GLOBAL WARMING AND THE BIBLE
Yes boys and girls, it IS in there. But not in the approved Al Gore format. Mankind is not the cause at all but the judgment of God. Isaiah 30:26 describes the moon giving off light as the sun and the light of the sun being sevenfold. Then in Revelation 16:8 one of the angels of judgment pours his vial on the sun and is given the power to scorch men with fire. Two things to note; 1. the source that is quoted is SOLAR. 2. These judgments don't come into play until the time of the GREAT tribulation (in otherwords you ain't seen REAL global warming yet.)

So what are we to make of this global warming swindle? It may well be the manufactured crisis that the coming world leader uses to help push himself into power. In Revelation 6 when the first rider rides out, he conquers without raising a sword. In fact his hands hold a bow with no arrows. What better way to get control of the world than to convince everyone that we are literally going to burn?

In the manual that I once had my hands on by Senator Imhof former French prime minister Jaques Chirac lets the cat out of the bag. He says that the whole global warming thing is brought about to envoke a global government.

WEIGH DOWN IS WAY OUT!
http://www.carm.org/features/weighdown.htm

Ok so it LOOKS okay on the surface, but like picking mushrooms you gotta' know which ones are safe. It appears as if Gwen Shamblin has LEFT biblical doctrine (IE., that of the Trinity and the Blood Atonement) for something more like Jehovah's Witness. Gotta' applaud the approach for weight loss but certainly NOT the theology that is coming with the package.

So here I am fat, but theologically "sound"... Rather go into heaven with some extra adipose tissue than fall fatally in this area. There are many warnings about what will happen to false teachers. But the one that should bring the heaviest penalty is spoken by Jesus himself:


Mr 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

Let's pray that she will see the errors of the path she has chosen.

Numbers, Codes and Mysteries-
OK, I fell for it and looked into the "Bible Code". There is a very GOOD book by Jeffrey Satinover about it "Cracking the Bible Code". He doesn't even bother to mention Michael Drosnin (the one who made all the money off the "Code"). It gave a very good history of cryptography, kabbalah and so on and showed how the Bible Code was an outgrowth of these things. So here's my problem, its based on the Masoretic text which is very DIFFERENT than the ancient Hebrew. Major portions of the bible are actually written in Chaldean or Aramaic. I know it was based on the Torah but you just got to wonder (the Torah was the first five books of the Bible).

So I downloaded the "code software". It let me run some ELS (Equidistant Letter Spacing) for about 8 times. I naturally looked up my name "MartyBee" (all run together). I showed up 4 times most of the references were to FALSE prophets like Balaam. Heh, heh, gotta make you WONDER!

They have found OTHER references that say Jehovah is evil in the Torah using this ELS system. So I don't feel TOO worried...

Is there a problem with all this jazz? My first reaction is that it IS traditionally OCCULT. That is it is all about hidden wisdom, secrets if you will. GNOSTICISM then is what this all about whether you want it to be or not. Its all about secret wisdom that is only accessible to a few initiates.

As for me it reminds me of the whole "backwards masking mania" that was in vogue in evangelical circles years ago. The idea was that if you played "Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin for you younguns) backwards you got someone saying "I love you Satan..." (I NEVER heard it and I played it back on a reel to reel). In the meantime they ignored what it was saying FRONTWARDS. It was literally a hymn to the White Goddess of European Witchcraft/Paganism! In the same sense, people are looking for mysteries in the bible and trying to find secret codes when just read straight up, its message is powerful enough.

Fast Note on Nag Hammadi (DaVinci and so on)
The big idea behind the Da Vinci Code book is that the scriptures were edited by Constantine in 325 A.D. Other gospels could have been included and weren't for chauvinist reasons. This is the main motif behind all of Elaine Pagels work on the Gnostic Gospels. There are some very good reasons that the Nag Hammadi gospels were NOT included in the canon of scripture (or what we know now as the New Testament):

1. The canon of scripture (what books would be included) was FIXED by as early as 150 A.D. In other words the books we know as the New Testament were pretty much fixed in place much, much earlier than 325. Most of the Gnostic Gospels can be dated as 3rd or late 2nd century. Far to late to be part of the legitimate record of Jesus.

2. The nature of the Nag Hammadi gospels is distinctly NOT historical. They consist of sayings and proverbs. There is NO historical information such as when Mary and Joseph went to be counted in the census of Tiberias at Bethlehem. The book of Acts can be considered an accurate diary of the early church. Places, people and dates can be fixed accurately for the most part. You have no such ability with a book of proverbs.

3. History IS dictated by consensus. It is not something that can be affirmed or denied 100%. It isn't like a hard science that you can measure. What I mean by that is suppose you had 1000 reports of a helicopter flying over a neighborhood at night and 3 that say it was a UFO. Which side would you believe? You COULD say that the UFO reports were suppressed by the government. But a little common sense would say it was most likely a helicopter. We find the same case with the Gnostic "Gospels". There are THOUSANDS of copies of all the portions of the New Testament as we know it, dated early enough to be valid, and only FEW copies of the Gnostic Gospels (with references to them by Iraneus) that are dated LATER. You can make the call that a suppressive, authoritarian, chauvinist Roman church DESTROYED all the copies to make their point, and you can believe every light that passes over your house at night is a UFO.

What does all this point out? Are all evangelicals like me just in denial? Or is it that Academics are victims of their own "Political Correctness"? Feminism, the Mother Goddess religion, new thought in spirituality are all in vogue in this culture. But it is intellectually unsound to impose our views of the world on another time and culture. If the gnostic literature is examined closely enough it is far more misogynist than our current day.

You be the judge! (As for me, I ain't believing in any UFO's till they land and show me their registration and proof of insurance.)

On the Golden Compass-
This is only a first reaction to what the author of the original books was up to. He apparently has a decidely anti-christian agenda. The church is portrayed as a sort of "sacred gestapo" that is experimenting on children. God is really a shriveled old man that lives in a crystal. The two protagonists in the book series meet and have sex and save the world (at the end of the third book apparently). The heirarchy of heaven and creation have a very GNOSTIC viewpoint (that is the earth and creation were made by that shriveled up creator "god" and the rest of it is under a sort of warfare mentality between different "angels", or demi-urges.)

That aside, New Line cinema is touting it as "from the same people that brought you Middle Earth". It turns out Phillip Pullman has little regard for Tolkien and even LESS regard for C. S. Lewis and Narnia. He considers the Narnia series "racist" and wrote the "His Dark Materials" series to counter it (this is the series that the "Golden Compass" movie was drawn from). The heroine even starts the adventure in a "wardrobe" closet!

Let me finish with what I read on one blog last night, "we had people worried about Harry Potter when J. K. Rowling was just out to make an engaging fantasy, this is the real one to worry about..." (paraphrased as best I remember it).

Its time for some serious fantasy writers (of the Christian sort) to take up their pens and start writing I think.

DON'T CANCEL EASTER JUST YET...

James Cameron says he found the tomb of Jesus and his wife and kid... oops! turns out its a meaningless find since the tomb cave may have held up to 200 others at the same time and there were a lot of Jesus's running around in first century Palestine. Not to mention the fact that Jesus was a rural kid from Galilee (doesn't ANYBODY ever read the Bible anymore) and would never have the money or prestige to be buried in Jerusalem. Even the ISRAELI archaeologists (who have no horse running in this being true) say its a bogus claim and bad science...

so crack out the PEEPS and the marshmallow bunnies, resurrection Sunday is still on... 500 plus people saw him the first go around as being raised from the dead... (1 Corinthians 5:6)

I got this sinking feeling about this "Tomb of Jesus" show... (heh, heh...)

OF CARTOONS AND URINE

Zech 11:13 Here we see the offering of 30 shekels (the price Judas waspayedd for betraying Christ), this is a slim wage, it is the price of a slave. So it is that Christ is esteemed in the world and the faith is considered of no worth. In comparison, the Islamic faith is held to very high esteem and fear, one looks at the furor over 12 cartoons of the Prophet! Yet there is no hue and cry over a picture of a crucifix in a jar of urine. One could protest, but it seems that the reaction of the world was foreseen. The price was then thrown to the potter, that is it was considered of no worth.

ON THE DA VINCI CODE and THE BROTHERS GRIMM...

Ok, there has been a literal FLOOD of stuff coming out countering the Da Vinci Code book and movie from Christian circles. None of them to this date has countered the central argument of the book, that Christ really extended his kingly line through Mary Magdalene and fostered a line of French kings known as the Merovingians.

This is answered quite simply and succinctly from scripture; In Genesis 49 Jacob tells his sons that the sceptre (read kingly line) will not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes. What he is saying is that after Christ comes there is no more need to keep the extensive records that the Jews did to establish the line of the Messiah. Therefore the argument that Christ was to extend his kingdom (Holy Blood, Holy Grail) is wrongheaded from the start! The Templars never found the records of the lineages of the Jews because in 70 A. D. the temple and all that was destroyed! It just wasn't needed anymore.

*****

Next up to bat; "The Brother's Grimm" starring Heath Ledger and Matt Damon...

I am BIG fan of Terry Gilliam so I was looking forward to this with a lot of anticipation. But it is one of the most thoroughly anti-christian movies I have seen in a long time. It begins with a "pagan myth" that is quite ingrained in our society, that the Christians persecuted and ruined the old ways and religion, therefore the forest rebelled, etc., we all need to return to the "Old Religion" and "earth friendly" ways (where's Al Gore in this movie?) Problem is that the way most of our European ancestors "made friends" with the earth was to sacrifice someone or a child to guarantee a good harvest. Katherine Briggs chronicles this in her book "The Vanishing People", a study of fairy lore.

So when the early missionaries came to pagan Europe, they found people willing and ready to be FREED from enslavement to the "Old Ways". Do the modern Wiccans REALLY want the "Old Religion" back?

Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

ON THE SEALS OF THE SCROLL IN HEAVEN... REVELATION 6

Much confusion abounds as to what these seals are, what is the meaning behind them, when are these events to happen, have they already happened, is it ALL metaphor, and so on?
There is the "preterist" approach; all these events have already happened in the first century after Christ. There is the "historicist" approach, that says it all is a picture of Church History through the centuries. There is the "idealist" approach, (symbolic would be a better description), the book shows the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Finally there is the "futurist" approach, that these events are yet to come and the book reveals what is to happen.

The seals are the key to understanding which is true. All the judgments are held within the seals. All of the subsequent judgments, trumpets, and bowls are contained within the seals. So to find the key of the "mystery" you must understand what the seals are.

Most of the intepretive approaches that are taken except for the futurist ignore the context of the seals passage. To understand chapter 6 of Revelation you must understand chapter 5. In chapter 5 we see a gigantic scroll (King Jimmie, "book") that is sealed with 7 seals. Wills in ancient times were sealed with 7 seals as a way of keeping the authority of the document in force. The scroll was written on the inside and summarized on the outside so you knew what was in it.

The context of scripture gives you the meaning behind what the scroll is. It is the title deed to the planet earth. We know this because in the end of the book of Revelation we see all the earth and universe subjected finally to God and the Lamb. We don't see that YET! So the idea that these events and seals have already happened (or are happening now) is wrong.

The book of Revelation is simply the document of what will happen on the earth to bring it into subjection to the King finally. Think of it like the D-Day landing at Normandy, finally the Lord himself will begin the invasion of planet Earth, the Silent Planet will be silent no more. The enemy will be put to flight, you and and I (if you are a Christian) are simply the "Resistance Fighters" left here on planet earth.

So why would God wait to deliver judgment? Well that is explained TOO in 2 Peter;

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Giving everyone a chance to repent is looking at the glass as "half-full". He is also giving the world a chance to be as "wicked as it can be" that is to mature into the full evil of its ways so there will be no doubt when he delivers judgment;

Mt 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Christ gives the parable of the tares and wheat, someone sows "tares" in the field of the world, sons of the wicked one. But the owner of the field says to wait till they all come to maturity, lest they hurt the wheat in taking out the tares.

Deep stuff, eh?

But "let not your heart be troubled", when the end times arrive there will be no doubt as to whether or not we are in it. I really don't think we are in them now (although they may be just over the horizon) and I CERTAINLY don't think we have been in them for the last almost 2000 years (or even since 1850)...

ps. you READY for them when they come? this is the parable of the ten virgins and their oil! (next blog!)

PALE RIDERS AND OTHER MYSTERIES...

One of the most enduring ideas on the endtimes is that of the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse. It would seem that everytime the world goes through a major war, or crisis, people will point and say "See, that's IT, that's one of the four horsemen!" So it is critical to understand the times and timing of the events leading up to the "final conflict" or "The Tribulation".

Paul alludes to this in 2 Thessalonians. The Thessalonians were going through similar troubles and some preachers had been going around saying "See, that's IT, we are in the end times..." But here is Paul's response:

2 Thessalonians
1 ¶ Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.3 ¶ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

So some things can be seen here, first there must be a "falling away first". This is just not any "falling away" or apostasy but it must be a world wide one, where the church goes very, very wrong in her doctrine. Then the man of sin must be revealed, this is THE Antichrist, not just your everyday garden variety would be messiah but the grandaddy of false Christs must be revealed. Next we see that he must be seen to sit in the "temple of God","shewing himself to be God".

Some things we can conclude, we are NOT in the last days, no matter what sort of tribulation you see the world and nature going through. That is not the gauge he gives. First off there has been no great "falling away" of the church from the true faith. There have been a lot of LITTLE falling aways. But even if you maintain that we have "fallen away" there are three more components that must be in place before we can say we are in the last days; 1) no Antichrist on the scene, hasn't made his presence known to the world. He may be OUT there but he's not letting it be known yet. 2) There is no temple for the Jews in Jerusalem, in fact Temple Mount is still under Moslem control! 3) There is no temple so he cannot "shew himself to be God" yet either.

Conclusion: This isn't the end times, its not even the BEGINNING of the end times. But we MAY be able to see the sign from here as the old saying goes. Many, many elements that are involved in Daniel's 70th week are seen in their infancy in the world today. But the "child is not born yet". More on the seals and what it all means NEXT blog...

OF CROWNS AND EMPIRE -

In doing my research for an upcoming game I came across a most remarkable badge (which I am recreating in a graphics program). It was for the German (Nazi) Submarine corps. It was a U-boat, badge of "empire". Instead of the usual spread eagle with a swastika in its claws, there was this image of the Nuremberg Crown at the top. Then a U-boat in an oval wreath beneath.

This crown was known as the crown of the Holy Roman Empire/Emperor. He was the extension of Christ's kingdom on earth. I know a lot of people have pooh-poohed the link between Hitler and the occult and Hitler and the Antichrist. But this seems to give real credence to the idea that Hitler saw himself not just as "a" messiah but as "THE MESSIAH". For the Antichrist (the first beast) will surely be a Gentile and no doubt seek to wear this crown (a subject never brought up in current prophecy books).

Re 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Whenever you see the word "sea" you can interpret that as meaning the "sea of humanity" or the Gentiles. The second beast will no doubt come up from the nation of Israel, but the first one, the Antichrist will be a European.

Hitler believed that he was the one to come, the Messiah, and for a time the Evil One allowed him to reign and gave him tremendous power. But Satan is a hard task master and the power soon left Hitler to die a suicide in a bunker beneath Berlin.

Now some atheists and others have mentioned that Hitler was a Christian, but what sort of Christian would think and do these things? Sorta messed up in the head there if you ask me! Believing he was the new Messiah.

In fact he was an ANTI-Christ. He sought to not only oppose Christ but REPLACE Christ (that is the other meaning to "anti"). Yes Hitler's goal was to replace the cross with the swastika and the bible with Mein Kampf on every altar in the land. Too late many German pastors figured out what was happening and not more than a few like Detriech Bonhoeffer paid the price!

It is rumored that what brought Hitler his real power was possession of the Helige Lance, or the Spear of Longinus, the spear that pierced the side of Christ. Charlemange held it too, till he dropped it. When it passed from his hands, empire also passed. When Hitler took over Austria, one of his first stops was at the museum that held the lance. He took possession but lost it later in the war. General Patton is rumored to have examined this same spear in the bunker where it was found. Where is it now? (That is a subject for another game...)

THE GREAT DISAPPEARANCE -

There is a tradition among some Evangelical Christians of an event to happen in the future called the rapture. This is the catching away of the saints to heaven just before the time of the Great Tribulation. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Now this is foreshadowed in the Old Testament (I'll get to where the UFO conspiracy might be involved) with Enoch, the man who walked with God and was no more, in Genesis 5. Then again it is seen in Elijah, the prophet who was taken to heaven on a whirlwind. That's right! Alive and taken into the Heaven (special deal here). It has another semblance in the happening just after the crucifixion of Christ:

Matthew 27:
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Where did these saints go? Did they live out the rest of their lives on earth? NOPE! When Christ ascended he took them with him! Acts 1! WHOOEE!

Now for the weird part; how do you think they'll explain such thing? UFO's are a GREAT candidate for that idea!

The REAL Invisible Choir

I have no doubt that the experiences of Streiber and others are real. There is something called the Akashic Record, which is sort of a grand video tape of all time that malevolent spirits can make known to the unsuspecting. Listen to his vision of the future in "The Secret School":

"My sense of this was that it was smoke coming up form some kind of vast fire..." (p. 183)

He describes in this passage a parched earth, an earth burnt by huge fires. Now there are several scriptures that apply to this:


Isa 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

and this one in Revelation is particularily pertinent:


Re 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.


So what has happened? I believe that Streiber was a victim of "disinformation". Demonic entities have taken real events that WILL happen and played them in his mind. He is seeing way into the Tribulation and seeing the judgments that God will pour out on the earth in rebellion. Of course since it is out of any kind of context he can never make the correct assessment of what is going on. In fact all of his books attest to his doubt as to the motive, intent and nature of the visitor phenomena.

"You can't tell the players without a scorecard..."

OF THE TAROT AND WHAT IS ALL THIS "SACRED FEMININE" SUPPOSEDLY INSIDE IT? -

Well it turns out that the idea of "Pentagrams" or "Pentacles" is just another mistake in translation made by someone name S. Mathers at the turn of the last century or so. He and Arthur Waite designed the Tarot most commonly used today (The Rider Waite Tarot). They mistranslated the word Eliphas Levi used for "coin" into "Pentacle" and it stuck. Had nothing to do with Solomon's star, sacred feminine and so on.

(This image of the "one of Pentacles" is from the Marseilles Tarot which is far older than the deck Brown referred to, like 200 years or so older! No star, no pentagram, no goddess...)

http://esoterism.com/reference/tarot.html

9. What is the history of the Tarot?No-one knows the 'true' origin of the Tarot. The most common myth is that it was brought to Europe by the Gypsies - but this myth come from the fact that very early occultists who used the Tarot fancied that it came from Egypt. They were as wrong about that as they were about the homeland of the Gypsies.In fact, the Tarot came to Europe about the same time as any other form of playing card, in the early/mid 1300's. It is most closely related to the 'Mamluk' deck of the Islamic world, which had suits cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks. The Tarot was originally used for a game called 'tarocchi' in Italy, which is sort of a distant cousin to Bridge. Tarocchi is still played in some parts of the world, not usually with the same decks the 'fortune tellers' use. The game was quite popular for a time among the royalty in Italy, and sometimes a duke would commission an artist to create a really nice deck. Some of the earliest surviving Tarot decks come from this source. Plainer decks existed, but were not well made enough, or well thought-of enough, to survive the intervening 600 years. The Joker of 'standard' card decks is _not_ related to the Fool of Tarot. The Joker was invented as a wild card for Euchre in the 1800's, in a part of the world where the Tarot was virtually or totally unknown.The Tarot was first associated with the occult by Antoine Court de Gebelin, a relatively obscure Parisian mason who wrote about the deck in 1781. He invented a lot of the standard myths about the Tarot which were later popularized by others (it comes from ancient Egypt, the Major Arcana isrelated to the Kabalah, etc.). The first big popularizer of the deck was a contemporary of de Gebelin, called Etteilla, who published the first 'revised and corrected' Tarot deck for divination. The fad was caught up by Eliphas Levi, Oswald Wirth, and Papus, among others. From Papus, the Tarot caught on with some English mystics, such as S.L. Mathers (whose mistranslationof Levi brought us the suit of pentacles), A.E. Waite, and A. Crowley. The Tarot received a lot of attention from these folks, and they created a fairlylarge body of writing on the use of Tarot. For the most part they thought thatdivination was a 'lower' use of the cards, that ideally it should be used toput you in touch with eternal verities, usually in conjunction with whatevermagickal order they happened to be involved with. But of course, divinationwas the most popular use for the cards.Most of the Tarot decks on the market were created this century, most of those in the last 20 years.

Deconstructionism and "Deconstructing" the Da Vinci Code myth -

Elaine Pagels and the Gnostic Gospels set the tune and Brown and the writers of "Holy Blood Holy Grail" simply follow along in harmony. The basic idea is that its "all a conspiracy". History as we know it is BUNK and is formulated to promote political or social agendas by power groups, so we must always "read between the lines" to get at the truth behind it.

The problem here is that the "truth" is more often than not, colored by our particular agendas. There is therefore no absolute standard or base line from which to work from. Part of this is because our society today has this inherent need to "see both sides" or be sympathetic and understand "the other guy". I believe this is what has happened with "Gnostic Gospels" and "Da Vinci Code" and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". When such ideas conflict with bona fide scholarship and history I think that this political correctness must take a back seat! We see plenty of revisionist history coming out now with this sort of slant on it in movies. But as I told one colleague a while back, I could never be a deconstructionist, the "light is all wrong".

Take for instance this idea that the sacred feminine is really what the Temple worship of the ancient Jews was all about. The Shekinah was the feminine and Jehovah the male. What a CROCK! Nothing could be farther from the truth! Time after time in the old testament the Israelites are told to have nothing to do with Ashtoreth (the main feminine goddess of the ancient world, also known as Astarte, Ishtar, Venus, etc.)

1Ki 11:33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.

So why mix things up? Simple, Brown and the Da Vinci code are simply following the pattern of Pagels (really they are following the pattern of Robert Graves in the "White Goddess"). The public LOVES a good conspiracy. But is it truth? Goddess worship certainly WAS a major part of ancient worship but Scripture says it certainly was NOT part of the Temple ritual and never could be.

Ps 86:10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

DECONSTRUCTING "THE CODE" A BIT FURTHER -

Leaving aside the general issue with art, the scriptures, Opus Dei and the sacred feminine, lets go right to the main front in this spiritual battle, the deity of Christ. If it is a fabrication of the church heirarchy what do we say to Christ's own words?

John 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

It is one thing to go and criticize the Roman Catholic church, or to insinuate that there is some sort of cabal to hide true scripture from us. Its another though when you find Christ himself alluding to his deity. Now you might say "well that was one of the re-written books". Well it goes back farther, to the Old Testament too. Its one thing to say that the Roman Church fixed the New Testament, but how'd they get the Jews to go along with fixing THEIR scriptures? Just remember that the Jews were hated by the Medieval Church, they were considered to be the killers of Christ.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Dan Brown, whatever he is, is certainly no Biblical scholar...

DAN BROWN, THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS, AND THE DA VINCI CODE -

One of the blockbuster books of the last couple years has been the "Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. Its basic premise is that the traditional church has had a conspiracy going on for the last 2000 years or so to hide certain "other gospels" from us. These are collectively known as the "Gnostic Gospels". Of course no serious scholarship really supports this spurious history (ie. that Constantine "fixed" the canon in 325 A. D. at Nicea). Canon (or the bible's books as we know them) was well in place as early as 125 A. D. as shown in some fragments of scripture. Besides, to pull off a monumental deception, destruction of the Gnostic Gospels (if they were in fact so widespread) would be impossible. The Gnostic Gospels are late fabrications that used the idea of "borrowed interest" from Scripture to give them some sort of validity but on the whole they read just like any other mythical text.

The other problems involve the actual artistic sense of what he says about Da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, just looking at the painting you see none of the things he implies (angel making a slit throat motion, switching Christ and John, etc.) His ideas on the Last Supper suffer the same problem, since Leonardo painted it has been acknowledged that the person sitting next to him was John and not a young woman.

We run into his ideas on translation also, mysterious Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland's name is supposed to mean "Rose Line" (referring to the line of the Magdalene) but in actuality it means "Little Stream" in Scotch. The idea the Pentagram is an ancient symbol for feminism is another fabrication (although not as recent). It came about as a mistranslation of the meaning of the face card the "Pentacles" in the French.

We finally come to the Magdalene herself. It has been a RECENT idea that she arrived in the south of France after the death of Christ. But even the occult scholar Arthur Waite, said that such a thing is not at all supported by the history.

(But all this is a plot you know... it really is! But NOT by the organized church:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. One of the main messages of the "Da Vinci Code" is that Christ was in fact NOT divine, or God that this was shown in the Gnostic Gospels and covered up by the established church. The Apostle John confronts the same issues in his first epistle when he says that anyone who denies that Christ has "come in the flesh" (that is God has become man in the incarnation) he is an Antichrist. All this was written WAY before Constantine (in the first century at the latest). If you remember my theory on the alien hybrid experiments, when Satan cannot directly refute the Gospel, he will go to any lengths to diminish Christ. So whether he is a product of alien DNA tinkering, or a powerhungry church heirarchy, the effect is the same, POOF! no gospel.)

Dan Brown got the book, got the movie and all the moola to go with it, too bad the truth is left lying in the dust...

THE DOOR TO THE INFINITE -

I can spend long talking about UFOs, experiences and visions. Poo-pooing this incident and that incident. But it is a negative experience. I believe what the UFO experience really points out is a desire to connect with t he infinite, God if you will. We all desire at a very deep level to "touch the face of God". So I reveal in this blog the method that was shown to me.

I was reminded of it this morning as I read a devotional from a departed teacher, God is more interested in our friendship than doing "miracles" or even blessing us... it is a higher call... James 2:23

Moses besought God to "show him his way" or plans, the friends of God get in on the inner circle, the ways and paths of the Almighty as he makes his plans and moves forward in the world. Exodus 33:13

One can see this reflected in God seeing fit to come down and not only bless Abraham and Sarah with a child but fill him in on the plans he had for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 18:1.

There is another side to this friendship, it is "walking with God". This is apparently what God would do with Adam and Eve in the Garden, Genesis 3:8. They heard the voice of God as he walked in the garden and God called out to them (v. 9).

Now he had to ask where they were because they were hiding themselves in the bushes. They had discovered they were naked since eating the fruit. Sin had begun its work, the reason they could no longer walk with God is that sin had come between them, Amos 3:3.

If one can figure out how to deal with the sin issue, then all sorts of miraculous paths open up. There is the walk of Enoch and walk of Noah, there is the walk with a "Friend" as in Abraham. Then there is the visionary experience of Moses, in Exodus, where God actually shows him his glory.

Chariots of fire can accompany us on our journey, wheels of eyes can revolve over our heads, the whole goal of so many religous tradtions can be had in an instant.

This is the path of the thunderbolt and lightning as described in Tibetan Buddhism. But it is the real path.

So how DOES one get rid of sin? Well first of all we cannot heal ourselves. This is done by God himself in the person of Christ: Is 53:5. Once this is applied to the soul, the door to the infinite, the door to the presence of God is opened.

THE NOT SO "INTELLIGENT" DEBATE OVER INTELLIGENT DESIGN -

While the judge in Pennsylvania has said that the argument for teaching intelligent design in school curriculum is a thinly veiled sneak attack by creationists, I believe that the argument must not have been made with enough scientific rigour on our side. First off the argument has been framed as "creation" or "intelligent design" vs. "evolution". In their eagerness to make sure that no mention of religion, or even an indirect reference to a supreme being, is being made I believe the scientific heirarchy has overreached. The true arguments for intelligent design have not been made yet as far as I can tell in the media.

I refer you to an excellent book called "The God Experiment" - Russell Stannard. Written by a religion/science writer for the BBC, the author makes an excellent and well thought out argument for a creator. The complexity of the universe, the causation of the universe (why did it come about at all?), and the very laws of the universe (why are they THESE laws and not something else?) and the information nature of the the building blocks of the universe point out something I have not heard yet in the argument, the "anthropic" principle. That is that the very universe seems to show the fingerprints of a higher personality who designed it. Interestingly enough, none of this DIRECTLY contradicts evolution, we are talking about origins here, not the evolution of species.

So that's why the argument is not being made "intelligently"...

DAGON, SAUROIDS AND LOVECRAFT -

H. P. Lovecraft was arguably one of the most original horror writers of the early 20th century. All of his tales wove a mythos, a world that was based on forgotten realms and races that exist somewhere on the periphery of our world. In one of his most powerful stories, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", he tells of a race of aquatic beings that lived in the deep ocean. Their desire was to intermingle and breed with the surface dwellers, producing a "man-fish" or amphibious horror of some sort.

In the ancient near east Dagon was known as the half-fish, half-man god. The priests of Babylon wore hats that resembled the heads of fish and eventually became what we know as the "bishop's mitre" or the hat that you see cardinals, popes and bishops wear in the Roman church today.

Well Dagon meets his match and more in the book of Samuel:

1Sa 5:3-7 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon‘s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god

(Lovecraft refers to this God of Israel as the "bland god of the baptists" in "The Strange High House in the Mist". Obviously he never read this portion of the Bible!) Dagon in the first humiliation is forced to bow before the Ark thus acknowledging the majesty of Jehovah. Since the Philistines missed the picture, Dagon is humiliated completely and has his head and hands cut off, symbolic of the death of an enemy, before the Ark of Jehovah. Not very bland, this God of Israel!

We turn then to the idea of the serpent or sauroids that may dwell in some other dimension very near earth or beneath our feet today. Could this be what Lovecraft was referring to but in an aquatic sense? A much older race of "Dagonites"? The linking of the serpent with Satan has been there from the start. Now we know Dagon's ancestry too (and his very early "end"). But does this reveal anything to us about the Underwater Bases and the persistence of the "Dagon" mythos? I think back to the recent sci-fi series that tried to make headway on NBC, "Surface"... the creatures there were very "Dagonlike"...