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veale2006-blog · 2 years

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The Beast, The False Jesus, And The Rapture, Part 1 - Secrets On the Fourth Day of Creation Week, in Genesis chapter one, Yehovah created the Sun and Moon, to act together to announce the appointed times, or “moadim of the Lord”. There are three remaining moadim that Yeshua has not yet fulfilled, which are the Day of Trumpets, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Tabernacles. I suggest that each of the remaining moadim will occur in different years, as much as 1,000 years apart. In this series, we’ll discuss that which leads up to the Day of Trumpets.

There are certain “players” during those last seven years, and I’m uncertain at this time how they will interact and come to fruition. The elite rich (Illuminati), league of secret societies, the “whore”, the Beast (the anti-Christ), the false prophet, and the “new world order”, all play a major role, at least at the beginning of the seven years. We’ll take a guess, and discuss them one at a time.

The Illuminati plan to massacre two thirds of the Earth’s population, and enslave the rest to serve “the elite”. These are those that have been serving Satan in secret societies for centuries, yielding their souls for riches, not considering the judgment of Yehovah. They have been pushing for the “new world order”, with themselves as masters of the Earth. That is what mankind gets for not teaching the truth of Genesis, and the Bible to our children.

Let’s pass over the secret societies for now. I’ve been wondering what group represents the “whore” in Revelation chapter 17. Is it Rome, specifically the Vatican? Is it Babylon, the “new world order”? Or is it a combination of the three? The Catholic regime has murdered millions of “oneness” Christians and Jews in the past, and I have not been able to connect (or confirm) Babylon (the new world order) with such crimes, unless it was done through the Catholic Order of Jesuits. We’ll speak of them later.

But there is another angle to consider. The Constantine (Catholic) regime were gentiles. I would find it unusual that God would call gentiles a “whore”, when it might be more fitting to name the clan of Pharisees, priests, and Sanhedrin as whores. Who are the ones that have taken the Torah, and added numerous commands and regulations to it, calling it the “oral Torah” (Talmud)? If Moses didn’t write it down, Yehovah didn’t say it. Who of Israel are the ones that have hunted down Jews that were disciples of Yeshua? So called Orthodox Judaism is really Rabbinic Judaism (Pharisees), which Yeshua condemned, and which had the Messiah killed, after He exposed their takanot and ma’asim which they imposed upon the people. Takanot and ma’asim are man-made rules and doctrines, created to make the people jump thru hoops and to usurp control over their daily lives.

Suppose this form of Judaism is the “whore” that joins itself to the Beast, in order to attain certain (mutual) goals? It is the rabbis that had stated that they have authority on Earth over that of God, concerning the Torah, and that “God must obey them”? They are evil and mistaken. I wonder what part does Kabbalism play in this. From where did the symbol “Star of David” (two triangles) come from? Islam has two squares, passed on from the Catholic Church.

Again, who is the woman? Read Revelation chapter 17. Yeshua will make the New Jerusalem the capital of the (new) Earth. It appears that Lucifer wants to make (or maintain) Rome as the capital. How is this to be accomplished? By evil deceit, secret societies, sexual perversion, and double cross.

It started before modern mankind, where Luciferian worship brought destruction to the previous era of humanity. Those same elements found its way to Babylon, with Nimrod being worshiped as “god on Earth”, and establishment of “secret societies” to rule over the Earth. That’s where “Mystery Babylon” comes from, at least in part. In ancient Babylon, Egypt, India, Persia, Greece, and elsewhere after the dividing of the nations (Babel Tower), different forms of Pantheism were practiced. The god “Pan”, was of Greece, but his Roman counterpart was Faunus. Of the gentiles, such practices gave rise to the Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Elsewhere we have witchcraft, Divination, Gnosticism, and the occult. The Jews had Kabbalism, which the Essenes may have come from.

Where is this leading to? Numa Pompilius was the 2nd king of Rome (reigned 715–673 BC), established the office and duties of Pontifex Maximus, and instituted the worship of Fides, the goddess of Trust. The worship of pagan gods and goddesses were ingrained into Roman culture long before Constantine, who became emperor in about 324 AD. He hated Jews, and he tried to wipe out “oneness” Christianity, but could not. So he created a new state religion that would merge his worship of Mithra, and Rome’s paganism, with a few parts of original Christianity, of which came the Catholic (Universal) Church. I believe it was after 400 AD, that the Pope assumed the title of Pontifex Maximus. Over the years, a shift was made from Jesus, to the worship of Mary (Fides, Isis), and how she was born without sin, because of that (supposedly), Jesus was born without sin.

When sin is at the head, more evil infects the body. From within the Catholic Church, rose the Occult, Islam, the Knights of Templars, and the Jesuits. The Catholic Occult was located in two centers: Alexandria in Egypt, and Rome. As I understand, Catholicism had an elite “inner circle” with Luciferian worship, and a much larger outer circle of which the pagan form of Christianity was taught. The inner circle was kept hidden in order to deceive the masses. Luciferian worship incorporates the worship of darkness, Satan as being stronger than Yehovah, and sexual perversion. This is Satan’s mode of operation: secrecy, deceit, perversion, and double cross.

The Catholic Occult moved from Alexandria and consolidated in Rome, when (a truer form of) Christianity absorbed a good portion of Northern Africa and Asia Minor, somewhere in the 450-600 AD timeframe. This meant that (the kingdom of) the Pope had less jurisdiction and power. The inner circle wanted to change that. This is where Islam comes in.

Mohammad married an “elite rich” Catholic nun named Khadija bint Khuwaylid, when he was 25, in 595 AD, and she was 40. Muhammad had epileptic fits and demonic visions. The inner circle saw this as “an opportunity”. The then Pope (either St. Gregory I or Sabinian) decreed that Muhammad was “hearing from God”, and the religion of Islam was created, with the Arabian Moon god named “Allah” as its deity. The inner circle saw this as a way to combat Judaism and non-Catholic Christianity. I’m guessing that Khadija acted as liaison between the Pope, the inner circle, and Islam, to which she outwardly converted to. In the next chapter, we will begin with the Knights of Templars.

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forbidden-sorcery · 5 years

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People tried for witchcraft and sorcery were once thought to be in allegiance with devils. These devils were Satan, Ashtaroth, or some other demonic entity. Or fairies, the undead, or the spirit of dead people. The Devil was attended by a host of demonic servants that he could send forth to do his work and bidding. While the kingdom of God was signified by unity and order, that of the Devil was its reversal, a realm of immorality, diversity, and chaos. The devil did not restrict his work and mission to the dwellers of the countryside. The works of the Devil started in the Church and initially took the form of heresy. The period known as the 'witch craze' took hold during the intense changes the Church went through in the Middle Ages and the Reformation. The witch hunts occurred just as much inside the Church as outside. For instance, in the trials of the Jesuit Father John-Baptist Girard in the mid-1600s, we find the exorcism of Miss Mary-Catherine Cadiere, where Girard was accused of incest, abortion, and sorcery. The priest had exorcised devils, but also invited more in, particularly of lust and obsession. Likewise, in the same period, Joan Peterson, known as the Witch of Wapping, was hanged in 1652 for the practice of malign witchcraft. The prosecution was preoccupied with outlandish visitors and shape-shifters. Several people reported that they had seen the Devil taking various forms such as dog and squirrel, and Peterson taking the form of a cat to harm children. The prosecution were interested in the accounts of the Devil coming to 'suck her'. We see here the motif of the familiar in the guise of a vampire. Her danger to the children arose from her powers of bewitchment or 'fascinatio'. The power of 'fascinatio' has been ascribed to saints, sages, saddhus, sheiks and other wise people. Rabbis were reputed to be able with a glance from their eyes to dissolve people by fire. The source of the power was more important than the nature of the power itself. In the case of fascinatio or 'the evil eye' this power was understood to be provoked by envious demons.

Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold - Craft of the Untamed: An Inspired Vision of Traditional Witchcraft

#Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold #witchcraft

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ss-neokagashi-ss-blog · 6 years

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Exposing The Illuminati

https://www.ancient-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17895

Exposing The Illuminati The Illuminati order was a Jewish world government movement of Kabbalistic Jews going back to its original origin's in Europe in the 15th century in Spain as the Jewish Alumbrado movement which means "Illuminated or Enlightened" this movement became the Jesuits Order officially and it appears in France later on in the 17th century officially and became known as the Frankist movement and came public again as the infamous "Illuminati" of Weishaupt. Adam Weishaupt himself was a Jewish Jesuit and Frankist and styled the Illuminati structure and aims on the Jesuit Order and the goal of the order was to bring about a World Jewish Government. The Jesuit's and Frankists where wings of the same Jewish Kabbalistic Alumbrado movement. The Jewish power elites who ran the Vatican needed a sword arm of the Jesuits to fight against the anti-Catholic movements that were sweeping Europe and seeking to destroy their foundation of their occult control and power the Church. The writings of the time show the anti Catholic movement was an open anti-Jewish movement and the Gentiles such as the famous anti-Semitic, Bruno [who called the Jews "excrement"] was one of the leaders of such movement. Bruno wanted to abolish Christianity and return to Paganism which is why he was executed Hellenism [Paganism] was the death penalty under the Jewish Catholic Church. "It was the Jewish Jesuit Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino [1542-1621] who ordered the philosopher Filippo Giordano Bruno burnt at the stake on the 17th of February 1600." The Jewish Alumbrado movement: "In 1492 the Alumbrado [The Enlightened] moment was founded by Spanish Marranos [baptised Jews who secretly kept their Talmudic faith] and a similar organisation was founded in France in 1623 - "Guerients" who changed their name to the Illuminati in 1722." "The Spanish authorities attempted to stop the Alumbrado movement as early as 1527 when Ignatius Loyola was temporarily arrested for his activities with the Illuminati [my note the Jewish Alumbrado movement]." "Loyola [Inigo Lopez de Regalde], who was of Jewish blood was born in the 1490"s in 1534, he founded his own order the Jesuits taking out a loan for the purpose. The Pope acknowledged the Jesuit Order on the 5th of Apiril 1540." The Jesuit's where acknowledged by Pope Paul the III who was obviously Jewish from the images of him just as the Marrano, Borgia Popes where well known to be Jewish. "Benjamin Disraeli, author and prime minister of Great Britain in 1868 and 1874-76 himself a Jew, wrote in his book "Coningsby" [London,1844] that the first Jesuits were Jews." Loyola's written texts the spiritual exercises of the Jesuit Order are all known to be from the Jewish Kabbalah. As the Jesuit's are simply a Kabbalistic Jewish movement who control the Vatican and appointed and assassinated Popes in history. The Vatican's enforcers are occult trained Jews. Most of the Popes in history have been Jewish as well as the Cardinal's and bishops. The Catholic Church was created by the Flavian Dynasty who's first Emperor put up a statue to an Alexandrian Jew who was responsible for creating the Dynasty. It was also run by Jewish oligarchs. The Bible is Jewish religion and ends with the world being ruled by a global Jewish government of the Jewish King of the world and the 12 tribes of Israel from the New Zion in the book of Revelations. The Catholic revolution in the Roman Empire destroyed the Gentile society to create a new globalist Jewish government under the icon the ideal of the Jewish King of the World that must be worshipped and brought to life from the astral into the material as a working of the mass mind. The Jesuit's symbol is the Cabbalistic image of the Temple of Solomon the Jewish world government in Judaism. The Latin cross is an extended version of the four armed cross of the Kabballah world Malkuth the material world within the circle of the Kabbalah world of Kether the astral and three of the arms of the cross are designed to look like the symbol of the Hebrew Vav letter with three nails [the meaning of Vav in Hebrew] under this image which are symbolized the three nails which represent the VVV in Kabballah, the 666 which is the number of the Temple of Solomon in the Jewish Torah. The name of the Jesuit's come from the Hebrew name Yeshua into Greek as Jesus "Iesous" which adds to the number 6 in its numerological meaning. Of which the IHS the short form of Iesous is over the top of. Which is the first three letter of YES..uah. Three having major importance in Kabballah. The symbol of the cross of Malkuth, earth the material in the circle of the world of Kether the symbol of the astral is the bringing down of the Jewish Messianic "World to come" into reality the Kabballah world of Kether is the astral the vortex of energy of the Christ thought form the Jews have created. The cross of Malkuth is the material realm they have materialized this working into and the three Vav's are the symbol of the materialization of this the 6 is the union of the astral and material and the materialization of occult workings into full existence the 666 is 6 to its highest power and adds to Chai the Hebrew word for life to bring a working to life in Kabballah. This shows the image of the Catholic Church of Jesus on the Cross is the occult symbol of the Jewish Temple of Solomon. The Jewish world Kingdom. 666 on its own is not malevolent the Egyptians, Hindu's and Greeks used it as a positive number to bring the human into full contact with body and spirit together. This knowledge was destroyed and corrupted by the Jews to remove it form humanity. 666 is given the scare tactic by Jewish Christianity because the Jews want to keep this knowledge to themselves to criminally use it. The commandments against use of occult systems in the Torah is only for Gentile spiritual systems which are forbidden in the Kabballah for Jews to use. And are ordered to be destroyed. They are toxic to the Jewish alien soul. The symbol of the Jesuit's is based on the goal of the materialization of the Jewish occult working of the Christ Consciousness matrix they have created into reality as the One World Jewish Kingdom its designed to materialize for the Jews. The name and symbol of Jesus itself is a binding spell based on the number six which connects to this Jewish energy matrix and brings it into reality. The purpose of the Catholic Church is the Jewish world government this is obvious in the Bible and the symbol of the Jesuits an occult Jewish organization that is based on bringing the thought form of Christ into fully reality and conquering the world for the Jews. This is why the current Jesuit Pope Francis was demanding the Catholic's pray the rosary as much as possible in October its to feed the psychic energy into this Jewish thought form of Christ at the time the Jews do the most important Torah workings to recharge this matrix of energy for themselves. The Jew Weishaupt who's father was a Rabbi, becomes a new leader in the Jewish Alumbrado movement: "In 1771, 23 year old Weishaupt met Kolmer, a Danish Cabbalist Jew who had just returned from Egypt. Kolmer initiated Weishaupt.... into the Cabbala and the ALUMBRADO movement." "It was no coincidence that the Order of the Illuminati was founded on the fist of May. Among the Cabbalist Jews, this date, 15 [1.5] symbolised the sacred number of Yahweh [my note the Jewish god] and so became their occult holiday." From Weishaupt's connection in the Kabbalistic Alumbrado movement he was introduced to members of its other wings such as the Frankists: "At this time a young Jew named Mayer Amschel was being tutored to become a rabbi. ....He later took the name Rothschild. It was Mayer Amschel Rothschild who convinced Weishaupt to wholly accept the Frankist Cabbalist doctrine and who afterwards financed the Illuminati. Rothschild had given Weishaupt the task of establishing [my note leading the existing] the old Alumbrado movement for Cabbalist Jews." "Jakob Frank [1726-1791] was the most frightening phenomenon in Jewish history... Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman shows in his book "To Eliminate the Opiate" [New York,1974] that there was a clear connection between Frankism and Weishaupt's Illuminism. The goal of the Frankists was to work in secret to establish Jewish world supremacy. Professor [my note himself a Jew]Scholem, has clearly documented that they achieved extensive political power." The other powerful global banking Jewish dynasty in this movement next to the Rothschild's to this day are the Jewish Warburgs they another Cabbalistic adept group: "In Hamburg, a powerful Jewish-Cabbalist family grew forth. Their name was [Samuel Moses] Warbug and they also joined this conspiracy of world supremacy." This is where it comes together Weishaupt was part of the Jewish Alumbrado this is where he went into and became a trained Jesuit and a member of the Frankists and created the Illuminati and ran this for larger Jewish powers behind the scene. He was simply a well trained agent of Jewish occult espionage who was moved thought these wings of the same Jewish movement due to his qualifications for such. That is why Weishaupt's main agents where all fellow Cabbalist Jews they were all in the same movement working together to bring this agenda about. The Jewish run Catholic Church is in the background as well. "Bernard Lazar, a well-known Jewish author wrote in his "L'Anti-semitisme" in 1894, that exclusively Cabbalist Jews surrounded Weishaupt. Confiscated documents show that of 39 Illuminati holding lesser leading positions, 17 were Jews [i.e 40%]. The higher one looked in ranks, the larger was the percentage of Jews. Even the fact the Illuminate headquarters in Ingolstadt were later converted into a synagogue was symbolic of this conspiracy Lazar stated that all these Jews became the agents of revolution..." "There were four especially important Jews in the Illuminati leadership, Harwig [Naphtali Herz] Wessely, Moses Mendelssoh, the banker Daniel von Itzig and the business man David Friedlander." The Jewish Cabbalist movement infiltrated the Masonic Societies whom themselves wanted to destroy the Catholic Church and create a free society. And the Jews did this to corrupt them and turn them into useful idiots of the Jewish world government program. They also did this to stop them from destroying the Church the foundation of Jewish occult power. The fact Jewish Jesuit Weishaupt himself didn't hide, the Jews conqueror from within: "Adam Weishaupt had taught: "To some of these freemasons we shall not even reveal that we have anything more than what the freemasons have... All those who are not suitable for the work he shall remain in the Masonic lodge and advance there without known anything about the additional system. ["Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordes"] Munich, 1787, p.300.] "The Illuminati moved freely within the many secret societies of the time seeking to utilise the liberal ideology of freemasonry as bait for those who lacked knowledge of its true purposes. "All Illuminati are freemasons but far from all freemasons are Illuminati," stated Professor Cosandey and Renner from Munich in their testimonies in April 1785." The Jewish movement was able to take control of Freemasonry at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad which was set up by Weishaupt's bosses such as the Rothschild's with help of Weishaupt: "A conference was held at Mayer Amschel Rothschild's castle in Wilhelmsbad on the 16th July 1782, where the freemasons and Illuminati forged a complete alliance. In this way, the leading secret societies began a closer co-operation with the Illuminati." "At its beginning, the Illuminati was not a Masonic order, and Weishaupt himself did not enter a lodge until 1777, when he received induction into the Lodge Theodore de Bon Conseil in Munich. However, once inside Masonry, Weishaupt immediately saw its potential value to be a vehicle for the realization of his Illuminati dreams. To create an official union between the Illuminati and Freemasonry, Weishaupt set about organizing the Congress of Wilhelmsbad at the Castle of William IX of Hesse-Kassel, to occur on July 16, 1782. That special even, which was momentous in both size and aspirations, was attended by elite representatives of Masonic lodges from all over. It was also there that a decision was reached to allow the previously excluded Jews to be granted admittance into Freemasonry." "When the time came for a vote on their admittance at Wilhelmsbad, the Jews were so anxious to win the day that they completely filled the hall with other Jewish supporters. It was not long afterwards that the Illuminati membership included an abundance of Jewish banking families, including the Rothschild's, the Oppenheimers, the Wertheimers, the Schusters, Speyers, and Sterns." "New lodges of predominantly Jews were formed in Frankfurt the Rothschild's financial capital in Europe, and soon all of Illumininzed Freemasonry would make the city its world headquarters." "The first order of business for the Illuminati-initiated Jews, who were the was to manifest their prophesied Zion, a world ruled by the chosen people of Yahweh. Plans were set in motion for the Jews to finally have their "land of milk and honey" that had been promised to them for so long [in their own Jew minds] and it would be the entire world." From here the Jews were able to take over the important command lodge of the Grant Orient in France and its associated Lodges. This gave them occult control over the French revolution. "Weishaupt had earlier sent the Jew Giuseppe Balsamo who presented himself under the false title of Count Alessandro Cagliostro, to France so that the Illuminati would control the French Masonic orders." It was the taking over of the Masonic Jacobin's clubs that gave the Jewish movement political control over the French revolution: "The Illuminati took over the Jacobin clubs already in 1789. 152 of these clubs were active on the August 1790, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Jacobins had a centralized network over all France. The first club was taken over by Weishaupt's close collaborators Bode and Baron de Bushce. ... We must not forget that one of Weishaupt's titles was "Patriarch of the Jacobin's"." This is the important part when the Jews created the "Jacobin Republic" and officially took over the French Revolution they created the "Commune" ended all liberties and brought in the "Terror" created secret police forces identical to their Cheka later on in Russia and exterminated over half a million French innocents and destroyed France as a nation on every level. "Jewish "revolutionaries" immediately saw to it that the Jews received full citizenship and so that they had their hands free to act. Maximillian Marie Isidore Robespierre [my note the leader of the Jacobin Republic] published a work entitled "To Protect the Political Rights of the Jews" as early as in 1789 [my note around the start of the French revolution]. Protection of Jewish rights was obviously considered the main priority. Louis Joseph Marchand, friend of Napoleon Bonaparte, wrote in 1895 that Robespierre was actually Jew by the name of Ruban....["In Napoleon's Shadow." San Francisoco,1998]. This is where the obvious is witnessed the Jewish run Illuminati, Jacobin Republic established a Communist society the Commune, the Jacobin Republic was the political arm of the Jewish world government movement and the Jacobin's where lead by the Jesuit agent Robespierre who was a Jew named Ruben...… It was Ruben who executed the actual Mason's who where working to ABOLISH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The Jew Robespierre reinstated the Catholic Church and Christianity totality into French society, reinstated the Catholic Priesthood and Church lands and wealth and the Christian ritual which had all been banned by the Masonic members of the government. This was to maintain the Catholic Church which is the occult foundation of the Jewish power structure. This creates the psychic and material base for the Jewish agenda of world government. Without the Catholic Church and Christianity that can't survive. This is why the Jewish Illuminati infiltration of the Mason's replaced the Hellenistic [Pagan] Masonic spiritual teachings with the Jewish Kabballah and Christianity from its Pagan anti-Christian doctrines. To bring them under control of the Jews and use them to build the Jewish world government now the name of god in the 33rd degree is one of the Jewish god YHVH. The Jew Ruben under his leadership of the Jacobin Republic set up a pseudo Masonic religion which was nothing more then Christianity. And this was noted by the witnesses of the time. This was to destroy the Masonic movement totally and keep Christianity going. Which is why the Jewish Jacobin Republic abolished the Masonic Lodges and shut them down and sent many of their members to the execution docks during the Terror. Just as their Jewish brethren shut down and liquated the Masonic Lodges they used to bring the Communist revolution to Russia, once they had power. They where useful idiots who had played their role. They in France like in Russia where executed so they would not become a force of counter revolution once the Jews had dropped the mask and revealed their real purpose. America was also attacked by the Jewish forces of the Illuminati. "George Washington, who had become a freemason in 1752 when he was 20 years old, also attempted to oppose the Illuminati's work in America after he was convinced in 1796 that they posed a threat to the nation. Due to this, Weishaupt had made plans to murder Washington if he became too troublesome. [Neal Wilgus, "The Illuminoids", New York, 1978,p.33.] The Jews did finally attempt to murder Washington and overthrow the new American Republic when the new nation's government was still in Philadelphia. Illuminati agents from France poured into America on orders from the Jacobin Republic's Jewish leader Ruben acting mostly likely on orders from fellow Jew, Weishaupt. Philadelphia the capital only had 28,000 people living in it. The Illuminati agents organized and funded a 10,000 man mob of insurrection led by them and who where trucked in from elsewhere for an organized assault on Philadelphia the open goal being to overthrow the government and execute Washington and end the American nation. Thankfully a yellow fever outbreak occurred and decimated the Illuminati forces and chased the rest out of the city for fear of plague. Adam's wrote to Jefferson a decade after this attempted coup by the Illuminati and told him they nearly lost the nation and where only saved by the outbreak of fever. Washington passed the Alien and Sedition Act into law after this for the reason of combating the Jewish Illuminati in America. Under this act dozens of French Illuminati agents where arrested and imprisoned and thousands more fled America back to France. Something to note Franklin probably witnessed how the Jews had overtaken France in the Revolution and wanted to protect America from the same fate as Franklin made this demand the year the French Revolution started: "In 1789, the publicist, statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790] himself a freemason, demanded that the United States of America defend itself against the Jewish immigration and influence with the help of the constitution, since the Jews had become a state within the state." The Illuminati just the wing of the Jewish organization of the Catholic Church. "The mighty finance dynasty of the Rothschild's was born out of the French "revolution". The Rothschild's are still in control behind the scenes today, especially within the European Union." This is why the Rothschild's are the bankers of the Catholic Church. The Church is run by the Jesuit's the same Jewish Cabbalistic order the Frankist's are another wing of, the Rothschild's are leaders of the Frankists and they are working together with the Jewish run Jesuits the leaders of the Church for the same Jewish world government. The Communist Ideology was created by the Jesuits and perfected by them. This was exported to France with the Jacobin Commune. Later the Jacobin's would change their name to the Communist League. Which was the same Jewish Cabbalistic movement marching into a new day. This is why the Jesuits created and organized "Liberation Theology" which is Christian Communism and spread this to aid in Communist revolution in Latin America. This was the system they already created and perfected centuries before they where bringing out to the public again. The current Jesuit Pope Francis when he was the Bishop in Argentina ordered Liberation Theology to be preached in all the Churches for assistance in the conquest of Latin America for his Jewish brethren's mission of the Jewish world government. Francis the Jesuit Pope was put into power to do one thing rebuild the image of Jewish Communism to the world and use Church political and monetary power to push towards the agenda of the World Jewish Government. "Since Jesuits educated Weishaupt , he was familiar with their experiences of creating totalitarian societies and his prototype was above all the totalitarian and theocratic rule, which the Jesuits enforced, in spite of the Spanish central power in Paraguay in 1609. This slave state existed officially for 159 years, up to 1768." "The Jesuits followed a kind of communist method, using cunning and violence. Guarani Indians of both sexes and all ages were put to forced labour for the mission. The Indians did not have any personal property. All the produce as gathered in communal storehouses. Whatever food and clothing the Indians needed as well as the general needs of the commune, were distributed from these . The Jesuits oversaw the work in a factory manner. The Jesuits enforced work duty .The supply of food and other necessities to the Indians depended on the results of production. The power structure was centralized and work was performed in groups. The commune even organized entertainment. When punishment was meted out the Indians were made to kiss the hand of their executioner, thank him and express their remorse. The commune leadership was comprised of Jesuit priests....The Jesuits aspired to create an independent state...An interesting fact is that primarily Central European Jesuits [of Jewish stock] were chosen as leaders of the Paraguay missions. Paraguay was an example of standardisation, the "right of co-determination", the factory mentality, communist methods, an iron curtain...politurks, servitude, violence, propaganda and militarism,. The Indians where turned into helpless, dependent creatures. Their chances for spiritual development were curbed. Special Jesuit priests [like politruks] indoctrinated the Indians not to express their dissatisfaction. Information about the real conditions eventually reached the outside world despite all hypocrisy and double-dealing. In 1759, the Jesuits were ordered to release the Indians and abolish their isolation system.....King Carlos III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from all his provinces in 1767. The Jesuits in Paraguay shared the fate of their brothers. One year later, in 1768 they officially left their missions without resistance, missions which had, through their communist way of life, stifled the spiritual development of the Indians. Thereby the Jesuits had gathered experience of indoctrination the exceedingly freedom-loving Indian nations and of changing them into obedient slaves in their commune." The Catholic Church was never harmed in Communist Nations in fact it has the support of the Communist governments. The Catholic Church rules Communist China arm in arm with the Asian and western Jews who control Communist China. There are close to one hundred million Catholic's in China who are allowed total practice by the Communist government when Falun Gong a Gentile Taoist movement is brutality oppressed and its members murdered and imprisoned were many are killed in the prison system to sell their organs on the market. Spiritual knowledge and practices are the ultimate danger to the Jewish agenda which is why the Jewish Jesuits ran the Inquisition. Which is why Mao banned all spiritual practices and put Taoist Chi Gong masters in camps and any teaching or practicing of such was punished by death during the cultural revolution which was organized by western Jews. And why the Jewish run Christian program executed all Gentile spiritual classes and destroyed their teachings. The only religion Gentiles are allowed is a fake religion in which the Gentiles empower a Jewish occult working to enslave the world. The Catholic Church, Jesuits, Frankists, Illuminati, Communists are all external wings of the same Jewish race long march thought the ages and world to bring about the one aim of the Jewish race. The global Jewish Kingdom. And the Jewish Kabballah is the center, heart and key to the entire Jewish goal. Which is why the entire leadership of the Jewish world government movement have always been and still are adepts in the Jewish Kabballah. The entire Jewish occult system of the Kabballah is based on the 22 Hebrew Letters the three levels of Kabballah the Creation by the Word, Merkava and Forbidden Practices [Forbidden meaning Gentile spiritual systems this branch deals with occult warfare against Gentiles its their black magic system and which they use for cursing] are all based on the 22 Hebrew letters. The only way to defeat the Jewish world government is the Final RTR which destroys the astral or Kether aspect of the letters and renders them Klipoth or empty husks in the material which causes their entire infrastructure to collapse. The Kabballah Jewish Adepts warn in their texts reversing the Hebrew letters and words which are all based on the 22 Hebrew letters is their one Achilles heel that can destroy them and this is to be guarded against. Sources Under the Sign of the Scorpion, Juri Lina The Coming Gnostic Civilization, Mark Pinkham

#illuminati #Sermon #High Priest Mageson666 #Judaism #Jews

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glittergummicandypeach · 4 years

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Churchgoers, Stay Home—It’s The American Way | Religion Dispatches

Across the nation, stay-at-home orders have quieted downtowns, schools, theaters, and stadiums. But one kind of gathering space—the house of worship—has proven especially contested ground. Directives to suspend religious meetings have met with both resignation and protest. Suggestions to live-stream services at home have satisfied some worshipers but frustrated others who insist that communal prayer is essential.

But it hasn’t always been this way. For much of American history, worship at home—in addition to or even instead of church—has been the rule rather than the exception. By staying home in this crisis, American worshipers might well revive and reinvigorate the longstanding tradition of household religion.

The clergy and laity alike have struggled with stay-at-home rules, which many argue violate religious liberty. New York’s Hasidic Jewish community continued to hold weddings, funerals, and even a Purim carnival after other Jews had suspended these activities, because orders to stop seemed reminiscent of antisemitism and persecution. Just this week, the Hasidic community cried foul when New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio sent the NYPD to break up a funeral procession in which thousands of people packed the streets to mourn Rabbi Chaim Mertz.

Meanwhile, pastors in Kentucky and Texas have sued to prevent the “unconstitutional application” of restrictions that violate church members’ religious freedom. Rev. Tony Spell of the Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has repeatedly disobeyed Gov. John Bel Edwards’s stay-at-home orders by holding church services, sometimes busing in hundreds of people to attend. “I pray,” he told worshipers, “that the spirit of God will reveal … that I’m exercising my First Amendment rights and my freedom of worship.”

Surely, giving up public worship can be a painful sacrifice. But it’s also an opportunity to tap into a practice that’s deeply rooted in American culture: household religion.

Household worship has a long history. Puritans, who had congregated in private houses in England to avoid persecution, continued their boisterous conversations and solemn prayer meetings inside New England homes. The Church of England revolved more around church practice and liturgy, but Anglican institutions were weak in the colonies. In the 1670s, a handful of Anglican clergy served over 35,000 Virginian parishioners. In South Carolina, only one Anglican priest worked outside the city of Charleston by 1700. The population was so dispersed and the clergy so scarce that household worship was the most sensible approach.

Intolerance also pushed religious life inside the home. When Sephardic Jews arrived in New Amsterdam in the 1650s, local authorities instructed them to “exercise in all quietness their religion in their houses.” Maryland, though founded as a haven for Catholics, ultimately banned Catholic churches as the Anglican majority gained power. The colony’s Jesuit priests, barred from tending parishes, could still minister to “private Familyes,” as one priest confirmed in 1727. They traveled on horseback, concealing portable chalices in their saddlebags and offering the sacraments at home altars and in small proprietary chapels until growing toleration after American independence made public worship possible.

Persecution wasn’t the only reason to seek spiritual shelter at home; household worship wasn’t merely a second choice, considered inferior to congregational worship. Household religion actually became an institution in and of itself that molded family relationships and tied households to church and state. As Vermont’sWindham Ministerial Association proclaimed in 1803, “family government is the basis of all government, and family religion of all religion.” Household prayer—part obligation, part spiritual impulse—undergirded the social and political order.

Clergy guided families’ efforts with guidebooks for worship: prayers, hymns, and devotions; directions for leading Sabbath; and instructions for conducting funerals at home. Families typically designated space where parents catechized their children, neighbors gathered in prayer circles, and traveling ministers paid visits. During revivals, families hosted larger meetings in their houses, barns, and fields.

For Jews, mezuzot, kosher kitchens, and Shabbat candles reinforced faith’s presence. Enslaved people, who interwove African traditions with Christian practice, claimed sacred space by embedding charms and conjuring objects like needles, beads, and buttons in the floors and walls of their quarters and in coffins and grave sites.

The rhythms of the life cycle also demarcated sacred space at home. Childbeds and deathbeds became sites of prayer and conversion. A Bible placed on a laboring woman’s head might relieve her pain. Baptismal bowls stood on display in the house when not in use. Mourning jewelry and clothing reminded families of lost loved ones. Family Bibles, which contained records of births, marriages, and deaths, were passed on to favored relatives—usually women, who were keepers of the home as well as the Book.

So it continued, even as the forms of household religion changed. Nineteenth-century women crocheted and embroidered proverbs and devotional images and hung them on their walls. Families displayed ornately illustrated oversize Bibles on wooden stands that dominated their parlors like shrines. Architectural elements like gables, stained glass, and gothic arches were supposed to make homes feel like churches. Victorian houses included nooks and alcoves intended for prayer and quiet contemplation. Prayer around the table remained a feature of family life.

Meanwhile, religious leaders found new ways to reach people in their homes. In the nineteenth century, missionaries traveled from house to house, delivering religious texts and newspapers to support reading and prayer. In the twentieth century, Charles Fuller and Billy Graham pioneered radio and television. Children’s programming from Davey and Goliath to VeggieTales has offered Christian alternatives to more secular fare. In our own time, megachurches like the Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, have mastered digital technology, reaching churchgoers via social media, livestreaming, and podcasts. The internet revolution has taken hold on a smaller scale, as well. Idris Abdul-Zahir, an imam at the Masjidullah mosque in Philadelphia, began livestreaming Friday prayer services last year. All of this has meant that more people spend more time hearing sermons and praying in their homes.

For some denominations, household prayer isn’t merely an alternative but supersedes public worship. In 2018, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially reset the balance between home and church by shortening Sunday services and increasing the expected time spent on home gospel study, providing workbooks to support the effort.

And yet, despite the persistence of household religion, many people still equate freedom to worship with freedom to worship publicly. Why?

The reason likely lies with historical changes that have thrust religious institutions into the foreground. Sunday schools supplanted home catechism in the early nineteenth century. Catholics planted dioceses, parishes, and schools. Protestant revivals have triggered surges of church-building. Waves of immigration among Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims (and yet more Catholics) have paved the way for houses of worship, schools, clerical councils, and seminaries to serve these groups. Today’s churches, synagogues, and mosques function as all-purpose lifestyle centers as well as places of prayer, offering marriage counseling, workout facilities, affinity groups, retail shopping, summer camps, addiction and recovery programs, and community service projects. For these reasons, it’s no surprise that the faithful see their religious worlds as revolving around church rather than home.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed all of that.

A varied and often confusing patchwork of local and state emergency measures have included religious gatherings, either ending them altogether, limiting in-person attendance, or designating houses of worship as “essential” and allowing congregations to assemble unrestricted. Although a Pew Research Center study released this week found that most states allow public religious worship in some form, another poll found that only about 17 percent of the population is currently attending services. To add to the confusion, the guidelines are changing as some states and localities have begun to lift stay-at-home orders.

Most houses of worship, after adding social distancing measures in February, began to close their doors in early March while the clergy and laity scrambled to adapt. In many cases, that meant reconfiguring what churches were already doing for followers who are now staying home. The Prince of Peace Parish in Pittsburgh began broadcasting Catholic Mass on Facebook and YouTube and has released a series of podcast homilies called “Sermon in the ’Burgh.” Other churches have offered drive-up preaching and drive-through Communion. Throughout Ramadan, the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis has, for the first time, publicly broadcast its calls to prayer to the city’s Muslim community so they can pray in unity from home.

But in other cases, this transition has meant providing entirely new services. Temple Emmanuel, a Reform synagogue in Dallas, Texas, hosted a Zoom seder for 500 people, despite never having organized congregational seders before. The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York (Pennsylvania) sponsors online workshops, virtual happy hours (“Pub Theology”) and online storytelling for children. Kveller, a Jewish news site, has partnered with My Jewish Learning, a cultural resource site, to connect readers with virtual Shabbat sing-alongs, Torah study groups, and Tehillim (psalm) readings.

Despite well-publicized lawsuits to fight church closures, many of the faithful seem to be accepting these changes. Weston Smith, who attends Restore Community Church, a non-denominational Protestant church in Kansas City, Missouri, reported that fellow churchgoers took the change in stride, understanding their short-term sacrifice in terms of their belief in “loving your neighbor.” His family’s religious routines have moved online, including Sunday worship, Bible study, and youth groups.

So many believers have rearranged their practice that the Center for the Study of Religion in American Culture has partnered with the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media to sponsor Pandemic Religion: a crowdsourced collection of images, videos, and other evidence of the religious response to the COVID-19 crisis. Contributors offer glimpses of spiritual life at home: makeshift communion tables, a Zoom LifeGroup meeting, reflections on Ramadan, and a Jewish prayer written for the pandemic. An anonymous contributor wrote that his or her family created “a sacred space” in their home, where they “have spent more time … doing [B]ible readings [and] praying” with hopes to “find peace throughout all of this and still stay connected with God.”

Despite these creative responses, obstacles to household observance abound. Some faiths require a quorum to hold prayer or ritual, which can be difficult to assemble now. In the Episcopal church, two people must be present for Holy Communion: the ordained celebrant and a recipient. Even though Episcopalians are encouraged to celebrate the Eucharist weekly, many dioceses have omitted the practice rather than attempt non-contact Communion.

In Jewish tradition, the most important prayers require a minyan (a quorum of ten adults). Congregations have attempted socially distanced minyans or online gatherings with mixed results. For Muslims, Salat al-Jumuah (Friday prayer) requires between three and forty men at minimum, depending upon the tradition. Imams have settled for virtual quorums. “As long as there are three people gathered together,” Idris Abdul-Zahir reminded his faithful in Philadelphia, “it’s a service”—even if those people are physically apart.

More practically speaking, many people lack the technology they need to join online services, and even when they do have access, the experience can be awkward. Brian Weiser, a Modern Orthodox Jew from Denver, tried an online minyan but Zoom conferencing made the ritual feel disjointed. He missed “the communal aspect” of the prayers and has continued that part of his practice alone. The Zoom interface can be both a blessing and a curse. Tracey Deutsch, who attends a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis, put it this way: “the nice thing about Zoom in terms of a congregation is that you get to see people’s homes.” On the other hand, “the bad thing about Zooming a congregation is that everyone can see my home, whatever state it’s in.”

Household worship in a pandemic is a constant reminder of what’s missing. Muslims, who are now observing Ramadan, typically break each day’s fast with a large, celebratory meal. These thanksgivings are impossible now. So are many mourning rituals. Weiser, along with Kate Carté, who attends Temple Emmanuel in Dallas, noted the difficulty of sitting shiva: the seven-day period of mourning after a burial, which typically takes place in the home of the deceased. Carté observed that rabbis were “really struggling to figure out ways to do … digital shiva,” although they’ve since devised some solutions. Weiser noted that Zoom shivas are “better than nothing, but you lose the sense of people sitting there, comforting you.”

Even weekly observance has posed difficulties. Margaret Hogan, who attends All Saints (Episcopal) Parish in Brookline, Massachusetts, typically assists with Sunday services but now participates from home. She reports a shared sense of loss among her co-parishioners. “I miss being a part of it,” she admits. For Hogan, church ranks high among “the things you could count on that have been deeply disrupted.”

Despite the disruptions it appears that some worshipers are more engaged than ever. Many people are finding that this period of quiet has energized their practice with new ways to worship. Jill Smith, a Modern Orthodox Jew from Cambridge, Massachusetts, attended a Zoom baby-naming service and joined in a virtual Birkat Hagomel, a thanksgiving prayer for surviving trauma, with a friend who recovered from COVID-19.

Rosie O’Brien Richards, who worships at the Redeemer Church of Montclair, New Jersey, has found that her ten-year-old daughter, who has sensory processing difficulties and hadn’t enjoyed going to church, participates eagerly now in the calm of their home. Many worshipers who are homebound due to age, illness, or disability now have unprecedented access to religious communities. Former parishioners who have moved away can reconnect with old friends. Others, like Michelle Orihel, a Catholic in Cedar City, Utah, and Andrea Catlett, an ecumenical Christian in suburban Denver, have taken this opportunity to sample virtual services and sermons at distant churches. “We’re not assembling in a place,” Catlett reflected, “but we’re assembling in the heart.”

The usual hassles of regular observance no longer pose obstacles. David Chang, Tracey Deutsch’s husband, now has time to bake challah for nearly every Shabbat, and their family participates in far more rituals than they had before. Chang describes this time as (literally and figuratively) “nourishing.” Allison Hart-Young, who attends a Reform Jewish synagogue and a United Church of Christ congregation in Kalamazoo, Michigan, observes that the ease of attending worship has allowed her to focus on its deeper significance. Without Friday evening traffic and the rush of getting ready on Sunday mornings, she and her wife can “strip [worship] down” to its core meaning and “clarify … what role this plays in our weekly life.”

According to Kate Carté, the pressure of Shabbat—preparing the house, clearing the family’s schedules, rushing through dinner on the way to synagogue—has lifted. Before, she recalls, “it was like a collapse into Shabbat.” But now, “this is the first time in my life … I’ve had the space” to make observance “more meaningful.” Now that her family is staying at home, “suddenly the ritual became a lot more important.” Perhaps this is why virtual attendance at services everywhere have far surpassed face-to-face participation prior to the crisis.

For many believers, unstructured days at home have allowed physical and mental space for greater devotion. Stacey Tew, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who lives in the Houston suburbs, appreciates that her family “can be together and learn the scriptures at a slower pace.” She describes home worship as a “spiritual experience” in which her husband can “bless and pass the sacrament” for her and their children.

Leonardo Leyva, who attends the nondenominational Embassy Church in Denver, believes that without the usual distractions, people’s “relationship with God has grown.” Michelle Orihel had been feeling ambivalent about her religious practice prior to the COVID-19 crisis, but daily prayer and meditation have eased anxiety and given her a measure of inner peace. “I see value in practicing religion on a daily basis,” she reflected, “and having a little more time on my own to focus.”

Whether by choice or compulsion, more people are finding more meaning in worshiping at home. Household religion in the pandemic will almost certainly alter the landscape of American faith, though it’s hard to say how deep or lasting the effects will be. All we know for sure is that, for now, family religion is meeting a need. “These are spiritually taxing times,” Tracey Deutsch observes. Household prayer, for people across a spectrum of affiliation and belief, has provided some solace.

This content was originally published here.

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fairfieldthinkspace · 5 years

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Where Is God in a Pandemic?

The honest answer is: We don’t know. But even non-Christians may find understanding in the life of Jesus.

By James Martin, S.J.

Originally published by The New York Times on March 22, 2020.

Last summer I underwent radiation treatment. And every time I passed through the doorway marked “Radiation Oncology,” my heart seemed to skip a beat. While I was in little danger (my tumor was benign, and, yes, one sometimes needs radiation for that), I daily met people who were close to death.

Every weekday for six weeks I would hail a cab and say, “68th and York, please.” Once there, I would stop into a nearby church to pray. Afterward, walking to my appointment in a neighborhood jammed with hospitals, I passed cancer patients who had lost their hair, exhausted elderly men and women in wheelchairs pushed by home health care aids, and those who had just emerged from surgery. But on the same sidewalks were busy doctors, smiling nurses and eager interns, and many others in apparently perfect health. One day it dawned on me: We’re all going to 68th and York, though we all have different times for our appointments.

In just the past few weeks, millions have started to fear that they are moving to their appointment with terrifying speed, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. The sheer horror of this fast-moving infection is coupled with the almost physical shock from its sudden onset. As a priest, I’ve heard an avalanche of feelings in the last month: panic, fear, anger, sadness, confusion and despair. More and more I feel like I’m living in a horror movie, but the kind that I instinctively turn off because it’s too disturbing. And even the most religious people ask me: Why is this happening? And: Where is God in all of this?

The question is essentially the same that people ask when a hurricane wipes out hundreds of lives or when a single child dies from cancer. It is called the “problem of suffering,” “the mystery of evil” or the “theodicy,” and it’s a question that saints and theologians have grappled with for millenniums. The question of “natural” suffering (from illnesses or natural disasters) differs from that of “moral evil” (in which suffering flows from the actions of individuals — think Hitler and Stalin). But leaving aside theological distinctions, the question now consumes the minds of millions of believers, who quail at steadily rising death tolls, struggle with stories of physicians forced to triage patients and recoil at photos of rows of coffins: Why?

Over the centuries, many answers have been offered about natural suffering, all of them wanting in some way. The most common is that suffering is a test. Suffering tests our faith and strengthens it: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance,” says the Letter of James in the New Testament. But while explaining suffering as a test may help in minor trials (patience being tested by an annoying person) it fails in the most painful human experiences. Does God send cancer to “test” a young child? Yes, the child’s parents may learn something about perseverance or faith, but that approach can make God out to be a monster.

So does the argument that suffering is a punishment for sins, a still common approach among some believers (who usually say that God punishes people or groups that they themselves disapprove of). But Jesus himself rejects that approach when he meets a man who is blind, in a story recounted in the Gospel of John: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” says Jesus. This is Jesus’s definitive rejection of the image of the monstrous Father. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus responds to the story of a stone tower that fell and crushed a crowd of people: “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you.”

The overall confusion for believers is encapsulated in what is called the “inconsistent triad,” which can be summarized as follows: God is all powerful, therefore God can prevent suffering. But God does not prevent suffering. Therefore, God is either not all powerful or not all loving.

In the end, the most honest answer to the question of why the Covid-19 virus is killing thousands of people, why infectious diseases ravage humanity and why there is suffering at all is: We don’t know. For me, this is the most honest and accurate answer. One could also suggest how viruses are part of the natural world and in some way contribute to life, but this approach fails abjectly when speaking to someone who has lost a friend or loved one. An important question for the believer in times of suffering is this: Can you believe in a God that you don’t understand?

But if the mystery of suffering is unanswerable, where can the believer go in times like this? For the Christian and perhaps even for others the answer is Jesus.

Christians believe that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Yet we sometimes overlook the second part. Jesus of Nazareth was born into a world of illness. In her book “Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit,” about daily life in first-century Galilee, Jodi Magness, a scholar of early Judaism, calls the milieu in which Jesus lived “filthy, malodorous and unhealthy.” John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, scholars of the historical background of Jesus, sum up these conditions in a sobering sentence in “Excavating Jesus”: “A case of the flu, a bad cold, or an abscessed tooth could kill.” This was Jesus’s world.

Moreover, in his public ministry, Jesus continually sought out those who were sick. Most of his miracles were healings from illnesses and disabilities: debilitating skin conditions (under the rubric of “leprosy”), epilepsy, a woman’s “flow of blood,” a withered hand, “dropsy,” blindness, deafness, paralysis. In these frightening times, Christians may find comfort in knowing that when they pray to Jesus, they are praying to someone who understands them not only because he is divine and knows all things, but because he is human and experienced all things.

But those who are not Christian can also see him as a model for care of the sick. Needless to say, when caring for someone with coronavirus, one should take the necessary precautions in order not to pass on the infection. But for Jesus, the sick or dying person was not the “other,” not one to be blamed, but our brother and sister. When Jesus saw a person in need, the Gospels tell us that his heart was “moved with pity.” He is a model for how we are to care during this crisis: with hearts moved by pity.

Whenever I prayed in that church near 68th and York, I would pause before a statue of Jesus, his arms outstretched, his heart exposed. Just a plaster statue, it wasn’t great art, but it was meaningful to me. I don’t understand why people are dying, but I can follow the person who gives me a pattern for life.

James Martin is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication and the author of “Jesus: A Pilgrimage.”

#New York Times #Fr. James Martin #Fairfield University #Covid-19 pandemic

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catholiccom-blog · 7 years

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Quoting Jesus: Was it Live, or Was It Memorex?

Perhaps you’ll recall back in February when the head of the Jesuit order, Fr. Arturo Sosa, cast doubt on the trustworthiness of the Gospels (in particular, Jesus’ teaching on divorce):

There would have to be a lot of reflection on what Jesus really said. At that time, no one had a recorder to take down his words. What is known is that the words of Jesus must be contextualized, they are expressed in a language, in a specific setting, they are addressed to someone in particular.

Although he later walked back these comments to some extent, the fact remains that Fr. Sosa’s attitude towards the trustworthiness of the Gospels is not uncommon in certain clerical circles, and also among many biblical scholars. Like melting snow from mountain peaks, in these two groups skepticism towards the trustworthiness of the Gospels tends to filter down to the laity, who naturally wonder if these documents can indeed be trusted to communicate what Jesus really did and what he really said.

Right now let’s focus on authenticating the words of Jesus. Of course, the first half of Fr. Sosa’s comment is unimpeachably true: there were no tape recorders or smartphones recording Jesus’ exact words, say, on divorce (which are presented in Matthew 19, among other places). But I take umbrage, and so should you, with Fr. Sosa’s conclusion that we can’t really know what Jesus actually said—on this or any other issue that arose in his teaching.

Was it live, or was it Memorex?

Perhaps you remember the old ads for Memorex cassette tapes. I know I do. The tagline in those ads was, well, memorable: “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” Scholar Darrell Bock once wrote an article relating this line to how Jesus’ teachings were written. Were they “live” (the “living” words of Jesus), or were they “Memorex” (word-for-word, as if recorded)?

The latter option must be ruled out. First of all, the Gospels were composed in Greek, whereas in all likelihood Jesus preached and taught in Aramaic, the “street language” of Palestine. So, we’re already dealing with a translation issue. This is why “red-letter” editions of the New Testament, which feature the words of Christ in red ink, are somewhat misleading. They weren’t the literal, actual Aramaic words and phrases Jesus used, except perhaps in a few instances (for example, his use of the term Abba in referring to God the Father).

Scholars differentiate between the ipsissima verba (the actual words) of Jesus, and the ipsissima vox (the actual voice) of Jesus. Thus, what we really have in the Gospels is the “live” option—the living words of Jesus. Gospel writers referred to Jesus as rabbi or teacher, with themselves as his students. What’s the job of any rabbinical student? To master the message of his rabbi. If a student were simply to “parrot” Jesus’ words to an audience, repeating them word-for-word, that person would actually be considered a very poor student. What was actually expected was that a student could re-present the rabbi’s teaching in ways that are helpful for listeners or readers.

How was this done?

First, a word must be said regarding the ability of the disciples to memorize Jesus’ teaching. The German scholar Armin Baum has calculated that Matthew, Mark, and Luke together contain approximately 15,000 words of Jesus’ teaching. Could the disciples have committed that much material to memory? You bet.

Braun demonstrates that many rabbis of the time had not only committed to memory 300 thousand words of the Hebrew scriptures, but also that some Jewish scholars had memorized the nearly two million-word Babylonian Talmud. Surely the followers of Jesus, steeped as they were in a culture of oral transmission of doctrine, could accurately recall and communicate to others the comparatively smaller block of material in the Gospels.

Also, the evangelists knew how to use compression techniques to recount Jesus’ messages accurately in short spaces. Think about it: the Gospels speak of Jesus holding crowds spellbound for hours, yet his speeches can be read in just a few minutes. We do this as well when reporting on conversations we’ve had with others, communicating the “gist” of what was said. This is perfectly consonant with techniques used in the construction of Greco-Roman biographies, the genre of literature to which the Gospels belong. The one thing no student would have ever done is invent teaching by putting words into a rabbi’s mouth that he never said. Again, accuracy was paramount.

A simple example of this method (cited by Bock) can be found in examining the Gospel accounts of Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah. Jesus prompts the discussion with a query:

Matthew 16:13: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

Mark 8:27: “Who do people say I am?”

Luke 9:18: “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

Here we have the same basic question being restated in slightly different ways. “Son of Man” is Jesus’ favorite self-appellation in the Gospels, with Mark and Luke rendering this as simply “I”. Similarly, the choice of the terms “people” (Matthew, Mark) and “crowds” (Luke) might be a case of the Evangelists choosing different Greek words to translate an Aramaic term used by Jesus. In any case, the “gist” of the question gets across to the reader.

The Gospels also present slightly varied takes on how Peter answers Jesus:

Matthew 16:16: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Mark 8:29: “You are the Christ.”

Luke 9:20: “The Christ of God”

Matthew’s rendering is longer, more complex and theologically unique, echoing not only the idea of Jesus as Son of God, but also hinting at a kingly sonship (Ps. 2). Luke adds “God” to Mark’s matter-of-fact statement. But in all three, the bottom line remains: Peter correctly identified Jesus as Messiah.

While maintaining basic accuracy, there existed a degree of flexibility in recording speeches in Greco-Roman biography, which was the genre of the Gospels. Despite this, the Gospels are much more stringent on this count than most Greco-Roman biographies. It’s actually startling to note how few variations there are between Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the synoptic Gospels) when one compares the words of Jesus in parallel passages.

And this is truly the point: we have to judge the Gospels by the historical standards of the first century A.D., not the twenty-first. When judged by the historical standards of their day, the Gospels pass with flying colors. The evangelists were clearly concerned about getting Jesus’ message right, and despite the claims of many skeptics, both within the Church and without, we can indeed know with a great degree of certainty what it was that Jesus taught.

#Catholic Answers #CAMO #Cale Clarke #Reliability of Gospels #Biblical Inerrancy

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