Nerdistan

Thomas Carlyle is just one of the interesting characters who had much to do with Calvinism and the Knox family he married into. Friedrich Nietzsche never really completed a book and yet before he went crazy his Wagnerian or Illuminized ‘radical aristocratic’ handlers used him well. Even so-called political religions like Marxism must be considered before we can understand the reasons for the likes of Francis Fukayama saying ‘absolute religions’ are important to his social engineering compatriots who I think are anything but patriots to the cause of any populace. Frederick T. Gates was a Baptist theologian in the Rothschild employ before they got more aggressive with the ‘invasions of science’ or the Palmer Raids and other controls including the Fed. We must go into the ‘torch-bearer of Christ’ (Hitler) a little more in this examination as well.

Those who believe their leaders are actually in touch with and inspired by some almighty god have wrought all manner of horrors upon those they are told are less or not ‘chosen’. But we all must stop being ‘chosen’ or having our loved ones ‘chosen’ to be their Scarlet Women or sword and cannon fodder. A friend of mine puts it this way. ‘My own maternal ancestors spent the better part of a cold and dreary thousand years playing a little game called: ‘Storm the Castle,’ in which they dressed up in unwieldy metal suits and pounded each other senseless with a variety of sharp and not so sharp objects. (Of course with nutrition not being quite up to par with today’s standards and with daily rations of wine being something in the neighborhood of five liters, we are left with the sobering fact that most of us who trace our ancestry to Europe are in fact descended from short, drunken psychopaths who whiled away their time bludgeoning each other with hammers, maces and cudgels, hacking each other to pieces with swords, and scalding each other to death with boiling oil.)’

We must ask them to justify their laws and their acts and insist on leadership that is truthful and righteous. That is not to say there is such a thing as black and white absolute truth or some way man can actually limit the awesome reality of the creative potential of life energy on earth and in universe.

I can hardly accept that John Calvin is anything more than a power-broker when I see or read him saying we should not question authority. Should we merely accept his interpretation of Jesus or any other dogma his ilk has designed to empower themselves over all life and therefore God too. Calvin said, “When it is a question of our justification, we have to put away all thinking about the Law and our works, to embrace the mercy of God alone, and to turn our eyes away from ourselves and upon Jesus Christ alone.”

Jan Hus was a church reformer who was burned at the stake, is a humanist whose message is garbled by the times he lived in too. I do wonder about his Bohemian origins and humanistic liberal attitudes fostered by Prague denizens or alchemists who became the Bavarian Illuminati. I see him as a bridge between the Cathars and Jesuits who are founded by the Alumbrados which means Illuminati in another language. He appears eminently better than his reformers who followed; when we consider Martin Luther of a century later.

Jaroslav Pelikan is the Sterling Professor of History and William Clyde De Vere {Important Royal of the Dragon Court family name.} Lecturer at this University which the Rockefeller/Rothschilds have so many attachments to. Yale is a central issue in research into the halls of power beyond the existence of Skull & Bones or the CIA people there. They also control the Olduvai Gorge research on the origins of man as well as so much in the administration of the laws and training of lawyers that I have dealt with in other books.

There is a little town or city in Switzerland called Sion which is rumored to have a connection to the Priory of Sion that I may look into in greater detail someday. Switzerland is the center of Rothschild and Battenberg Royal history for the last thousand years or since the time Rome supposedly fell and Christianity became what it is today. The red cross of the Red Cross is part of this along with the Templar red crosses which looked over the voyages or invasions of Columbus and Vasco da Gama. Here is Pelikan speaking about these red cross symbols.

“In an age in which the healing of the nations from the ravages of hunger, disease, and war has become the dominant moral imperative, Jesus the Healer has come to assume a central place. It was an emblem of the central place of Jesus {Perhaps for a lot longer than he knows.} when, under the terms of the Geneva Convention of 1864 for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick of Armies in the Field, the international organization created to carry out that moral imperative took the name ‘Red Cross Society’, its symbol, based on a reversal of the colors of the Swiss flag, is a red cross on a white background. Yet the connection between evangelization in the name of Jesus and the mission of help and healing has also been an issue for debate, especially in the twentieth century.

This debate, too, comes as a commentary on the literal meaning of a word in the Gospels: ‘Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.’ {Biblio: Mark 9.41} It has almost seemed that in every epoch there were some who were primarily interested in naming the name of Christ, clarifying its doctrinal and theological meaning, and defending that meaning against its enemiesbut who named the name without giving the cup of water. Yet it has seemed possible for others to give the cup of water, to provide the healing, and to improve the social lot of the disadvantaged {Yes, and they are the ones who created the disadvantageous divisions and castes in society to begin with.}but to do so without explicitly naming the name of Christ. Does that saying of Jesus mean that each of these ways of responding to his summons is only a partial obedience to this dual command? In the answer to this question, much of the debate over the primary responsibility of Christ’s disciples in the modern world has concentrated on the disjunction between the two components of the imperative.” (1)

Yes, there is jargon and code or esoteric meaning in this which even he does not know in the fullest depth I think. It is not unlike the talk about manifesting the god force which became a political agenda around the time of the Hyksos or Semites in Egypt. Some say Alexander was the first to claim divinity while living and I imagine he did it more than those before him. All these people were propagandists selling people on their greater importance rather than helping people see the divinity in all things which many earlier people had included in their knowledge that gods were mere representations of the forces of nature. Tuthmosis III may have been the same character who re-organized the Mystery Schools which Gardner writes is the foundation of his Great White Brotherhood.

I am pretty sure from my extensive research that Amun was a one god concept of a supreme connected or collective of the forces of nature going back to before the Sphinx which was both gendered and honored Amun and Amun-Ra the Heliopolitan or Harmonic of Light which I dealt with in great detail in Neolithic Libraries. I also think the House of Mallia or Milesians included this Tuthmosis character and the other Tuthmosides as well. Here is a top scholar from Egyptology writing about this Tuthmosis character and his so-called manifesting god in the first recorded instance.

“The first reference to the divine will being manifested is probably that made by King Tuthmosis III, who relates how, when he was still a boy, the god Amun, in the course of a procession of his statue round the temple, noticed him and halted. Tuthmosis prostrated himself on the ground before the god, who thereupon led him to a part of the temple called ‘Station of the King’, thereby publically recognizing him as king. In this case the god revealed his will unasked, but from now onwards cases multiply in which the revelation of a god’s will was sought for by men.” (2)

These elites and their Divine Kings are a plague upon life on earth and it is not getting better. The sophistication of the intrigues are not always obvious like it is in Korea today where we have ‘Moonies with Missiles’ or in Iran where the Ayatollahs run roughshod over soulful enablement. The same thing works in most media controlled environments or the world paradigm in toto. Just because the traditional religions have lost some demographics in terms of having insane or cultish followers does not mean the Mormons, Noahdist extremists and Moslem Jihadists or Scientologists are any different. I like the thought expressed by James Watson in his foreword to Discovering the Brain. He said, ‘The brain boggles the mind.’. It is also true that a lot of the ‘boggling’ has been done by those saying they seek God. We can be so much more - if we would DO as Jesus and other desposyni did. There are despots in these groups of the Merovingian or family of Jesus however.

We should be trying to end intolerance and the deification of one group while demonizing any others or branding some as heretical points of view. Ultimately all religions and beliefs are struggling with the same thing but those that stop seeking to participate in the creation and thus limit ‘What is’ are engaged in playing god. They often have made themselves the sole spokesmen for their imaginary god or the Lord as in the case of the Catholic hegemonists. But before we get into the current hegemony too much we will have to understand the root of the problem. The Reformation did not just happen and in some ways it is an academic or superficial construct. Here is Černỷ again as he addresses one of the origin myths thought to be most ancient. Note Heliopolitanism (Druidic sun-worship that Thomas Paine tells us is the basis of Masonry.) seems to be even more ancient.

“At about the same time as it found a means of reconciliation with the conception of the king as the god Horus, the solar religion of Heliopolis succeeded in reaching a compromise with a new cult, in fact a new religion which was irresistibly spreading from the center of the Delta towards the south, the religion of Osiris. Osiris came from Djedu, the capital of the IXth nome of Lower Egypt; ‘Lord of Djedu’ is his old title and the town was called Per-Usire (the Greek form of this being Busiris). ‘House of Osiris’. Nevertheless, Djedu was probably not his original home, since the proper god of Djedu was Andjeti, who is represented in human form as a ruler with his insignia, a long crooked sceptre in one hand and a whip in the other, with two feathers on his head. Andjeti was, however, very early absorbed by Osiris and his name became a mere epithet of that god.

A circumstance that favoured the absorption was that Osiris too was entirely human in form. He also is shown with the Upper Egyptian white crown to which two feathers are attached on both sides and which is set on a pair of ram’s horns. But there is an important difference between Andjeti and Osiris: while the former represents a living ruler, Osiris is always shown as a dead person, standing, wrapped in a long white royal cloak, the two arms holding the sceptre. His name Usire, of which Osiris is the Greek form, seems to mean ‘Seat of the Eye’; it has the appearance of a human name and it is probable that Osiris was originally a human king {How long ago?} who became deified after his death. A myth was woven around his person which is less concerned with his former life and rule as a king of Egypt than with his death and subsequent resurrection after which he became a ruler in the realm of the dead. No systematic expression of this myth is known from Egyptian sources, our chief authority in this respect being Plutarch in his ‘On Isis and Osiris’; frequent allusions, however, occur in Egyptian texts of all periods which show that Plutarch’s account agrees essentially with the Egyptian belief.” (3)

In May 2004 there is a report of an archaeological find in Mayan tunnels (they loved the spiritual cenotes and still do) saying it was a millennium earlier than the Mayan ascendancy and yet it was just 200 BC. Aside from the fact that I have proven these people were there at least 3000 years earlier the ‘find’ is a mask of a sun god. The sun god or Heliopolitan Druidism is just one of the esoteric clues to follow in tracing the ‘travelers’ or Red-Headed League of Megalith Builders all over the world.

When Viktor E. Frankl faced death in a concentration camp he learned a great deal about meaning and life. Most people live in fear and this debilitating fear of death is not healthy. He developed a whole school of psychology called Logotherapy from facing the choice of dying. But there is much more to learn from the Many Worlds Interpretation of Physics and from ancient shamanic ‘travels’ to the places the soul goes at death and potentially before death. His experiences there must have included altered states that can be brought about through fasting and trauma. His work in that area is not particularly enlightening even though his Logos or Meaning is akin to the LOGOS which is the ‘beginning’ (as in ‘the Word’) and harmonically attuned to the akashic record which might be in our genes or the Cosmic Soup or both. Here is a little paragraph from the Preface to Frankl’s The Will to Meaning which carried his early book Man’s Search for Meaning a little further.

“What I term the existential vacuum constitutes a challenge to psychiatry today. Ever more patients complain of a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness, which seems to me to derive from two facts. Unlike an animal, man is not told by instincts what he must do. And unlike man in former times, he is no longer told by traditions what he should do. Often he does not even know what he basically wishes to do. Instead, either he wishes to do what other people do (conformism), or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).” (4)

Why have those who arranged these horrors tried to blame the Jews (and in an indirect manner, all ’sinners’) for the death of Jesus? He did not claim to be a co-equal member of the Holy Trinity. It wasn’t the Jews who ‘killed our Saviour’. John Ralston Saul says this about the whole matter

“HOLY TRINITY-CHRISTIAN

A pre-alchemist alchemist concept developed by early Christian administrators to soften the hard-edged simplicity of straight monotheism.

The three-in-one/one-in-three mystery of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost {That the beatniks called ‘Laddio, Daddio and Spook’.} made tritheism official. The subsequent almost-deification of the Virgin Mary made it quatrotheism {And raised un-natural ‘virginity’ or possible non-sense such as immaculate conceptions, which fathers must have loved and priests certainly benefit from, to heights of increasing obscenity!}. Twelve Disciples as semi-deities then made it sextusdecitheism. Finally, cart-loads of saints raised to quarter-deification turned Christianity into plain, old-fashioned polytheism. By the time of the Crusades, it was the most polytheistic religion ever to have existed, with the possible exception of Hinduism. This untenable contradiction between the assertion of monotheism and the reality of polytheism was dealt with {And this is the MOST important observation of a technique known in psychology as ‘projection of a pluperfect paranoid’ or the ‘BIG LIE’ of alphabet soup agencies and ‘black ops’; the less organized criminals like the Mafia call it a ‘frame-up’.} by accusing other religions of the Christian fault. The Church - Catholic and later Protestant - turned aggressively on the two most clearly monotheistic religions in view {Also they began at least 700 years of war, A CRUSADE! against the remnants of the Kelts in Ireland.) - Judaism and Islam - and persecuted them as heathen or pagan. ..These pagans must therefore be converted, conquered {ego ‘Manifest Destiny’} and/or killed for their own good in order that they may benefit from the singularity of the Holy Trinity, plus appendages.

HOLY TRINITY - POST CHRISTIAN

So far Nietzsche has been wrong about GOD. We have not managed to become Him in His place. Instead we have replaced God with a yet more abstract divinity based upon pure rational power… Organization or structure replaced the Father, TECHNOLOGY displaced the Son and the Holy Ghost gave way to information. The new priesthood was made up of technocrats. As the etymology of the word ‘technocrat’ indicates, from the beginning they were to be specialists in power… And they would stand guard over information.” (5)

The fears and apathy of average people are as much to blame for this history of managed and ‘guarded information’ that records the acts of bad people. ‘We are all our brother’s keepers’ is not just an idle platitude. The Druidic concept called IESA or ‘The Brotherhood of Man’ apprehended the Cosmic Thought Field of Faraday and Tesla or the ‘Cosmic Soup’ of Deepak Chopra. NASA scientists have just announced that Life is Everywhere including microbes in outer space. They talk about cell membrane formation that makes we wonder if these are conscious connected ‘info packets’(Tesla) or ‘templates’ (Teilhard de Chardin) from which energy can create in a manner more akin to ancient creationist theories of the supposed pagans.

Regular Columnist in The ES Press Magazine
Guest ‘expert’ at www.World-Mysteries.com
Author of Diverse Druids

Observation shows that human creative activity has a physical, a social and a spiritual aspect. (By human creative activity I mean useful and constructive activity by human beings). The physical aspect of our creative activity concerns our activity in relation to the physical universe. The social aspect relates mainly to human behaviour and interaction amongst humans. The spiritual aspect of our creative activity primarily concerns our activity in relation to God. Over time, mankind has acquired considerable knowledge of the physical universe. This knowledge has been classified as the physical and natural sciences. Knowledge we have acquired of human behaviour and interaction amongst humans has been classified as social science. This has not been the case with knowledge we have of the spiritual aspect of life. Such knowledge has not been classified as spiritual science. This is so because much of what at present constitute spiritual facts and beliefs cannot be considered as science. A lot of such facts are not backed by proof and many of the beliefs are not founded on reason. Unverifiable conjectures about phenomena and existence beyond this life are professed as truths. The situation at present is such that spiritual works available to us contain fiction, misconceptions, superstition and falsehood in addition to actual facts. I will use some examples from the Christian teaching and Holy Bible to illustrate this point.

Consider the Bible account of the creation of Man and his fall from grace, (the Bible, Genesis 2:7-24 3:1-24).

We are told that God created Adam and Eve and established them in the Garden of Eden where He had made adequate provisions for their needs. All went well until the serpent came along and deceived them into disobeying God. The act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden caused Adam and Eve to lose favour with God. Christians believe that the sinfulness of Adam and Eve subsequently passed on to all generations of mankind. That, in their thinking, is responsible for mankind’s fall from grace and the human proneness to commit sin. The Christian concept of original sin which is that sinfulness is a part of mankind’s nature is founded on this Bible story.

Now let us examine this Bible account rationally. It has been scientifically established that mankind has inhabited the earth for over a million years. The coming into existence of the human being is, therefore, a primeval event that is prehistoric and immemorial. Surely, any account of this even cannot be anything but an invention. Moreover, the incidents related in this Bible story are inconsistent with natural phenomena. God does not talk. Snakes do not have the faculty of speech. Knowledge is not gained by eating the fruit of a tree, neither is it possible to attain everlasting life in this way. This tale, by all indications, is only a Jewish fable. It is not a true account of real events. However, Christianity accepts it as a factual historical event and has built its all-important concept of original sin on it. Clearly, this is a case of fiction being passed for fact.

Let us go on to consider the concepts of heaven and hell as propagated by the Christian faith. Heaven, we are told, is the home of God where people who do God’s will on earth will spend eternity with Him in bliss. Hell, on the other hand, is the place of punishment where those who lived sinful lives will suffer everlasting torment after death.

Now let us think seriously about these issues. God does not have physical substance, God is spirit. Because spirit has no physical limitations, God is everywhere at all times. In other words, God has infinite presence. Since God is infinite in expanse, so to speak, it does not make sense to say that God has a particular place of residence. The concept of home is a physical concept which has no application in the spiritual realm. Reason clearly shows that heaven, in actual fact, does not exist.

And to the question of hell. Forgiveness is a cardinal moral principle of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ in his teachings stated unequivocally that we should always forgive others no matter how many times they offend us. If one desires to commune with God, one must have a forgiving heart, he taught. How then can we think of God as being so unforgiving as to establish a place of everlasting torment for those who go against His will. The very idea of hell implies that God is wicked and unchristian. It is, without doubt, a misconception to associate God who is infinitely good with such a cruel idea. In reality, heaven and hell are misconceptions that have passed for spiritual facts.

Let us now consider superstition in the Bible. The gospel tells us about a father who brought his epileptic son to Jesus Christ for healing, (Luke 9:37-43). The account says that Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy. It came out of him and the boy was instantly cured.

Let us examine this report in the light of our knowledge of medical science. Epilepsy is a nervous disease and we know from medical science that demons are not responsible for illness. There is actually no proof that evil spirits exist. The belief in their existence and that they are responsible for ailments is irrational. Such belief amounts to superstition.

And now to the matter of falsehood in the Bible. We shall examine the Bible account of the conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost and the reports of his resurrection and ascension.

Knowledge is usually brought to mankind through people of high intelligence. In some cases such people are gifted with extra-ordinary mental or creative 666bilities. People like this, referred to as men of genius, very often take us to new levels in knowledge of the universe. One such person was the mathematical genius, Albert Einstein, who brought us exciting new knowledge of the physical universe. Jesus Christ belonged to this class of people. He was a luminary who made revolutionary contributions to spiritual knowledge. Unfortunately, the Jewish educated class of his time did not understand or accept him. That probably explains why he chose his disciples from amongst the uneducated, fishermen and the like. These followers, who obviously were not men of high intelligence, did not recognize him for what he was which was simply a man of extra-ordinary mental abilities and l! earning. His remarkable accomplishments were, rather, what made profound impressions on them. It is reported that he healed all manner of sickness, raised the dead, and fed thousands of people with few loaves and pieces of fish. We are told that he walked on water, waves became still at his command and a fig tree that he cursed withered. They (his followers) were awed by these incidents and began to perceive him as a deity. Jesus Christ noticed this idolization and at the end of one of his sermons said to his followers and the crowd present, (Luke 6: 46-49).

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do what I tell you? Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like, he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock and when the flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it has been well built. But he who hears and does not do them is ike a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great”.

Jesus Christ was clearly not happy that he was being idolized while little attention was paid to his message. He was just a genius who had used his extra-ordinary talent to gain profound spiritual knowledge. His primary concern was to impart this knowledge to others. His desire was for people to listen, learn and practice what he was teaching them.

After his death, however, his followers who did not fully understand him or his work declared him deity. To lend credence to this claim, they presented us with the story of his conception by the Holy Ghost and the tales of his resurrection and ascension.

Let us now subject these things to logical reasoning. Spirit does not have physical substance. A thing that does not have physical substance cannot be divided, reproduced, split or apportioned into two or more separate and different units. Spirit, therefore, cannot exist in the form of separate and individual entities. This means that you cannot have one spirit called, say, Michael, separate and different from another spirit called, say, Gabriel, separate and different from another one called, say, Satan, etc. Existence in this form is a physical phenomenon that does not occur in the spiritual realm. It logically follows that there can be only one spirit in existence. That spirit is God. Clearly, no Holy Ghost exists and Mary the mother of Jesus was not made pregnant by any such spirit.

Let me add at this point that the human being does not have a spirit or soul. Our mind, which creates the illusion of a spirit in our body, is actually a mechanism of the brain by which we perceive and experience spiritual as well as physical phenomena.

Logical reasoning has shown that there can be only one spirit in existence and also that heaven does not exist. Going by these conclusions, the tales of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ do not make sense. If there can be only one spirit in existence, what then did Jesus Christ become after he resurrected? If heaven does not exist, where then did he ascend to? The claims of a resurrection and an ascension are inconsistent with logically established spiritual realities.

The Bible account of the conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost and the reports of his resurrection and ascension are definitely falsehood.

The occurrence of untruths, conjectures and fallacies in current spiritual teachings is not peculiar to the Christian faith. I have found a high incidence of this flaw in other spiritual works and teachings that I have come in contact with. I am, however, hopeful that my spiritual works will help clarify matters and also enable mankind to gain full spiritual enlightenment.

My spiritual knowledge was obtained by study and experimentation with spiritual facts and principles, by observation of spiritual phenomena, and by logical reasoning. It qualifies for classification as science. The knowledge I bring I therefore present as a branch of learning I have called Spiritual Science. The aim and scope of Spiritual Science are to provide such spiritual knowledge of existence as will enable mankind gain complete happiness and success in life.

God has endowed me with extra-ordinary mental abilities. It is by His grace that I have gained full spiritual knowledge of existence. I recognize my moral obligation to share this knowledge with others and help others gain full spiritual enlightenment. I have a duty to work for the spiritual enlightentment of mankind. It is my fervent hope that you will maintain an open mind and try to comprehend the spiritual knowledge which I bring to you. Being fully enlightened spiritually will enable you to live your life the right way. When you live the right way you will undoubtedly find complete joy and success in life. May the grace of the Almighty God be with you always.

This article was excerpted from Spiritual Science, a book by Emmanuel Emezie. Information about the book and how to order it is available at this url: http://www.spiritualsciencesociety.org/publications.html

About the Author:
Emmanuel Emezie is 48 years old and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics. He is a philosopher-scientist. A yearning he had in his early twenties - to understand his spirituality and be able to express it in his daily living - was later given expression in a six-year-long scientific research into the spiritual aspect of life. His intriguing and life transforming findings are recorded in a book entitled Spiritual Science. He is the Founder/President of Spiritual Science Society International, an organization that aims at drastically improving the quality of human life by advancing the moral development and spiritual enlightenment of humankind through the propagation of Spiritual Science.

Visit the Spiritual Science website at: http://www.spiritualsciencesociety.org

Contact Info for the Readers:
Website: http://www.spiritualsciencesociety.org
E-mail: spiritualsciencesociety@yahoo.com

Phone: +234-803-707-5022

LONAVLA, India In India, Hindu culture trumps all. And although India is a growing hub of technological and biological influence, Hinduism dominates even the sciences. India is ranked 37 among the 82 countries assessed by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for the “state of their information technology system and its effects on economic growth and productivity.”

Roughly 300,000 engineers graduate from Indian colleges and universities each year. Multinational companies are taking advantage of the talent pool by making major high-tech investments, such as Microsoft’s plan to spend $1.7 billion and hire 3,000 employees in India over the next three to four years.

India’s biotech industry is also on the rise, with 500,000 doctors and nurses entering the workforce annually. Stem cell research in both the public and private sectors has grown considerably over the past few years in India, where politics or faith has not hindered its expansion. As a result, India is home to not one but three national stem cell research facilities.

In Western nations like the United States, however, stem cell research is a hot-button issue. Just a public discussion of the research has triggered furious protests and stirred up government officials. Not so in India, where the Hindu-influenced worldview pervades scientific progress and everyday discourse.

Hinduism, for its part, “doesn’t share the moral skittishness sometimes displayed by Western Christian thought,” said Arvind Sharma, the Birks Professor of Comparative Religions at Montreal’s McGill University. If no life is destroyed when taking stem cells from an aborted fetus, and the purpose is not evil, it would not disturb their morality, he said.

To keep things on an even keel, secular committees issue national directives. In 2004, the Central Ethics Committee on Human Research of the Indian Council on Medical Research circulated ethical guidelines on how to conduct stem cell research. The Draft Guidelines on Stem Cell Research/Regulation stresses that “termination of pregnancy for obtaining fetus for stem cells, research or for transplantation is not to be permitted.” Additionally, “no embryo can be created for the sole purpose of obtaining stem cells.” In 2000, a report on “Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research on Human Subjects,” which dealt with genetic screening, was released.

Recommendations such as these are totally in character for the general milieu, said Sharma. “Most moral issues don’t come into the public discourse but remain private.” Using the example of another bioethical controversy that is contentious in the West, he added, “People deal with issues like euthanasia in the context of their families.”

India is officially a secular republic, home to the largest number of Hindus and Muslims in the world. “Nearly every Indian, regardless of religion, is Hindu-thinking and lives according to Hindu culture and philosophy,” said Ram Surat, a Christian convert getting his divinity degree at the Union Biblical Seminary, Pune. For Hindus, this philosophy translates to a respect for all life, a belief in an immutable soul and the body as a vessel.

Even Christians a growing population in India do not have as strong criticisms of biotechnology as their Western counterparts. The reason is that Hinduism casts a long shadow even over other religions.

Few Christians in India talk about such issues, said Selva Raj, the Stanley S. Kresge Professor of Religious Studies at Albion University in Michigan. “Indian Christians are much more interested in how to live and coexist with people of other religions.”

“Life and death are not points in a line. It is a Mbius strip,” said Shridhar Venkatraman, an engineer in Chennai who lived for 10 years in the United States. “All living things work toward escaping this cycle,” and so life and death are personal issues.

The news describes discoveries in science as well as the furor they cause in the West. But in general, the discussion is digested silently. “Bioethics is only discussed by the very few elite,” according to Dhruv Raina, a professor at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “In general, the well-being of people prevails over ideas of danger,” said Raina, who researches the relationship between science, societies, values and culture.

Hinduism, itself, is not a monolithic entity. “Unlike Christianity, Hinduism is not a codified religion with a single papal authority to pontificate on every subject,” said Jayanthi Iyengar, a practitioner of the Art of Living, in Pune. “You won’t find a position on these issues like the one the Catholic Church has on abortion or genetic modification,” Iyengar said.

“Hinduism has a fulcrum of pragmatism,” according to Lalitha Khanna, a researcher with a Delhi-based think tank. “What is good for making a better world is condoned, even eagerly embraced. Stem cell research, therefore, doesn’t bring out the fierce opposition that Christians in the West probably experience and evince,” she added. Religious mandates would be out of place here. “Every sect and subsect has a guru of its own and will not follow the religious directions of another,” said Khanna.

Cloning is also not a dirty word in India. “Hinduism will not have any major conflicts with engineered life forms of any kind because the tradition has always had multiple life forms and considers any and all of them as co-travelers on the Mbius strip,” said Venkatraman.

“We are culturally desensitized to the possibility of the existence of such things,” added Sharma. Case in point: The Hindu god of good beginnings, Ganesha, is human with an elephant’s head; the god Vishnu came to earth as a narasimha half man, half lion.

Most Indian children learn these stories growing up, regardless of religion. “At the level of practice, I think Indian Christians are pretty pragmatic in their use of technologies,” said Rowena Robinson, an associate professor of sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. “I am not sure if the ideological implications cause much wringing of hands,” she said.

It is wrong to think science and religion are in conflict in India, added Victor Ferrao, a doctoral student at the Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth seminary in Pune. In his hometown of Goa, Ferrao leads a community science-and-religion dialogue group. “Developments in science make the dialogue urgent,” he said, “but science and religion are correlational.”

Chhavi Sachdev is international editor at Science & Theology News.

On rare occasions, when a well-meaning Christian discovers that I prefer home churches to traditional denominational gatherings and am not affiliated with any particular group - although I’m asked to minister in many - it has happened that their discovery is met with a negative response, assuming I must have been hurt and require a ministerial tourniquet.

Truth is, just as it is with so many others, yes, I was hurt. But Jesus, my Redeemer and Healer, ministered to me, bound up my wounds and turned me loose on the enemy. The Father has used certain negative, manmade circumstances over the years to get me to recognize that what I was calling “The Church” had no semblance to anything described within the pages of Scripture, nor does it bare any resemblance to the Church in the third world, the persecuted corners of the Earth - the ONLY places on the planet where Christianity is actually thriving, by the way. In his multi-faceted, multi-purposeful, loving way, God also used the situations in which I had been placed to help me realize a few things about myself. Perhaps, as you read this message, you may realize a few of those things about yourself as well.

I was once the Singles Pastor of a church with nearly 3,000 people on the role. One outdoor event we held had hundreds of singles attend. I baptized 16 in a river that cool October day. I left that church after 5 years with a much-beloved couple who felt led to start a House Church. We grew so fast we felt compelled to find a building and establish “Church as usual,” in accordance with the prescribed methods we had all been taught. We grew to 300 in no time. It lasted eight years. I served there as the Assistant Pastor and left after seven years when I was asked to step down from serving in the thriving Children’s ministry. I won’t elaborate, but it was political. I had thirty volunteers serving with me and the kids were being trained to minister and were active in all capacities of Church-Life from ushers to musicians. They LOVED outreaches in the poorest of neighborhoods, manning the puppet shows, passing out groceries and praying door-to-door. Finally, I moved two hours south to be nearer to my family. Within a year after I left, the church closed its doors. There were less than twenty attending by then, I was told. My ministry, health, family and personal life have flourished ever since.

These days, I am an avid House Churcher who, through relationships and the leading of the Holy Spirit, find myself being invited to speak to Christians of many denominations in a variety of settings. In our House Church, we have seen miracles, deliverances, and lives changed regularly. Something I attribute to one thing: we love each other. There is unity there and it commands a blessing from on high.

THE SMITING OF THE SHEPHERD

Why do pastors leave the ministry? A research paper by Dean Hoge and Jacqueline Wenger reveal several main reasons:

(1) preference for another form of ministry

(2) the need to care for children or family

(3) conflict in the congregation

(4) conflict with denominational leaders

(5) burnout or discouragement
(6) sexual misconduct

(7) and divorce or marital problems.

Two of these factors are especially important: conflict and a preference for specialized ministry. A close third is the experience of burnout, discouragement, stress and overwork.

Their study is part of the larger Pulpit and Pew research project on the state of pastoral ministry, based at Duke Divinity School, funded by the Lilly Endowment. The authors conducted extensive interviews with clergymen and women who have left Protestant church ministry, voluntarily or involuntarily, and with denominational leaders from five denominations including the Assemblies of God, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the United Methodist Church. Another heart-wrenching book that I read years ago, Shattered Vows, is an expose’ on Catholic priests and why they leave their callings. The reasons are similar to their Protestant counterparts, as I recall.

Hoge and Wenger learned that, in many denominations, a standard of dependence between clergy and leadership is set that is hard to live up to. Also, things such as greater freedom of choice and the tendency of a minister’s spouse to choose to work outside the home have made the desired pastoral model increasingly hard to find. The study reveals: “the more a pastor’s career is determined by his or her denomination, the more conflict that pastor will potentially feel with denominational leaders.”

Conflict with church leadership looms large. The #1 conflict issues cited by pastors who left ministry were:

(1) pastoral leadership style

(2) church finances
(3) changes in worship style

(4) staff relationships and
(5) building projects.

Organizational and interpersonal issues, rather than doctrinal differences or hot-button issues such as homosexuality, were the most likely to motivate ministers to leave a congregation. The study states: “Most notable about the main conflicts experienced by ministers who left parish ministry is their ‘everyday,’ prosaic nature.” Hoge and Wenger “came to believe that the conflicts most often experienced by our participants are ones that could probably be resolved and in the process offer growth experiences for both pastor and congregation.”

Sadly, isolation and loneliness contributed directly or indirectly to a pastor’s decision to ship out. Of those who left due to sexual misconduct, 75 percent indicated that they were lonely and isolated. In all five denominational groups, the top motivating factors for leaving were the same. Pastors reported:

“I felt drained by demands.”

“I felt lonely and isolated.”

“I did not feel supported by denominational officials.”
“I felt bored and constrained.”

Hoge and Wenger discovered one glaring similarity regarding pastors who have left local church ministry: “These pastors …, for whatever reason [were] not part of ministerial friendship groups or action groups.”

Where intimate relationships are concerned, I’ve discovered that many pastors have none. Face it, who can they open up to where they might not become an item of betraying gossip, perceived as weak, or jeopardize their own job? In my own life, I find myself repeatedly serving as a sounding board and prayer partner for those in ministry - even online. Just who can these men and women talk to for seeking wise counsel?

BREAKING OUT IS HARD TO DO

Leaving ministry is hard to do, and those who have stepped down from the pastoral role admit “there are at least parts of ministry” that they miss. According to the study: “Their accounts were remarkably consistent: they most missed leading worship and being a meaningful part of people’s lives.” Those who were forced to leave the ministry for another vocation under circumstances not of their own choosing, or who felt that they had in some way been mistreated, mourned the job loss most intensely. The researchers mentioned that several of their interviews were interrupted when ministers broke down in tears. Former pastors who were content with their new vocational setting also told of their love for local church ministry.

One issue that concerns me is the authors’ assumption that friendship among pastors, though important, is inherently limited because “ministers feel unavoidable competition with each other, which gets in the way of forming healthy support groups.” In my own hometown, where I serve as the Marketing guru for the local Chamber of Commerce, many of the 80+ ministries in town have joined our ranks. It’s wonderful to see these men and women serving alongside in their matching “Ambassador” blazers or serving on committees together or chatting and laughing at a mixer.

Another opportunity in which many churches participate is something we call “Operation: Jesus.” So far, pastors and people from numerous churches have co-mingled and gone out in teams to canvas the county and pray at people’s doorsteps. To date, after three “missions,” we’ve knocked on 30,000 doors. In my last outing, my team consisted of a Baptist preacher of a church of 300, a Disciples of Christ youth minister, a Baptist nurse, two House Churchers, and an Assemblies of God woman. I recall speaking with the secretary of the Lutheran church who reported that she had the most memorable time, along with her daughter, knocking and praying alongside the pastor’s wife from the Assemblies of God and her daughter. It’s quite disarming when individuals from different churches knock on a door to pray. Why? Obviously, they aren’t recruiting.

I believe such relationships may be the key to sustaining pastors over time and not simply during crises. The study says: “…it is the kind of collegiality that is crucial to the cultivation of self-knowledge, relational intelligence, the capacity to remain dynamically engaged with one’s work and the ability to identify and negotiate conflict, all of which are relevant to preventing the dynamics that cause clergy to leave pastoral ministry.” Such interaction produces unity and with unity comes power.

Where there is disunity, we are essentially snake food.

Hoge also authored a book on the Roman Catholic clergy, The First Five Years of the Priesthood, in which he writes that one of the most important findings of his research was that priests left the ministry because they “felt lonely and unappreciated.” Loneliness was the one factor always present among the various reasons priests resigned in their early years of ministry. Hoge claims that when loneliness “is absent, resignation from the priesthood is unlikely. Whether a priest is heterosexual or homosexual, in love or not, it will not drive him to resign unless at the same time he feels lonely or unappreciated.”

This same dynamic appears to be present among Protestant clergy.

A PASTOR’S TESTIMONY

An article by Bill Hull, Leadership Journal, Summer 2005, echoes similar sentiments. Hull pastored 20 years and is the founder of T-Net International, a ministry devoted to transforming churches into disciple-making communities. He’s an author who, as a minister, had become frustrated by his perceived ineffectiveness as it pertained to the Great Commission in light of the Doctrine of Jesus. Something HAD to change.

He discovered that “something” was himself.

He writes, “We had just commissioned 83 new members. It was a proud moment. The newly initiated throng made their way off the platform, while I moved closer to the congregation to begin my sermon.

“This is great, isn’t it?” I began. “But before we get too giddy about new members, let me ask you a question. Why should we bring 83 new people into something that isn’t working?” He continued, too far along to turn back now, “Something is wrong,” he said. “It has been tormenting me for several years. All the formulas, strategic planning, mission statements and visionary sermons are not making disciples.”

Bill was being tormented by these truths. Where was the personal transformation after all the effort we put into weekend services, Bible studies, small groups, and outreach events? His 52-life-changing sermons weren’t bearing any fruit. He was stuck in the same rut that so many pastors find themselves in, i.e., religious activity without real transformation. He was what you’d call Successful and Unsatisfied.

He writes, “At age 50 I found myself successful but unsatisfied. I was hooked on results, addicted to recognition, and a product of my times. I was a get-it-done leader who was ready to lead people into the rarified air of religious competition. Like so many pastors, I was addicted to what others thought of me.”

Nobody can share Bill’s testimony the way Bill can. Read on:

“As I stood before the people that morning, I was prepared to pour out my soul, even my desperation. I was nearing the end of a three-year reshaping of my person, and I had morphed in such a way that I could never go back. Bill Hull, the Disciple Making Pastor (at least the guy who’d written a book by that title), had been broken by God.

“For three years people had been steadily leaving our church. It was the most painful experience of my pastoral life, and so many times I wanted to run away. But God spoke to me powerfully one morning as I lay prostrate on my office floor. “Bill, I am going to break you; don’t run.” I wanted to run, I prayed about running, I asked others about finding a better fit (a.k.a. running), but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“Most of the people who left the church hadn’t left because of conviction but because of feelings or the opinions of friends. Believe it or not, people don’t usually do a lot of research, and then act in accordance with biblical truth, when choosing to leave a church. As more people departed, it felt like a plague had descended on us, but it wasn’t just poisoning our communityit was eating away at my soul. During this time I poured my life into three younger men, and one by one they also left the church. I felt betrayed and wounded.

“Through my “dark night of the soul,” I gradually realized that something was missing in my life. It was the same thing that my church growth generation has missed. I had forgotten that my life as a leader should be a reflection of my relationship to Christ. Leadership is not about competency and productivity, as we have been led to believe. Our culture values action over contemplation, individualism over community, speed over endurance, fame over humility, and success over the satisfied soul.

“I came to see that I was not leading the way Jesus led. His life was characterized by humility, brokenness, submission, and sacrifice. My life was characterized by pride, competence, control, and convenience. I began to understand the value of brokenness as God’s way of leading us into a life of humility. And I became fed up with my addiction to the false values of our culture. To use Pascal’s words, I was tired of “licking the earth.” I was tired of it and so was the congregation.

“After three years the plague that had swept through the church began to subside. Attitudes began to change. What happened? Well, what happened started within me, and then it spread.

“Through pain, meditation on Scripture, prayer, and learning from others, I chose a new life. I chose the life of Jesusa new commitment to humility, submission, service, and sacrifice. I chose to finally trust Jesus’ way of leading. My new commitment included the determination to love those who had rejected me, and to live this out publicly. I chose to become more honest and intimate in my sermons and conversations.

“When I began to express the truth of my inner life, it seemed like the entire community gave out a sigh of relief. Once I admitted that something was wrong, that real transformation wasn’t happening, the masks came off. This was the first step toward getting back on the way.

“In my sermon after welcoming the 83 new members, I shared what God had taught me during my three-year journey of transformation.

“I told the church that the Great Commission is more about depth than strategy, and being spiritually transformed is the primary and exclusive work of the church. I told them believing the right things is not enough - being a Christian means actually following Jesus. We don’t drift into discipleship or amble our way half-heartedly down the path of obedience. It is a choice. I told them we had accepted non-discipleship Christianity and we must confess this sin to the Lord.

“I ended my sermon by telling them that I was going to evangelize them. I was going to call them to choose the life of following Jesus, the life of spiritual formation, the life that is the answer to the weakness of the church and the boring ineffectiveness of our lives.

“When I changed from a strategist to a shepherd, when my teaching was filled with love rather than data, the congregation began to melt. They sensed that something prophetic was happening, and it changed our church.
“The big surprise was that the higher I set the bar, the more eager they became. I preached about the nature of Jesus’ call on our lives, and the need for genuine community, for transformation. I called them to choose the life of Jesus - the life of discipleship.

“One Saturday, at a special training time, 120 people made that commitment. They chose the life of intentional discipleship, committed obedience and to the practice of spiritual disciplines, and agreed to meet with one or two others regularly over the next year to go deeper into the transformation Christ had called them to.

“True, there were many in the church who did not make this commitment to a structured plan of discipleship. I recognize now that discipleship is a way of life, not a program. It is about community and relationships and an environment of grace. So those who did not “choose the life” were not to be devalued. As their pastor I was called to love them as well. Part of the transformation in our church included extending and receiving this kind of acceptance.

“Through brokenness and honesty, the icy barrier in our church began to melt, and the life of spiritual transformation we had longed for began to be seen. Some of us have made significant progress as committed disciples of Christ, others are still just beginning the journey.

“The experience of seeing and admitting the futility of my former efforts was a gift to me . Starting among those wonderful people, God has reshaped my soul and given me a new message, and this transformation would not have been possible outside that community.”

The full story of Bill Hull’s transformation and the journey of his church toward spiritual formation is told in his book Choose the Life: Exploring a Faith that Embraces Discipleship (Baker, 2004).

PASTOR, IS THAT YOU?

In my own life, I saw no alternative but to take my Christian routine into the secular arena, a place where I had seen it successfully modeled years early by a Christian employer of mine at an Ad Agency where we worked. I became certified as a Workplace Chaplain and I’ve never looked back. I still do weddings and baptisms, baby dedications and home (and business) blessings. I was asked just recently by the local newspaper editor if they could use my articles in their paper’s upcoming Religion section. It’s God, friends, and no one’s more in awe than I am.

We serve a God that actually does stuff! Exciting stuff! But most of us are simply kept too busy to see it happen. I minister more effectively these days than I EVER did while doing the “work of the ministry” in an organized church setting. I actually observe lives being changed. From lawn mowing to bill-paying to vacuuming the sanctuary to painting the nursery to flipping burgers, more often than not, the main focus of my own pulpit ministry was a few minutes each Sunday where I gave a pep talk before the “REAL” sermon (my pastor called me the Church Cheerleader; on quite a few occasions I approached by Members who said they got more out of my 2-minute “cheer” than they did the sermon. In fairness, I got to preach while their backsides weren’t yet asleep). Yes, I counseled and led Bible studies and home cell groups, etc. But I was a slave to the Lifeless Organization, not a functioning Member of the Living Organism, the Body of Christ. I have experienced nothing in those years that compares to my current ministry in the workplace and in homes.

If you are a minister reading this today, and you need prayer, counsel, advice, get yourself a Hotmail or Yahoo account and drop me a line anonymously, if you like. You can’t imagine the things God’s ministers - from all over the world - need to get off their chests. Your situations aren’t generally that different. I’ll never know it’s you and you just might feel relieved or empowered. Nothing to lose, preacher!

If you’re a Church Member, Deacon, Elder, Teacher, I have three questions to ask:

(1) Are you praying for the leaders in your church? REALLY praying? They have some very real, human needs. They are not perfect but they REALLY love Jesus and are serving Him as best they can.

(2) Are you helping or hindering your group’s community impact? The Church service begins when you LEAVE the building, after all.

(3) Are you rowing the boat - or ROCKING it?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael’s mission is to bring Discipleship and Encouragement to the Body of Christ. Since 1999, he has broadcast over 300 hundred inspirational articles and a dozen booklets on subjects that will interest the thinking Christian, all designed to accelerate the process of spiritual development in God’s people.

He is the founder of t.e.a.m. ministries (team1min@aol.com). An Author, Pastoral Counselor and Teacher, his eMail broadcasts, known as “Your Town for Jesus” are reaching millions around the globe WEEKLY. Write team1min@aol.com if you’d like to SUBSCRIBE.

A licensed/ordained minister, a Certified Workplace Chaplain, and a Professional Member of NIBIC, he has ministered in Methodist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, College and Cowboy churches. He is also a Speaker on the Christian Speaker Network and may be available to speak to your church or Christian group.

Hello Friends,

As many have heard, China suffered the damage of a typhoon (Hurricane) which passed through the weekend of Sept. 11, 2005. As of Sept.12, 7 died and over a million evacuated. Do you notice how these calamities are coming in quicker succession with the passing of time?

Isaiah 24:4, 5 reads, “The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, CHANGED THE ORDINANCE, broken the EVERLASTING covenant.

WE MUST HAVE A HISTORIC PROPHETIC FOUNDATION:

Oh, how true this is! What would happen if we do not know the truth about the laws that are being transgressed? What will happen if we do not know the ORDINANCE that was changed? We will be deceived. Remember that history always repeats itself. The bible clearly prophesied about the historic period known as the dark ages. This lasted from 538A.D to 1798 (a period of 1260 yrs.) During this time faithful saints of God were persecuted for keeping the Bible Sabbath and standing up to the abuses of corrupt leadership in the Roman Catholic Church. The bible reads, “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and think to change TIMES and LAWS: and they shall be given into his hand until A TIME, AND TIMES AND THE DIVIDING OF TIME.”- Daniel 7:25.

HISTORY WILL REPEAT ITSELF

First, let us note that the only commandment that has to do with both time and the law is the fourth commandment. Second, the time period delineated is A TIME, AND TIMES AND THE DIVIDING OF TIME. A time is one year, times equal two years, and the dividing of time equals half of a year. One year, plus two years, plus half a year equals 3 1/2 years. You may wonder, how does this relate to 1260 years? Well friends, in prophecy a day is equivalent to a year. Ezekiel the prophet says it himself! Ezekiel 4:6 reads, “I have appointed thee each day for a year.” Therefore 3 1/2 years translate to 42 months. With 30 days (30 prophetic years) in each month you have a total of 1260 years. If you get the chance, research what happened during the years of 538A.D to 1798. I laid this groundwork because I want to warn you of a widely accepted deception so that you will not fall prey to it.

GODS WRATH OR SATAN’S LAUGH?

There is a difference between God allowing something and God’s wrath against sin. We are now experiencing God allowing satan to try God’s servants as in the book of Job. Notice Job 1:6, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” Here we see God holding a meeting with his angels and satan having the audacity to show up! The drama continues in vs. 7-”And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (8) And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

THE DEVIL IS BOUND BY GOD’S PERMISSION

Afterwards, satan gets permission from God to cause havoc with the elements. Meanwhile, his servants believe to be God. THIS IS KEY, “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, “THE FIRE OF GOD IS FALLEN FROM HEAVEN, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.” That was not the fire of God; it was the fire of Satan.

NEW ORLEANS IS A MIRROR TO ALL LARGE CITIES

Without giving glory to the devil, sometimes we fail to realize how clever he is. Do you believe that God caused the calamity in New Orleans? Satan knows that if he could pick one of the most sin laden places on earth it would cause us to look at their sins instead of OUR OWN! If God caused that calamity due to sin, guess what, our city is long overdue for destruction. Read this shocking quote from the great controversy:

UNVELING SATANS DECEPTION ABOUT CALAMITIES:

“Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment……………….Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them (Great Controversy pg.589)

THE WEATHER AND YOUR WALLET:

Satan is causing these calamities because of the trickle effect it has on the economy. If you understand the prophecies of Daniel 11 you will note that Daniel 11:43 reads, “But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver,” Every natural disaster wrecks havoc on our national and international economy. People almost have to mortgage their houses to pump gas nowadays. But here is the KEY POINT. With the majority of people thinking that God’s wrath is being poured out, they will attribute financial loss to God’s punishment. Let me share a quote with you from the Great Controversy so you may ask God to prepare you for what’s next.

ALL POPULOUS CITY’S ARE VULNERABLE:

“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, UNTIL POPULOUS cities are reduced to ruin and desolation.”–G.Cpg.590

SATAN WILL USE REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY:

…..And then the great deceiver will persuade men that THOSE WHO SERVE GOD ARE CAUSING THESE EVILS. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose OBEDIENCD TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. IT WILL BE DECLARED THAT MEN ARE OFFENDING GOD by the violation of the Sunday Sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people
(for biblical support of this prophecy see www.greatprophecy.com/the_mark_of_the_beast.html),

preventing their restoration to DIVINE FAVOR AND TEMPORAL PROSPERITY.”—–Great Controversy pg.590

PEOPLE WILL DO ANYTHING THEY THINK WILL GIVE THEM MONEY:

People will blame their financial troubles on the saints of God who honor the TRUE SABBATH. We have yet to experience the Wrath of God against sin. When the Bible speaks of, “The time of trouble”, and the falling of the seven last plagues, that will be one of God’s last demonstrations of wrath against sin. That will take place when the world unites to, “think to change times and laws” by making SUNday observance a law.

PARTING ADVICE:

So what is the most practical thing we can do now to prepare for the times ahead? We can simply pray to live our lives according to the Bible. That sounds simple, yet you would be surprised how even church people do things because this person said so or “I think…” Who cares about what people say or think? What does God think? What does the Bible say? Are we philosophers or Christians? If you desire to be a Christian join with me in this prayer:

SPECIAL PRAYER:

“Dear God, I come before you in the name of Jesus. I would like to surrender my entire life and way of thinking to your will. Please forgive me for my sins, save me from my sins, and keep me by your grace. Fill me with your spirit and help me to be a reflection of your love that others may come into a saving relationship with you. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.”

Sincerely,

Ryan Lance Jeffery
www.greatprophecy.com

P.S- This is the correct order of my full name which I am very proud of and will be using from this point on. Allow me to explain in the next issue)

FINAL QUOTE FROM THE GREAT CONTROVERSY:

“By the decree of enforcing the institution of the Papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp
hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.–Great Controversy

Ryan Lance Jeffery is a retired teacher and Bible Prophecy Instructor. You may visit him or sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.greatprophecy.com

There are promises of healing throughout the Bible. There are also practical steps to obtain our healing. Three of these practical steps are found in the following scripture.

Prov 3:7-8
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. (KJV)

(1) Be not wise in your own eyes.
(2) Fear the Lord.
(3) Depart from evil. These three things produce “health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.”

These three things shall be health for us throughout our being. To our navel and to the marrow of our bones signifies a complete, thorough health.

These three things must go together. Do not eliminate any one of them and depend on just the other two. Do not remove two of them and depend on just one of them. Obey these words to the fullest. Utilize all three steps. Then it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.

Then in the verse below, we find some encouraging words concerning our healing as it relates to our station in life.

Jer 30:17
17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. (KJV)

Jeremiah 30:17 is one of the most faith-building Scripture in the entire Bible. It speaks of something that keeps professional counselors in business; it speaks of total rejection. It describes a people rejected to the point of being called Outcast. It speaks of the rejection of a people, so thorough and final, that no one ever sought after them to find out what went so very wrong for them.

In other words, God says to us that even if we are called Outcast by those around us, He will still heal us. Even if we dwell on the wrong side of the tracks, He will still heal us.
He says to us here that no matter who we are, He will still heal us.

He says to that no matter where we are from, He will still heal us. He says that no matter where we live, He will still heal us. We may be in such a state that “no man will ever seek after us.” No matter! He will still heal us.

God says that He will restore our health to us. He also says that he will heal us of our wounds. Thanks be unto God! He gave us a healing Jesus.

Dr. Jay Snell: Author of many books concerning the healing, prosperity, family well being and salvation contained in the Abrahamic covenant for Christians. These books presented many times on TBN. www.jaysnell.org

During the last few years, I have witnessed first-hand the increasing anti-religion movement upon which the United States was originally founded. With items such as removing prayer from schools to banning the public display of the Nativity Scene, and let’s not forget the person who wanted to sue congress for mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance, it would seem that quite a few Americans have developed a sour taste to the notion of a celestial god. Granted, my encounters of such behavior are more frequent since I currently reside in one of the most liberal states of America, nevertheless, the truth remains that religion seems to not be as important as it once was. The key word here is ’seems’.

In August 2005, Newsweek Magazine published a survey that noted 519 million people believe in THE higher power. While “THE” is subjective to each individual, it falls within the many American melting pot religions that turn to divinity for comfort. Also noteworthy is a recent news story. One church managed to drudge its way past celebrity gossip, wartime casualties and disastrous weather forecasts right smack into the media spotlight. Looks like religion really does still exist since this particular church, Lakewood Church, out of Houston Texas just became what is called a “mega-church”. This title belongs to only a few in the United States, and to be deserving of such a label takes massive accomplishment. In this case, having a physical weekly congregation of approximately 30,000 people and claiming NBA’s Houston Rockets former coliseum as its new home. Further, if the number of parishioners is impressive to you, let it be known that preacher Joel Osteen inspires even more people across the country with his televised Sunday morning ministry, which can be found in competitive timeslots to your local Sunday morning service as well as late night hours throughout the week. But what does this mean to the health industry?

In 2005 after a two-year study on participants attending a weekly religious service, research indicated that a spiritual enthusiast actually experiences above-average health. This reduction in illness includes physical ailments as well as mental afflictions, such as depression. And even more interesting is that the mortality rate is lowered over measured periods of time, with one panel’s research showing a 25% lower rate of death in those attending a weekly religious service.

While some once-skeptical medical professors now support the notion that belief in God is associated to health benefits, other researchers excuse the better health as simply a less risky lifestyle of those who follow the faith. For instance, someone striving to be a good Christian may lower there alcohol consumption. In this case, it is possibly the lowered alcohol consumption that actually decreases the chance of illness. Another example would be a person intent upon living a moralistic lifestyle based on religious beliefs may have a lower involvement in casual sex encounters, thereby lowering the chance of contracting disease. And finally, the practice of prayer and meditation lowers the incidence of stress. The latter, a well known factor in many heart disease pre-cursor conditions.

While the proof of a divine higher being will remain a mystery all the days of our life, quite a few professionals agree that there are definite positive benefits associated with being a believer. Number one, we cannot control our lives nor everyone in them, no matter how hard we try. When the chips are down in these instances, what better way to turn the reigns over to another source and alleviate a moment or two of inner turmoil and angst. Number two, it is highly likely that the majority of people who attend church really do want and strive to be good people, no matter what their human tendencies may default to, post service. And finally, if and when we do arrive at that celestial set of white pearly gates, we will have walked the walk of faith and will promptly gain entrance with our well-merited one way golden ticket.

Please feel free to use this article for your newsletter, ezine, or web site, in its entirety including the resource box. Please notify me of publication by sending a website link or a copy of your ezine when published mailto:scrawford@whatismyname.com. Thank you!

Who Is Jesus? - Why Was Jesus Born? by Stanley T. Crawford

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (I Timothy 2:5 & 6)

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9)

As we read the Bible, we see several names that are used to describe Jesus Christ. Each name reflects an important aspect of Christ’s character. Let us take a look at some of these names.

Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus took away the sin of the world by sacrificing himself (John 1:29, I Timothy 2:5 & 6). He was perfect and without fault. These qualities allowed Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Even so, each man and woman must make the choice to accept God through Christ, or reject him. It should be remembered, Jesus seldom forces himself on any man or woman.

Jesus is God with us, or God made man (Matthew 1:23). As a man, God through Jesus Christ was able to truly experience the emotions and feeling that men and women feel. In addition, Jesus overcame the temptation of this world because of his link/relationship with God. As a result, all men and woman who accept Christ become sons of God and gain the abilities through the shed blood of Jesus to make it through the temptations that they will face.

In conclusion, we can answer the question, “Why was Jesus Christ born?” Christ was born in order to save men and women from their sins (I John 3:5, Hebrews 2:16 & 17). He has accomplished this through the sacrifice of his life for our sins. Any man or woman has merely to step out on faith and receive God through Jesus Christ.

Copyright 2003, Stanley T. Crawford. All Rights Reserved. mailto:scrawford@whatismyname.com Site is located at, http://www.whatismyname.com

My thoughts can get a little edgy at night. Possibly even deep. Reflecting on almost a half century of life. Some of it better than I would have imagined in my youth. Some not.

All in all I am glad that this present life is not all I have been given from the hand of God. At night I tend to wonder what it will be like to be on the other side of death’s door.

According to the Reverend Gary Davis “Death don’t have no mercy in this land.” Thank God, Jesus does. Two or three mild strokes and a minor heart attack over the last 6 years could well have something to do with the way the stream of my consciousness flows.

Not melancholy thoughts. Thoughts of a hope and future God has prepared for me beyond the valley of the shadow of death. Makes me want to do right and be appreciative of what He has given me on this side of the valley and yet not to pin all my hopes and dreams on family and friends and the things that make life enjoyable in the present.

There is a day of reckoning and a day of rewards coming which will fit all of us out for eternal life. James, the brother of Jesus says it much better than I could hope to.

James 4:13-15 Weymouth NT

Jam 4:13 Come, you who say, “To-day or to-morrow we will go to this or that city, and spend a year there and carry on a successful business,”

Jam 4:14 when, all the while, you do not even know what will happen to-morrow. For what is the nature of your life? Why, it is but a mist, which appears for a short time and then is seen no more.

Jam 4:15 Instead of that you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we shall live and do this or that.”

I need to learn humility. I wrote “we need” first but decided that was a cop out. This isn’t a lecture, it’s me sitting here in a nice warm quiet room, comfortably reflecting on the nature of human life.

What is the nature of human life? Nothing substantial, whether it’s you, me or Michael Jackson. We live our lives from day to day and at any moment our breath could be terminated and our next conscious thought would occur before the presence of almighty God.

This life which seems so concrete to us is no more solid than a mist or vapor, a fog we walk through while heading towards God’s light. That doesn’t mean it is unimportant but it is impermanent and insubstantial compared to the life awaiting beyond the confines of incorporation.

Instead of steadfastly setting our faces towards our own plans and purposes, there I go with that “we” business again. You have to figure this out for yourself, you can’t ride on my revelation of impermance.

Anyhow, here’s my thought:

I have some things I want to do and accomplish while still in the body, but I need to learn to temper my desires with the the fact that, “If it is the Lord’s will, I shall live and do this or that.” If it is not His will then I will be moving on to bigger and better things in the presence of the Lord.

Peace.

What kind of Yoga and Meditation leads to gaining Enlightenment in this life?

Every process of Yoga… neigh meditation that frees us from the clutches of attachment… bondage or Moha, whatever we may call it… Is the right process on the path of gaining Enlightenment.

Are Yoga and Meditation two different words with different meanings? No, the truth is not so… we need to understand that it is the path of yoga which shall lead us to gaining Enlightenment within this life. And what does yoga itself mean? The word yoga has been derived from the Hindi root yog and which in Hindi means synthesizing two things. In Hindi two plus two equal four… and the effort of our soul (the atman within) to merge with the super soul (the Parmatman, the Almighty God) is known as yoga.

Yoga in other words is the effort of every soul to merge with the Almighty God at the earliest. And for this to be achieved we need to follow a routine of yogic exercises and also meditate (perform yoga) on the Almighty God. This process of meditation can be best understood once we are able to understand the meaning of Meditation. Meditation in Hindi means yoga. Never otherwise or vice versa!

To be able to rightly perform Yoga (Meditation) we need to concentrate on the basic belief of life and that is… the basic building block of the total Cosmos is an atom. A cluster of atoms grouped together are called as molecules and a cluster of molecules is what the whole complex Cosmos comprises of. Truly speaking… the whole Cosmos is built up of clusters of atoms and molecules and there is nothing solid in the whole Cosmos. Everything in the Cosmos has a gaseous formation… a form of energy. As we have seen in the Star Trek serial during the deportation of human beings from one place to another… they get transformed into pure energy for a temporal phase.

This is the only vital truth of life we cannot get away with… seeing from the senses point of view… things appear to be gaseous and also solids but in the cosmic domain it is only the gaseous formation which holds good. Once we are clear with this issue in respect of every human being and every living being (Jiva as we call it in Hinduism) living on mother earth being gaseous formations… we need to understand that it is only after having gained control of the senses and the mind shall we be able to transcend the earthly plane and be able to truly visualize whatever was pictured in the telly serial Star Trek.

Performing Yoga (Meditation) is the process which enables us to cut across the shackles of the senses and the mind and to be able to come free of the senses and the mind… one needs to perform yoga (meditation) in a manner that the dross within our soul (atman) reduces at a faster pace. The complete dross having removed… one would have gained absolute control over the senses and the mind! This is the stage of Nirvikalpa Samadhi as we know it in Hinduism. The stage of Nothingness… it is when the senses and the mind have lost their entity and the purified soul engages itself in one to one dialogue with the Almighty God, the super soul.

Now… the question arises is how-to perform the Meditation (Yoga as we call it in Hinduism). And the meditation can best be performed by lying in Shavasana pose (the death pose) and following the path of Neti (not this… not this). And by doing this what are we trying to achieve? Is it possible to gain Enlightenment by this process? Yes! It is a foolproof process which shall gain us Enlightenment in the end.

What is the Shavasana pose? In yogic exercises the Shavasana pose carries the most importance for one on the path of gaining Enlightenment. It is this process of Shavasana in which one can lie down in the death pose and concentrate on the process of breathing. While lying down in the Shavasana pose as we gradually realize the ultimate truth of life that it is not the body which is inhaling the requisite essentiality (the pure air) but it is our soul (the real self within) the body which needs the pure oxygen… the body tends to lose its meaning.

We become more and more aware of the real truth within us and that truth is our soul (atman) which resides within our body. Slowly one more fundamental of life shall dawn upon us and that it… it is not the body which has taken the soul but it is vice versa which is the absolute truth. As we realize that our existence as a body is merely a covering… a garment for our real self… our Soul (Atman) within us… we would ultimately come to the conclusion that why not retain our true real self alone. What of the body then? Is it to be discarded? And if the body is discarded… the manifest self of us… our existence in this world would die!

Proceeding on the path of spirituality through logical conclusions as in the dialogues of Plato… cutting one untruth after another leads us towards higher planes of spirituality. Becoming freer from the clutches of the senses… we find a gradual change within our personality. The ultimate truth having dawned upon us that the present body is merely a garment for the inner real self of us… our desire of gaining Enlightenment within this life becomes stronger.

What is Neti? The path of Neti as practiced and followed by Maharishi Ramana! While lying down in the Shavasana pose is it not worthwhile to concentrate on the existence of God. We have come to a conclusion earlier that everything is gaseous in nature and what then? We would slowly realize that the only existence in this gaseous formation is of different souls and the Karta, Parmatman (as we call it in Hinduism) the Almighty God himself. There is nothing else apart from the souls, the Almighty God, the ether which comprises of the vast Cosmos.

Now if we desire to gain Enlightenment in this life… then we have to negate the existence of everything in our physical manifested world. The process of Neti (not this… Not this) is the process of negation as practiced and advocated by Maharishi Ramana… the one and the only path to cut across the shackles of the senses and the mind. It is only following the path of Neti while lying down in Shavasana pose that I realized God one-day. Having traversed the path… I can with hundred percent certainties say that the Shavasana pose and the process of Neti is the best form of Meditation one can ever imagine of.

Summarizing all… I can only quote of whatever I have personally experienced… I have nothing more to say!

May God bless all those on the path of Enlightenment!