095 Freedom's Just Another Word for...

There's a seemingly insignificant line in an old song written by Kris Kristofferson, made popular by the Sixties Legend Janis Joplin, that has turned out to be a revelation of truth, proven time and again: "Freedom's just another word for 'nothing left to lose'" sings the chorus of "Bobby McGee."

Since we get to play for a lot of well-to-do people, and sometimes for the extremely wealthy, it has been our observation that if what Kristofferson wrote there is true, that the free people must live somewhere else.

Last night we observed another confirmation of Bobby McGee's profound truth, as we played in the luxurious home of a prestigious artist, towering over a spectacular view of the probably most beautiful part of the lake of Constance with a garage full of century old cars, each of which worth a multiple sum of all our meager possessions put together.

It's funny, though, that once you get to know enough of this sort of extravaganza, it pitifully ceases and fails to impress at some point, especially when it becomes apparent that the essence of what really constitutes a rich and fulfilled life is missing from the picture of such abundance.

Most rich people we've had the pleasure to play for so far, usually made an effort to at least try to create an air of equality between themselves and their staff, or any other human beings from strata of society less materially blessed, but that effort was being purposely avoided in this situation, apparently with the intention to impress the laden guests all the more, which gave the unbiased observer the slight impression that perhaps slavery has not been abolished yet down here in the south of Germany.

It gets one thinking. Where is the point where people start building walls of separation between themselves and other humans that set them apart from them, as something - exclusively in their own minds - "better" than their fellowman? What is the sum that one needs to own that entitles them to the claim of being on a higher level than those other, "mere mortals?" - Because it's obvious that such semi-gods deem themselves immortal, or at least they behave in such a way that they would never expect having to stand before their Creator at any point, Who, as it is written, is no respecter of persons, and does not have any preferences based on material criteria.

Maybe "the love of money is the root of all evil" because it's the primary building material for the pride of life that erects those walls around us. After all, it's usually rich people who send their subjects off to kill their fellowman in other countries, and - as it usually turns out - not at all for the noble reasons they claimed their war was necessary for...

It's not that it's wrong or a sin to be rich, but what matters is what your money makes you become, and whether one has the maturity to keep in mind that no amount of possessions will make a difference between themselves and others that will last. Obviously, it takes some folks less to get to the point where they think themselves better than others and separate themselves from "the rest of the mob," or elevate themselves to some self-erected mental shrine of some sacred state above the crowd, and I find it helpful to regularly remind myself of Kris Kristofferson's little piece of wisdom and ask myself, how free am I today? What have I got to lose today?

There's an old German fairy-tale called "Hans im Glueck" (roughly translated "Lucky Jack" or "Hans in Luck"), about a boy who finds out that the more he possesses, the more miserable he becomes, and that the way to happiness is giving it all away. Of course, like most people, I detested that story as a kid. Before I learned the lesson from "Bobby McGee," that is, which happened rather recently.

Jesus put it like this: "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Or in modern English: "Your life does not consist of the bunch of things you own." In fact, a life that consists exlusively of the value of the material things one possesses always turns out to be an empty life, an "empty shell, groomed and fed so well..."

One would think that we, the enlightened society of the 21st century would have grasped such basics of life by now, but since that's obviously not the case, I'm afraid it only proves just how enlightened we really are...

"What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Jesus asked 2000 years ago. The answer is, obviously: nothing. The same amount that would have ensured your happiness during your life-time. So, it all comes back around to nothing. The only difference is whether you'll fall for the illusion of "something" or even "a whole lot," or not.

094 By Their Fruits (and Veggies) You Will Know Them

One of the pre-eminent ways which shows to what extent the Devil has turned this world upside down, and our twisted perception of things, is that the majority of people actually believe that just because mankind was allowed to have some technological breakthroughs over the past few centuries, that they have "evolved" and developed into something better than their forefathers. Of course, it's easy to believe that if you've been brainwashed to believe that your forefathers resembled gorillas.

If you have a look at the biblical portrait of our forefathers, however, you'll find - among the many mistakes we all make - more nobility, character and true values there than in any society or nation presently on earth. Even if our knowledge may have increased, it is what you do with that knowledge what matters, and if "by their fruits ye shall know them," then for all the misery and pain our knowledge has resulted in, I wonder if we're truly better off than our predecessors, or if perhaps in some aspects, "ignorance is bliss" after all.

A good illustration of this is our modern fruits and vegetables: They may look good on the outside, artificially beefed up and genetically enhanced to look like their plastic counterparts in furniture stores, but did you know that our modern, "evolved" fruits and vegetables have actually lost some of their original nutrition value? When it comes to nutritives, minerals, vitamins and all those things that really count, more than mere looks, our modern and technologically enhanced produce doesn't cut the cake.

How true that is of people. You can buy yourself a new nose, a whole new face, or a different color of skin, a whole new set of teeth, have the fat in your butts sucked off and re-injected into your lips, so that even a 75-year old can still resemble a flawless barbie, but you cannot possibly inject real happiness (or moral values) into their souls. The glimpse into the mirror that thankfully lies at you and hides your true age may give you a temporary shot of satisfaction, compared to a shot of whishy or heroin, but you can't buy true happiness with lies.

True, our forefathers may have looked not quite as glamorous, and neither did their veggies and fruits, and they may have had to do a lot of manual work and not have been able to enjoy the crowning achievent of technological evolution in fingering a remote control, but I defy anyone who tries to tell me that we are happier today than they were. And our modern, "evolved" suicide rates prove it.

Let's face it: life sucks when you constantly kid yourself into thinking that you're the cream of the crop, when in reality you can't even hold a candle to one single, honest, hard-working 19th century coal miner, much less one of the Early Christians who suffered severe persecution for the first 3 centuries of Christendom, or some of the earlier patriarchs.

The only human quality that has truly evolved into unprecedented proportions is pride, which has been inflated just like our modern paper currencies. Coming to think of it: this whole System is just one huge, colorful, pretty-on-the-outside balloon with nothing on the inside but hot air, and utterly unprepared for its first rendez-vous with a sharp rock...

093 Doctors of Doom

Are prophets of doom all long-haired weirdoes like me, who play guitar and post wild and controversial blogs? "You bet," you say.

Well, you lose that one, I say. I just read the third article within a few short weeks about a serious, sophisticated, cream of the crop, well-to-do and respected economic advisor predicting some big, heavy sh... I mean crisis, happening as early as later on this year:

"Former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said on Tuesday," (that's 2 days ago) that "The worst of the global financial crisis is yet to come and a large U.S. bank will fail in the next few months as the world's biggest economy hits further troubles."


The second article was "Dr. Doom" about economics professor at New York University Nouriel Roubini who warned the IMF back in 2006 of the financial dilemma the US and it's pitiful allies are currently finding themselves in. People laughed at him back then. They're not laughing anymore.

Then there was the "global stock and credit crash alert" issued bu the Royal Bank of Scotland (allegedly a Rothschild Bank?) in June...

Well, it's easy to "forecast your devices" (see Daniel 11:24, 25, KJV) when you're the one devicing them...


Anyway, folks, I thought I'd just let you know that I'm not the only loonie saying that there's something tough & ugly comin' 'round the bend, and maybe sooner than you'd like it, so we'd all better pull up our pants & be as prepared as we can for what's comin'... And Lord have mercy 'pon our souls.


Of course, I'll be just as happy as anyone of this turns out to be just another false alarm. But it won't hurt to have a few extra cans of Grandma's Homemade Chicken Stew tucked away in your basement, just in case you'll truly find the supermarket on the corner - along with your bank and virtually everything else "closed until further notice."

092 Apocalypse Now?

Not many of us have the guts to see things the way they really are. Not many folks in the world are brave enough to really call a spade a spade. Thus, not many people are aware of the amount of darkness that surrounds us, and of the flood of lies the world is drowning in.

I thought I was in the "truth" business for decades, but I'm only beginning to learn the ropes now, of how rare, and thus, how valuable, the truth really is.

Nearly on a daily basis I discover more areas of every day life that the public - all of us - are being (and have been for decades) told lies about. It seems as if every single "War on something" the U.S. government ever concocted was and has been the exact opposite of what it professes to be, just like the Federal reserve Bank is just the exact opposite of "federal" and "reserve." The more blatant the lie, the more effective it is.

The "War on Terror," or course, as at least some people seem to begin to realize, is nothing but a war OF terror, perpetrated against the peoples of this world in order to usher in Big Brother's New World Order, giving him full power to spy on your every move, and in the process get rid of some ethnic and religious impurities in the perfect society of tomorrow, thus helping to reach the desired goal of diminishing the world population.

The "War on drugs," I'm sure, is just another farce and big cover up of the war OF drugs destined to reach those same goals, or at least, if nothing else, help further the desired goal of diminishing the world population - oh, and of course, - as applies to all "war on somethings," rake in some extra cash to ensure that they, the rulers of today, will also remain the rulers of tomorrow. Money rules.

One other "war" the "War on..." morons have cooked up decades ago and I'm only now beginning to be made aware of, is the so-called "war on cancer." And if one is to believe half of what this man, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, has to say in his enlightening documentary, then it is no exception, and just another big means to reach the same NWO goals, and has been, in effect, no more than another war on the peoples of this world.

Probably tomorrow's news will flash the new slogan "War on hunger" in your face, and you'll know what that will mean. It will mean, "We have rigged up everything according to our magnificent ways in such a manner, that soon you and your families won't have anything left to eat. So, starve, you bastards."

Again, I apologize for my detrimental lack of political correctness, but I always tend to get a little beside myself when confronted with the aspect of unprecedented dimensions of genocide.

Of course it doesn't exactly help that the supposedly "enlightened" people of the world, those who profess to have found the Way, the Truth and the Life and the Light of this world in Jesus Christ only add to the confusion by proclaiming that the wonderful system they're living in is actually not darkness, but light, that there are actually no lies being told, but that the government is telling the truth (cough, choke!).

Recently we saw the 70s movie "A Hiding Place" about the Dutch Ten Boom family, hiding Jewish refugees in their house during WW2 and paying dearly for it with their freedom (and some family members with their lives.) Their own pastor was repeating the same old humdrum of "The Bible says to obey the government." But old Papa Ten Boom wisely answered, "There comes a time when we must decide to obey God, rather than men." How true, because that is even brought out repeatedly and more explicity in the Bible than the one place where Paul says we're to submit to the powers that be.

And even though we're supposed to submit and not cause a physical, violent rebellion, that doesn't mean we're supposed to swallow everything they say.

Especially in the light of the fact that governments have been notorious for doing nothing but lie in order to keep the powers that be in power.

So, by nodding their consent to a corrupt and downright wicked government's activities, those so-called Christians, the false church and Laodecian Whore of the Apocalypse, becomes just as guilty as the very perpetrators of evil, because they contribute heavily to keeping the vast majority deluded.

They say, "There IS no darkness, folks! What are you getting so uptight about?" The only "darkness" their sheep are supposed to accept and see is that of the officially condoned political enemies of the state, falling into the categories mentioned above, of "ethnic and religious impurities in the perfect society of tomorrow."

Former Illuminati member of the high ranking council of 13, John Todd, already stated in the 70s that churches (i.e. their pastors) were being bribed massively. I suppose one day we'll know the amount of the billions that must have exchanged hands in order for preachers to deceive millions of Christians into believing that slaughtering Muslims is actually a "Christian" thing to do...

That's what I like about lone voices of truth in the wilderness like Lawrence M. Vance. He calls a spade a spade. He calls the darkness darkness, and the totally un-Christian habit of slaughtering innocent people of different beliefs just that. - Especially when it turns out that the real motives behind the slaughter were multi-billion dollar oil deals, pipelines, and of course, the usual NWO agenda of diminishing the world population.

I used to get physically sick when I read the Book of Revelation, kind of like Neo when he found out what the Matrix was. Coming to grips with the reality of the Matrix of lies we're living in right now, is pretty sickening, too, if you have the guts to believe it. It's almost as if the Apocalypse were upon us.

091 Helping the Blind to See

Jesus called the Scribes & Pharisees "blind guides of the blind," and I've covered that subject a-plenty. But what exactly was it that they were blind to? What is it that they couldn't see, that others, more healthy personalities can see? You say, "The truth." Yes, but what particular aspect of it? What exactly was it that made them so mad about Jesus that it made them want to kill Him?

The shocking truth - as far as I'm concerned - has been the latest revelation that set me off on a journey comparable to Amundsen's trip to the pole, although it will not only take us into the distant past, but right to the core of probably the greatest spiritual and social disease of all times, and especially of our times.

What is the one thing nobody wants to see, nobody wants to be confronted with, nobody wants to be made aware of, and yet, if we only would, it would make all the difference in the world? What is it we dread so much that we don't ever talk about, and not even think about because it depresses us more than our favorite football team losing a game?

Our mistakes.

We're scared to death of making them, causing some people to be so spiritually paralized that they practically don't do anything - anything that would ever make a difference or would pose a risk, that is. And if we were bold enough to make them, then we're usually way too scared to talk about them openly, and we even hate to admit them to ourselves and rather flush down the whole issue with a six-pack or distract ourselves in whichever possible way. We do a lot of good works to make up and cover up for them, so that we can pat ourselves on the back again, creating a huge and solid carpet to hide those most hideous and dreadful of all existing things from our sight, and anyone else's.

Of course, the only One we can't hide them from is God, and I suppose that's why they hated Jesus. He just knew all about'em and was looking right through them.

I'm the type of guy who has made more mistakes in his life than there are hairs on the body of a fully grown gorilla, and yet when confronting myself with the question, "Can you name one mistake you ever made?" I had to recruit the help of my journal. I was actually going to ask someone else that question but then realized I'd first have to see how well I'd be able to answer it myself. And it was harder than I thought, even with the amount of mistakes I undoubtedly made, which is probably way above average, but I couldn't pinpoint them all that easily, and not without the help from hundreds of pages of written conversations with my Maker... (And I'm only half-way through with that project, since the word "mistake" seems to be one of the most frequent).

Of course, there are the crass and obvious ones we don't ever forget, like when we overlook a stop light and cause an accident. That sticks. And those are easy to remember. After all, that was an innocent little blunder that can happen to anyone, even though the consequences were tough to deal with. You had to do without your car for a few days while it was in the repair shop, and your insurance rate went up.

But most of our mistakes we make are innumerable small ones that add up and suddenly emerge from the ground under which they were hidden and show their ugly collective face in form of a divorce or some other disaster that happened in our life without our ever being able to explain how they came about.

Somebody once said, "You can never be too bad for Jesus, only too good." How true. Only folks who are aware of the fact that they're making mistakes aplenty need help, let alone a Savior, whereas those who are oblivious to the remote possibility that they might even be capable of any such thing as making a mistake, they're so good, they're better off without One. Because all He'll ever do is remind them of the one fact that they simply refuse to see: that beneath that thin veneer of goodness and self-righteousness lies the same kind of sinful heart that beats in all of our chests. It's just that sin manifests itself differently with each type of personality. And the obvious ones are much easier to deal with and overcome than the well-hidden ones.

So, needless to say, mistakes are a whole new territory to explore in itself. Especially our own mistakes, that is, along with the hidden fears that prevent us from ever admitting to them, being able to see and recognize them, and thus learning from them faster than we could from any other source of information or tutorship.

In fact, that is most likely what this whole life is all about, in fact, all of world history, which - once it will be over with, I'm sure we'll all refer to as The Big Picture, Volume 1. We're being given the golden opportunity to make countless mistakes in this life, the first one being the famous one committed by Adam & Eve. Even in the perfect environment with perfect circumstances, they weren't perfectly happy, or at least not enough to resist one silly temptation.

I daresay that we're probably presented with equally significant temptations on a daily basis, only that we cave in to them so easily that we don't even notice it anymore. Just in case any of us thought they were better than Adam & Eve. We're supposed to have gotten smarter than they were, but did we?

I doubt it. One huge requirement would be learning from our mistakes, the way I'm sure they did. The drastic repercussions made it so obvious they'd blown it. In our world, the changes are happening a little more slowly. What was once still pretty close to paradise is turning into hell so smoothly that we hardly notice it, and by the time Satan will have assumed his throne and rulership over this planet for good, most people will probably have gotten used to it.

We're becoming so used to ignoring mistakes being made and any type of evil, most of us won't even recognize it when the personification of evil (including self-righteousness, I'm sure) himself will stare us in the face from our TV screens.

Well, we'll have a long time to learn from and teach our children about the mistakes we made, after that episode will be over, and we'll see whether anyone will have learned anything out of it sooner or later.

As for me, I'm starting right now, and keeping my eyes open for any precious lessons to be gained out of my nearly-constant blowing it, and I can recommend it as the No.1 therapy for keeping your feet on the ground and learning to deal with life as it really is. It's exciting and not nearly as terrible at all as we always thought it would be. In fact, our mistakes are something we should thank God for. They're probably the main purpose we're here in the first place.

090 The Year of the Dead

Some self-proclaimed "debunkers of Christendom" letting themselves loose on the web with their 5-minute renditions on Youtube, supposedly "debunking" Christian classics such as C.S.Lewis' "Mere Christianity," while drooling their wisdom into their web cams, are having a hard time with the lack of "rationality" contained in some of the stuff I'm putting out. No wonder. Faith is something you just can't fit into the box of rational reasoning. On the other hand, if you truly reason properly, you'll inevitably wind up with faith.

I admit, at first glance the whole idea of Christianity may seem like a major cop-out. All the professional "debunker" sees is a bunch of lunatics who've cooked up this "God-idea," and to top it off, they come up with the ultimate superhero to save them from the one thing everyone is most scared of, since it's the one thing they can't possibly avoid: kicking the bucket.

Well, it didn't work that way with me. My conversion was much more of a big surprise - both for myself, and my atheist friends who never forgave me - than the result of a search for an emergency exit or way around that one fateful event at the end of our road.

To this very day, death doesn't represent a threat to me or anything I'd dread necessarily. Maybe I've seen too much misery. And I'm not the only one. Friends, acquaintances & relatives around us are dying away like flies, as if they all got tired of the charade presented to them daily on the silver platter of "reality," brought to you by the corporate media machinery.

The proof of God's existence stamped all over His creation is too overwhleming for anyone to ignore but idiots, we've covered that. But IF there is a God, then it stands to reason that this present life isn't the best He could possibly come up with. And if one bothers to look up what the greatest known and most widely recognized authority on God's views and views has to say on the matter, they will find confirmation there. All the great heroes of faith, the Good Book claims, were in it for something better than this mess - and it's doubtful that theirs was as big as ours. So what was good for them, certainly will do for me - even though our generation must admittedly be the most spoiled of all times.

No one's ever had is as easy as we do - we, the ones in the winner's hemisphere of the New World Order, that is, & yet never have we felt so miserable at the same time.

"Blessed are the dead," the Bible says at one point. And all the faithful say, "Amen."

No, escaping death is definitely no incentive to embrace all that defies our debunkers' rationale and become a Christian.

089 Sample THIS!

If I were a preacher, I'd tell my congregation at every opportunity that just coming to listen to me and whatever I'd have to tell them would be no substitute for finding out what God has to tell them personally through His Word, both recorded and living. Let's be honest, how many people think that they don't have to read the Bible on their own, as long as they attend church on Sundays? And that's why you've got all those millions of Christians believing the false doctrines of "eternal insecurity" (that you can lose your Salvation at any moment you sin), the "Pre-Tribulation Rapture" (that Jesus will come to take them to Heaven before the Great Tribulation), and supporting political leaders in mass murder, pledging their allegiance to an earthly nation, instead of finding out personally how God really thinks about these things. They're putting their faith in the words of men, instead of the Words of God.

I'd tell them that their personal relationship with God is more important than going to church. Faith in God comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), and if you want faith - the only thing that can save us by His Grace - then you'd better listen to what God has to say, and not anybody else, unless you can be 100% certain that what they're saying is inspired by God, and there is no way you can be 100% certain of that unless you personally know the Word of God, and know how and where to find the gifts of the Spirit, such as the gift of discernment.

In fact, if I were a preacher, I'd probably quit preaching, and rather tune in on one person or a handful of individuals at a time, instead of delighting in the sound of my own voice as it rang through the halls of my church, because neither Jesus, nor any of His closest followers were ever "preachers" nor into mass evangelism, if you carefully read the Bible. The so-called "Sermon on the Mount" wasn't a sermon at all. Jesus left the multitude behind, went into a mountain (not a hill!) and only His disciples came to Him to hear what He had to say. The "Sermon on the Mount" was a revolutionary instruction talk given by the greatest Revolutionary of all times to His closest followers only, and thankfully, one of them - Matthew - formerly of the utterly despised occupation of collecting taxes from the Jews for the Roman invaders - had the skill and brains to write it down!

There are a few occasions in the Book of Acts where Peter or Paul address a larger crowd of people, but those are exceptional. Most of the time they were too busy hiding from the authorities, because true believers were persecuted for 300 years before the Roman empire "converted" and "legalized" Christianity according to the motto, "If you can't lick'em, join'em!" The result was the death of Christianity and the birth of Churchianity, and God is calling His true believers today out of that mock-up, to get ready for the Real Thing. Most Christians today probably don't know that the only places where early Christians worshiped for 300 years - before they converted the pagan temples into Christian "churches" - were the houses of believers and the catacombs beneath Rome, and - weather permitting - the great wide open.

Most Christians probably don't even know the true meaning of the word "church" itself, coming from the Greek "ecclesia," meaning "the called out ones."

God is calling His believers to step out of the false religious Systems of their day, to trade in the Big Lie for the truth, and that simply doesn't (usually) happen in large scale "revivals" and "awakenings" which most preachers in the U.S. dream of happening. What they call revivals are usually short bouts of electric shocks infused into the dead body of the church, making it look alive for a few moments before it sinks back into its sepulchre, worse off than before.

I'd really make an effort to be more politically correct, just like your average preacher, if I thought there was enough time for that. But I don't. The Devil is rapidly taking over, and his flood of lies in which the vast majority is drowning certainly seems overwhelming, compared to the relatively few voices of truth out there. The neat thing is, that God doesn't rely on numbers. If one of His voices can chase a thousand of enemy forces, then 2 can chase ten thousand, His Word says, and He is not limited to save by many or by few.

See, there's really a lot of wonderful stuff the Bible has to say that you might not even beware of, because you're relying too much on what somebody else has to say about what God has to say.

If I were a preacher, I'd tell you today, tomorrow and everyday: "For God's sake, don't listen to me! Listen to God!" Perhaps I'd give each member of my congregation a Bible in their hands and tell them, "Read!" And perhaps after a while they could share with everyone what they discovered... That's what I'd call "church." A group of people obeying God's call to come out of the box of conventional worship and trying to find out what He has to say to each of them. And there'd be no way of stopping there, of course, until we had put into practice what He'd just shown us...

But, as I say, these sort of things usually don't happen on a large scale. We can be happy if they happen at all. Even if once in a single life-time.

If I were a preacher, I'd ask you to tell me to "Shut up and let's get down to business getting the real job done for Jesus & win those who don't want to go to church because what they need in their life is not a sermon but a sample of the real thing." - Just give'em Jesus & tell'em to "Sample this!"

088 Why "Babylon" Can't be Rome

In reply to Frank's comment on my blog entry "Babylon the Whore," I'd like to get into the details a little deeper, of why I disagree, and can't believe that the Roman Catholic church is supposed to be "Babylon" of Revelations 17 & 18. I already brought out some of these points in my recent entry about "The Gospel of Acquisition," but I just read a wonderful book review, confirming my beliefs once more, but also helping me realize that the materialism is only one side of the coin, and the lesser of 2 evils. Certainly the Catholic Church is just as guilty of materialism as anyone, there's no doubt about that. But there are a few descriptions of the entity Babylon that simply couldn't be ascribed to either Rome, nor ancient Babylon somehow myseriously revived (especially in the light of that country - Iraq - having been wrecked & devastated for at least the next century), which I'd like to point out, that seem to point at some bigger culprit than the two combined, however piously innocent she's trying to come across.

One of the principal reasons why Rome couldn't possibly be synonymous with with the "fallen lady" of Revelation is that it's commonly accepted by Bible scholars that "the 10 horns which...shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate " (Rev.17:16) represent the 10 leading European nations, of which Italy is obviously one, so, it's impossible for Rome to represent both, the Whore and the capital of the 10 horns.

As I already brought out in my study of Rev.-17 & 18, we're talking about "that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (17:18). While that may have been the case with Rome during the time John wrote this, and he may even have believed that he was writing about Rome at the time, when we look at the present (for which those prophecies and revelations were obviously given, since we are living in the times that see the Endtime events unfolding before us), then Rome hardly has a say in a lot of countries. Let me list some of the most outstanding ones for you: 1) Roman Catholicism is completely irrelevant to Russia, since they have their own, orthodox version of Catholiscism, which has nothing to do with the Roman version, nor does the Vatican have any say over it, much less does it "reign" over any secular areas of Russian life. 2) China, which by some is already hailed the "next superpower" and the greatest stronghold of socialism presently on earth, may definitely be infected with the Western bug of capitalism and materialism and somewhat intimidated by not so much the American government as the United Nations, but certainly it would be absurd to indicate that Rome exerts any power over China. Subtract Russia and China, and you've already got 2 of the biggest, most powerful and most populated countries on earth which definitely don't fall into the group of countries that Rome exerts power over. The same goes for smaller countries like Korea, Myanmar, Malaysia and virtually all Muslim countries, along with countries like India, which may have a few Catholic missions here or there, but saying that Rome "reigns" over them would be sheer exaggeration.

The only city that comes close to fulfilling the criteria of "reigning" over those countries is the seat of the United Nations. - However, the real power is not found within the walls of the U.N., but in the buidling across the street, where world policies and wars for tomorrow are being planned and cooked up today, the CFR, some of whose key members also reside in that great city which makes Rome look like a pueblito (little village) in comparison.

We can argue about the scope of influence that the Catholic Church is exerting over the nations on international levels, compared to the American Mass media. We can also argue over the amount of damage being done by either. At least the Catholic Church is still somewhat devoted to spreading somewhat Christian virtues, but you couldn't possibly say that about Mickey Mouse or Rambo.

Then we've got the "Blood of prophets, saints, and all that were slain upon the earth" found in her. That may have been the case with Rome 2000 years ago, but if you're familar with the history of the past 200 years, Rome looks like an innocent choir boy, compared to your average G.I. raping Iraqi teenagers...

Let's say, if I had a choice between a ticket to Rome and one to N.Y.C. at the time of judgment, I'd prefer Rome any day, although I hate big cities per se.

Besides, it wouldn't take a whole hour to destroy Rome. It might not take an hour to destroy N.Y., either, but I'm still not sure whether I believe that the destruction and judgment will be limited to that city alone.

In my opinion, the refusal to see America's guilt, and the interpretation that Rome is the big culprit, is just another pitiful case of wishful thinking and self-deception.

There was a time when I tended to see the Babylon of Revelation as a solely spiritual entity, which is the current doctrine of my own faith community (so please, don't blame them for my anti-U.S. rantings), although nearly 40 years ago our founder taught without hesitation that Babylon was America. That was during the Vietnam era, and our group's nickname for Nixon was "Nitler." Well, we all know now that indeed a lot worse could befall the world than Nixon and Watergate. You'll definitely find more parallels drawn by Americans between Hitler and Bush.
But you can't really destroy a spiritual entity with fire, and not within 60 minutes. You can't see the smoke of a spiritual entity burning and sailors standing from afar bewailing it. It must be a physical place that Revelation 17 and 18 is talking about. And I simply believe that there is a greater sin to be judged here than the sins of the Catholic Church. A sin which has finally been publicly addressed in a book by one courageous Christian writer who must have found one other courageous publisher, unless he published it himself.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me humbly present to you my hero of the day, Lawrence M. Vance, in his own historic words from his excellent book I honestly urge you to buy, (because if you don't, who will?):

"Christians who condone the warfare state and its nebulous crusades against 'evil' have been duped. There is nothing 'Christian' about the state's aggressive militarism, its senseless wars, its interventions into the affairs of other countries, and its expanding empire.

'The chief wonder is that Christians, followers of the Prince of Peace, should have concurred in this mad idolatry of strife, and thus been inconsistent not only with themselves, but with the very genius of their system.'

The fact that a government claims a war is just is irrelevant, for American history is replete with examples of American presidents who have exaggerated, misinformed, misrepresented, and lied to deceive the American people into supporting wars that they would not have supported if they had known the facts.

Many supporters of the senseless war in Iraq are high on religion. Add a religious element to a war and the faithful will come out in droves in support of it. In the case of the current war in Iraq this is easy to do. Because the United States is supposedly a 'Christian nation,' the war can be turned into a modern-day crusade since Iraq is a 'Muslim' nation.

"Christian warmongers … would rather be associated with Bush and the war than with people whom they and others have deemed undesirable. In actuality, however, they are choosing to be associated with a war criminal and murder than with the truth just because some people who are usually wrong happen to be right on this particular issue.

Rather than receiving a proclamation of liberty, what many people in foreign countries receive instead are threats, bombs, and bullets.

From a Christian perspective there is only one way to describe U.S. foreign policy: It is evil. It was evil before the United States invaded Iraq, and it would still be evil if the United States withdrew all of its forces from Iraq tomorrow. It is because of our foreign policy that the U.S. military has become—through its wars, interventions, and occupations—the greatest force for evil in the world. U.S. foreign policy sows discord among nations, stirs up strife where none existed, intensifies the hatred that many foreigners around the world have for Americans and each other, and creates terrorists faster than we can kill them.

Is asking God to bless and protect the troops as they shoot, bomb, maim, mine, destroy, 'interrogate,' and kill for a rogue state with an evil foreign policy consistent with the Christianity you find in the New Testament?"

Thank you, Lawrence, for having made my day!

087 The Quest for Intelligent Life...on the Web

In search of intelligent life on the web I came across a forum thread entitled, "Can Intelligent People Believe in God?" A truly intelligent question would have been, "Can intelligent people not believe in God?" And the correct answer would be, "ONLY intelligent people believe in God."
And that isn't just on my own puny authority, but on the authority of the Book revered by millions as the divinely inspired Word of God... In the book of Psalms, the greatest leader the nation of Israel ever had wrote, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'
We know that every bit of information in the world, every letter, every email, every postcard, poem, telegram, phone call or drawing in a cave by a so-called "cave man" must have an author.
Thus, only a moron can seriously assume that the immense amount of information contained in one single cell, which, if we'd stick it in books would form a tower to the moon and back, would have come about by itself, or the great supposed father & mother of us all: coincidence.
Just because the existence of God eludes the capacities of their finite reasoning & ratio (or ration?) of their rationale, they confine reality to the scope of their own minds, by which they are so awed that they couldn't possibly allow for anything greater and more wonderful in the universe to exist.

Since my query only yielded a handful of halfway satisfactory results, & even Google Almighty couldn't help me out, I remembered something Kent Hovind once said about how scientists keep searching for intelligent life in outer space when he hadn't found much of it on this, our own planet yet. I like Kent Hovind. I share his opinion on many issues, especially golfers. Every time I ride my bike past the local golf court I pray, "Jesus, protect me from those morons!" (One of them nearly killed us once.)
So I change my query to "Kent Hovind" for the latest news on the man & find blogs of perplexed Christians who don't understand how a man of God could possibly wind up in prison. Shows how much they read their Bible.
Nor do they seem to care much about the plight & lives of countless believers who have shared similar fates. They just figure, a good Christian ought to be a tax paying patriot who doesn't get in trouble (even in a country where taxing the people is against its own constitution, & the guys who pocket their cash have anything but patriotic, much less Christian intentions).

So, just as anywhere else, quality is rare on the web.

And as for intelligent life, perhaps I should just continue studying the inner life of microbes for now... It seems to be more promising at present.

086 The Gospel of Acquisition

The other night, after having read 2 recent articles on American warmongerism by Charley Reese from Antiwar.com, I wrote a rap about Babylon the Great, consisting mainly of verses from Revelation 17 and 18. And it got me into wondering, what exactly is the "wine of her fornication" that she makes the nations of the world drunk with? It's obvious that the globe is being affected by a bug, and most churches seem to have the tendency to blame it all on sex and make people's natural sex drive the true culprit. After all, "fornication" does sound as if it's supposed to have sexual implications.

But if the Lord is our Husband, and we're not supposed to have any other gods before Him, or other lovers, I'd say that sexuality - as much as it may be promoted in the media - is not the bigger culprit, but materialism is. After all, what's supposedly the one thing that makes everybody happy - even those who are not the least bit interested in sex, and if they are, what can get them any amount of it they like? Money.

The primary Gospel of the American media since its beginnings has been the gospel of acquisition, prosperity, gain, financial success, affluenza, as some have started to call it, in short: MONEY.

After all, Jesus never said, "You cannot be a slave to God and your own penis at the same time," (sorry for once again being so terribly blunt here, but, after all, let's not forget, it's just a body part He created, knowing fully well what He was doing, like with all the rest of them), nor does the Bible refer to that as the "root of all evil," as much as some preachers make it sound like that. But what the Bible does refer to as the root of all evil is the love of money, and Jesus did say, "You cannot serve God and Mammon (the god of wealth)."

And yet that is what millions of people try or pretend to do, and probably one of the reasons why the Devil has just been contentedly standing by, watching the growth of American churches over the past decades. As long as they preach the Gospel of Affluence, it doesn't matter to him if they sneak in a bit of the Jesus stuff. After all, as long as Jesus is just one of the "products" they're trying to sell, their god is still money.

Incidentally, the One everybody tends to leave out of the equation doesn't seem to be all too thrilled about this development, and as it so happens, the plug is being pulled. - Quietly, in the background, since the real crisis going on right now is the one neither one of the two presidential candidates would dream of addressing, and the god in whom Americans really trust, the once almighty dollar, is going down, like that old song by the 70s pop band Status Quo I never particularly liked, "Down, down, deeper and down..."

If you still don't have a clue what I'm talking about, maybe here's an illustration you can relate to: During our recent movie night we watched "Singing In the Rain" as a feature to watch with our daughter (partly exposing the deceit Hollywood has made a business of, and yet at the same time being another parade example of it), and afterwards we saw "Freedom Land," a somewhat depressing, yet ultimately much more realistic show of the real America, as millions of not-so-blessed real people know it. There's a definite, deep contrast between what we're made to believe and reality.

The nations of the earth are drunk with the desire to have the pretty fake world that's being portrayed to them in American TV shows from Timbuktu to Moose Jaw.

The "wine of fornication" that makes God really sick (when we swallow it) is the stuff we've been brainwashed with for so long that it's extremely hard to get out of our system. The god of wine is having a heyday, because he's getting us addicted to more things than we and our children have ever had to get addicted to. The wine of fornication is making a junkie out of you, even if you live in a slum in India or in a beduin tent in a desert somewhere, as long as you have a satellite dish and an i-pod. And it doesn't have as much to do with your natural sex drive (although, admittedly, people can get addicted to sex, too), as it does with making sure you take your part in the machine to keep the show rolling.

As for Charley Reese's call for "pulling the plug on the war state", I hate to be the one busting such idealistic illusions, and breaking the news to such fine patriots, but I'm afraid this isn't going to happen on behalf of any of the inmates of the greatest rehab camp on earth (most of whom haven't even grasped yet that they're addicted and need help), but the "pulling of the plug" is going to have to be done by the one to whom it is given to do the dirty work, aided by the ten mysterious kings described in Revelation and elsewhere who "hate the whore" and are tired of her selfish and destructive ways of getting what she wants and sucking the life out of the rest of the planet in the process. We may not be quite there yet, but as long as American leadership keeps following its current course, we're headed in that direction, and when it's going to happen, it's going to happen very quickly. In 60 minutes, to be precise. One hour (Rev.18:10, 17, 19).

And down with her will go her pimps: the preachers of a christ who'll buy you affluence in return for your tithes, and the very god everybody's been worshiping all along, as cash will be replaced by the mark in your right hand or forehead that will enable you to buy or sell from then on, eliminating the root of all evil... or not?

We'll see. In the meantime, if anyone has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches and get ready for one heck of a withdrawal period on the horizon...