Sunday, August 27, 2006

# 164: If Jesus Was Born on Dec.25, 1976

If Jesus Christ was reborn 30 years ago, how would He respond to modern religion in America and the world? This post will attempt to tell His most likely reactions. He was born in a Jewish ghetto in Shanty Town, U.S.A. His parents are devout Orthodox Jews. He was sent to a private school for Jewish children, paid for by Jewish charity.

Even in a strict orthodox Jewish environment, Jesus, as a young boy—having some memories of His experiences in His earlier life—was looked upon as an oddball by His peers and even His teachers; the confusion of His parents was remarkable. Many of the conversations He had with a few friends seemed like nonsense; even some of the replies He gave to His teachers and parents were way out of line as to what the Lord their God is like. Nevertheless, He never apologized for what He said, and for that reason, was disciplined many times, but still would not waver.

When Jesus became a teenager, the memory of His past became more vivid. With that in mind, He had a difficult time believing this was the same planet He lived on 2,000 years ago. Much of what He previously taught in Galilee and Judah, as mostly described in the New Testament, was distorted through additions, omissions and mistranslations; what disturbed Him even more was how many religious interpretations of His teachings were indescribably erroneous. Also, He was astounded by what was being taught in the synagogues and Christian churches which had absolutely nothing to do with the importance of living a righteous and holy life.

He knew His destiny was going to be somewhat similar to what happened to Him some 2,000 years ago; He again would attempt to persuade the multitudes, especially the Jewish community, to believe and live as He teaches, and that He is the promised Messiah incarnate to rescue Israel–spiritual deliverance from their enemy.

In the year 2006, He turned 30 years old. Jesus knew His way of life, what He believed and what He was about to teach, would be the most daunting challenge in existence. Of course, He knew that mere religious words had little or no power to persuade anyone as to the true way to His Father.

Before He started His ministry, Jesus spent many days in seclusion praying, being encouraged, and receiving last-minute information as to what and how He must teach and live.

Because of His EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION to the business of His Heavenly Father, He automatically was given power by His Father to perform miracles and heal many who were in distress, especially little children and babies. Without these supernatural events, He would be shrugged off by most as a religious fanatic with nothing better to do (exactly what many think of this author). Along with that, He was strongly criticized for not recognizing certain large Christian denominations as teaching the truth as displayed in the Bible.

The biggest advantage over His last ministry was that millions could see and hear everything He said and did via television, video cameras, and other forms of recording equipment. Therefore, regardless of some skepticism, there was little denying that what was happening was extra ordinary and most likely from God, although many religious groups believed otherwise since His most critical theme was to criticize the organized church per se.

Jesus started to have a fairly large following, even though the vast majority were following Him more as a novelty and not accepting His teaching as an absolute necessity to please God. They had seemingly legitimate reasons for not pledging their exclusive devotion to The Lord, although those reasons were not accepted as valid by Jesus Christ. He knew this would happen and accepted it as normal because of all the false teachings and all the ungodliness in the world that is being accepted as the status quo of Christianity.

As Jesus continued His ministry, His biggest opponents were religious people. The more religious they were, the more they opposed Him. This saddened Him greatly—doesn’t this sound like it was 2,000 years ago? Many secular people accepted His teaching as truth, but did not have the ability, because of lack of genuine desire, to change their lives.

His teaching and supernatural works were creating mixed emotions of turmoil and doubt in all parts of the world, especially with non-Christian religions. That goes to show that even with the truth staring the world right in the face, it is not easy, even if the desire is there, to change one’s beliefs and lifestyle.

Above and beyond all that He taught, according to the New Testament, His greatest accomplishment was with the healing of thousands of people and deformed children which could not be helped by conventional ways. The fact is that Jesus spent more time healing than he did teaching.

As I have mentioned many times in this blog, concerning the incompatibility of wealth and being a follower of Christ: His most rejected teaching concerning wealth is identical. He realized who His most formidable enemies were: Many, if not most, of His followers wanted to incorporate their present “Got-it-made” easy life of comfort, convenience, and leisure into Christ’s gospel message.

It would be extremely sad for children who are used to eating cake, ice cream, cookies, and other pleasurable sweet-tasting foods to be suddenly told, “From now on, your main diet will be spinach, broccoli, and other not-so-sweet foods.” They would rebel. The same is true for adults who have been accustomed to living the “Good Life” in the name of The Lord, to be suddenly told by Jesus Christ Himself, “That is not an acceptable form of Christianity.”

What really surprised Jesus—actually, it is unbelievable to Him—is all the ungodly stuff that was/is going on in the world. Most of the attitudes that are admired, desired, accepted and sought after are contrary to living the Christian life. For example, most students desire to earn a college degree in whatever so they can get a good-paying job and have life easy from then on; everyone, college student or not, desires to live the “good life”; we modern people desire to be entertained by television, movies, DVDs, the WWW, live performances, Internet porn and through whatever other means. If it doesn’t feel or taste good, we don’t want it; we forgot what it was to use some form of physical effort to go places; we preferred to use a motor vehicle, plane, bus, train, ship, etc. Could that mean we are lazy? Oops, I used that dirty four-letter word. “No, we are in a hurry and couldn’t live without fast transportation.” We spend wads of money on the semi-yearly vacation so we can get away from it all; new home, auto, clothes, motor homes, etc. so we can keep in style, etc.

Actually, all these above attitudes and things are not evil in themselves, but the evil they harbor is stealing precious time and money (loyalty) from the necessary and all-important activities that followers of Christ must be engaged in. As Jesus said over and over again, “Christianity is an active religion; no bystanders allowed.”

Of all Christ’s teachings, the following directive was the one He emphasized the most: (Jesus speaking) “Being a follower of Mine means to believe and live in the same manner as I live and believe; also, I command all GENUINE Christians to have the same attitude as I have. Do that and My Heavenly Father will give you the same ability and power as I have. All other pretend Christians can do as they see fit; I have no control over them. They take on My holy name and treat it like a dirty rag. That actually causes Me more physical pain than all other evils in this modern culture.”

As Christ’s anti-modern-Christian exploits claimed more and more media attention, there were secret talks between a few large denominations of some way to silence all this anti-church rhetoric and miracles, believing that this man who claimed to be the Christ, was a deceptive aberration of some form and not human. The main motive was to do God a favor by snatching Him and keeping him in seclusion without food and water until all the fervor about Him quieted down. By that time, Jesus would have been dead.

Before that plan was enacted, some orthodox Jews, who love money, had more to lose than other religions; since Jesus was a Jew, they decided to hire a hit man to finish Him off. Jesus knew the time was close when an event of epic proportions was about to unfold. He didn’t know exactly what it would be, although His mission was just about finished and the end was near.

Whenever Jesus came to a certain town, He, as usual, would spend some time in a pre-planned location on some college grounds, engage in candid dialog with several hundred students, answering questions that have mystified Bible scholars for centuries. His answers were more precious than any earthly treasure could equal. You may be able to identify a few of them in this blog.

As in everything Jesus ever said, it was being videotaped. Halfway through the get-together, a sudden enormous explosion killed every person there, leaving nothing but a gigantic crater. The perpetrators were never identified or apprehended.

The moral of this event was that “The truth hurts more than lies,” and retribution is in store for whomever, especially when it involves loss of reputation, finances and the good name of many religious leaders worldwide.

Here is the New Testament account of what Jesus said concerning what some religious people will do to Christ’s followers who are making every effort to do His work of testifying to the truth that hurts: John 16:2-3. “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.” Since this is what some of us can expect, I am ready; I hope you are also.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

# 163: Pampered People

Webster’s Dictionary defines “pamper” as: vt. 1) gratify to excess; glut; 2) to be overindulgent with; give in easily to the wishes of– SYN. INDULGE. Question: Do you know one human being that wouldn’t like to be pampered, if somehow she/he had the chance? I am certain there must be a few, but truthfully, I don’t know of any.

It is our human nature to desire an easy life in as many ways as possible. The reason is that it doesn’t take much, if any, effort. Should we give in to our desire to be pampered? The overwhelming answer would be yes. And why not? One would think only a deranged person would rather have and do things the hard way.

On the surface, it looks and feels great to be pampered. Most anything that is not easy takes some sort of effort or time to accomplish. Without consciously knowing it, effort could be one of the most disliked challenges of all–if it could be called that.

Nevertheless, there are several downsides concerning our love affair with wanting to be spoiled. We have physical bodies that are, for the most part, controlled by our minds. Think of the old saying, “If we don’t use it, we lose it.” I like this one better: “The less we use it, the faster we lose it.”

If we lived some 150 years ago, life was far from pampered. The only ones that were pampered—if even to a small degree, in comparison to what we are accustomed today—were the extremely rich and possibly babies. The easy life many of us are used to today didn’t happen overnight; it happened slowly and in an insidious way.

Modern technology and science have advanced considerably in the 20th century, and we enjoy the easy life they provide. After a very short time, we started to take it for granted, and never thought of it as being pampered; we expected it and called it normal.

Here is a partial list of normal stuff we take for granted that didn’t exist 100 to 150 years ago: No automobiles: We walked, got on a horse and buggy, rode a bicycle or stayed home; no telephones: We wrote letters if it was some distance, or traveled to deliver our message in person; no electricity: When it got dark, we would light our lamps or natural gas lights if we desired to be active beyond darkness; no radios, televisions, no recorded music—actually, nothing that required electricity; that list could be almost endless; no central automatic heat or air-conditioning. The wood or coal had to be transported by humans to the source of needed heat; cooking had to be done mostly outside unless one had a vented wood/coal stove in the kitchen; no electric washing machines: Clothes were washed by hand; no electric refrigerators, only iceboxes; no supermarkets, only mom and pop food stores. The only variety stores were the five-and-dime stores; no indoor plumbing: Outhouses were the norm; water had to be hauled from the well or the nearby creek; not many paved roads, just bumpy brick roads; no elevators: We walked the stairs. I don’t think there were buildings taller than 5 or 6 stories. I could just see grandma or grandpa walking the stairs; no snow plows if there was a heavy snow: Outdoor life came to a standstill until it started to melt. I could go on and on and on. I think you get the idea that we are pampered (spoiled) people, and we love it.

It is a great achievement how modern medicine, advanced surgery, and hygiene have almost doubled our lifespan. Many easy, time- and energy-saving gadgets, appliances, etc. have brought many detrimental sicknesses and diseases to accompany those extra years. In fact, the diseases we are confronted with now, as a result of straying from a natural lifestyle, are occurring also in the young and middle-aged population which didn’t exist years ago. I wrote on this subject fairly extensively in another post; therefore, I won’t elaborate.

Farming used to be all natural (no pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizer, and no synthetic hormones or antibiotics in our commercial meat supply). That is just one part of unnatural living, because it is easier to spray some of the above chemicals than to haul tons and tons of manures or compost, and inject other chemicals in animals to increase production of meat or milk. Even smart farmers like to be pampered. There literally isn’t any food one can buy–organic or commercial–that isn’t somehow contaminated with this toxic stuff. It is in the air just floating around and in the form of acid rain. We are paying the price when these toxic substances and heavy metals lodge themselves in our bodies and cause all sorts of illnesses. The detrimental effects of a better life would not be recognized and become apparent for some time.

An even more serious consequence of having life easy is the lack of natural, work-type exercise. A few of us attempt to make up for it by working out in the gym, biking, walking, swimming, etc. That may help some, but it can’t duplicate natural everyday physical work. Another detrimental thing: We don’t do enough sweating. Sweating is one of the human body's best ways of detoxifying itself. Nowadays, many of us live in air-conditioned (AC) homes; from there, we get into an AC motor vehicle, and from there an AC workplace or some other AC place. Sweating, most of the time, is not very nice and usually requires some sort of effort, unless one is taking a steam bath or boiling in a hot tub. In fact, the more body odor we emit, the more toxins are stored in our bodies that are not able to be released. Want proof? Email me. I guarantee you won’t hear much about body odor—that is what cover-up perfumes are for—just because we don’t want to hear about it. We want life easy.

Actually, volumes can be—and have been—written on this subject of easy-does-it health issues. Nevertheless, we humans, in general, love to eat too much of the wrong food and have life easy, regardless of how much we know about the good, the bad, and the deadly. Yes, some will call it downright laziness; I know “lazy” is a dirty word to most, but the truth is, laziness may be the foundation of wanting an easy life–check out any large supermarket or department store parking lot; where are most of the vehicles parked—near or far away from the entrance? That in itself tells you how lazy most of us are. Wanting to be pampered is intrinsically in our genes, and only people with super willpower, coupled with the knowledge of the damage a pampered life can lead to, can fight our natural tendency of wanting to be parking lot, etc., slackers.

Since this blog specializes in exposing religion’s crimes against God, let me end with why organized religion had to go with the flow by offering a pleasant and easy form of Christianity. There is not one verse in all of Scripture that says genuine Christianity will be easy for the followers of Jesus Christ. To the contrary, there are many verses that tell of the difficulties of living the Christian life: 1st Peter 4:18. “If it is HARD for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners?” Mark 10:24. “The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how HARD it is to enter the kingdom of heaven.’” [emphasis added].

Also, there is a multitude of verses in the New Testament that tell of how Christians will be hated and persecuted and of the hardships. I will only give three. Matthew 10:22-23. “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.” [We are not to fight back.] Tell that to George Bush. Matthew 5:11. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Acts 14:22. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. . ." If the Bible is correct, and it is, the above type of life won’t be easy. When people are hated and persecuted, it doesn’t sound like they are living an easy life. Therefore, religion avoids it. Mainstream Christianity is basically a “people-pleaser” type of religion, concerned with continually tickling the ears of its adherents in religious ways.

If any segment of organized Christianity preached the above message as to what to expect as a Christian, what do you think would happen to them? Those churches would be empty in no time. Nearly no one desires to hear about doing anything that is difficult or time-consuming. As I have mentioned many times, the easier and more attractive a church makes their form of “christianity,” the more popular it will be.

The laity is so accustomed to going to church on Sunday; once there, they sing a song, say a prayer, give their 10% bribe money—what most churches feel is only fair—listen to a feel-good sermon, give their farewell greetings to each other and then be on their way until next Sunday. One more thing: Make sure to pray and be good until next Sunday. That is, for the most part, what modern “easy-does-it” Christianity is all about.

The old slogan P.T. Barnum, circus operator, coined years ago, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” also applies to the religious circus. Most traditional Christian religions love to have people attend their churches who are ignorant of what the COMPLETE New Testament message is about. For that reason, I have made great efforts in this blog to somehow get people who are interested in spiritual matters to get into the New Testament and see if what is proclaimed in this blog is the truth.

Just make sure you are not one of those suckers born every minute, giving your hard-earned money, precious time and exclusive devotion to some slick, holier-than-thou, religious con artist. Most are legal racketeers, hiding behind their holiness, while being sanctioned by the IRS; they clearly get their extortion message across in a sly and subtle way; when one reads between the lines, it says: “Give or burn in hell.” Their ploy is, as 2nd Corinthians 9:7 states, “God loves a cheerful giver.” I ask, give to whom? The answer is in that same chapter, 9:1. “There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the SAINTS.” (followers of Christ). And verse 12. “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of GOD’S PEOPLE but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” Therefore, if we can afford to give generously, and most of us can, let's obey that Scripture and help other Christians in dire need.

Religious leaders have a job to do, and that is to somehow convince you and me to give them our money, regardless of whatever trickery is needed. And one of their most successful tricks is to pervert the Gospel truth by not telling us the whole truth, but only preaching the easy, feel-good parts. The clergy, like P.T. Barnum, knows our greatest weakness. We silently say: Make it easy, make it fun, spoil us, just make it feel good; we want to be pampered.

If you desire to learn of more gimmicks that are used to suck us into their churches, I have already mentioned many in previous posts. Click on # 136. It is just one of them, but caution is needed, and should not be read by religious people with a weak stomach; it is that shocking.

For those of you who are intimately familiar with the New Testament, PLEASE, if you find anything in this post that goes against what God’s purpose is for genuine Christians, let me know by sending a comment or email. I still have much to learn, and most likely, you can teach me. But, it will carry more weight if it comes from the New Testament; that holy book is my touchstone.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

# 162: The Mark of Authenticity

There exists a large variety of Christian religions in America; each has its very own beliefs as to what Christianity is and is not. For that reason, when a person has a desire to become serious about his/her Christianity, which one should he/she choose? That has been—and still is—a dilemma for many would-be Christians. This post, by design, is a bit repetitive, but it will attempt to cut through the peripheral verbiage of the most popular and well known denominations, religious organizations, and cults, so that a person will be able to spot the real McCoy.

For you who are familiar with the New Testament or have read through some of this blog site, you are aware that the Christian life is not ‘a walk in the park.’ For that reason, the more prolific or popular a church is, the greater chance it is nothing more than a money-making, man-made religious entertainment center.

The greatest and most wonderful aspect of the Christian religion is that we have a God of love. Yes, He loves genuine Christians as well as the atheists. Of course, the love God has for His own has eternal value, while the love He has for the unbelievers is temporal; however, He would love to change it into eternal love through our active support. 1st Timothy 2:4. “This is good and pleasing to our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” Matthew 5:45. “. . . He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Ephesians 5:1. “Be imitators of God . . . ” That verse, by itself, tells the whole story of what Christianity is or should be. Also, Luke 10:25. “‘. . . what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ . . . He answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’” Wow! To paraphrase Jesus’ reply, this is what He implied: If you don’t have an active desire to love the Lord Jesus Christ and neighbor as My Father requires, you cannot live with Me in eternity.

Similar verses with more punch are Matthew 22:36-40. “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the prophets [the biggest part of the Old Testament] hang on these two commandments.” There are several other verses that basically say the same thing.

Enough scripture. Now to get down to where the rubber meets the road. How do the above verses apply to the modern Christian life? Said another way, how do we give them a practical everyday application? The first question I must ask is this: What is so difficult about loving our God with our all—the word “all” implies much effort—and loving our neighbor as ourselves? Answer: just about everything, although it may not be burdensome. Like the song goes, “He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.” It is fair to say that exerting genuine effort in the art of Christian love is the most necessary ingredient in the Christian life, and the most absent.

There is a minimum of half a dozen verses which use the phrase “Make every effort.” I will give just one, since I have already written extensively on this topic. Luke 13:24. “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you will try to enter and not be able to.”

How many people do you know who claim to be Christians, possibly yourself, who are making every effort to love God with their all? Be truthful with yourself. Some may ask, “How does one love God in the first place?” The answer can be found in 1st John 5:3. “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” It couldn’t be more descriptive than that. That implies that those who are not making every effort to obey all that is commanded do not love God as He requires.

However, The Apostle is not talking only about the 10 commandments in the Old Testament; he means obedience to all that is required in the Old as well as the New Testament. Of course, the Apostle John didn’t mean the Levitical laws; those laws were done away with by the coming of Christ. Remember this: The New Testament is not a book of friendly suggestions, as some may secretly believe, but the narrow roadmap to real life.

Let’s modify the above paragraph by changing the words “every effort” to “great effort.” Only those who are making a great effort to be obedient to what God requires are the ones who love God. I pray God doesn’t penalize me too severely for making that small change, although even that is still a lofty goal. The aforementioned tells me that people can yell from the rooftops or from every pulpit in America, saying, “They love God,” but those words alone aren’t worth a hoot or a holler unless that acclamation is accompanied with love for God and neighbor by an active obedience to His commands. PERIOD! With no ifs, ands, or buts.

If you think it is difficult loving God with one’s all, and it is, loving others in need (your neighbors) is even more difficult. The only thing is, one’s love for God is invalid without love for neighbor, and one’s love for neighbor is also worthless without love for God. They are intertwined in such a way that their combined result displays the authenticity of Christianity. In fact, one’s fervent belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, or any other religious endeavors, is less than worthless without obedience to God’s imperative ordinances.

Loving those in need will always cost us something of value—material, financial or otherwise; and many times those who need our help are those we may not particularly care for. That is the difficult part of this love for neighbor. Of course, when giving to the needy, we must make sure our gifts are not spent on anything that is harmful to the ones we desire to help: things like alcohol, drugs, tobacco, etc. We must always be as “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” when giving, so that God can be glorified. It is God’s way of using us to show His love for the lost, the poor or the downtrodden. There is nothing easy about this all-important command. And there is no way a genuine Christian can avoid it. All we have to do is look around; the needy are everywhere.

Then the question comes up: How do Christians that are in some desperate need, disabled, handicapped or distraught, etc. love their neighbor as themselves? To my knowledge, that answer is not in the New Testament—correct me if I am wrong. Although, it is mentioned in the Old Testament in the last six commandments: 5) Honor your father and mother, etc. 6) You shall not murder. 7) You shall not commit adultery. 8) You shall not steal. 9) You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 10) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, etc. Every Christian, even the handicapped, can and must obey the above directives. Also, they can love their neighbor, as themselves by letting it be known to genuine Christian/s of their need. In that way, they are allowing others to be obedient to that second part of the two greatest commandments. Their needs facilitate other Christians that are able to help, in order to obey and play their part of the Christian life. Repeating, those six Old Testament commandments are for all Christians, even though they are only a fraction of what Holy Scripture requires.

Here is a sly way of circumventing the difficult, time-consuming, and expensive work of personally loving one’s neighbor: The clergy, often in a roundabout way, preach, “You should give generously to our church, and we will help those in need.” That is a ploy many, if not most, churches use to line their pockets and keep from going in the red. However, there is no way to avoid love of neighbor simply by putting money in a church coffer. And besides, just being obedient to the second part of the two greatest commands is of no value if love for God is ignored, which is obedience to the hard-edged verses in the New Testament, and there are many—Click on # 127: “Silently Forbidden New Testament Verses.” This post tells of the multitude of the New Testament verses that are seldom, if ever, mentioned behind the pulpit. And if they are mentioned, they only water them down so as to make them non-effective.

There are those who may call themselves Christians just because they belong to a certain church, whereas every genuine Christian has a mark that distinguishes them from all others. These real Christians display an active love for God by obedience to what the New Testament commands, and make every effort to be generous to all who are in need (that is the mark). That mark is plainly visible to God and Jesus Christ, and in many cases, others will take notice. That obedience is the one quality that authenticates our faith in Jesus Christ. The remainder of Scripture, as important as it may be, is trivial in comparison to love. Check out, 1st Corinthians, Chapter 13, the love chapter.

In conclusion, not every Tom, Dick or Mary, to say the least, will go along with this Biblical hard-nosed Christian teaching. If what the New Testament requires sounds absurd to you, and most certainly it will, either pray earnestly to God that He will give you the need and desire to believe and obey what He commands, or forget about Christianity, eternity and Jesus Christ.

Run-of-the-mill religious organizations that do not emphatically preach the most imperative part of the Christian life, an active love for God and neighbor, and require the same of everyone, are only taking your time, devotion and money; when they are done with you, they will send you on a slippery slope, and who knows where it will take you. Of course, there is one welcome aspect about the dark world for its constituents: They may see lot of familiar faces, and do lot of reminiscing, if that is any consolation.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

# 161: Palestinian, Israeli, Arab Conflict

Has anyone figured out how to ease or end the tension between Arabs and Jews? It doesn’t look that way. It has been said by several in-the-know individuals that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is what has put the whole Arab world in an uproar. The disproportionate military strength the Israelis have in comparison to what the Palestinians have is disturbing to many.

In the last part of this post, there will be a short commentary on the American government’s crime against Jesus Christ.

Here is how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict accelerated: During the Second World War, many German Jews were escaping Hitler’s holocaust, along with some from Eastern Europe and a few other neighboring countries. These Jews migrated to Palestine in droves. Then, after the war, when the Russian borders were opened, many Russian Jews did the same thing. At this time, Palestine, which the Palestinians claim was given to them by their God, had been their homeland for fifteen centuries.

Of course, the Jews claimed God gave them the land of Canaan about 2,500 years ago. True. However, God scattered the Jewish people several times among the nation for their wicked conduct that they would not repent of. Proof of that: Where are the other ten lost tribes of Israel that were scattered by God through the hands of their enemies? Then, God’s last scattering happened in 70 A.D. by the hands of the Romans. In effect, the Jews were stripped of their homeland. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. So, whose land is it?

By 1948, the Jewish Israeli population in Palestine increased substantially and therefore wanted to be recognized as a state even though it only occupied a small part of that land. Of course, for that to happen, it needed the approval of the United Nations Security Council; also, for it to be approved, there had to be a unanimous vote. Harry S. Truman, President of the U.S. at that time, was advised by his Secretary of State George Marshal to vote no on the resolution. Well, secretly against the advice of Marshal, Truman—of Jewish ancestries—ordered our ambassador to the U.N. to vote yes on statehood of Israel. As the Jewish Israelis started claiming more and more of Palestine as their homeland, greater hatred emerged between the two parties.

I truly understand why the Jewish Israelis wanted some land that they could call their own—let me inject this non-historical “could-have-been.” We live on a large planet. They knew there was going to be friction in claiming statehood in another people’s (Palestinians) land, where they have lived since the 6th century. Why didn’t the Jewish Israelis go to some place where they would be welcomed with open arms and make their statehood there? I am certain there would have been a few countries that would have loved to have them as neighbors. Well, no crying over spilled milk, although there have been plenty of tears shed, to say the least, in the last 58 years.

Getting back to the subject at hand . . . that is when all the trouble started. Jewish Israelis were quickly supplied with money and state-of-the-art military equipment by the U.S. In that same year, 1948, war broke out between Palestine and Israel. The rest is history. The Jewish Israelis won that war along with 3 or 4 more wars in later years. Anyone can see why. The Palestinians had primitive weapons while Israel had the most modern arms available.

Since the American government has supplied the Jewish Israelis with its overwhelming military armament and financial aid since 1948, Americans are also hated by most of the Arab countries, although with some, it is a secret hatred, like Saudi Arabians and Arab Americans. It is a fact, although not often spoken of in the news, that all the terrorism against America, including the World Trade Center bombing on 9/11 by Arabs was because our government closely aligned itself with Jewish Israelis, thus, in effect, making enemies of the Arab world.

As in the present conflict, between Israel and Hezbollah—Hezbollah was created in 1982 to resist Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon—the U.S. government is encouraging Israel to continue fighting Hezbollah until it is defanged. President Bush says Hezbollah is a terrorist group, and it is, but its actions were aimed at Israel, and it had no intention of doing any harm to the U.S. Nevertheless, Bush’s goal is to rid the world of all terrorists, even if they mean no direct threat to America. However, Hezbollah is suspected of bombing the Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. service men in 1983. My question is this: What was our Marine barracks doing in Lebanon in the first place?

Here is a little-recalled fact that was published in TIME Magazine. In 2002, Richard Armitage, then the Deputy Secretary of State, was asked if Bush and his cronies were going to take revenge for the bombing of the Marine barracks–though it wasn’t said that way–on Hezbollah for the 1983 bombing in Lebanon. Here is his response, “Their time will come. There is no question about it. They have a blood debt to us, and we’re not going to forget it.”

President Bush’s vocal support of Jewish Israelis’ extremely aggressive action against Hezbollah, and not wanting a temporary cease-fire until a long-term cease-fire is on the table, is the partial payback that was spoken of in 2002 by Armitage. That means that America is fighting a grudging war against Hezbollah by proxy through Israel.

Now, the question I pose is this: What right or obligation does the U.S. have to support the Jewish Israelis? This statement is not anti-Semitic: The truth is, all the influence the Jewish American community has in all three branches of our government (and other areas of government), along with many gigantic commercial and financial institutions, they have the clout needed to convince the Pentagon to supply the latest high-tech military equipment to Israel, along with funding sufficient money so that the Jewish Israelis can defend itself from its Arab neighbors. You will never hear this said anywhere else, for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic, though it is no secret.

Now for the Iraq war. I have written about this war previously in other posts, but it’s worth repeating. If President Bush had studied the history of the three sects—Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds—that occupy Iraq, he or anyone in their right mind would have never invaded that country. Here is the story: A year or two after the First World War, the British became the occupiers of at least three Ottoman provinces: The Ottoman Empire that belonged to the Turks included SE Europe, SW Asia, & NE Africa. The Brits merged the three provinces into one state, and Iraq was born. They chose the Sunni minority to run the country. The Brits occupied Iraq until 1932. All that time there was infighting between the three sects.

After 12 years of expensive hell for the Brits, they were glad to abandon that desolate desert. All this time, the Sunnis abusively lorded over the other two sects. Then, when Saddam came to power, he was even more beastly, but that brutality somehow forcefully unified and made peace between the three parties. A mixture of sweet and sour was palatable for the majority, although not the rest.

When President Bush started the Iraq war, his aim was to get Saddam Hussein and destroy his “weapons of mass destruction.” Even with the false intelligence, many knew it was a mistake, including myself. He didn’t have any idea what he was getting into. After three years + and many thousands killed on both sides, not to mention the wounded and the hundreds of billions of dollars we had to borrow, making our national debt even higher–around $8 trillion—what do we have? A civil war that is getting out of control. Now, what are we doing there in this part of the game? Acting as a babysitter to a civil war? Yes. Or supplying security against whom? The Sunni insurgents, or the Shiite militia? No. At this critical time in the war, I ask, “Exactly who are we fighting or protecting?”

The Arab nations have an evil view of my role model, Jesus Christ. They believe Christians are warmongers because the man who claims to be an Evangelical Christian, George Bush, received his inspiration to start the war against Iraq from a higher power, Jesus Christ. This is the part of the conflict that angers me most of all.

Christianity is a religion of love for neighbor that includes love for our enemies, not the killing of our enemies. I have written on this subject extensively. And I have to bring it up again. How can anyone who is a genuine Christian start an unprovoked war against a country that was no threat whatsoever to our country? Not only has our Christian faith been slandered, but the world’s image of Americans has dimmed considerably in the last 3 years. We now have an evil reputation, and all because of George Bush and those that voted for him. In his action, Bush has committed a grievous crime against not only Jesus Christ but every genuine, God-loving American Christian.

The irrepressible conflicts going on in Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, and who knows who else is going to get involved, either purposely or by default, is getting more complex than a jigsaw puzzle with no picture or colors to figure out where the pieces go. There is a partial solution for the U.S. Just turn the pieces of the puzzle on their back and a watermark of Jesus Christ will slowly emerge; now the remaining pieces can easily be put in their proper place and the instructions will become clear on how to solve the terrorist problem, at least in America, by displaying the solution in plain English.

Here is His solution: 1) Permanently stop supporting Israel with money and weapons. 2) Get every last American soldier and advisor out of Iraq. 3) Stop supporting the Afghanistan government and get every American soldier out of there. 4) Get all American military advisors, reporters, and camera persons, etc. out of all Arab countries. It is that simple; or is it? I can guarantee you, it will never happen. Why? Because the American Jewish influence in our great U.S.A. is that powerful. If you know it or not, they, for the most part, run our country. Is that anti-Semitic? No, it is the truth.

By the way, who made the U.S. savior, protector, and the forceful police of the world, especially of Jewish Israelis, who have been rejected by God for not recognizing or accepting their promised Messiah, Jesus Christ? Not Jesus Christ. He is a God of love, with only a few participants. Must have been our mighty unmatched military power and wealth that made us act like a super god.

Let the Palestinian Arabs, Hezbollah and Jewish Israelis kill each other, let the Shiites and Sunnis fight to the death, if they desire, or let them make peace or whatever; it is their business, not ours. We have enough domestic challenges to be concerned with. So, our gas prices will double. Hey, that may be the price we have to pay for peace of mind and real security.