marchartists

Pharisee Nation

by John Dear
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0215-21.htm

Last September, I spoke to some 2,000 students during their annual lecture at a Baptist college in Pennsylvania. After a short prayer service for peace centered on the Beatitudes, I took the stage and got right to the point. “Now let me get this straight,” I said. “Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ which means he does not say, ‘Blessed are the warmakers,’ which means, the warmakers are not blessed, which means warmakers are cursed, which means, if you want to follow the nonviolent Jesus you have to work for peace, which means, we all have to resist this horrific, evil war on the people of Iraq.”

With that, the place exploded, and 500 students stormed out. The rest of them then started chanting, “Bush! Bush! Bush!”

So much for my speech. Not to mention the Beatitudes.

I was not at all surprised that George W. Bush was reelected president. As I travel the country speaking out against war, injustice and nuclear weapons, I see many people consciously siding with the culture of war, choosing the path of violence, supporting corporate greed, rampant militarism, and global domination. I see many others swept up in the raging current of patriotism. Since most of these people, beginning with the president, claim to be Christian, I am ashamed and appalled that they support war and systemic injustice, that they do it in the name of God, and that they feign fidelity to the nonviolent Jesus who gave his life resisting institutionalized injustice.

I am reminded of Flannery O’Connor’s great book, “Wise Blood,” where her outrageous character Hazel Motes is so fed up with Christian hypocrisy that he forms his own church, the “Church of Christ without Christ,” “where the lame don’t walk, the blind don’t see, and the dead don’t rise.” That’s where we are headed today.

I used to think these all-American Christians never read the Gospel, that they simply chose not to be authentic disciples of the nonviolent Jesus. Now, alas, I think they have indeed chosen discipleship, but not to the hero of the Gospels, Jesus. Instead, through their actions, they have become disciples of the devout, religious, all-powerful, murderous Pharisees who killed him.

A Culture of Pharisees

We have become a culture of Pharisees. Instead of practicing an authentic spirituality of compassion, nonviolence, love and peace, we as a collective people have become self-righteous, arrogant, powerful, murderous hypocrites who dominate and kill others in the name of God. The Pharisees supported the brutal Roman rulers and soldiers, and lived off the comforts of the empire by running an elaborate banking system which charged an exorbitant fee for ordinary people just to worship God in the Temple. Since they taught that God was present only in the Temple, they were able to control the entire population. If anyone opposed their power or violated their law, the Pharisees could kill them on the spot, even in the holy sanctuary.

Most North American Christians are now becoming more and more like these hypocritical Pharisees. We side with the rulers, the bankers, and the corporate millionaires and billionaires. We run the Pentagon, bless the bombing raids, support executions, make nuclear weapons and seek global domination for America as if that was what the nonviolent Jesus wants. And we dismiss anyone who disagrees with us.

We have become a mean, vicious people, what the bible calls “stiff-necked people.” And we do it all with the mistaken belief that we have the blessing of God.

In the past, empires persecuted religious groups and threatened them into passivity and silence. Now these so-called Christians run the American empire, and teach a subtle spirituality of empire to back up their power in the name of God. This spirituality of empire insists that violence saves us, might makes right, war is justified, bombing raids are blessed, nuclear weapons offer the only true security from terrorism, and the good news is not love for our enemies, but the elimination of them. The empire is working hard these days to tell the nation--and the churches--what is moral and immoral, sinful and holy. It denounces certain personal behavior as immoral, in order to distract us from the blatant immorality and mortal sin of the U.S. bombing raids which have left 100,000 Iraqis dead, or our ongoing development of thousands of weapons of mass destruction. Our Pharisee rulers would have us believe that our wars and our weapons are holy and blessed by God.

In the old days, the early Christians had big words for such behavior, such lies. They were called “blasphemous, idolatrous, heretical, hypocritical and sinful.” Such words and actions were denounced as the betrayal, denial and execution of Jesus all over again in the world’s poor. But the empire needs the church to bless and support its wars, or at least to remain passive and silent. As we Christians go along with the Bush administration and the American empire, we betray Jesus, renounce his teachings, and create a “Church of Christ without Christ,“ as Flannery O’Connor foresaw.

Troublemaking Nonviolence, the Measure of the Gospel

The first thing we Christians have to do in this time is not to become good Pharisees. Instead, we have to try all over again to follow the dangerous, nonviolent, troublemaking Jesus. I believe war, weapons, corporate greed and systemic injustice are an abomination in the sight of God. They are the definition of mortal sin. They mock God and threaten to destroy God’s gift of creation. If you want to seek the living God, you have to pit your entire life against war, weapons, greed and injustice--and their perpetrators. It is as simple as that.

Every religion, including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, is rooted in nonviolence, but I submit that the only thing we know for sure about Jesus is that he was nonviolent and so, nonviolence is the hallmark of Christianity and the measure of authentic Christian living. Jesus commands that we love one another, love our neighbors, seek justice, forgive those who hurt us, pray for our persecutors, and be as compassionate as God. But at the center of his teaching is the most radical declaration ever uttered: “love your enemies.”

If we dare call ourselves Christian, we cannot support war or nuclear weapons or corporate greed or executions or systemic injustice of any kind. If we do, we may well be devout American citizens, but we no longer follow the nonviolent Jesus. We have joined the hypocrites and blasphemers of the land, beginning with their leaders in the White House, the Pentagon and Los Alamos.

Jesus resisted the empire, engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience in the Temple, was arrested by the Pharisees, tried by the Roman governor and executed by Roman soldiers. If we dare follow this nonviolent revolutionary, we too must resist empire, engage in nonviolent civil disobedience against U.S. warmaking and imperial domination, and risk arrest and imprisonment like the great modern day disciples, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day and Philip Berrigan.

If we do not want to be part of the Pharisaic culture and do want to follow the nonviolent Jesus, we have to get in trouble just as Jesus was constantly in trouble for speaking the truth, loving the wrong people, worshipping the wrong way, and promoting the wrong things, like justice and peace. We have to resist this new American empire, as well as its false spirituality and all those who claim to be Christian yet support the murder of other human beings. We have to repent of the sin of war, put down the sword, practice Gospel nonviolence, and take up the cross of revolutionary nonviolence by loving our enemies and discovering what the spiritual life is all about.

Just because the culture and the cultural church have joined with the empire and its wars does not mean that we all have to go along with such heresy, or fall into despair as if nothing can be done. It is never too late to try to follow the troublemaking Jesus, to join his practice of revolutionary nonviolence and become authentic Christians. We may find ourselves in trouble, even at the hands of so-called Christians, just as Jesus was in trouble at the hands of the so-called religious leaders of his day. But this very trouble may lead us back to those Beatitude blessings.

John Dear is a Jesuit priest and the author/editor of 20 books including most recently, “The Questions of Jesus” and “Living Peace” both published by Doubleday. He lives in New Mexico where he is working on a campaign to disarm Los Alamos. For info, see: www.johndear.org

Two English Lords Gifted the Land of the Philistines to a Private Company and Funded a New Religion to Bless the Theft
Charles E. Carlson Jun 23, 2006

The State of Israel controls every gate into the Gaza Strip. One such gate called Rafah connects the tiny land with the Egyptian Sinai. But to get there you must cross a kilometer wide Israeli zone, and if you’re lucky enough to be allowed passage to Gaza it is with Israel’s permission; your passport shows you have entered Israel, not Palestine. Only yesterday two unnamed swimmers tried to bypass this checkpoint and were shot in the water by the crew of an Israeli Navy ship.

But an even more strange right of passage is practiced inside America’s churches.For when you enter what is referred to generically as an evangelical church you are probably about to partake in a Zionist controlled religion as distant from traditional Christianity as is Pharisaism.

British Lord Balfour provided a forged deed for the State of Israel to enter Arab land. And at almost the same hour he wrote his famous letter, the new dispensational church movement in America was being hijacked for the specific purpose of blessing world Zionism. Dispensationalism, or evangelicalism, as it is often called, has its roots in and owes its success to British nobles who were, for the most part, above religion and called each other “Lord.” Both Israel and dispensational Christianity received their baptismal blessings from the British Crown.

There is no nation of Palestine today, nor was there one in 1917 when it was gifted to the world Zionist movement. It would be more accurate to call the Arab lands “Occupied Philistia,” the historic land of the Philistines. From a religious point of view one could also dub Israel “Phariseeland” recognizing the decline of its spiritualism. But the British chose the name “Palestine” and Lord Balfour referred to it as the “homeland for the Jewish people” when he, represented the Crown of England, he made this strange land deed to English Lord, Lionel Walter Rothschild in a letter, known ever since as the Balfour Declaration. It states:

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Barron Rothschild was the most prominent Jew in England, chosen to communicate the good news to the world Zionism organization (the Company) then headed by a Russian Zionist named Chaim Weizmann. There was also no state called Israel at that time, which makes this land grant so unique in history. It might be likened to the US Congress granting California to the Church of England. Congress does not own California; the World Zionist Federation was not a state, but a company.

This British gift of someone else’s land was the beginning of the endless wars with Arabs on one side, pitted against Jews, Zionist-Christians, and the US Government on the other side. It is one of the most lopsided miss-matches in the history of genocide, equivalent to a staged Roman slaughter of humans by lions. The question that must be asked is:

Why do professing Christians allow themselves to be drawn into an unscriptural shedding of innocent blood, not to mention land theft

American “Christians” provide the margin of victory for Zionism. They alone provided the moral excuse for the slaughter, and in so doing it stands against everything we are taught in Jesus' words about the absolute obligation to protect the “least of our brothers.”

The war in the Mideast, as anyone with one eye can see, is an indecent mismatch beyond civilized imagination. It is understandable that Jewish synagogues might support it, but why do Christian Churches stand for brutality against the weak?Answer: Because it is required by their “religion.”We will continue to examine how this was arranged.

The Balfour Declaration was not enough to make the State of Israel a political reality in a world dominated by a substantially Biblically aware America. Zionism’s founders stated they needed broad American support else their venture would fail. The USA was the new, great world power, even if most Americans did not yet know it. Most Americans rightly respected Arab culture in the first half of the 20^th Century. Mr. Weizmann faced no small public relations trick. Winning Christians to support the tribe that calls itself by the name of those who tormented and killed Jesus Christ required a radical change in Christian doctrine.

The new, Zionist-friendly Christianity was hatched from eggs laid by its European predecessors, primarily Edwin Ervin and John Nelson Darby. Its purpose was (unknown to its followers) to make Zionist land theft biblically legal and morally acceptable. To do this Zionists needed a rewritten Bible that would make the State of Israel a necessary precursor to the imminent return of Christ to planet earth. The idea was to make Jesus Christ’s return to earth imminent, and to make Jesus' return to earth dependant upon the Jew’s return to the land of the Philistines first. All world Zionism had to do was write such a bible and sell it to enough Christ followers.

The neo-Christian-Zionists would at first simply accept the erroneous notion that the Bible predicted a political state of Israel in Palestine. As time went on those who accepted it would be taught to accept mass deportation and murder of the Arabs to secure the real estate upon which Christ would someday (very soon) set up an early rule called a “Millennial kingdom.”

In the dispensational scheme, Zionists were to be allowed the role of custodianship of the land until Jesus decided he needed it, at which time the Israeli Jews would be out of luck, out of land again, and would be slaughtered as well. This unhappy ending for world Judaism did not worry the Zionists because it served their purpose, and they did not believe it anyway. It was perfected in the Scofield Reference Bible, and it is also precisely the message that is sold in tens of millions of pulp fiction, “Left Behind” books written by Tim Lahaye’s enterprises, as well as by a thousand other similar “rapture” and Armageddon authors over the last 90 years.

Lord Balfour’s and Lord Rothschild’s role in creating this new, Israel-friendly christian-like cult was spawned and fed through the English Crown’s influence over Oxford University Press, supposedly a part of Oxford University, but a useful political tool for the Crown it seems. In 1908 Oxford was the most prestigious publishing company in England. Just how the Crown went about making decisions for Oxford University Press is beyond this study

Lord Rothschild and his banking friends and family had the financial clout to support and promote the upstart religion and sell it to 70 million Americans. Oxford University Press promoted Scofield’s book to the seminaries and bible colleges of America. Later it was disclosed that Oxford owned the book and still does. Scofieldism is also Rothschildism; both had an incalculable negative influence on traditional Christianity.

Dispensationalism is the label provided from Cyrus I. Scofield’s seven “dispensations,” the first being found in the footnotes on page 4 (1967 Edition). The excuse for the conquest of what We Hold These Truths and the Bible calls the “Land of the Philistines” is found in Scofield footnote on page 251 called the “Palestinian Covent”; and in footnotes to the book of Genesis (12:3), wherein the promise of a Christ-child is converted into a shabby future land swindle to justify the theft of the present day Arab lands. This was caused to happen in 1947, some 3000 years after Abram is said to have had his conversation with God about fathering a great tribe.

The Scofield Reference Bible is the transparent bible forgery for changing fundamental Christianity into Rothschild’s Zionism. Today it shamefully dominates the bible colleges and seminaries, beginning with the Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary and pulpits of evangelical churches of America.

We Hold These Truths has already explained the most necessary details of the heresy verse by verse and line by heretical line. We need not take space here, but will point you to the inventory of papers by this author. Most will be convinced that Cyrus I. Scofield was acting under the influence of World Zionism when he wrote his infamous book (if in fact someone else did not write it for him). Scofield probably did not know he was the first Zionist-Christian to corrupt the work of Christ’s ministries.

Followers of Christ should not fear confrontation with religious leaders backed by We Hold These Truths' presentation. It has worked in hundreds of tests; we all but guaranty that pastor have no logical answer your questions. The Litmus test question each leader should be asked is:

“Pastor, do you teach that the present day State of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophesy?”

There is only one correct answer; and that is “No.” But our Serial War problem does center on Israel. We Hold These Truths' purpose is to make this confrontation with your church so simple that any layman can do it. Only when we, who claim to follow Christ, learn to confront the errant churches will respect for life be restored within our society. It will rekindle the spark of decency, and it might even please God.

The Most Reverend Katherine Schori
Liberal Elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopalian Church on June 18
Delivers a Sermon on "Our Mother Jesus"
Episcopalians Embrace a Feminine and "Gay" Clergy

The Episcopalian Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, is disintegrating before our eyes. And the lesson of recent Church history is: as the Anglicans go, so goes (eventually) Newchurch....?.

Having embraced divorce, homosexuality, deaconesses, priestesses, and bishopesses, the Episcopalian House of Deputies meeting in convention in Columbus, Ohio, during the week of June 19, by a vote of 70% refused even to consider a resolution that affirms Jesus Christ as the "only name by which any person may be saved."

One presbyter explained that how one lives his life is the more important issue than whether one affirms Jesus as Lord. Ah, well, if that is so, then the Episcopalians should close up their heretic Church, save their parishioners a lot of time and money, and recommend that they simply go to Aristotle's Ethics for guidance.

The liberalization of the Episcopalian Church predates 1982. Episcopalians have made it clear by their rejection of traditional marriage and other recent innovations that a new set of heresies now dominates the Episcopalian Church. No wonder that more and more Episcopalian laymen and clergy are leaving the "institutional" Church to found a traditional Episcopalian Church, particularly since the "consecration" of a publicly-practicing homosexual as bishop. At this convention the House of Delegates soundly refused even to place a moratorium on the consecration of homosexual bishops and the blessing of homosexual unions, and its newly-elected liberalist bishopess head preached a sermon on "Our Mother Jesus."

In a rather amusing episode demonstrating how the Anglican Church is fracturing, an Anglican bishop and his party from England were abandoned to wander deep in the African bush by the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya, when the archbishop discovered that the bishop had become a patron of a lesbian and "gay" lobby group. When the bishop and party found its way back to civilization, instead of putting the blame on himself for his heretical views, the bishop claimed that "the devil did it"!

Well, now Newchurch has already accepted an Episcopalian-like service as its "New Mass." And recently NewRome has provided that the chair of the presbyter should be modeled after the Protestant preacher's chair. It has mandated "a position facing the people at the head of the sanctuary," i.e., behind the altar facing the people" (Instructio Generalis Missalis Romani, N. 310). Now think: what used to be in this position? Why the Blessed Sacrament, of course! So, in Newchurch, man has become god. The symbolism is unmistakable.

In addition to accepting the Episcopalian service, Newchurch has already watered down the Biblical teaching against homosexual acts, even abetting homosexual clergy who rape children. Newchurch has already done away essentially with such Catholic doctrines as Original Sin and Limbo. Yes, we'd say that Newchurch doesn't have too far to catch up to its liberalist Episcopalian guides!

Moreover, as the Episcopalian situation proves, the era of false "oecumenism" is over. Rather than joining disparate Protestant sects together, as was attempted unsuccessfully in the 1960s, the Protestant sects are splitting into traditional and liberalist branches -- as is true of Newchurch as well.

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