THE HANDSTAND

august 2005

Patrick McNally Saturday, July 23, 2005 7:56 PM
The Hebrew Bible: Ethical Monotheism? or Unethical Henotheism?

or Unethical Henotheism?

The first of the Ten Commandments asserts, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." [Exodus 20:2] The wording states that there are other existing gods, but they must not be given preferential or even equal treatment over the god who dictated this commandment to Moses. Thus the Torah teaches polytheism [many gods], but it is a "many-god-ism" very different from that of the Ancient Greeks and Romans who simultaneously recognized and honored many gods.

Torahites are required to worship only their own tribal god and ignore all foreign gods. It is sort of like monogamy whereby a man commits himself to one woman but does not deny the existence of other women. Later Moses confirms that there are other gods and says, "Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the earth." [Deuteronomy 6: 14-15] So this jealous maniac is not above toasting anyone who does not hop to it.

Another aspect of this jealousy is that outsiders should not worship this God, just like a husband generally does not allow other men to have the same relationship with his wife that he does. So this is definitely not the kind of universal God for all mankind that contemporary Islam and Christianity believe in. The rarely used word "henotheism" captures the situation and can be described as "tribal-one-god-for-us-ism." Somewhere along in history -probably under Plato's influence- Jewdayism began to claim to be more than a henotheism and appropriated the moniker of monotheism. But particularistic, tribal, and parochial self-interests continue to mark it off clearly from any universalist human teaching embracing all humans.

But more important than any ontological or metaphysical questions about the nature and being of this henotheistic God are two basic ethical questions:

1. How does this God behave?

2. How does He command others to behave?

Plato argued that there are certain stories that it is blasphemous to tell about a good God. Such a God cannot do evil and harmful acts. This is similar to the idea stated by Abraham in his argument with God. Like a good Platonist, Abraham said, "Far be it from you to do such a thing -to kill the righteous with the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" [Genesis 18:25] It was too bad that Abraham was not around when Moses got G-d to kill any and all of the Egyptian firstborn or when G-d allowed Satan to torment Job and kill his children. Or what would old Abraham have said about Joshua's and Saul's genocides?

Well, of course, it is impossible to sort out all the doctrinal garbage, childrens' fable, and fake history in the Hebrew Scriptures, but there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to refer to this crap as an "ethical monotheism" as the politically correct dogma requires. It is an unethical henotheism that must not be allowed to be taught in schools except as an example of the reptile-brained thinking characteristic of human pre-history. This conclusion is fully compatible with the Christian doctrine of supersession. The Old Testament is old.

Anybody today who celebrated the past burning of witches or ancient Aztec sacrifices of young maidens would be socially ostrasized. Similarly, the celebrations of the killing of ancient Egyptians or Persians should be ridiculed and ultimately prohibited. We need freedom from that kind of religion. Not freedom for it!

The Scofield Bible....
It is amazing that Oxford University consented to print and publish this bible edited and annotated by this "scalywagW as one description of this fraudulent scholar goes...

CYRUS I. SCHOFIELD IN THE ROLE OF A

CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER

from The Daily Capital, Topeka, Kansas.

             “ Cyrus I. Schofield, formerly of Kansas, late lawyer, politician and
shyster generally, has come to the surface again, and promises once more to gather around himself that halo of notoriety that has made him so prominent in the past. The last personal knowledge that Kansans have had of this peer among scalawags, was when about four years ago, after a series of forgeries and confidence games he left the state and a destitute family and took refuge in Canada. For a time he kept undercover, nothing being heard of him until within the past two years when he turned up in St. Louis, where he had a wealthy widowed sister living who has generally come to the front and squared up Cyrus’ little follies and foibles by paying good round sums of money. Within the past year, however, Cyrus committed a series of St. Louis forgeries that could not be settled so easily, and the erratic young gentleman was compelled to linger in the St. Louis jail for a period of six months.

              Among the many malicious acts that characterized his career, was one peculiarly atrocious, that has come under our personal notice. Shortly after he left Kansas, leaving his wife and two children dependent upon the bounty of his wife’s mother, he wrote his wife that he could invest some $1,300 of her mother’s money, all she had, in a manner that would return big interest. After some correspondence he forwarded them a mortgage, signed and executed by one Chas. Best, purporting to convey valuable property in St. Louis. Upon this, the money was sent to him. Afterwards the mortgages were found to be base forgeries, no such person as Charles Best being in existence, and the property conveyed in the mortgage fictitious…”

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, author of the Scofield Reference Bible.Dr. Scofield died in 1921
New Edition 1967,published by Oxford University Press states: "Among the changes and improvements in this edition are: important word changes in the text to help the reader; a modified system of self-pronunciation; revision of many of the introductions to the books of the Bible, including designation of the author, theme, and date; more subheadings; clarification of some footnotes, deletion of others, and the addition of many new notes;: more marginal references; an entirely new chronology; a new index; a concordance especially prepared for this edition; new maps; and more legible type.


THE BRITISH EMPIRE RE-COLONIZED AMERICA WITH A BANK AND A BOOK
By Charles E. Carlson, July 19, 2005
In 1908 British central bankers financed a new Book named The Scofield Reference Bible for sale in America. A generation later it had become the theological underpinning for a new religion-a neo-Christianity that soon flooded the seminaries and bible bookstores with its interpretation.  Today, Left Behind sells side-by-side with Harry Potter, and Scofield's heresy has become the primary justification among church going Americans for perpetual war in the Middle East.

Those who bankrolled the Book in the early years of the 20th Century provided what appeared to be limitless financing and technical support, as would be expected when the prize is the conquest of the world's greatest and most "Christian" superpower. This neo-Christianity coincided with the rise of the World Zionist movement in Europe. The two movements had common participants, common financiers, and seemingly common objectives. The new religion was funded to insure that America's organized churches would not seriously interfere with the aims of the World Zionist movement.
 
A British import, first seen in America in the last half of the 19th Century, it is distinctly different from traditional Christianity. Its adherents know they are different and refer to themselves by several names, including "Dispensationalists" a term borrowed from the footnotes of The Scofield Reference Bible published and owned by the prestigious Oxford University Press. More recently Israel's political leaders have dubbed them "Christian Zionists," and the media now calls them by the generic term, the Christian-Right.  
 
The Empire has achieved its goal of controlling America with unending serial wars, a central bank, called The Federal Reserve, which created the illusion of paying for each war, while in fact, diluting the dollar. The Book justifies wars one by one.  Our estimate is that more than 100 million Americans are being deceived from the pulpit, in dispensational bible studies, and over the Celebrity-Christian airwaves.  They follow a form of "Christianity" that is younger then the Mormon Church.
 
Project Straight Gate is "We Hold These Truths'" mission to oppose this enslavement of body and soul. We focus on those who call themselves by Christ's name, but who have been deceived to accept war and its attendant money dilution and moral depravity.
 
Are you up to challenging the Empire and its Neo-con operatives, political Zionism, and the Christian Right enablers...all marching in lock step? 

One of Cyrus’s first suspicious moves involved in producing his Reference Bible was to take an unnecessary trip to the British Isles for research. He immediately sought out the controversial scholars Westcott and Hort in London. These two polecats guided him in how to alter the King James Bible so that it would be compatible with the dispensationalist teachings he was recruited to promote. Scofield preferred the Revised Version of the Bible, which was largely the product of his mentors Westcott and Hort and was based on corrupted manuscripts born in Alexandria, Egypt and espoused by the Vatican. (There is much information available concerning the Occultic beliefs and activities of Westcott and Hort).
         Certain men, crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.” Jude 1:4

Joseph Canfield in The Incredible Scofield provides a clue that helps unravel the mystery which surrounds the Scofield Bible. He states that on the second page of the introduction to the first edition published in 1909, Scofield acknowledged that he had been influenced by two Oxford Bible scholars, B.F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort.¹

Scofield traveled to Oxford University just prior to the publication of his Bible. At the time, these two men were highly regarded authorities on the Greek New Testament. However, the recent controversy over the King James Bible has thrown a flood of light into the dark corners of their lives. The revelations have been shocking.

Westcott was a bishop in the Anglican church and Hort a Professor of divinity but both men had abandoned their Christian faith. Westcott formed a club while an undergraduate at Cambridge called Hermes.² Hermes is another name for Satan and was bi-sexual or androgynous. These clubs were noted for the intensity of the homosexual relations between its members.³

In 1851, Hort and Westcott started the Ghost Society which over the years included some of the most noted intellectuals in England including future Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.⁴Balfour was at the center of an elite group which had inherited great political power, wealth and social position. ⁵ They were leaders in the occult revival of the 19th century and founders of the New Age Movement with Luciferian Helen Blatavsky.⁶

Hort and Westcott were committed Communists.⁷ They hated America and democracy. ⁸ There was a close tie between their occult group and Marxism in England.⁹ And under the leadership of the powerful Arthur Balfour they began working on what has become the one world religion and the New World Order.¹⁰

A key strategy in bringing about this one world religion involved replacing the King James Version which was standard in their day with a revised text where words were added and removed and meanings changed.¹¹ Hort and Westcott’s New Age Versions have virtually replaced the King James version today.

Not content with changing God’s word, Scofield’s credit reveals they also worked to change bible prophecy. Historicism had been the standard for 500 years. But the publication of the Scofield Bible resurrected the old Jesuit futurism with a Zionist twist.Today the policies of our country are dramatically influenced by futurism and Christian Zionism while few have even heard of historicism.

During the years they worked on the revised text they secretly met at night and held séances with their depraved society. These meetings were often held at Arthur Balfour’s residence or townhouse.¹² They are acknowledged today as the fathersw of modern "channeling".¹³ Channeling involves inviting a familiar spirit or diving demon into ones body.

Channelers or mediums frequently end up in bondage with the occult. This practice is an abomination to God who warned that “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils.(1 Timothy 4:1) Men with familiar spirits in the Old Testament were to be put to death.

According to Scofield, the real influences behind the publication of the Scofield Bible  were two men who were influenced or possessed by demons. Their motivation was not to glorify God but to bring about a New World Order with a New World Religion based on spiritualism.¹⁴

Links

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY OCCULT REVIVAL The Legacy of Westcott & Hort
The Necromancers
The Political & Occult Connections of Westcott & Hort
The Society for Psychical Research
The Networks Of Westcott & Hort
A look at Samuel Untermeyer

References

1 Joseph M. Canfield, The Incredible Scofield and His Book (Vallecito, Ca.: Ross House Books, 1988), page 195.

2 Arthur Westcott, Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. I (London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1903), p. 47.

3 Alan Gauld, The Founders of Psychical Research (New York: Schocken Books, 1968), pp. 90-91.

4 James Webb, The Occult Underground (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court Press, 1974),p. 8.

5 Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment (New York: Books in Focus, 1981), page 32.

6 The Occult Underground, page 155.

7 Arthur Hort, The Life and Letters of Fenton John Antony Hort, Vol I (New York: Macmillan and Company, 1896), p.104.

8 Life of Hort, Vol. I, pp. 458-459.

9 Norman and Jeanne MacKensie, The Fabians (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), pages 18, 316.

10 G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions (Ararat, Va: AV Publications, 1993), pp. 419-421.

11 Ibid., pages 11-13.

12 Founders of Psychical Research pp. 105, 104, 48.

13 New Age Bible Versions, page 402.

14 Founders of Psychical Research pp. 305-307.

References to the lives of Hort and Westcott have been taken from New Age Bible Versions by G.A. Riplinger, AV Publications, Ararat, Virginia pages 397- 428. Included are just a few of the 128 references  provides in the chapter titled “The Necromancers”.