HARDENING OUR HEARTS
AGAINST GOD: BECOMING
PRISONERS OF A
PATHOLOGY OF HATE
August 17, 2005
by: S.R. Shearer
It is easier to justify the control of a region when you
DEMONIZE and DEHUMANIZE its people
and culture. |
Rayan El-Amine |
| |
"I could never again raise my voice against the violence
of the oppressed ... without having first spoken clearly to
the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own
government." |
Martin Luther King
Riverside, CA, 1967 |
INTRODUCTION
The other day I witnessed something that was truly horrifying; an incident
that cannot help but augur badly for the future; AN EVENT THAT INDICATES
THAT THERE IS A PATHOLOGY OF HATE THAT HAS BEEN LET LOOSE IN OUR MIDST,
A PATHOLOGY THAT IS BEGINNING TO CONSUME US - AND IT IS ALREADY FAR
ADVANCED. This pathology has snaked its way into the American
psyche largely as a result of George Bush's euphemistically labeled
"War on Terrorism" - a cover for the American oil elites to steal the
"black gold" of the Middle East and Central Asia from its rightful owners,
the people of that area.
As I was waiting for my dear wife in a hospital waiting room here in
the United States, a Muslim family (two fully-bearded men and three
women with head-coverings) entered seeking information as to the whereabouts
of a loved one. The room - which had been abuzz with conversation and
laughter - suddenly became quiet, and an ominous chill swept through
the waiting area. Then a thick voice pierced the silence: "Why don't
you dirty 'ragheads' go back where you belong. You're not wanted here."
The ugly words were directed at the three women, who quickly retreated
to a corner. Their two male companions - one a very old man who limped
about on a cane, and a younger man with a shriveled arm - stepped in
between the surly crowd and the women and tried to calm the situation.
They told those who were gathering ominously about them that all they
wanted was to get some information on a family member who had been injured
in a car crash. But the crowd - which now numbered about twenty men
and women of all ages (even some little children mimicking their parents)
- would have none of it. They chanted, "'Ragheads' go home! 'Ragheads'
go home!"
Just then, the police, who had been alerted by the hospital staff,
arrived; but instead of arresting the "cat-callers," they handcuffed
the Muslim men and took them away, leaving their female companions to
escape as best they could.
It was all over in a flash. The members of the crowd - who moments
before had had blood in their eyes - returned to their easy laughter
and casual conversation as if nothing had happened.
ISLAMOPHOBIA
Islamophobia (hatred of Muslims) is growing in this country, despite
the courageous efforts by some - mostly left-wing secularists (which
doesn't say much for the courage of Christians) - to tamp down the rage.
Slowly but surely it is becoming a part of the cultural landscape in
the United States.
The green (i.e., "Islamic") menace has now replaced the red menace,
and the "evil empire" of the cold war has become the less eloquent,
but just as deadly, "evil-doers" of the Arab and Muslim world. The fact
is, the carping being directed against Muslims in the United States
is beginning to reach the vitriolic level of the rhetoric that was leveled
against American citizens of Japanese ancestry in the first months of
the Second World War - just before they were all rounded up and sent
off to concentration camps "for their own protection."
For example, take the hate-filled rhetoric of Bill O'Reilly of Fox
News who has said about the Afghani victims of America's foray into
Central Asia:
"Life-expectancy in Afghanistan is a little over 40 years; killing
someone there is not like killing people here."
Then there are the comments by Rush Limbaugh concerning the horror
at Abu Ghraib:
"I'm talking about people [i.e., the American guards and interrogators
at Abu Ghraib] having a good time ... you ever hear of emotional release?
You ever hear of the need to blow some steam off."
Is that what the Americans are doing at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay
and elsewhere in America's gulag of "concentration camps" that now girdles
the globe in countries like Egypt, Thailand, Jordan, Korea, Guatemala,
Argentina, the various "stans" of Central Asia, etc.? Is that what the
SS was doing at Treblinka and Sobibor? - just "blowing off a little
steam."
"EMOTIONAL RELEASE" IN AMERICA'S GULAG OF TERROR
Herbert Bix, a professor of history and sociology at Binghamton University
and the author of the Pulitzer prize-winning Hirohito and the Making
of Modern Japan, lists the kinds of torture that are now "common
place" in the American gulag:
- Beating, kicking, and stomping on bodies.
- Sleep deprivation and forced injection of drugs.
- Rape and sodomy.
- Water torture, a traditional U.S. Army practice since at least the
Indian wars and the Philippines insurrection at the end of the 19th
century.
- Hanging prisoners whose arms are bound behind their back by shackles
or handcuffs until their limbs pop from their sockets - a new U.S.
form of lynching.
- Tight handcuffing, close-shackling, and blindfolding or "hooding"
for extended periods; sometimes the hoods are marked in order to alert
the U.S. torturers to the particular crime that the prisoner is suspected
of having committed.
- Forced stripping of Muslim prisoners and keeping them naked for
long periods.
- Religious humiliation.
- Sexual humiliation, insult, and debasement, including smearing with
feces, urine, and what appears to be menstrual blood.
- Screaming racial insults before, during, and after unleashing violence
against captives.
- Shocking with electrical instruments, another method of torture
commonly used by U.S. troops in Vietnam.
- Exposure for prolonged periods to extremes of light and dark, heat
and cold, and noise so deafening as to rupture the eardrums.
- Extraction of nails, burning skin with cigarettes, stabbing or cutting
the bodies of prisoners.
- Threatening prisoners or their relatives with death or by having
them watch other victims being tortured.
- Threatening with dogs or allowing dogs to actually assault prisoners
during or before interrogation.
- Forcing prisoners to stand or to remain in painful positions for
extended periods.
- Isolation in cells, cages, wooden boxes, and barbed wire-enclosed
trailers for prolonged periods.
- Depriving prisoners of food, water, drink, and toilet facilities.
- Extreme or enforced rendition, i.e., torture by proxy in foreign
countries (i.e., in America's worldwide system of "concentration camps.")
Is this what Limbaugh calls having fun? Is this what he calls "letting
a little steam off?"
DON IMUS, JACK CAFFERTY, MARK WILLIAMS, AND DANIEL PIPES
And as if all this wasn't enough, take the comments of Don Imus concerning
the Muslims who attended the funeral of Yasser Arafat:
"He is a stinky ... rat ... ALL Palestinians [and by
extension, all Muslims] look like him, and the people attending his
funeral are a BUNCH OF ANIMALS."
Then there are the comments of Jack Cafferty on CNN's American Morning
Show; Cafferty said of some Iraqi women prisoners who had been mistreated
by their American captors:
"Given the way these MUTANTS [i.e., Muslim men] treat
women in their societies, the women are probably better off in U.S.
custody."
Finally, consider the comments of radio-talk show host Mark Williams
who called Muslims a group of "blood-soaked, SUBHUMAN,
vile, reprehensible, MURDEROUS ANIMALS."
Clearly, the BLOOD-LUST evidenced by this abhorrent language
corroborates the fact that a disease of hate has been let loose on Americans,
a disease, the pathology of which - once it has run its course - will
turn us all into MONSTERS: Beasts capable of MURDER
and SLAUGHTER on a massive basis; the kind the Bible says
are good only "to be taken and destroyed" (2Peter 2:12); "...
raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars,
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." (Jude 1:13)
Blood-lust
against Muslims; that's what it surely is! - or how else can one explain
the words of Daniel Pipes, one of George Bush's closest advisors:
"We must MASH the ... [Muslims] because the only way
to peace in the Middle East is to militarily CRUSH the
... [Muslim's] will to fight."
This kind of brutish talk has become part and parcel of George Bush's
so-called "War on Terrorism," which - as we indicated previously - is
nothing more than disingenuous double-speak to hide the effort by the
American oil elites to filch the oil of the Middle East and Central
Asia from its legitimate owners. [Please see our article, "The Coming
War in Iraq: What It Is Really All About."]
 Some
people, of course, would protest, saying that there is an undeniable
reality to the so-called "Islamic Menace." BUT IF THAT'S THE CASE,
IT'S A REALITY THAT THE CIA CREATED ITSELF. TO CALL THE CREATION OF
ONE'S OWN HAND A "MENACE" THAT DESERVES TO BE CRUSHED, AND THEN PIN
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS "MENACE" ON ONE'S ENEMY IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY
STEALING HIM BLIND AND THEN KILLING HIM IS SURELY A WICKED AND DECEITFUL
CONTRIVANCE - though one must give credit where credit is due: it's
certainly an artful one. [We URGE those of you who have
not read our article, "Radical Islam" to do so; it plainly lays out
the REAL origins of the "Islamic Menace;" please also
see our article, "The Coming War in the Middle East."]
DEHUMANIZING THE PEOPLE YOU INTEND TO KILL
What's going on here? What's the real reason behind the effort to demonize
Muslims? Rayan El-Amine explains:
"It is easier to justify control of a region when you DEMONIZE
and DEHUMANIZE its people and culture"
And
that's EXACTLY what George Bush and his allies among America's
oil elites are doing: Creating a "BLOOD-LUST" in Americans
which they can then harness to annihilate the population of the Middle
East. AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, THAT'S WHERE ALL THIS IS HEADING.
[Please see our article, "Sowing the Seeds of the Gog / Magog War."]
HARDENING ONE'S HEART
Of course, the creation of such a BLOOD-LUST requires
hardening the hearts of those in whom this BLOOD-LUST
is going to be placed, making the recipients of this pathology resistant
to compassion and understanding, and hardened to the HORROR
they are visiting on the people they intend to subjugate or kill off.
The goal of this "hardening process" is to produce in those people
who are the subjects of this "hardening process" (specifically, the
American people) a condition where it's not as if they are ignorant
of the horror they are visiting on other people, it's that THEY
JUST DON'T CARE. These are those people about whom the Bible
says -
"... in the LATTER TIMES ... shall depart from the
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
"... having their conscience SEARED with a hot iron
..." (I Timothy 4:1-2)
And one would be wise to take note of the fact that the Bible is referencing
Christians here, for how can it be said that "unbelievers" can "depart
from the faith?" - they were never there to begin with!
THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES THAT ACCRUE TO THOSE
WHO ALLOW THEIR HEARTS TO BE HARDENED
Christians should know, however, that those who allow their hearts
to be hardened in this way will pay a very terrible price someday because
THOSE WHOM THE LORD INTENDS TO DESTROY, HE FIRST HARDENS
so that the evil that is resident in their hearts can have opportunity
to run its full course. This is what God did to Pharaoh before He destroyed
him. (cf. Exodus 4:21)
What's that say, then, about the fate that awaits those Americans -
Christian or otherwise - who have allowed their hearts to be hardened
to what their country is up to throughout the world - to the HORROR
that is "part and parcel" of George Bush's American New World Order
System?
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NOT KNOWING AND NOT CARING
Ward
Churchill, the embattled author of The Ghosts of 9-1-1: Reflections
on History, Justice, and Roosting Chickens and a professor at the
University of Colorado (Boulder), writes:
"Being ignorant [of the pain and suffering that the American New
World Order System and the church with which it has partnered have
inflicted on the world] is not synonymous with being not uninformed.
THERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NOT KNOWING AND NOT CARING ..."
[Please see our article, "Inside the American New World Order System."]
Churchill
has reference here to the way most Americans - including most American
Christians - are indifferent to the manner in which murder, assassination,
torture, and mistreatment of prisoners have been all but embedded into
the American system of global domination; the systematic way that the
American New World Order System applies terror against those who resist
its domination, a system of HORROR that Pat Robertson
rashly calls -
"... A MOVEMENT IN THE HEAVENLIES to break the power of deception
so that people everywhere can be exposed to the gospel." . [Please
see our article, "The Horror of John Dimitri Negroponte and Everything
He Represents;" please also see our article, "The Death Squads:
Bringing in the Kingdom of God through Terror, Torture and Death."]
What's
Robertson saying here? - that terror and slaughter are necessary ingredients
of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, what's there to differentiate
between his rhetoric and the rhetoric of the Islamic jihadists?
Not much, that's for sure.
But there's something more that we should pay close attention to here:
To say such things reveals the extent to which Robertson's heart and
the hearts of other Christians just like him have already been
HARDENED to the HORROR of the American New
World Order System - just as Germans were HARDENED to
the crimes of the Nazi state between the years 1933 and 1941, which
set them up to "accept" the horror of Hitler's extermination camps where
over two-thirds of Europe's Jews were murdered between 1941 and 1945.
It's not as if "good Germans" didn't know about these camps, but it's
the fact that by then they just didn't care. The "hardening process"
that had been at work in their hearts for almost ten years had run its
full course: The German people had become a nation of MONSTERS.
This pathology of horror is now at work in our hearts as we become
ever more inured to the frightful impact of the American New World Order
System on the poor and dispossessed of the world. As with the German
people 60 years ago, it's not that Americans don't know (or have not
at the very least heard rumors about what's been occurring in the slave
states of the American empire), it's that they don't really care - and
this gives us some idea of how close we are to JUDGMENT
and DESTRUCTION. Listen, dear brothers and sisters in
the Lord, this is nothing to be trifled with: It is not without reason
that the Bible warns us,
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap." (Gal. 6:7)
Churchill continues:
"... if good Americans have difficulty appreciating the vast difference
[between not knowing and not caring about these things], it must be
borne in mind that there are others in the world [i.e., the poor and
dispossessed] who are quite able to make this distinction. They, beginning
with those most directly targeted at any given moment for subjugation
or eradication at the hands of American 'peacekeepers', know above
all else that professions of ignorance [by Americans] inherently preclude
claims of innocence in such circumstances."
CHRIST'S NAME IS MALIGNED IN THE
EARTH BECAUSE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH
Indeed, it's precisely because the poor of the earth who suffer under
American rule are able to make this distinction and have come to realize
as a result that Americans (supposedly a Christian people) don't really
give a damn about what's happening to them - that coupled with the fact
that they plainly recognize the way the American church has partnered
with the American New World Order System to make their lives an unremitting
hell - that Christ is so evilly spoken of in the world today. It also
gives us some idea why many in the American system of client-states
have been turning to Islam as a counterweight to the Christianity being
peddled by the false apostles of the American System. The Bible says:
"The name of God is BLASPHEMED among the ... [unbelievers]
because of you [who call yourselves Christian] ..." (Romans 2:24)
And there certainly can be no doubt as to the "tight relationship"
between the American church and George Bush's American New World Order
System. The fact is, the leaders of today's church have been organizing
for years to "create" just such a partnership between church and state.
For example, D. James Kennedy - the senior pastor at Ft. Lauderdale's
mega-church, the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and president of the
Washington D.C.-based D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship
- calls church-state separation "diabolical," a "false doctrine" and
"a lie propagated by Thomas Jefferson." Kennedy writes:
"This phrase does not appear in the United States Constitution at
all, but in Article 52 of the Constitution of the Soviet Union - now
the Soviet disUnion. Defunct, because they tried to get rid
of God."
Plainly, Kennedy and his ilk approve the way George Bush and his cohorts
have partnered with the church in recent years to "rid the world of
evil" - by which Bush means, all those who defy American domination:
That partnership is plain enough for all to see - and so much so that
the poor of the earth would have no trouble agreeing with Ted Haggard
of the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado when he calls
the American New World Order System the "... vehicle for the
spread of Christianity." But they see the kind of Christianity
that Haggard is pushing on the world as an unmitigated HORROR.
Churchill goes on to say:
"There was a time, oddly enough, when it could be said that the U.S.
stood at the forefront of those endorsing the principle ... [that
citizens should be held accountable for the actions of their government].
How else to explain its solemn invocation at the time of the Nuremberg
Trials of a COLLECTIVE GUILT inhering to the German
population itself? One would do well to recall that the crimes attributed
by Americans to good Germans were that they had celebrated a New World
Order of their own, looking away while the Nazi crimes were committed,
never attempting to meet the legal/moral obligation of holding their
government to even the most rudimentary standards of human decency.
For these sins, it was said, they, the Germans, civilians as well
as military personnel, richly deserved the death and devastation that
had been rained down upon them ... In sum, they'd 'BROUGH IT ON
THEMSELVES'."
ONE FEELS OBLIGED TO DENY CHRISTIANS THE
OPTION OF SAYING THEY DON'T KNOW
The fact is, the kind of innocence that Americans want to claim for
"not knowing" about the crimes of the American New World Order System
is the same kind of "not knowing" that "good Germans" claimed when -
upon hearing the approach of the "death trains" carrying Jews to concentration
camps "in the east" - purposefully looked away, and then claimed they
never saw such trains, though the trains had passed by only a few feet
from where they were standing.
The truth is, the pathetic effort by some Americans, mostly Christians,
to claim ignorance of the evil that their country is perpetrating on
the poor and dispossessed of the world is so shameful that, as Ward
Churchill has said,
"One feels obliged to try to deny them the option of such a pretense."
For example, how is it possible for the American people - and American
Christians - to be unaware of the fact that over 500,000 Iraqi children,
all of them under twelve, were starved to death or killed for lack of
basic sanitation and/or medical treatment during the past ten years.
These children suffered and died because the U.S. SYSTEMATICALLY
bombed their country's water purification, sewage treatment and pharmaceutical
plants out of existence in the First Gulf War, and then imposed a decade-long
embargo to ensure that Iraq would be unable to repair or replace what
had been destroyed. The point of this fully calculated MASS MURDER
- as was explained at the outset by then-President George Walker Bush,
father of the current Oval Office occupant - was to impress upon the
Iraqi government, and the rest of the world as well, that "what we
say, goes." In other words, as Churchill explains,
"Do as you're told or WE WILL KILL YOUR BABIES."
And be clear here, this is the kind of mindset that undergirds those
in charge of America's New World Order System today - again, the system
that Ted Haggard calls "God's vehicle for the spread of Christianity."
Eee gads, this cold indifference to the suffering of other people rivals
any of the pronouncements of the Nazi state in furtherance of its own
DEMONIC goals.
WE DECIDED IT WAS WORTH THE COST
Asked in 1996 whether this was not mass murder, Madeleine Albright,
then ambassador to the United Nations and soon to be U.S. secretary
of state, did not contest the fact that it was mass murder; neither
did she dispute the fact that 500,000 Iraqi children had died directly
as a result of this carefully thought-out American stratagem to cower
the Iraqi population into submission by killing their children. Instead,
she stated ON NATIONAL TELEVISION that "WE" (i.e.,
the American people) had decided it was "WORTH THE COST."
"We had decided that it was worth the cost?" Is
that what she said? - that WE had decided that bringing
Iraq to its knees was worth the cost of 500,000 Iraqi children? My heavens!
- and there wasn't so much as a murmur of protest in the American press
or anywhere else for that matter - except maybe some lonely voices on
the Left? Is that what happened? - the Left spoke out, and the church
remained silent. What kind of testimony is that?
And make no mistake about it, the America church includes itself in
this "WE," or how else does one explain Pat Robertson's
COLD-HEARTED statement that America's BLOODY
war in Iraq - a war that the British medical journal Lancet says
has led to the "collateral" deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis (as opposed
to 1,800 Americans killed) during American bombing raids on their towns
and villages since the onset of the Second Gulf War in 2003 - is "...
a movement in the heavenlies ..." And this nincompoop is a leader
in today's American church? It's the blind leading the blind. (Matthew
15:14)
HOW DOES ONE SQUARE SUCH
STATEMENTS WITH THE NEW TESTAMENT?
How can Robertson justify such a statement in light of the New Testament?
Jesus said:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy.
"But I say unto you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you;
"THAT YE MAY BE THE CHILDREN OF YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN ..."
(Matt. 5:43-45)
What's that mean? - it means if you do otherwise YOU ARE NOT
A CHILD OF GOD! Plainly that's what Christ is saying here. What's
that say, then, about Pat Robertson? - regardless of his so-called "born-again"
credentials. Come on now! - be honest.
And what about Christ's words when He said:
"And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the
other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat
also.
"Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away
thy goods ask them not again.
"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
"For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners
also love those that love them.
"And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have
ye? for sinners also do even the same.
"And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have
ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
"But LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, AND DO GOOD, AND LEND, HOPING FOR NOTHING
AGAIN; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children
of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the
evil." (Luke 6:29-35)
That's what TRUE Christianity is all about. Obviously,
then, whatever else Robertson and his ilk are preaching, it's certainly
not REAL Christianity, or at the very least, it's a very
shallow form of it.
THE HOLLOW AT THE CORE OF TODAY'S AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
And just how hollow is today's Christianity?" Pretty hollow indeed;
it's a Christianity where - as Bill McKibben, a scholar-in-residence
at Middlebury College discovered recently - 40 percent of Christians
can name no more than four of the Ten Commandments, where a scant half
of them cannot cite the name of even one of the four authors of the
Gospels, and where 12 percent of them believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's
wife? [Apparently they link the "arc" in "Joan of Arc" to Noah's arc.]
McKibben writes:
"Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that 'God
helps those who help themselves'. That is, three out of four Americans
believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core
of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact
uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scriptures. The
thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical, it's COUNTER-BIBLICAL.
"Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its RADICAL
SUMMMONS TO LOVE OF NEIGHBOR [both Christian and non-Christian,
both friend and enemy]. On this essential matter, most American Christians
are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed
that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly."
What all this seems to indicate, according to McKibben, is that -
"America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian
of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior.
"That paradox - more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability
of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese - illuminates
the HOLLOW at the core of our boastful, careening culture."
IS THE CHRISTIANITY OF TODAY'S CHURCH REAL CHRISTIANITY?
McKibben says that about 85 percent of Americans call themselves Christian;
that's opposed to only 77 percent of Israelis who call themselves Jewish.
McKibben believes that while this may overstate the real picture in
the United States, it "clearly represents aspiration." McKibben
goes on to say that -
"... America is A PLACE SATURATED IN CHRISTIAN IDENTITY. But
is it Christian? This is not a matter of angels dancing on the heads
of pins. Christ was pretty specific about what he had in mind for
his followers. What if we chose some simple criterion - say, giving
aid to the poorest people - as a reasonable proxy for Christian behavior?
After all, in the days before His crucifixion, when Jesus summed up
his message for His disciples, He said the way you could tell the
righteous from the damned was by whether they'd fed the hungry, slaked
the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited
the prisoner. What would we find then?"
McKibben
explains:
"In 2004, as a share of our economy, we ranked second to last, after
Italy, among developed countries in government foreign aid. Per capita
we each provide fifteen cents a day in official development assistance
to poor countries. [And that's including the kind of phony "development
assistance" that we give to underdeveloped countries like the Congo
(please see our article, "The Congo and American Greed)."]
"And it's not because we were giving to private charities for relief
work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by
just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It's also not because Americans
were too busy taking care of their own: nearly 18 percent of American
children lived in poverty (compared, with, say, 8 percent in Sweden
- an avowedly secular nation). In fact, by pretty much any measure
of caring for the least among us you want to propose - childhood nutrition,
infant mortality, access to preschool - we come in nearly last among
rich nations, and often by a wide margin. The point is not just that
(as everyone already knows) the American nation trails badly in all
these categories; it's that the overwhelmingly CHRISTIAN
American nation trails badly in all these categories, categories to
which Jesus paid particular attention. And it's not that these numbers
are getting better [under the avowedly Christian leadership of George
Bush]: the U.S. department of Agriculture reported last year that
the number of households that were 'food insecure with hunger' had
climbed more than 26 percent between 1999 and 2003."
And this is the nation that Ted Haggard calls "God's vehicle for
the spread of Christianity in the world today?" What kind of Christianity
is that? - the kind that is spread through the barrel of a gun? All
this gives one some kind of idea of how far estranged Christians are
from any form of genuine Christianity, and IT REVEALS THE EXTENT
TO WHICH THE HEARTS OF MOST CHRISTIANS IN THE UNITED STATES HAVE BEEN
HARDENED TO THE PLIGHT OF THOSE CHRIST CALLED US TO LOVE. IT
ALSO GIVES US SOME IDEA OF WHY MOST CHRISTIANS DON'T SEEM TO CARE ABOUT
WHAT GEORGE BUSH AND HIS NEO-CON CRONIES ARE UP TO IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
WE ARE BEING LED STEP BY STEP TO
AN ACT OF UNSPEAKABLE HORROR
This
will have consequences for us! Make no mistake about it. This will have
BIBLICAL consequences for us. WE ARE BEING HARDENED
SO THAT WE CAN BE USED AS THE DEVIL'S TOOL; so that we - as Christians
- can participate with the moneyed elites of George Bush's American
New World Order System in an act of UNSPEAKABLE VIOLENCE:
specifically, the annihilation of the Muslim community in the Middle
East and Central Asia. And we are almost there!
Some
Christians, of course, might object, saying that by allying themselves
with George Bush's American New World Order System they have allied
themselves with Israel against the "Islamic Menace" and ultimately against
the forces of Gog, and isn't this a good thing?" - the destruction of
Israel's arch-enemy. [We URGE those of you who have not
already read our article, "Sowing the Seeds of the Gog / Magog War"
to please do so; please also read Chapter VI of the Antipas Papers,
"The Gog / Magog War."]
But
those who think so, should think again. One should understand that the
alliance that Israel makes with Babylon the Great (i.e., the United
States) to defend itself against the forces of Gog (i.e., the forces
of Radical Islam) is not something which the Bible approves. [Please
see our article, "In Search of Babylon: What Does the Bible Say?"]
The Bible calls this alliance your (i.e., Israel's) -
"COVENANT WITH DEATH"
and your -
"AGREEMENT WITH HELL."
Pretty harsh words! But then THE UNITED STATES IS NOT REALLY ISRAEL'S
FRIEND! The fact is, the Bible calls the country with which Israel
covenants here (i.e., the United States) an "OVERFLOWING SCOURGE."
Pretty intense! - and it warns Israel that this "overflowing scourge"
will eventually betray it:
"... your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement
with hell shall not stand, when the OVERFLOWING SCOURGE
shall pass through, THEN SHALL YE BE TRODDEN DOWN BY IT." (Is.
28:18) ["Overflowing scourge?" - this is certainly a pretty good description
of the United States: just ask the peoples and nations of the world
that the U.S. has reduced to "client-state" status - for example,
Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brazil, Ecuador, the Congo,
etc. - the list is endless.]
SO
ISRAEL IS WARNED: "You have covenanted with death, and you have
made an agreement with hell, and you will be betrayed by those with
whom you have covenanted." And in a back-handed way, the American church
is also warned: "You too have made a "COVENANT WITH DEATH"
and you have made an "AGREEMENT WITH HELL."
What
are we talking about here? - very obviously, we're talking about the
Gog / Magog War and the BEGINNING OF THE TRIBULATION PERIOD.
[Again, we URGE those of you who have not already read
our article, "Sowing the Seeds of the Gog / Magog War" to please do
so; please also read Chapter VI of the Antipas Papers,
"The Gog / Magog War."]
THE GOG / MAGOG WAR
The events of the Gog / Magog War are described in Ezekiel 38 and 39,
Daniel 11:40-45, Matthew 24:4-21 and Revelation 12.
NOTE: The verses in Revelation 20 that refer to "Gog"
are references to a "Second Gog / Magog War" that will take place
AFTER the Millennium, namely:
"And WHEN THE THOUSAND YEARS [i.e., THE MILLENNIUM] ARE EXPIRED,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
"And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters
of the earth, GOG and Magog, to gather them together
to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. (Revelation
20:7-8)
Finally, it should be noted that "Gog" is a great, angelic prince similar
to the "Prince of Persia" and the "Prince of Grecia" (Greece) referenced
in Daniel 10:20. He is the angel that leads the war against Israel in
the Gog / Magog War; he will also be loosed with Satan AFTER
the Millennium, and will gather the forces of the east against God (Rev.
20:8). [Again, we URGE you to see the first part of Chapter
VI in the Antipas Papers.]
A clear understanding of this great struggle can only emerge after
all these verses (Ezekiel 38 and 39, Daniel 11:40-45, Matthew 24:4-21
and Revelation 12) are pieced together. The examination of merely Ezekiel
38 and 39 will yield only an incomplete picture of the great events
of this period.
EVIL MUST COME; BUT WOE TO HIM BY WHOM IT COMES
Yes!
- the Bible says that God will fight for Israel, but that doesn't mean
that He approves what's happening. God doesn't need Babylon's help to
defend Israel; but evidently the Israelis and the church think so! This
is an affront to God! What it means is that the church and Israel really
don't trust God - hence the alliance both have made with George Bush's
American New World Order System. But, again, the fact is, Bush and his
cronies have no interest in Israel per se, and anyone who thinks
so is an IDIOT. [Please see our article, "The Republican
Party and the Jews."]
They are laying a trap for the Muslims of the Middle East; they intend
to PROVOKE the Muslim community of the Middle East into
a one-sided struggle against the U.S., GIVING AMERICA THE EXCUSE
TO ANNIHILATE THEM UP TO FIVE-SIXTHS OF THEIR ENTIRE POPULATION IN ORDER
TO CLEAR THE WAY ONCE AND FOR ALL FOR EXXON-MOBIL, PHILIPPS, TEXACO,
ETC. TO POUNCE ON THE OIL RICHES OF THE AREA IN THE INTERESTS OF THE
AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM. (Ezek. 39:2)
THE EXTENT OF THE SLAUGHTER
The Bible says:
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give
unto Gog place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers
on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the
passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and
they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
"AND SEVEN MONTHS SHALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL BE BURYING OF THEM,
that they may cleanse the land ...
"And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through
the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face
of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they
search.
"And the passengers that pass through the land, when any
seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers
have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
"And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall
they cleanse the land. (Ezek. 39:11-12, 14-16)
A CURSE UPON ALL THOSE WHO PARTICIPATE
IN THE SLAUGHTER OF THE MUSLIM PEOPLE
Obviously, what we're talking about here is a NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST!
- the butchery of an entire people and culture on a scale that will
dwarf the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. And in the end, for what?
FILTHY LUCRE! - or does anyone really believe that the
United States is in the Middle East for anything else but oil? If so,
I have some swampland I would like to sell them in Florida! The fact
is, if George Bush and his neo-con allies were really interested in
"spreading democracy" throughout the world - if one thinks that's the
real reason the American military is in Iraq - why isn't the U.S. military
involved in overthrowing the dictatorships in the Sudan, or in Mali,
or in Upper Volta, or in Niger? The reason is, there's no oil to be
plundered in these countries! - and anyone who thinks otherwise is an
IMBECILE.
Yes! - this evil will come - i.e., the Gog / Magog War - but woe unto
them by whom this evil comes: Jesus said:
"Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that
offences come; but WOE TO THAT MAN BY WHOM THE OFFENCE COMETH!"
(Matthew 18:7)
What's that say about those who participate in this slaughter - AT
LEAST THOSE WHO PARTICIPATE IN IT ON THE SIDE OF BABYLON AND IN THE
INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM? It says that they
are CURSED - and that's precisely what will happen to
you if you get involved in this pathology of hate against Muslims that
George Bush and his cronies are stirring up in the American people.
And don't make the mistake in thinking that it will be an easy thing
from which to escape - i.e., this hatred. The last time such a pathology
of hate was let loose on a population - the German population - it eventually
contaminated everything it touched - including the German church. Of
course, maybe you think you are immune to this pathology? - but if you
do, you had better think again because it is IRRESISTIBLE
if once it takes hold on you.
BEING HERDED LIKE A PACK OF ANIMALS
TOWARDS A PATHOLOGY OF HATE
The fact is, the entire American population is being herded like a
pack of animals towards this hatred, and the full apparatus of government
is involved in this process. Daily we are being fed lies and half-truths
concerning the "Islamic Menace" that is "out to get us" - and who knows
anymore what's true and what's false about the information that we are
being fed? - what's real and what's "made up?" This is especially true
in light of the Bush administration's serial lies about weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq! And what about 9/11 itself? How does one explain
how four giant airplanes could fly around the east coast for well over
four hours without being once challenged - especially after the first
airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center?
These lies and half truths go on and on and on. The Bush White House
lives on lies. For example, in mid-February, Bush's CIA Director Porter
Goss, backed up by several leading intelligence officials, told a Senate
Intelligence Committee that terrorists were planning another attack
on U.S. soil. Goss bluntly claimed that Al-Qaida or other groups
might attempt to "use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear
weapons." Goss, however, didn't bother to provide evidence for his grim
prediction because the real purpose of his statement was to further
instill ISLAMOPHOBIA into the hearts of Americans.
LYNNE STEWART AND WARD CHURCHILL
And anyone who dares to challenge the attempt by the government to
turn us all into a nation of ISLAMOPHOBES had better watch
out or they might end up doing time in a jail cell with Lynne Stewart,
a prominent New York civil rights lawyer who has defended the poor and
marginalized as well as high profile cases such as the one involving
the Weather Underground thirty years ago. Stewart was recently convicted
of conspiracy, providing "material support" to terrorism and defrauding
the U.S. government during her representation of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.
Stewart, who is 65 years old, now faces spending the rest of her life
in prison.
The fact is, however, Stewart never engaged in or planned any terrorist
activity and no act of terrorism was ever alleged to have resulted from
her actions. However, the government claimed Stewart abetted terrorism
by making Rahman's words available to the outside world when she provided
a press release to Reuters News Service. Allowing the words of her client
to be heard in public was deemed a terrorist act by the government.
During the trial Stewart was DEMONIZED as a traitor by
the government, and her political views were attacked. She was threatened,
harassed and intimidated, and when none of that worked, she was jailed.
Clearly, these are the actions of a Police-State.
Then there's the case of Ward Churchill, quoted earlier in this article.
Churchill, who had made a series of controversial comments concerning
the motives behind the 9/11 hijackers more than two years earlier, was
invited to speak at Hamilton College in New York. Some Hamilton College
professors seized the opportunity to initiate a national attack on Churchill.
Local AM DJs and Fox's Bill O'Reilly (also quoted earlier) eagerly joined
the stampede and were soon joined by Governor Owens of Colorado who
wanted to drive Churchill out of the state. Churchill was forced to
resign as chairman of the Ethics Studies Department at the University
of Colorado, but as a tenured professor, he continues to speak out against
the growing ISLAMOPHOBIA that is currently sweeping the
nation.
GOING AFTER JOURNALISTS WHO REFUSE TO SUCCUMB TO THE
ISLAMOHOBIA BEING PUSHED BY FEORGE BUSH AND HIS PAEONS.
Finally, there are chilling indications that journalists who refused
to toe the "party-line" with regard to the ISLAMOPHOBIA
the military has unleashed in Iraq - journalists who have attempted
to portray the "rebels" in Iraq as something less than the monsters
the Bush administration wants them portrayed as - have been deliberately
targeted and killed. For example, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland,
CNN news executive Eason Jordan allegedly claimed U.S. troops targeted
and killed more than a dozen journalists. This caused an uproar, and
Jordan quickly backpedaled from the statement - but not enough to prevent
his ouster at CNN.
While the mainstream media effectively dismissed and minimized these
accusations, there is certainly a lot of other evidence that supports
the statements made by Jordan that some journalists have been threatened,
targeted and killed. In March of 2003, then Pentagon "PR-flack" Victoria
Clark, declared that journalists not properly embedded with the military
were "at risk."
The risks were made clear when the military fired at a hotel serving
as the main residence for non-embedded journalists, killing two of them.
Another journalist was killed when the U.S. bombed Al-Jazeera headquarters
in Iraq. The Al-Jazeera office in Afghanistan was also bombed. Shortly
before the invasion, a BBC correspondent reported that Pentagon officials
told her that any satellite uplinks would be fired on. ITN's Terry Lloyd
and his team were killed by U.S. soldiers despite driving in a clearly
marked TV vehicle.
The embed process is part of a military strategy to keep the media
in line. Those journalists not sufficiently under control by the Pentagon
are "at risk" - and a few have paid with their lives.
EXPANDING STATE-SANCTIONED HATRED TO INCLUDE ALL
THOSE WHO OPPOSE THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM
Moreover, one should be cognizant of the fact that the elites and their
boot-licking allies in the American church won't let up on their campaign
of HATE by limiting it simply to the Muslim community.
They intend to unleash HATE - STATE-SANCTIONED HATE
- like some great machine against ALL their enemies; the
kind of HATE which, because it is state-sanctioned, can
land a person in jail or worse. And one should be aware that both church
and state are prone to see enemies behind every tree and every bush.
All this lends an ominous credence to the words of Christ when He said
to His disciples:
"They shall put you out of the ... [churches]: yea, the time cometh,
that whosoever KILLETH you will think that he doeth
God service."
"And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known
the Father, nor me. (John 16:2-3)
And Jesus went on to say:
"... brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father the
child: and the children shall rise up against their parents,
and cause them to be put to death.
"And ye shall be HATED of all men for my name's
sake ..." (Matthew 10:21-22)
ALL of these verses were spoken of in specific reference
to the "Latter Days."
THE EXPANSION OF THE TERM "MATERIAL SUPPORT"
And already the groundwork is being laid for a campaign of HATE
directed against ALL those who oppose the American New
World Order System and the church that supports that system: Using precedents
already established in the war against the Muslim community, the government
is expanding on these precedents to go after first, U.S. citizens
of Muslim ancestry, and from there they intend to expand the war against
ALL citizens who oppose them.
For example, the United States government is now engaged in a deliberate
effort to expand the meaning of "material support" in their war against
so-called "Muslim-terrorists." "Material support" is a term for a legal
device which targets those who knowingly aid criminals "MATERIALLY"
before or after the commission of their crimes: For instance, knowingly
housing and feeding a gang of bank robbers before they rob a bank, or
aiding them after the bank robbery by offering them a place to hide
out. The key word here is "material:" The support offered has to be
"material" in nature. In other words, it has to involve support that
goes beyond an "encouraging word" or an attempt to justify what the
criminals have done: For example, defending the gang because they "took
from the rich and gave to the poor."
THE LACKAWANNA SEVEN
What the government is attempting to do is nullify the word "material"
and expand the use of this device in an effort to silence American citizens
who criticize the "imperial policies" of the American New World Order
System. This is precisely the device used by the government to jail
the so-called "Lackawanna Seven" whose only real crime was being stupid
and very, very naïve: In the winter of 2000 a group of young men
from Lackawanna, New York - ALL American citizens - began
meeting in the evenings for religious instruction at their place of
worship. All of these men considered themselves to be "sinners in need
of redemption." Yasein Taher, for example, had had a child out of wedlock;
he drank, he smoked and he had married a girl "outside the faith" -
all of which, he was told, were things that no one who took his religion
seriously should do! Shafel Mosed, Yahya Goba, and Faysal Galeb were
rowdies with sketchy employment histories. The others had similar backgrounds.
Their instructor was Kamal Derwish, also an American citizen.
All these men were Muslims and the faith that they embraced was Islam,
a faith which - Derwish related to them - was under attack by the West.
This was something that most of them were all too ready to believe as
a result of the intolerance of their "Christian" neighbors in "upstate
New York" - the kind of intolerance that breeds religious bigots like
Randall Terry.
As the meetings progressed, they became ever more intense; many participants
stopped coming as a result; but a number - the most devout - remained:
seven of them. Derwish advised them that they should continue their
education at a "school" in Pakistan where they could "earn their salvation."
The training at the school would last from six months to a year. Derwish
described the school as "exceptionally attractive" in a "land of milk
and honey, a green place with waterfalls."
In late April and early May of 2001, the seven students from Lackawanna
journeyed to Pakistan in search of "salvation." But surprisingly, their
journey didn't end there; they were taken on to an al-Qaida training
facility in Afghanistan known as Al Farooq.
RETURNING HOME TO BE USED AS A PRECEDENT IN THE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S WAR OF ALL AGAINST ALL
They were shocked by what they found there: It was, in the words of
one of the "Lackawanna Seven," "a nasty place out in the middle of the
desert" - and rather than religious training, they were to receive training
in jihad.
Six of them wanted to leave immediately, and within days four of them
bailed out and returned home. The other two also wanted to leave, but
they were told "one more day, one more day." After two weeks they were
let go as well. All returned seriously chastened by their experience
and desperately wanting to return to their everyday lives in Lackawanna.
But that was not to be; the FBI field office in Buffalo received an
anonymous tip that the men from Lackawanna who had just returned from
Pakistan had really attended an al-Qaida training facility in
Afghanistan. [Ah, those "anonymous tips" from people whom you think
are your friends; people who want to ingratiate themselves with the
government; "false friends" who don't want to step out of the shadows
to identify themselves.]
A single FBI agent paid a visit to Lackawanna to question the men.
The men explained what had happened: that they had gone to Pakistan
for "religious training" that had turned out to be something more than
they had bargained for. The agent noted all this down and left. That
was the end of it - UNTIL THE CASE RESURFACED AFTER 9/11 AS A MEANS
(PRECEDENT) FOR THE FBI TO USE IN ORDER TO EXPAND THE MEANING OF "MATERIAL
SUPPORT." It was a perfect precedent for that purpose, a means whereby
the government could expand the meaning of "abetting terrorism" to include
any act - stupid or otherwise - that identified one with "terrorists."
And - much more importantly - it could be used as a device TO TARGET
AMERICAN CITIZENS.
And this is precisely what happened. Today the Lackawanna Seven (now
the Lackawanna Six) are doing time in a federal super-max prison, and
the precedent gained by this case is now being used to target all American
citizens who oppose government policy. For instance, this is PRECISELY
the precedent that was used against Lynne Stewart. It is also the precedent
that Tony Blankley of the Washington Times [a slavish mouthpiece
for the Bush administration which - despite being owned by the Moonies
(who say Christ failed in his mission to save mankind and had sex with
the women who followed Him) - is considered a reliable source of information
by most Christians today] is clamoring for the government to use this
precedent against investigative reporter Seymour Hersh for publishing
an expose of the Bush administration's covert (and illegal) operations
in Iran and detailing plans and possible preparations for war with that
country. He is calling for Hersh to be jailed and executed.
PREPARED LIKE LAMBS FOR THE SLAUGHTER
Clearly, the MALEVOLENCE connoted by all this gives evidence
to the extent that a plague of hate has taken hold of Americans, a disease,
the pathology of which - once it has run its course - will turn us all
into MONSTERS, again, the kind of monsters the Bible says
are good only "to be taken and destroyed" (2Peter 2:12).
Indeed, the Bible warns all those who dwell in Babylon that it -
"... shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for lizards, an astonishment,
and an hissing, without an inhabitant." (Jer. 51:37)
But first, the Bible says,
"... I will make them DRUNKEN, that they may ... sleep
... and not wake, saith the LORD." (Jer. 51:39)
Then the Lord says, after they are good and drunk -
"I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with
he goats." (Jer. 51:40)
What's
the Lord saying here? - He's saying that He will make the inhabitants
of Babylon drunk with hate, and that this hate will desensitize them
to the MONSTERS they have become; and then He will draw
them down to destruction like "Lambs to the slaughter." AND ALL THIS
HAS SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO BABYLON - i.e., the United States. [Again,
we urge you to see our article, "In Search of Babylon: What Does the
Bible Say?"]
CAUGHT BY AN IRRESISTIBLE FORCE
Brothers and sisters, let me solemnly warn you again, the force of
this pathology of hate is IRRESTIBLE, once it has taken
hold of you. You will be forced either by persuasion or government sanction
to open yourself up to this pathology. You will either be enticed to
imbibe this wine, or it will be FORCED down your throat
at gunpoint; either way, you will drink it; and you will be intoxicated
by it. Like a woman who has been administered the so-called "date-rape
drug," GHB, you will find that you have been raped and you don't even
remember when and by whom it happened; and more than that, you will
find that you have been impregnated with a MONSTER that
cannot be aborted.
COME OUT OF HER
The Bible says that we are to "Come out of her," specifically, it says:
"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Revelation 18:4)
That's the ultimate answer the Bible gives to those living in the midst
of Babylon; that is the answer the Lord gives to those who want to avoid
being turned into "Beasts made to be taken and destroyed"(2 Peter
2:12) - "... raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame;
wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."
(Jude 1:13) [And one should take note of the fact that Jude is talking
about Christians here.]
HURTFUL REMARKS AND AD HOMONYM ATTACKS
Some act as if these are my words; that the demand of Revelation 18:4
is MY demand rather than what it really is: the Lord's
demand. For instance, one brother writes:
"The insistence by Antipas ... that all Christians leave America
... is a false teaching ... Christians are expected to overcome wherever
they are. Geographic location has absolutely nothing to do with it."
But how else does one explain the words "Come out of her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues?" (Revelation 18:4) He goes on to say,
"Without going into detail [what a "cop out"]... it is clear that
the tripartite judgment of Babylon ... occurs AFTER
the Rapture ..."
What "tripartite judgment" is he talking about? - it's all so much
gobbledygook. Moreover if there are no Christians left in the world
as a result of the rapture, Why does the Lord address this command to
"MY PEOPLE?"
He goes on to say,
"It is my humble contention that tribulation produces the overcoming
church. Saints in every church have an opportunity to overcome. Whether
they do or not is between them and the Lord. This is an inward work.
As I said many times before, Daniel was not told to flee [ancient]
Babylon, but to overcome where he was. Nor is the Laodicean church
told to flee America but to repent and our Lord is waiting with open
arms to fellowship with them."
To which I would reply with the words of my dear friend, Constance
Cumby when she upbraided me many years ago for the same kind of undisciplined
and sloppy thinking: "Steve, Tribulation itself does not produce courage;
it only strengthens that which is already there. For example, if a married
worker in an office building sees a beautiful co-worker on the other
side of the room and cannot resist 'bumping into her' at the drinking
fountain; and if that leads to regular meetings at the coffee machine,
which then leads to lunches, and then to dinners - while all the time
the Lord is whispering in his ear, 'Don't do it; don't do it' - what
makes you think that he will suddenly be able to answer the Lord's entreaties
when he is lying naked in bed with her in some seedy motel on the wrong
side of town? If he couldn't stop at the drinking fountain, and he couldn't
stop at the coffee machine, and he couldn't stop at lunch or at dinner,
what makes you think he will stop then?"
NOTE: It should also be noted that we're NOT
talking about ancient Babylon here, but "Prophetic Babylon," and we're
not talking about the Laodicean church, which existed two thousand
years ago in the Middle East. The assumption that today's American
church is a "type" of the ancient Laodicean church is just that: An
assumption; moreover, the assumption that the Laodicean church repented
is just that: An assumption - and that's a pretty dangerous thing
to do: To hang your fate on an assumption.
So I repeat Connie's words to you: Tribulation itself does not produce
courage; it only strengthens that which is already there. If we don't
have the courage to obey God now, if we can't give up the good things
of life now - our good medical careers, our nice homes, our security,
etc. - what makes us think that somehow or other we will be able to
obey God when we will be called to give up EVERYTHING?
It's IDIOTIC to think so!
This brother ends by saying,
"We pray for SR [meaning me] and can only imagine that the extra
200 pounds he carries doesn't lead to toxic thinking."
IF YOU FIGHT, THEN FIGHT OPENLY
Well, what can I say to those very hurtful remarks? Not much, that's
for sure. But leaving aside this brother's cruel ad homonym attacks
(which he calls "prayer"), let's imagine that there is no "geographical
meaning" - i.e., no LITERAL meaning - to Revelation 18:4.
Let's imagine that this brother is truly serious about "... not being
a 'draft dodger' and fleeing north to Canada" as he accuses us of doing;
that he is going to stay in the United States and "raise up a standard
for the Lord" - not only this brother, but the thirteen others on his
list. And how are they going to do this? Are they going to "raise up
a standard for the Lord" behind the anonymity of their computer screens?
- as electronic blips in the ether? Is that what they are going to do?
OR are they going to go out into the streets with flyers
and coral everyone who will listen to them concerning the message of
Antipas - after all, none of them says he disagrees with the "essential"
message of Antipas. Indeed, one brother - who seems to act as if I know
him (which I do not) - writes:
"The only thing I want to say here, is that when I look at the distribution
list of this email [the thirteen brothers and sisters noted above],
I can see that we have all had this conversation before. And so I
want to say exactly what I said last time, because I think it is important
... When success is gained by God's servants, and the enemy's schemes
are being exposed and people are being victoriously ushered away from
his deceptions, he has to react. I bet my bottom 'Babylonian' dollar
that he looked and looked and waited for an opportunity, and a 'way
in' so to speak, and in the 'come out of her' scripture he found a
vulnerability and exploited it.
"All Satan wanted to do was ... discredit [the ministry] to as many
people as possible, and I think we will all agree with one thing,
and that is that he was somewhat successful at this. Steve was 'the
man' [not my words, his; there is no one man in this last age (SR
Shearer)] for a long time, and when folks disagreed with what he put
forth on that ONE scripture, rather than rethinking it, he became
belligerent ..."
What this brother is saying in a kind of back-handed way is that he
and those with him (i.e., the thirteen brothers and sisters noted above)
agree with the message of Antipas, and they disagree only on this one
point: The necessity to "Come out of her."
Okay, then let them stay and FIGHT. They don't want to
be "draft dodgers" like us. They want to fight! All right! And how is
it that they propose to fight? - by clickity-clacking on their computer
keyboards? - is that how they propose to fight? OR are
they going to go out into the streets and SHOUT the message
of Antipas (which they say they agree with) from the rooftops?
Are they going to form house-churches and raise up a corporate standard
for the Lord, OR are they going to retreat into splendid
isolation behind their computer screens or continue to attend churches
that are now fully engaged as a partner with George Bush's American
New World Order System, pretending that there is a chance that the Apostate
church will eventually turn from its apostasy and repent. But that's
NOT what the Bible says. The Bible - speaking concerning
the woman (the church) who rides the beast (the American New World Order
System) - that the beast will eventually turn on the woman and kill
her. It doesn't say that she will repent, only that she - and all those
associated with her - will be destroyed. (Revelation 17:16)
WE IN ANTIPAS INTEND TO FIGHT IN THE OPEN
We in Antipas have many who - while they intend to "Come out of her"
- cannot now do so for a variety of different reasons; but while they
remain, they are going to FIGHT! - and not behind the
anonymity of their computers, but in the highways and byways of our
nation by passing out leaflets and collaring people in the streets with
the Antipas message in obedience to Christ's Word when He said:
"What I tell you in darkness, that SPEAK YE IN THE LIGHT:
and what ye hear in the ear, that PREACH YE UPON THE HOUSETOPS."
(Matthew 10:27
Indeed, we already have one family that has purchased a motor home
(he is currently taking "hospitality" with his entire family at Fred
Palmquist's home in Sacramento) and intends to go from city to city
passing out flyers with the message of Antipas - to church congregations,
in labor halls, on college campuses, etc. And there are more families
who have volunteered to involve themselves also in this effort. In addition,
we have a very large number of families all over the country who have
volunteered to host these "pamphleteers" as they go from city to city.
These hosts have also volunteered to form Aliya groups - that's
what we call "house-churches" in the United States - who will act as
churches for those who respond to the message of Antipas. We also intend
to reinforce these Aliya groups with people who want to return
to the U.S. for the "fight" after being trained in Canada [Most, however
will move on in due time to other countries throughout the world; for
example, we have gathered together a good number of people who intend
to migrate to Mexico City - a brother there has given us the use of
his home.]
NOTE: We call "house churches" in the United States
"Aliya Groups" because these churches - as opposed to the churches
Antipas is presently raising up in countries like Ghana, Mexico, and
elsewhere - must be ready to "get out" at any moment in answer to
the call of God in Revelation 18:4. Aliya means to "go up;"
to journey by faith to a place where He will show us just as Abraham
did when he was called out of Ur of the Chaldees; to act as "pilgrims"
and "sojourners" in this life. And that's exactly what we are in Antipas:
"pilgrims" and "sojourners." (Hebrews 11:13).
Brothers and sisters, we must continually bear in mind that this world
is NOT our home! We have no permanent abode here; in the
words of that old Baptist hymn, God's people sing:
This world is not my home
I'm just a'passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore!
The Bible says that -
"... they that say such things declare plainly that they seek ...
[another] country.
"And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from
whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
"BUT NOW THEY DESIRE A BETTER COUNTRY, THAT IS, AN HEAVENLY
[ONE]: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for
HE HATH PREPARED FOR THEM A CITY." (Hebrews 11:14-16)
MAY GOD BLESS OUR DETRACTORS
Now, if this is the attitude of our detractors, if they, like us, are
prepared to shout the message of Antipas from the rooftops; if they,
like us, take an UNCOMPROMING and PUBLIC
stand against the American New World Order System and the church that
has partnered with it; if they, like us, count their home the heavenly
kingdom of Jesus Christ; if they, like us, give themselves over to form
"house-churches" in their homes PUBLICALLY, and in OPEN
opposition to the "established church," then I say to them all, God
bless you! - whether they call me "fat" or not. They will save themselves
whether they call themselves "Antipas" or whether they choose some other
name if only because they will be kicked out of the country eventually.
They will be forced to flee in obedience to God's command:
"When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for
verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel,
till the Son of man be come." (Mathew 10:23)
They will be forced out before they can imbibe the poison of HATE
that is now being administered to the American public as a result of
the Bush administration's ISLAMOPHOBIA, and before they
can participate by their silent acquiesce in the vicious slaughter of
the Muslim people - and not for the sake of Israel, but for the sake
of the good things of life that are theirs in Babylon.
But, if instead what they really intend to do is to retreat into sullen
isolation and continue muttering to themselves about the "failure" of
Antipas, they then will be revealed to be COWARDS who
don't possess the courage of their convictions - all their protestations
to the contrary notwithstanding; and eventually, they will succumb by
force or persuasion - no matter - to the poison of Babylon. After all,
it's not what a person says, but what he does that reveals his true
character.
I WARN YOU ALL
And so I warn you all: your actions will reveal who and what you are.
If by staying in Babylon, you open your home up to the outcasts of this
world, if you open your home up to others as an Aliya group,
if you preach the message of Antipas in season and out, in your workplace,
to your friends and loved ones, to your neighbors; if you FORTIFY
yourself against the "course of this age" (Eph. 2:2) by gathering about
yourself "saints of like-mind," if you host our "traveling teams" as
they pass through your city, then you will stand!
But if you do otherwise, if you meet with others who do not CLEARLY
see what you see - then you are headed like "sheep to the slaughter:"
To stand with others who have partnered with George Bush's American
new World Order System - directly or even indirectly - is tantamount
to lining up for the destruction of your souls. When one partners with
those who have made this world their home - which those who have allied
themselves with today's American church plainly declare they have done
by their actions if not their words - it means, whether one wants to
admit it or not, that HE IS NO CHILD OF GOD. The Bible
says:
"... know ye not that FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD IS ENMITY WITH
GOD? WHOSOEVER THEREFORE WILL BE A FRIEND OF THE WORLD IS THE ENEMY
OF GOD." (James 4:4)
DON'T PARTNER WITH THE ENEMIES OF GOD
What's that say, then, about the leaders of today's American church
who have allied themselves with George Bush's American New World Order
System? - PLAINLY IT SAYS THAT ALL THESE MEN ARE THE ENEMIES OF
GOD - leaders like James Dobson, Rick Warren, C. Peter Wagner,
Tim LaHaye, Beverley LaHaye, Ern Baxter, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell,
Chuck Colson, Robert Stearns, Mike Bickle, Reuven Doron, Che Ahn, Frank
Hammond, Cindy Jacobs, Bill Hamon, John Eckhardt, Bobbie Byerly, Dutch
Sheets, Jim Goll, John Paul Jackson, Francis Frangipane, James Ryle,
Frank Damazio, Ed Silvoso, Carlos Annacondia, Claudio Freidzon, Roger
Mitchell, Ted Haggard, Paul Cain, Chuck Pierce, Rick Joyner, Kingsley
Fletcher, Jim Laffoon, Barbara Wentroble, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Are you allied with any of these means - directly or indirectly? If
you are, you are an enemy of God, because that's what they are: The
enemies of God. That's what ALL these people are; these
are those about whom Jesus said:
"Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
"This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. (Matthew
15:7-8)
JESUS SAID
Jesus said:
"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall
not fall on the ground without your Father [knowing about it].
"But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
"Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."
(Matthew 10:28-31)
And He went on to say:
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess
also before my Father which is in heaven.
"But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before
my Father which is in heaven.
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to
send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and
the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her
mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
"And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not
worthy of me.
"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his
life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:32-39)
God bless you all!
S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries
P.S. Brothers and sisters, we ask you to remember the word of Scripture
when it says -
"If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great
thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" (1Cor. 9:11)
If you have benefited from this ministry, then we ask that you return
the favor by ministering to us of your carnal (material) things. We
need your continued financial support for this ministry - which is moment
by moment under very heavy spiritual and physical attack - if we are
to go forward.
| PS Have the courage of your convictions! Contribute to
the ministry by making out a check to "Antipas Christian Ministry"
and sending it to -
Antipas Ministries
1112 Long Rd., #40
Centralia, WA 98531
Or donate through Paypal by clicking the Paypal image below:
We DESPERATELY need your continued SACRIFICIAL
financial help. Time is short - and we need to be about the Lord's
business as quickly as possible.
If you have any questions, please email us at staff@antipasministries.com. |
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