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Prophecy 'Blog' : Sunday, January 30th, 2005
I received an email from someone asking me what I believe to be the 'gospel message', and I sent the following reply...
In answer to your question 'what exactly is it that I believe'...
First of all, I agree with what you find written in jeremiah, that such
things as the animal sacrifice rituals found in documents such as
Leviticus are fraudulent (human customs, not something that came down
from some mountain with Moses).
"Thus says YAHWEH of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh yourselves. For in the
day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to
your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and
sacrifices." (Jeremiah 7:21) "How can you say, 'We are wise, for we
have the Torah, when, actually, the lying pen of the scribes has made it
into a lie." (jeremiah 8:8)
The same theme is picked up by one of the psalmists, critical of the
doctrine of 'feeding roasted animals to God', found in Leviticus for
example, and in this psalm the writer sensibly states (speaking using
the voice of God, as was the custom at the time), "I will take no animal
from your farms, no cattle from your stalls. If I were hungry I would
not tell you, for all the animals of the forest of mine. Do I eat the
flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?" Psalm 50
Now this is important to start out with, because I do not preach that
'Jesus came and died to pay for our sins, so we could be saved from the
damnation caused by Adam.' That is Paul's doctrine, but not mine,
because it just does not make sense. It is unjust to damn people for
the so called crime of being born human, and trying to justify this
damnation by blaming some guy named Adam is equally unjust, since
everyone should take responsibility for their own actions and collective
punishment is wrong. Furthermore, the doctrine is based on the fiction
that Christ died to 'fulfill the animal sacrifice doctrine of Leviticus
and such books', a doctrine spelled out in the Letter to the Hebrews in
the New Testament, and if these animal sacrifices were forgeries, as
Jeremiah suggests, not to mention foolish, as the psalmist suggests they
were, then this means that this foundational doctrine of Christian
theology is based upon a fraudulent mythological forgery, and thus
Christian religion as it is customarily understood is a fraudulent,
mythological forgery. the fact that a select group of very ultra
conservative and socially hawkish priests had control of the book voting
process in the 4th century and voted in books that might suggest
otherwise does not affect my decision whatsoever, nor should that
fiction that once voted on a book must become sacred affect the decision
or the thinking of anyone, but rather common sense and justice should be
the guiding principles when it comes to judging any book or any
collection of books. I mention this because the fact that someone might
be able to counter what I say by making quotations from a document like
Hebrews makes no difference, proves nothing, and besides I can always
counter with a quote from a psalm or for jeremiah, and then where does
that get us at the end of it all (all this proof texting by book quoting
- this is an obviously false and untrustworthy way to build a spiritual
practice, it cannot work, and so why bother pretending that it does
work, I say...
So then I would suggest that truth is something to be found within a
person and quoting one of the lines from one of the parables in those
gospels I would say that if your eye is good, then you will be full of
light, but if your eye is bad, you will be full of darkness, and if the
light within you is turned to darkness how terrible that darkness will
be. People can do just fine if they follow the light, which depends on
keeping that eye healthy and good, and I will just let you ponder that
concept, and consider what it means for yourself (while at the same time
dropping the hint that religion is all to often a way to get a really
bad eye, and then nothing but trouble follows).
I also believe in the principle of the law of God - Do to others what
you would want others to do to you , and then once again quoting one of
those collected parables in a gospel, it states 'this summarizes the
spirit of prophecy and every law that could truly be called a law of
God.' This is one way of testing something and deciding whether or not
to throw it out or keep it (while all to often the task of religion is
to find some way to make something bad seem good, while making something
good seem bad, in order to protect the bible, which is full of bad
things, and this law breaking is another way to get a really bad eye,
and given how bad some of those things in the bible really are, how
terrible that darkness inside can be).
Now that having been said, if Jesus was not an 'animal sacrifice for
sin' as classic dogma would insist, then what meaning is left in the
crucifixion?
I have been attempting over the years to get this down on paper and have
some pages on the subject.
_____________________________________________________________
The lost political message of the Easter Gospel story
Before the Christian age, crucifixion was a political statement being
made by Caesar. The meaning of the message was 'I am Caesar. Screw with
me and this is how you will be tortured to death.' The entire Roman
economy was dependant on the wealth generated by slaves, who were kept
in line using the threat of crucifixion (torture). The post Easter
meaning of the crucifixion became an insult to Caesar, and the political
content of this new subversive message could be described using the
phrase, 'Caesar crucifies slaves, but God raises his victims from the
dead.'
A criticism of Paul (in particular the book of Romans) and the Doctrine
of Sin and Blood Sacrifice
The doctrine of sin is so irrational when considered as a philosophy,
riven with internal contradictions, that it must have been that case
that such an unworthy doctrine was ever accepted in the first place is a
testament to just how difficult it was to obscure the political meaning
of the cross symbol, and just how desperate was the attempt to obscure
this meaning, in that a philosophy so irrational and inconsistent was
the final resort, apparently nothing better ever having come along that
would do the job.
Searching for the true meaning of Christmas
The political significance of the crucifixion symbol
Toss out theology and a symbol, the Christmas symbol, and the Easter
symbol emerges full of political significance. It is not required that
one discuss ‘faith' or ‘make a decision to believe' in order to
appreciate the profound political significance of the symbol of the
cross, since it becomes visible when theology becomes invisible. While
the political significance of the Christmas and Easter symbol is easy to
describe and just as simple to appreciate, it is noteworthy that
theology has been so successful at obscuring this symbol that for many
people bringing it to their attention for the first time would probably
come as a revelation. We just don't see it, because theology does not
allow it to be seen and this is a damning commentary on the true nature
and intention of Christian theology throughout the ages.
______________________________________________________________
Now I am not through articulating this idea, but roughly what you could
say is that people do need 'salvation' but not from their own DNA code
which Adam corrupted with 'inherited sin' which now 'dwells in my sinful
flesh' but rather it becomes obvious that people need salvation in the
social or political sense. But for some reason that is really hard to
accomplish, and unhappily you cannot force people to do anything, you
cannot use threats or manipulation or force, or you become just like
those you are standing against...People are free, and if people are to
have all the dignity of a small baby, and if people are to be free,
which is essential if they are to be shown respect and accorded dignity,
that means that you have to let them do things that are terrible and
even idiotically stupid, because they insist upon it, and it is their
life. So for example they will periodically follow Caesar while Caesar
feuds with the Caesar next door and together with the neighboring
lemmings, they will periodically be sent plunging over some cliff in
bloody wars and massacres. One of those Caesars will win that feud over
land and riches and thus take over, and as for those foolish lemmings,
well strangely enough they will follow orders, thus making all that
feuding possible between the rich and the powerful who control them and
who they follow. As for following God, well for some reason they will
not, or so it would seem.
Take a practical example. Let me think of one. You have a permanent
unemployment rate of around 6 per cent (officially) although the true
rate (unofficially) is probably at least double. Then the country's
Caesars decide to 'end welfare as we know it.' Slash food stamps. Then
put one hundred thousand more cops on the streets, you know, to deal
with the crime, as well as building more prisons (the United States as
an example has more people in prison at any given time than any other
nation on earth, and those prisons are nasty places).
Now you will hear people talking about God, playing lip service to God,
but they break the law of God by doing things like that, or by voting
for people who do things like that, and so we can see that religion is a
useless thing, quite phony really, and lip service aside you find that
it is really extra hard to find anyone at all who follows God. there
are many examples of the same sort of thing and to follow God is to
follow the law of God, whereas to not follow the law is to not be
following God. Religion is meaningless.
So then the cross is intended to be a liberation symbol. First people
need to be inspired to follow the law of God, and they also need to be
empowered to follow it, for the best way to empower people is to
disempower others like Caesar, who breaks the law, and then gets
everyone else on the planet condemned for it, since they follow Caesar
instead of God. The abused then themselves become abusers. As well all
the evil that results is used as an argument that there is no God, so
why bother with the law, and all the evil is used an excuse for more
evil since everyone is evil so why fight it, and on and on and on it
goes.
Now as for 'condemned' I would say that if people want Caesar, and law
breaking, which is what Caesar always does, since no murderer has
eternal life in them, for life comes from light and light from the Law
of God, well then it follows that God should leave them alone. Look,
when you are wanted by someone, you should not call them, or stalk them,
or come to their house all the time, right. Nevertheless people break
the law of God, thus showing how they reject God, for to do away with
the law is to do away with the law giver. After this people then
complain that God never takes their calls and doesn't come to the door.
Well what a tangled web we weave, and to sum up, let's just say that I
am constantly work at trying to figure out a way to crack that
particularly tough skinned walnut, and hopefully, as time goes by, I
will get wiser and wiser and more experienced at cracking really hard
nuts, and will understand even more than I can write down today, so I
will just leave it at this...
I have a zipped Bible commentary on line which might have some pages
that are relevant to your question
http://www.awitness.org/bibcom.zip
I received an email asking me if I believed that "Israel was the chosen nation of God' and sent the following reply...
The Bible is composed of source materials that orginated with different religious communities. For example today you have Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, etc. And you have Pentecostal Christians, Charasmatics, varieties of Protestants and even varieties of Catholics (the Catholic church not really being 'Catholic' but more like a big tent when you look at the actual church itself, and just ignore the propaganda of the staunch traditionalists who control the Vatican at the present time, and who tend to emphasize the 'Catholic' nature of that church, with 'Catholic' being defined of course as being like them). So given how many different types of churches and synagogues there are, and have always been, it should be no big surprise that the Bible is also composed of sources, with the orginators of those sources being this group and that group and some other group. These sources were then edited together in some sort of attempt at fostering a kind of 'national identity' as a response to the collapse of both Israel and Judah (the former ruined by the Assyrians and the latter by the Babylonians).
A couple of my favorite examples of this sort of thing is Jeremiah's condemnation of the Leviticus animal sacrifice cult
http://www.awitness.org/essays/levjer.html
and Hosea's condemnation of the Holy War doctrine (which thus condemned both the book of Kings and the book of Judges)
http://www.awitness.org/lostmess/dueling.html
http://www.awitness.org/lostmess/ramah.html
These links are probably repetitive, but they do show the divisions in doctrine that separated these religious communities and which due to the editing job which produced the Bible, are now divisions found to exist in the Bible as well. These obvious examples demonstrate that all these claims often made that there is this 'harmony of the Bible' are false doctrines which are spread around vociferously by preachers who apparently don't have a functioning conscience like most normal do, since they apparently find nothing wrong with attempting to tell lies and distort and twist the truth, something to keep in mind when it comes time to 'be saved' by such people, since apparently they have cannot even 'save' themselves, having turned out so dishonest after all, which should prove that point beyond any shadow of a doubt...
Now having said this, and as I said it is probably repetitive, I can then go on to state that much of what you read about Israel being 'the chosen people' is a form of political propaganda, and it is related to ancient conflicts over real estate. For example there are traditions concerning Abraham, wherein Abraham digs a well on a certain spot, or purchases a cave, and walks the land, his walk just happening to correspond to the borders of Israel during the time of Solomon, and so on, which is a way of saying the the Kingdom under Solomon was the fulfillment of a divine act begun during the time of Abraham. Keep in mind here that there are multiple traditions of Abraham, and I am referring to the strand of tradition that focuses on establishing a religious political argument to justify the possession of real estate, and also to justify the military operations required to invade such nations as Moab and seize their real estate (which was promised by God, thus making that particular war and the expropriation which followed quite acceptable, even a requirement, since who argues with God).
That much of what is written in these types of stories has to do with real estate is still evident today when ministers quote these very stories to justify the state of Israel today, so important if donations are to be kept at a high level, by making much about the existence of the state of Israel as a great sign and a wonder. This sort of thing is accomplished by milking older writings from the Jewish prophets concerning the return from exile in Babylon and then claiming that these are actually referring not to the retutn from Babylon but rather to this modern day miracle, which will then result in both large cash donations and political power. All of this can be justified by quoting the real estate stories found in the Bible, since today, just as in the past, these stories are political and are intended to justify the possession of real estate.
You will often hear that the land was empty before the miracle of Israel took place in the middle of the last century. This is false, as the British census in the 19th century shows that there were close to a milion arabs and about ten thousand Jewish people living in that area at the time. Of course the Arabs were there for thousands of years, since this is no way that you have empty real estate on earth, and thus we find that the Christians spent centuries on the Crusades, the object being to kick out all those arabs who were living in what is now Israel, and that goes back a lot further than the 19th century. This becomes relevant because in order to have a divine miracle it was required that hundres of thousands of people be made homeless and driven out of their lands, which does not sound very holy, but which is nevertheless justified using those real estate stories found in the Bible, which are intertwined with the doctrine of the Jewish people being 'special' and 'chosen' above all other people, another doctrine you need if you are going to justify stealing real estate.
Which means that modern Israel and old Israel of the Bible are remarkably similar, in that it would appear that this doctrine of being 'specially chosen people' leads to genocide and land theft in both cases.
Which then leads to some interesting theological questions which I keep asking but which no one ever bothers answering, probably because there just is no answer.
For example, let us suppose that a group of people are specially chosen, and thus entitled to a certain patch of real estate. Unfortunately the selected real estate is already occupied. The Bible solution to this problem is racism, and painting those people who are already living there as being somehow 'subhuman' and thus deserving of genocidal slaughter and losing the land. According to the real estate doctrines of the Bible this is done through military force and ethnic cleansing and whole sale genocidal slaughter, which morally and legally acceptable, because it was ordered by God. Now if this really was a Holy War, ordered by God, then one must wonder why a God would send people to the horrors of war fare to take the 'land God promised Abraham' when we know that a War God could have taken that land over in a matter of minutes, wiped everyone out, and thus spared the sorry humans all the blood and guts and sword cuts and traumatic stress disorders of primitive warfare (hand to hand combat). Strangely enough the War God never shows up to do any of that dirty work and just sends a message giving the whole deal the thumbs up and then leaves people to slaughter and kill and steal real estate while thankfully, owing to that divine message they received, they can say that it was all commanded by some War God. The whole thing would be much more convincing if War Gods actually did their own genocide and land thefts, thus proving it really was the will of the War God, rather than leaving people such as myself to ask uncomfortable questions, which no one ever answers, not even acknowledging that the question was asked, because it is so inconvenient.
So then, in answer to your question, as much as the doctrine of 'God's specially chosen people' relates directly to the issue of 'the promised land' and 'Holy War' and other such religious-political concepts, I do not believe that somehow Israel was 'God's chosen people' but rather what the Bible preserves in this particular strand of tradition is a type of war propaganda, which is conveniently being recycled today, in the interests of Israel, a nation which was formed once again by blatant land theft which will then have to be peddled as a divine miracle if donations are to be maintained by certain preachers who also are enjoying a great deal of political power which they would not have were it not for the preaching of this great divine miracle which supposedly took place when hundreds of thousands of people were robbed and plundered by 'God's chosen people' laying claim to 'the land God promised Abraham'.
So then the political function of this ideology is pretty clear, in that it functions the same way today as it did in ancient times when this line of political propaganda was first formulated, and it is easily recongizable for what it really is...
By the way, speaking of so called 'prophecy of Israel in the last days', I always like to ignore those Babylonian prophecies that are so often recycled and twisted to a useful purpose these days, and instead like to dredge up Ezekiel. Now if there was a prophecy of 'Israel in the last days' it would certainly have to be found in Ezekiel, and not in those other recycled Babylonian prophecies. For we find Ezekiel going against the current and sarcastically predicting (unlike other prophets) that the people would be gathered back to Israel for the express purpose of pouring out great wrath upon for their bloodshed and their robberies, and would be gathered back to Jerusalem so that they could be thrown into a fierce buring smelter and so on. For some strange reason, even though Ezekiel claims that these are 'last days' or 'latter days' prphecies of the return of Israel, you just never hear these neglected verses, for obvious political reasons (it just would not fit in with the overall theme of those 'love Israel' celebrations, and if Israel is guilty, and thus gathered for fierce wrath, well of course churches are guilty as well, and thus tossed into that fierce smelting furnace right along with Israel, which does explain why you never hear these interesting prophecies of 'israel in the last days', instead always hearing those other recycled Bablonian prophecies, because, after all, who could raise lots of donations money, and pile up political power on the basis of offering people a trip through some burning hell? The rapture sells a lot better...)
Ezekiel 20:34 I will bring you out from the nations and gather you out of the
countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm, and with wrath poured out;
Ezekiel 20:42 And you shall know that I am YAHWEH, when I bring you into the
land of Israel, the country which I swore to give to your fathers.
Ezekiel 20:43 And there you shall remember your ways and all the doings with
which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves for all the
evils that you have committed.
Ezekiel 20:44 And you shall know that I am YAHWEH, when I deal with you for
my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt
doings, O house of Israel, says YAHWEH GOD."
Ezekiel 20:47 say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of YAHWEH: Thus
says YAHWEH GOD, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every
green tree in you and every dry tree; the blazing flame shall not be quenched,
and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it.
Ezekiel 20:48 All flesh shall see that I YAHWEH have kindled it; it shall not be
quenched."
Ezekiel 22: 19 Therefore thus says YAHWEH GOD: Because you have all
become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 22:20 As men gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a
furnace, to blow the fire upon it in order to melt it; so I will gather you in my
anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.
Ezekiel 22:21 I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and
you shall be melted in the midst of it.
Ezekiel 22:22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the
midst of it; and you shall know that I YAHWEH have poured out my wrath upon
you."
Ezekiel 22: 25 Her princes in the midst of her are like a roaring lion tearing the
prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious
things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.
Ezekiel 22: 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my
holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common,
neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and
they have disregarded my sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
Ezekiel 22: 27 Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves tearing the prey,
shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.
Ezekiel 22: 28 And her prophets have daubed for them with whitewash, seeing
false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says YAHWEH GOD,'
when YAHWEH has not spoken.
Ezekiel 22: 29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed
robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the
foreigner without redress.
Ezekiel 22: 30 And I sought for a person among them who should build up the
wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it;
but I found none.
Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have
consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their way have I requited upon their
heads, says YAHWEH GOD."
Ezekiel 9:9 YAHWEH said to me, "The guilt of Israel is exceedingly great; the
land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice; for they say, ‘YAHWEH has
forsaken the land, and YAHWEH does not see.'
Ezekiel 9:10 As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, but I will
requite their deeds upon their heads."
Ezekiel 21:25 And you, O unhallowed wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day
has come, the time of your final punishment,
Ezekiel 21:29 while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for
you—to be laid on the necks of the unhallowed wicked, whose day has come,
the time of their final punishment.
Ezekiel 22:4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and
defiled by the idols which you have made; and you have brought your day near,
the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a
reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.
Ezekiel 22:14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the
days that I shall deal with you? I YAHWEH have spoken, and I will do it.
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