Two Steps Back, One Forward

- The Hobby Lobby Victory -
Post 328

While this is not the next Post in my linear progression of thought, it is a current-events issue as I warm back up to my work in progress after the delay of editing for the book. Consider this a post-publication “Part 2” update attachment to Post 321 "The Misleading Deception" (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-misleading-deception.html).

The recent victory in the Burnwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. Supreme Court case (http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby-stores-inc/) is yet another slight-of-hand example of the misleading-deception magic-trick while Christians erupt with exuberant celebrations in the face of bitter complaints by the “women’s rights” groups who feel cheated.
To throw cold water on this Christian victory at this point is to be labeled a naysayer unable to see the good in anything, but to neglect the truth in the events is to succumb to the deception that makes the magic show successful in its purpose.
So let’s explore a little of the details and expose the misleading of the deception:
* * *

The Misleading:
In the recent victory Hobby Lobby, a Christian company, won their argument on religious grounds as the Supreme Court upheld-- not their First Amendment Rights but the Religious Freedom Restoration Act-- not to provide abortion inducing contraceptives in their mandated Obamacare program.
“Women’s rights” groups and the supporting public have hit the roof, stunned that the Supreme Court would permit such a thing. How dare an employer be allowed to deny a woman employee the right to women’s health products! (*1).
“What is this nation coming to?” is a phrase I have seen as a caption regarding the compliant. It seems that the “conservative Christian rights” have finally been given an unexpected great victory in our nation, and many, many Christians see this as a positive sign of better things to come. America will recover!

But arguments are springing up all over the social internet: the left and the right both jousting the facts of the case while rarely having the facts in their possession. The ignorant emotional argument is simplified between contraceptives or no contraceptives, and the left is demanding their rights to “women’s health” products while the right is trying to educate the left in the knowledge that the function of contraceptives is technically abortion and abortion is murder of the unborn. Then the left responds with more scientific knowledge that most contraceptives keep the egg from being fertilized so no abortion takes place and therefore Hobby Lobby has no real religious case and the usually Leftist leaning Supreme Court had their head in the sand on this one for this very unexpected support of the Right, apparently because it is a male dominated bench.
The unyielding battle further separates our nation into declared sides of a war that is still brewing to the boiling point.

The Cup-Drop:
Hopefully the truth of the facts will soon become known to both sides of the argument, and with the facts understood, each can agree that this was in fact a good ruling amicable to most everyone… exclusive of course to the woman who really does want her employer to pay for abortion pills, that she can purchase over-the-counter herself at any pharmacy for less than the price of lunch.
As most irreconcilable arguments today, the actual facts of the case revolve around the specifics. In our age of advanced technology we must distinguish between contraceptives that prohibit fertilization, from Birth Control that prohibit a fertilized egg from reaching viability. Thus; not “Fertilization Control” but “Birth Control.” Hobby Lobby won the right to refuse providing Birth Control, which apparently turns out to be 4 of the 20 contraceptive options currently available. Per the Obamacare mandate, even after the victory, Hobby Lobby still provides the 16 contraceptives that don’t kill a fertilized egg and are therefore not scientifically abortion, and so not a clear and direct violation of the Christian faith on those grounds.

Contrary to the ignorant hysteria of emotional opinions on both sides; Hobby Lobby is not denying their women employees access to women’s “health products” but in fact pays for them per Obamacare mandates, and blind-faith Christians learn that science has made a very important distinction that they need to wake up to. Both the left and the right can find mutual peace in the ground of informed knowledge. See? Peace between opposing religious sides can be had!

The Empty Cup:
While the audience applauds the great results of mutual peace we have to ask why the extremely leftist and unconstitutionally-rewriting-congressional-law Supreme Court would suddenly and uncharacteristically rule in the favor of Christians. Until the cup is revealed empty we are convinced that we see the truth in the cup-drop deception of the contending arguments. But after the truth is explored and publicly accepted on both sides, what have we got? We have an empty cup.

The secondary slight-of-hand trick and far greater issue at play is the fact that in the recent victory of our appeal we have fully established the jurisdiction of ObamaCare, which we started off fighting as fully unconstitutional-- for one, it is not compatible with an ARTICLE 4, Section 4, Republican form of Government, for another, it was forced on us by congressionally approved executive order against our votes. Remember putting down HillaryCare decisively? Remember slamming down ObamaCare? (See Post 155 “Healthcare” http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/01/healthcare.html).

But now, without even knowing it, by contesting finepoints in the unlawful Act, we gave all the ground except abortion. Like the 1913 16th Amendment Income Tax (*2) and Roosevelt’s Social Security program (*3), the Socialist style Obamacare is now likewise established in America while Christians are pleased to have won their anti-abortion case… until it comes up again, as we know it will, in a land where law is now emotionally based on shifting ground. But when it does come up again we will no longer be battling for our rights in “the land of the free,” but for privileges granted or denied in a Socialist State.
The Supreme Court gave Christians their specific contest… to shut them up while Socialism in the United States wins the day uncontested. To continue fighting Obamacare after this victory would make Christians seem uncharitable and unwilling to work out a “peace agreement” (*4) with the opposition… who stole their human Liberty endued by their Creator as an inalienable right, and made it unlawful to Live without paying the “health lords” a tax for the privilege.

For a review of how this happens Fabian style, please see Post 299 “America’s Abomination” (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/08/americas-abomination.html).
* * * * * * *

(*1) “What is missing from the Hobby Lobby decision altogether—beyond the economic disparity and public health arguments I mention above—is the very notion of the woman herself as moral circuit breaker, as an agent of her own ethical choices and preferences, whose decision to obtain an IUD, or a condom, or a morning-after pill is a fully autonomous moral choice that supplants the spiritual choices of her employer.” - Dahlia Lithwick for Doublex, accessed July 9, 2014, bold emphasis added (http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/07/after_hobby_lobby_mucullen_and_harris_v_quinn_the_men_of_the_supreme_court.html).

(*2) Income Tax: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” - The 16th Amendment, an addition to the Bill of Rights, “adopted” February 3, 1913.

This questionably-ratified Amendment overturning landmark decisions in cases such as the 1895 Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., diminished the Constitutional rights retained by the people, but was nonetheless added to the original “Bill of Rights” and is in full contradiction to both the letter and principle laid out in part by Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution as follows:

ARTICLE 1, Section 2, Clause 3:
“Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers...”

ARTICLE 1, Section 9, Clause 4:
“No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken.”

It is quite a rabbit-trail we will not cover here, but the 1895 Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan & Trust Co. was a case won in the Supreme Court regarding property tax unlawfully attempted before the 16th Amendment overturned the Court’s Constitutional findings. Meaning that the Government at the time had every intention of taxing the people regardless of the foundational Law, and the 16th Amendment had every intention of changing the original intent so that they could finally do it.
Maybe until now there was ground in the argument that the growing government needed the additional funds to operate, but the blatant foolishness and open corruption has become so great that funding: slackers, bankrupt private companies, abortions, terrorists, illegal aliens, and enemy nations, etc., are all reasons to repeal the 16th Amendment and return the Government to its original minimal purposes that would function just fine absent all the “Government Programs” now destroying America by spending us to death.
It seems the framers understood all this and wrote specific laws to keep it from happening. We don’t even need to write new laws to fix it; simply repeal the 16th Amendment and then live accordingly. What do we do with all the needy? The Church suddenly has a new and valuable role again-- discerning those in need vs. those who should be instructed to provide for themselves (Galatians 2:10, James 1:27 vs. II Thessalonians 3:10-12).

(*3) Social Security: “The Social Security Act was drafted under FDR’s first term, passed Congress as part of the New Deal, and was signed by FDR on August 14, 1935” - (http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/what-social-security-act).

“This social security measure gives at least some protection to thirty millions of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.
We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.
This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete. It is a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy. The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation. It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness… If the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more than pass this Bill, the session would be regarded as historic for all time.” - Roosevelt at signing, Aug. 14, 1935, (http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html#signing line item #7).

I have no problem with a rich and successful community choosing to implement such a benevolent program for its people out of their abundance. But isn’t it interesting that only a single generation received the great benefits of the government’s mandated Social Security system as promised, before the program began to fail dramatically. Today, the second generation and the ones who paid the bills for the benefits given to others, has paid into the program all their lives but will receive little to none of the benefits promised. The Social Security program is functionally bankrupt, and it didn’t succeed in protecting the future, lessening the force of depressions, or protect the present Administration from the necessity of going deeply in debt to furnish relief to the needy, it didn’t flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and inflation as promised. In fact, Roosevelt’s empty promises come up fully short only a single generation later. One generation simply received the distributed wealth of the following generation who could ill afford it. Roosevelt is dead and it seemed to work well for his generation, so what does he care about the impoverishment he left behind?

(*4) Glenn Beck’s sponsored compromised-solution example:
Government approved healthcare for Christians - (https://medi-share.org/ms/lp/medical-bill-sharing_11-1.aspx).

Perhaps not a bad idea… if it’s a choice you can and want to make from your abundance, rather than being forced as a surf by a tyrant feudal lord.

Feudal: adj. of or pertaining to a feud or state of hostility.

Feudal: adj. 1. Of, relating to, or of the nature of, feuds, fiefs, or fees. 2. Of or pertaining to the feudal system; as, feudal law.

Feud, feod: noun. A fee, or feudal benefice; a fief.

Fief: noun. Law. A feudal estate; a fee.

Feudal system: The system of polity which prevailed in Europe in the Middle Ages, based upon the relation of lord to vassal, with the holdings of land in feud. The principal incidents [i.e. fees: tax for the land’s use] of the feudal system were homage, service of the tenants, wardship, marriage, reliefs, aids, escheat, and forfeiture - all the above definitions from Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 1948 Fifth Edition.

The Pilgrims did not reform England; they fled it. To let our liberty slip from our hands while we can still correct it is to soon find ourselves in a place that can no longer be fixed. Where will we flee then?

Already today:
• You buy your land and home but nonetheless pay feudal “rent” to the government who can evict you for non-payment of the principle incident, which at this time is restricted to money only. They call it Property Tax.
• You work hard for your money but gift nearly 30% to the government for the privilege of working. They call it Income Tax.
• You use of the remainder to buy food and sustenance, which you pay the government a fee for the privilege of buying. They call it Sales Tax.
• And now you pay the Health Lords a regular fee just to live, whether you’re working or not. They call it Health Care Tax.

Most of these ideas were utterly repugnant to the Constitution of this once great Nation of free men. If now is not the time, then when will it be time to fix the problem? especially since there is nowhere left to flee.

The problem is not a faulty Government; it is a visionless, Christless people governed:

"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country. I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be: if God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; if the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness, will reign without mitigation or end." - Daniel Webster 1823.

Christian America was once the sanctuary that the oppressed world fled to for liberty… Liberty: in America it was a governmentally recognized and protected inalienable right, endowed to all men by their Creator. But what is America today if not a machine of vassals-with-guns?
While having the power and the right to resist, they nonetheless comply; willingly padding the pockets of the very rich governing club at growing expense and discomfort to themselves. This contented slavish mentality is a result of abandoning the Lord of Liberty!

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their (virtual reality) imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” Romans 1:21-22.
*

Postscript:

Post 327

“…I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her…” Revelation 17:7.

Having completed my last chapter in this collection of works that is far short of my study which spawned it, I pause to consider if I have accomplished what I intended to set out to do (*1) before moving forward into a collection that must be built upon it.
Does the reader now comprehend the Mystery of Great Babylon, in a way that can actually be applied, and how true Christianity is distinguished from it though it steals the identity as did the Roman Catholic Church? (*2). From the reaction I quickly got at the posting of my final words: “Husband, Empower your wife!” I think not.

It’s not that such a reaction is unexpected (it actually is), but it’s that Rehab is over and you have a life to live. It would be going backwards for me to spend more Posts explaining in this specific setting what the reader should now be able to put together from what they have already read conceptually.
But neither do I deny that the very real problem still exists, as I call my next Post: “You don’t know my wife!”
This is the bump of the 6th age of 7. It’s the actual crossing over the Jordan of the second generation to fight the giants of war in reality. It’s the application of a fully fed theory after the first generation failed for lack of faith. It’s the naively frustrating but endearingly motivating young bride still believing her husband is invincible as she says enthusiastically:

“I don’t care about the risks; you’ll figure out a way to make it work!”

which sounds very much like, but is nonetheless nothing like:

“I don’t care what you want, make it happen for me!”
* * * * * * *

(*1) Post 160 "The Great Whore" (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/02/great-whore.html).

(*2) Who is Mystery Babylon?
There are two kinds of women that leave rehab; There is the renewed wife with the devoted single eye toward life with her husband, and there is the other kind of woman whose eye and heart, in spite of the lengthy program, are still attracted elsewhere as a “side interest” that she can manage along with her marriage.
If you are not simply given over to God and God alone by the joyful abandonment of all things that draw you away, then you my dear are the blossoming harlot bride.
At present, Mystery Babylon is today’s Dirty-Grace Liberated whorish church of Christ Jesus who befriends as intimates the enemies of God in the effort to bring peace. But she is still maturing. And she is just impertinent enough to soon imagine that she can tame the Beast by sleeping with him, not knowing that the benefits of such a thing was never the question:

“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and said unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” Matthew 4:8-9.

The Devil knew that restoring humanity’s relationship with God was Jesus’ goal and offered him exactly that. He wasn’t kidding about what he offered. But the means he offered to gain the righteous goal was a violation of God’s command:

“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” Matthew 4:10.

The ends do not justify the means!
This is the very core of the confusion in this 6th age.
*

The Misleading Deception

Post 321

The Game:
Every good deception has a cover deception that is intended to be discovered by the discerning critic so that he believes he is abnormally aware of the deception and therefore safe from the illusion’s trickery and free to stop searching the deception in order to just watch the show smugly for entertainment. Great illusions often have a second decoy that masquerades as the better-hidden “true deception” for those who know this game. The term slight of hand is the explanatory phrase that describes the illusion that intentionally leads to deception.
If your keen-eye sees the magician secretly drop the object ball into a cup as he performs the “disappearing” trick in his hands, then you are not surprised with the audience to see that his hands are empty at the end. But when he then “accidentally” upturns the cup and you find it empty, your mind is fully confused because you were sure you knew his trick and the accidental exposure unequivocally proves your secret-cup-drop theory, but the results don’t make sense. The less discriminating person that didn’t see the ball drop is also confused, but with a far less complex confusion that has a far less disturbing affect on the mind.
Now with this description, did you pick up the concept that we have in effect “two balls” that have disappeared, two problems to solve; the one in the hands and the one in the cup?

The Deception:
Daily, the Headline News is presenting us the deceptive illusion. Just this morning (March 21) I read an additional article regarding FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). It is regarding suit brought to citizens of Great Briton for crimes as spelled out in the Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2003, and the Serious Crimes Act of 2007 - BBC FGM 3/21/2014 (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26681364).
With knowledge of what FGM actually is-- as opposed to what it isn’t-- we have no problem agreeing with the fact that this crime against humanity must be stopped aggressively and immediately. And for the sake of the discerning, without going into uncomfortable detail, it takes on several forms, the primary being: the cutting off of the sensory organ, and/or the cutting and growing together of the opening making it impossible for penetration but leaving enough opening for urination. This procedure, most always done in their youth-- example at age five-- is done by unskilled elder women of the village with less than surgical instruments.
So by the informed world broadcast, we are encouraged to campaign against this heinous crime-against-women not only in our own lands with our own laws, but we push for the UN to implement international laws to cover nations other than our own. This international force just seems undeniably right and good and worthy of the intrusion into the culture and governments of others who can’t seem to make themselves respect basic human rights.

But here is the slight-of-hand that is supposed to be discovered by the discerning person:
While making such laws in our lands to protect the innocent, we have no business making laws to govern the nations of others unless we conquer them and make it our own burden to govern, feed, and protect. Let’s turn this concept around and ask the question if we would like Islam to force the UN to establish Sharia law in our own land in our own governments because they feel we need better management. Of course not! They have no business in our laws; “Implement your debauchery in your own lands and governments if you want, we will manage our own thank you very much.”
The sad part is, that today, the world’s people are so dull of thinking that most are now missing this obvious slight-of-hand action, and with a blank-look at the stage they clap delightedly because everyone else is clapping at what was apparently a good presentation. They have no idea the ball even disappeared or that it was supposed to. So to explain to them that it dropped into the cup is beyond them. But we know better!
But do we?

The Cup-Drop:
Along with the several faces of FGM, we have included the bloody and barbaric procedure of “Female Circumcision.”
“We westerners just don’t do that sort of thing here,” and so to add this to the list of FGM is a no-brainer; “What is wrong with those sick people?” we ask ourselves, “Can’t they just let girls be naturally human?” but we already know the answer in our heart, which is that the East has a male dominated society that oppresses women. “This we must campaign to stop,” but if not in their land, at least in our own. OK fine.
But what have we just done? By an honorable and worthy effort to protect women, we have walked through the door that leads directly to laws in our own land against Male Circumcision. After all, what is the difference?
And now suddenly you discover that the cup is empty! You’ve been deceived like the others while you were so sure you saw what was going on! So now you back-peddle quickly in your mind, trying to find the flaw in your evaluation, but you can’t find it. Why not?

The Empty Cup:
Will you and your society now abandon your mission to end FGM in order to protect your religious right as God’s people? or will you, by force of righteous law in order to protect the innocent, give up the right of Male Circumcision because it seems barbaric to you now? After all, it’s conceptually no different than Female Genital Mutilation, and to say otherwise is irrational if not just sexist~
* * *

Micro vs. Macro Evolution/Observable vs. Historical science/Misorder vs. Wrong data:
This distinction between similar but independent-spheres is not casual or insignificant; rather it is the key to discovering truth (II Thessalonians 2:10) and the right answer of correct application (2:12. [See also Revelation 3:10]). In essence, this is the difference between your child’s FaceBook Password input having wrong data vs. having the right data but in the wrong sequence (*1). While having the same generic result they are not at all the same thing; the one is foundationally far closer to finding a successful outcome than the other. To simply see them as the same thing is to utterly fail to apply what was so close to success, and instead guarantees total failure because you have now rejected what was true by “proving it wrong” through forgetful misapplication, which leaves you at even less than ground-zero in the attempt to hack your own program as if you were an unlawful intruder who didn’t know to at least reject the “proven wrong-answer” that you had. In otherwords; even a hacker might stumble upon attempting your password while you have already “tried” and rejected it as no longer a viable option.

The principle I am driving at is that information gives value to everything. But even a lie is information, as our own corrupt Government, now using lies for a purpose, has dubbed it; Misinformation.
Misinformation is not just a lie; it is a destroying deception. That is; a crafted effort to lead others in a false direction as opposed to no other intent than to hide oneself from the truth. Therefore, to be ignorant of information allows one to be confused until the truth is discovered, but to have wrong information as uncontestable truth allows one to be irrevocably destroyed.
Now back to the question of Male Circumcision: Why would you not outlaw it as barbaric? after all, the indwelling Holy Spirit has rendered that tradition significantly mute (Galatians 6, Romans 2:25-29, I Corinthians 7:18-19).
To answer this concept in depth, let’s explore a few more, deceitful current events:
* * *

Mel Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the Christ (*2), and Roma Downey’s 2014 Son of God (*3), are just two recent-to-current movies on a new-level of extremely-good slight-of-hand craft artfully designed progressively to expose just enough acceptable wrong presentation to lead you to an eventual irrevocable deception when you later find the cup is empty too.
Nearly every Christian who has ever heard even the simplest bible story’s of Jesus in Sunday School up to the 1960s, will come away from either of these movies with an “I saw the deception” mentality grinning knowingly at the “artistic license” taken by the writers and producers, and say to themselves and their friends;

“I know the truth so the slight errors did me no harm, and I deeply liked the movie for it’s emotional connection to Jesus if not just for its good, clean, entertainment value in a world of normally wicked entertainment.”

But how strange it is that Christians would casually and knowingly allow Pagans and Cultists to use “artistic license” with the image, body language, inflections, motives, and even the very word of God himself, because they wanted to be entertained. Am I really the only one you know running around crying, “Clean! Clean!” in a Christian land of spiritual lepers? Do we really need to go into the details of Roma Downey (*4) and her perpetually heretical decade-long Touched By An Angel TV show (*4), or the scriptural apostasy in her History Channel TV series The Bible? (*4). This beautiful, gentle, soft-spoken, benevolent, Jesus-loving, woman, diligently and almost disturbingly trying to conduct herself as a benevolent angel, is the new Roma[n] Catholic Church in these last days; Without any ill intent on her part, she is the Great Whore of Babylon personified. But if you don’t know the ball was supposed to disappear, or that it even did, my words will only confuse your joy of clapping, and you will resent me for ruining your happy emotional experience of the delightful performance.
Yet I will show that to venerate the image of Jesus Christ in this film is no different than venerating a Catholic image or idol of him (*5); This IS idolatry on the grandest of scales. And idolatry, as one of the Big Ten, is confirmed forbidden by Jesus even in the New Testament (Matthew 4:9-10). This Son of God presentation to Christians and Pagans is how the pictures and idols made their way into the Jewish temple of God (Ezekiel 8:7-11) and drove God from his own temple as He was replaced (Ezekiel 8:6). Catholicism has a new old face!

Scientific micro-evolution in misapplication is fraudulently used as misinformation to validate the baseless religion of macro-Evolution, and misapplied Observable Science is likewise used in the same fraudulent deceptive means to validate the foundationless illusions of Godless Historical processes. In a similar way, Female Genital Mutilation has virtually nothings to do with Circumcision anymore than a dark-ally knife has anything to do with heart surgery. And it really doesn’t matter about the gender at this point, though in deeper detail it does.
And now that we made the distinction to segregate out circumcision as a genuinely harmless (and even perhaps hygienically beneficial) custom of any particular people group: Male Circumcision was a unique command of the Jewish God for his special people as a covenant between he and them; it had a specific purpose, while Female Circumcision seems to be Allah’s game in kind for his own people of consuming preoccupation with sex. While we might stand fully against true inhumanity regardless of religion, the other needs to be left up to a people’s own culture and religion whether we agree with it or not. Don’t we in turn want them to leave our cultural and religious values alone too? This is the very reason for the God-intended concept of nations (Genesis 1:28 & 9:1 vs. Genesis 11:4 resulting in 11:8-9), and the repeating danger of the UN (United Nations)-- without implying that the UN is all-evil or that nations are all-good.

With the less-questionable Epic Christian films that came before-- such as The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur and Barabbas (in the comparably used foundational three Disney Princess stories)-- to lay the accepted groundwork of presenting the scriptures in this new format, these recent films have now crossed the line just far enough to demand open rejection, but we have grown accustom to the required "artistic license" in this format and so say nothing.
No longer do we evaluate and contend with the seemingly-minor biblical idiosyncrasies of the production, as we did with Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 The Ten Commandments (*6), or William Wyler’s 1959 Ben Hur, or even Richard Fleischer’s 1961 Barabbas, No, now we must grapple to reclaim the ground we actually gave up in the name of peace, because from that surrendered ground they are metaphorically lobbing spiritual rockets into the neighborhoods of our defenseless citizen, just as Palestine is doing physically to Israel.
* * *

The Deception Revealed:
The greatest of tricks, illusions, and deceptions that simply cannot be discovered as fraud, loose all their power to mystify as real-magic when someone exposes the slight-of-hand deception. So it is with the spiritual world; knowledge is extremely powerful.
The key element that by exposure disempowers these films, is the knowledge that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), to which we add: “I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD” (Psalm 31:6 from v.5. hated 8130 enemy, foe).

It is imperative that we comprehend this fully, but it will take just a bit of explanation to make the truth clear. Please take the time to also read the foot-notes as they are an integral part of this Post.

Here is the deception exposed: Emotion is not spirit. But it masquerades as spirit (Hebrews 4:12).

These films today have a single focus, and that is to saturate your emotions. Today’s filmmakers and actors often state that the declared goal is to make you feel something-- anything. They don’t even care if it is hatred for them and their film; they feel that if they have made you feel deeply then they have succeeded in their job. Many have said this directly. I came to this conclusion myself as I viewed The Passion, but in watching the DVD extras this is again stated to be their mission. They have mistakenly believed that to deeply feel compassion for Jesus as he suffered is the same thing as finding spiritual salvation. A common phrase regarding the film is that they were “changed by it,” but what does that actually mean?

I tell you plainly that the emotional assault leaves virtually no room for a spiritual response of truth. Yet in the slight-of-hand confusion, the emotional response is mistaken for spiritual and the result is a foundational deception that masquerades as salvation. This is the game of the Charismatic Evangelical movement. It is boundless emotion run wild, attempting to do the job of the sleeping spirit like a woman who rules her home because she can’t get her husband to do what she wants done. But if the spirit is slothful it’s because the emotions are ruling, and, as they say; “If momma aint happy, aint no one happy!” so the spirit lets emotion rule while it checks-out of his own home, at first metaphorically but later actually, in an ugly divorce (Ezekiel 10:18-19 [begin reading in chapter 9]).

God is Spirit. This is why in his word, God states that He must be worshipped in spirit, but adds that this must be done in truth (John 4:24). Truth is the foundation, truth is the boundary, truth is the distiller, truth is the stabilizing element that distinguishes spirit from emotion.
This is why we regard them as enemies who regard lying vanities, because they place their trust in something other than in the LORD while claiming they follow him. This is spiritual cancer, whether they know it or not.
Understand; I don’t believe Roma Downey or Mel Gibson has intentionally created this deception, but they regard the lying vanities of both Emotionalism and Catholicism. This cannot be embraced by Christians.
Even if every word of the film was taken directly from the scriptures, the over indulged emotional presentation would still hinder the gospel message from reaching the spirit. The mind and emotion are flesh and they must only be allowed to support the spirit, not rule it.

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth within you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” John 14:16-18.

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come” John 16:12-13.

“(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” Ephesians 5:9-10.

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” I Peter 1:22-23.

“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” I John 4:6+.

We cannot afford to confuse emotion with spirit. But this is the driving force of Babylon in today’s Woman’s World of emotionalism.
Jesus was a leader, not because he was physically or emotionally dynamic, as this Charismatic Age is want to believe; he was a leader because his Spirit breathed the life of truth into men’s dead spirits and drew those revived spirits to the Spirit of God. While today’s ministers are reaching primarily the emotions, and even periodically the minds, it’s the spirit of men that we need to be reaching with the true life of God in order to give them new incorruptible birth, but we are failing greatly at the task because we are living in a combined intellectual and emotional age, that while indeed giving them new birth, it is corruptible. Emotional spiritualism is as close as they can even comprehend, and then they enhance that illusion with the intellect of science to “create new life” but that’s not even in the same park. What is being “re-created” today is the Age of Noah all over again, and this is why the image of Noah must now be corrupted and perceived as evil. Noah was the Typology of Christ, and Satan doesn’t want anybody getting on that boat!

For a "Part 2" update, please see Post 328 "Two Steps Backward One Step Forward" (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2014/07/two-steps-backward-one-step-forward.html).
* * * * * * *

(*1) An Example:
Ravi Zacharias presented a case where in a lecture at a University a Muslim speaker was berating Christianity as a way that no rational man could follow. A Christian professor in the audience asked him to explain and was invited up to the stage where the speaker used the Sermon On The Mount as his example for his demonstration and then severely struck the Christian across the face and asked him to now turn the other cheek, to which the Christian man complied.
The speaker declined a second striking in the name of mercy and instead went to the next command of that Sermon and told the Christian to give him his trousers. In this artfully boxed-in corner the Christian could deny his Lord’s command and prove the speaker right or surrender his drawers. In commendable humility he first turned to the mixed audience of young people and begged their forgiveness, and then on stage removed his trousers and handed them to the speaker who mocked him and his foolish religion while he stood in his underwear. The Christian professor’s office was later flooded with Muslim students apologizing, and Christianity seems to have won a sort of pathetic victory, but at what cost?

What we have just seen is the misleading deception in practice.
By using the true command of Christ, found in Matthew 5:39, as the foundation for his trick, the speaker misled the Christian professor to a false truth established on that first startling event that rattled his brain. Because the commands were in effect one-in-the-same the first time, the Christian professor did not realize that he had obeyed the speaker rather than the scripture, and did likewise the second time when the speaker slightly abused the command. The Christian should have recalled each command directly rather than take it’s meaning from the non-Christian speaker who just established the field by showing that he knew correctly the meaning of the previous command. By recalling the scripture itself the Christian would have been able to respond in knowledge and ask the speaker; When had he brought suit to lawfully take his jacket before asking for his trousers?

“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also” Matthew 5:40.

You see, we cannot allow Satan’s children to artfully use our own scriptures against us in deceptive misapplication. A correct interpretation of v.39 by a Pagan, does not automatically lead to a correct interpretation of v.40, but this assumption is what the speaker artfully drew from the Christian, with destructive intent. Yes, the speaker was very nearly applying correctly the whole concept of Matthew 5, which is why the Christian fell for it. But "very nearly" is not good enough. The second "disappearing ball" in this trick is that even as a Christian, the speaker would have had no business making the application to others; it’s a personally applied principle to be used in wisdom, not blind obedience. This is a case of Self-application vs. Forced-application. Not at all the same things and very much like Obama’s Communist share the wealth concept masquerading as American charity.

(*2) The Passion Of The Christ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ):
By turning on the subtitles for a movie in quasi-Aramaic we immediately discover that this film is sprinkled with presumed words, motives, thoughts, and purposes of not only the disciples but the Lord Jesus himself. This is a landmark departure from the foundational Christian film epics. Without going into detail here, I liken this transitional production to The Little Mermaid in our study of the progressive Princess epilogue. Said simply; the focus of the needy human girl longing for her Redeemer Prince as the Type of humanity and her Messiah, has made a significant but subtly deceptive switch to the viewpoint of a functionally superior feminine entity with the reversed pursuits of winning the less significant human prince. This important transitional production opened the door for the proactive princess spirit that we see in all the subsequent stories, yet we didn’t even notice the change, and so, like the Christian professor, we automatically apply all the previous approvals to the new foundations and feel obligated by Christ to give up our trunks.

In our emotionally driven world today, this film is intended to make you feel. And feel deeply. And it succeeds at that aim masterfully. It actually made me weep for the great emotional compassion I felt in watching his biblically declared great physical disfigurement through the torture more than any man (Isaiah 52:14). I felt extreme compassion and sorrow for him, and a deep gratitude for what he was willing to do for us and for me… but not once, through the entire film, did I feel personal guilt or remorse. Not once. Not even a little. And I knew by the scriptures that I was supposed to, so what of those that don’t?
If the emotion didn’t preoccupy my senses by blocking out all others, my extreme compassion alone was all the proof I needed that I certainly could not be found guilty for what took place that day, and, while I might not understand their reasons, it was very easy to identify the guilty “they” as the wicked Jewish priests that stirred up the ignorant people at the trial against him, and the demonically driven Roman centurions appointed to carry out the task. The film’s extreme depiction of powerless social grief helps us to feel with them-- as non-interacting observers-- as if we are a weeping distraught participant along that Via Dolorosa, which makes us feel guiltless, and this emotion is why so many today actually travel to Jerusalem to reenact the solidarity with that day’s road of suffering. This is hardly different from the OT sacrifices that never succeeded to take away sins (Hebrews 10:3-4).
Since the film’s goal was emotional and succeeded at its goal, it is inappropriate to complain for the comparatively minor abuse of the biblical text when it comes to the words and image of Christ-- though the deviations are several and profound; such as the numerous unbiblical focuses on Mary, and the specific cases of him calling her “mother” in contradiction to the entire text of scripture (Matthew 12:46-50, John 19:26), for reasons that should be explored especially by Catholics--, the intended emotion squarely hit the mark and so the film was perfect in aim. The deviation from the text only aided the emotional end intended and so the experiential emotion applauds the result and thereby justifies the means regardless of where they were sourced:

“Catholic Devotional Writings: Screenwriters Mel Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald said that they read many accounts of Christ's Passion for inspiration, including the devotional writings of Roman Catholic mystics. A principal source is The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ the reported visions of the stigmatic German nun Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), as written by the poet Clemens Brentano. A careful reading of Emmerich's book shows the film's high level of dependence on it.
However, Clemens Brentano’s attribution of the book The Dolorous Passion to Emmerich has been subject to dispute, with allegations that Brentano wrote much of the book himself; a Vatican investigation concluding that: ‘It is absolutely not certain that she ever wrote this’. In his review of the movie in the Catholic publication America, Jesuit priest John O' Malley used the terms ‘devout fiction’ and ‘well-intentioned fraud’ to refer to the writings of Clemens Brentano" - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ).

Gone is the reverence for protecting the sacred word and visage of God the Savior that we saw in the “old 1960s donkeys and sandals story” of Ben Hur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben-Hur_%281959_film%29), and in its place is an artistic license to dramatize the Lord’s image, words, conduct, meaning, and experiential events, for the titillation of our ruling emotions. And the door has been opened for us to now expand on that option that finds our Christ just another character in our productions that we can artistically “enhance” in our efforts to present our own version of the biblical gospel message (II Corinthians 11:4). Man is now arrogantly pursuing the human validation of the needy deity, which is a complete biblical reversal.
Yes, the true gospel message is in this film near the summation. But it is quickly snatched away by the far more captivating drama of the raven’s revenge. And to tell you the truth, in the rampant emotion, I think I often felt more emotionally-choked compassion for Mary’s suffering than for Jesus’, and the after-DVD extras supported this as intentional. In this film the gospel message is always greatly overshadowed by the emotion, and so the true message is functionally lost, and in its place is a feeling of commodore with Christ to “love your neighbor in self-sacrifice” as the total of the gospel. This is the gospel of Global Peace through compassion, not the gospel of repentance unto a salvation at great cost to our Savior. Did you understand the Leviticus 16:8 scapegoat typology played out with Barabbas? I didn’t think so; we’re just drawn along in the logicless emotion of it all, like when the Devil packs a demonic baby through the crowed to create a feeling we can contemplate as a kind of logic-replacement. Wait, what chapter is that in? Oh that’s right, this is just a docudrama in the style of rewriting history that America has grown so accustomed to do. What is truth anyway? And who really cares? I cried a lot and that’s the goal~.

The cutting room editor John Wright, said in the DVD extras: “I’m not a real religious person… but you know… whether you believe that Jesus was the Son of God or whether you believe he was just a guy-- you know, at the wrong place at the wrong time-- you can’t look at this without being moved. That’s how I feel. It moves me. It moves me.”

I think as well as any other comment, this explains my argument. So what if the Godless are moved; if they are not moved to repentance unto salvation what does it matter? What specific place did it actually move him to? An anti-violent sympathy?… perhaps against God the Father?
You need to understand that when you live in a world that is run off emotion, emotion is all you have to work with. This movie does a fantastic job of working in that realm, but is the result salvation? or just a warm affinity toward Jesus as he endured his Father’s psychotic cruelty, and the idea of universal forgiveness that needs no repentance to acquire?
Tell me how we are not simply re-warming the old concept of Universalism and calling it Christianity.
* * *

Theological and Christian Support:
“Gibson consulted several theological advisors during filming, including Fr. Jonathan Morris.”
“The Passion of the Christ received support and endorsement from most known evangelical leaders and representatives of USA's conservative church organizations: Billy Graham, James Dobson, Mission America Coalition, Salvation Army, Promise Keepers, national Association of Evangelicals, Campus Crusade for Christ, Focus on the Family, Pat Robertson, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Rick Warren, Southern Baptist Convention, Jerry falwell, Max Lucado, Young Life, Tim LaHaye, Chuck Colson, Lee Strobel, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mother of Preschoolers (MOPS), Seventh-day Adventist Church…” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ).

Who can’t see the anomaly that every form of Christianity from Billy Graham to Rick Warren thinks this film is great? In fact the list above includes a whole string of apostate ministries like the Trinity Broadcast Network and the now Catholic minded Chuck Colson, with a few good but simple ministers such as Lee Strobel. Clearly there is something dangerously non-biblical going on here that needs further exploration, because not all sheep are going to hear the Lord’s voice as they apparently hear in this film. If most of the above names are for it, I automatically stand on the other side when I begin my investigation. Yet I have to confess that I too, at first, was drawn in to approve this movie.

“Domestic[:]
“The film opened in the United States on February 25, 2004 (Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent). It earned $83,848,082 in its opening weekend, ranking it 4th overall in domestic opening weekend earnings for 2004. It went on to earn $370,782,930 overall in the United States.

International[:]
… Despite the various controversies and refusals of certain governments to allow the film to be viewed in wide release, The Passion of the Christ earned $611,899,420 worldwide. The movie was also a relative success in certain countries with large Muslim populations, such as in Egypt, where it ranked 20th overall in its box office numbers for 2004” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ).

The enormous sales and support in America alone, indicates that the same powerful masses who have allowed by neglect, if not by disobedience, the de-Chrisitanizing of America to her own destruction, are those that flock to this film. This tells us that these flockers are fully missing the point of the scriptures that they think they support. If the same 83-million-dollar-weekend-masses were walking as upright Christians obedient to the scriptures, America would not, no, could not, be in the state that it is presently in (II Chronicles 7:14).
Yet they flock.
And applaud.
And leave the show never knowing that the ball has disappeared, let alone how it happened.
The Mel Gibson Jesus was just the next state of the now progressive Jesus of Roma Downey. I am revealing the distinctive difference between the true and false Jesus.

(*3) "Son of God" Movie: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_God_%28film%29).
A production of Roma Downey, which-- other than Youtube clips, promotions, and such-- I have not watched and have no present intention of watching. I have seen the long evidence of the leprous spirit behind this woman's life and work and declare her unclean. Therefore, whatever she touches is also unclean (Ezekiel 44:23).

"If one bear holy flesh [Christ] in the skirt of his [unholy] garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy [because of the holy flesh he bears]? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, if one that is unclean by [touching] a dead body touch any of these [things], shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean" Haggai 2:12-14.

(*4) Roma Downey and her works; Touched By An Angel and The Bible:
“On May 24, 2011, Downey and husband Mark Burnett announced they were producing a 10-hour docudrama for the History channel, The Bible (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_%28TV_series%29), based on stories from the Bible scheduled to air in 2013. [and was broadcast weekly between March 3 and March 31, 2013 on History channel. It has since been adapted for release to theaters as a feature film (138 minutes), [as] the 2014 American epic biblical drama Son of God.] They began planning it in 2009 and lined up their own financing. The full production cost was $22 million USD. Downey and Burnett wanted to stay as true to the content in the Bible as possible so they put together a wide variety of pastors and academics to review the script and filming. For example, they worked with Pastors Joel Osteen and Rick Warren and academics such as Craig A. Evans and Mark Goodacre” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_Downey).

Ok, really? Joel Osteen and Rick Warren are their idea of Consulting Pastors for biblical authentication? Enough said! but we will in fact say more.

Continuing:
“She is married to television producer/entrepreneur Mark Burnett. Her only child, Reilly Marie Downey Anspaugh, is from her previous marriage to director David Anspaugh. … On Thanksgiving Day 2006, Burnett proposed to Downey during a family vacation in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. They wed on 28 April 2007 in their Malibu home. Her Touched By An Angel co-star, Della Reese, officiated at the wedding” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_Downey).

OK, we have a twice (*4b) divorced woman from previous professional-in-film men, on an exotic “family” vacation with another professional-in-film man, that-- we hate to presume but are forced to believe-- was her cohabitant in a prolonged relationship of fornication in “their Malibu home,” and the minister officiating her third-time-round not-quite-as-sacred vows is… and actress? …that pretends to be a permissive ministering angel of God for a living?
Enough already, my head hurts! I have heard all I can take about her confused life of Dirty Grace worldly permissive spiritual interests masquerading as approved of God:

" ‘Now this is curious,’ I remember thinking. Because I'm a person of faith, the spiritual aspects [of the script] got my attention’” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_Downey).

" ‘For ten years, I played an angel on 'Touched by an Angel,' and the premise of that show, at its simplest, was that there is a God and that He loves you and that He wants to be part of your life,’ she replied. ‘It was a privilege for me to be playing the angel -- to be messenger -- and delivering that message every week’” - (http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/miracle-couple-mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-from-northern-ireland-touched-by-the-son-of-god-8665).

I have seen the show. And the very clear message she was so privileged to deliver every week, was a message of universal salvation that needed no repentance. Everybody gets to heaven, all you have to do is believe you are going. That is a given, with no significant focus on that future. The real point of the show was-- (to quote a coined phrase)-- “your best life now.”

“Downey was raised as, and remains, a Roman Catholic” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_Downey).

Of course she is~. But the foundational problem isn’t just Catholic; Clearly this permissive Christianized Catholic leprosy now infects the Christian Church body of believers on an $83-million-dollar-weekend epidemic scale:

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” Matthew 15:8-9.
* * *

Son Of Flaws:
The self-proclaimed flaws-of-thinking in the creation of her latest film Son Of God are numerous and remarkable, but I will only touch on a few to make the point:

"We remembered that the disciples at that time didn't know they were in the Bible. They were a bunch of tough guys following a charismatic leader who later is revealed to be the Son of God. Imagine the fear they were going through when they discovered this and imagine the Romans hunting them down and the temple authorities trying to get rid of them.” - (http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/miracle-couple-mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-from-northern-ireland-touched-by-the-son-of-god-8665).

Well, that’s a curious bit of news, as the bible clearly states that on the day that Jesus began his public ministry (John 1:29), John the Baptist confirmed him to be the Son of God, the Lamb of God (v.33-36), and the very next day, one of the first two disciples of Jesus (Andrew), who had followed John and heard his statements of confirmation, expressed to the third disciple (Peter) that they had found the messiah (John 1:40-41). The passage continues and the very next day (v.43) the fourth disciple (Philip) declares to the fifth (Nathanial) that they found the messiah that Moses spoke of (v.45) and this fifth disciple, on the third day of “disciples,” declared Jesus to be the Son of God (v.49).
The scriptures also likewise declare that they knew the prophecies of the Apostles, called Bishops in the OT, and that one would be replaced, and what they were to do (Acts 1:20-26), even in multiple areas of their continuing work (Acts 6:5-6, I Corinthians 4:9, Ephesians 2:19-20, 3:5, Revelation 21:14, etc.). They knew that they were writing scripture when they wrote it (Ephesians 3:1-6, Romans 1:1-2, 11:13, II Peter 3:2,15-16, Jude 1:17, Revelation 18:20, etc.). So what are we to do with Roma Downey’s foundational errors of declaration in trying to create the “accurate” emotions in a docudrama film of the events? Frankly she doesn’t have a clue as to how to put additional emotion to the biblical text while she goes about declaring that she does. Nobody does. And to try is to rewrite the bible.

Now lest we go off on an emotional witch-hunt, it must be acknowledged that the disciples didn’t readily comprehend the application of all that this meant, and this might be construed to be the intent of Downey’s statement, but since we already know, and have shown by her own words and actions, that this woman’s life and doctrine and “angelic ministry” are foundationally confused to disobediently destructive ends (I Corinthians 6:9-10, 5:9-11), we cannot give her much room to be unclear. She has lost her “winging-it privileges” (pun intended).

Continuing on: Do the scriptures tell us that Jesus was a “charismatic leader”? No. But clearly he had to be in order to gain his following… or so she surmises from her non-biblical perspective of what makes a leader. But while this seems like an insignificant point that is open to such speculation in the gap of what is not written, I contend this is not insignificant at all, for reasons that will become evident. Let’s have a look at what IS written on this topic of her Charismatic leader:

Jesus said: “I can of mine own self do nothing…” John 5:30.

“If this man were not of God, he could do nothing” John 9:32.

“For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” Hebrews 7:14.

“…Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?...” John 1:46.

“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:” Philippians 2:7.

“For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” Isaiah 53:2.

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” John 6:63.

The scriptures are filled with the evidence that Roma Downey’s charismatic, magnetic, beautiful Jesus is not God’s Jesus. But what actually makes the difference significant? Let’s see if we can discover that:

“…We've tried to present it in a way that emotionally engages an audience.
We cast a beautiful and extraordinary Portuguese actor called Diogo Morgado and he gives an amazing performance and gives us the qualities of strength, kindness, and compassion. He's an actor who plays the lion and the lamb and when you see this, you're reminded of what an extraordinary love story this is…. This is a very dramatic film. This is not your old 1960s donkeys and sandals story, but this is something for young people. This is a 2014 movie and it looks like it with big special effects. This is a story that can really affect the world in getting to know and love Jesus" - (http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/miracle-couple-mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-from-northern-ireland-touched-by-the-son-of-god-8665).

How does a non-Holy-Ghost-filled, fully human actor, accurately portray the magnetism that Jesus possessed beyond any physical or human characteristics that is specifically declared in the scriptures as important information? He uses his human qualities of attraction to imitate the other, for us to get-- at least in representation-- the spiritual draw Jesus must have had. For any human story this might be acceptable, but for this spiritual story this is an unacceptable deception that leads only to a fundamental destruction of the entire message. It matters not whether this destructive deception was intentional or not, and I have no problem believing that from her point of view it was not. It still doesn’t matter in regards to her guilt (Leviticus 5:2-3). She is, in the essence of truth, the ministering damsel of Acts 16:18, (see Post 270 - http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-ministering-damsel.html).

The danger in the following two links of information are not as easily comprehended until we expose the foundational flaw in Roma Downey’s Jesus, and then it becomes quite clear.

"Even though this was a reenactment, there wasn't a person there who didn't feel the enormity of what He had done for us. And then, for Mark and I, as believers, to be there at the foot of the cross we were reminded of how much we were loved; that He [Jesus] would have done that for us" - (http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/miracle-couple-mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-from-northern-ireland-touched-by-the-son-of-god-8665).

Other telling information we will not cover: Why we cut Satan from ‘Son of God’ (http://www.religionnews.com/2014/02/20/roma-downey-cut-satan-son-god/).

(*4b) Twice Divorced: “Both he [Anspaugh] and Downey, a native of Northern Ireland, had been divorced: he in 1988 after 13 years of marriage to a cruise-line sales manager, with whom he had a daughter, Vanessa, now 18; she in the 1980s after a brief marriage to a fellow actor” - (http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20124846,00.html).

Not that such a thing can’t be forgiven, but the strong compounding evidence is that this is not her past-life forgiven, but a continuation of her unrepentant present life. This is significant, especially as it relates to her privileged spiritual message contrary to the scriptures: I Corinthians 6:11 as one example.

(*5) Venerating an image of Jesus:
“…[H]ypocrites…This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men... And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition… making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye” Mark 7:6-9,13.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (6459), or any likeness (8544) of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them…” Exodus 20:4-5.

Graven image 6459 pecel; from 6458; an idol:-- carved (graven) image.
6458 pacal; a primitive root; to carve, whether wood or stone:-- grave, hew.

Likeness 8544 tmuwnah; or tmunah; from 4327; something portioned (i.e. fashioned) out, as a shape, i.e. (indefinitely) phantom, or (specifically) embodiment, or (figuratively) manifestation (or favor):-- image, likeness, similitude.
(See also Leviticus 26:1 which includes idols).

Idols 457 ‘eliyl; apparently from 408; good for nothing, by analogy vain or vanity; specifically an idol:-- idol, no value, thing of nought.

“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude (8544) on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude (8544) of any figure, the likeness of male or female,” Deuteronomy 4:15-16.

Similitude 8544, [see Likeness above.]

God put a lot of work into being specific and it’s our job to comprehend the spirit of his collective meaning rather than get all legalistic over the details of “it didn’t say photograph.”
But just for you, let’s go there too:

“Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures (4906), and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:” Numbers 33:52.

Pictures 4906 maskiyth; from the same as 7906; a figure (carved on stone, the wall, or any object); figuratively, imagination:-- conceit, image(-ry), picture, X wish.

I really have no need to go into this much detail on this, because those whose hearts will hear my point, heard it back in the discussion. And those that didn’t hear it there, will just fight with the details here. But God is merciful and longsuffering, and so, if you think you need them, he gives you all the details too.
Am I saying all pictures of anything or anyone are detestable and sin? Not necessarily; by the context of the passage, this is about worship, as we saw in Deuteronomy 4:15-16.

“But I don’t worship the actor in the Son of God film,” I hear you say. But I argue that you do. We already know that Catholics are prone to worship wooden likenesses of Jesus and everybody else for that matter, so the risk is there.
Who do you picture in your mind when I ask you to think of the personification of Moses? Is it Charlton Heston? It is if you are the generation that watched The Ten Commandments (1959). And while this may not be such an abominable thing changing one man for another, it is something else entirely to replace in your mind the Lord God with the likeness and mannerisms of a common man. This concept is profound when distinguishing between spirit and emotion.

(*6) Do you know why I no longer own a copy of The Ten Commandments DVD? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_%281956_film%29). Among lesser reasons, it’s because the writer/director felt it was necessary to script and film an actor casually using God’s name in vain as a common expression. Isn’t it ironic, that, of all films, this breach of the 3rd commandment is found in a movie titled; The Ten Commandments?

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” Exodus 20:7. (Confirmed in Deuteronomy 5:11).

Yet we thoughtlessly allowed it because it was such a good biblical film.
But now in hindsight we can understand that this type of allowance is how we end up with films of abomination like the soon-released Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 Noah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_%28film%29), which-- as the Passion of the Christ movie that laid the groundwork of God’s unreasonable abusive nature regarding his own Son, and now also expressed in the nature of his prophet Noah-- is only the beginning of what is coming in the defamation of God’s character since we have opened that door of rewriting the nature of scripture to suit the fancy of our 4906 imagination.

“Movieline's Pete Hammond said that ‘This 'Noah' is unlike any other film of its kind - an intimate and stirring new take on a biblical story we only thought we knew.’
In March 2014, Paramount attached a disclaimer to all forms of advertising: ‘The film is inspired by the story of Noah. While artistic license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide. The biblical story of Noah can be found in the book of Genesis.’ " - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_%28film%29).

Wait and see what this actually means.

“The film was banned in Pakistan, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Indonesia prior to its release as the local government said that it contradicts the teaching of Islam. Later that day a representative of Paramount Pictures confirmed the news by saying ‘Censors for Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE officially confirmed this week that the film will not release in their countries’. The film was also banned in Egypt as it violates Islamic law and could ‘provoke the feelings of believers.’ In Islamic tradition, the portrayal of prophets like Noah is forbidden.” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_%28film%29).

If only Christians held this much respect for their scriptures!
It’s really hard to fathom that while you think Islam has rejected the scriptural message by rejecting movies like these and refusing hospital administrators like those of the Pleasure Hospital, Islam is now more righteously discerning than Christian America! But both Jewish history and the scriptures tell us this is not a new concept:

“And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them” Ezekiel 5:6.
*

Interacting With Babylon

Post 319

So how are we, as the people of the Messiah, supposed to interact with the people of Babylon in such a situation as the last Post describes? The fact is that Mystery Babylon as a young girl, is already here. And, as we have already concluded-- through scripture, and reason, and conjecture based on reality-- she will be here for some time, and will become the very center of the world’s commerce before she meets her end. And, as I have shown in previous Posts, God’s people will find themselves entangled in Babylon for an undisclosed duration and unspecified cause, but God will call them out a full year before he sends her judgment. You really need to read the whole of Jeremiah 51 but that can wait till later:

“And I will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about” Jeremiah 51:2.

“Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence” Jeremiah 51:6. (Compare this with Matthew 24:15-21 and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD as a useful bit of historical pattern).

“My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. and lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler” Jeremiah 51:45-46.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars… For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom… All these are the beginning of sorrows” Matthew 24:7-8.

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” Revelation 18:4-5.

“And the men (angels) said unto lot, Hast thou here any besides?... bring them out of this place: for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it” “And when the morning arose, then the angels hasted Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city” Genesis 19:12-13, 15.

The question I have long pondered is, Why would God be so gentle and longsuffering and patient and benevolent, and urging, to call his people out of Babylon over an entire year before he brings Judgment to Babylon? (Jeremiah 51:45-46) The Jews didn’t get such a lengthy “warming up to the idea” opportunity in the fall of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:24:15-21). The only possible answer must be found in who the judgment is meant for. The fall of Jerusalem was because of the sin and iniquity of the Jews (Isaiah 1:21-25), while the fall of Babylon is declared for the sin and iniquity of the Babylonians, likewise Sodom and the Sodomites. Now if God’s people (the Jews) in Babylon were to be found guilty while there, I don’t see God calling them out, but rather destroying them with Babylon. Therefore we must conclude, like Lot in Sodom, and like Noah in the world, that God calls those Jews in Babylon righteous, as God himself makes the comparison (II Peter 2:5-8, Isaiah 13:19, Luke 17:28-30).
This is an important distinction, because frankly, it’s pretty hard for me to analyze Lot’s life and the conduct of his wife and daughters; both married and unmarried, and conclude that I find him righteous (Genesis 13:12-13, 19:8,16, etc.). God looks on the inward parts while we tend to look on the outward (I Samuel 16:7, Romans 2:28, Matthew 23:29-29, I Peter 3:3-4, etc.).
What I am saying is that in that future near-off day we might easily judge the Jews who are in Babylon and condemn them with Babylon for her wickedness, while God sees that they are there and involved yet not partaking. Therefore we must be cautious to look for another reason why these people of God might be so reluctant to leave Babylon, as was Lot from Sodom (Genesis 19:16). And in our cautious looking for answers I believe we get an insight in our study chapter:

“Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies” Jeremiah 51:7-9.

What we see here, in this one-verse mix of a whole lot of information at her determined end, is that even then at the last, this Babylon has great value that seems to us worthy to be healed, or “reclaimed.” The people of God dwelling in her understand her great value and perhaps even the great cost to the earth if she were to be destroyed. I believe this verse tells us that in the year before her coming destruction God’s people will be frantically doing everything they can to save her… just as God’s people in America are doing today.
What might this mean? It seems to mean very clearly that Babylon, though very, very wicked, is not all bad. Babylon also has virtue of great value that simply cannot be replaced when she falls. Ignoring for a moment the loss of wicked pleasures and personal gain, we see the evidence of this “not quite redeeming” but nonetheless genuine global value, by the reaction of the world’s merchantmen after her fall:

“And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more” Revelation 18:9-11.

Yes, of course we know that extortion and greed and power usually come with the sale of merchandise to one degree or another, and clearly we see in the continuing passage that this is significantly involved here, but my point is that the world needs merchandise and this is where the world will get it at that time. Today I might not like the prices of the local merchandise in my small town stores, but I have nowhere else to go to buy the goods that I both need to survive as well as the goods that just make my life a whole lot easier. I play no wicked part in whatever greed of merchandising might be going on, yet I would be greatly troubled if these shops downtown were to go up in flames, because I would have nowhere to buy what I need or desire.
So what happens if my local grocer actually turns out to be a nasty human trafficker that also deals in child porn and drugs as well? Am I wicked for buying my produce from his store? The scriptures tend to tell us, No. Might a neighbor who is “in the know” and sees me shopping in his store conclude that I am participating in the nastiness? Sure. (Now I hope you understand that this a hypothetical discussion!). But in my case, because there is virtually no other way that I can get my needed goods, God does not find me guilty for shopping there, nor for buying heating oil and gasoline from the local one-shop monopoly extortioner, or allow myself to be cheated monthly by another business’s faulty metering system, or buy so many Communist Chinese goods for that matter, or buy a communist style Healthcare insurance required by a godless government, or any of a number of other such things I would rather not do. The scriptures tell us that Lot, living in Sodom, was deeply troubled every single day by the filthy lifestyle of Sodom’s wickedness, and he was a city elder! (Genesis 19:1a):

“And delivered just Lot, vexed (928) with the filthy conversation (391) of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)” II Peter 2:7-8.

Vexed 928 basanizo; from 931; to torture:-- pain, toil, torment, toss, vex.
Conversation 391 (not <931) anastrophe; from 390; behavior:-- conversation.

But now as we continue Peter’s thought we see how this applies to the Jews in Babylon just prior to her destruction, and how it applies to us today as we try to live in this wicked world:

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities” II Peter 2:9-10.

Oh there is a lot in this verse!
First: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.”
This should warm our heart in knowing that I have no reason to fall to the temptations thrust upon me by my wicked culture or society, even if that society is Sodom or Babylon itself. If I fall to temptation it’s because I am not godly. Period. This, while sounding negative, is actually a positive thing before the destruction comes, because it allows us to see clearly that we have some housecleaning to be done; we need to become godly in the specific area of our failure (James 1:2).

Second: “and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”
Here we see that the very same setting for the good of the one is for the destruction of the other. God is not just tolerating this wicked City while biding his time, but rather His hand is deeply in this setting for multiple reasons. In fact, God declares that he has used this Babylon and her golden cup of unspeakable wickedness for his own purposes, and that is to make the world drunk with abominations, filthiness, and fornications:

“Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken:” Jeremiah 51:7.
“…having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications:” Revelation 17:4b.

But this is still too generic in God’s intended use of Babylon to reserve the unjust for their judgment; Jeremiah tells us that with the general judgment of the unjust, God capitalizes on two specific groups of the unjust:

Third: “but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.”
This is really two-legs of the same beast if you will. The life that chases after the worldly flesh does so in two ways: lust of uncleanness and despising authority. In the BBC news article of the previous Post did we not see both these legs in the life-style choices and comments of those that came to help the poor women?

Leg 1:
“The Raelians believe that planet Earth was created and is still governed by extra-terrestrials who will one day return to judge humanity. They believe in UFOs and that our purpose on Earth is the pursuit of pleasure” - BBC News1 3-17-2014 (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577358).

Leg 2:
“Dr Brigitte Boisellier, president of Clitoraid, says: ‘This wonderful mission has now been stymied by the Catholic Church and its cronies, who are conducting a smear campaign against it for their own selfish motives’" - BBC News2 3-17-2014 (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577358).

Regarding Leg 2, the news reporter did some commendable legwork to get to the facts of the case rather than go with the emotional opinion, and found that both the Catholic Church and the government had a different take on why things went the way they did:

“The Catholic Church in Burkina Faso has dismissed this allegation as ‘poisonous rumour’”.

“I go to the regional Health Ministry in Bobo and ask why. The minister is out of the country but an official there tells me that it is for bureaucratic reasons. The hospital administrators failed to fill out the necessary forms to allow inspections to take place before opening. It sounds like a reasonable explanation until the Health Minister, Lene Sebego, tells a journalist from the Thomson Reuters Foundation that ‘medical organisations should be focused on saving lives and not advertising their religion in an attempt to convert vulnerable people’” - BBC News3 3-17-2014 (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577358).

It is going to be very easy in the rising emotion of “righteous indignation” to combine two issues here, but we must not do that. Nobody said the intended medical work was not honorable, needed, and praiseworthy. The government even allowed the hospital to be completely built, so clearly they were in approval of the focused intent to help these mutilated women recover their loss. What we need to discover is, Why then would they shut down the work after getting so close?
Now understand this; I am a committed Christian with the foundational desire to spread my Lord’s gospel to all I possibly can. Yet even I understand that Christians are often thrust out of countries after they are approved and arrive under the visa of; teacher, doctor, laborer, translator, etc., because they were found to be intentionally using their position and visa to spread their religion where it was expressly forbidden. The governmental premise is that “our people need these ministers of good will” but religion and religious values were not a part of what these governments have approved. What we see is a clear separation between the kind of work done in the regulatory eyes of these governments. In their perspective they would also thrust out an approved translator if he was found conducting medical surgery. It just makes sense, you weren’t granted a visa as a preacher.
So IF these current medical people had left their strange religions and contendable moral values at home, and came to Bobo to perform the medical work their visas approved, they would have most likely been allowed to do the work. And IF they had done this, Christians would have no problem supporting their work and even participating in that work side by side with these doctors. BUT, because-- as the News Article itself identified a dramatic focus-- they came publicizing their odd religious and moral values, now neither the government nor the Christians can participate in their program:

“Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for [their: v.29] conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake” I Corinthians 10:25-27.

This also applies to the work of the Pleasure Hospital in the article, though the name alone causes a pain of; “I don’t want to know any more details for the sake of the good work I wish to do with you.”
But once they promote their godless values by; wearing and explaining such abominable jewelry, making such declaratory comments of their values and origins and support, etc., now it’s too late to continue:

“But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof:” I Corinthians 10:28.

Note, that as with the two-fold use of Babylon itself, the same reason is used in the “Do” as in the “Don’t”:

“for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” Meaning; all things are available to use, and to be used to the glory of God.

If the charity work of the Pleasure Hospital was really the humanitarian motive behind the workers, then the News Article’s writer would not have even learned of the strange values and unrelated history of the aid-workers (did we learn of their marital status or their political affiliations?), but clearly it was important to them that this other was made public, and so it was in the article, and this disruptive value then became a key part of the issue regarding their work. By the remark made by the government Health Minister; the government would rather have their citizen women remain physically damaged and otherwise whole, rather than physically whole and otherwise damaged by the bazaar ideas and lifestyles of the foreigners who brought the aid. And so they were shut down, no different than English teachers in china deported or detained for spreading Christianity in the classroom. This is not a medical issue and I support the intended decision of the government for trying to protect their vulnerable people. --I must add here that I often cringe at the lack of wisdom in many Christian workers who flaunt their illegal proselytization in foreign lands to the point that a government which was willing to turn a blind eye for the sake of the beneficial work they approved, is then forced to take action. Wisdom says use discretion.
I believe this concept is why Ken Ham’s recent debate with Bill Nye the Science Guy sadly went the way it did, he was not permitted to keep the discussion on the science and he got rattled as the topic diverged to where he had not prepared and where secular science is not interested in going at this point. In essence Ken Ham was requesting a science visa but the discussion turned to religion and the visa was denied because his science fell down.
Like women working in a man’s world; a Christian must be on his "A game" just to break even in the secular world. They will intentionally test us beyond normal just to see if we can make the grade. This is reasonable. I would encourage Mr. Ham to get back up, learn the lesson, and prepare to try again with more wisdom. They’re scientists, so sell them the science and let the science lead them to God (I Corinthians 9:20-23).

So getting back to the topic, Can Christians and God’s Jews live and work within Babylon’s system? Yes. But if it doesn’t daily vex your soul as you try to go about it, then you must seriously question your godliness in the fear of not escaping before the judgment comes. And what about your children who also live in that influence?

Lot was reluctant to leave Sodom, Americans are reluctant to leave America, aid workers are reluctant to leave the Pleasure Hospital in Africa, and God’s people will be reluctant to leave Babylon, because there is much good contained with the wickedness that will be a great loss when it all falls, and so they frantically try to patch holes in a sinking ship for as long as is possible. This is the same issue as not rejecting “all that come back from a trip to heaven” because most all of them are indeed of Satan. It’s just not that easy anymore. We need a heightened sense of discernment today to make the righteous judgment of surgically dividing the cancer from the patient, and even going further, to identify a benign lump from life-threatening before we start hacking:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” Hebrews 4:12.

This verse is often used, but rarely understood.
Do you understand that the soul and the spirit often have two different motives, and that it is important to discern which is coming from which? Do you comprehend that that the thoughts and the intents of the heart are not the same thing, and must be distinguished properly? A man is in fact as he thinks in his heart (Proverbs 23:7), but that is not always what his heart intends! (Genesis 6:5 vs 6:2, Proverbs 24:12). The real concern for today is in the complexity and confusion, the hope of the good will encourage many to simply quit arguing and “go with it in good faith” and thereby fail to identify the evil in time.
Slumbering is not a virtue! and this in not a licence.

God uses the golden cup of Babylon’s allurements to capture the wicked and hold them mesmerized for judgment, but he also uses that cup of temptation to refine his faithful people who refuse to succumb to the draw but instead learn to hate the very sight of it for the destruction it brings. The golden Cup will either vex your soul or make it lust. The war in your soul is in making that choice. The fire-tried righteous who find God’s Rest in the presence of the beautiful and alluring golden cup have won that war and made the right choice (Romans 5:1-4).

Can a Christian work shoulder to shoulder with a Raelian in the effort to help a bunch of poor and mutilated women recover their God given natural state? Why not!? Just be cautious of finding yourself caught in the middle of something you really don’t want to be a part of! This potential should vex you as you work, and bring wisdom in carefully regulating the conduct of what you agree to join for a cause. Ask Lot if he thought the end result was worth his time in Sodom.
*

A Fantastic Tale

- And An Excerpt -
Post 319

Let me spin you a tale that is just too fantastic to believe. It has a love story, it has plenty of drama, it has action, and betrayal, it has reversals, and complexity, and dark grit, it has lovesick vampires and shadowy ghosts… all the way ‘round, it has the greatest of Hollywood potential. Its only problem is that it’s just “too far out there”; it’s too unbelievable even for our modern fans of “out there” Hollywood stories like; Planet of the Apes, War of the Worlds, Matrix, Independence Day, and New Moon. This tale might be too advanced to connect with this still shortsighted generation, but the next generation will eat it up!
So without further ado, let me spin you a tale and an excerpt:
* * *

Long ago and far away, or not so far away and still to come-- I forget-- there was a Dark Empire with an insatiable desire to oppress the world with unspeakable suffering and great extortions for the sole purpose of making its empire dominate the earth to its own advantage. As is the case with all empires of that time and Age they had their own deity, whose name was Draco.
Draco was commonly called The Beast by both the fearing nations as well as the multi-faceted empire that claimed him. As evidenced by the artfully crafted huge multi-metallic image standing in the square of the empire’s great city, he was an unspeakably horrible monster with armor plated scales, a long thick tail, almost oversized claws and teeth, and four muscle-bound massive legs with oversized feet that appeared capable of easily catapulting his enormous frame, but his main feature that brought fear to every man was his seven fire-breathing heads and ten horns, whose horny heads were so filled with consuming rage that they constantly attacked one another when they weren’t devouring the nations of the earth. With this deity as their standard the empire was undefeatable in battle, and the nations fell like trees before the pyroclastic winds of a volcanic eruption… that is; when Draco could get all his heads to focus on the same target and work in unison.
The greatness of every deity is also his weakness, and Draco was no different. The only consistent hope of the world’s nations was that these many heads would find many simultaneous distractions to keep its unspeakably consuming potential diminished, but with seven devouring heads consuming seven individual nations at a time before moving on, this was little consolation. Yet periodically, the many heads bound at the base of their long necks like Medusa’s snakes, all began to fight amongst themselves simultaneously and the nations had respite, if but for a moment.

There was a seemingly insignificant tiny nation among the many larger of the land, that, like the many others, fell before the wrath of Draco and his empire when he came though. The result was a once happy, healthy, powerful, carefree and wealthy people became just another nameless addition to the starving hoard of slave nations providing for the welfare of the empire. The telling of the tragic details of this tiny nation would be a fascinating tale all its own but this is not the focus of my story today. Nor will it seem that my focus is on the very small number of individuals from that tiny nation that banded together without a national flag yet in a power far greater than their size and independence should be able to muster.
There sponsorless numbers were so small in fact that their existence went totally unnoticed by anyone for a time, until their growing grassroots voice began to scare the frightened leaders of their slave nation; “Don’t draw the attention of even a single head of Draco!” was their plea to the small force of men who had a knack for gaining followers at an inspiring rate even without the power of a political identity to cohese them. They were called rebels, but what were they rebelling against no one knew; clearly it wasn’t the tiny slave nation, nor even the great empire, yet they had an additional creed all their own that made their unique independence quite apparent. While remaining collectively flagless, they were collectively the hardest working assets to the struggling slave nation as well as the hardest working appeasement to the great empire, yet they were nonetheless almost their own nation because of their unexplainably unique mindframe of creed-loyal unity among themselves that stood like an impenetrable wall in the face of every obstacle. Eventually this nameless little group was unofficially tagged with the label Messtians, just to give them an identity when people spoke about their exploits in quiet circles. And their exploits were indeed worthy of talking about, but this is not the focus of my excerpt.

Over time this flagless grassroots collection of ghostlike Messtians had gained a name among the nations for their seemingly unplanned yet timely aid to the poor-and-suffering of all nations, as well as, along with the aid, giving a specific message of hope for the otherwise hopeless future. This recognition eventually reached the ears of the empire’s religious necromancers, who, calling upon their dark forces for insight, began to devise an ingenious plan to foil the Messtians without the need of even locating them. The problem is that this creative plan would have to be implemented behind the back of Draco, who was, shall we say; “less than delicate” in the matter of destroying his enemies, and thus incapable of defeating what he could not find by force.

What the necromancers did was to begin an official recognition of the Messtians.
They published throughout the empire and their slave nations the glories and virtues of the Messtians, and praised them with great exuberance and honors as being the much-needed helpers of the poor-and-suffering in these sorrowful dark times.
Of course at first the slave nations were not buying this and could see through the illusion, but couldn’t see the reasoning behind it. And while the quiet circles left off talking about the Messtians to begin talking of this new development and its meaning, the necromancers remained consistent and even provided funds and manpower to help the Messtians do their work in their own unregulated way. This was stunning. This was confusing. This was unexplainable and unexpected. But many, many people were helped, far above what the Messtians could do without this aid, and this was all in the open. It seems that the force of the grassroots Messtians had won the contest and the dark empire was seeing the light! This was a great and glorious day indeed!
But in the elation of this great aid to relieve the long-experienced suffering, what the people failed to notice in their evaluations was that they were still slaves to the empire. This was not the message of hope in aid given by the Messtians, but who in their right minds could look a gift-horse in the mouth?-- (an ancient phrase, meaning to scrutinize the quality/health of the greatly beneficial gift, as if you were making a purchasing decision to accept or reject it).
Draco was angry. And I mean really angry, because they were no longer feeding his wrath to the degree he had grown accustomed to, yet it couldn’t be denied that a healthier happier slave population could produce far more for the empire with far less effort to maintain them. This was a win-win for both parties.

But this was not the end goal of the necromancers and those to whom they besought council. This was only the first phase of a much greater plan.
Official Messtian Centers were set up all over the land and the grandest of them was in the empire city itself. People flocked to these centers for food, medicine, and labor instruments to make their life and work easier, and so the vast and desperate needs of a people-long-neglected, quickly made it necessary for the people to pay for their gifts, but such things were to be expected, after all, the benevolence of even the Great Empire could not be expected to be bottomless and provide so much for nothing. The people were just happy to finally get what was previously ungettable at any price. These Messtian Centers were a godsend!
But soon the laboring people were incapable of coming up with payment for what they desperately needed, and so it became necessary for the empire to raise the taxes on the people’s services to the empire. This was reasonable; after all, these were hard times for everyone, and the Messtians had the longstanding right answer; “Have a servant heart to all,” and this attitude seems to have proven successful to this point.
Nobody hardly noticed that the Messtian leaders of the Messtian Centers, though expressing feeling bad for collecting funds from the poor and needy, were nonetheless collecting an ever-increasing sum for what they distributed. What they did notice is that it was becoming ever-increasingly more difficult to come up with the required sums that the Messtian Centers required.
Eventually the Messtian Centers were forced to resort to more “forceful” tactics to get the people to give to the Centers, and an additional timely motive was the cost of defense against Draco and his empire of wrath. And so the Messtains published official bulletins declaring that for every coin brought to a Center they would defend one of your family members from Draco. Of course no one knew just how much defense was needed so the more you gave the better chances of success you had.
This seemed to work and the Messtain Centers grew quickly. Where they were once simple warehouses filled with boxed goods, they now became great palaces filled with elaborate treasures that seemed to have no function or intention of being distributed, but the reasoning was that by magnifying the Centers the people were more likely to feel them successful and be more willing to give to the cause.
This went on for some time.
But eventually there was a quiet yet growing stir among the nations regarding a small group of Messtians who were claiming that the Messtian Centers were not Messtian at all. How ridiculous! And how offensive to the greatly respected name of the Messtians who had spent so much effort to relieve the suffering of the poor-and-desperate slave masses!
Instead of being heard, these rebels were first shunned in fear and confusion but then hunted down and turned in to the Messtian Centers where they were made examples-of to anyone who would support the violence of Draco over the benevolent Messtian Centers that boldly stood against him. And clearly they were succeeding, as evidenced by Draco’s less frequent desolations of the cities that had Messtian Centers.
The Centers that became warehouses, became palaces, and the palaces became cities. Cities of unspeakable wealth and luxury. And always carefully maintained by specially trained Messtian priests, lest the success fall into decay and they would no longer be able to help the people.
Nobody asked why Draco left these cites alone, it was just accepted as the mysterious power of the Messtians.

But eventually and slowly, and I mean slowly, it began to dawn on the nations that they now had two oppressors rather than just one. And while Draco was clearly the scary one, the Messtians were the sneaky deceivers that were robbing them of whatever dregs Draco left behind. The sudden long-coming awareness that their benevolent defenders were really just leaches of a second prison, burned hot within their already bitter belly. This was a rage of long pent-up unquenchable fire that cast off every fear and caution in the effort to break free from… EVERYTHING!
This was the Age of Liberation!
But they took with them into their liberation the personal compilation of the confusions and resentments of the life they had lived, and they thought these were their own ideas, safe from outside abuse as they sought help from anyone NOT a part of their past.
And the necromancers grinned…
* * *

Here is where I will park this tale for the time being, because this tale will needs become a book that cannot be included here. But my backstory excerpt and purpose for telling it should become apparent as we switch to today’s headline news as it relates timely to the body of my present work;
The Mystery Is Not The Beast.

If I were to write out in my own words this following fantastic tale, it would be immediately rejected as the work of a sick but creative psychopath that needs to be put away for the protection of society, but I didn’t write this, it didn’t come out of my head, this is headline news, in the real world, today.
May God help us all!... if we can even figure out who that God is.
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BBC News 3/17/2014
A tall, striking woman addresses a group of women sitting under a mango tree in a village in Western Burkina Faso. It is 35 degrees [c] in the shade and the air is dusty and stifling. The women listen in awe to 38-year-old Adjara who has just got back from the local town. "I am telling you the truth," she says. "I have seen it with my own eyes!" She is referring to the first hospital in the world to be built for the sole purpose of restoring the clitoris and about to open, she says, in the town of Bobo, 50 miles away. "We can be like other women!" she says.

The village of Moussodougou is about as deprived as you get in one of the poorest countries in Africa, Burkina Faso.

It has no electricity, no running water and only a fifth of the children have access to a school. While the men appear to sit around in the heat all day, the women fetch and carry water in tin basins and grind the local staple, millet and sorghum, for the daily meal.
And yet, Adjara says, "We might be poor but, sexually, things are changing." As she shows me around, she tells me that

every woman used to be genitally mutilated.

"I was five when I was taken to be cut. The old woman used the same knife for us all. It was so painful. I cried and cried." Adjara takes me to her home, a dark hut some 8m wide, where the shelves are weighed down with heavy, clay pots. "It was part of the wedding package," she explains. "When you get married, you get given these pots to take away with you by your mother. But if you weren't cut, you didn't get the pots and you couldn't get married."

Then, about 10 years ago, health workers came to the village and explained that the problems which used to be blamed on witchcraft - the death of girls after the mutilation and problems in childbirth which resulted in more deaths - "all were because of the cutting, they told us, and so we stopped".

And now they are being told that their clitorises can be restored and that the pain they endure whenever they have sex will end and they could even experience pleasure. "I am happy," said the husband of 24-year-old Bebe, who has come to wave her off for the trip to Bobo for the operation. "I did not like it that she cried out every time I came to her."
Twenty-six women clamber on to the 18-seat bus. They pile on top of each other, some carrying babies and small children. There is scarcely room to breathe but they chatter and even sing on the four-hour journey down red mud, dusty roads to the local town, avoiding herds of cattle and stray goats on the way.
It is dusk when the bus turns in to the hospital grounds. The Pleasure Hospital, as the sponsors call it, is an impressive sight - large, very new [and modern even in the American sense] but very closed. Fortunately, Adjara's husband works as a security guard here and so she finds them a room in the grounds and they all bed down on the concrete floor and wait.

The next morning, the local member of the hospital organising committee, Banemanie Traore, arrives with the devastating news that, although the government allowed the hospital to be built, they have said it can't open.

Banemanie is a beautiful, 59-year-old woman, her hair done in ringlets who tells me she was "restored, six years ago and I am now very happy". She wears a distinctive gold symbol around her neck, a swastika surrounded by a Star of David. She is a Raelian and therein may lie the problem.

The Raelians believe that planet Earth was created and is still governed by extra-terrestrials who will one day return to judge humanity. They believe in UFOs and that our purpose on Earth is the pursuit of pleasure.

About 10 years ago, wealthy Raelians living in California and Canada launched a charity they called Clitoraid. They invited donors to "sponsor a clitoris", raised $400,000 and started building the Pleasure Hospital eight years ago. It is due to open in four days' time and women are arriving in Bobo from all over Africa for the operation.
Banemanie Traore is convinced that the Ministry has stepped in to stop the project for religious reasons. She says powerful Catholics in the country have put pressure on the government. "They don't want women to have pleasure," she says.
But, she adds, it doesn't make sense. "There are 130 million women in Africa who have been mutilated and who are denied pleasure. If someone has the idea to build them a hospital, you have to let them do it."

Meanwhile, a medical team from America has also arrived, led by Dr Marci Bowers, who was born Mark, and is recognised internationally as an expert in transgender surgery.

I meet her on her first day in Africa, looking slightly bemused at the dusty, mud buildings and the bedraggled street sellers who follow her everywhere, "It makes you appreciate what we have back home in Chicago," she says. She buys a silver bracelet from one vendor and a length of fabric from another.
"I came because I believe that Female Genital Mutilation is a crime against humanity and I am on a humanitarian mission. I am not a Raelian but I think it is a wonderful thing that they are doing." The five American medics are all giving their time voluntarily and they now have nowhere to operate.
A local doctor steps in to help. Doctor Da offers his clinic in Bobo, the Clinique Lorentia, for the operations. The village women queuing at the hospital are brought in twos and threes for the surgery. Bebe is among the first to be wheeled in to the operating theatre "I am not scared," she says. "I am just angry that this was done to me and I am angry about the pain and that, because of it, I have never enjoyed sex."
Bowers invites me to watch the surgery which, she explains, is a surprisingly simple one that can be done under local anaesthetic and takes about 45 minutes. The clitoris is a gland and, although the visible part is cut off during mutilation, the majority remains below the surface and can be pulled up and thus restored.
Meanwhile, word is getting out that the operations are being performed. In the reception area below, women are arriving from the capital, Ouagadougou and from Mali, Senegal and even Kenya.
Dr Bowers and her fellow surgeon, Dr Harold Henning from New York State, work in shifts to perform eight operations a day. Local doctors look on. The idea is that when the Americans leave after two weeks, local doctors will be ready to continue the work.
Dr Bowers is operating on her 29th patient when the news comes. The government has withdrawn the licences for the American surgeons to work in Burkina Faso and they must leave. "I guess they thought by closing the hospital they would stop us," says Bowers. "It didn't and now they have done this." The women waiting in reception are told their operations are cancelled.
I go to the regional Health Ministry in Bobo and ask why. The minister is out of the country but an official there tells me that it is for bureaucratic reasons. The hospital administrators failed to fill out the necessary forms to allow inspections to take place before opening. It sounds like a reasonable explanation until the Health Minister, Lene Sebego, tells a journalist from the Thomson Reuters Foundation that

"medical organisations should be focused on saving lives and not advertising their religion in an attempt to convert vulnerable people".

Prominent Raelians who had flown in for the opening of the hospital blame the Catholic Church in Burkina Faso, claiming that prominent Catholic doctors, enraged that foreign doctors were carrying out the procedure, had put pressure on the government to stop it. The[y] say that the Church also fear[s] that the Raelians might get recruits from among grateful patients[.]
Dr Brigitte Boisellier, president of Clitoraid, says: "This wonderful mission has now been stymied by the Catholic Church and its cronies, who are conducting a smear campaign against it for their own selfish motives." The Catholic Church in Burkina Faso has dismissed this allegation as “poisonous rumour”.
Whatever the truth, the women of Burkina Faso and throughout Africa are the losers. The expensive new hospital stands idle. Of the women from the village of Moussodogou, 15 of the 26 who took the bus journey were operated on and can look forward to a life without pain and the chance of sexual pleasure. Adjara, who did so much to get them to the hospital, was among those who did not get to the operating theatre in time. They go back to their village with little hope of return or of being restored.
- BBC News 3/17/14 (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577358). used under critical review laws. Bold emphasis added.

Is this getting insane enough for you yet? Hang on, I assure you it’s only just getting started. But I have made my point: Mystery Babylon is alive and well!
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