Adam Michael Kratt

Obama, America's mistake

2011-08-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

As a life long Democrat, who volunteered with the Obama Campaign and voted for him in 2008, I must speak loud and clear. Obama was a mistake. It has become clear that Obama not only hates America but hates everything to do with the freedoms and rights exemplified in our Constitution. During the campaign Obama made hollow promises and lied to all of us. Obama since being elected to office has made very little effort to do the job of president. He has bullied a few things through office but most of his promises he made he made no effort to complete his campaign promises. He has continued to support those who are against America. He has continually attacked states that have tried to protect themselves from illegal narcotics trafficking and from an invasion of criminals illegally entering the United States with out documentation. Obama has betrayed everything that America stand for he has betrayed the allies of the United States. It is time for us Americans to fight back. If we can not impeach him for being a traitor we can at least vote him out of office in 2012.

Southern California groups plan protests to Koran-burning

2010-09-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Southern California groups plan protests to Koran-burning

Obama's Healthcare Plan What does it mean?

2009-07-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

During the elections one of the things which lead to my decision to vote for Barack Obama was his Universal Healthcare for all Americans. But as I have done some research I have noticed that President Obama's plans to not include everyone and embraces an aspect of eugenics that was the core of the Nazi Regime under Hitler.
As I look at his advisors and as I peer at who his has put in charge of putting his healthcare plan into effect I have become fearful that America is slipping dangerously close to those days when the physically disabled, mentally challenged and terminally ill were forced sterilized or put to death in mercy killings. Some of you might scoff at my anonology but read on and research what I have compiled.

Let us look at who Barack Obama has chosen...

Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, Special Healthcare Advisor to the Office of Managementand Budget. who in his 1998 paper written with Margaret Papst Battin "What are the Potential Cost Savings from Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide". And what does Margaret Papst Battin believe? well lets look at her writings "Should Healthcare be rationed by age?" (1987), "Choosing the time to die: The Ethics and Economics of Suicide in Old Age"(1987), amongst others which tell us that we should encourage our elders to kill themselves instead of getting treatment. Both Ezekiel Emmanuel and Margaret Papst Battin are fellows at the "Hastings Center" which likes to change the name of Mercy Killing.. or Eugenics into Assisted Suicide. And who else is part of this "Hastings Center" but the Veterans Administrations Chief research and development officer Joel Kupersmith!, Will they be using our soldiers and service members as their guina pigs? You think not then look at Margaret Battins paper "Phisycian Assisted Suicide - yes but in the VA?".

And what of the poor you might ask... We all heard of making our medical records electronic? guess who is in charge of that? Nancy Ann Parle from the cerna Corporation and who is now the Director of Healthcare Reform. You might ask what she did at Cerna? She was incharge of the Administration of a program which gave bonuses to doctors for denial of service for the poor and homeless at Cook County Bureau of health in Chicago. Where Doctors were encouraged not to give treatment if the patient had little or no chance of recovery.

And should we talk about Peter Orzag the current Director of Management and Budget who when he was the Director of Congressional Budget Office wrote repeatedly about "Quality Adjustment Life Years" of a petient.Orzag wrote that a life is worth between $50,000 to $100,000 depending on age, disease, disabilities etc... or basically the more disabled a person is and the older a person is the less we should spend on curing them or keeping them alive and that like in Nazi Germany lets with-hold medicine and treatment from the elderly.

Now lets look at Richard Thaler, President Obama's "Behavioral Economist" has written several papers including "The value of saving a life" (1974) and "Public Policy toward Lifesaving" (1982) in which he supports and promotes healthcare based on human value where Disabled, Chronically Ill and Mentally Challenged have less value then able bodied and those of sound mind. Seems close to if not the same as Eugenics a concept which is not only Un-American but Pro-Nazi.

Michael Jackson

2009-06-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days... I have been thinking of Michael Jackson. I am saddened by his death. I grew up listening to him. I loved his music. To all of those hatemongers who have attacked him regarding the molestation charges... he was found not guilty.. did he do it.. I don't know.. and really he was found not guilty.. so shut the fuck up.... he was a great artist and a wonderful performer. I mourn the lost of Michael Jackson... he is the reason today we have artists like Usher. He was the King of Pop... Elvis might have been the King of Rock and Roll.. but MJ was the King of Pop.. which lead to R&B and more or less to Hip Hop.. Michael we will miss you.... he was in my opinion one of the greatest artist of the 80's and 90's....

Stop Republican Pedophilia

2009-06-25T09:29:00.001-07:00

Republican aide Alan David Berlin was arrested on charges that he wanted to engage in sex acts with a 15-year-old boy while dressed in a panda costume.

Republican news producer Aaron Bruns was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.
Republican activist and former presidential campaign chairman Jeffrey Claude Bartleson was arrested on charges of sexually molesting a 5-year old boy.
Republican activist and former chairman of the Christian County Republicans Royce Fessenden pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree child molestation and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy.
Republican parole board officer and former legislator George C. (Chris) Ortloff pleaded guilty to attempting to lure 11- and 12-year-old girls to have sex with him.
Republican legislative aide Robert R. Groezinger was arrested for possessing child pornography.
Republican legislator Robert A. McKee pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Republican legislator Scott Muschany was charged with molesting a 14-year old girl.
Republican chief of staff Eric Feltner pleaded guilty to showing pornography to a 13-year old girl.
Republican presidential campaign official Matthew Joseph Elliott was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child.
Republican Party Chairman Donald Fleischman was charged with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child.
Republican prosecutor John David Roy Atchison was arrested for soliciting sex from a 5-year old girl, then killed himself three weeks later. At the time of his arrest, Atchison was an "assistant U.S. attorney" appointed by President Bush's attorney general.
Republican city councilman John Bryan killed himself after police began investigating allegations that he had molested three girls, including two of his adopted daughters, ages 12 and 15.
Republican legislator Ted Klaudt was charged with raping girls under the age of 16.
Republican city councilman Joseph Monteleone Jr. was found guilty of fondling underage girls.
Republican congressional aide Jeffrey Nielsen was arrested for having sex with a 14-year old boy.
Republican County Commissioner Patrick Lee McGuire surrendered to police after allegedly molesting girls between the ages of 8 and 13.
Republican prosecutor Larry Corrigan was arrested for soliciting sex from 13-year old girls.
Republican Mayor Jeffrey Kyle Randall was sentenced to 275 days in jail for molesting two boys -- ages ten and 12 -- during a six-year period.
Republican County Board Candidate Brent Schepp was charged with molesting a 14-year old girl and killed himself three days later.
Republican Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress after "sexually explicit" emails surfaced showing him flirting with a 16-year old boy.
Republican executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a 13-year old girl on the internet.
Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.
Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting sex from an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano pleaded guilty to fondling a 14-year-old girl .
Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.
Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
Republican Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the internet.
Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
Republican Committeeman John R. Curtin was convicted of molesting an underage teenage boy and sentenced to serve six to 18 months in prison.
Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.
Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
Republican pastor Mike Hintz , whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign , surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting two 8-year old girls, one of whom appeared in an anti-Gore television commercial.
Republican fundraiser Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
Republican campaign chairman Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child and was arrested again five years later on the same charge.
Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.
Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer.
Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
Republican preacher Stephen White , who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced prison after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
Republican legislator Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl .
Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.
Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.
Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz , was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
Republican city councilman Mark Harris , who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
Republican campaign worker, police officer and self-proclaimed reverend Steve Aiken was convicted of having sex with two underage girls.
Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Republican president of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Russell Harding pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.
Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr. , was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency. See excerpt of one prisoner's report here and his full report here .

Palestine: the BIG Lie

2009-01-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

"The Big Lie" of today--a nonsensical fabrication spawned in the Middle East, has rapidly evolved into an Arab propaganda locomotive powered by the steam engines of anti-Semitic vitriol. The lie--this falsehood of our time--purports that the "Palestinians", a mythical people whose ancestral beginnings simply cannot be defined nor traced, were ejected from their own land--to which they refer as "Palestine", and thus were "victimized" by the creation of the state of Israel, in May, 1948.
After failing miserably in their attempts to militarily eradicate the Jewish state, the Arab countries surrounding Israel subsequently and collectively unleashed their propaganda juggernaut into the international marketplace of ideas, where it has been globally fruitful. Seen as "refugees" unable to "return" to a land they claim as their own, the "Palestinians" have an international community--to include the United Nations, the mass media, top universities and seminaries and, of course, Jimmy Carter, in their corner.
With foreign governments--including that of the United States, and a global media sympathetic to the "Palestinian cause", Israel continues to become increasingly pressured to relent and concede--relinquishing more of her land to a conglomeration of Arabs sworn to her demise.
Perspective
"The Big Lie" of today represents a propaganda machine that, once again, has swayed public opinion in favor of all that is anti-Semitic. Once again, the Jews have witnessed an international community caustically aligning itself against them, effectively pushing the Jewish people not into the mass graves of genocide, but to the brink of demographic suicide.
Arabs who would call themselves, "Palestinians". Following the model of their Nazi predecessors, the Arabs have effectively unleashed a campaign of misinformation that has been heard and seen with a high degree of frequency. In so doing, they have not only shaped public opinion, but have also been extremely effective in garnering support sympathetic to an ideology that portrays them as "refugees" who have been somehow victimized and displaced by the creation of the Jewish state. In their refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist, they claim the region as their own--delving further into the nonsensical by referring to it as "Palestine". Behold, the lie--the inveracity in your midst.
And so, for the purposes of this writing, let us assume, if but for a moment, that we have the capability of "time travel" and have elected to transverse the millennia. The period in time is approximately 2,000 B.C.; the location is the land of Canaan. What would we see?
A Trip Through Time
We observe the presence of Canaanites who, as we advance to 1700 B.C., have been conquered by the first "Israelites"--Abraham and the Hebrews. Where are the Arabs? We observe, centuries later--nearly 1300 years before Yeshua walked the earth, in the region near "Shechem", a population of Hebrews--having been freed from Egyptian bondage by the Hand of God through Moses, crossing the Jordan River and entering "the Promised Land" in a region we know as Samaria. The Hebrews would live in conflict with the Canaanites for years to come. Nonetheless, there exists no historical record of this time period supporting the existence of an Arab people. Yet, according to today's "Palestinians", they roamed this land freely during this time.
In the centuries that followed, Israel would flourish as a nation--forged by the tenacity of Saul, the faith and courage of David, and the wisdom and brilliance of Solomon. However, for Israel, intense suffering and persecution would lie ahead in the coming seasons as she would become downtrodden by the Gentiles--enemies who would go on to destroy her eternal capital--Jerusalem, and its inhabitants, as well as the First and Second Temples. However, the same God whose Wrath punished Israel for her disobedience, would also be the One who would vindicate her in deliverance--time and time again.
Where Are They Now?
Over the span of millennia, the enemies of Israel would inevitably and undeniably come to know the exorbitant price of spilling Jewish blood. Among these were the Canaanites, the Amalekites and the Philistines. Moreover, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied that God will shelter His people, Israel, and destroy her enemies. (Jer. 30:11) Israel lived on and thrived, yet where is the empire of the Assyrians, today? Israel lived on and flourished, yet what became of the Babylonian empire? Israel lived on and blossomed, but did the Roman empire manage to keep pace? Israel is as strong as ever, but can the empire that was the Third Reich say the same?
Perspective

The Jewish people would come to know bondage and death--from Babylon to Birkenau, on a level unseen by any other group of people, and they would experience much suffering. However, as is the nature of a God who never parts from His Promises, they would be restored to and flourish in their land each time. This was a truth foretold. Unlike the "Palestinian" myth that has been repeatedly and caustically advanced into the global "marketplace of ideas", it need not be said a thousand times to become defined as "truth".

In fact, it needn't be said at all.

Of all the ministers of misinformation who made their way onto the world's stage in the post-Nazi era, none other was quite as cunning, conniving and, sadly enough, effective as Yasser Arafat--the Arab's version of Joseph Goebbels. This was a man who, time and time again, would walk through the front door disguised as a "peacemaker" only to slip out the back, with his Nobel Peace Prize in tow, as a reputed mass murderer who slaughtered innocent people, including women and children. As chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Arafat successfully fooled the world with a forked tongue, and although true Justice found Arafat after his death, his penchant for deception and treachery lived on through his successors. As such, the "big lie" remains in the open--alive and well as it continues its relentless pursuit of global deception.
"From Time Immemorial"
The "Palestinians" pervasively and continually assert themselves as the rightful owners of the land of "Palestine". The "Palestinians" claim to be a "displaced" people--cast from an ancestral homeland that has been theirs "From Time Immemorial" (a phrase coined by author Joan Peters). On the wings of such deception, the "Palestinian" demand for an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital continues to soar and, in the eyes of the international community, sprout merit.

Even so, history tells an entirely different tale.
FALSEHOOD: The "Palestinians" are direct descendants of the ancient Philistines, and thus can subsequently trace their presence in the region to said time period.

HISTORICAL FACT: The ancient Philistines were not an Arab people, but were entirely Greek. These were "invaders" (as per the translation of "Philistine") from the Aegean who settled into the region we now know as Gaza. These people, who would later develop a slight case of extinction, remained at war with the Israelites--the region's inhabitants of the time.

FALSEHOOD: The "Palestinians" were displaced and uprooted from their land by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

HISTORICAL FACT: In the time period prior to Israel's rebirth, this region was a complete wasteland consisting of barren deserts and swamps. Numerous eyewitness accounts during this time period tell of a land in which there were very few people. Perhaps the most famous account came from none other than Mark Twain who, at the end of the 19th century, wrote of what he saw--or did not see, in this land--one in which a supposed Arab presence was plentiful:

"One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings...Nazareth is forlorn . . . Jericho the accursed lies a moldering ruin today...There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere." (Twain, 1867)

The time period surrounding the rebirth of Israel ushered in two historical changes. First, the Jewish people facilitated an agricultural overhaul of the land that gave birth to lush vegetation and abundant crops. Subsequently, this was followed by a mass influx of Arabs into Israel who saw an opportunity. History will show that on May 14, 1948--the day Israel became an independent, sovereign nation--the surrounding Arab countries of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia launched an invasion of the Jewish state. This was an invasion that would become a costly one at the hands of defeat, and it was Israel, outnumbered at an unprecedented ratio, who would emerge as the victor.

More Propaganda
FALSEHOOD: "Israel" does not exist, and "Palestine" is the only accurate name for this land.

HISTORICAL FACT: The term "Palestine" found its origin with the ancient Philistines. In a complete attempt to "cleanse" Judea of all that was Jewish, it was the Roman Emperor Hadrian who changed the biblical prideland's name from Judea to that which personified Israel's nastiest enemy of the time--the Philistines. As such, the region bore a new title, "Palaestina" which, quite literally, means, "Land of the Philistines". NOTE: Players involved: The Romans, the Jews, and the Philistines--the sea invaders from Greece. Players neither Involved nor heard from during said time period: The Arabs.

FALSEHOOD: The "Palestinian" Arabs are the rightful owners of the land, for they inhabited the region before the Jews.

HISTORICAL FACT: Recorded history clearly shows the Arabs as a people who did not emerge in this region until midway through the 7th century. Yet, they boast incessantly of ties to the land that date back thousands of years. Perhaps the fairy tale most easily debunked, this nonsensical assertion stems from the elusive and mythical "Palestinian" Arab connection with the ancient Philistines (read: Greeks), which would essentially date their lineage to said time period. While recorded history remains incapable of doing the "Palestinians" any favors, it entirely and unequivocally supports a Jewish presence in this region--dating back some 2,000 years before the time of Christ. To those who would submit that the Holy Scriptures do not qualify as an authentic source of "recorded history", and subsequently do not represent legitimate evidence supporting such an early Jewish presence, consider the 19th-century discoveries of ancient Egyptian records clearly showing Israel as a well-established nation some 1,400 years before the time of Yeshua.

Although this author sides entirely with Biblical record, both sources effectively neutralize any "Palestinian" claims that propagate a lack of a Jewish presence during this time. In all of recorded history, and through all the destruction and catastrophe that has come upon the Jewish people, they have always maintained a presence, albeit to a varying degree, in the land that is Israel.

To assert that the Arab people never had control of the land would be as false as the assertions claiming they inhabited it "from time immemorial". Recorded history will show this region in the hands of the Arabs during the centuries leading up to the Crusades, when control of Jerusalem became a "volley" between Christian and Muslim alliances, as well as the brief season leading up to the establishment of the Ottoman empire. Nonetheless, despite these times in which different nations established their dominion over the Holy Land, it never knew a time in which it was devoid of a Jewish presence. The Jewish people can claim an ancestral presence in this region that dates back some 3,300 years, and they would be historically accurate in doing so. The "Palestinians" can accurately lay claim to an Arab presence in the land of Israel dating back no earlier than the 7th century.

To erroneously purport that they--the "Palestinians", inhabited this region before the Jewish people would be an inveracity of not only a historical nature, but of a mathematical one, as well.

FALSEHOOD: Israel evicted the "Palestinian" Arabs from the land in 1948 and is subsequently to blame for the ongoing "Palestinian refugee" problem.

HISTORICAL FACT: Said Arabs were not evicted from the region by Israel. They fled. They were told by the surrounding countries--their own people--that an invasion was looming and that they should leave to avoid suffering casualties at the hands of said conflict. Indisputable evidence from political officials and historians--Arab and Israeli alike--support this fact. Fearing for their lives, nearly one million Jews were forced to flee the surrounding, hostile Arab countries. Historical record shows these people were efficiently and immediately absorbed, by Israel, with very little problem. However, can the same be said for the nearly 700,000 "Palestinian" Arabs who fled Israel--at the behest of their own countries? What became of them upon arrival in their own homelands? History shows that, when their military initiatives failed, the surrounding Arab countries gave birth to a crisis that exists this very day. Specifically, they refused to absorb their own Arabs--these "refugees" who heeded their recommendation to flee a region soon to be engaged in war-- a war that, with every logistical certainty, should have been completed in short order. In so doing, they returned their Arabs to the land of Israel where they, to this day, live as "refugees" who blame Israel as the cause of their strife and insist they should be allowed to return to their purported "homeland". Such are the dynamics surrounding the elusive and unprocurable "Palestinian Right of Return".

Perspective

The Arabs are the only people in recorded history to willfully and emphatically pass on their "refugee" status from generation to generation. Make no mistake; this is a wound that was self-inflicted, and where their soldiers failed, their lies have prevailed. Truth be told, there has never, in all of history, been a nation called "Palestine".

Israel, Jews and Zionism.. the truth....

2009-01-22T10:59:00.000-08:00

Why Arabs Terrorists Attacking Israelis and Jews and force Israel to attack the Arabs Terrorists?
Because Every other country was destroying Gaza long time ago!

The Arabs in Gaza choose Hamas. The Hamas control all Gaza. The Hamas reign shooting on Israel and our children and people thousands of rockets for years - to get maximum dead - and some stupid people - said Israel act wrong?

About HAMAS terrorists from the news:

Report: Hamas stealing aid supplies to sell to residents

Hamas use children in Gaza as human shield

IDF: Mortars fired from bombed school

Hamas fire Rockets from schools, mosques, and private houses.

Hamas put Rockets, weapons and explosives in houses

Hamas Get support from Iran and Syria.

Where Hamas leader is Khaled Mashaal lives ? - Syria

* Palestinian groups: Egypt's Gaza ceasefire plan not valid
Groups based in Syria, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, see 'no valid basis in the Egyptian plan for a solution to the crisis' since it is 'a threat to the resistance and the Palestinian cause'

News:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3651722,00.html

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3651783,00.html

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3653035,00.html

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD217709

Films:

Gaza Arabs Terrorists HAMAS launch mortar shells from SCHOOL toward Israeli cities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elyXQ6g-TJs&feature=related&ytsession=6Dvpc__jIQzwrKvJr7jxkUZsBrVzjOw9fsX8f8ir-wESbiyWfRVXji56aLoqR3p3mn0H4M9RIv_TGKCpZ-_1ugBkjzeY6ybH6fpBFRkwjpF9FDW48RPQPcJq7dY1t0bBORXovDADV5budvsMRYeB0jAuMiMugdVlNBvWriBFyznlbnwe1pLayPtdPrCZAv7-a0V7mFdHBDg-8yJoVQR1LCv0jm3ycDjpXj4259Kl4ZdtEvbPHljMT03-GxDVwnbqpyHwckMVkGbJerIhhAujYdu-v5YlplNd

Gaza Arabs Terrorists Using Civilians as Human Shields
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2G1TZKerTo&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00B3o0gBKJo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTu-AUE9ycs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoi0TGyx_uA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J08GqXMr3YE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG4sXH7m-co&NR=1

Islamic media: Hamas using Gaza children as human shields
http://reutrcohen.blogspot.com/2009/01/islamic-media-hamas-using-gaza-children.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_OGhj43GAE

Since six day war in 1967 until Oslo agreement in 2000, wasn't shut even a single rocket.

And in continue Rockets shutting were:

Year # of Rockets from Gaza
2001 4
2002 35
2003 155
2004 281
2005 destroying GUSH KATIF and evacuation IDF from Philadelphi line
(border between Gaza and Egypt)
2005 955 (mostly after evacuation)
2006 1,777
2007 2,807
2008 3,520

http://islamo-nazism.blogspot.com/

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1050.htm

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/669.htm

The Arabs in Gaza got from Iran long distance rockets that land in more cities in Israel and about 1,000,000 people in that range.

The Arabs in the land of Israel include in Gaza made suicide attacks for years against ordinary people in Busses, Cafes, etc.

And by the way, the same radical Islam make this in INDIA, IRAQ, U.S.A, U.K, etc.

Before Hamas, Arabs in Israel made Terror against civilians too by PLO (PLO established in May 1964, Before six days War in 1967 ) and other terrorist organizations. Those Arab terrorist organizations get support from Arabs countries and others, instead to develop them in Arabs countries.

Arabs in Israel kill Jews before the state of Israel and push the British mandate, authorization received by Britain to govern the land now known as Israel (1922-1948) , not to save the Jews from holocaust in Europe.
See: Exodus 1947
See: The Hebron Massacre of 1929

If the Arabs want peace will be peace.

The Arabs live in 22 Countries bigger together then Europe.

The Arabs in Israel live better then the Arabs in Syria and many other Arabs countries, and by the way, before 1987 – the Intifada and their Terror they lived even better! (And was no barrier) Ask them!

Compare The Arabs in Israel in education, freedom of speech, standard of living, freedom of religion, etc… to every other Arab country!

Before Hamas Arabs in Israel made Terror against civilians too by PLO (PLO established in May 1964, Before six days War in 1967 ) and other terrorist organizations. Those Arab terrorist organizations get support from Arabs countries and others, instead to develop them in Arabs countries.

But they want to kill anyone that is not like them...

Can you tell me why?

We all humans – from Adam and Eve and Arabs and Jews are children of Abraham

In Human body the hand doesn't want to be Leg, and ear doesn't want to be an eye, and etc… every part has a purpose. So why all have to be Muslims/Arabs?

The Koran based on the Hebrew Bible - the Hebrew we talk in Israel...and in the Bible for every person - there are only basic moral commandments e.g.: honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not steal, and etc… and some only to Jews like: Keep the Sabbath, etc.

One of the basic rules in life is: treatment begets treatment

Who is Ibrahim in Quran and in the Holy Bible?
Some of It is written in the Quran too: Musa=Moses, Daud=David, Suliman=Solomon, etc.

Jews (name from Judea),The People of Israel lived in the Land of Israel and it is a promise of G-D !- (Kings Saul, David, Solomon) Israel-> Israel and Judea, 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, G-D rescue from Haman the Wicked in Persia, and back to the land of Israel by Ezra & Nehemiah, The years after Antiochus Epiphanies( Antiochus IV, Seleucid king of Syria and Mesopotamia) during the revolt led by Judah the Maccabee - Hasmoneans . Hanuka/Hanukkah - is for miracles from G-D to Jews during the revolt against Antiochus, Herod

Jews didn't force other people to be Jews, And didn't took others land, and said it's belong to them. The only land for Jews as sovereignty is the land of Israel, the borders written in the Bible and it is written before Christianity and before Islam and before "Palestinians". And by the way: without Judaism those 2 religions won't be valid because they based on Judaism.

This is a FACT that most of the Arabs in Israel , include Gaza, Judea and Samaria live BETTER then the Arabs in Syria and many other Arabs countries, and by the way, before 1987 – the Intifada and Arabs Terror they lived even better ! Ask them! (And by the way: wasn't any barrier!)

Judaism believes in live and let live.

Here the Ten Commandments from the Bible:
Exodus Chapter 20 1-14
1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
{S}
2 I am the LORD thy God, who brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other
gods before Me.
3 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven
image, nor any manner of likeness, of anything that is in heavens above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth;
4 thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor
serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate Me;
5 and showing mercy unto the thousandth
generation of them that love Me and keep
My commandments. {S}
6 Thou shalt not take the name of the
LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will
not hold him guiltless that taketh His name
in vain. {P}
Remember the shabbat day, to keep it
holy.
8 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy
work;
9 but the seventh day is a shabbat unto the
LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any
manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy
maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates;
10 for in six days the LORD made heavens
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested on the seventh day; wherefore
the LORD blessed the shabbat day, and
hallowed it. {S}
11 Honor thy father and thy mother, that
thy days may be long upon the land which
the LORD thy God giveth thee. {S}
12 Thou shalt not murder. {S} Thou shalt
not commit adultery. {S} Thou shalt not
steal. {S} Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor. {S}
13 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor' s
house; {S} thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor' s wife, nor his man-servant, nor
his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass,
nor any thing that is thy neighbor' s. {P}
14 And all the people perceived the
thunderings, and the lightning, and the
voice of the horn, and the mountain
smoking; and when the people saw it, they
trembled, and stood afar off.
----

And Iran and Syria arming the Arabs in Gaza with weapons and etc., and such BIG counties and so care about the Arabs in Israel - so take the Arabs to Syria! And leave us alone
(Iran not Even Arab)

You can check some facts by yourself: http://earth.google.com
Jews didn't force other people to be Jews. But the Moslems fights from Arabian Peninsula to Europe, Africa and Asia and to force all others to be Moslems…
Some of them still see Spain as Muslim occupied territory…

ONE MAN SAID: MAN EXAMINEE WHEN HE HAS THE POWER

And you can see: Hitler tried to destroy the world and moral, and Iran wants to destroy the world and make all Muslim…

The Arabs in Gaza shooting thousands of rockets for years - to get maximum dead in Israel and in cities like Sederot, Ashqelon, Ashdod, Be'er-Sheva and more.
Other Arabs make suicide attacks in buses, Cafes, and other public places
Imagine if they have more weapons...

Jews didn't force other people to be Jews, And didn't took others land, and said it's belong to them. The only land for Jews as sovereignty is the land of Israel, the borders written in the Bible and it is written before Christianity and before Islam and before "Palestinians". And by the way: without Judaism those 2 religions won't be valid because they based on Judaism.
Wasn't Any Palestine state before, And wasn't any Palestine people.
The name "province Palestine" created by the brutal Roman Empire in AD 70 After they destroyed "province Judea"

As you can see: Judaism believes in live and let live. Not forcing anyone be like us and not taking land that not belong to us

Have you saw the size of Gaza, Israel - and other countries like Syria?

Have you know that most of the Arabs there come from Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other counties to the land Israel?

Have you know the population in the 18th, 19th, 20th and now of Arabs in Israel?

Jews lived in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia for thousands of years, and never demand country.

The only land for Jews as sovereignty is the land of Israel, the borders written in the Bible and it is written before Christianity and before Islam and before "Palestinians". And by the way: without Judaism those 2 religions won't be valid because they based on Judaism.

Jews, the people of Israel have states in the Land of Israel and it is a promise of G-D! - (Kings Saul, David, Solomon) Israel-> Israel and Judea, 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, G-D rescue from Haman the Wicked in Persia, and back to the land of Israel by Ezra & Nehemiah, The years after Antiochus Epiphanies( Antiochus IV, Seleucid king of Syria and Mesopotamia) during the revolt led by Judah the Maccabee - Hasmoneans . Hanuka/Hanukkah - is for miracles from G-D to Jews during the revolt against Antiochus, Herod

Have you saw the size of Gaza, Israel - and other countries like Syria?
(Here one easy way: http://earth.google.com )

Here the Arabs in Gaza and in Israel - Most of them want all! You can read the convention of the HAMAS from 18 August, 1988
So if the Arabs in Israel want to destroy it - the minimum is to send them back to the country that support them and for now its Syria and Iran.
More Info:
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~dhershkowitz/
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/
Book:
From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine / by Joan Peters (Author)

And by the way: Have you looked around you in Europe, include Holland, France?

The Arabs live in 22 Countries bigger together then Europe,
and The Arabs in Israel live better then the Arabs in Syria and many other Arabs countries, and by the way, before 1987 – the Intifada and their Terror they lived even better! (And was no barriers)

Compare The Arabs in Israel in education, freedom of speech, standard of living, freedom of religion, etc… to every other Arab country!

But still The Arabs in Gaza choose Hamas. The Hamas control all Gaza. The Hamas reign shooting on Israel and our children and people thousands of rockets for years.

Before Hamas Arabs in Israel made Terror against civilians too by PLO and other terrorist organizations. Those terrorist organizations get support from Arabs countries and others, instead to develop them in Arabs countries.

Here some basic facts in history

1. The first Christians were Jews, include Jesus, and they suffer from the brutal Roman Empire that most of it population was taken as slaves.

2. By the Holy bible (You calling it: Old Testament, But G-D not changes promises) will be Messiah, and many Jews that time, wanted to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but he wasn't and more Jews were crucified and slaughtered by the Romans.

3. By the Holy bible: After the Messiah will come – Won't be wars and the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, etc… – And that hasn't happen yet... So the Messiah hasn't come yet...

4. FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS JEWS AND CHRISTIANS (MOST OF THEM ORIGINALI JEWS) WERE SLAUGHTERED BY THE PAGAN AND NEO-HELLENISM ROMANS, INCLUDE THROWN AS TOYS FOR TIGERS IN COLOSSEUMS.
Until one Caesar decide that ALL the Roman Empire must be CHRISTIAN. His name was: Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus
So now Roman Empire with the new Christians in power start to force all the pagans, but the Jews too, to become Christian...

Anyway, Moral and monotheism have spread

5. You haven't mentioned the years Jews have states in the Land of Israel and it is a promise of G-D! - (Kings Saul, David, Solomon) Israel-> Israel and Judea, 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, G-D rescue from Haman the Wicked in Persia, and back to the land of Israel by Ezra & Nehemiah, The years after Antiochus Epiphanies( Antiochus IV, Seleucid king of Syria and Mesopotamia) during the revolt led by Judah the Maccabee - Hasmoneans . Hanuka/Hanukkah - is for miracles from G-D to Jews during the revolt against Antiochus, Herod

6. About the Moral level of not Jews that time:
6.1 Greece Hellenism…include orgies, homosexuality, use of children
6.2 Roman Empire - and all the influence of Hellenism, homosexuality, use of children, exchanging couples, gladiators fights until death, pagans, heathens, and idolaters were influence even worse in the Roman Empire… Caligula…
6.3 Other monarchies weren't much better
6.4 Even in Europe the feudal lord could took the new bride from the vassal for the night…

So In Talmud time and later it was the Reality, and the orthodox Jews scholar didn't want to be part of this!
And as you can see: when there no separation there is assimilation…
Because we all humans – from Adam and Eve

7. Jews didn't force other people to be Jews, But the European after get some technology - conquers Africa, South America, etc... And used and enslave and murder and other exploitation, and eventually the rest poor population redeemed by christening…

8. Jews didn't force other people to be Jews. But the Moslems fights from Arabian Peninsula to Europe, Africa and Asia and to force all others to be Moslems…
Some of them still see Spain as Muslim occupied territory…

ONE MAN SAID: MAN EXAMINEE WHEN HE HAS THE POWER

And you can see: Hitler tried to destroy the world and moral, and Iran wants to destroy the world and make all Shiite believer Muslim…

And Iran and Syria arming them with weapon and etc., and such BIG counties and so care about the Arabs in Israel - so take the Arabs to Syria! And leave us alone
You can check some facts by yourself: http://earth.google.com or maps atlas

Jews didn't force other people to be Jews, And didn't took others land, and said it's belong to them. The only land for Jews as sovereignty is the land of Israel, the borders written in the Bible and it is written before Christianity and before Islam and before "Palestinians". And by the way: without Judaism those 2 religions won't be valid because they based on Judaism.

As you can see: Judaism believes in live and let live. Not forcing anyone be like us and not taking land that not belong to us

Have YOU SAW GAZA, ISRAEL, SYRIA, IRAN on the MAP ?

Do you know what sizes they are ?, etc.?

Maps:
Screenshot from http://earth.google.com
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30043462&id=1162320468

Screenshot from http://earth.google.com
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30043463&id=1162320468

Gaza Arabs Rockets hit range until 2009-01-07 from http://www.oz.gov.il/NewsAndArticles/LocalNews/Pages/OrefLocal.aspx
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30043464&id=1162320468

Book:
From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine / by Joan Peters (Author)

3)
Jews have states in the Land of Israel and it is a promise of G-D! - (Kings Saul, David, Solomon) Israel-> Israel and Judea, 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, G-D rescue from Haman the Wicked in Persia, and back to the land of Israel by Ezra & Nehemiah, The years after Antiochus Epiphanies( Antiochus IV, Seleucid king of Syria and Mesopotamia) during the revolt led by Judah the Maccabee - Hasmoneans . Hanuka/Hanukkah - is for miracles from G-D to Jews during the revolt against Antiochus, Herod

4)
Have you read BELLUM JUDAICUM / by FLAVII JOSEPHI

And other books include: ANTIQUITATES JUDAICAE / by FLAVII JOSEPHI
- The Early Days of the Jews (Josephus Flavius' historical work)

Josephus Flavius, (AD 37-100?, born as Joseph Ben Matthias) Jewish historian and military man who participated in the Jewish rebellion against Rome, author of "History of the Jewish War"

we all humans – from Adam and Eve and Arabs and Jews are children of Abraham

And Hitler May his name be blotted out, and the NAZIS want to kill all Jews and all Arabs because they Semitic.

(
Semitic
adj. pertaining to the Semites; pertaining to the languages of the Semites; Jewish

x
n. family of languages spoken by Semitic peoples (includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, and Phoenician
)

It could be really nice if will be peace. See Europe: After centuries of wars - Now they like one big family...And U.S.A that unite and no Civil War (1861 - 1865)

About Neturei Karta orthodox Jews - I respect that they religious orthodox Jews and strongly believe in G-D,
But It written in the bible so many times and places that Jews should go back to their fatherland - The land of Israel!
In the Holy Bible - return of the people of Israel to the land of Israel is part of the Millennium.
It is not depend on arrival of the Messiah before.
We wait in any day the Messiah to come soon, but this another commandment.
You can read in the bible, include Psalms about it.

Here some more info.:
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~dhershkowitz/
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/

IMPORTANT 10 MINUTES MOVIE:
http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/What_Really_Happened_in_the_Middle_East.asp

Israel is a miracle if you compare it to ~2000 years that it was ruin.
And Everything is from G-D. (Man can try but G-D decide if it will success)

And there many development in agriculture, electronics , software, and engineering , etc. that the people in Israel contribute to all (e.g. agriculture in the desert to Arabs countries, Africa)

We all humans – from Adam and Eve and Arabs and Jews are children of Abraham and It could be really nice if will be peace. See Europe: After centuries of wars - Now they like one big family...And U.S.A that unite

May be peace on Earth

Civil Rights, Gay Marriage, African Americans, Mormons

2008-11-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

As I sit here, I am torn between the contradictions of the November 4th Elections.It is hard for some one like me who is Jewish and who supports Gay Marriage, to look at the many hypocrisies in the November 4th Elections.

During the civil rights movement, most of the whites who stood up for Black equality were either Jewish or Gay. But here in California a majority of African Americans about 63% voted against Gay Equality. Here in California in a not so long past A mixed race couple Black and White could not have married, but the laws were changed which allowed blacks to marry whites. The same arguements of the "Yes on Prop 8" groups are the same arguements used against blacks. Ironically by African Americans voting to ban same sex marriage they joined and supported the same groups that said that they were not equal.

Even more disturbing is the Mormon , Church of Latter Day Saints, who were murdered by Christians for their untraditional Polygamist marriage practices and then now joined their former persecutors to persecute Gays and Lesbians.

The double irony is a co-worker of mine who is African American and a Mormon (irony tripled since official Mormon Church policy used to forbid African Americans/Blacks from joining the Mormon Church. To my face she led me to believe that she supported marriage equality, but then I saw here at a "Yes on 8" rally. So I guess she was just a liar, thanks Marcie.

I was born and raised in California. I have always been proud of being a Californian. I am now shamed by the hate and discrimination of a majority of Californians to write hate into our state Constitution.

Palin's Crazy Church

2008-09-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin's Churches
Sarah Palin's churches, her key churches, especially the Wasilla Assembly of God which Palin has as governor of Alaska endorsed and been endorsed by ( in PR and advertising this is called "co-branding" ) are in a religious movement that's independent from any Christian denomination and which falls under the umbrella of the New Apostolic Reformation, of "Third Wave". This movement is NOT the same as Pentecostalism of the Asssemblies of God. Indeed, the General Council of the Assemblies of God decried the movement as a heresy in 1949 and in 2000.
Troutfishing's diary :: ::

The New Apostolic Reformation movement rejects separation of church and state and tells believers they have a god-given mandate to take control of the world and drive out evil and demons that control whole geographic areas.
The movement is HIGHLY focused on youth and on raising up a last generation so-called "Joel's Army" that will be given supernatural powers and will cleanse the world of evil.
The movement uses what it terms "strategic level spiritual warfare", which drives out demon powers from geographic areas. These demon-powers get mapped out by the World Prayer Center, in Colorado Springs. The idea is that when when these demon-powers are driven out crime, divorce and other social problems will be greatly reduced or will go away altogether.
Sarah Palin has touted being prayed over, anointed really, by a leader in expelling territorial demons, a Kenyan minister who made his reputation by supposedly expelling the "spirit of witchcraft" from a Nairobi suburb. But the record shows that crime rates have not significantly changed.
***As has been discussed in a recent Salon.com article, Sarah Palin appears to be a long-time political activist in the Christian conservative movement. Beyond that, Palin specifically has chosen to be publicly endorsed before large crowds if people, by pastors from the Wasilla Assembly of God and other Third Wave / New Apostolic Reformation churches that Palin has, of her own free will, chosen to attend.That's why religious doctrines taught at Palin's churches are relevant. GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin has--through being publicly endorsed by leaders of those churches, which she herself has chosen to attend (of her own free will)--tacitly endorsed those very pastors and their churches. Thus, by extension, Palin has endorsed the Third Wave / New Apostolic Reformation and its doctrine, because churches Palin goes to and has gone to, especially her 25+ year church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, teach Third Wave / New Apostolic Reformation doctine. Wasilla Assembly of God teaches and promotes books and curricula from Rick Joyner, John Bevere and Francis Frangipane, and Wasilla AoG Master's Commission students have gone both to Morningstar Ministry for a "Prophetic conference" and also to the "LA Dream Center". The Wassila Assembly of God is co-hosting, in October, a "prophetic conference" with Morningstar that will be led by the head of Morningstar's prophecy program, Steve Thompson. Meanwhile, the longtime pastor at Palin's Juneau church, the Juneau Christian Center, is a close associate of the father of the "Holy Laughter" anointing, Rodney Howard-Browne. To mention a few of the many connections between Palin's churches and Third Wave / New Apostolic ReformationIf Palin had chosen to appear onstage and been endorsed by leaders of the National Council of Churches that would be interpreted as her endorsement of beliefs held by those groups. Likewise, if she had been appeared onstage with and been endorsed by leaders of Neo-Nazi or Klan groups the same would apply.

Palin has also supported Jews for Jesus and Messianic Judaism two groups which seek to convert Jews into apostacy. Palin's Assembly of God congregation teaches that Jews will burn in hell for rejecting jesus.

McCains Flip-Flop History and his Lies

2008-08-05T13:51:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of Just a few John McCain Lies

Signing of the GI Bill: Now enthusiastically for it... after it passed. Previously attacked the Webb Bill. Didn't even bother to vote on it.
http://bravenewfilms.org/...

Campaign reform: On political reform, McCain last January opposed a grassroots lobbying bill he once supported. In 2006, the "New York Sun" reported that his presidential ambitions led McCain to reverse his support of a campaign financial bill called McCain/Feingold.
http://www.nysun.com/...

Alien Minors Act/Immigration: Last October he said he would vote against the development, relief and education for Alien Miners Act that he co-sponsored, and then said he would vote against an immigration bill that he introduced.
http://www.youtube.com/...

Gay Marriage: In 2006, he said on "HARDBALL," quote, I think that gay marriage should be allowed. Then after the commercial break he added, I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal.
http://www.youtube.com/...

Abortion: On abortion, 1999, publicly supporting Roe v. Wade, privately opposing it in a letter to the National Right to Life Committee. In the 2000 debates, he would change the GOP platform to permit exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother. May 2007, "flipped", ABCNews.com reported.
http://abcnews.go.com/...

Nuclear Waste: No Storing Nuclear waste at Yucca mountain earlier..now flipped
http://www.lasvegassun.com/...

Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il: Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il not acceptable until President Bush did it last week.
http://bondibox.newsvine.com/...

Negotiating with Cuba/Castro: With Fidel Castro acceptable in 2000, not 2008.
http://vids.myspace.com/...

Negotiating with Hamas/Terrorists: ...with terrorists appropriate when Colin Powell went to Syria and in 2006 when McCain said sooner or later we‘ll talk to Hamas, but not appropriate now re: Obama's willingness to use diplomacy.
http://bondibox.newsvine.com/...

Pakistan: Unilateral action against suspected terrorists in Pakistan; "Confused leadership" when Obama suggested it, not when Bush did it.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/...

Warrantless Wire-taps: Six months ago, presidents had to obey the law, not anymore.
http://www.nytimes.com/...

Torture: Torture detainees, no way, except for the CIA. Hold them indefinitely, wrong in 2003, the right move in 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/...

Iraq War: The Iraq war, the right course 2004, stay the course 2005. Today, McCain has always been a Rumsfeld critic.
http://thinkprogress.org/...

Tax Cuts: In 2001, he could not in good conscious support them. Now he can.
http://www.youtube.com/...

Estate Tax: 2006, "I agree with President Roosevelt who created it". In 2008, "most unfair".
http://www.crooksandliars.com/...

Privatizing Social Security: This month not for privatizing Social Security, never has been. In 2004, he "didn‘t see how benefits will last without it".
http://www.youtube.com/...

Balanced Budget: In February, promised a balanced budget in four years by April, make that eight years.
http://www.perrspectives.com/...

Windfall Profits Tax: In May, glad to look at the windfall profits tax. By June, that was Jimmy Carter's big idea.
http://flipfloptracker.blogspot.com/...

Offshore Drilling: In 2000, no new off shore drilling. Last month, it would take years to develop. This month, very helpful in the short term.
http://thinkprogress.org/...

Coyotes..Bush Big Time Fund Raisers: The Bush fund-raisers McCain called coyotes breaking the law in 2000. By 2006, they were co-chairing McCain fund-raisers.
http://abcnews.go.com/...

"Agents of Intolerance": Buddy Jerry Falwell...an "agent of intolerance in 2000". Kissed Falwell's ass in 2007... The Reverend Hagee and Parsley in, then out this year alone.
http://www.youtube.com/...

Martin Luther King Holiday: In 1983, opposed Martin Luther King Day. Today, all for it.
http://www.boston.com/...

Confederate Flag: In 2000, defended South Carolina's confederate flag as a symbol of heritage. Two years later, McCain calling it, quote, an act of political cowardice not to say the flag should come down. Quote, "everybody said, look out. You can't win in South Carolina if you say that."
http://www.youtube.com/...

Evolution in Public Schools: In 2005, McCain said alternatives to evolution should be taught in school. "Evolving" the opposite position he had taken in 2000.
http://thinkprogress.org/...

Restoring the Everglades: On June 5, John McCain traveled to the Everglades to win over Floridians and environmentally-minded voters. There he proclaimed, "I am in favor of doing whatever’s necessary to save the Everglades." Sadly, as ThinkProgress documented, McCain not only opposed $2 billion in funding for the restoration of the Everglades national park, he backed President Bush’s veto of the legislation in 2007. "I believe," he said, "that we should be passing a bill that will authorize legitimate, needed projects without sacrificing fiscal responsibility."
http://www.crooksandliars.com/...

Swiftboating: McCain's sudden embrace of Swiftboating --- which today is synonymous with a concerted effort to lie about an opponent's history --- is all the more deplorable because he has hired retired Col. George "Bud" Day, a proud member of the group that Swiftboated Kerry --- and someone McCain once described as having "tunnel vision" --- to lead what McCain is calling his "Truth Squad."
http://digg.com/...

GITMO/Habeus Corpus:Despite John McCain's outrage last week that the Supreme Court ordered Gitmo detainees know why they were being held, or released -- Political Base has stumbled upon a McCain appearance on Meet the Press in 2005 where he argued they deserved trials, going so far as to say "if it means releasing some of them, you'll have to release them." Shameless.
http://www.politicalbase.com/...

Divestment from South Africa: During his June 2 speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), John McCain called for the international community to target Iran for the kind of worldwide sanctions regime applied to apartheid-era South Africa. Unfortunately, McCain’s lobbyist-advisers Charlie Black and Rick Davis each represented firms doing business with Tehran. Even more unfortunate, John McCain was frequently not among those offering "moral clarity and conviction" in backing "a divestment campaign against South Africa, helping to rid that nation of the evil of apartheid."
http://thinkprogress.org/...

Opposing Hurricane Katrina Investigations: During a June 4th town hall meeting in Baton Rouge, John McCain answered a reporter’s question regarding Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees by announcing:

"I’ve supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy. I’ve been here to New Orleans. I’ve met with people on the ground."

As it turns out, not so much. McCain’s revisionist history neglects to mention that in 2005 and 2006 he twice voted against a commission to study the government’s response to Katrina. He also opposed three separate emergency funding measures providing relief to Katrina victims, including the extension of five months of Medicaid benefits. And as ThinkProgress pointed out, "until traveling there one month ago, McCain had made just one public tour of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina touched down in August 2005."
http://thinkprogress.org/...

McCain On His Economic Abilities: "I have not. I have not. Actually, I have not." "I said that I am stronger on national security issues because of all the time I spent in the military and others. I am very strong on the economy. I understand it. I have a lot more experience than my opponent."

-- Sen. John McCain, in an interview on ABC News, when asked why he "admitted that you're not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy."

However, NBC News compiles past McCain quotes in which he said "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should" or "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/...

On Criticizing Obama While "Overseas": Traveling in Colombia, he told reporters that he wouldn't criticize Obama while he was overseas, but on the plane, he blasted Obama’s opposition to the proposed Colombia free trade...
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...

UPDATES from KOSsacks:

Temperment and Temper: "My temper has often been both a matter of public speculation and personal concern," he wrote in a 2002 memoir. "I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public's." Not true and not under control, according to many of those on the "W"rong side of McCain's famous temper.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Drilling For Oil and Automobile Efficiency: "Last week, Senator McCain reversed himself and said we need to drill more. Today, he has reversed years of failing to support more efficient cars, new energy technologies and green jobs.
http://www.speaker.gov/...

Offshore Drilling: Two weeks ago, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered "a bit of a capitulation to the oil companies" by announcing that he would end the federal ban on offshore oil drilling. Not only is McCain’s move a break with environmental activist, but it is also "a reversal of the position he took in his 2000 presidential campaign.
http://thinkprogress.org/...

Payroll Taxes: "When he was asked in 2005 whether he could see himself lifting the cap on the payroll tax, (McCain) said, 'I could.' Two years later, during a May 13, 2007, appearance on "Meet the Press," Russert asked McCain if he was still open to lifting the Social Security tax cap as part of a compromise. "Am I opposed to tax increases?" said McCain. "Yes. But we've got to sit down together and figure out what our options are, and tough decisions have to be made, Republicans and Democrats. And I know how to do that." Asked about the 2005 remark, a McCain spokesman acknowledged the tension with his current position while arguing that the Arizona senator's criticism of his Democratic rival is still valid because McCain has spoken out against higher Social Security taxes as a 2008 White House hopeful.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...

Ethics Reform and Abramoff: On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

McCain's Racism

2008-07-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

1) John McCain used the anti-Asian slur 'Gook' publicly for 27 years until he was forced to stop for fear of sabotaging his own presidential ambitions. When asked about his use of the racist term by a news reporter, his response was that 'I hate the gooks.'

2) John McCain voted against declaring Martin Luther King Day a national holiday, and then voted to rescind it.

3) John McCain worked to remove the Navajo Di'neh from their lands in Arizona's Black Mesa (and onto an EPA designated toxic site) for the benefit of powerful mining interests.

4) John McCain endorsed George Wallace, Jr., a favorite speaker among white supremacists.

5) John McCain was a disciple of Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, a man noted as one of only four nonSouthern Republicans to vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

6) John McCain is now for banning affirmative steps to ensure equal opportunity for women and racial minority group after a decade of opposing such measures as unnecessary and divisive. (Of course, McCain is FOR affirmative action to ensure that the U.S. military meets its recruitment goals.)

7) John McCain sought the endorsements of Christian ministers John Hagee and Rod Parsley: Hagee hates Catholics and believes that the Holocaust was ordained by God; Parsley preaches that America's special mission is to destroy Muslims.

8) John McCain fought to keep the Confederate battle flag flying over South Carolina.

9) John McCain kicked off his "Service to America Tour" near Philadephia, Mississippi, the epicenter of the states rights movement and opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Civil rights workers Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were murdered there in '64. And Ronald Reagan kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign from there with a screed to states rights.

10) John McCain employs Richard Quinn, a man who believes that Nelson Mandela is a “terrorist”; Martin Luther King, Jr. lead African Americans into "a terrible bondage of body and soul”; and that David Duke is a maverick.”

11) John McCain's Latin American policies favor rightwing oppressive regimes.

12) John McCain used the racially charged phrase "tar baby" when responding to a question about divorced fathers posed by a African American.

13) John McCain threw Latino immigrants under the bus in his lunge to win the nativist GOP vote.

14) John McCain was introduced in Batavia this way: "You can have your Tiger Woods. We've got Senator McCain."

15) John McCain promised to start wars in North Korea, Libya, and Iraq during his first presidential campaign.

16) John McCain promised 100 years war in Iraq; entertained Republicans at a townhall meeting with “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”; and he gave his supporters ‘straight talk’ when he declared, “I'm sorry to tell you, there's going to be other wars.”

17) John McCain sent his own money to the contra guerillas, and even visited their illegal war camp.

18) John McCain keeps race-baiting swiftboaters and lobbyists for dictators on his campaign payroll.

19) John McCain’s Vietnam War buddy, political supporter, virulent Islamophobe, Bud Day, was quoted saying “that the Muslims have said either we kneel, or they’re going to kill us.”

20) John McCain lobbied for an Iraq invasion just days after 9/11, and when it came time to convince the American people, he insisted that the Iraq War would be easily won.

Jewish Halachic Stance on Capital Punishment

2008-07-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

While the Torah supports the death penalty in principle, it places formidable obstacles to its implementation--and the Talmud nearly drove the executioner to extinction. Does Judaism condone capital punishment?

Supporters of the death penalty often cite the Bible to bolster their position. "Ye shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer...he shall surely be put to death" (Numbers 35:31). Indeed, the Torah specifies a full litany of offenses for which a person may be put to death, including murder, idolatry, blasphemy, adultery, violating the Sabbath, wizardry, and rebelling against one's parents. The punishments for each transgression are noted as well--stoning, burning, and slaying by the sword.

But the recording of these laws in Scripture may give a false impression about the actual practice of capital punishment in ancient Israel. While the Torah supports the death penalty in principle, it places formidable obstacles to its implementation. Bible Professor Dr. David Sperling has observed that the well-known lex talionus (law of retaliation) "Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (Exodus 21:23-25) may appear to endorse capital punishment, but it is actually a formula for restricting the punishment to be meted out. "In contrast to the Code of Hammurabi [an earlier legal code well known in the ancient Near East]," Professor Sperling writes, "biblical law limits the death penalty to the murderer--a family member cannot be executed in his/her place" (Exodus 21). Moreover, the defendant may not be put to death unless two (or in some cases three) eyewitnesses testify against him or her.

Each witness must be so certain of his testimony that he personally would be willing to carry out the execution. Deuteronomy 19:13-21 asserts that a false witness is subject to the same punishment as the defendant--including, presumably, death. The Torah also distinguishes between a premeditated murder and unintentional killing. In the case of an unintentional slaying, the killer is permitted to take refuge in one of six cities on the other side of the Jordan River (Numbers 35:9-15, Deuteronomy 4:41-43, Joshua 20). The pattern of not inflicting the ultimate punishment is established early in the Bible. After Cain kills his brother Abel in a fit of rage, God does not demand Cain's life in retribution; instead, Cain is set free to wander the earth. The mark God places on Cain's forehead is not a sign of punishment, as is commonly assumed, but one of protection; it served as a kind of mobile "city of refuge," warding off anyone seeking to avenge the wrong Cain had committed. Interpretations in the Rabbinic Age

The rabbis who compiled the Talmud in the first centuries of the Common Era interpreted and expanded upon the biblical laws governing capital punishment. They too stipulated transgressions deserving of death, among them idolatry, bestiality, blasphemy, illicit sex, violating the Sabbath, witchcraft, and adultery in certain circumstances. Then, in meticulous detail, they linked each crime with its corresponding method of execution (stoning, burning, strangulation, or slaying by the sword). Grisly punishments all--but it is highly doubtful that the rabbis ever actually imposed the death penalty. After a long, elaborate discussion of the class of capital crime befitting the stubborn and rebellious son and a description of how the execution was to be carried out, the Talmud states: "It never happened and it never will happen."

The passage then explains that the entire matter is presented purely for study: "That you may study [the Torah for its own sake] and receive reward" (San hedrin71a). In other words, the discussion of capital punishment in the Talmud seems to exist only in the realm of theoretical speculation, just as--after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem--all the laws of sacrifice were retained and studied long after the sacrifices ceased to be offered. The Trial Capital cases were heard by a court of twenty-three judges (Sanhedrin 2A) and, in some cases, seventy-one judges (Sanhedrin 2A, 15A, & 16A), all of the highest character. "Anyone fit to try capital cases could also try monetary cases," the rabbis stated, "but a person fit to try a monetary case may still be unfit to try a capital case" (Nida 49B). According to Rabbi Judah, a person whose disposition is cruel should be excluded from sitting in judgment in such cases (Sanhedrin 36B). Not only should a person's own record be pure and righteous, but his ancestry had to be free of blemish before he could sit on this court (Sanhedrin 36B). The judges sat on three rising semicircular tiers, as in an amphitheater, in order to see one another, and all murder cases were tried in the light of day; in these ways, everything could be open and aboveboard. Two judge's clerks stood before them, one to the right and the other to the left, and wrote down the arguments of those who would acquit and those who would condemn; both clerks were necessary as a precaution against any mistake. Rabbi Judah said that there were three such clerks: one to record arguments for acquittal, a second to record arguments for conviction, and a third to record arguments for both acquittal and conviction. Witnesses stood in front of these tiers of judges. The stringent demands on witnesses in capital cases rendered almost impossible the likelihood that a defendant would be convicted. To ensure that a witness's testimony was not based on conjecture (e.g. circumstantial evidence), hearsay, simple rumor, or the observations of another witness, the court would "fill the witness with fear." Witnesses were asked to establish the day and hour of the crime and explain the circumstances surrounding it (Sanhedrin 2B). They were then warned that they would be subject to rigorous questioning and relentless cross-examination and held personally responsible should the accused be falsely condemned. Bearing false witness in a capital case was in itself a crime punishable by death (Sanhedrin 9B, 32B, 86A, & 89A). A witness in a capital case had to have seen the entire crime as it was being committed; circumstantial evidence was inadmissible. For example, Rabbi Simeon ben Shatach witnessed the following incident: "I saw a man chasing another man into a ruin; I ran after him and saw a sword in his hand dripping with the other's blood, and the murdered man in his death agony...." Even though he was convinced of the man's guilt, the rabbi could not testify against him, because he did not see the actual crime (Sanhedrin 37b). Not only did witnesses have to see the crime take place, they had to have warned the perpetrator prior to the act that he was about to commit a capital offense. According to Rabbi Judah, a warner even had to inform the perpetrator of the type of execution prescribed for his crime (Sanhedrin 8B). The perpetrator was then obliged to have verbally acknowledged this warning by saying something like, "I know I am warned not to do this"; to have admitted his liability to death by adding something like, "even though I shall be punished by such-and-such manner, yet I want to go ahead and commit this crime"; and to have committed the murder within the time needed to make such an utterance (Makkot 6A). The great eleventh-century commentator Rashi explains this last restriction by suggesting that if a murder was delayed longer than the time necessary to make an utterance, the plea might be accepted that the perpetrator had forgotten the warning altogether. Furthermore, two or three witnesses had to have similarly interacted with the accused.

And on the unlikely chance that such witnesses could be found, the Court could convict the accused only if guilt could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. According to the Talmud, "A doubt in capital charges should always be for the benefit of the accused" (Baba Batra 50B, Sanhedrin 79A). In reaching a verdict, a judge was free to argue in favor of the accused, but not against him. A judge who had argued initially for condemnation could subsequently argue for acquittal, but one who had argued for acquittal could not argue later for condemnation. Acquittal in capital cases required a majority of one vote, condemnation a majority of two.

A verdict could be reversed for acquittal if errors were revealed, but no new evidence was allowed which would reverse a decision from acquittal to condemnation.

Staying the Execution Following a guilty verdict, provisions were made to stay the execution. A herald was dispatched to announce something like: "So-and-so, son of so-and-so, is going forth to be stoned because he committed such-and-such offense, and so-and-so are his witnesses. If anyone has anything to say in his favor, let him come forward and state it."

If someone offered to make a statement in favor of the condemned man, a retrial followed. A person was stationed at the door of the court holding a signaling flag, while a horseman stood at the ready within sight of the signalman.

If one of the judges said he had something further to state in favor of the condemned, the signaler waved his flag, sending the horseman to postpone the execution. Indeed, even if the condemned said he had something further to plead in his own favor, the court was obliged to reconvene (Sanhedrin 42B). Rabbinic attitudes concerning the death penalty are also reflected in statements such as "a Sanhedrin that effects an execution once in seven years is branded a destructive tribunal." Rabbi Elizer Ben Azariah said "once in seventy years." Rabbis Tarfon and Akiba said, "If we were members of a Sanhedrin, nobody would ever be put to death." In that same Gemarra, however, Rabbi Simeon Ben Gamaliel dissented: "If we never condemned anyone to death, we might be considered guilty of promoting violence and bloodshed.... [We] could also multiply shedders of blood in Israel" (all Makkot 7A). Forty years before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the rabbis abolished capital punishment altogether (Soncino Talmud, Sanhedrin page 161, footnote 10). Rather than applying the four methods of execution themselves, they ruled that punishment should be carried out by divine agencies (Sanhedrin 37B, Ketubot 30A, & 30B). In other words, a punishment so awesome as the taking of a person's life should not be entrusted to fallible human beings, but only to God.

This ruling does not mean the rabbis dispensed with punishment altogether. On the contrary, they expressed no compunction about decreeing corporal punishment--harsh physical suffering. If the rabbis/judges were convinced of a defendant's guilt in a capital case, but the high standard of evidence did not permit execution, he would be sentenced to prison on a ration of bread and water.

The thrust of Jewish tradition and the historical positions of the Reform Movement… impel us to oppose capital punishment in principle and in practice. A person wrongfully flogged for robbery can heal. A person improperly imprisoned for murder can be exonerated and set free. But someone put to death for a crime he/she did not commit can never be redeemed. If we are true to our faith and our tradition, we must respond to the imperative of its teachings and do everything we can to keep our society from committing the ultimate of injustices: the wrongful execution of an innocent person.

Source: Reform Judaism Magazine, Summer 2002.
Rabbi Daniel Polish, HUC-JIR class of 1968, is director of the Joint Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism and co-author with Rabbis Daniel Syme and Bernard Zlotowitz of Drugs, Sex and Integrity (UAHC Press).

Jewish Perspective on Abortion

2008-07-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Within Christianity, Judaism, Humanism and other religions and ethical systems, the morality of abortion is grounded in the precise belief of the nature of the fetus. There is a general consensus in North America that when the fetus becomes a human person, then abortions should be severely limited. Most would confine abortions at that stage to situations that threaten the life of the pregnant woman; a very few would eliminate access to abortions totally. The problem that generates so much controversy is that no consensus exists in society over the point, between conception and birth, when personhood begins.

Halacha (Jewish law) does define when a fetus becomes a nefesh (person). "...a baby...becomes a full-fledged human being when the head emerges from the womb. Before then, the fetus is considered a 'partial life.' " 5 In the case of a "feet-first" delivery, it happens when most of the fetal body is outside the mother's body.

Jewish beliefs and practice not neatly match either the "pro-life" nor the "pro-choice" points of view. The general principles of modern-day Judaism are that:

The fetus has great value because it is potentially a human life. It gains "full human status at birth only." 2

Abortions are not permitted on the grounds of genetic imperfections of the fetus.

Abortions are permitted to save the mother's life or health.

With the exception of some Orthodox authorities, Judaism supports abortion access for women.

"...each case must be decided individually by a rabbi well-versed in Jewish law." 5

Historical Christianity has considered "ensoulment," the point at which the soul enters the body) as the time when abortions should normally be prohibited. Belief about the timing of this event has varied from the instant of fertilization of the ovum, to 90 days after conception, or later. There has been no consensus among historical Jewish sources about when ensoulment happens. It is regarded as "one of the 'secrets of God' that will be revealed only when the Messiah comes." 1

Abortion-related passages in the Hebrew Scriptures & Talmud:
The Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 69b states that: "the embryo is considered to be mere water until the fortieth day." Afterwards, it is considered subhuman until it is born.

"Rashi, the great 12th century commentator on the Bible and Talmud, states clearly of the fetus 'lav nefesh hu--it is not a person.' The Talmud contains the expression 'ubar yerech imo--the fetus is as the thigh of its mother,' i.e., the fetus is deemed to be part and parcel of the pregnant woman's body." 1 This is grounded in Exodus 21:22. That biblical passage outlines the Mosaic law in a case where a man is responsible for causing a woman's miscarriage, which kills the fetus If the woman survives, then the perpetrator has to pay a fine to the woman's husband. If the woman dies, then the perpetrator is also killed. This indicates that the fetus has value, but does not have the status of a person.

There are two additional passages in the Talmud which shed some light on the Jewish belief about abortion. They imply that the fetus is considered part of the mother, and not a separate entity:

One section states that if a man purchases a cow that is found to be pregnant, then he is the owner both of the cow and the fetus.

Another section states that if a pregnant woman converts to Judaism, that her conversion applies also to her fetus.

Abortions needed to save the life of the mother:
A passage from the Mishna quotes a Jewish legal text from the second century CE. It describes the situation in which a woman's life is endangered during childbirth. A D&X procedure (often called Partial Birth Abortion in recent years) might be used under these conditions today. However, this technique was unknown in ancient times. The legal text states that the fetus must be dismembered and removed limb by limb. However, if "the greater part" of the fetus had already been delivered, then the fetus could not be killed. This is based on the belief that the fetus only becomes a person after most of its body emerges from the birth canal. Before personhood has been reached, it may be necessary to "sacrifice a potential life in order to save a fully existent human life, i.e. the pregnant woman in labor." 1 After the forehead emerges from the birth canal, the fetus is regarded as a person. Neither the baby nor the mother can be killed to save the life of the other.

A second consideration is the principle of self-defense. Some Jewish authorities have asserted that if the fetus placed its mother's life at risk, then the mother should be permitted to kill the fetus to save herself, even if the "greater portion [of its body] had already emerged" from the birth canal.

Other abortions:
Some Jewish authorities have ruled in specific cases:

One case involved a woman who becomes pregnant while nursing a child. Her milk supply would dry up. If the child is allergic to all other forms of nutrition except for its mother's milk, then it would starve. An abortion would be permitted in this case. An abortion of the fetus, a potential person, would be justified to save the life of the child, an actual person.
An abortion would be permissible if the woman was suicidal because of her pregnancy.
Jewish authorities differed in a case where a continued pregnancy would leave the mother permanently deaf. She obtained permission for an abortion from the Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Many Jewish authorities permit abortion in the case of a pregnancy resulting from a rape, if needed in order save her great mental anguish.
Most authorities do not permit abortion in the event that the fetus is genetically defective or will probably pick up a disease from its mother. The rationale is that even though the child will be malformed, disabled, or diseased, it would still be formed in the image of the creator. Rabbi Eliezar Waldenberg is one authority who believes otherwise. He "allows first trimester abortion of a fetus which would be born with a deformity that would cause it to suffer, and termination of a fetus with a lethal fetal defect such as Tay Sachs up to the end of the second trimester of gestation." 3
An abortion is sometimes permitted if the woman suffers great emotional pain about the birth of a child who will experience health problems.
Abortions are not permitted to avoid career inconveniences, or because the woman is unmarried.
In a very unusual case, a woman in New Jersey was pregnant with a hydroencephalic fetus. Its large head prevented a conventional delivery. The physician recommended a Caesarian section. But the woman asked for a D&X procedure on the grounds that the fetus' life was doomed anyway and a C section would weaken her uterus for her next pregnancy. Her rabbinic authorities agreed.

Political aspects of abortion access:
Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism are formally opposed to government regulation of abortion. They feel that the decision should rest with the woman, her husband, doctor and clergyperson. Some Orthodox authorities agree with this stance.

All recognize that the decision to have an abortion is a difficult one, and is not to be undertaken without considerable thought.

The Diabolically Evil Agenda by Evagenlical Christians Against the State of Israel

2008-07-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

The tensions between the United States and Iran reached a new level recently. Following a series of announcements regarding its nuclear program and tests of new weapons systems, Tehran announced on Tuesday that it was purchasing the sophisticated Tor M1 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia. On Friday, the IAEA released its highly anticipated report on the Iranian nuclear program and its failure to meet UN Security Council deadline to stop its uranium enrichment efforts. Secretary of State Condi Rice warned Sunday that it was time for Iran and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stop "playing games."

But while the differences between Washington and Tehran are threatening and growing, there are eerie similarities between presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad and their respective fundamentalist followers. For each, the strikingly analogous views regarding religious prophecy, second comings and the end of times for their respective Christian and Shiite eschatologies may be pushing Ahmadinejad and Bush inexorably towards war.

A recent piece by Matthias Kuntzel in the New Republic ("Ahmadinejad's Demons") presents a frightening picture of the Iranian side of the equation. Kuntzel portrays the Ahmadinejad as a "child of the revolution" fostering the cult of martyrdom and mass sacrifice that killed tens of thousands of young Iranians - the Basiji - during the war with Iraq in the 1980's. Just as Ayatollah Khomeini in 1980 called on Iranian children to martyr themselves in battle in the name of Hussein, the third imam and murdered grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, today's Iran of Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khameini have created for a special military unit called "Commando of Voluntary Martyrs." The Martyrs unit now boasts 52,000 members and will soon be in place in every Iranian province.

Central to the ideology of Ahmadinejad and the hard liners in Tehran is the role of the return of the "Twelfth Imam." In Shiite theology, the second coming of this last of the Prophet Muhammad's direct male descendents - the Mahdi - signals the imminent deliverance of the world from evil. As Kuntzel describes:

At the end of this line, there is the "Twelfth Imam," who is named Muhammad. Some call him the Mahdi (the "divinely guided one"), though others say imam Zaman (from sahib-e zaman: "the ruler of time"). He was born in 869, the only son of the eleventh Imam. In 874, he disappeared without a trace, thereby bringing Muhammad's lineage to a close. In Shia mythology, however, the Twelfth Imam survived. The Shia believe that he merely withdrew from public view when he was five and that he will sooner or later emerge from his "occultation" in order to liberate the world from evil.
The killing of Hussein and the return of the Twelfth Imam are essential components of the language - and propaganda - of Ahmadinejad's Iran. He lauded what former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani deemed the "worthwhile" death of martyrdom, "Is there an art that is more beautiful, more divine, more eternal than the art of the martyr's death?" President Ahmadinejad last November declared, "The most important task of our Revolution is to prepare the way for the return of the Twelfth Imam." His government has even funded a research institute to study and if possible hasten the coming of "imam Zaman." And in his September 17, 2005 address to the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad implored God for the return of the Mahdi:

"O mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."
All of which offers disturbing parallels between the Tehran regime and the worldview of President Bush and his fundamentalist followers in the American religious right. From the use of religious imagery and government funding of non-secular initiatives to the meaning of Israel, Armageddon and the second coming of Christ, Bush and the American Taliban see themselves as fulfilling biblical prophecy in the Middle East. In some important ways, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mirror image may reside in the White House.

The influence and impact of evangelical thinking and language about the End of Times and divine intervention upon the Bush administration is made clear in books like Kevin Phillips' "American Theocracy" and Michael Lind's "Made in Texas." Phillips concludes that George W. Bush is convinced that "God wanted him to be president", a view backed by Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, who reported, "Among the things he said to us was: I believe that God wants me to be president." As White House official Tim Goeglein once put it, "I think President Bush is God's man at this hour, and I say this with a great sense of humility."

President Bush himself has not publicly claimed to have a divine mandate. (As Time reported after September 11, however, "privately, Bush even talked of being chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment.") But Bush is clear in his belief that God's hand is at work in his presidency. Just last week, Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, declaring:

"I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free."
During a February 2003 National Prayer Breakfast, the President intoned:

"We can be confident in the ways of Providence...Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God."
(For more on Bush's use of religious imagery, see "Bush's Religious Language" in The Nation and this commentary by his former speechwriter, Michael Gerson.)

During a March appearance in Cleveland, President Bush brushed aside the question, "Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse? And if not, why not?" While Bush may or may not literally believe that Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ are imminent, his radical right Republican base is another matter altogether. Appearing on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight in March, Kevin Phillips noted that while Bush can't publicly state that he literally believes in the biblical prophecy of Armageddon in the Book of Revelations, his conservative Christian allies clearly do:

"A survey by "Newsweek" several years back found that 45 percent of American Christians believed in Armageddon, that it was coming. And about the same percentage thought the anti- Christ was already on Earth. Now, if you were to take the religious Christians, and the Republican coalition includes most of the religious Christians, you probably have about 55 percent of the Republican coalition that believes in this."
By "this," Phillips is referring to the end of times struggle in Israel, the conversion or mass death of Jews with the Second Coming of Christ. As Jerry Falwell put it, "scripture is clear on that." (Falwell also told Newsweek's Howard Fineman that he introduced George W. Bush to Tim LaHaye, author of the "Left Behind" series on the Second Coming and the Rapture.) That future, as Rod Dreher described it in the National Review four years ago:

"To Jews who adhere to ancient tradition, whose number include religious Israeli nationalists, the long-awaited Messiah will return to become the king of Israel and high priest of a rebuilt Temple, which can only be on Temple Mount. For Christian fundamentalists, Jesus Christ's return at the height of the battle of Armageddon, in which forces of the Antichrist clash in Israel with a 200 million-man army from the East, will require a Third Temple from which the Lord will begin a millennial reign."
The result for Bush's amen corner is what Fineman described as "Apocalypse Politics." That entails above all unswerving support for Israel. Israel is seen as ordained by God, a view held by 44% of Americans, according to a 2003 Pew Research survey. But the evangelical Christian Zionist movement goes further, seeing in Israel "a fulfillment of the biblical prophecy about the second coming of Jesus," a belief shared by 36% of Americans in the Pew research. For the Republican religious right, Israel must not only be staunchly supported in its conflict with the Palestinians, but that the conflict itself should be welcomed, even accelerated.

Bush's conservative Christian allies back Israel in both word and deed. Billy Graham and Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network offer daily prayers for Israel. For one-time presidential candidate Gary Bauer claimed, "America has an obligation to stand by Israel" because "God has promised that land to the Jewish people." Evangelicals organize pilgrimages and tours of Israel and even provide Jewish settlements in the West Bank with financial support. When the President Bush pressured Ariel Sharon in 2002 to pull back its tanks from towns in the West Bank, the White House received a hundred thousand emails from Falwell's followers and faced the Christian Coalition on Mall in Washington. Bush backed off. As the Village Voice reported in 2004, the Bush White House consulted with rapture Christians before finalizing its policy on Sharon's proposed Gaza withdrawal.

But the friends of Bush are not content to wait for the Second Coming of Christ and with it, the slaughter of the mass of Jews with the conversion of the remaining 144,000. As Falwell put it, the arrival of the End of Times should be prodded, advanced and cajoled:

"The danger, if there is a danger in believing in the imminence of the Lord's return - and I do, is to become a fatalist, that certain things are going to happen regardless and there's nothing we can do about them. That isn't true."
Nowhere is this desire to accelerate biblical prophecy more on display than in the ongoing effort to breed the symbolic "red heifer." Since the early 1990's, fundamentalist Christians in the United States have been trying to help breed the perfect calf that will signal the Second Coming. As the NRO's Dreher described the biblical role of the red heifer:

"The ashes of a flawless red heifer - an extremely rare creature - were required by the ancient Hebrews to purify worshipers who went into the Temple to pray. In modern times, rabbinical law forbids Jews from setting foot on the Temple Mount, thus violating the site where the Holy of Holies dwelled, until and unless they are ritually purified. Without a perfect red heifer to sacrifice, the Third Temple cannot be built, and Moshiach - the Messiah - will not come."
It's no wonder Haaretz columnist David Landau deemed the red heifer "a four-legged bomb" with the potential to "set the entire region on fire."

While some wait for the arrival of the biblically mandated bovine, the apocalyptic theocracies of Washington and Tehran seem on a collision course. As President Bush's supporters view themselves as "Israel's only safety belt," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map." While the mullahs in Tehran look to the return of the Twelfth Imam to deliver them from evil, President Bush's allies await the Second Coming of Christ to usher in a millennium of peace. With their research institutes and breeding programs, the devout on both sides seek to accelerate the End of Times. And as their positions over the Iranian nuclear program harden, Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad have more in common than they know.

Seventy Weeks in Daniel

2008-07-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

The following passages in the Book of Daniel are some of Christian’s favorites to prophecy the coming of Jesus. By using a few mistranslations and misplaced punctuation, they end up with a very clever and amazing attempt to place Jesus in the Hebrew Bible.

These are the quotes from the New Testament:

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation of iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and sixty two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times. And after sixty two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolation’s are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Daniel 9:24-27

The Christian interpretation showing all the mathematics follow:

The Artaxerxes of Nehemiah 2:1 rose to power in 465 BCE, and so, according to Nehemiah 2:1, the commandment to restore Jerusalem began 20 years later, i.e., 445 BCE.

Now, since they claim that a Biblical year had 360 days, they multiply 360 by 483 (69 weeks equals 69 periods of seven years--69 X 7 = 483 years). This equals 173,880 days.

To change from Biblical years to our solar years, they divide 173,880 days by 365 1/4; this equals 476 years. Add 476 years to 445 BCE and you will get 31 CE.

Actually, they add a few days, and it ends up around 32 CE, which is just when they claim that Jesus was crucified. Thus, Daniel 9:25, according to the Christians when discussing the Messiah, is referring to Jesus; saying that he will be "cut off” i.e., crucified.

Sounds reasonable, but is it accurate? There are really many difficulties (errors) with this interpretation, which is why Jews were never impressed with it. The first problem is that the Christians mistranslated the main verse (25). The way Christians read it is that after seven weeks and sixty two weeks, the Messiah will come; i.e., after 69 weeks. The obvious question is why didn't Daniel simply write 69 weeks, instead of writing 7 plus 62. The answer is that they mistranslated the verse. If you translate it correctly, that question disappears. Here is the correct translation.

Know and discern that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem unto one anointed, a prince, shall be seven weeks; and for sixty two weeks shall it be built again with streets and moats, but in troublesome times. Note the main difference―not that it will take 69 weeks before the Messiah will come, but rather a mere 7 weeks. If you study this in the original Hebrew, this should be quite clear. Thus, the translation by itself answers the above question of why not simply write 69, instead of 7 plus 62.

According to the correct translation, the anointed one will come after 7 weeks; the city will remain built for 62 weeks, and after the 62 weeks, (verse 26) it will be destroyed. The Christian translation cannot explain why Daniel had to mention the first seven weeks, and in fact, it is a mistranslation. Thus, if they show you their version of the Bible, open the
original and show them the difference.

Another major difficulty is that according to the simple, untwisted translation of verse 26, two events were to occur after the 62 weeks—the anointed one would be cut off, and the city and the sanctuary would be destroyed. As you know, Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, which is 38 years after the death of Jesus―more than five "weeks" off. There is no
acceptable answer for these missing five weeks according to the Christian interpretation.

Another difficulty is that the Jewish year is not really 360 days long. While the months are based on the lunar patterns, the years must coincide with the solar system. Simply study the Jewish calendar. You will see that since the solar year exceeds the lunar year by around 11 days, there will be an extra month added around every three years. Thus 445 BCE plus 483 years (69 X 7) ends up 38 CE, and by then everyone admits that Jesus was already dead.

Another difficulty is that Christians, for lack of a better answer, claim that the 70th week will take place when Jesus returns in his second coming as a king. The problem was caused because Daniel mentioned a total of 70 weeks, and then he specified 7 plus 62, leaving one remaining. The Christians say that the first 69 weeks were consecutive, then there is at least a 1,900 year gap, and sooner or later the 70th week will occur. This is obviously a very forced explanation, born of desperation. Remember, Christian apologetics is a thriving industry.

There is one other important point that should be reviewed. On examining the other books of the Bible, it becomes quite apparent that Daniel is referring to Cyrus, of Persia, and not Jesus. In Jeremiah 25:11-12, the word of God clearly states that the Babylonian exile will last for only 70 years. In Ezra 1: 1, it says that "Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom...saying...Whosoever there is among you of all His people, let him go to Jerusalem, and build the house of the Lord..." In Isaiah 45:1, it says, "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed (messiah/moshiach), to Cyrus..." Thus, Isaiah, in the name of God, calls Cyrus an anointed one, and Ezra discusses how Cyrus fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. Since Daniel lived after Isaiah and Jeremiah, but before the period of Ezra, it is most reasonable and probable to affirm that the anointed one that he referred to in Daniel 9:25 is Cyrus, and not Jesus.

The reason why a Christian would have difficulty understanding this is because the compiler of the King James Bible was shrewd and deceptive. In the original Hebrew, both Daniel 9:25 and Isaiah 45:1 use the exact same word―"moshiach." However, in the Christian version of the Old Testament the word," moshiach," is translated in Isaiah 45:1 as "anointed" whereas in Daniel 9:25, the same Hebrew word is translated as "the Messiah." (the correct translation of "Moshiach" is "an anointed one.") This deceptive translating makes it virtually impossible for the innocent reader who does not know Hebrew to discern the truth.

In addition, the compiler of the Christian Bible did another clever maneuver. The Christian Bible arranges the sequence of the various books of the Bible in a peculiar manner: the Pentateuch, Samuel, Chronicles, then Ezra, and then Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and then Daniel. (In the Jewish Bible, Ezra follows all of the above.) The reason for placing Ezra in the Christian Bible before Isaiah, and before Psalms, Proverbs, etc., even though Ezra lived long after those books were written is presumably to fool the reader of the Christian Bible. Had the reader read Ezra immediately after Daniel, which is the correct chronological location, the reader would immediately recognize that Ezra 1:1 and Daniel 9:25 refer to Cyrus, and not Jesus

O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive! [Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field (1855), xvii]

DANIEL AND THE ANOINTED ONE

Hugh Fogelman

FOUR stories come out of Daniel Chapter 9 as told in the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible (which is much different than the King James Version of the Christian Bible:

FIRST ― Daniel was prophesying about the period before the destruction of the Second Temple when he wrote; “Seventy septets have been decreed upon your people and upon your holy city to terminate transgressions (9:24). The Sages say it is a phrase referring to seventy times seven years, or 490 years, referring to the seventy years of exile that passed from the “Destruction of the First Temple” until this vision, and the entire 430-year period of the “Second Temple” (Rashi).

SECOND ― Daniel 9:25-27 reads; “And you should know and comprehend: From the emergence of the word to return and build Jerusalem until an anointed prince will be seven weeks; and for sixty two weeks it will be rebuilt, street and moat, but in troubled times. And after the sixty two weeks an anointed one will be cut off and will be no more, the people of the prince who comes will destroy the city and the Sanctuary, but his end shall come like a flood. Until the end of a war, desolation is decreed! He will strengthen a covenant with the great ones one week; and for half of the week he will abolish the sacrifice and offering, and upon soaring heights will the mute abominations be, until extermination as decreed will pour down upon the abomination.” Please pay particular attention to the semicolon between the 7 weeks and the 62 weeks.

However, in the King James Version of the Hebrew Bible, Daniel 9:25 says:

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. (NOTICE: there is no semicolon, just a comma – WHY?)

I wonder who tampered with the KJV? The original 1611 edition of the KJV correctly separates the seven weeks from the 62 weeks WITH A SEMICOLON.

The current KJV, however, deceptively compresses these two time periods into one. By revising the KJV and altering the punctuation they completely changed the message of the angel Gabriel’s prophecy. (This is nothing new in Christian writings). By combining “seven weeks” with “62 weeks” into ONE period of 69 weeks, Christian translators advance the idea in the mind of their readers that there is one messiah (anointed ones) spoken, instead of the correct message of TWO. All Jewish kings, priests, judges and anyone who rules were “anointed.”

THIRD ― Isaiah 44:28 & 45:1-3; Ezra 1:1-3 and 11 Chronicles 36:21-23 all tell us how this anointed one is by name ― Cyrus, the messiah, who did indeed start to rebuild the Second Temple. This fact can never be disputed. Until 1885, however, the KJV correctly translated this verse so as to reflect the two anointed ones spoken of by the angel. The first anointed ruler (Cyrus) who arises after “seven weeks” and a second one who is anointed and removed after a subsequent “62 weeks,” or 434 years―the High Priest.

The sages say the “septets” refer to full seven-year periods. The prince of this verse is Cyrus, who gave permission to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. He ascended to the throne fifty-two years (seven full septets plus three years) after the exile had begun. From then until the second destruction of Jerusalem was 438 years, or sixty-two septets and four years (Rashi).

FOURTH ― The Talmud and Roman historians say Vitellius, governor of Syria, removed both Pilate and Caiaphas from office in around year 36 CE. Caiaphas was the Jewish High Priest, a Sadducees, the anointed one could have been the one Daniel wrote about, saying, “Then after the sixty-two septets (weeks), the anointed one will be cut off and will exist no longer,”and by him being removed from office, he was indeed “cut off” and his Priesthood “existed no longer.”

The Sages explain that Daniel could also have been talking about “the anointed one” being Agrippa, the last Jewish king, at the end of the Second Temple Era. After his death, the prince of this verse, the Roman Titus, would command the destruction of the Second Temple, which we all know will not be rebuilt until after the War of Gog and Magog, in Messianic times. Daniel 9:26 (Rashi)

FINALLY and most important, Jesus never qualified to be the Jewish messiah according to what the book Christianity holds as being AUTHORITY, the Hebrew Bible. So, whether or not Jesus was the anointed one spoken by Daniel is not important or even the issue. Why not? Because Jesus was NEVER anointed according to Jewish Biblical standards of how a king is anointed, and Jesus never came from the tribe of Judah, and was not from David’s son Solomon, as the prophets claimed from whom the messiah will come. So to Judaism and the Hebrew B ible, this is all irreverent.
Daniel 9:25-27

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.’

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

So, whenever some Christian evangelist claims he can show something from Daniel, ask him why the New Testament KJV translates “moshiach” 37 places in the Jewish bible as "anointed," (that is the proper translation); but in Daniel the KJV does not translate moshiach at all. Instead it transliterates it to messiah, with the “capital M.”

Why does the Christian bible change Daniel’s message from an anointed one to THE MESSIAH (HaMoshiach)? Does Christianity have to change the SOURCE Bible in order for their religion to be true?

Christian "Messianic" Deciet and Lies

2008-07-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Messianic Judaism: A Christian Missionary Movement
Messianic Judaism is a Christian movement that began in the 1970s combining a mixture of Jewish ritual and Christianity. There are a vast and growing numbers of these groups, and they differ in how much Jewish ritual is mixed with conventional Christian belief. One end of the spectrum is represented by Jews For Jesus, who simply target Jews for conversion to Christianity using imitations of Jewish ritual solely as a ruse for attracting the potential Jewish converts. On the other end are those who don't stress the divinity of Jesus, but present him as the "Messiah." They incorporate distorted Jewish ritual on an ongoing basis.
The movement has received criticism from mainstream Christian leaders, for these groups claim to believe in the New Testament and yet gloss over the distinction between the two communities instituted in that work, and for the deceptive tactics used to gain Jewish converts. They are typically very pro-Israel and include an unusually high number of Jewish symbols -- the Magen David, Torah, talleisim, shofars, yarmulkes, mezzuzahs, Shabbat candles, and use of Hebrew and Yiddish language -- to assure prospective converts that they are not renouncing Judaism by accepting Jesus. According to Jewish law and tradition, such an acceptance is indeed a renunciation of Judaism.

Like the Christian Missionary, one of the major roles of the Messianic Jew is to proselytize others. They prey on such vulnerable individuals as the lonely, the elderly, the poor, the emotionally unstable, the naive, or those who are just untutored in Scripture. These unfortunates are lured into accepting missionary doctrines out of emotional need, not intellectual conviction. For even after a superficial reading of the missionaries' textual "proofs" within context, one sees that their doctrines are founded solely upon misquotations and mistranslations of Hebrew Scripture.

The term "completed Jews" is now used by some Messianic Jews and Missionary Christians to describe Jews who have accepted Jesus as their savior. This is offensive because of the implication that a Jew who has not accepted Jesus is not "complete." This term has also recently popped up in Washington, DC during House subcommittee support of President Bush's proposal to channel government money to religious social service programs. Jewish and civil liberties groups note that this testimony clearly documents the President's initiative will result in government-financed proselytizing.

Education: The Best Protection Against Missionary Groups
One of the most significant differences between Judaism and Christianity (or Messianic Judaism) is that the latter rejects the laws that God gave to Moses to teach to the children of Israel. According to the New Testament passage John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath.” Christian theology firmly believes that if you do not believe in Jesus you are going to "burn in Hell." We Are Not Going to Burn in Hell: a Jewish Response to Christianity demonstrates how to refute Messianic Jews and Christian missionaries by using passages from both the Tanach and the New Testament. It is a definitive source to counter every argument Christian missionaries may make to sway a Jew to their theology. The first chapter is available on-line.
It is truly surprising how many people there are who confess a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, without having first obtained an adequate knowledge and understanding of the New Testament, the main source of information about him. When a person is calmly shown the factual mistakes and absurdities that are in the New Testament, and sees where it misinterpreted and mistranslated the Tanach, it awakens the realization that they were misled by people whom they thought were friends.

One should be aware of the fact that Paul, a founding father of the early church, and the most successful missionary that ever lived, confessed to using deception and lies to make converts:

Corinthians 9:20-22: To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law -- though not being myself under the law -- that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law -- not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ -- that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

Romans 3:7: If through my lies God’s truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

Philippians 1:18: In every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Jesus is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
The veracity of everything that Paul stated and wrote is called into question by the fact that these quotes are found in the books he himself authored. Or, did he?
Jesus of Nazareth: The False Messiah
For almost two thousand years, the Christian Church has taught that Jesus was crucified, died, and was resurrected three days later. This has long been one of the church's foundational beliefs, along with the virgin birth, atonement, and future second coming of Jesus.
In the year 325 CE, Constantine (a non-baptized Pagan) convened the Council of Nicea to settle disputes in the Church. The council changed Jesus from man to God in the flesh, they changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and the Passover was changed to Easter. Among the nearly 200 Gospels circulating in the first three hundred years of this era, the Catholic Church canonized only four. Origen, the great Catholic father, confirms this fact: "And not four Gospels, but very many, out of which these we have chosen."

A partial list of the different books considered by the Church for inclusion were a gospel written by Jesus’ own hand; letters and other correspondences written by Jesus; letters written by the "virgin" Mary; Pilate’s official report to the emperor of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, with Pilate’s confession of faith; the reply to this from Tiberius, and the trial of Pilate; official documents of the Roman Senate about Jesus; Gospels, epistles, acts, by every single one of the twelve apostles; and official documents of church law and government, written in Greek by the apostles. In his book, Answering Christianity's Most Puzzling Questions, Christian apologist Richard Sisson states:

"In fact, after the death of Jesus a whole flood of books that claimed to be inspired appeared.... Disputes over which ones were true were so intense that the debate continued for centuries. Finally in the fourth century a group of church leaders called a council and took a vote. The 66 books that comprised our cherished Bible were declared to be Scripture by a vote of 568 to 563."

Paul and the writers of all four canonical Gospels described the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, as they understood it had happened. There is a acknowledged consensus among academic Christian theologians that:

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were not written by Jesus' disciples but by a person or persons whose names are unknown.

Neither Paul nor any of the Gospel writers had been an eyewitness to Jesus' ministry or death.

The Gospels record the beliefs and memories of various Christian groups as they had evolved at the time they were written.
Their Hollow Inheritance: A Comprehensive Refutation of Christian Missionaries cites additional discrepancies. Matthew 1:20 and Luke 1:31 describe "angels" appearing to Jesus’ mother and her husband informing them of her forthcoming "immaculate conception" and "virgin birth" to the "Son of God," the "Messiah." When compared with the way Jesus’ family and neighbors treated him, it is absurd to believe that "angels" really visited them:
Mark 3:21: Upon hearing of it, his family went out to seize him, for they said, "He is beside himself."
To offset the startling fact that Jesus’ family thought that he was insane, some New Testament editions replace "they" with "people," although "they" is in the original Greek text.
John 7:5: For even his brothers did not believe in him.

Luke 4:16: And Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day…
There, Jesus hinted to his friends and neighbors that he was the Messiah, however:

Luke 4:28: When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up, and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong.
How very strange it is, that during all the years in which Yeshu grew up with them, his brothers, friends, and neighbors did not notice that he was a "divine being." And could it have been that his parents forgot or didn’t tell anyone what they experienced? This stretches one’s imagination.

Origins of the Jesus Mythos
Christianity is based on the unique belief that Jesus was God's Son, born of a virgin, sacrificed for the Salvation of man. In reality, as sacrificed virgin-born Savior Son of God, Jesus was not unique. Not even close. The Jesus mythos simply followed the traditional model of the ancient pagan savior-gods.
At the time of Jesus of Nazareth, as for centuries before, the Mediterranean world roiled with a happy diversity of creeds and rituals. Details varied according to location and culture, but the general outlines of these faiths were astonishingly similar. Roughly speaking the ancients' gods:

Were born on or very near our Christmas Day
Were born of a Virgin-Mother
Were born in a Cave or Underground Chamber
Led a life of toil for Mankind
Were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator, Savior, Deliverer
Were however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness
And descended into Hell or the Underworld
Rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of mankind to the Heavenly world
Founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which disciples were received by Baptism
Were commemorated by Eucharistic meals
Krishna was born of the virgin Devaki; the Savior Dionysus was born of the virgin Semele. Buddha too was born of a virgin, as were the Egyptian Horus and Osiris. The old Teutonic goddess Hertha was a virgin impregnated by the heavenly Spirit and bore a son. Scandinavian Frigga was impregnated by the All-Father Odin and bore Balder, the healer and savior of mankind.

Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother. He came from heaven to be born as a man, to redeem men from their sin. He was know as "Savior," "Son of God," "Redeemer," and "Lamb of God." With twelve disciples he traveled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of men. He was buried in a tomb from which he rose again from the dead -- an event celebrated yearly with much rejoicing. His followers kept the Sabbath holy, holding sacramental feasts in remembrance of Him. The sacred meal of bread and water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the body and blood of the sacred bull.

The celebration of Christmas on December 25 was originally the pagan birthday of Mithras, the sun god, whose day of the week is still known as "Sunday." The halo of light which is usually shown surrounding the face of Jesus and Christian saints, is another concept taken from the sun god. The theme of temptation by a devil-like creature was also found in pagan mythology. In particular, the story of Jesus's temptation by Satan resembles the temptation of Osiris by the devil-god Set in Egyptian mythology.

The Source of the Original Gospels
Theologians have also observed for many decades that two of the synoptic gospels (Matthew and Luke) have many points of similarity. In fact, the writings have many dozens of phrases and sentences that are identical. This observation led to the theory that both gospels were based largely on an earlier document called "Q" meaning "Quelle," which is German for "source," and is comprised of three distinct documents:
Q1 described Jesus as a Jewish philosopher-teacher, written circa 50 CE.

Q2 viewed Jesus as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet, written circa 60 CE.

Q3 described Jesus as a near-deity who converses directly with God and Satan, written circa 70 CE during a time of great turmoil in Palestine.
The authors of the Gospels of Matthew (circa 80 CE) and Luke (circa 90 CE) wrote their books using text from Q, Mark and their own unique traditions. The author of the Gospel of Thomas also used portions of Q1 and Q2 in his writing, but seems to have been unaware of Q3. This gospel was widely circulated within the early Christian movement but did not make it into the Christian Scriptures.
What is remarkable about Q1 is that the original Christians appeared to be centered totally on concerns about their relationships with God and with other people, and their preparation for the Kingdom of God on earth. Totally absent from their spiritual life are almost all of the factors that we associate with Christianity today. There is absolutely no mention of (in alphabetic order):

adultery
angels
apostles
baptism
church
clergy
confirmation
crucifixion
demons
disciples
divorce
Eucharist
healing
great commission to convert the world
heaven
hell
incarnation
infancy stories
John the Baptist
Last Supper
life after death
Mary and Joseph and the rest of Jesus' family
magi
miracles
Jewish laws concerning behavior
marriage
Messiah
restrictions on sexual behavior
resurrection
roles of men and women
Sabbath
salvation
Satan
second coming
signs of the end of the age
sin
speaking in tongues
temple
tomb
transfiguration
trial of Jesus
trinity
virgin birth

There is no reference to Jesus' death having any redeeming function; in fact, there is no mention of the crucifixion at all. John E. Remsburg's The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence, lists the following writers who lived during the time, or within a century after the time, that Jesus is supposed to have lived:

Josephus
Philo-Judææus
Seneca
Pliny Elder
Arrian
Petronius
Dion Pruseus
Paterculus
Suetonius
Juvenal
Martial
Persius
Plutarch
Pliny Younger
Tacitus
Justus of Tiberius
Apollonius
Quintilian
Lucanus
Epictetus
Hermogones Silius Italicus
Statius
Ptolemy
Appian
Phlegon
Phæædrus
Valerius Maximus
Lucian
Pausanias
Florus Lucius
Quintius Curtius
Aulus Gellius
Dio Chrysostom
Columella
Valerius Flaccus
Damis
Favorinus
Lysias
Pomponius Mela
Appion of Alexandria
Theon of Smyrna

Enough of the writings of the authors named in the foregoing list remains to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, according to Remsburg, "aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ." Nor, do any of these authors make note of the Disciples or Apostles -- increasing the embarrassment from the silence of history concerning the foundation of Christianity.

A Jewish Messiah
Judaism, unlike the Christianity, does not believe that the Messiah is Jesus. The noun moshiach (translated as messiah) annotatively means "annointed one;" it does not, however, imply "savior." The notion of an innocent, semi-divine being who will sacrifice himself to save us from the consequences of our own sins is a purely Christian concept that has no basis in Jewish thought or scripture. In Judaic texts, the term messiah was used for all kings, high priests, certain warriors, but never eschatological figures. In the Tanach, moshiach is used 38 times: two patriarchs, six high priests, once for Cyrus, 29 Israelite kings such as Saul and David. Not once is the word moshiach used in reference to the awaited Messiah. Even in the apocalyptic book of Daniel, the only time moshiach is mentioned is in connection to a murdered high priest. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, and Apocrypha never mention the Messiah.
The man destined to be the Messiah will be a direct descendant of King David (Isaiah 11:1) through the family of Solomon, David's son (1 Chronicles 22:9-l0). He will cause all the world to serve God together (Isaiah 11:2), be wiser than Solomon (Mishnah Torah Repentance 9:2), greater than the patriarchs and prophets (Aggadah Genesis 67), and more honored than kings (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10), for he will reign as king of the world (Pirkei Eliezer).

Amongst the most basic missions that the Messiah will accomplish during his lifetime (Isaiah 42:4) are to:

Oversee the rebuilding of Jerusalem, including the Third Temple, in the event that it has not yet been rebuilt (Michah 4:1 and Ezekiel 40-45)

Gather the Jewish people from all over the world and bring them home to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 11:12; 27:12-13)

Influence every individual of every nation to abandon and be ashamed of their former beliefs (or non-beliefs) and acknowledge and serve only the One True God of Israel (Isaiah 11:9-10; 40:5 and Zephaniah 3:9)

Bring about global peace throughout the world (Isaiah 2:4; 11:5-9 and Michah 4:3-4).
There are over a dozen additional prophecies which the Messiah will also achieve (there is no mention of any “second coming” in the Tanach or the New Testament). In order to avoid identifying the wrong individual as Messiah, the Code of Jewish Law dictates criteria for establishing the Messiah's identity (Mishnah Torah Kings 11:4):

"If a king arises from the House of David who meditates on the Torah, occupies himself with the commandments as did his ancestor King David, observes the commandments of the Written and Oral Law, prevails upon all Israel to walk in the way of the Torah and to follow its direction, and fights the wars of God, it may be assumed that he is the Messiah.

If he does these things and is fully successful, rebuilds the Third Temple on its location, and gathers the exiled Jews, he is beyond doubt the Messiah. But if he is not fully successful, or if he is killed, he is not the Messiah."
Over 1,000 years before the attributed birth of the historical Jesus, it was recorded in the Tanach:

Numbers 23:19: God is not a man, that He should be deceitful, nor the son of man, that He should repent. Would He say and not do, or speak and not confirm?

Psalms 146:3: Do not rely on princes nor in the son of man, for he holds no salvation.
Even the New Testament concurs that Jesus, in fact, is not the Messiah:
Matthew 20:28: Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve.
Counter-Missionary Training
When confronted by a Christian missionary or a member of the Messianic movement, one should remember that the very existence of Jesus, and events surrounding him significant to the Christian mythos, are entirely absent from every historical record. Missionary arguments usually appeal to emotion rather than to reason; they will attempt to make you feel embarrassed about denying the historicity of Jesus. The usual response is something like "Isn't denying the existence of Jesus just as silly as denying the existence of Julius Caesar or denying the Holocaust?" One should then point out that there are ample historical sources confirming the existence of who or whatever else is named, while there exists no corresponding evidence for Jesus.
Christian scholar Rt. Rev. George Arthur Butterick, in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, a book written by to prove the validity of the New Testament, states:

"A study of 150 Greek [manuscripts] of the Gospel of Luke has revealed more than 30,000 different readings.... It is safe to say that there is not one sentence in the New Testament in which the [manuscript] is wholly uniform."

There are 304,805 letters (approximately 79,000 words) in the Torah. In the over 3,000 years since Moses received the original Scripture from Mt. Sinai and wrote the 13 copies (twelve of which were distributed among the Tribes), spelling variants have emerged on a total of nine words -- with absolutely no effect on their meaning. The Christian Bible, in comparison, has over 200,000 variants and in 400 instances, the variants change the meaning of the text; 50 of these are of great significance.

When countering Christian Missionaries it is important to always base one's arguments on actual Scripture – the original Hebrew text (public domain applications and software are available if your browser is not Hebrew-enabled). Remember that the English translation of the Tanach (which they call the “Old Testament”) in nearly every Christian Bible is taken from the Septuagint, one of many Greek translations that differed considerably from the Masoretic text. It is this Greek Septuagint, not the original Hebrew, that was the main basis for the Old Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and part of the Arabic translations of the Old Testament.

Even the earliest English translation of the JPS Tanach (Jewish Publication Society) was a slightly modified version of the Old Testament found in the King James Bible, instead of a direct translation of the original Hebrew which accompanied it. Christian Missionaries will almost always use the English translation of the JPS Tanach as a "proof text." Far more accurate English translations of the Masoretic text are found in Koren's The Jerusalem Bible and Artscroll's Stone Edition Tanach.

The Messiah Truth Project sponsors weekly on-line Video Conferences in Counter-Missionary and Torah Education six nights a week on VirtualYeshiva.com. Participation is free, and downloadable handouts are provided. Follow-up questions will be answered through our Discussion Forums; you can participate by linking here. You can also access our ever-growing library of original educational material by clicking one of our four topic areas below:

Counter-Missionary Links and Literature
(Additional links and add your own link here)
Outreach Judaism: A national organization that responds directly and positively to the issues raised by missionaries and cults by exploring Judaism in contradistinction to Christianity. The organization's goal is to generate a lasting connection between Jewish families and Judaism through building immediate awareness of the current Hebrew-Christian movement in the USA, Canada and Israel.
The Task Force on Missionaries and Cults: A counter-missionary and counter-cult organization in North America that provides information and assistance to individuals and communities in the U.S., Europe, and Israel.

Australian Anti-Missionary Web Site: A user-friendly, easy-to-navigate presentation of resources, articles, and links designed to aid the navigator in his pursuit of the truth behind missionary activities.

Messianic Verses in Tanach: Missionaries quote Hebrew Scriptures to support their contention that "Jesus fulfilled 300 prophecies from the Old Testament." Here you can read how these quotes are either mistranslated, taken out of context, or both.

The Real Truth About The Talmud: There are many lies circulating the internet about the Jewish Talmud. These allegations are supported by misquotations from the Talmud, frequently wrong or taken out of context. These are the real truths.

Project Truth: Shmuel ben Avraham provides common words and language used by Missionaries, and how to talk to a Missionary with answers to specific verses and concepts commonly used.

Shomrai HaBrit: Keepers of the Covenant homrai HaBrit-Keepers: An organization dedicated to keeping Jewish people true to the eternal covenant with God. Included are prophecies used by Christian Missionaries and their actual interpretation.

The Anti-Missionary Website: This page is dedicated to the resistance of Christian Missionaries. It calls for an official, public opposition to Christian missionary, are describes ways to protest their goal of world conversion.

What Jews Believe: An excellent site explaining Jewish beliefs concerning life, death, sin, forgiveness, and atonement and their difference from Christian beliefs. It shows how missionaries who often claim to be Jews, hold beliefs that are distinctly Christian.

Counter-Missionary Reference: An index to various "proof texts" used by missionaries and discussions on those verses by various counter missionary websites.

Torah Atlanta: Educating Jews on the issues raised by missionaries and the tactics they use.

The Truth of Judaism: A vast resource of links for Judaic terms, Torah and Chumash, news and media, and Jewish references.

Articles on Missionary Groups and Religion
Why Don't Jews believe in Jesus?: For 2,000 years, Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah; Rabbi Shraga Simmons explains why.
Jews for Jesus: Rabbi Shraga Simmons describes underhanded tactics used to trick unsuspecting Jews into joining a Christian movement.

Evangelizing The Jews (Part 1): To bring about the Second Coming, fundamentalist Christians believe they must convert the Jews. Having failed in the past, they are now armed with a new arsenal of deceptive techniques, detailed by Rabbi Tovia Singer.

Evangelizing The Jews (Part 2): Jews who are lonely and know the least about Judaism are the most susceptible to Christian missionaries. Rabbi Tovia Singer explains why college kids and the elderly are their prime targets.

Jesus Codes: The Real Story: A recent book being used to proselytize Jews to Christianity claims that hidden messages have been found in the Bible proving that Jesus is the Messiah. Rabbi Daniel Mechanic focuses on misuses and misrepresentations of the Codes phenomenon, especially when they are aimed at proselytizing Jews.

The Jesus Puzzle: Was There No Historical Jesus? This article by Earl Doherty appeared in the Journal of Higher Criticism, published by the Institute for Higher Critical Studies based at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

Portable Document Format Downloads
(Get your free Adobe PDF reader here)
Messiah Truth: A Jewish response to the Messianic movement and other missionary groups using passages from both Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament. This four-page printable document contains nearly all of the counter-missionary text from this page. Print, copy and share!
The Problem With Matthew: A Guide For Refuting Missionaries: The purpose of this eBook is to empower Jews to protect themselves against Christian missionaries, whether they call themselves Southern Baptists, Jews for Jesus, or any other organization bent on the assimilation of Jews into the Christian religion. There is also an on-line edition available.

How the King James Version (KJV) Bible Originated: A simplified history documenting the KJV as essentially a handful of late and haphazardly collected minuscule manuscripts supported by no known Greek witness.There is also an on-line edition available.

Judaism 101: An encyclopedia of Judaism, covering Jewish beliefs, people, places, things, language, scripture, holidays, practices and customs. It includes a wide variety of basic, general information about Judaism, written from a traditional perspective in plain English. There is also an on-line edition available.

Judaic Glossary: A concise glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms and their meanings.

Messianic Glossary: A 250-page expository glossary of terms used in Christian Messianic teaching (a zip of all fonts used may be downloaded here).

Articles of Faith Judaism

2008-07-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Judaism can not be credited with the possession of Articles of Faith. Many attempts have indeed been made at systematizing and reducing to a fixed phraseology and sequence the contents of the Jewish religion. But these have always lacked the one essential element: authoritative sanction on the part of a supreme ecclesiastical body. And for this reason they have not been recognized as final or regarded as of universally binding force. Though to a certain extent incorporated in the liturgy and utilized for purposes of instruction, these formulations of the cardinal tenets of Judaism carried no greater weight than that imparted to them by the fame and scholarship of their respective authors. None of them had a character analogous to that given in the Church to its three great formulas (the socalled Apostles' Creed, the Nicene or Constantopolitan, and the Athanasian), or even to the Kalimat AsShahadat of the Mohammedans. The recital of this "Kalimah" is the first of the five pillars of practical religion in Islam, and one converted to Islam must repeat it verbatim; so that among the conditions required of every believer with reference to confession is the duty to repeat it aloud at least once in a lifetime. None of the many summaries from the pens of Jewish philosophers and rabbis has been invested with similar importance and prominence. The reasons for this relative absence of official and obligatory creeds are easily ascertained.
No Need for Creeds in Judaism
The remark of Leibnitz, in his preface to the "Essais de Theodicee," that the nations which filled the earth before the establishment of Christianity had ceremonies of devotion, sacrifices, libations, and a priesthood, but that they had no Articles of Faith and no dogmatic theology, applies with slight modification to the Jews. Originally race-or perhaps it is more correct to say nationality-and religion were coextensive. Birth, not profession, admitted to the religionational fellowship. As long as internal dissension or external attack did not necessitate for purposes of defense the formulation of the peculiar and differentiating doctrines, the thought of paragraphing and fixing the contents of the religious consciousness could not insinuate itself into the mind of even the most faithful. Missionary or proselytizing religions are driven to the definite declaration of their teachings. The admission of the neophyte hinges upon the profession and the acceptance of his part of the belief, and that t here may be no uncertainty about what is essential and what nonessential, it is incumbent on the proper authorities to determine and promulgate the cardinal tenets in a form that will facilitate repetition and memorizing. And the same necessity arises wh en the Church or religious fellowship is torn by internal heresies. Under the necessity of combating heresies of various degrees of perilousness and of stubborn insistence, the Church and Islam, were forced to define and officially limit their respective theological concepts. Both of these provocations to creedbuilding were less intense in Judaism. The proselytizing zeal, though during certain periods more active than at others, was, on the whole, neutralized, partly by inherent disinclination and part ly by force of circumstances. Righteousness, according to Jewish belief, was not conditioned of the acceptance of the Jewish religion. And the righteous among the nations that carried into practise the seven fundamental laws of the covenant with Noah and his descendants were declared to be participants in the felicity of the hereafter. This interpretation of the status of nonJews precluded the development of a missionary attitude. Moreover, the regulations for the reception of proselytes, as developed in course of time, prove the eminently practical, that is, the noncreedal character of Judaism. Compliance with certain rites baptism, circumcision, and sacrifice is the test of the wouldbe convert's faith. He is instructed in the details of the legal practise that manifests the Jew's religiosity, while the profession of faith demanded is limited to the acknowledgement of the unity of God and the rejection of idolatry (Yorei De'ah, Germ, 268, 2). Judah haLevi ("Cuzari," i. 115) puts the whole mat ter very strikingly when he says:
"We are not putting on an equality with us a person entering our religion through confession alone [Arabic original, bikalamati=by word]. We require deeds, including in that term selfrestraint, purity, study of the Law, circumcision, and the performance of other duties demanded by the Torah."
For the preparation of the convert, therefore, no other method of instruction was employed than for the training of one born a Jew. The aim of teaching was to convey a knowledge of the Law, obedience to which manifested the acceptance of the underlying religious principles; namely, the existence of God and the holiness of Israel as the people of his covenant.
The controversy whether Judaism demands belief in dogma or inculcates obedience to practical laws alone, as enlisted many competent scholars. Moses Mendelssohn, in his "Jerusalem," defended the nondogmatic nature of Judaism, while Low, among others, (see his "Gesammelte Schriften," i. 3152, 433 et seq. 1871) took the opposite side. Low made it clear that the Mendelssohnian theory had been carried beyond its legitimate bounds. The meaning of the word for faithful and belief in Hebrew [emunah] had undoubtedly been strained too far to substantiate the Mendelssohnian thesis. Underlying the practise of the Law was assuredly the recognition of certain fundamental and decisive religious principles culminating in the belief in God and revelation, and likewise in the doctrine of retributive divine justice.
Evolution of Judaism
The modern critical view of the development of the Pentateuch within the evolution of Israel's monotheism confirms this theory. The controversy of the Prophets hinges on the adoption by the people of Israel of the religion of YHWH, that excluded from the outset idolatry, or certainly the recognition of any other deity than YHWH as the legitimate Lord of Israel; that, in its progressive evolution, associated YHWH the concepts of holiness, justice, and righteousness; and that which culminated in the teaching of God's spirituality and universality. The historical books of the Bible, as recast in accordance with these latter religious ideas evince the force of a strong and clearly apprehended conviction concerning the providential purpose in the destinies of earth's inhabitants, and more especially in the guidance of Israel.
Discussions and Dogmatism Disfavored
The Psalms and Wisdom books manifest the predominance, of definite religious beliefs. To say that Judaism is a barren legalistic convention, as Mendelssohn avers, is an unmistakable exaggeration. The modicum of truth in his theory is that throughout Biblical Judaism, as in fact throughout all later phases of Jewish religious thinking and practise, this doctrinal element remains always in solution. It is not crystallized into fixed phraseology or rigid dogma. And, moreover, the ethical and practical implications of the religion are never obscured. This is evidenced by the Biblical passages that, in the opinion of many, partake of the nature of Articles of Faith, or are of great value as showing what, in the opinion of their respective authors, constitutes the essence of religion. Among these the most noteworthy are Deut. vi. 4; Isa., xlv. 57; Micah vi. 8; Ps. xv.; Isa. i. 16, 17; xxxiii. 15.
Whatever controversies may have agitated Israel during the centuries of the Prophets and the earlier postexilic period, they were not of a kind to induce the defining of Articles of Faith counteract the influences of heretical teaching. Dogmatic influences manifest themselves only after the Maccabean struggle for independence. But even these differences were not farreaching enough to overcome the inherent aversion to dogmatic fixation of principles; for, with the Jews, acceptance of principles was not so much a matter of theoretical assent as of practical conduct. Though Josephus would have the divisions between the Pharisees and the Sadducees hinge on the formal acceptance or rejection of certain points of doctrine such as Providence, resurrection of the body, which for the Pharisees, was identical with future retribution it is the consensus of opinion among modern scholars that the differences between these two parties were rooted in their respective political programs, and implied in their respectively national and antinational attitudes, rather than in their philosophical or religious dogmas.
If the words of Sirach (iii. 2023) are to be taken as a criterion, the intensely pious of his days did not incline to speculations of what was beyond their powers to comprehend. They were content to perform their, religious duties in simplicity of faith. The Mishnah (Hag. 11. 1) indorsed this view of Sirach, and in some degree, discountenanced theosophy and dogmatism. Among the recorded discussions in the schools of the Rabbis, dogmatic problems commanded only a very inferior degree of attention ('Er. 13b: controversy concerning the, value of human life; Hag. 12a: concerning the order of Creation). Nevertheless, in the earliest Mishnah is found the citation of Abtalion against heresy and unbelief (Ab. i. 11 [12]); and many a Baraita betrays the prevalence of religious differences (Ber. 12b; 'Ab. Zarah 17a). These controversies have left their impress upon the prayerbook and the liturgy. This is shown by the prominence given to the Shema'; to the Messianic predictions in the ShemonehEsreh (the "Eighteen Benedictions"), which emphasized the belief in the Resurrection; and, finally, to the prominence given to the Decalogue though the latter was again omitted in order to counteract the belief that it alone had been revealed (Tamid v. 1; Yer. Ber. 6b; Bab. Ber. 12a). These expressions of belief are held to have originated in the desire to give definite utterance and impressiveness to the corresponding doctrines that were either rejected or attenuated by some of the heretical schools. But while the se portions of the daily liturgy are expressive of the doctrinal contents of the regnant party in the synagogue, they were not cast into the form of catalogued Articles of Faith.
The first to make the attempt to formulate them was Philo of Alexandria. The influence of Greek thought induced among the Jews of Egypt the reflective mood. Discussion was undoubtedly active on the unsettled points of speculative be lief; and such discussion led, as it nearly always does, to a stricter definition of the doctrines. In his work "De Mundi Opificio," lxi., Philo enumerates five articles as embracing the chief tenets of Mosaism:
1. God is and rules;
2. God is one
3. The world was created;
4. Creation is one;
5. God's providence rules Creation.
But among the Tannaim and Amoraim this example of Philo found no followers, though many of their number were drawn into controversies with both Jews and nonJews, and had to fortify their faith against the attacks of contemporaneous philosophy as well as against rising Christianity. Only in a general way the Mishnah Sanh. xi. 1 excludes from the world to come the Epicureans and those who deny belief in resurrection or in the divine origin of the Torah. R. Akiba would also regard as heretical the readers o f Sefarim Hetsonim-certain extraneous writings (Apocrypha or Gospels)-and such persons that would heal through whispered formulas of magic. Abba Saul designated as under suspicion of infidelity those that pronounce the ineffable name of the Deity. By implication, the contrary doctrine and attitude may thus be regarded as having been proclaimed as orthodox. On the other hand, Akiba himself declares that the command to love one's neighbor the fundamental the principle of the Law; while Ben Asa i assigns this distinction to the Biblical verse, "This is the book of the generations of man " (Gen. v. i.; Gen. R. xxiv). The definition of Hillel the Elder in his interview with a wouldbe convert (Shab. 31a), embodies in the golden rule the one fundamental article of faith. A teacher of the third Christian century, R. Simlai, traces the development of Jewish religious principles from Moses with his 613 commands of prohibition and injunction, through David, who, according to this rabbi, enumerates eleven; through Isaiah, with six; Micah, with three; to Habakkuk who simply but impressively sums up all religious faith in the single phrase, "The pious lives in his faith" (Mak., toward end). As the Halakhah enjoins that one should prefer death to an act of idolatry, incest, unchastity, or murder, the inference is plain that the corresponding positive principles were held to be fundamental articles of Judaism.
The Decalogue as a Summary
From Philo down to late medieval and even modern writers, the Decalogue has been held to be in some way a summary of both the articles of the true faith and the duties derived from that faith. According to the Alexandrian philosopher the order of the Ten Words is not accidental. They divide readily into two groups: the first five summarizing man's relations to the Deity; the other five specifying man's duties to his fellows. Ibn Ezra virtually adopts this view. He interprets the contents of the Decalogue, not merely in their legalritual bearing but as expressive of ethicoreligious principles. But this view can be traced to other traditions. In Yer. Ber. 6b the Shema' is declared to be only an epitome of the Decalogue. That in the poetry of the synagogal ritual this thought often dominates is well known. No less a thinker than Saadia Gaon composed a liturgical production of this character (see AZHAROT) and R. Eliezer ben Nathan of Mayence enriched the pray erbook with a piyyut in which the six hundred and thirteen commands are rubricated in the order of and in connection with the Decalogue. The theory that the Decalogue was the foundation of Judaism, its article of faith, was advocated Isaac Abravanel (see his Commentary on Ex. xx. 1); and in recent years by Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati in his "Catechism" and other writings.
The only confession of faith, however, which, though not so denominated, has found universal acceptance, forms a part of the daily liturgy, contained in all Jewish prayerbooks. ln its original form it read somewhat as follows:
"True and established is this word for us forever. True it is that Thou art our God as Thou wast the God of our fathers; our King as [Thou wast] the King of our fathers; our Redeemer and the Redeemer of our fathers; our Creator and the Rock of our salvation; our Deliverer and Savior from eternity is Thy name, and there is no God besides Thee."
This statement dates probably from the days of the Hasmoneans (see Landshuth, in "Hegyon Leb").
Saadia's, Judah haLevi's and Bahya's Creed
In the stricter sense of the term, specifications in connected sequence, and rational analysis of Articles of Faith, did not find favor with the teachers and the faithful before the Arabic period. The polemics with the Karaites on the one hand, and, on the other, the necessity of defending their religion against the attacks of the philosophies current among both Mohammedans and Jews, induced the leading thinkers to define and formulate their beliefs. Saadia's "Emunot weDeot" is in reality one long ex position of the main tenets of the faithful. The plan of the book discloses a systematization of the different religious doctrines that, in the estimation of the author, constitute the sum total of his faith. They are, in the order of their treatment by him, the following:
1. The world is created;
2. God is one and incorporeal;
3. belief in revelation (including the divine origin of tradition;
4. man is called to righteousness and endowed with all necessary qualities of mind and soul to avoid sin;
5. belief in reward and punishment;
6. the soul is created pure; after death it leaves the body;
7. belief in resurrection;
8. Messianic expectation, retribution, and final judgment.
Judah haLevi endeavored, in his "Cuzari," to determine the fundamentals of Judaism on another basis. He rejects all appeal to speculative reason, repudiating the method of the Motekallamin. The miracles and traditions are, in their natural character, both the source and the evidence of the true faith. With them Judaism stands and falls. The book of Bahya ibn Pakuda ("Hobot haLebabot"), while remarkable, as it is, for endeavoring to give religion its true setting as a spiritual force, contributed nothing of note to the exposition of the fundamental articles. It goes without saying that the unity of God, His government of the world, the possibilities of leading a divine life-which were never forfeited by man-are expounded as essentials of Judaism.
Ibn Daud and Hananel ben Hushiel
More interesting on this point is the work of R. Abraham ibn Daud (1120) entitled "Emnah Ramah" (The High Faithful). In the second division of his treatise he discourses on the principles of faith and the Law. These principles are:
The existence of God;
His Unity;
His spirituality;
His other attributes;
His power as manifested in His works;
His providence.
Less well known is the scheme of an African rabbi, Hananel b. Hushiel, about a century earlier, according to whom Judaism's fundamental articles number four:
Belief in God;
belief in prophecy;
belief in a future state;
belief in the advent of the Messiah.
The Thirteen Articles of Maimonides
The most widely spread and popular of all creeds is that of Maimonides, embracing the thirteen articles. Why he chose this particular number has been a subject of much discussion. Some have seen in the number a reference to the thirteen attributes of God. Probably no meaning attaches to the choice of the number. His articles are:
1. The existence of God;
2. His unity;
3. His spirituality;
4. His eternity;
5. God alone the object of worship;
6. Revelation through his prophets;
7. the preeminence of Moses among the Prophets;
8. God's law given on Mount Sinai;
9. the immutability of the Torah as God's Law;
10. God's foreknowledge of men's actions;
11. retribution;
12. the coming of the Messiah;
13. Resurrection.
This creed Maimonides wrote while still a very young man; it forms a part of his Mishnah Commentary, but he never referred to it in his later works (See S/ Adler, "Tenets of Faith and Their Authority in the Talmud," in his "Kobez 'al Yad," p. 92, where Yad haHazakah, Issure Biah, xiv, 2, is referred to as proof that Maimonides in his advanced age regarded as fundamental of the faith only the unity of God and the prohibition of idolatry). It did not meet universal acceptance; but, as its phraseology is succinct, it has passed into the prayerbook, and is therefore familiar to almost all Jews of the Orthodox school. The successors of Maimonides, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century-Nahmanides , Abba Mari ben Moses, Simon ben Zemah, Duran, Albo, Isaac Arama, and Joseph Jaabez-reduced his thirteen articles to three:
Belief in
God;
in Creation (or revelation); and in
providence (or retribution).
Others, like Crescas and David ben Samuel Estella, spoke of seven fundamental articles, laying stress on freewill. On the other hand, David ben YomTob ibn Bilia, in his "Yesodot ha Maskil" (Fundamentals of the Thinking Man), adds to the thirteen of Maimonides thirteen of his own-a number which a contemporary of Albo (see "'Ikkarim," iii.) also chose for his fundamentals; while Jedaiah Penini, in the last chapter of his "Behinat haDat," enumerated no less than thirtyfive cardinal principles (see Low, "Judische Dogmen," in his "Gesammelte Werke," i. 156 et seq.; and Schechter, "Dogmas of Judaism," in "Studies of Judaism," pp. 147181).
In the fourteenth century Asher ben Jehiel of Toledo raised his voice against the Maimonidean Articles of Faith, declaring them to be only temporary, and suggested that another be added to recognize that the Exile is a punishment for the sins of Israel . Isaac Abravanel, his "Rosh Amanah," took the same attitude towards Maimonides' creed. While defending Maimonides against Hasdai and Albo, he refused to accept dogmatic articles for Judaism, holding, with all the cabalists, that the 613 commandments of t he Law are all tantamount to Articles of Faith.
In liturgical poetry the Articles of Faith as evolved by philosophical speculation met with metrical presentation. The most noted of such metrical and rimed elaborations are the "Adon 'Olam," by an anonymous writer now used as an introduction to the morning services (by the Sephardim as the conclusion of the musaf or "additional" service), and of comparatively recent date; and the other known as the "Yigdal," according to Luzzatto, by R. Daniel b. Judah Dayyan.
Modern Catechisms
The modern catechisms abound in formulated Articles of Faith. These are generally intended to be recited by the candidates for confirmation, or to be used for the reception of proselytes (See Dr. Einhorn's "'Olat Tamid"). The Central Conference of America n Rabbis, in devising a formula for the admission of proselytes, elaborated a set of Articles of Faith. These modern schemes have not met with general favor their authors being in almost all cases the only ones that have had recourse to them in practise. The points of agreement in these recent productions consist in
the affirmation of the unity of God;
the election of Israel as the priest people;
the Messianic destiny of all humanity.
The declaration of principles by the Pittsburgh Conference (1885) is to be classed, perhaps, with the many attempts to fix in a succinct enumeration the main principles of the modern Jewish religious consciousness.
The Karaites are not behind the Rabbinites in the elaboration of Articles of Faith. The oldest instances of the existence of such articles among them are found in the famous word by Judah ben Elijah Hadassi, "Eshkol haKofer." In the order there given these are the articles of the Karaite:
1. God is the Creator of all created beings;
2. He is premundane and has no peer or associate;
3. the whole universe is created;
4. God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon;
5. the Law of Moses alone is true;
6. to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty;
7. the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world's ruler;
8. belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah;
9. final judgment;
10. retribution.
The number ten here is not accidental. It is keeping with the scheme of the Decalogue. Judah Hadassi acknowledges that he had predecessors in this line, and mentions some of the works on which he bases his enumeration. The most succinct cataloguing of the Karaite faith in articles is that by Elijah Bashyatzi (died about 1490). His articles vary but little from those by Hadassi, but they are put with greater philosophical precision (see Jost, "Geschichte des Judenthums," ii. 331).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Schlesinger, German translation of 'Ikkarim (especially introduction and annotations), xvixliii. 620 et seq., 640 et seq.; Low, Gesammelte Werke, i. 3152, 133176; Jost, Gesh. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten; Hamburger, Realencyclopadie, s.v. Dogmen; Rappoport, Biography of Hananel; Schechter, The Dogmas of Judaism, in Studies in Judaism, pp 147181; J. Aub. Ueber die GlaubensSymbole der Mosaischen Religion; Frankel's Zeitschrift fur die Religiosen Interessen des Judenthums, 1845, 409, 449; Creizenach, Grundlehren des Israelitischen Glaubens, in Geiger's Wissensch. Zeitschrift fur Jud. Theologie, i. 39 et seq., ii. 6 8, 255

Muhammed what exactly was he

2008-07-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

Was Muhammad a great prophet of God spreading goodness throughout the world or a power hungry manipulator of people who used their desires for sex, eternal life and help from God, for personal gain? One way to answer this question is to ask what he would have done if he were one or the other and than compare what the Koran and the Hadiths say he did, to these expectations. In this essay we will try and determine which is correct by considering what Muhammad would have done if he was a ruthless power hungry man who used religion to manipulate people and comparing that to what he actually did. To help do this let us imagine ourselves in his situation.
If you decided to start a cult you would have to figure out how to do it. You could declare that you are God. After some thought, you might realize that, that is not the best way to go about it. If you claim to be God to people, they will think you are crazy and they will challenge you to perform miracles and you can't perform miracles. Another option is to try and convince them that you can communicate with God (you are his prophet) and that God talks through you. Now you don’t have to perform miracles.
One problem you would face is that if you persuade these people to believe in you, they might tell their friends about their new religion and their friends may convince them that you are a con-artist after their money. How can you prevent that from happening? Somehow you need to stop them from communicating with their friends. (This is a technique commonly used by modern day cults) You could take the approach Muhammad took which was to command them:
O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. [Koran, al-Ma'idah 5:51.11]
And
Ignore disbelievers and their poisonous talk. [Koran 33:48]
And
Stay away from non-Muslims. They are all liars. [Koran 9:107]
What if they start having doubts on their own and start spreading those doubts? You could terrify them into being silent about those doubts by instructing your followers:
Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him. Sahih Al-Bukhari (9:57)
You could also threaten them with burning in the eternal fires of hell if they don’t believe.
Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. (Koran 22:19-22:23)
One way to increase your wealth and power and wipe out those that spread doubt about you at the same time, would be to conquer the infidels who dare not honor you as their prophet and seize their money. You might instruct your followers:
Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush. (Koran 9:5)
If you wanted revenge against those who refuse to accept your religion and you were a totally ruthless and vicious sicko you might tell your followers to torture the non-believer. You might say:
Take him and fetter him and expose him to hell fire. And then insert him in a chain whereof the length is seventy cubits. (Koran 69:30-37)
and
I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, Smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger tips of them. (Koran 8:12)
and
They should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides. (Koran 5:33)
Smiting above necks by Muslims in modern times can be seen here.
Inevitably you will find some people who don't believe in you because they already believe in other religions. It would be much easier to manipulate people into believing that you are a prophet if you argue that your God Allah is the same as their God. According to the following text in the Koran Muhammad did this. In this text Allah is God, Isa is Jesus, Marium is Mary the Taurat is the Torah and the Injeel is the New Testament.
5.44] Surely We revealed the Taurat in which was guidance and light; …[5.46] And We sent after them in their footsteps Isa, son of Marium, verifying what was before him of the Taurat and We gave him the Injeel in which was guidance and light, and verifying what was before it of Taurat and a guidance and an admonition for those who guard (against evil).
There is evidence that Muhammad did this with the Pagans in Arabia as well. The crescent moon which is a symbol of Islam is also a symbol of the moon God which was worshipped by the Arabs of Muhammad’s time. One of the names of the moon God was Al-Ilah which is most likely where the word Allah came from. The Kaaba was the house of the moon God and is the holiest place in Islam. For more about this see Was Allah the Moon God?
Saying that Allah is the same God as the God of other religions may create unexpected problems. What if other religions teach, that killing the non-believer is wrong? The Jewish Mishna teaches that:
whoever destroys one life is regarded by the Torah as if he has destroyed a whole world; and whoever saves one life, is regarded as if he has saved a whole world.
According to the Koran, Muhammad did not deny that Allah had said this but explained that it did not apply to killing non-Jewish infidels. Muhammad said that Allah said: (Koran 5.32-5.33)
32. That is why We decreed for the children of Israel that whosoever kills a human being, except (as punishment) for murder or for spreading corruption in the land, it shall be like killing all humanity; and whosoever saves a life, saves the entire human race. Our apostles brought clear proofs to them; but even after that most of them committed excesses in the land.
33. The punishment for those who wage war against God and His Prophet, and perpetrate disorders in the land, is to kill or hang them, or have a hand on one side and a foot on the other cut off, or banish them from the land. Such is their disgrace in the world, and in the Hereafter their doom shall be dreadful.
Muslims often quote 5.32 out of context to show that Islam is a benevolent religion. After the failed car bombing attempts in London by Muslim doctors, Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin, of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in an editorial in the New York Post 7/4/2007 wrote that:

"The Koranic verse that equates saving one life with saving the lives of all of humanity teaches me the sacredness of each life and inspires me to strive for professional excellence."
Taking this verse out of context in this way is extremely deceptive since the only reason that verse is in the Koran is to justify killing and maiming Jewish infidels.
Dealing with the problem of compassionate verses in religions that you incorporate into your own is only one of your problems if you are trying to be a wealthy prophet. One problem with encouraging your followers to attack and loot the infidel is that the non-believing infidel might defend himself. That might deter your followers from attacking. You could give them the incentive of being able to keep the booty. You could tell them:
The person who participates in (Holy battles) in Allah's cause ... will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) (Hadith Sahih Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 2 Number 35)
The lure of booty has motivated Muslim soldiers throughout history. The Turkish historian Seaddedin wrote about how the offer of booty motivated Muslim soldiers when he wrote about the fall of Constantinople to his fellow Muslims in 1453. He wrote:
Having received permission to loot, the soldiers thronged into the city with joyous hearts and there, seizing the possessors and their families, they made the wretched unbelievers weep.
You could give them the incentive of sex also by saying that it's fine with Allah if your followers have sex with the captured women and keep them as slaves.
33:50 - "Prophet, We have made lawful to you ... the slave girls whom God has given you as booty."
4:24 - And all married women (are forbidden) unto your save those (captives) whom your right hand possesses.
Still the risk of death might deter some of your followers. If you were a brilliant and evil man you might think of and carry out the following ingenious solution to the problem. You could tell your followers that they will go to paradise if they die fighting for the faith. You might complete the previous sentence as follows:
The person who participates in (Holy battles) in Allah's cause ... will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to Paradise (if he is killed in the battle as a martyr). (Hadith Sahih Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 2 Number 35)
and remind your followers that:
"Know that paradise is under the shades of swords." Sahih al-Bukhari Vol 4 p55
So tell us what it is like to be in paradise your followers might ask. You might say that those who enter paradise will enjoy:
"abundant fruits, unforbidden, never-ending." There will be "gushing fountains" and everyone "shall recline on jeweled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine." Suras (or chapters) 55 and 56 of the Quran.
That might not be enough to convince your lusty male followers to risk death in battle so you might tell them some even more thrilling aspects of Paradise. You might tell them:
"Therein are bashful virgins whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before ... virgins as fair as corals and rubies," sura 55. A few lines later, you might remind them of "virgins chaste and fair ... they shall recline on green cushions and fine carpets."
By now you have a rapt audience of eager male listeners. How many virgins are there for a man who dies for Allah an eager follower asks?
Why the smallest reward for every believer who is admitted to Paradise is 72 wives. The proof is in the Book of Sunan (volume IV, chapters on "The Features of Paradise as described by the Messenger of Allah," Chapter 21: "About the Smallest Reward for the People of Paradise," Hadith 2687). The Tafsir of Surah Al-Rahman (55), verse 72: mentions servants as well "It was mentioned by Daraj Ibn Abi Hatim that Abu-al-Haytham Abdullah Ibn Wahb narrated from Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri, who heard the Prophet Muhammad saying: 'The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a.'"
Are they really virgins a starry eyed follower asks?
The chastity of the black-eyed was not violated by man nor jinn (verse 74 of Surah Al-Rahman (55))
What if a follower is concerned that when are surrounded by all those women he won’t be able to do it? Tell him not to worry. TIRMZI, vol. 2 states on page 138:
A man in paradise shall be given virility equal to that of one hundred men.
Even with all this incentive there may be some of your followers who are afraid of getting hurt. They may be afraid of dying, the cowards. Not only that but they may fear that since they haven’t led the most moral life they may not qualify for paradise and spend eternity in hell. Reassure the miserable cowards. Tell them that the rewards of Al Shaheed (Martyr) include:
(Hadith Tirmidhî and Ahmad):
· He will not feel the agony of death.
· He does not feel the pain of the killing except like that of a pinch.
· All the Shaheed’s sins and faults are forgiven with the first drop of blood that comes out of his body.
· The soul of the martyrs dwell in Paradise whenever they like.
· Allah will marry him to Hur-al-een.

Sheikh Abd Al-Salam Abu Shukheydem, Chief Mufti of the Palestinian Authority police force reminded his Muslims brothers of these Hadiths in September 1999. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), September 17, 1999.), He said in regard to the martyr:

"From the moment the first drop of his blood is spilled, he does not feel the pain of his wounds and he is forgiven for all his sins; he sees his seat in Paradise; he is saved from the torment of the grave; he is saved from the great horror of Judgment Day; he marries 'the black-eyed'; he vouches for 70 of his family members; he gains the crown of honor, the precious stone of which is better than this entire world and everything in it." In a Friday sermon broadcast on Palestinian television, Sheikh Ismail Al-Radwan declared: "He is given 72 'black-eyed.'"
Congratulations. You’ve almost completely brainwashed your followers into becoming murdering madmen but something is still missing. Some of your followers had Jewish or Christian friends. They don’t want to kill them. You need paranoia. You need to convince your followers that the non-believers are evil. You need to tell them that (Koran 5:13):
you shall always discover treachery in them
And Koran (4:76)
disbelievers fight for the devil. So fight the minions of the devil.
And Koran (7:177)
Those who deny Muhammad's revelation are evil.
And Koran (8:55)
The worst beasts in Allah's sight are the disbelievers.
And Koran(8:59 8:60)
They are your enemy and the enemy of Allah.
There is still something missing. You need more paranoia. If you want your followers to wipe out the Jews you need to make the Jews out to be a threat. You might do what Muhammad did to get his followers to massacre them.
He accused the Jewish tribe of the Bani Quraytha of wanting to betray him and the angel Gabriel ordered him to attack them. He went to them, put them under siege for 14 days. Finally they surrendered. So Mohammed killed all their men, enslaved their women and children [Saheeh Muslim - 1769].
Ali Sina gives us an example of how Muhammad motivated his followers to seize the property of the Jews of Bani Nadeer tribe. He wrote.:
Bani Nadeer had the best-cultivated land in Yathrib. Muhammad had his eyes on their plantations and farms. Bukhari Volume 9, Book 92, Number 447 … So he had to come up with an excuse…. He needed a pretext to act upon his plan and confiscate the properties of these wealthy Jews. There again, the prophet of Allah had a new “inspiration”. It was a brilliant idea. He told his companions that the Jews had plotted to kill him. His followers believed him when he told them of his Miiraj in the company of Gabriele (that the angel Gabriel told him that the Jews planned to kill him). They had no difficulty believing whatever to believe in any absurdity that he concocted…
The Koran describes Muhammad's massacre of the Jews http://main.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/jews.htm which leads modern Moslems to think such behavior is a good thing. After the battle all 700 men left in the tribe were slaughtered in one day the unfortunates being forced to dig their own graves before their heads were struck off. The women were enslaved. Muslims always prized females not only because they could be used to do domestic work, but also because they could used to used to satisfy their carnal appetites of their owners and also be used as breeding stock to breed more slaves. Islamic enslavement of the non-believer continues today in the Sudan and Mauritania. In fact Islamic genocide against the non-believer is occurring in the Sudan.
Once you are killing Jews some of them will fight back and so will become a threat. Then it is much easier to create paranoia toward them and convince your followers that they are evil. Creation of Paranoia by Muslims toward the non-believer in order to destroy them is rampant today. To see a movie of this click here. Why would modern day Muslims create paranoia? We can understand why Muhammad did but why do Muslim preachers do it? Why does Palestinian TV incite hatred of Jews in children? Some of the motivations are probably the same as those of Muhammad, non-believers might cause doubt in the believers and threaten their power and status. If the preacher believers that those who fight the non-believer score points with Allah then he probably thinks that by inciting people to fight Jihad he is also scoring points with Allah. If he believes that children will go to heaven if they fight the non-believer then there is no reason to feel guilty about inciting them to fight the non-believer. He understands just as Muhammad did that in order to motivate people to fight Jihad against the infidel it is helpful to make the infidel appear to be an evil threat who has committed atrocities against fellow Muslims.
You promised your followers booty if they fight for you. The problem is you have to deliver on the promise of the booty and yet you want it. So tell them that since Allah granted victory the spoils belong to him and one fifth should go to his prophet (you) and let them have the rest (Al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52 Number 46 8:41). What if your followers want to rape their captive women? If you want them to kill for you, it would be wise to satisfy their sexual desires and offer it as a reward for mass murder so you tell them that Allah decrees that they can rape their captives (Sahih Muslim, Book 8, Number 3371).
Congratulations, your brainwashed followers are enthusiastically killing the infidel right and left and you are getting wealthy off the booty.
You've got power now. It's time for revenge. Those Jews wouldn't worship you and they have a lot of hot women and money. Order a massacre but only of the men and children. Your devout brainwashed followers will now carry it out without hesitation.
But wait a minute. You could be making more money. What good do a lot of dead non-believers do for you? Wouldn't it be better if they all paid taxes? You don't want the non-believer killed, you want them enslaved. Not only will you be making money off of them but every day they have to live in humiliation while you dominate. That’s even better revenge then killing them. So you would tell your followers:
Fight those who do not believe in Allah, ... until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection. [Koran 9.29]
Now you're making money. Oh, oh, some of your idiot followers have decided to force the infidel to convert to Islam. If they do that you won't get as much taxes. Ah tell them:
Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error (Koran 2:256)
and
If it had been thy Lord's Will, they would all have believed, all who are on earth! Wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe? (Koran 10:99)
Now your followers have the women and you want them. One of your soldiers has a particularly pretty one. You could command your soldier to give her to you but he might get very upset and soldiers tend to be dangerous. Since you are rich you could pay him a lot of money for her and that might get him a little less angry. You've got plenty of money since your followers give you a cut of the loot. This is what Mohammed did after he heard that a soldier called Dahia had obtained a Jewish woman of "incomparable beauty" by the name of Safiya bint Huyay after participating in an attack against her Jewish brethren. He sent for Dahiya, paid him Safiya's price and married her. (Ibn Saad, al-Tabaqat, pp. 120-123). Rayhana Bint Zayd was another Jewish woman, whom Mohammed made his concubine after her family and tribe was totally butchered by his followers.
Now you're rich and powerful. But you still have a problem. You have to pretend that you are good. You can't do all those deliciously immoral acts that you want to do. Lets say you want to engage in immoral sexual behavior. People might not approve and question your saintliness. Not a problem. You can say that God commanded you to do it. Lets say you saw a hot babe and want to add her to your burgeoning collection of wives and you already have more than four wives and you told your followers that they can just have four wives. You can say that God allows as many infidel slave sex partners as you want. What if your infidel wife has the bright idea to convert to Islam so that you can't have her and your four wives. Make Islamic law say that a slave who converts to Islam is still a slave! What about the children she gives birth to. Boubacar Messaoud, who was born a slave in Mauritania and is now his country's leading anti-slavery campaigner explained:
“It's like having sheep or goats. If a woman is a slave, her descendants are slaves."
What if the girl you are lusting after is Muslim and is not a slave. Just say that you got a special dispensation from God granted through the archangel Gabriel and go for it! Let say you want to marry into a powerful family but the only girl available is only 9 years old. That won't look good to your followers. So you explain to them that God wanted you to have sex with the child of your desires:
"...the Prophet said to her (Aisha), 'You have been shown to me twice in my dream. I saw you pictured on a piece of silk and someone said (to me). 'This is your wife.' When I uncovered the picture, I saw that it was yours. I said, 'If this is from Allah, it will be done.'"(Hadith, Sahih Bukhari 5:58:235)
Lets say your son Zayad has married an incredibly beautiful wife by the name of Zainab who is ravishing and you want her. Not a problem. Have Allah command him to annul the marriage.
(Sura 33:37) Then when Zayad had dissolved his marriage with her (Zainab) we joined her in marriage to thee: in order that there may be no difficulty to the believers in the matter of marriage of the wives of their adopted sons....
Some of your followers get excited and raise their voice to you. You could tell them to keep it down but it would be far more effective if Allah would do so through you. In the Koran that is exactly what Allah does in sura XLIX.
Believers, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor shout aloud when speaking to him as you do to one another…Those who speak softly in the presence of God’s apostle are the men whose hearts God has tested for piety.
A devout Muslim named Shaikh (see Leaving Islam) was reading this passage when a question entered his mind. Why is it really for Allah to tell people to show reverence to Muhammad? Can’t Muhammad tell the people these things himself? God was acting as a servant to Muhammad. Shaikh wrote:
I came to the conclusion, all of a sudden, that it was Muhammad himself who was telling the people how to bow before him in the name of Allah, as though it were a command from Allah.
This was the beginning of Shaikh’s realization that his dear and beloved Islam was a lie. Shaikh points out another example. He writes:
If you read sura XXXIII.56 you will see it says, “Verily, God and His Angels pray for the prophet.” In every other religion, it is man who worships God, but here God appears to be worshipping man.
As you became rich other people might get the idea to declare that they are prophets too. They might even copy your tactics and threaten those who don't believe in them with hell. If such tactics worked for you it might work for them too. Then there'll be less money for you. Their followers might even become a threat to you. Not a problem. Just declare that you are the last prophet.
In My Ummah (Islamic Nation), there shall be born Thirty Grand Liars (Dajjals), each of whom will claim to be a prophet, But I am the Last Prophet; there is No Prophet after Me. (Abu Dawood Vol 2 p. 228; Tirmidhi Vol 2 p.45)" [1]
Once you declare yourself the last prophet you can accuse anyone who declares himself a prophet after you of being a heretic and you or your followers can have him eliminated. This was the fate of a Persian, Siyyid 'Ali-Muhammad who announced in May 23, 1844, that he had a mission to herald the arrival of "One greater than Himself". This announcement was the birth of the Bahai religion. Siyyid said:
I am one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognized Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained all that is good and seemly; and whosoever hath failed to recognize Me, hath turned away from all that is true and right and hath succumbed to everything evil and unseemly...all those who cherish My love and follow My behest abiding within the mansions of Paradise, and the entire company of Mine adversaries consigned to the lowest depths of hell-fire.
Although Muhammad was dead by 1844 his followers were not. Since Muhammad had said that he was the last prophet, Siyyid was considered a heretic by Moslems and killed and his followers persecuted. Their religion survived this persecution and a picture of their beautiful temple in Wilmette Illinois can be viewed online.
The approach I have described for motivating Muslims to kill is still in use today. The New York Times reported this approach being used by Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad to motivate his Muslim followers in England. The New York Times reported: (Militants in Europe Openly Call For Jihad and the Rule of Islam 4/24/2004)
In Slough, Sheik Omar spent much of his time Thursday night regaling his young followers with the erotic delights of paradise — sweet kisses and the pleasures of bathing with scores of women — while he also preached the virtues of death in Islamic struggle as a ticket to paradise.
Muhammad's use of religion to justify his exploitation of women to satisfy his sexual desires has led to Islamic sexual exploitation of women throughout history. His use of sex and divine revelations into manipulating his followers into going to war against the infidel has led to a history of bloody wars against the non-believers and murder of non-believers that continues to this day.
The sinister use of sex to motivate murder is a factor in suicide bombings. Aaron Klein interviewed a suicide bomber who explained
I pray that Allah gives me the honor to be dead in an operation. This is the supreme and the noblest way to ascend to Allah. These martyrs have special status in the next world and have bigger chances to watch Allah's face and enjoy the magnificent pleasures he offers us… I will tell you more the moment that I will explode myself when there will be one dark-eyed virgin who will carry up my soul to the sky.
Death announcements of suicide bombers in the Palestinian Press, often takes the form of a wedding not funeral announcements. Serge Trifkovic in his book The Sword of the Prophet give the following examples:
With great pride, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad marrieds the member of its military wing ... the martyr and hero Yasser Al-Adhami, to the black-eyed." (Al Istiqlal, October 4, 2001)
Sa'id Al-Hutari, who exploded himself and 23 Israeli teenagers at a Tel Aviv disco on June 1, 2001, wrote in his will: "Call out in joy, oh my mother, distribute sweets, oh my father and brothers; a wedding with 'the black-eyed' awaits your son in Paradise." (Al Risala, July 7, 2001)
Al Jazeera calls these suicide murders "Paradise" operations. (Al-Jazeera's New Name for 'Martyrs' wnd.com 10/29/05). The terror guide to the hijackers who crashed planeloads of innocent people into the World Trade Center said:
It will be the day, God willing, you spend with the women of paradise...Know that the gardens of paradise are waiting for you in all their beauty, and the women of paradise are waiting, calling out, "Come hither, friend of God."

In 2002 Muhammed Yusuf was approached by two strangers who tried to recruit him as a suicide bomber. Yussuf said:
They promised that if I died that way I would get 70 virgins in heaven and even talked about how I would be given a place to have sex, covered in diamonds and pearls, where even angels couldn't see me.
Muhammed had recently lost his father. They told him that if he committed a suicide bombing he'd see his father real soon. (Matt Roper, Exclusive: They Tried to Make Me a Suicide Bomber mirror.co.uk, 7/14/05)
I have described how Islam is used to turn people into enthusiastic killers. The down side of creating such killers as they can turn against the one who created them. Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia sent out preachers of Wahhabi doctrine who recruited Bedouins to Islam who became the Ikhwan or brotherhood. Though brotherly to each other the Ikhwan were ruthless killers who under Ibn Saud’s leadership conquered the Hejaz. At this point Ibn Saud wanted to restrain them from completely destroying the Hejaz but he had given birth to a monster. The “Brothers” were enraged at being blocked from further putting Hejaz to fire and the sword. Laurent Murawiec quoted one brother writing about Ibn Saud in Princes of Darkness. The brother wrote that:
“You have … prevented me from raiding the [other] Bedouins, so we are neither Moslems fighting the unbelievers, nor are we Arabs and Bedouins raiding each other… You have kept us away from both our religious and worldly concerns.
Others complained
Since [Ibn Saud] has ruled, no one has riaded an enemy and no one has stolen so much as a chicken! Nothing to do but stay at home like women…
These fanatics were killed by the British who in those days were better armed than the Wahabis, luckily for Ibn Saud. The modern government of Saudi Arabia may not be so lucky.
There is widespread propaganda that the on September 11th Islam was hijacked, and that Islam is a religion of peace. Clearly the intent of Muhammad was not peace, clearly his primary goal was war for profit. In fact Islam divides the world into the dar al-Islam, the house of peace which is all areas ruled by Islam and dar al-Harb, the house of war. Islam is a religion of war. Islam was not hijacked on September 11th, on September 11th we saw the true face of Islam. It is the peaceful moderate Muslims who hijack their religion.
The Reverend Jerry Falwell said that Muhammad was a terrorist. He was condemned by the National Council of Churches among other organizations. Ali Sina wrote an article defending Falwell called Is Falwell to be Blamed for Calling Muhammad a Terrorist?
Here is one paragraph from that essay:
What Falwell said was not factually untrue. Muhammad did things that by today’s standard would be seen as acts of terrorism. He raided towns without any previous warning, killed unarmed men who had gone to the fields and markets after their daily business, captured their wives and children and distributed the younger women among his soldiers while always keeping the prettiest ones for himself and having sex with them in the same day he murdered their fathers, husbands and loved ones. These are not fables but historic facts recorded and preserved by Muslims themselves.
What Muhammad did hundreds of years ago radical Muslims are doing today. Suicide bombers and holy war jihadists in search of paradise open the gates of hell on earth with the flaming explosions they create and in the process destroy the paradises that existed on earth. Islam has turned the Paradise of Kashmir into a terrorist hell. A terrorist bomb has ended tourism in the paradise of Bali for the forseeable future. Muslims are committing genocide in the Sudan. Islam has caused endless wars in the Middle East and throughout the world. 95% of the conflicts in the world as of 2001 involved Muslims. One of the greatest threats to the world today is that of Islamic fanatics getting hold of weapons of mass destruction. These fanatic Muslims have no fear of the consequences of setting off such weapons as they believe that Allah will grant them victory or at the worst will bring them to paradise. Muhammad died a long time ago but the religion he created lives on and continues to bring misery and death and to threaten us all.

L.Ron Hubbard as quoted from his own mouth

2008-07-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

HUBBARD IN HIS OWN WORDS

"Scientology is used to increase spiritual freedom, intelligence, ability and to produce immortality."
- L. Ron Hubbard, DIANETICS AND SCIENTOLOGY TECHNICAL DICTIONARY, copyright 1975, reprinted 1987, p. 370

"MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MORE MONEY."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384

"Show me any person who is critical of us and I�ll show you crimes and intended crimes that would stand a magistrate�s hair on end."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 4 April 1965

"Somebody some day will say �this is illegal.� By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 4 January 1966, "LRH Relationship to Orgs"

"If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 15 August 1960, Dept. of Govt. Affairs

"The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."
- L. Ron Hubbard, A MANUAL ON THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIAL, 1955

"When we need somebody haunted we investigate�When we investigate we do so noisily always."
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959

"People attack Scientology, I never forget it, always even the score. People attack auditors, or staff, or organisations, or me. I never forget until the slate is clear."
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959

"So we listen. We add up associations of people with people. When a push against Scientology starts somewhere, we go over the people involved and weed them out. Push vanishes."
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959

"Our organizations are friendly. They are only here to help you."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Dianetic Contract" 23 May 1969

"ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967
[SP = Suppressive Person a.k.a. critic of Scientology]

"The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations.
This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 21 October 1968, "Cancellation of Fair Game"

"A truly Suppressive Person or group has no rights of any kind and actions taken against them are not punishable."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 1 March 1965, HCO (Division 1) "Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists"

"The names and connections, at this time, of the bitterly opposing enemy are: 1. Psychiatry and psychology (not medicine). 2. The heads of news media who are also directors of psychiatric front groups. 3. A few key political figures in the fields of "mental health" and education. 4. A decline of monetary stability caused by the current planning of bankers who are also directors of psychiatric front organizations [that] would make us unable to function."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 16 February 1969, "TARGETS, DEFENSE"

"When you move off a point of power, pay all your obligations on the nail, empower all your friends completely and move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on every erstwhile rival, unlimited funds in your private account and the addresses of experienced assassins and go live in Bulgravia [sic] and bribe the police."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 12 February 1967, "The Responsibilities of Leaders"

"There is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves."
- L. Ron Hubbard, KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING. 7 February 1965, reissued 27 August 1980

"They smell of all the baths they didn�t take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here."
- L. Ron Hubbard�s diary, 1928. (Jon Atack, A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED. Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group 1990)

"Having viewed slum clearance projects in most major cities of the world may I state that you have conceived and created in the Johannesburg townships what is probably the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence."
- L. Ron Hubbard in a letter to H.F. Verwoerd (widely considered to be the architect of South Africa�s apartheid system) dated November 7, 1960, reprinted in K.T.C. Kotz�, INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS AND PRACTICES OF SCIENTOLOGY, p. 59, Pretoria 1973

"In any event, any person from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale should not have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind, because by abusing those rights he brings into being arduous and strenuous laws which are oppressive to those who need no such restraints."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, 1989 Ed., p. 145 [The "Tone Scale" is Scientology�s measure of mental and spiritual health.]

"There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the Tone Scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 170

"The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the Tone Scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 170

"A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 171

"Unfortunately, it is all too often true that suppressors to a creative action must be removed before construction and creation takes place. Any person very high on the Tone Scale may level destruction toward a suppressor."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 159

"In all the broad Universe there is no other hope for Man than ourselves."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Ron's Journal" 1967

"A psychiatrist today has the power to (1) take a fancy to a woman (2) lead her to take wild treatment as a joke (3) drug and shock her to temporary insanity (4) incarnate [sic] her (5) use her sexually (6) sterilise her to prevent conception (7) kill her by a brain operation to prevent disclosure. And all with no fear of reprisal. Yet it is rape and murder� We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one� This is Project Psychiatry. We will remove them."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Sec ED, Office of LRH, Confidential, 22 February 1966, "Project Psychiatry"

"I�m drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys."
- L. Ron Hubbard in a 1967 letter to his wife, written during the period when he was creating Scientology�s secret "upper levels." (Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. a.k.a. Ronald DeWolf, L. RON HUBBARD: MESSIAH OR MADMAN? Random House 1989)

"Now, get this as a technical fact, not a hopeful idea. Every time we have investigated the background of a critic of Scientology, we have found crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned under existing law. We do not find critics of Scientology who do not have criminal pasts."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 5 November 1967, "Critics of Scientology"
"This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don�t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 25 February 1966

"We're playing for blood, the stake is EARTH."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 7 November 1962

"THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Off the Time Track," lecture of June 1952, excerpted in JOURNAL OF SCIENTOLOGY issue 18-G, reprinted in TECHNICAL VOLUMES OF DIANETICS & SCIENTOLOGY, vol. 1, p. 418

"Scientology...is not a religion."
- L. Ron Hubbard, CREATION OF HUMAN ABILITY, 1954, p. 251

"This [Scientology] is useful knowledge. With it the blind again see, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner. By its use the thousand abilities Man has sought to recover become his once more."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENTOLOGY: A HISTORY OF MAN, 1952

"Benzedrine often helps a case run."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "The Intensive Processing Procedure," 1950
["Run a case" = administer Dianetics or Scientology procedures to someone]

"Of all the ills of man which can be successfully processed by Scientology, arthritis ranks near the top. In skilled hands, this ailment, though misunderstood and dreaded in the past, already has begun to become history. Twenty-five hours of Scientology by an auditor who fairly understands how to process arthritis can be said to produce an invariable alleviation of the condition. Some cases, even severe ones, have responded in as little as two hours of processing, according to reports from auditors in the field."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Journal of Scientology," Issue 1-G, 1952

"Leukaemia is evidently psychosomatic in origin and at least eight cases of leukaemia had been treated successfully by Dianetics after medicine had traditionally given up. The source of leukaemia has been reported to be an engram containing the phrase �It turns my blood to water.�"
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Journal of Scientology," Issue 15-G, 1953

"When somebody enrols, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe - never permit an �open-minded� approach... If they enrolled, they�re aboard, and if they�re aboard they�re here on the same terms as the rest of us - win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half minded about being Scientologists... When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare� The proper instruction attitude is, �We'd rather have you dead than incapable.�"
- L. Ron Hubbard, KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING, 7 February 1965, reissued 27 August 1980

"Advanced Courses [in Scientology] are the most valuable service on the planet. Life insurance, houses, cars, stocks, bonds, college savings, all are transitory and impermanent... There is nothing to compare with Advanced Courses. They are infinitely valuable and transcend time itself."
- L. Ron Hubbard speaking of his Operating Thetan Courses, Flag Mission Order 375

"�Psychiatry� and �psychiatrist� are easily redefined to mean �an anti-social enemy of the people�. This takes the kill crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions...The redefinition of words is done by associating different emotions and symbols with the word than were intended...Scientologists are redefining �doctor�, �Psychiatry� and �psychology� to mean �undesirable antisocial elements�...The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 5 October 1971, PR Series 12, "Propaganda by Redefinition of Words"

"Arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalogue of illnesses goes away and stays away."
L. Ron Hubbard, DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH, 1987 Ed., p. 72

"Scientology is the only specific (cure) for radiation (atomic bomb) burns."
- L. Ron Hubbard, ALL ABOUT RADIATION, p. 109"You are only three or four hours from taking your glasses off for keeps."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Eyesight and glasses," "Dianetic Auditor�s Bulletin," Vol. 2, No. 7, January 1952
"The alleviation of the condition of insanity has also been accomplished now�"
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, November 1970, "Psychosis"

"Let�s sell these people a piece of blue sky."
- L. Ron Hubbard to an associate in 1950, soon after the opening of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. (Jon Atack, A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED, Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group. 1990)

"I�d like to start a religion. That�s where the money is."
- L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd Eshbach, in 1949; quoted by Eshbach in OVER MY SHOULDER: REFLECTIONS ON A SCIENCE FICTION ERA, Donald M. Grant Publisher. 1983

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES:
The official Church of Scientology website:
www.scientology.org

Websites for the Freezone, practicing Scientology outside the CoS:
www.fzaoint.net
www.fza.org
www.freezone.org

Alternate views:
www.xenu.net
www.factnet.org
www.scientologywatch.org
www.suppressiveperson.org/
www.spaink.net
www.snafu.de/~tilman/
www.narconon-exposed.org
www.studytech.org
www.modemac.com
www.truthaboutscientology.com
www.scientology-lies.com
www.lermanet.com
www.freedomofmind.com
www.altreligionscientology.org
www.xenutv.com

All quotations of copyrighted material herein fall within Fair Use guidelines.
Note: The Scientology organization is commonly referred to as the Church of Scientology. The reader should be aware that, in reality, global Scientology is a complex international legal structure of multiple corporations, some of which are nonprofit and some of which are not.

The terms "Scientology" and "Dianetics" are trademarks and service marks owned by Religious Technology Center (RTC), Los Angeles, California, USA. For a detailed explanation of Scientology's copyrights, trademarks, and other legal issues involving the names and symbols used by the organizations collectively known as "Scientology" and "Dianetics," see the Trademark Section of the Official Scientology Web Site.

$cientology's True History

2008-07-10T12:36:00.003-07:00

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY

"I�d like to start a religion. That�s where the money is."
- L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd Eshbach in 1949, quoted by Eshbach in OVER MY SHOULDER: REFLECTIONS ON A SCIENCE FICTION ERA. Donald M. Grant Publisher, 1983
____________________

L. Ron Hubbard established the Church of Scientology (CoS) in 1954 against the following backdrop: He had dropped out of college with failing grades. Although he would later claim a distinguished wartime naval career, Hubbard in fact never saw combat and left the US Navy petitioning the Veterans Administration for psychiatric care. Two bigamous marriages failed. He found success writing pulp/science fiction, but as he declared in the late 1940s: "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion." (1)

Hubbard took up ritual magic, the occult and hypnosis, giving demonstrations of hypnosis in 1948 and writing to his literary agent about a therapy system he was working on that had tremendous promotional and sales potential. (2) Piecing together hypnotic techniques, Freudian theories, Buddhist concepts and elements of other philosophies and practices, Hubbard came up with Dianetics. He published DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH in 1950.

In Dianetic practice the "patient," working with a partner called an "auditor" recalls past painful experiences in reverse chronological sequence, supposedly erasing their negative effects and attaining a state called "clear," allegedly free from all ills. (3) The auditor carefully records any intimate revelations, including sexual or criminal activities and marital or family troubles; these records are kept on file.

Hubbard represented Dianetics as a mental health therapy. He asserted that it was scientifically based and developed through careful research, and his use of the word "patient" suggests that he anticipated acceptance of Dianetics by the medical profession. But he never produced copies of any research protocol. Dianetics was opposed immediately by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, the latter recommending that its members limit use of Dianetic techniques to investigation only, until Hubbard�s claimed results could be corroborated. (4)

The public, however, made the book a bestseller, and it seemed that Hubbard�s ship had come in.

He created the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation to promulgate his theories and techniques.

With auditors repeatedly asking patients in trance state to recall "earlier similar incidents," patients began to report past lifetime experiences. Hubbard incorporated belief in past lives into his evolving ideology, discussing the concept in his second Dianetics book, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL.

The Hubbard Foundation began to collapse as the initial Dianetics craze wore off, and Hubbard�s new-found emphasis on past lives exacerbated tensions with the Foundation�s financial partners. By 1952 Hubbard was penniless and had lost control of Dianetics.

Scientology is Born

Hubbard became interested in a type of lie detector called the "electropsychometer" that he believed would yield better results in auditing. He obtained a franchise for this device, which he renamed the Hubbard Electrometer, or E-meter. He began calling patients "pre-clears" and "within six weeks had created a new subject apparently out of thin air." (5)

Hubbard called his new subject Scientology and in introducing it, he claimed to have discovered the human soul. Whereas Dianetics had addressed the body, Scientology involved freeing souls (which Hubbard called "thetans") from supposed entrapment in the physical or material world and restoring their alleged supernatural powers.

Hubbard established a headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, awarded himself the degree of D.Scn. (Doctor of Scientology) and in May 1952 incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International under the personal control of himself and his third wife, Mary Sue. The AMA meanwhile continued its opposition to Dianetics and Scientology.

In 1953 Hubbard regained control of Dianetics after a protracted legal battle and incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science and Church of Spiritual Engineering. In 1954 he incorporated the Church of Scientology of California, which became the mother church. In 1956 the church was granted US federal tax-exempt status.

In 1957, passing himself off as a nuclear physicist, Hubbard gave a series of lectures in London on "nuclear radiation and health," promoting a vitamin compound which he claimed cured both "radiation sickness" and cancer. Also that year the CIA began a file on him.

Hubbard repeatedly wrote to the FBI with complaints of Communist and Nazi persecution. The Bureau considered him a mental case, but kept a file on him and would later, as his organization grew, investigate him actively...abusively, Scientologists maintain. (6) (7)

International Expansion

In 1959 Hubbard moved to England and bought Saint Hill Mansion in Sussex, from which he would direct international operations and expansion of the CoS until 1967. The 1960s saw the introduction of "Ethics" procedures, which include harsh punishments (even for children) and the "disconnection" policy, which requires Scientologists to sever ties with family and friends critical of Scientology.

Although the essentials of Scientology had been thoroughly presented early on, Hubbard turned out a steady stream of books and audio tapes that are aggressively marketed to his followers. He created systems of "Security Checks" in which members are interrogated to ensure loyalty and extract confessions. He produced reams of policy directives on subjects varying from Scientology "tech" (technology) to church management to approved cleaning solvents to his own recipe for baby formula; all these missives are considered by CoS members to be sacred scripture.

In the late 1960s Hubbard released the "upper levels." Scientologists who had spent hundreds or thousands of hours vainly pursuing often-promised supernatural abilities were guaranteed that these procedures would finally deliver on the promise. Based on a science-fiction-like story taking place millions of years ago and involving a cruel Galactic despot named Xenu and his evil minions (elsewhere identified as present-day Christian clergy and psychiatrists), the upper levels are kept secret until a member is deemed ready to receive them. The estimated cost from beginning Scientology courses through completion of the upper levels is today $300,000 - $500,000 in US dollars.

In 1967 the IRS stripped Scientology�s mother church of its tax-exempt status. With his organization coming under increasing scrutiny from a variety of governments and tax woes abounding, Hubbard wrote his famous "Fair Game" law, which states that anyone named an enemy of Scientology "may be tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed." (8) A year later, he would issue a directive canceling use of the term, "Fair Game," (due to negative publicity) but making plain that attacks on Scientology�s perceived enemies were to continue. (9)

In mid-1967 Hubbard bought three ships and put to sea with a small cadre of followers. Styling himself "the Commodore," he spent the next several years wandering the Atlantic, pursued by imaginary Reds and Nazis and attended by "Commodore�s Messengers," teenaged girls dressed in white hot pants who waited on him hand and foot, bathing and dressing him and even catching the ash from his cigarettes. He had frequent screaming tantrums and instituted brutal punishments such as incarceration in the ship�s filthy chain-locker for days or weeks at a time and "overboarding," in which errant crew members were blindfolded, bound and thrown overboard, dropping up to 40 ft. into the cold sea and hoping not to hit the side of the ship with its razor-sharp barnacles on the way down. These punishments applied to children as well as to adults.

Hubbard made bungling attempts to take over Morocco and Rhodesia and was banned from further entry into Britain. He began the Sea Organization (SO), whose members wear pseudo-naval uniforms, adopt naval ranks, sign billion year contracts and are pressured to have abortions when they become pregnant because children are perceived as interfering with their SO obligations. Hubbard created the infamously abusive Rehabilitation Project Force as a special punishment for SO members who fail to follow orders, make mistakes or fall short of production goals.

Going Religious
During the early 1970s the IRS "proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency�s employees." (10)

A US federal court in 1971 ruled that Hubbard�s medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could not be called a scientific treatment. The CoS responded by "going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection...counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, franchises became �missions,� fees became �fixed donations,� and Hubbard�s comic-book cosmology became �sacred scriptures.�" (11)

After years of running the Scientology organization from aboard his flagship, the Apollo, in 1975 Hubbard bought the Fort Harrison Hotel and a former bank building in downtown Clearwater, Florida under the name United Churches of Florida, to hide Scientology�s connection. He moved his crew to Clearwater, establishing the Flagship Land Base, a.k.a. "Flag."

While the Church of Scientology continued to expand, its private intelligence agency known as the Guardian�s Office (GO) ran cloak-and-dagger operations against the mayor of Clearwater, various governmental agencies and anyone else perceived as in their way.

Hubbard had established the GO in 1966 for internal and external security purposes. The GO�s purview included attacking critics, keeping members in line and silencing defectors. GO agents "stole medical files, sent out anonymous smear letters, framed critics for criminal acts, blackmailed, bugged and burgled opponents, and infiltrated government offices stealing thousands of files...Critics were to be driven to breakdown or harassed into silence." (12) Eventually, in the early 1980s, eleven GO officials, including Hubbard�s wife, were imprisoned following a massive bugging and burgling operation against government offices across the US that Hubbard had personally created and code-named "Operation Snow White." Hubbard, himself was named as an unindicted co-conspirator but escaped justice because no one could find him.

Almost from the beginning, Hubbard had been in trouble with the law. In 1951 the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners brought proceedings against him for teaching medicine without a license; he fled to Los Angeles to escape prosecution. His organizations were repeatedly charged with practicing medicine without a license; E-meters and vitamin compounds were seized. The FDA accused Scientology of falsely claiming the E-meter could cure medical ailments and all E-meters were required to carry labels disavowing such claims.

At various times, Hubbard (and/or the church) was investigated by the US Justice Department, the FBI, FDA, CIA, IRS, NSA, Bureau of Customs, DEA, DOD, the Secret Service, the US Post Office, INS, BATF, Department of Labor, police departments of various US cities as well as Interpol and a host of other governmental agencies worldwide. Hubbard was convicted in absentia of fraud in France. The Church of Scientology was convicted of breach of the public trust and infiltration of government offices in Canada. Scientology was banned by the state of Victoria, Australia. Hubbard attributed all these events to widespread plotting by Russian communists, neofascists, bankers, the media, the IRS, Christian clergy, fiendish extraterrestrials and the psychiatric profession, which he considered his arch enemy.

Scientology Post-Hubbard

Hubbard went into seclusion following the "Operation Snow White" debacle and in the early 1980s David Miscavige, a second-generation Scientologist, took the reins of Scientology at age 21. At that time "...high-level defectors [were] accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as $200 million from the church [and] the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members �worked day and night� shredding documents the IRS sought," (13) according to a defector. Hubbard died in 1986 before the criminal case could be prosecuted.

During the power struggles and purges of the 1980s, many people left the church. Some established independent organizations based on Hubbard�s writings. The CoS quickly undertook mass copyrighting of all Hubbard materials and took legal steps to shut down the independents. In 1983 the Office of Special Affairs was created to carry on the purposes of the defunct Guardian�s Office. (14)

In 1991 the internet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (A.R.S.) appeared. Scientology immediately pounced, but the church�s heavy-handed attempts to shut down A.R.S. failed. The conflict attracted the attention of free speech advocates worldwide and sparked a proliferation of anti-Scientology newsgroups and websites.

Hubbard advocated harassment of opponents by lawsuit, and so following the CoS�s loss of tax-exempt status in 1967, Scientology declared war. For 26 years "...they attacked the IRS consistently on many fronts; suing and investigating individual IRS agents, deliberately obscuring their records, constantly suing the IRS directly, taking out anti-IRS advertisements, funding anti-IRS groups, lying, infiltrating, stealing, bugging, offering rewards for IRS whistleblowers, pressuring congressmen to investigate the IRS, filing countless Freedom of Information Act requests, creating a corporate maze, publishing anti-IRS articles in their own magazines, and other methods. The attacks worked." (15)

In 1993 the beleaguered IRS and the Church of Scientology International reached an agreement, the terms of which were kept secret but were leaked to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL four years later. Per the agreement, the church gained tax-exempt status for itself and its subsidiaries and in return agreed to drop the lawsuits and settle its back tax obligations with a payment of $12.5 million -- a fraction of the estimated amount owed. Many questions have been raised about provisions of this agreement, however the IRS and CoS maintain that it is confidential and will not discuss it. (16)

Scientologists have sought to undermine anti-cult groups by infiltrating them or shutting them down outright. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), which was for 20 years the US�s best known resource for information and advice on religious cults. CAN�s legal fees forced it into bankruptcy; the rights to CAN�s name, logo and hotline number were bought by a Scientologist in bankruptcy court and the new CAN is staffed by Scientologists.

The CoS relies heavily on celebrity spokespeople and front groups for favorable publicity and recruiting. A number of organizations working in the areas of literacy, drug counseling, human rights, and business and management techniques, while not legally connected to the Church of Scientology, promote Hubbard�s philosophy and draw people into the church. The CoS capitalized on the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center tragedy, with its corps of "Volunteer Ministers" setting up a flurry of centers to help/recruit traumatized emergency workers and grieving families, while simultaneously interfering with mental health professionals wherever possible. (17) And US troops returning from service in Iraq have apparently been targeted for recruitment into the church. (18).

Governments in France, Germany, Australia, Israel, Spain, Canada, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, England and elsewhere have taken actions to protect their citizens from exploitation by religious cults, with Scientology frequently a focus of concern.

In recent years, hundreds of longtime Scientologists have quit the church (many charging emotional and physical abuse) and are criticizing it, despite the CoS�s well known reputation for ruthlessly harassing critics. (19) (20) Some have continued practicing Scientology outside the CoS. Others have sued the church and won; most notable perhaps is Lawrence Wollersheim, who was paid over $8 million by the church in 2003 after winning a case in which he claimed that Scientology practices had nearly driven him to suicide.

In 2003 Fox News and other media outlets reported that the Church of Scientology has begun requiring its members to sign a release form agreeing to be held against their will for indefinite periods, isolated from friends and family and denied access to medical care (particularly psychiatric care) and absolving the church of responsibility for any resultant harm. (21) The document was apparently drawn up in response to a wrongful-death suit brought against the church in 1997 by the family of Lisa McPherson, a 36-year-old Scientologist who died in 1995 after being held in isolation for 17 days while undergoing Scientology "processes" at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. At the time of her death, she was comatose, severely dehydrated and covered in cockroach bites. Following a seven-year legal battle, an out-of-court agreement settling the suit was reached in May 2004; the terms of this agreement were sealed. (22)

Today, directly across the street from the Fort Harrison Hotel, where Lisa McPherson suffered and died, Scientology�s new 380,000-square-foot headquarters is under construction. It is called the "Super Power" building, after the "Super Power Rundown" ("rundown" in Scientology parlance = a series of steps designed to produce a certain result) which, according to Hubbard, "consists of 12 separate high power rundowns which are brand new and enter realms of the tech never before approached... [giving a Scientologist] the super powers of infinity." (23)

NOTES:

1. Eugene M. Methvin, "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult," READER�S DIGEST, May 1980. http://tinyurl.com/2dkw2

2. Jon Atack. "The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard," Chapter 9. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/245dd

4. Lucy Freeman. "Psychologists act against Dianetics," THE NEW YORK TIMES, September 9, 1950.

5. Op. cit., Jon Atack, chapter 10. http://tinyurl.com/245dd

6. CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCIENTOLOGY MOVEMENT, compiled by the Free Zone Association, individuals practicing Scientology outside the CoS. http://tinyurl.com/2ws9u

7. Collection of FBI files relating to L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/28ur2

8. L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967.

"ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." [SP = Suppressive Person a.k.a. critic of Scientology]

9. L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 21 October 1968, "Cancellation of Fair Game"

"The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations. This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP."

10. Richard Behar. "Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," TIME MAGAZINE, May 6, 1991. http://tinyurl.com/28nox

11. Ibid.

12. Op. cit., Atack, chapter 16.

13. Op. cit., Behar.

14. Chris Owen. "Scientology�s Secret Service: An expos� of the shady activities of Scientology�s intelligence agencies." Online article: http://tinyurl.com/37nw4

15. Jeff Jacobsen. "Scientology�s Tax Exemption Should be Rescinded." July 19, 2001. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/26ow5

16. Ibid.

17. Chris Owen. "Scientology at Ground Zero." May 2003. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/23kt3

18. Press Release, April 26, 2004, from L. Ron Hubbard Public Relations West U.S., "Collateral Damage in Iraq Includes Military Suicide" http://tinyurl.com/2n8gk

19. Guardian Order, GO 121669 MSH, 16 December 1969, "Programme: Intelligence: Internal Security"

[MSH = L. Ron Hubbard�s wife, Mary Sue, head of the Guardian�s Office] http://tinyurl.com/2mkst

20. Sworn affidavit of former CoS executive Jesse Prince. http://tinyurl.com/2uuof

21. The Church of Scientology�s release of liability agreement. http://tinyurl.com/35lws

22. Robert Farley. "Scientologists settle death suit," ST. PETERSBURG (Florida) TIMES, May 29, 2004. http://tinyurl.com/yqxj5

23. L. Ron Hubbard, Ron�s Journal 30, 17 December 1978. Super Power Rundown Series, Confidential, Executive Directive.

REFERENCES:
Jon Atack. A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED (New York: Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group, 1990). http://tinyurl.com/25rov

Jon Atack. "Possible Origins for Dianetics and Scientology." Online article, extensively referenced.

http://tinyurl.com/37pnb

Stacy Brooks. "My Perspective on Auditing." Online article. http://tinyurl.com/ypzkl

Paulette Cooper. THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY. 1970. Web edition November 1997. Cooper�s groundbreaking book on Scientology precipitated a 15-year ordeal of harassment by the Church of Scientology that included nineteen lawsuits, theft, malicious prosection and framing her for bomb threats. http://tinyurl.com/ypk3k

"Cult Awareness Network now in the hands of Scientology." Online notice at the American Family Foundation website: http://tinyurl.com/37kep

"Did the cult Scientology bludgeon the IRS into a billion dollar tax revenue give-away?" Online article at factnet.org. http://tinyurl.com/ywept

Essays on Scientology. An online collection of 37 articles. http://tinyurl.com/2ho4m

Martin Gardner. "Propheteering business," Nature, 14 January 1988, p. 125 http://tinyurl.com/3ehor

"Human rights group in hands of a cult." IOL World online news service, June 16, 2000. French anti-cult official claims that the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights has been infiltrated by the Church of Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/2g595

Jeff Jacobsen. "A Brief History of Scientology." Online article. http://tinyurl.com/2jsyj

Stephen A. Kent, "The Creation of �Religious� Scientology." Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1992. Published in RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND THEOLOGY, Vol. 18, No. 2, December 1999, pp. 97-126. This paper references L. Ron Hubbard�s Professional Auditor�s Bulletin, No. 31, 23 July 1954, "Duplication" which describes Hubbard�s belief that Christian clergy and psychiatrists "implanted" thetans (Scientology�s term for the soul) with false and misleading information in the cosmological past and that both occupations continue to implant people today. http://tinyurl.com/22xt4

Stephen Koff. "Scientology Faces New Charges of Harassment," ST. PETERSBURG [FLORIDA] TIMES, December 22, 1988. http://tinyurl.com/2erl5

John A. Lee. LEE REPORT ON DIANETICS AND SCIENTOLOGY. This is chapter 4 of SECTARIAN HEALERS AND HYPNOTHERAPY, a study for the Committee on the Healing Arts, Canadian government. Ontario, 1970. http://tinyurl.com/3hlyr

LMT Literati Contest: Essays on the nature of Scientology. Winning essays online: http://tinyurl.com/ywrkl

Eugene M. Methvin. "Scientology: The Sickness Spreads," READER�S DIGEST, October 1981. http://tinyurl.com/237px

Russell Miller. BARE-FACED MESSIAH: THE TRUE STORY OF L. RON HUBBARD (London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1987). http://tinyurl.com/3d2sk

Bette Swenson Orsini and Charles Stafford won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for their 14-part investigation of the Church of Scientology for the ST. PETERSBURG [FLORIDA] TIMES. http://tinyurl.com/35jbv

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF ENQUIRY INTO SCIENTOLOGY, by Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C. Published 1965 by the State of Victoria, Australia. Also known as the "Anderson Report." Exhaustive report on Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/yq6co

Joel Sappell and Robert W. Welkos, "The Scientology Story," LOS ANGELES TIMES, a six-part series, June 24-29, 1990 http://tinyurl.com/3djd9

Scientology v. the IRS. An online clearinghouse for reports and court records on the Scientology v. IRS controversy. http://tinyurl.com/2t5yw

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES:

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www.scientology.org

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Alternate views:

www.scientologywatch.org

www.suppressiveperson.org/

www.spaink.net

www.snafu.de/~tilman/

www.narconon-exposed.org

www.studytech.org

www.modemac.com

www.truthaboutscientology.com

www.scientology-lies.com

www.lermanet.com

www.freedomofmind.com

www.altreligionscientology.org

www.xenutv.com

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Christianizing of the Heathen – on the point of a sword

2008-07-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Christianizing of the Heathen – on the point of a sword
"That force was often used in the conversion of northern peoples is undeniable, and it was used with a ferocity and violence beyond anything the conquistadors did in the Americas and far beyond anything that happened in modern Africa or Asia ..."– Andrew Walls (The Missionary Movement in Christian History, p72)

Part of Christian mythology relates to the "winning for Christ" of the fierce Germanic tribesmen who purportedly destroyed ancient civilization. In very broad brush terms, we are given a comforting image of the heroic priest, armed only with his Bible and Christian forbearance, who subdues the savage warriors with homilies from the Good Book. (We are, of course, being offered an early-day version of how European colonial "missionaries" saw their own activity).
As if by magic (or rather, miracle, such is the efficacy of the Lord's word) whole tribal confederations and vast tracks of Europe are baptised to Christ. Where the legions of Caesar had failed to vanquish, a humble monk with bell, book and candle triumphs. In a trice, Europe becomes a patchwork of "Christian kingdoms" and history becomes a story of the consolidation of regal power, the mopping up of a few recalcitrant pagans and suppression of the odd heresy.
As ever in the history of Christianity, the truth is far darker and far bloodier.

Gem encrusted Bibles– just the thing for an illiterate king.
CHRIST MAGIC – Not for Reading
Christian literature: precious gems on the cover – nonsense within.The few remaining books had become "sacred objects".Such objects filled the illiterate tribesmen with awe. Special shrines ("cumdachs") were built to house these dazzling artifacts, regarded as having talismanic properties.
"Bede related how scrapings from Irish manuscripts were used to treat snakebites, while popular superstition suggested that the Book of Durrow had the ability to cure sick cattle."– I. Zaczek (Celtic Art and Design, p10)
Why did barbarian chieftains convert?
Barbarian 'aristocracy' was the highest echelon of an 'heroic' social structure. Raids into neighbouring territories were an essential part of the barbarian economy. By acquiring 'prestige goods' – such as slaves, jewelry, gold pieces, fine weapons – the barbarian ruling elite preserved its rule and raised its social status. Success at raiding strengthened the link between a chief and his warriors.
Yet tribal leadership itself was always threatened by the great social mobility of tribal society. At any time, any bold and able warrior could raise his own status and become a new member of the elite or even a chieftain. High Kings (or Great Khans) were effectively the result of an election held by clan or tribal elders in time of emergency. The claims of a barbarian 'king' to legitimacy were fragile and leaderships changed often and violently.
This 'aristocratic vulnerability' became especially acute during the period of migrations in the 3rd to 5th centuries, when tribal territories were ill-defined and ever-changing, tribal alliances continuously made and remade, and warriors of the same tribe fought both for and against the Romans.
In a word, barbarian leadership was neither well-defined nor secure.
Contact with Rome meant influence from a world which was everything barbarian society was not: a stable 'kingdom' that seemingly embraced the whole world and existed 'forever'. Roman society by the 5th century was becoming ever more rigid and hierarchical, with eroding social and geographic mobility and an immense and widening gulf between rich and poor. Rome's urban middle class was being taxed out of existence, freedmen were being confined in indentured labour and hereditary employments and the soldiery was being reduced to a peasant-farmer militia.
By emulation, these characteristics helped to accentuate the growth and the power of a more rigid and stable barbarian aristocracy.
In short, tribal chieftains wanted to rule like Romans:
"Every Goth wishes to be like a Roman, " said Theodoric, "but only the humblest Roman wants to be like a Goth."
So strong was barbarian desire to establish a 'Roman' legitimacy for their new kingdoms that the illiterate Charlemagne, centuries later, styled himself "King of Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans." He was crowned Emperor and Augustus.

Follow My Leader ...
Once a warrior king embraced 'Christianity' – an adoption of form and formality with little or no regard to content – the warrior aristocracy followed its king. Thus, for example, when Clovis accepted Christ as his new god, he compelled 3000 of his retainers to follow him into the baptismal font.
Among the common tribesmen religious allegiance was not an issue of conscience. This was not an age of individual opinion or preference. When the tribal leadership adopted a new god the tribe followed suit. Not to have done so would have been tantamount to rebellion. When Charlemagne insisted on baptism as the sign of submission, he punished with appalling barbarity any resistance, as when, in cold blood, he beheaded, in a single day, 4500 Saxons at Verden, in 782 AD.
Having adopted Christ as their new god, the warrior aristocracies forced the new faith on their peoples.

The Lost World of "Gothica"
(c. 450-550)
Much of Roman civilization was actually restored by the Goths.
Theodoric ruled the Gothic world from a palace at Ravenna, modelled on Diocletian's palace at Spalato. His administrators were Roman; he maintained the senate; he made Roman patricians, like Boethius, consuls. He also checked the expansion of the Franks and brought peace to the west.
His many dynastic links included a marriage to Audofleda, the sister of Clovis, king of Franks. He ruled Spain on behalf of his infant grandson; pacified the Vandals and protected the coasts with a fleet of a thousand vessels. In Rome he presided over games in traditional Roman manner; the dole was still distributed and the aqueducts still flowed.
Theodoric was Arian, but he tolerated all sects of Christianity. He was even called upon to arbitrate between warring popes – Symmachus and Lawrence! In the last year of his life he moved against the Catholics when they attacked Jewish traders and conspired with Constantinople.
After his death in 526, his daughter Amalasuntha ruled the Ostrogothic kingdom as regent. His grand daughter Matasuntha married Germanus, nephew of the Eastern Roman Emperor – but that was after Romano-Gothic Italy had been destroyed by Catholic armies from the east.
Invasion by Justinian and 30 years of warfare (Rome changed hands four times) destroyed urban civilization in Italy and brought whole regions to famine.
"Byzantine rule lasted just 14 years before an invasion of Lombards under Alboin swept it away. Instead of a powerful and virile Gothic state that might have fought off the barbarians, Italy had no resistance to offer. Rome became a backwater, and the victories of Justinian a disaster for the Christians of the West."
– Geoffrey Regan (Decisive Battles, p40)

Theodoric's Mausoleum, Ravenna.Built in 526 by his daughter Amalasuntha.
Worthy of the age of Augustus or Hadrian, the 30' central 'chapel' is crowned by a single piece of granite weighing 450 tons. Under the Goths, Roman intellect had not yet disappeared.
"The professors of grammar, rhetoric and jurisprudence were maintained in their privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Goths."– Gibbon (Decline & Fall, ch 39)

Justinian (another Christian "Great") – bankrupted the East by destroying the West!
Church of the Holy Wisdom – (Istanbul)
Justinian starved and robbed his troops and was merciless in his rapacious taxation – but he did build a big church.
Millions died as a result of his greed and vanity. Edward Gibbon estimated that the number of lives lost during the half century of his reign might have approached a hundred million. Procopius, in The Secret History, put the number even higher.
But then, we do have that big church ...
Enter the Christian Bishop...
Rome – as represented by the local aristocrat-cum-bishop – could bestow legitimacy, and with it all the pomp and ceremonial that filled subject people with awe and obedience. As the empire decayed, its rituals and regalia became ever more ornate and overbearing.
The barbarian kings delighted in Roman titles –which they put on their coinage, modelled very closely on Roman coinage. From 382 onwards barbarian tribes had been granted the status of 'federate of the Romans' (foedus) and their chieftains had been accorded patrician status. Some barbarian chiefs (for example, Fravitta, in 401) were even raised to the status of consul. When there were no longer emperors to bestow some grand honorific, the occasion fell into the hands of the bishop.
The barbarian kings sought marriage into the imperial bloodlines.
In a notable example, the Empress Galla Placidia was carried off to Gaul by the Goths, and in 414 she was married (in a Roman-style wedding ceremony) to the Visigothic chieftain Athaulf at Narbonne. The bridegroom wore a toga! 'Catholic princesses' were conveniently found at many convenient moments: Ingund married to Hermengild in 583 (intensifying the Gothic civil war in Spain); Bertha married to the Saxon Aethelbert in 600 (levering the Catholic church into Kent); and of course Clotilda, married to the hero Clovis.
The barbarian kings wanted Roman patricians in their entourage, men who could advise them in the governance of their newly acquired peoples. Everywhere, the indigenous 'Romans' outnumbered their warrior overlords.
The outstanding example is the court of Theodoric, Ostrogothic king of Italy. His administration was modelled on that of his imperial predecessors and was staffed by Romans. Among 'men of letters' at his court was Aurelius Cassiodorus, senator, statesman, monk and writer. As the local "statesman" the Bishops "spoke" for the native people and offered "administration" of cities and districts on behalf of the alien king.
Thus arose the Dark Age elite – a fusion of ex-pagan chiefs, who were in awe of all things Roman (including its Christianity), and degenerate Roman landowners who survived by foisting Christianity on to superstitious tribesmen.
Civil and ecclesiastical power coalesced. Saying much the same thing in Christ-speak, Bishop Isodore of Seville (560-636):
"Those who will not practice virtue by the admonition of the priest, may be kept from doing evil by the power of the king."(Isidore, Sententiae, I, 16).
The very heart of this veneer of legitimising romanitas was the religion by which the emperors had legitimised and made 'divine' their own rule – Christianity. Hence the rise and rise of the Christian bishops and, in particular, the Bishop of Rome – the custodian of the corpse of the empire and self-styled bestower of its legacy.

With his book of Christian spells and the inheritance of more than a thousand years of Roman 'gravitas' behind him, the patrician-bishop easily swayed the untutored mind of a barbarian king.As well as "Christ magic" he offered "legitimacy" and the power of the written word for kingly diplomacy. With his help, an upstart king's authority could now be proclaimed everywhere. With bribes and baubles, he gained access; he took on the role of ambassador and agent; he lent support to one side against another in fratricidal conflict; he advised; he provided 'virgin brides' and officiated at royal weddings and ceremonials; he governed the locals on behalf of his barbarian overlord.
Through it all, his own wealth and authority grew. And the nonsense he peddled – Christianity – became official dogma.
How the West was Won: The Rise and Rise of the Franks
Before the closing years of the 5th century the Christian Church showed no interest in converting barbarians. God, it seems, had chosen the Roman Empire to spread his Word. Yet when the fierce tribesmen arrived at the city gates, that event was "God's Judgement" and the Christian bishops were all too ready to abandon the empire and throw in their lot with the invader.
Despite the '3-day wonder' of the sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths, it was Gaul that was in dire straits in the 5th century, not Italy (which enjoyed a late 'Indian summer' under its Gothic king.)
In the late 5th century Salian Franks under Clovis began three centuries of expansion by absorbing the other Frankish tribes. In 486 Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and the last Gallo-Roman region of Gaul – Soissons – was overrun. Subjugation of the Thuringians and Bavarians, followed.
The Franks were a heathen German tribe, almost the only one untouched by Arianism, spreading from the east. While the primitive Franks continued to give homage to their old Germanic gods, other, more Romanised, tribes had adopted Arian Christianity as a 'national' religion.
Backward and barbarous they may have been but for the beleaguered Catholic bishops, the Franks were the great hope. In the Franks, the papal agents found a fierce but malleable tribe and they spared nothing to bring the Frankish overlords under their sway. The dominion of the Franks in the west ensured the triumph of Roman Catholicism.
Thus, the "conversion" of Clovis is a crucial event, comparable to the "conversion" of Constantine – and equally is surrounded by the same fanciful mythology.
Clovis's conversion, like Constantine's, was no "inward experience of grace" but was a military matter. He was convinced that victory in battle lay in the gift of the god of the Christians. Christ for him was a talismanic war god.
According to the myth, in 496, after a close call against the Alamanni, the day had been 'saved' by a prayer either from Clovis himself, or the Catholic Bishop Gregory of Tours (or maybe both!) A grateful Clovis took baptism, to become the first "Catholic" ruler in the west.
Of course, he had been softened up somewhat by marriage in 493 to a Catholic princess, the Burgundian Clotilda, put forward as his bride 'on account of her beauty and wisdom' (and no doubt her Catholicism!) Clovis, like Constantine a century and a half earlier, was also aware of the political advantage of posing as a liberator of "those oppressed by religious heresy":
"It grieves me to see that the Arians possess the fairest portion of Gaul. Let us march against them, vanquish the heretics, and share out their fertile lands."
In 507 Clovis took Aquitaine from the weak Visigothic king Alaric II, and then subjugated Burgundy. Both areas were forcibly converted to Catholicism – to the delight of the local bishops.
At Clovis' death in 511, Clotilda went into a monastery at Tours where she stayed until her death in 545. No surprises that she made the sainthood!
In the half century after Clovis, the belligerent Franks advanced eastward as far as the Elbe and took advantage of the preoccupation of the Ostrogoths with Justinian's invasion of Italy to seize Gothic territories in Gaul and the north.
The religious war – such a fine innovation of Christianity! – would never end. In the 8th century, Frankish conquest carried the sword of Christ to the throat of the Thuringians and Bavarians, and halted the armies of Islam that had overwhelmed the Visigoths in Spain. Towards the end of the century, in forty bloody years of continuous aggression, Charlemagne's Franks slaughtered tens of thousands of Saxons, Avars and Slavs in order that they might know God's loving kindness.

WHY DON'T JEWS BELIEVE IN JESUS?

2008-07-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

For 2,000 years, Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah. Why?

It is important to understand why Jews don't believe in Jesus. The purpose is not to disparage other religions, but rather to clarify the Jewish position. The more data that's available, the better-informed choices people can make about their spiritual path.
Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because:
1) Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies.
2) Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah.
3) Biblical verses "referring" to Jesus are mistranslations.
4) Jewish belief is based on national revelation.
At the end of this article, we will examine these additional topics:
5) Christianity contradicts Jewish theology
6) Jews and Gentiles
7) Bringing the Messiah
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1) JESUS DID NOT FULFILL THE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? The Bible says that he will:
A. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
B. Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
C. Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)
D. Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world -- on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
The historical fact is that Jesus fulfilled none of these messianic prophecies.
Christians counter that Jesus will fulfill these in the Second Coming, but Jewish sources show that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright, and no concept of a second coming exists.
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2) JESUS DID NOT EMBODY THE PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS OF MESSIAH
A. MESSIAH AS PROPHET
Jesus was not a prophet. Prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is inhabited by a majority of world Jewry. During the time of Ezra (circa 300 BCE), when the majority of Jews refused to move from Babylon to Israel, prophecy ended upon the death of the last prophets -- Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
Jesus appeared on the scene approximately 350 years after prophecy had ended.
B. DESCENDENT OF DAVID
The Messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (see Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1). According to the Christian claim that Jesus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father -- and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father's side from King David!
C. TORAH OBSERVANCE
The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance. The Torah states that all mitzvot remain binding forever, and anyone coming to change the Torah is immediately identified as a false prophet. (Deut. 13:1-4)
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus contradicts the Torah and states that its commandments are no longer applicable. (see John 1:45 and 9:16, Acts 3:22 and 7:37)
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3) MISTRANSLATED VERSES "REFERRING" TO JESUS
Biblical verses can only be understood by studying the original Hebrew text -- which reveals many discrepancies in the Christian translation.
A. VIRGIN BIRTH
The Christian idea of a virgin birth is derived from the verse in Isaiah 7:14 describing an "alma" as giving birth. The word "alma" has always meant a young woman, but Christian theologians came centuries later and translated it as "virgin." This accords Jesus' birth with the first century pagan idea of mortals being impregnated by gods.
B. CRUCIFIXION
The verse in Psalms 22:17 reads: "Like a lion, they are at my hands and feet." The Hebrew word ki-ari (like a lion) is grammatically similar to the word "gouged." Thus Christianity reads the verse as a reference to crucifixion: "They pierced my hands and feet."
C. SUFFERING SERVANT
Christianity claims that Isaiah chapter 53 refers to Jesus, as the "suffering servant."
In actuality, Isaiah 53 directly follows the theme of chapter 52, describing the exile and redemption of the Jewish people. The prophecies are written in the singular form because the Jews ("Israel") are regarded as one unit. The Torah is filled with examples of the Jewish nation referred to with a singular pronoun.
Ironically, Isaiah's prophecies of persecution refer in part to the 11th century when Jews were tortured and killed by Crusaders who acted in the name of Jesus.
From where did these mistranslations stem? St. Gregory, 4th century Bishop of Nanianzus, wrote: "A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire."
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4) JEWISH BELIEF IS BASED SOLELY ON NATIONAL REVELATION
Of the 15,000 religions in human history, only Judaism bases its belief on national revelation -- i.e. God speaking to the entire nation. If God is going to start a religion, it makes sense He'll tell everyone, not just one person.
Judaism, unique among all of the world's major religions, does not rely on "claims of miracles" as the basis for its religion. In fact, the Bible says that God sometimes grants the power of "miracles" to charlatans, in order to test Jewish loyalty to the Torah (Deut. 13:4).
Maimonides states (Foundations of Torah, ch. 8):
The Jews did not believe in Moses, our teacher, because of the miracles he performed. Whenever anyone's belief is based on seeing miracles, he has lingering doubts, because it is possible the miracles were performed through magic or sorcery. All of the miracles performed by Moses in the desert were because they were necessary, and not as proof of his prophecy.
What then was the basis of [Jewish] belief? The Revelation at Mount Sinai, which we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, not dependent on the testimony of others... as it says, "Face to face, God spoke with you..." The Torah also states: "God did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us -- who are all here alive today." (Deut. 5:3)
Judaism is not miracles. It is the personal eyewitness experience of every man, woman and child, standing at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago.
See "Did God Speak at Mount Sinai" for further reading.
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5) CHRISTIANITY CONTRADICTS JEWISH THEOLOGY
The following theological points apply primarily to the Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination.
A. GOD AS THREE?
The Catholic idea of Trinity breaks God into three separate beings: The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19).
Contrast this to the Shema, the basis of Jewish belief: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE" (Deut. 6:4). Jews declare the Shema every day, while writing it on doorposts (Mezuzah), and binding it to the hand and head (Tefillin). This statement of God's One-ness is the first words a Jewish child is taught to say, and the last words uttered before a Jew dies.
In Jewish law, worship of a three-part god is considered idolatry -- one of the three cardinal sins that a Jew should rather give up his life than transgress. This explains why during the Inquisitions and throughout history, Jews gave up their lives rather than convert.
B. MAN AS GOD?
Roman Catholics believe that God came down to earth in human form, as Jesus said: "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).
Maimonides devotes most of the "Guide for the Perplexed" to the fundamental idea that God is incorporeal, meaning that He assumes no physical form. God is Eternal, above time. He is Infinite, beyond space. He cannot be born, and cannot die. Saying that God assumes human form makes God small, diminishing both His unity and His divinity. As the Torah says: "God is not a mortal" (Numbers 23:19).
Judaism says that the Messiah will be born of human parents, and possess normal physical attributes like other people. He will not be a demi-god, and will not possess supernatural qualities. In fact, an individual is alive in every generation with the capacity to step into the role of the Messiah. (see Maimonides - Laws of Kings 11:3)
C. INTERMEDIARY FOR PRAYER?
The Catholic belief is that prayer must be directed through an intermediary -- i.e. confessing one's sins to a priest. Jesus himself is an intermediary, as Jesus said: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
In Judaism, prayer is a totally private matter, between each individual and God. As the Bible says: "God is near to all who call unto Him" (Psalms 145:18). Further, the Ten Commandments state: "You shall have no other gods BEFORE ME," meaning that it is forbidden to set up a mediator between God and man. (see Maimonides - Laws of Idolatry ch. 1)
D. INVOLVEMENT IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD
Catholic doctrine often treats the physical world as an evil to be avoided. Mary, the holiest woman, is portrayed as a virgin. Priests and nuns are celibate. And monasteries are in remote, secluded locations.
By contrast, Judaism believes that God created the physical world not to frustrate us, but for our pleasure. Jewish spirituality comes through grappling with the mundane world in a way that uplifts and elevates. Sex in the proper context is one of the holiest acts we can perform.
The Talmud says if a person has the opportunity to taste a new fruit and refuses to do so, he will have to account for that in the World to Come. Jewish rabbinical schools teach how to live amidst the bustle of commercial activity. Jews don't retreat from life, we elevate it.
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6) JEWS AND GENTILES
Judaism does not demand that everyone convert to the religion. The Torah of Moses is a truth for all humanity, whether Jewish or not. King Solomon asked God to heed the prayers of non-Jews who come to the Holy Temple (Kings I 8:41-43). The prophet Isaiah refers to the Temple as a "House for all nations."
The Temple service during Sukkot featured 70 bull offerings, corresponding to the 70 nations of the world. The Talmud says that if the Romans would have realized how much benefit they were getting from the Temple, they'd never have destroyed it.
Jews have never actively sought converts to Judaism because the Torah prescribes a righteous path for gentiles to follow, known as the "Seven Laws of Noah." Maimonides explains that any human being who faithfully observes these basic moral laws earns a proper place in heaven.
For further study of the Seven Laws of Noah, see:
Bnei Noah of Fort Worthhttp://www.fastlane.net/~bneinoah/
Path of the Righteous Gentilehttp://www.chabad.org/gopher/outlook/7laws/index.html
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7) BRINGING THE MESSIAH
Maimonides states that the popularity of Christianity (and Islam) is part of God's plan to spread the ideals of Torah throughout the world. This moves society closer to a perfected state of morality and toward a greater understanding of God. All this is in preparation for the Messianic age.
Indeed, the world is in desperate need of Messianic redemption. War and pollution threaten our planet; ego and confusion erode family life. To the extent we are aware of the problems of society, is the extent we will yearn for redemption. As the Talmud says, one of the first questions a Jew is asked on Judgment Day is: "Did you yearn for the arrival of the Messiah?"
How can we hasten the coming of the Messiah? The best way is to love all humanity generously, to keep the mitzvot of the Torah (as best we can), and to encourage others to do so as well.
Despite the gloom, the world does seem headed toward redemption. One apparent sign is that the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and made it bloom again. Additionally, a major movement is afoot of young Jews returning to Torah tradition.
The Messiah can come at any moment, and it all depends on our actions. God is ready when we are. For as King David says: "Redemption will come today -- if you hearken to His voice."

Errors in the Christian Text

2008-07-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

#1
Modern Bible scholarship is in broad agreement that Mark was the first Gospel written yet Matthew is always listed first in Christian Bibles. My claimed error is that because "Mark" was written first it should be presented first in the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible implies that "Mark" and "Matthew" are the testimony of witnesses. Readers can see and the Church has always taught that there is dependence between the two. Common sense and legal procedure require that the testimony which was either relied on to some extent or even just available to another witness be presented first as this is what readers or jurys will assume if not told otherwise. The problem this would create for Christianity with "Mark" being first is why is there no mention of the "virgin birth", any description of a transition from Jesus to the subsequent Church or post resurrection sightings or communications? The Church has always explained that because "Matthew" was written first "Mark" didn't need to cover these topics.
#2
The first Gospel listed in Christian Bibles, Matthew, was written anonymously. The title
"Matthew" was added by the Church long after the Gospel was written.
#3
Christians have added chapter designations to the Bible which were not used by the original authors.
#4
Matthew 1:(KJV)
"4 And Aram begat Aminadab"
According to I Chronicles 2:10 it was Ram that begat Aminadab, not Aram. The earliest extant Greek manuscripts have the Greek equivalent of the English "Aram" for Matthew 1:4. (so presumably the KJV is correctly translating Matthew's error). The NIV has changed "Aram" to "Ram" correcting Matthew's error. The LXX states that Aram begat Aminadab so it's likely that Matthew made his error by simply copying from the LXX as he apparently was not fluent in Hebrew and so could not check the original Hebrew language. Some Bible scholars do theorize that the LXX was changed in some places to conform to the Gospels and that this is one of those instances. In any case Matthew's apparent use of "Aram" does not agree with any known Hebrew text and in the absence of any evidence that the Hebrew use of "Ram" was the result of any change would be an error by Matthew.
#5
Matthew 1:(KJV)
“5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab”
The only Rachab mentioned in the Tanakh was the Rachab of the Conquest who lived about two hundred years before Boaz. Every significant Church Father who commented on Matthew 1:5 assumed that Matthew was referring to the Rachab of the Conquest.
#6
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“7…Abia begat Asa; :8 And Asa begat Josaphat”
Generally, the oldest extant Greek manuscripts such as the Sinaitic and Vatican codices have the Greek equivalent of the English “Asaph” instead of “Asa” who according to the Tanakh should be in this location. The NASB has a footnote for Matthew 1:7 indicating that the Greek word was the equivalent of the English “Asaph”. Most of the older Greek manuscripts indicating “Asaph” were unknown to the translators of the KJV.
#7
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“8…Joram begat Ozias”
According to I Chronicles 3:11 (JPS), Joram begat Ahaziah so Matthew has omitted Ahaziah from his genealogy.

#8
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“8…Joram begat Ozias”
According to I Chronicles 3:11 (JPS), Joram begat Ahaziah who begat Joash so Matthew has also omitted Joash from his genealogy.
#9
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“8…Joram begat Ozias”
According to I Chronicles 3:11 (JPS), Joram begat Ahaziah who begat Joash who begat Amaziah so Matthew has also omitted Amaziah from his genealogy.
#10
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“10…Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias”
Generally, the oldest extant Greek manuscripts such as the Sinaitic and Vatican codices have the Greek equivalent of the English “Amos” instead of “Amon” who according to the Tanakh should be in this location. The NASB has a footnote for Matthew 1:10 indicating that the Greek word was the equivalent of the English “Amos”. Most of the older Greek manuscripts indicating “Amos” were unknown to the translators of the KJV.
#11
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:”
According to I Chronicles 3:15 (JPS), Josiah (Josias in KJV) begat Jehoiakim who begat Jeconiah (Jechonias in KJV) so Matthew has omitted Jehoiakim from his genealogy.
#12
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:”
According to the Tanakh Jechonias only had one brother.
#13
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim”
According to the Tanakh (JPS), I Chronicles, 3:19-20, Abiud was not one of the eight children of Zerubbabel (“Zorobabel” in KJV).
#14
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations”
Matthew has omitted four generations from his genealogy between David and the Babylonian exile. Even without them he still has fifteen chronological names.

#15
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“17…and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.”
Almost 600 years separate the birth of Shealtiel from the birth of Jesus resulting in an average of 46 years per generation. This average is contradicted by all known averages for this period outside of Matthew. Luke’s average would be 27 years and Josephus’ average would be 25 years.
#16
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:”
The Greek word for birth here, “genesis” is exactly the same Greek word used in Matthew 1:1, “a record of the genealogy” and has a wide range of meaning such as “birth”, “creation” and “genealogy”. Church Fathers generally used the Greek word “gennesis”, which has a more limited meaning of “birth” to describe the nativity. Thus, it is extremely unlikely that the same author would have used the exact same Greek word in Matthew 1:1 and 1:18 to describe a genealogy and a birth. The genealogy and birth stories are probably from two different sources.
#17
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:”
Most extant manuscripts have this wording but a few don’t have “Jesus”. The name is omitted in Irenaeus’ reference to 1:18. The position of “Jesus” in the sentence varies in Greek manuscripts which is often the sign of a scribal addition. There is no other uncontested instance of an article preceding “Jesus Christ” in the Christian Bible. Thus it is likely that “Jesus” is a scribal addition to Matthew 1:18.
#18
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“18… she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”
Literally, the Greek reads “having in the womb” and not “with child”. In any case, there is no definite article, “the”, in front of “Holy Ghost” in almost all Greek manuscripts. The best translation would be “found to be pregnant through Holy Spirit”. Christian translators have provided the “the” in English translations (found to be with child of the Holy Spirit) in order to support their belief that the Holy Spirit is a separate person.
#19
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“18..When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband,”
Mary has gone from engaged to married after a mere thirteen words, a record that would stand until Liz Taylor two thousand years later.
#20
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.”
The word that KJV has translated as “privily” is normally translated as “quietly”. Under Jewish law at the time Joseph would have had to deliver a writ of repudiation before two witnesses so it would have been tough to keep it “quiet” unless the witnesses Joseph had in mind were the blind and mute men of Chapter 9.
#21
Matthew 1: (KJV)
“20… fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife”
The literal translation of the Greek is, “do not be afraid to take Mary your wife” which is an incomplete sentence making the meaning ambiguous. Does it mean take as in sexually, take as in accept or take as in bring home? Most of the main Christian Bibles have added words in their translations to give the appearance of a complete sentence (the relatively newer RSV being the exception):
NIV “do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife”
NASB “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife”
RSV “do not fear to take Mary your wife”
Darby “fear not to take to [thee] Mary, thy wife”
YLT “thou mayest not fear to receive Mary thy wife”
WE “do not fear to take Mary to be your wife”

#22
Matthew 1: (KJV)
20…”for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
Same error as #18. There is no “the” before “Holy Ghost” in the Greek. Of the major translations only Darby acknowledges this, “for that which is begotten in her is of [the] Holy Spirit”.
#23
Matthew 1: (KJV)
20…”for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
In the Greek “spirit”(ghost) comes before “holy” and is separated by the verb “to be”. A literal translation is “for that which is conceived in her from spirit is holy”.
No mention of this in the major Christian translations. Again, Christian translators are creating support for their idea of the holy ghost as a separate person in their translations.
#24
Matthew 1: (KJV)
21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
False prophecy. Everyone agrees that for two thousand years most Jews have died not believing in Jesus and therefore, according to Christian theology, were not saved from their sins.
#25
Matthew 1: (KJV)
22 “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
If you’re trying to make a list of 1001 errors in the Christian Bible then Matthew 1:22-23
is, as Banta said to Jerry Seinfeld, “Gold, Jerry! Gold!”. The “prophecy fulfillment” of sentences 22 and 23 is out of place as the fulfillment happens in the following sentences 24 and 25. Joseph is just dreaming in sentences 20 and 21 and wakes up from this dream in sentence 24. It’s likely that sentences 22 and 23 were later additions to the original text. Since the time of Irenaeus Christian commentators have “explained” that the formula citation was spoken by the angel of sentence 21.
#26
Matthew 1: (KJV)
23 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child,”
It’s undisputed that the Hebrew text has the definite article “the” instead of “a” before “young woman” (KJV’s “virgin”). A slim majority of major Christian translations now have “the” here instead of “a”. The use of the definite article “the” means that the woman in question was known to the speaker of the prophecy, Isaiah, and could not be referring to someone who lived about 700 years later.
#27
Matthew 1: (KJV)
22 “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin”
Matthew 1:23 uses the Greek word “parthenos” which has a primary meaning of “virgin”. The Hebrew word from Isaiah 7:14 that Matthew is referring to is “almah” which has a primary meaning of “young woman” according to all Jewish Bible scholars, virtually all Hebrew/English dictionaries, most Christian Bible scholars and the majority of modern Christian Bible translations. The Greek word “neanis” has a primary meaning of “young woman”. When the RSV first translated Isaiah 7:14 as “young woman” it was burned in several parts of the country by Christian fundamentalists. On a humorous note, even though the Catholic translators of the NAB had decided to translate Isaiah 7:14 as “young woman”, the American Bishops voted to use “virgin” instead. I guess they thought “it was the Christian thing to do.”
#28
Matthew 1: (KJV)
23 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child”
In the Hebrew, the verb for “shall be with child”, “harah”, is in the present tense. The proper translation of Isaiah 7:14 from Hebrew should be, “Look, the young woman is with child”.

#29
Matthew 1: (KJV)
23 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”
The phrase above, “they shall call”, in the Hebrew is in the third person feminine form and should be translated, “she will call”. It’s likely that “Matthew” intentionally changed the phrase because in verse 21 Joseph was instructed to “call his name Jesus”.
#30
Matthew 1: (KJV)
23 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
The phrase “call his name”, which Matthew has translated from the Tanakh is a Semitic expression meaning to name. The phrase “call his name” would be redundant in Greek or English as one would say either, “call him” or “name him”. As the phrase in Hebrew refers to an actual name and not a description of someone Matthew has presented a false prophecy as no one ever called Jesus by the name “Emmanuel”.
#31
Matthew 2: (KJV)
5 …”for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda,”
The Greek would translate literally as “And thou Bethlehem, land of Juda.”. That would be like saying “And thou Chicago, land of Midwest”. According to my third grade Greek teacher, Mrs. Soukoupoopalis, that’s bad grammar in Greek, Chicago or anywhere else. Codex Bezae and the Old Latin changed the phrase to “Bethlehem of the land of Judea”.
#32
Matthew 2: (KJV)
5 …”for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda,”
In addition to bad grammar in the Greek virtually all translations of the Micah verse that “Matthew” is referring to say “Bethlehem Ephratah” such as KJV:
Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah”
So Matthew has chopped off “Ephratah” from the words of the Prophet.
#33
Matthew 2: (KJV)
6…”art not the least among the princes of Juda”
Instead of “art not the least” the Masoretic text says “small to be”. Even the Christian Greek translations of Micah generally say, “are too small to be”. “Matthew” has changed the quote in the Tanakh to avoid any description of Bethlehem as insignificant.
#34
Matthew 2: (KJV)
6…”art not the least among the princes of Juda”
Instead of “princes” the Masoretic text says “clans” (literally, “thousands”). Christian Greek translations of Micah generally say “thousands”. The consonants of the Hebrew word (lpy) can mean “clans” or “rulers” so Matthew could have chosen to ignore the Hebrew tradition of “clans” even though it was accepted by the early Christians. In any case, using “princes” creates an error in Matthew’s sentence structure because after deleting “Ephratah” in the first part of the sentence he is then referring to a city, Bethlehem, and not a clan, Bethlehem-Ephratah, so saying a city “is not least among princes of Juda” makes no sense.
#35
Matthew 2: (KJV)
6… “for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.”
The Masoretic text and Christian Greek translations of Micah say, “for out of thee shall come forth for me a ruler”. “Matthew” has omitted “for me”, apparently so as not to give the appearance that Jesus is ruling on behalf of anyone else. Notice that KJV (also NKJV) has capitalized “governor” even though the original Hebrew of Micah gives no indication that this ruler would be divine. I’m not calling this an error because KJV is the only major translation which capitalizes “governor” (or “ruler”).

#36
Matthew 2: (KJV)
6… “for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.”
The Masoretic text says, “from you there will come forth for me one who is to be a ruler in Israel”. (Early Christian Greek translations generally say, “”a leader of Israel”). “Matthew” has changed the prophecy of a leader of the country Israel to a leader of the people Israel. At the time that “Matthew” wrote he likely realized that Jesus was never a ruler or leader of the country Israel.
#37
Matthew 2: (KJV)
9 “When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.”
By modern, astrological standards such an event would be impossible (the location of a star identifying the location of an individual house.) But claiming an error here based solely on modern standards would reflect an anti-supernatural bias. However, according to Matthew, this star moved from the East to Jerusalem, then south to Bethlehem and then stopped over Bethlehem. There were non-Christian astrologers around this time who recorded all unusual astrological phenomena and none of them mention this event which easily would have been the most unusual they would have reported.
#38
Matthew 2: (KJV)
15 … “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
“Matthew” is referring to Hosea 11:1 (JPS):
“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.”
Hosea chapter 11 is referring to the history of Israel and is not a prophecy. Hosea 11:2 (JPS):
“The more they called them, the more they went from them; they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and offered to graven images. 3 And I, I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. 4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I fed them gently.”
Christian Greek translations of Hosea 11:1 generally acknowledge the plural subject of Israel by translating: “Out of Egypt have I summoned his children”.
#39
Matthew 2: (KJV)
15 … “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
As the KGB agent said to Clint Eastwood in the classic movie, “Firefox”, “Your papers, they are not in order.” “Matthew” gives a prophecy fulfillment claim that Jesus was called out of Egypt in verse 15. But up to verse 15 Jesus is still in Egypt. Jesus doesn’t leave Egypt until verse 21.
#40
Matthew 2: (KJV)
16 “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under”
In his excitement to report this dastardly deed “Matthew” neglects to tell us exactly WHAT was sent forth by Herod. Some translations fill in obvious choices such as “orders” and “men”. A careless omission by Matthew and also a grammatical error.
#41
Matthew 2: (KJV)
16 “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under”
No historian writing close to this time mentions any such massacre. The author of Luke doesn’t mention it either. Josephus thoroughly documented the brutal deeds of Herod during Herod’s final years yet makes no mention of this incident which easily would have been Herod’s worst. Christian apologists estimate that there would not have been much more than 20 such murders of baby males in Bethlehem by Herod based on assumed population and birth rates thereby arguing that such a low number may have escaped Josephus’ attention. Even 20 murders of babies would have been Herod’s worst act. The apologists ignore that the text also says “and the regions all around it” (in all the coasts thereof). The early Church assumed that according to Matthew thousands of male babies were killed in the “massacre”.
#42
Matthew 2: (KJV)
17 “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
18 “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
The real tragedy here is that I can only count this quote as one error. The context of the quote above in Jeremiah is that Rachel is mourning for the captivity of the ten northern tribes in general and the tribe of Ephraim (the main northern tribe) specifically. Rachel was the mother of Joseph who was the father of Ephraim. She is not mourning for anyone’s death or for the tribe of Judah which was a southern tribe and not in captivity at the time that Jeremiah wrote the above.

#43
Matthew 2: (KJV)
19 “But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.”
The above states “THEY are dead” but the antecedent is Herod (singular). The excerpt
“for they are dead which sought the young child's life” is almost the exact same wording from Christian Greek translations of Exodus 4:19. Apparently it was more important for the author of Matthew here to try and recreate exact wording from the Tanakh than it was to write a grammatically correct narrative.
#44
Matthew 2: (KJV)
22 “But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod”
“Reign” implies that Archelaus was the King but Josephus and extant coins indicate that Archelaus was an ethnarch and not a king.
#45
Matthew 2: (KJV)
23 “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”
This prophecy fulfillment claim is unique in that Christian Bible scholars generally agree that there is no such prophecy in the Tanakh. Christian apologists are reduced to guessing what the author of Matthew meant.
#46
Matthew 3: (KJV)
1 “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
After 2,000 years I think it’s safe to say that this was a false prophecy.
#47
Matthew 3: (KJV)
3 “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
The quote from Isaiah in the Masoretic text is: (JPS 1985)
3 “A voice rings out: Clear in the desert A road for the LORD! Level in the wilderness A highway for our God!”
The author of Matthew has quoted word for word from the LXX of Isaiah 40:3 (surprise)
except for substituting the usual reference to Yahweh with a personal pronoun normally used to refer to Jesus. The context of Isaiah before and after chapter 40 indicates that Isaiah was referring to the Babylonian exile and subsequent return.
So other than changing the general wording of Isaiah chapter 40, specifically changing the reference to the coming of Jesus instead of Yahweh and ignoring the context of the author’s work, “Matthew” has made a perfect match.
#48
Matthew 3: (KJV)
10 “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
False prophecy. I realize it doesn’t rain much in the desert but surely the axe head would have rusted off after 2,000 years. On the other hand, maybe it would take 2,000 years to chop down a tree using only an axe handle.
#49
Matthew 3: (KJV)
11…”he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”
In the Greek there is no “the” before “Holy Ghost”. Of the major translations, only Darby acknowledges this. Once again Christian translators are projecting their pre-conceived (pun intended) belief that “the” Holy Ghost is a separate, definite person of God. Simon says “Holy Ghost”. Holy Ghost. “The Holy Ghost”. The Holy Ghost. Uh, uh, Simon didn’t say.

#50
Matthew 3: (KJV)
14 “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”
The Greek word that “Matthew” uses for “fulfill” is generally the same word used by Matthew to claim fulfillment of prophecies from the Tanakh. There is no prophecy in the Tanakh that the Messiah would be baptized in a river. As far as performing a commandment from the Tanakh there is no commandment requiring baptism in a river as a general type of atoning or purification ritual. A related question is, “who baptized John with water?”
#51
Matthew 3: (KJV)
16 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water:”
The author of Matthew likely copied the story of Jesus’ baptism either from “Mark” or from the same source Mark used. This is the related sentence in Mark:
Mark 1: (KJV)
9… “and was baptized of John in Jordan.10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened”
Mark indicates that immediately after Jesus came out of the water the heavens opened. In the Greek Matthew’s sentence structure has joined the adverb “straightway” with the verb “went up” so he is saying that immediately after the baptism Jesus came out of the water. Generally, coming out of the water would signal the end of the baptism. Why would anyone stay in the water after the baptism? Maybe to go swimming or take a bath?
#52
Matthew 3: (KJV)
16… “and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him”
In the Greek there is no “the” before “Spirit”. Apparently, whenever Matthew does not say “the” spirit of God/holy spirit Christian translations say “the” spirit of God/holy spirit.
#53
Matthew 4: (KJV)
8 “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;”
It would not be possible to see all the kingdoms of the world of a spherical world no matter how high the mountain was. Apparently the author, like most people of his time, mistakenly believed that the earth was flat.
#54
Matthew 4: (KJV)
12 “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
Misquote. “Matthew’s” translation doesn’t agree with the Masoretic text or Greek translations of the Tanakh. Isaiah 8: (JPS 1917)
“23… Now the former hath lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but the latter hath dealt a more grievous blow by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in the district of the nations.
9.1 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”
Isaiah Chapter 8, JPS translation, is referring to the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. The “former” and “latter” of 8:23 refers to the Assyrians and Samarians:
7:1 “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it; but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying: 'Aram is confederate with Ephraim.”
All of Isaiah, chapter 8(JPS), is written in prose. Isaiah chapter 9(JPS), starts out being written in synonymous parallelism poetry:
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;
they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Thou hast multiplied the nation,
Thou hast increased their joy;
they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest,
as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.”
Even though Isaiah 8:23 and 9:1 of JPS refer to different subjects and have different writing styles Christian translations have combined them into the start of Chapter 9 because of Matthew’s misquote which attempted to combine them into evidence of prophecy fulfillment.
#55
Matthew 4: (KJV)
17 "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
False prophecy.
#56
Matthew 5: (KJV)
31 “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”
The author of “Matthew” previously had Jesus say:
5:18 (KJV) “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Regarding acceptable causes for divorce the Law of Deuteronomy states the following:
24:1 (JPS) “When a man taketh a wife, and marrieth her, then it cometh to pass, if she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some unseemly thing in her, that he writeth her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house, and she departeth out of his house, and goeth and becometh another man's wife, and the latter husband hateth her, and writeth her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled;”
So Jesus stated that he would not change the Law but he did change the Law regarding acceptable causes for divorce.

#57
Matthew 5: (KJV)

33 “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:”
Contradicted by Deuteronomy 6:13 (JPS)
“Thou shalt fear HaShem thy G-d; and Him shalt thou serve, and by His name shalt thou swear.”
#58
Matthew 5: (KJV)
38 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.”
Contradicted by Deuteronomy 19:18 (JPS)
“and the magistrates shall make a thorough investigation. If the man who testified is a false witness, if he has testified falsely against his fellow, you shall do to him as he schemed to do to his fellow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst; others will hear and be afraid, and such evil things will not again be done in your midst. Nor must you show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
#59
Matthew 6: (KJV)
1 “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.”
Contradicted by Matthew 5: (KJV)
16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
#60
Matthew 8: (KJV)
1 “When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”
Regarding a mountain near Jerusalem (shew thyself to the priest) I think “Matthew” is making a mountain out of a mohel. Anyway, Jesus tells the man not to tell anyone in order to keep the healing secret but someone has forgotten about the “great multitude” which was following Jesus in the previous connected sentence.
#61
Matthew 8: (KJV)
16 “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
Here’s the quote from Isaiah Chapter 53: (JPS)
4 “Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of G-d, and afflicted.”
“Matthew’s” quote of Isaiah 53:4 doesn’t agree with the Masoretic text and doesn’t even agree with Christian translations of 53:4. Isaiah 53:4 states that the subject would bear the diseases while the story by Matthew only says that Jesus made other people’s diseases go away.
#62
Matthew 8: (KJV)
21 “And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”
Deuteronomy 5: (JPS)
16 “Honour thy father and thy mother”
The Tanakh has several verses indicating that lack of a timely burial is an insult so Jesus has contradicted one of the ten commandments here.
#63
Matthew 8: (KJV)
26 “And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes,”
The text implies that Jesus has just reached the other side of the lake and Gergesenes was on the eastern coast of the Sea of Galilee. The problem is that Gergesenes is almost certainly not the name of the city originally identified here by the author of “Matthew”. Mark (who Matthew and Luke both probably copied from) and Luke both identify the city as Gerasa which was 33 miles from the Sea Of Galilee. Matthew, knowing that Gerasa was too far away, likely changed the name of the town to Gadara which was six miles from the lake. Matthew 8:28 of the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus say the town was Gadara. Origen was the first Church Father who recognized that neither Gerasa or Gadara was next to the lake. Let’s see how our friendly Christian translators have handled this:
New International Version (NIV)
When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes,
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes,
Revised Standard Version (RSV)
And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes
NIV formatted (NT only) (NIV-IBS)
When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes
Darby Translation (DARBY)
And there met him, when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes,
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
And he having come to the other side, to the region of the Gergesenes,
Worldwide English (NT only) (WE)
Jesus came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarene people.
New King James Version (NKJV)
When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes,
The Church of the Middle Ages changed Matthew 8:28 to “Gergesenes” from “Gadara” recognizing that Gadara was not on the lake. A majority of modern Christian Bible translations now recognize that “Matthew” probably originally used “Gadara” in 8:28 indicating that the author was not overly familiar with the geography of Israel.

Barack Obama Good for Jews

2008-07-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama has been a stalwart supporter of Israel, as he made clear in the MSNBC debate this week. He believes the path to peace starts with a firm commitment to the security of Israel as America’s most dependable ally in the Middle East. He therefore sees a close U.S.-Israeli partnership as fundamental to American interests. He stands ready to help Israel’s leaders achieve peace in cooperation with moderate Palestinian voices, while remaining vigilant against any party trying to derail progress. He co-sponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which bans assistance to any entity controlled by Hamas. He urged the European Union to add Hezbollah to its list of terrorist groups. He views anti-Semitism as a form of racism, and has denounced as reprehensible those who question Israel’s existence or engage in anti-Semitism. Obama is concerned about bias in the U.N. Security Council towards Israel. Last month, he pressed U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to take a stronger stand against Hamas actions that threaten Israel’s security. Obama termed it unacceptable that “Gaza is governed by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization sworn to Israel’s destruction, and Israeli civilians are being bombarded by rockets on an almost daily basis.” He proposed that any Security Council resolution pass only if it unequivocally condemned the attacks against Israel and supported Israel’s right to defend itself. As Shmuel Rosner, chief U.S. correspondent for the Israel newspaper Ha’aretz has said of Obama, “he is pro-Israel. Period.”
Obama has been tough on Iran, as he should be. He introduced legislation to increase divestment, particularly by U.S. pension funds that invest in companies supporting the Iranian oil and gas industry. He has been outspoken about the dangers inherent in Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. He declared “make no mistake – if the Iranians and Syrians think they can use Iraq as another Afghanistan or a staging area from which to attack Israel or other countries, they are badly mistaken.” He understands that keeping U.S. forces tied down in Iraq for years to come will only strengthen, rather than weaken, Iran.
People should not confuse a willingness to talk to a dangerous state like Iran with a willingness to negotiate away American principles. It is easy to speak only to friends, but it takes vision and courage to engage with enemies. But that is how to tell them, bluntly and directly, what America stands for. Israeli prime ministers like Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin understood this paradigm and boldly reached out to their foes in the search for peace. The next American President should tell Iran it has a choice: relinquish nuclear weapons and support for terrorism in order to join the international community, or face harsher sanctions and further isolation. Obama was right on Iraq in 2002, and he is right on Iran now.
Someone asking the question whether Obama is “good for the Jews” is likely to weigh also his commitment to important social issues. As President, will Obama fight for justice, civil rights and economic opportunity for all Americans? The answer is emphatically yes. He is ready to lead an Administration that helps struggling homeowners, working families desperate to make ends meet and seniors simply trying to live with dignity. He is committed to repairing our educational system so American graduates can compete effectively against their peers abroad. And he is determined to make health care affordable and available for every single American.
Beyond Israel and domestic issues, people must consider also what happens come November. Polls released by the Cook Political Report, Washington Post/ABC and others predict that only Obama can beat Senator John McCain. In addition, a Pew Research Center poll concluded that Obama has the highest approval rating of any major candidate among independent voters. No doubt all of these reasons influenced a majority of Jewish voters to choose Obama in the primaries earlier this month in California, Massachusetts and elsewhere.
Barack means “lightning” in Hebrew. Like lightning, Obama has captured the imagination of millions of Americans who are thirsty for new leadership and a brighter future. He was not a household name before he announced his bid for the presidency last year. But he has been working in the trenches for more than 20 years, building communities, defending civil rights and fighting for those the system left behind. His years of experience have demonstrated that he has the character, leadership and judgment we badly need in our next President. A vote for Barack Obama will be good for Israel, good for Jews and – importantly – good for America.

Jewish Position on Jesus

2008-07-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

The first thing you have to recognize whenever you are discussing the Jewish position on Jesus is that it is the Christians who must prove their case, not the Jews. The Jewish religion existed for thousands of years before Christianity, and Christianity accepts the truth of the Torah and other Jewish Scriptures as Divinely revealed truth. As such, there is no need to enter into any debate regarding the truth of Judaism per se when dealing with Christians. However, Christians maintain that their god, Jesus, came to the world and annulled the laws of the Torah, replacing them with a "New Covenant" that demands belief in Jesus. This is an extraordinary and untenable claim on several grounds:
The claim that a human being is actually God, or part of God, is clearly a very serious claim. Most of us, if presented with such a claim, would reject it out of hand as an utter absurdity, even bordering on madness. Yet, Christianity claims that Jesus, a human being, is God. Obviously they have to prove this before we should be expected to accept it. But what do they actually offer us as proof? A few miracle tales written by his disciples. Yet, despite the rather dramatic claims made by these few followers, we find little or no mention of Jesus in any of the historical sources from the period he supposedly lived in. Every religious movement makes such claims about its founder, yet obviously they cannot all be true. Why should we pick the stories of Jesus over the stories of Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, or any other such legendary figure?
(Just as an aside, some may respond that the same accusation could be leveled at Judaism. However, this is incorrect. Judaism, alone among all religions, is based upon events that happened in the presence of hundreds of thousands of eyewitnesses, primarily the Exodus and the Sinai Revelation. These events, which are the foundation stones of Judaism, were witnessed by the entire Jewish people and qualify as objective historical events. No other religion claims to have had similar experiences, because such claims would be obviously false. The Jews, however, can make this claim because these events really happened (as any Christian or Muslim will agree).)
The idea that God would take physical form (as in the physical form of Jesus) is clearly repugnant to the Bible, as we see from Deuteronomy 4:15-16 and innumerable other places. It is this concept which is the basis of the prohibition against idolatry, one of the worst sins. If we would accept the premise that God could or would take physical form, then any form of idolatry could be justified by its followers as legitimate and the prohibition against idolatry would be meaningless.
The Torah, which Christians believe to be God's word, states in several places that the laws of the Torah are eternal. See, for example, Deuteronomy 4:2, 29:13-14 (KJV 14-15), and 29:28 (KJV 29:29). In particular, see Deuteronomy 13:1-6 (KJV 12:32-13:5) where we are taught that we are not permitted to add to or detract from God's laws, and that if a prophet arises who teaches us to worship a new god we may not listen to him, even if he performs miracles. Yet, Christians believe that Jesus declared himself to be God, and that the laws of the Torah are no longer binding. How can Christianity claim to accept the Torah (the "Old" Testament) while rejecting its most basic principle?
Christians claim that Jesus was the Messiah which the Torah tells will someday come. Yet, contrary to the claims of Christianity, Jesus never fulfilled any of these prophecies. Briefly, these are:
He will return all Jews to the service of God in all its details.
He will rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
He will gather in the dispersed Jews to the land of Israel.
He will bring the entire world to serve God in unity.
Clearly, Jesus did not accomplish any of these things. In the past I have encountered Christians who have argued that Jesus has not failed to fulfill these conditions since he will fulfill them at the time of the "Second Coming". This is a meaningless argument. As the conditions clearly have not been fulfilled, there is no reason to assume he is the Messiah simply because some of his followers say he will do so at some undetermined point in the future. I could as easily make the same argument for myself, I will fulfill the conditions in the future so believe I am the Messiah now.
Even if we would reduce the claim for the legitimacy of Jesus from that of deity to that of a prophet, we would still be faced with a serious problem. The Torah lays out clear guidelines for determining who is a prophet. Jesus never qualified according to these rules, particularly since one of these laws is that a prophet cannot claim to abrogate God's laws and Jesus sought to do just this. It is for this reason that Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides, one of the greatest leaders of the Jewish people, applied to Jesus the verse in Daniel 7:25, "He will speak words against the Most High, and he will wear down the saints of the Most High, attempting to change the seasons and the Law" (Igeres Teiman).
For all these reasons, and others as well, Judaism cannot accept the claims of Christianity. As these opinions are all firmly based in the Bible, which Christians claim to believe in, it is upon them to prove beyond a doubt that their god is a true god and not simply an idol. They have never done this because it cannot be done. Jesus was clearly not God, not the Messiah, and not a prophet.
Nevertheless, the opinion of most historical scholars, including religious Jews, is that Jesus was an actual historical personage though he may not have lived at the time the New Testament claims. In any event, whether he ever lived is very secondary, the tales told of him in the New Testament are almost certainly all fictional and are completely unsupported by any other historical text from that period.

Basic Difference between Judaism and Christianity

2008-07-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Some of the basic differences between Judaism and Christianity (please note that different Christian sects may differ with regards to certain issues discussed here):
Judaism believes that God is a perfect unity, completely indivisible. Christianity believes in the Trinity.
Judaism believes the God has no physical form. Christianity believes that Jesus was God (or part of God) in physical form.
Judaism believes all the laws of the Bible are eternal and immutable. Christianity believes that Jesus ended, or at least changed, the binding nature of Biblical law.
Judaism rejects the need for any intermediary between man and God. Christianity requires the use of Jesus as an intermediary.
Judaism believes that sins can be atoned for through repentance. Christianity believes that repentance accomplishes nothing without belief in Jesus, and many groups believe that with such belief repentance is actually unnecessary.
Judaism teaches that every person is born with a clean slate. Christianity believes in an Original Sin doctrine which maintains that every person is born guilty of sin.
Judaism believes that Satan is a servant of God, entirely subservient to His will. Most Christians believe that the Devil is an enemy of God's who struggles with God for power in the world.
There are many more differences, but these points illustrate that there is a major theological gap between the two religions.

Canabalism Communion Eucharist

2008-07-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Think about Communion
Because Christians have been participating in the communion rite for many years, they tend to forget just how bizarre this ritual is. The whole idea of "eating Jesus' body" and "drinking his blood" is grotesque in the extreme.
Have you ever wondered where this ritual came from, or why billions of people would participate in a ritual that is this bizarre? First, let's look at the part of the Bible that prescribes the ritual. You find it in Mark, Chapter 14:
And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. There are a few lines in Luke chapter 22 that are nearly identical.
Jesus gets far more graphic, however, in John chapter 6:53-55:
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. To any normal person, this sounds very much like the script of a gruesome horror film. It sounds like some sort of revolting satanic ritual. It definitely does not sound like the words of the all-loving creator of the universe.
Imagine that you are a normal person, and you have never been exposed to Christianity before. Now imagine that a Christian comes up to you and quotes John 6:53. Any normal adult would rightfully assume the Christian to be insane. Thus, you never see a bumper sticker that says "John 6:53."
However, the assumption is accurate. The dictionary describes cannibalism in the following way:
The usually ritualistic eating of human flesh by a human being What Jesus is demanding is cannibalism.
What does your common sense tell you about all of this? What we are talking about here is cannibalism, and what Christians are doing looks exactly like a pagan/satanic ritual. If you are a Christian, the two questions you may be asking yourself right now are:
Why in the world am I, as a sane individual, participating in ritualistic cannibalism? How in the world did I stoop to this point?
Why would an all-powerful, all-loving God demand that I do this? What sort of God am I worshipping?
The source of the ritual
If you are curious, here is why Christianity contains this bizarre ritual. It is not the case that an all-powerful God in heaven demands this behavior. All of the rituals in Christianity are completely man-made. Christianity is a snow ball that rolled over a dozen pagan religions. As the snowball grew, it freely attached pagan rituals in order to be more palatable to converts. The process is described succinctly and accurately in the book "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. The book offers these two accounts of the acretion process:
"The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual - the miter, the altar, the doxology, and communion, the act of "God-eating" - were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions."
"Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras - called the Son of God and the Light of the World - was born on December 25, died was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday or Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans." To any normal person, the practice of communion is one of the most bizarre things that Christians do. Jesus' cannibalistic tendencies offer explicit evidence that Jesus is not God.
When you research it historically, you realize that the Jesus character was a human being like any other. The mythology of his birth, life and death are pagan stories that are all man-made because Jesus of Nazereth is imaginary.