the allusion to the law of Jubilee (Lev.15:10) to proclaiming liberation to them, this is to be understood also in the sense that He will then remit (the full term) of punishment for their misdeeds, for the Hebrew word rendered 'liberation' is also a technical term for the remission of debts.

All this will happen in the Final Week of a series of years involving Nine preceding Jubilees. (For a period of Ten final Jubilees altogether). When therefore the Scriptures speak of the Day of Atonement to be observed in the Seventh Month, on the TENTH Day of the month." The Dead Sea Scriptures, by. T. Gaster, p.434.

Just as there are 49 days leading from Passover to the Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:10-16), so there are 49 years leading from that same time to the initial, or first Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-13). And just as the Universal Nation went into the wilderness of the other Nations for a prophetic period of 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:2), so there are Forty sets of Jubilees (40 X 49 years) leading from the time of Christ to our own. The period mentioned in the Qumran text is a reference to the final Ten Jubilees, or the final 490 years from the time of the (re)discovery of the New (Old) World to our own time. The Scripture makes a reference to this same span of time when it says: An Omer is a Tenth part of an Ephah. (Exodus 16:36):

COUNTING THE OMER...Climb the 49 steps up from Mitzrayim (Egypt) to the Height of Sinai (and to 'Sahavout,' or Pentecost).

Seven weeks of Seven days. Day by day, week by week, the community watches the spring grain grow, watches with hope and anxiety. Day by day, week by week, the community moves forward from the moment of freedom's first explosion...Will the earth succeed in unfolding its fruitfulness? Will we succeed in finding rest and new truth in our freedom?

Day by day, week by week, the community counts the days of growing grain--and through them counts the unfolding of the earth and of our own potential. Day by day, week by week; for this is no holy day, not even a week-long festival--but truly a season of the year. A Season full of hope, and full of anxiety that hope may fail. Seasons of Our Joy, by Arthur Waskow, pp.xxiii, 165.

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And the children of Israel gathered, some more, some less, AND WHEN THEY GATHERED WITH AN OMER (with a mind toward the last days...see Lev.19:34-36), he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered everyone according to their eating.

And Moses said, LET NO MAN LEAVE OF IT TILL THE MORNING...

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal...For where your treasure is there shall your heart be also...(Matthew 6:19-21).

Notwithstanding THEY HEARKENED NOT UNTO MOSES, but some of them left it to the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was angry with them...(Exodus 16:15-20).

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When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard then thou mayest eat grapes at thy full at thine own pleasure...BUT THOU SHALT NOT PUT ANY IN THY VESSEL.

When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck ears with thine hand; BUT THOU MAYEST NOT MOVE A SICKLE INTO THY NEIGHBOR'S STANDING CORN...(Deut.23:24, 25).

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And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a Flying Roll; the length thereof is Twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof Ten cubits ( a roll, or a book, as long and as wide as the structure of the Oracle itself. Two squares side by side).

Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for everyone that stealeth shall be cut off on this side according to it (in the East), and everyone that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it (in the West).

I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the Thief (see John 10:11), and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by My Name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.

And I said, What is it? And he said, THIS IS AN E'PHAH THAT GOETH FORTH. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.

And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead (the weight of man's concerns for his own natural life), and this is a Woman that sitteth in the midst of the e'phah.

And he said, THIS IS WICKEDNESS. And he cast it into the midst of the e'phah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.

Then lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out TWO WOMEN (Blind Submission and Open Rebellion...Islam and Christianity), and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the e'phah between the earth and the heaven.

Then said I unto the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the e'phah?

And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shi'nar (in the realm of the Chaldeans), and it shall be established, and set upon there upon her own base...(Zechariah, chapter 5).

 

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come...(Habakkuk 2:3)

FREE-MARKET ECONOMY BREAKING DOWN

By William Greider

OFFICIAL WASHINGTON is slowly awakening to the storm upon us, but its faint-hearted response ensures that this global unraveling will become more severe before the United States and other governments find the will to confront it decisively.

We are not yet at a world-wide depression resembling the one that unfolded between 1929 and 1933--not yet. But leaders in government, business and finance are committing the same basic error in judgment that led, once before, to epic tragedy. Hubris, plus their weak grasp of economic (as well as biblical) history, blinds many smart and powerful people to the gathering dangers.

Authorities are clinging wishfully to the reigning free-market orthodoxy, as it breaks down before our eyes. The laissez-faire theory of efficient markets did not predict this crisis and can't explain it...The proposition that utterly unregulated markets rule society more wisely than sovereign governments (understand Isaiah 2:2-4) is being smashed by reality.

Most members of Congress, absorbed in other matters, seem oblivious to the economic portents and vast suffering in other nations. They will be shaken awake shortly...The Washington Post.

IN ASIA, AMERICA'S FRIEND IS ALSO FOE

by David E. Sanger

WASHINGTON. As President Clinton crams for his trip to China this week, he must be yearning for those simpler days, not so long ago, when it was much easier to explain to Americans the distinction between friends and foe in Asia.

During the first Clinton Presidential campaign the Chinese Government was the menace, run by dictators "coddled" by President Bush as they oppressed Tibet, threatened Taiwan, forced abortions and swiped American technology. Then there was Japan, America's biggest military ally and partner in Asia. Sure, the Japanese kept out American car parts and computer chips, barriers that Mr. Clinton vowed to smash. But whenever trade quarrels got really nasty, cooler heads in Washington would remind people that it was Japan--market oriented and host to American troops--that Washington can count on in times of crisis.

But no one could imagine the kind of crisis Asia faces in today's economic meltdown. And if you listen closely to the oratory of Washington before the most important foreign trip of Bill Clinton's Presidency, things sound very different. On Tuesday Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin took to the podium of the White House to declare that "China has been an island of stability in Asia"--a savvy, responsible player in the global effort to tramp down the economic firestorm that started in Asia a year ago.

And Japan? The view from Washington these days is that it is spreading the bubonic plague of the markets--wild instability--while refusing to take the cure. When Mr. Rubin went to the Oval Office Monday night to tell Mr. Clinton that the United States had to reverse policy, spending billions in the currency markets to prop up the yen, he described it as desperation effort to save Japan from itself. Inside the Treasury, his aides have a new title for the Japanese Finance Minister, Hikaru Matsunaga: MINISTER FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD ECONOMY. The New York Times.

CLINTON WARNS JAPAN

Remarks Made After Receiving Criticism He's Not Doing Enough To Curb Steel Imports

By Martin Crutsinger

(January, 1999). WASHINGTON__Accused of failing to do enough to help endangered American steelworkers, President Clinton pointedly warned Japan on Friday to curb its steel shipments or face stiff trade penalties.

In a speech to the Economic Club of Detroit, Clinton said he would not hesitate to bring "forceful action" unless Japan voluntarily curbs an import surge that has seen Japanese steel shipments rise by more than 400 percent in the last year.

"Bankrupting the American steel industry" is not the answer to Japan's own economic problems, Clinton said.

The president said he hoped his audience of business executives would not think he had gone "stark raving protectionist," but he pledged determination in enforcing American laws against unfair trade practices. The Associated Press.

ECONOMIC BATTLE IS THE DANGER TO LOOK OUT FOR NOW

(Several years back Jack Anderson wrote):

The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor half a century ago started a war that may not have ended with the Japanese military defeat. Some Central Intelligence Analysts believe the Japanese are continuing the struggle with economic weapons.

These back-room strategists think they have detected a pattern in Japanese history of 100-year wars. The Japanese approach to warfare, they contend, is to continue fighting with economic and diplomatic weapons when military force fails.

The analysts quote a Japanese general who surrendered to the British in Singapore at the end of WW II. He is alleged to have said, "We have merely lost the first battle, We still have 96 years to go."

The Japanese have done more damage to American industrial centers with their economic weapons than they ever achieved with bombs, the analysts say. They speak of an economic Pearl Harbor that (had, at that time, already devastated such targets as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Silicon Valley)...

We are only willing to regard America's economic struggle as an extension of WW II (Anderson said at the time), if it will help mobilize the nation. In a sense the United States is engaged in warfare. World War II was a hot war which America won. World War III turned out to be a Cold War. America won that too. If World War IV is an economic war, then the United States is losing it.

SAVING THE DOLLAR FROM DESTRUCTION

by Hans F. Sennholz

[Posted October 29, 2003]

Never before in recent history have monetary and fiscal policies been as "stimulative" as today, and yet, the American economy remains weak and vulnerable. The Federal budget deficit for the 2003 fiscal year was posted at $555 billion, some six percent of GNP; it may continue to rise in coming years when new tax reductions add their weight.

The Federal Reserve System has opened its flood gates and reduced all interest rates to their lowest levels since the 1950s. Its basic rate now stands at just one percent, permitting the stock of money in all its forms to soar at frightening rates. Government and Federal Reserve officials are convinced that this combination of stimuli is bound to facilitate an annual growth rate of 3.75 to 4.75 percent, just like that of the late 1990s. The fact that this opinion is widely held by many officials and economists is no evidence that it is accurate; indeed, in our age of inflation and economic manipulation, an official pronouncement is more likely to be political than sensible. With the gates wide open, the rush of liquidity is bound to inflict serious harm not only on the American economy but also on global conditions. The Federal Reserve's utter disregard of the market rate of interest, which guides the efficient employment of all factors of production according to consumer choices, is bound to do great harm to the economic structure. It causes severe maladjustments and imbalances which market forces sooner or later are bound to correct.

Record-low interest rates encourage present consumption and generate massive debt. In just five years, total financial as well as nonfinancial American debt has surged by 51 percent or $10.9 trillion to more than $32 trillion, three times the annual Gross National Product. The Federal government itself is chafing under a $6.8 trillion debt and adding $1.6 billion a day. At present interest rates, this debt alone commands charges of $300 billion a year, or more than $1,000 per man, woman, and child. It may be no concern for officials and politicians who, like Franklin D. Roosevelt, reassure us that internal debt merely is a debt by the nation to the nation and interest payments just are payments to ourselves. But it frightens this observer. It may soon distress millions of households which, tempted by low mortgage rates, converted their housing equities into consumer goods and new debt. During the last quarter alone American households added $397.6 billion in mortgage debt and another $40 billion in credit card debt. The annualized rate amounts to more than $1.5 trillion or approximately fifteen percent of GNP. If it is true that the living standard of Americans has been stagnant for years, we must draw the startling conclusion that this boost in debt was needed to maintain it. If the rate of new indebtedness should ever decline, or the people should choose to repay some debt, living standards would surely plummet.

Facing the mountain of debt, even President Roosevelt would be frightened today as nearly one-half of the U.S. Treasury debt is held by foreigners. The Bank of Japan alone owns $440 billion of Treasury securities, the Bank of China some $122 billion. Other Asian governments hold $166 billion. They have become major creditors because U.S. trade deficits, which are a direct consequence of the super stimulation, now exceed $500 billion a year. Yet, U.S. dollars do not readily plunge in foreign exchange markets, as other currencies would, because they are special, they are the primary reserve currency of the world. Central and commercial banks and millions of individuals all over the world hold and use them; some central banks eagerly purchase them in order to assist their own export industries. In Keynesian fashion, they promote employment by weakening their own currencies.

"A small debt makes a man your debtor, a large debt makes him your enemy." If this old saw holds true also for governments, the U.S. government must have countless enemies and be making more every day. Foreigners are financing the American purchase of goods and services, half a trillion dollars worth every year, which visibly sustain American standards of living. Foreigners are investing in U.S. Treasury obligations and dollar assets, trusting in the continuing integrity of the U.S. dollar. But with the stock of dollars rising incessantly and American debt soaring at disturbing rates, their trust is wearing thinner every day. By now, they may be considering the following scenarios.

No central bank on earth, not even the Federal Reserve System, can continually inflate its currency and defy market rates of interest without harming both its currency and the economy. Inflation tends to accelerate and ultimately destroy the currency and cripple the economy. And no government whatsoever can suffer budget deficits of half a trillion dollars annually without impairing its standing with its creditors. Piling debt on debt undermines their trust and raises the crucial question of debt resolution.

Important foreign creditors nevertheless may choose to stay the course in the hope that their debtor will bring his house into order. They may continue to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, as the government of China has been doing with persistence, and to enjoy the influx of dollars. It not only has given employment to millions of Chinese workers producing goods and services for the American market but also attracted much American capital and technology, enabling them to leap from 19th century economic conditions to contemporary high-tech capability and productivity. They obviously will not make haste to increase the value of their currencies, which would depress their sales and curb the flow of American capital. They may even be prepared to bear the costs of a sudden devaluation of their large dollar holdings, if the U.S. dollar should finally fall under the growing weight of foreign indebtedness.

Other foreign creditors who are dismayed by the soaring trade and budget deficits of their giant debtor may quietly reduce their holdings of U.S. Treasury obligations. The recent fall of the U.S. dollar from some 120 yen to just 108 may signal a change in Japanese attitude and policy. At the same time, the American dollar fell more than ten percent toward the euro. The European Central Bank may not have reduced its dollar holdings, but many European investors and traders undoubtedly did. They may be frightened by the soaring American deficits or merely seek higher interest returns in European capital markets. Growing foreign reluctance to continue to cover American trade deficits and help finance U.S. Treasury deficits is bound to affect American financial markets and economic activity. All interest rates must rise although the Federal Reserve may want to offset foreign reluctance with its own willingness to support Treasury obligations. But such Fed reaction may alarm many foreign creditors who may react by liquidating more U.S. Treasury obligations; it surely would trigger a financial crash and launch a worldwide recession. Fear is the driving force of all crashes.

Both U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials seem to underrate the growing international dangers to both the dollar and the economy. But even if they were cognizant of the true situation, their choices of action would be rather limited...

The pessimists in our midst envision a truly calamitous chain of events. They are convinced that present policies will continue year after year until inflation accelerates and finally destroys the dollar, as it has so many other currencies in the past. Federal spending is scheduled to head ever higher not only to meet existing military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan but also to expand Medicare, the Federal healthcare program for the elderly. Both political parties are eager to include prescription drugs, which are estimated to cost $400 billion over the next decade. The real bill, of course, would be much higher. Pessimists brace for ever greater instability and prepare for another Great Depression with declining world trade and commerce and falling standards of living around the globe. These augurs now portend political consequences that may follow the economic upheaval....

This economist cannot envision the total destruction of the American dollar, the primary world currency... Once again the Fed may succeed in stabilizing a smaller dollar....A more optimistic scenario would be a gradual abandonment of the monetary policies and an orderly readjustment to unhampered market conditions. The Federal government would balance its budget in the next few years by holding the line on both transfer spending and military outlays. The Federal Reserve System would allow the market rate of interest to resume its basic function, the efficient allocation of economic resources in the course of time. A painful readjustment process would commence immediately; interest rates would rise, calling a halt to misguided spending patterns and encouraging saving and capital formation. Boom industries soon would suffer withdrawal symptoms while others would revive from several years of stagnation. At the same time, China and other creditor countries hopefully would allow their currencies to rise and the U.S. dollar to decline gradually, which would trim America's trade deficits, raise goods prices, and depreciate all dollar debt at home and abroad. With the Federal budget in balance and interest rates at market levels, the dollar would continue to function smoothly as the primary world currency.

Many Asians are convinced that they experienced the currency crisis as a result of the international U.S. dollar policy. The dollar system exports massive inflation, instability, and unsustainable debt around the world, and the oil-producing countries of Asia exchange strategically important and diminishing assets for paper dollars. It is hardly surprising that the subject of their increasing concern is the role of gold in international trade and financial exchanges.

Hans F. Sennholz, emeritus professor of economics at Grove City College, is an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute. Send him MAIL. See his interview in the Austrian Economics Newsletter, his Mises.org Articles Archive and his Personal Website.

JAPAN WEIGHS FORMAL STATUS FOR ITS FLAG AND ANTHEM

by Nicholas D. Kristof

TOKYO, March 27...The Japanese Government is trying to rehabilitate the flag of The Rising Sun and the national song of praise for the Emperor, giving them legal status despite criticism that in World War II they were emblematic of Japanese militarism. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is preparing legislation to make them the national flag and the national anthem...

The flag, or Hinomaru, and the song, called Kimigayo, have been widely used in the postwar period. The Hinomaru flies above Government offices and is used at state banquets, and Kimigayo is played at Sumo Matches (where one contestant spends years training to push the other out of the Circle) and at Olympic medal ceremonies when Japanese athletes win...

The dimensions of the flag's design--A Red Sun in the Center of a White Rectangle--varies, and there are several versions of the song. But formalizing them has been controversial because of the association with the war, and until now Japanese Governments have shied away from giving them legal status...

"I want to follow the trend of public opinion, and the opinion of the mass media," Mr. Obuchi told Japanese television last week.

The willingness to raise the issue attests to Japan's growing self-confidence, its discontent with the ambiguities left by the war, its frustration with the criticism that erupts whenever it tries to assert pride in its past, and its diminishing concern with taboos connected to history. The New York Times, Mar.28, 1999.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the Four horns of the Golden (Solar) altar which is before God.

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, LOOSE THE FOUR ANGELS WHICH ARE BOUND IN THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES (the Great River Ocean).

And the Four angels were loosed (Japan first, then the Korean war, then Vietnam, and lastly...) WHICH WERE PREPARED FOR AN HOUR (Sunday morning), AND A DAY (the 7th), AND A MONTH (December), AND A YEAR (1941), to slay a Third part of men...(Revelation 9:12-16).

 

The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble; He sitteth between the Cherubim, let the earth be moved...(Psalm 99; Hebrews 9:5).

TO CYRUS MY ANOINTED

Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to CYRUS, whose right hand (of Power) I have holden, to subdue nations before him; I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the Two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.

I WILL GO BEFORE THEE, AND MAKE THE CROOKED PLACES STRAIGHT: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron (which hold my children captive in the West).

And I will give thee the treasures of Darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places, THAT THOU MAYEST KNOW THAT I, THE LORD, WHICH CALL THEE BY THY NAME, AM THE GOD OF ISRAEL.

For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I HAVE EVEN CALLED THEE BY THY NAME: I HAVE SURNAMED THEE, THOUGH THOU HAST NOT KNOWN ME.

I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

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...

Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my children, and concerning the work of mine hands command ye me.

I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even myHands, have stretched out the heavens, AND ALL THEIR HOSTS HAVE I COMMANDED.

I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: HE SHALL BUILD MY CITY, AND HE SHALL LET GO MY CAPTIVES, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts...(Isaiah, chapter 45).

These are Two of the several figures one may find guarding the many temple gates of Japan. There is a more famous pair, of which one article said: "In the Buddhism of the Far-East the typical temple guardians are the paired warrior sentries known in Japan as Kongo-rikishi, Thunderbolt Carriers, of whom the most famous examples are undoubtedly the two prodigious fellows at the Great South Gate of the Todaiji Temple at Nara. They are counterparts of the Cherubim and Flaming Sword that Yahweh placed at the East of the Garden of Eden...to guard the way to the Tree of Life. In Buddhist thought, however, we are not to be intimidated, but to pass between."

The mysteries of these Island-Cherubim and the Monarch of the East were carried to Japan--to the place named Kether, the Supreme Crown of the World Tree--at least during, if not long before the time of Isaiah, long before they found their way back (through the Zoroastrian branch of the Hebrew religion) to the land we now associate with Persia in the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. (Please consider the treatise on Zoroastrianism at the end of this chapter). The meaning, or the prophetic import of the name Cyrus, was transmitted out of the traditions of the prophets to Mandane, the mother of our more familiar Cyrus at the time of his birth. The oracles, as did the Hebrew scriptures, connected the events of those times with the great events that were prophesied to come to pass at the end of this age--when the Lord of Light would rise up everywhere in the world to overthrow the reign of Darkness and deliver the elect. The prophets, or magi, said that these mysteries were embodied in the name of the great deliverer, Cyrus (a name somewhat as noted then, as Moses, David and Jesus are now), and thus the child-king was so named:

"Astyages had a daughter, whom he named Mandane: concerning whom he had a dream that ENOUGH WATER FLOWED FROM HER TO FILL HIS CITY AND OVERFLOW ALL ASIA.

He imparted his vision to those of the Magi who interpreted dreams, and when he heard what they told him he was horrified; and presently, Mandane now of marriageable age, he feared the vision too much to give her to any Median...but wedded her to a Persian called Cambyses, a man whom he knew to be well-born and of a quiet temper: for Astyages held Cambyses to be much lower than a Mede of middle estate.

But in the first year of Mandane's marriage to Cambyses, Astyages saw a second vision. He dreamed that there grew from his daughter A VINE WHICH COVERED THE WHOLE OF ASIA.

Having seen this vision, and imparted it to the interpreters of dreams...(they) told him that the child would rule in his place." Herodotus, Book I.107-08.

___________

In the Third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Bel-te-shaz-zar; and the thing was true, BUT THE TIME APPOINTED WAS LONG: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision...(Daniel, chapter 10):

AT THE SUWA SHRINE IN NAGASAKI

Shinto is a sacred rope wrapped around a huge Tree or mossy Stone, little shrines scattered seemingly at random throughout both city and country landscapes, festivals that can be solemn and raucous simultaneously--yet these are only the more readily accessible characteristics of a tradition considered to be "ethereal" and "inscrutable" because it does not act in the way religions usually do. What we today call Shinto has been at the heart of Japanese culture for almost as long as there has been a political entity distinguishing itself as Japan, or Nihon, "Land of the Sun Source." Through fourteen centuries of recorded history this mixture of rituals, institutions, magical practices, charms, and so forth continues to participate in the framing of Japan both to the outside world and to the Japanese themselves. From "structural impediments" affecting the ongoing trade imbalance with the United States, to Japanese sensitivity about international criticism of its economic policies, to the outlay of public funds at the death of one emperor and the enthronement of his son--Shinto-based orientations and values, like some great aquifer, lie at the core of Japanese culture, society, and character, nourishing and furthering the lives of both individuals and institutions in subtle, yet often quite tangible, ways.

As the twentieth century comes to a close, it is increasingly difficult to find societies like Japan where cosmologies from the past are still thought immediately relevant to present-day activities of modern men and women. Where but in Japan will a corporation begin construction of a state-of-the-art laser refraction laboratory with an ancient ritual to calm the spirit of the earth? Where else can we find so many individuals who feel a need to take their brand new Honda or Toyota to a shrine to have it blessed before subjecting it to the vicissitudes of highway driving? From the new emperor in his Tokyo palace down to the poorest farmer...Shinto cosmologies have been like the glass of a window through which the phenomenal world and human existence have been viewed for over two thousand years. Yet, due to a lack of charismatic teachers and intellectually stimulating theological texts, of which Shinto has very few, those in the West who have made an effort to understand Japan and its people have never really grasped Shinto's influence upon social, cultural, and especially, political norms. A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine, by John K. Nelson, pp.3,4...

The (high priest) is absent today, summoned by the Central Association of Shinto Shrines to lead a tour group to China, and so, in his stead, Senior Priest Oka will read the (Invocational prayer) and Takeshita-san will plunge his hand into the cauldron. Most rituals follow the same basic steps: the Kami (the spirit being invoked) must be summoned, the food offerings must be placed on the altar, and the sacred words must be intoned in the right mind and spirit...As the music begins from within the shrine, one of the two (young female dancers) faces east, the other west, with the mighty boiling cauldron set between them. (Please understand the imagery at Ezekiel 11:4-11; Ezek.24:1-14).

Their dance this time is not composed of the slow dreamy circles they weave before the altar in most rituals; the music dictates a faster pace requiring more powerful movement. They bow and spin, rotating around the cauldron, then proceed to each of the Four Corners of the enclosure, their arms always straight in front, the wands they hold serving as powerful charms against the multitude of evils and impurities thought to be lurking in the Four Corners of the world.

Though the dancers are favorites of the Kami for their grace and beauty, they can only begin the war this festival wages against evil. Like their Shugendo predecessors during the Tokugawa period, they must join forces with a priest before the Cauldron ritual achieves its full expression...With a Sword in his outstretched hands, he follows the route around the Fire that the dancers established. The Sword is up, ready for use. His first circle completed, he bows with the Sword held in both hands, head lower than the blade (which faces the cauldron), then positions the weapon and slashes twice into the steam. After bowing again, he moves to the next position on the route, until, after Four bows and Eight forays into the steam and Four bows and Eight cuts in the Four directions (north, south, east, west), he returns to the starting position and briefly drops to one knee as a gesture of humility and closure before going back to the shrine.

The interpretation of what is happening here depends on the informant: each slash of the Sword is a partial severing of the hold evil can have on people and places; it is also a penetration into the fabric of impurity which hangs like a curtain between ourselves and our "divine" possibilities, obscuring a life closer to the way of the Kami. We encountered earlier the power of water as a cleansing agent in Shinto practice and it is to this climax the ritual has been advancing. Takeshita-san, who tells me later it had been two years since he last performed this role, uneasily takes his place facing the Cauldron and the West. Behind him stands one of the dancers with a six-foot-long bamboo pole adorned with paper streamers. The raucous drum and cymbals that accompanied the Sword flashing are silent now, poised for the moment the priest proves that he is sufficiently pure to scatter the sacred water, boiling hot, into the atmosphere (with his bare hand), where it will magically disperse and further purify the world...

It all comes to a close with the final, solo bow of the acting high priest before the Central altar. Everyone joins in, renewed and reassured that, not only has the world been transformed from a profane into a sacred and purified sphere, but they themselves, due to the efforts of the priests and dancers on their behalf, have been cleansed and, in a sense, reborn. With their bamboo sprigs proudly in hand and the ceremonial sip of sake still sweet on their lips, a trusting, almost childlike innocence can be perceived on the people's faces as they descend the shrine steps and are absorbed by the city below. A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine, pp.85-90.

SHINTO

The Cauldron of the West (Ezekiel 11:4-11; 24:1-14)

and

THE MONARCH OF JAPAN

"This state of affairs finds its unequivocal expression in the interesting Shintoist concept of 'Kokutai' or 'Kuni Gara:' The Nation (State)-Body. The term 'Gara' or 'Kara' has the existential connotation of ex or 'out of,' as it presupposes something hidden and invisible appearing in the phenomenal world with no clear-cut distinction between transcendental unity and immanent diversity. In a word 'Kokutai' proves the magnifying in conception of the Human Body; and a fresh approach to the study of Japanese culture from this psychosomatic point of view scarcely fails to yield a plentiful harvest which has never been thought of by the forerunners of Japanology who subscribe to the Western positivistic method, and who set aside any subjective factors as scientifically irrelevant...But we shall not understand what is meant by the inarticulate word 'Kokutai' (the Body of State), unless we grow well conversant with the purport of cosmic dialectics animating Japanese mythology, which narrates how Japan was brought into being.

'Kojiki' or the Records of Ancient Matters, and 'Nihon Shoki' or the Chronicles of Japan...are held to be authenticated works of a most reliable source for the study of Shintology. They furnish description of myths, legends, folklore, and historical accounts which throw much light on the relationships between the Imperial Family, the Japanese people, and the land of Japan.Both open with a mythical story bearing the essential aspects of Shinto cosmology. In particular, 'Kojiki' relates how the THREE GREAT SPIRITS (Kami) came into being on the High Plain of Heaven, when Heaven and Earth parted...

They were named the EXALTED HEAVEN-CENTER-LORD-DEITY, the Exalted-High-Production-Deity and the Divine-Production-Deity. They arose singularly and then concealed themselves. The next spirit which sprouted like a reed floating above the oily slime, was similar to a jelly fish (floating upon the Great Sea). This deity was named Princely-Spirit-of-the-Handsome-Reed...

All Seven generations of Heavenly Deities succeeded each other in single splendour and at last a MALE-Inviting-Deity (Izangi no Mikoto) and the FEMALE-Inviting-Deity (Izanami no Mikoto) appeared corporeally as the ancestors of all things. Thereupon the Heavenly Deities commanded Izangi and Izanami to procreate and consolidate the earth and gave them a celestial jeweled Spear. So the Divine Pair standing on the floating bridge of Heaven thrust down the Spear into the brine and stirred with it until the brine began to curdle. When the Spear was pulled up the curdle dripped off and became the island of Onokoro.

The Divine Couple descended onto this island, where they built a Sacred Bower with a HIGH THICK PILLAR AT THE CENTER. Around this Pillar the Two Deities turned, from right to left, and from left to right, until they gave birth to the eight main islands of Japan proper, together with a host of smaller islands, the mountains, the valleys, rivers, trees, grass, the mists, and the winds. But, all these things procreated by the Divine Pair were overshadowed by the appearance of THE HEAVENLY-SHINING-GREAT-DEITY or THE SUN-GODDESS, whose descendants became the successive Emperors of Japan...

'Kojiki,' considered the Bible of Shinto, relates...that when the Female Deity begat the Spirit of Fire she was burned to death and this sad event plunged the Male Deity into the vortex of sorrow and agony. He decided to go down into the Netherworld to solicit his wife to return to the Sunny Land...

The world was plunged in utter Darkness. The Eight Hundred Myriad Deities all in consternation held a divine conference at the Dry bed of the Heavenly River...Next A HUGE SACRED TREE called 'Sakaki' was uprooted from the Heaveny Mountain. At this juncture all the Deities recited a divine liturgy in chorus, AT THE JUNCTURE OF THE UPPER, MIDDLE, AND LOWER BRANCHES. (And at last she was delivered from the Darkness).

The Third Divine Rescript demonstrative of the essential nature of Shinto of The Way of Kami was given by the High-Production-Deity appearing together with the Sun Goddess. This Deity is also called THE HIGH-TREE-DEITY, inasmuch as he is evidently the sanctification of cosmic vital energy enshrined in the Tree of Life. In this connection it must be recollected that upon his descent from Heaven, the grandchild of the Sun Goddess was accompanied by the FIVE Attendant Deities. (yHvH)...It must be noted that the High-Tree-Deity issued the Third Divine Rescript specifically for the Two Divine Princes preoccupied with the observance of Shinto rituals...It reads:

'I will set up the Sacred Tree of Life imbued with the Solar Energy and a Sacred Enclosure to perform ritualistic ceremonies for the sake of my descendants...and go down the the Central Land of Reed Plains. Moreover, ye will there perform ritualistic ceremonies in favor of my Imperial descendants...'" Zen and Shinto, A History of Japanese Philosophy, by Chikao Fujisawa.

__________

Use anger to throw them into disarray, use humility to make them haughty

Tire them by flight, cause division among them.

Attack when they are unprepared, make your move when they do not expect it

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness;

Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness;

Thereby you can be the director of the opponents fate.

SUN TZU, THE ART OF WAR.

The foregoing lines as well as the following were taken from The Japanese Art of War, Understanding the Culture of Strategy by Thomas Cleary:

"During one of the recent flareups of trade friction between the United States and Japan, a prominent critic was complaining to a member of the Diet about the Japanese attitude toward international relations. The critic contended that even as Japan claims it is misunderstood, it does not try to make itself understood. The dietman smiled ironically, 'That,' he said, 'is Japanese.'

Perhaps everyone has heard of the mysterious East or the inscrutable Orient. It may be assumed that the Japanese are inscrutable, for example, because Oriental cultures are inherently difficult for outsiders to understand. Less frequently suspected (however), is the deliberate and later subconscious use of bafflement and mystification, as a part of the ancient art of war.

All sorts of Western attempts to take advantage of Japanese resources, from their economic power to their Zen Buddhism, have been thwarted or distorted by bafflement and mystification...The impression of mystery may appear to veil a secret, but the main secret may turn out to be that mystery itself is a weapon, an art of war.

The veil of mystery is just one of the arts of war that permeate Japanese political, cultural, and social life. For those trying to understand the Japanese mind and civilization--and that may include anyone involved in the modern world--there is no practical way to overlook the military rule and martial culture that have dominated Japan for so many centuries, virtually up to the present day. So steeped in the way of the warrior has Japanese civilization been that some of the manners and mentality of this outlook remain embedded in the deepest strata of the individual and collective unconscious of that nation.

The Sword is one of the three basic symbols of Shinto, the ancient Japanese religion, AND SO OF THE IMPERIAL HERITAGE, which emerged after centuries of racial and tribal wars in ancient Japan. The Sword became the soul of the Samurai, who gradually extended their control from the frontiers and provinces to become the dominant power in Japan for nearly eight hundred years.

Even in the social and cultural spheres, Japan today still retains indelible impressions of the samurai Bushido, the Way of the Warrior. This is true not only in education and the fine arts, but also in...attitudes and conduct marking the course of political, professional, and personal relations. Well-known attributes such as the reserve and the mystery of formal Japanese behavior, as well as the humility and hauteur, are deeply rooted in the ancient strategies of the traditional art of war. To understand Japan and the Japanese in depth, therefore, it is essential to understand the culture of strategy crafted by the Japanese art of war. The Japanese Art of War, pp.1,2....

The Lord is a Man of War: the Lord is His Name...(Exodus 15:3).

__________

Zoroastrianism is the vehicle by which the mystery of the Great Emperor of the East, and the name Cyrus, came to Medea-Persia (the regions north and east of the Tigris-Euphrates rivers) in the years prior to the birth of the Persian Cyrus, and this lesser-king's conquest of Babylon in the 6th century B.C. Those events were a foreshadow and a preenactment of the greater events that shall unfold in our time, as the Greater Cyrus (Japan) strikes a death-blow to the economy of the Western world. (2 Chronicles 36:20-23).

ZOROASTRIANISM

HISTORY, BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

By Dinshaw and Hutoxy Contractor

Zoroastrianism, although the smallest of the major religions of the world in the number of its adherents, is historically one of the most important. Its roots are in the proto-Indo-European spirituality that also produced the religions of India. It was the first of the world's religions to be founded by an inspired prophetic teacher. It was influential on Mahayana Buddhism and especially on the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. To the latter three, Zoroastrianism bequeathed such concepts as a cosmic struggle between right and wrong, the primacy of ethical choice in human life, monotheism, A CELESTIAL HIERARCHY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS--ANGELS AND ARCHANGELS THAT MEDIATE BETWEEN GOD AND HUMANITY (see 1 Corinthians 15:40,41), a judgment for each individual after death, the coming of a Messiah at the end of this creation, and an apocalypse culminating in the final triumph of God at the end of the historical cycle.

Zoroaster was a Persian prophet on whose teachings the ancient religion of Zorastrianism is based. The name by which he is commonly known in the West is from the Greek form of his original name, Zarathustra, which means "Shining Light." (A Star).

Scholars differ considerably about the date of Zoroaster's birth. Greek sources place Zoroaster at 6000 years before the death of Plato, about 6350 B.C. Archaeological remains in Turfan, China, state that Zoraster was born "2715 years after the Great Storm," placing his birth at 1767 B.C. The latest dates for his life come from Persian writings that place him 258 years before Alexander, that is, about 600 years B.C. Many other scholars place Zoroaster's birth between 1500 and 1200 B.C....

According to records, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism are the two oldest religions of our modern humanity. THE IRANIANS, IN THEIR FIRST MIGRATION INTO IRAN were led by the great teacher Zoroaster. (Which implies that the teachings of Zoroaster came from another place), who blonged to the same mighty Brotherhood as Manu of the Indic tradition and was a high initiate in the same Great Lodge, taught by the same primordial teachers, called the Sons of the Fire. From this great teacher came down a line of prophets, who superintended the early development of the Iranian peoples and all of whom bore the name of Zoroaster. The Zoroaster the Greeks refer to may have been the Seventh Zoroaster in this line of prophets...

ACHAEMENIAN EMPIRE

Zoroastrianism flourished during three great Persian Empires. The first was the Achaemenian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great (ca. 585-529 B.C.). He established an empire that extended from Asia MInor in the west to India in the east and from Armenia in the north to Egypt in the south. Cyrus showed great respect for the nations he had conquered. He allowed them to govern themselves and to follow their own religious beliefs. When he invaded Babylon, he set the Jewish captives free to return to their country, Judea...

...and even provided them with the resources to rebuild the Temple of Solomon, which had been razed by the Babylonians (the Scythians who had led these Jews captive out of Central and Eastern Europe into their newly-conquered regions in the Fertile Crescent). For these deeds Cyrus is mentioned in the Old Testament (Isaiah 45:1-3) as a savior and as "the Anointed One." ...

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying.

Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Who is there among you of all His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is the God) which is in Jerusalem...(Ezra 1:1-3).

__________

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

To whom coming, as unto a Living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.

YE ALSO, AS LIVING STONES, ARE BUILT UP A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, an holy priesthood, to offer up SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES, acceptable to God by Hesus-Crishna.

Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a Chief Corner Stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded...

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the Stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the Head of the corner,

And a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto they were also appointed...(1 Peter 2:1-8).

COSMOLOGY

In Zoroastrian cosmology, the Head of the manifested universe is Ahura Mazda, the "Wise Lord." He is the universal and pervasive source and fountain of all life. But behind or beyond Ahura Mazda is Zarvan Akarana, Boundless Time and Boundless Space, the unmanifested absolute from which the manifested Logos, Ahura Mazda, came forth. (This would be Ein Sof, the unfathomable and boundless One of kabbalistic studies).

Ahura Mazda is depicted in the Zoroastrian scriptures as a kind of Trinity: "Praise be to thee, Ahura Mazda, threefold before other creations." From Ahura Mazda came a duality: the twin spirits of Spenta Mainyu ((the Holy or Bountiful Spirit) and Angra Mainyu (the Destructive or Opposing Spirit). The twin spirits are popularly though of as good and evil, but rather they are two principles that represent all the opposites of life. In her lecture on "Zoroastrianism," Annie Besant has this to say of them: Good and evil may be said to only come into existence when man in his evolution develops the power of knowledge and of choice; the original duality is not good and evil, but is of spirit and matter, of reality and non-reality, OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, of construction and destruction, the two poles between which the universe is woven and without which no universe can be...There are two names again that give us a clue to the secret, the "increaser" and the "destroyer," the one from whom the life is ever pouring forth, and the other the material side which belongs to form, and which is ever breaking up in order that life may go on into higher expression.

After the trinity of Ahura Mazda and the twin-spirits that emanated from him is a Sevenfold expression of the divine reality. These Seven are called the Amesha Spentas or Holy or Bountiful Immortals, the Highest Intelligences. They are sometimes thought of as archangels and sometimes as aspects of Ahura Mazda himself...

1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Hebrews, chapter 12.

...Personal salvation is attained through making the right choice. (Compare Joel 3:14). And the salvation of the world, called "Frashokereti," is the restoration of the world to its perfect state, one that is in complete accord with Asha (the Divine Order of things). As human beings make the right choices in their lives, they are furthering the realization of Salvation.

Ahura Mazda is described as "full of luster, full of glory," (Isaiah 6:1-3), and hence his luminous creations--fire, sun, stars, and light--are regarded as visible tokens of the divine and inner light. That inner light is the divine spark that burns within each of us. Fir is also a physical representation of the illumined mind...Zorastrian places of worship are called Fire Temples. In them an eternal flame is kept burning with sandalwood and frankincense. The first fire to be lit upon an altar is said to have been brought down from heaven (out of the East) by Zoroaster with a rod." The Quest, January-February 2003, The Theosophical Society in America.

CHINA

We must also be aware that China looms large on the ancient Persian landscape, and has a significant --no an immense--part to play in the prophetic drama that is unfolding among the nations of the world in our time:

Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the Fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia (the West)...(Daniel 11:2).

Pray that China's bubble won't burst
Thomas L. Friedman NYT
Monday, May 03, 2004

TOKYO Here's what I learned in Tokyo: If you're the leader of Japan, America, Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines or the European Union and you're not going to bed each night saying the following prayer for China, then you're not paying attention:

"Dear Heavenly Father, please keep the leader of China, President Hu Jintao, healthy and on an even keel. Please see to it that he moves steadily and carefully toward restructuring the Chinese banking system and ridding it of its huge overhang of bad loans and corruption, before there is a real meltdown that would be felt around the world.

Give him the wisdom to cool the overheated Chinese economy without creating a recession that would prompt China to stop importing like crazy and start just exporting like crazy. And Father, forgive us for all the bad words we used in recent years to describe China's leaders - terms like 'Butchers of Beijing.' We did not mean it. We meant to say 'Bankers of Beijing,' because their economy is now fueling growth all over Asia, bolstering Japan and sucking up imports from everywhere. May China's leaders live to 120, and may they enjoy 9 percent GDP growth every year of their lives. Thank you, Father.

Amen."

The most striking thing about being in Asia today is hearing how much more important China's growth engine has become for companies all across the region - and well beyond it. When Chinese authorities told banks last week to cut back their wild lending, commodity prices and stock markets tumbled all over the world. News that China is having regular blackouts because it can't buy enough crude oil is helping push up gasoline prices the world over.

While three years ago the Bush team came to office growling about no longer coddling China - the way those "wimpy" Clintonites did - that talk has disappeared from the Bush vocabulary. It's not just business as usual now. It's business only.

To some degree the world is getting hooked on China - its cheap labor, its voracious appetite for commodities and capital (over $50 billion in foreign direct investment last year) and its emerging middle class. The more hooked we become, the less the world can tolerate any sort of prolonged instability there. If the China bubble bursts, it will be the mother of all burst bubbles. Which is why we need to pray that China's leaders will have the skill to cool things down, just enough but not too much, without some wheels falling off.

"A lot of the world's stability or instability is resting on the leadership in Beijing - there is no question about that," argues Richard Koo, chief economist for Nomura Research Institute. But, he insists, "Chinese leaders understand what world they are living in. They have a general equilibrium view of the world - that what they do affects us all and then comes back to affect them."

That seems true. But one of the ways that China has grown so rapidly in the last decade has been by decentralizing authority to regions and letting governors or mayors attract whatever investment they can. It is not clear anymore how much the center can slow things down.

And considering the huge amounts of foreign investment that have flowed into China in such a short time, "it's very hard to think that they could have invested that much money efficiently," remarked Robert Feldman, managing director in Tokyo for Morgan Stanley. "So the senior leadership is scared, because if they have a hard landing from bad loans you have a regime problem. (But) when they tried to slow the economy, they got real push back from the regions, who said, 'You in Beijing have all that infrastructure. Why shouldn't we have a new bridge or road?'"

Given how opaque China's decision-making is, it's hard to predict how Chinese leaders will balance their obligation to behave in a way that promotes global equilibrium with their need to create millions of jobs each year in order to stay in power.

One can only say three things: 1. They've done a pretty good job so far. 2. The job gets harder every day. 3. No one will be immune to the fallout. The relationship of the world to China right now reminds me of that old banker's rule: If a client owes you $1,000, that's his problem. If a client owes you $1 million, that's your problem. China's stability is our problem.

Heavenly Father ...

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