Joseph Herrin (12-31-2015)
View of My Home December 31, 2015
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I took the photo above just a few moments ago. We have had an unusually rainy December here in South Central Georgia. The average rainfall for December is about 3.5 inches. It is now the last day of the month and we have received close to 13 inches of rain, nearly four times our average. I am not in any danger of getting flooded out as there are no rivers or creeks nearby, and I am not in a flood plain. I am largely surrounded by level ground, but when this much rain falls it has to go somewhere. I estimate that we had 2 inches of rain this morning and the ground was already saturated.
The image above shows the view from the doorway of my bus. I step down into about 2 inches of standing water. On the far side of the pine trees there is an artificial pond. It is about 12-15 feet deep. A month ago it was dry enough to walk across the bottom of the pond in boots. Now it is full and overflowing. The fields surrounding this location slope slightly in this direction, so the runoff is largely channeled through here.
Girlfriend
Fortunately, both of my dogs love the water. When I take them on runs they will seek out every puddle and go splashing through it. They don’t have to go looking for puddles now. It is more of a challenge to find dry ground.
Here is a view of my driveway. It looks more like a canal. At the tree line in the distance the drive turns right and goes about the same distance to the road. Yesterday the county transportation department closed the road heading to the right as one leaves the driveway as it has become a quagmire. That was partly their fault as they dumped a large amount of dirt on the road a few days ago. The additional rain since then turned it into a mud bog. I can still turn to the left on the road, and since that is the direction of the town of Montezuma where I have my post office box, I am not hindered from getting the newsletters out to men in prison. When the road gets this bad the mailman will not deliver, so it is necessary to take all mail to the post office. I have far too many newsletters to fit in the mailbox anyway.
This is what the roads look like when they are dry. I took this photo last month when I was riding my recumbent trike and taking Champ and Girlfriend on a run. We normally do a five mile circuit, all on dirt roads. It is a delight to them. They start barking and acting crazy whenever they see me getting the trike ready for a run.
My Recumbent Trike
I was thinking this morning of what a marvelous thing Yahweh has done in moving upon the hearts of some brothers in Christ to purchase a vehicle for me back in August. The prisoner newsletter ministry was dramatically increasing at that time. It was becoming necessary for me to make more frequent trips to town to collect the letters I was receiving from men in prison and to send them material. I had been using my recumbent trike for more than a year to make weekly round trips to town which were about 30 miles in distance. Now I find myself needing to go to the post office 3-4 times a week. Aside from the fact that these trips on a recumbent trike are very time consuming, usually taking about 3 hours out of my day, the weather this Fall and early Winter would have made it impossible for me to get my trike down the roads. I have to traverse about 3 miles of dirt roads before I get to the pavement, and these roads are muddy and rutted now.
I was thinking of Yahweh informing Noah to build an ark BEFORE the rains began to fall and it was needed for survival. Even so, Yahweh provided a Toyota RAV4 for me BEFORE the ministry was brought to a halt due to my not being able to get my trike down the roads. I swapped the road tires on the RAV4 for some mud capable, all-terrain tires a couple months back and they have worked out very well.
As I look back on 2015, it has been a year of tremendous grace and increased fruitfulness in ministry. Yahweh blessed me with a much more capable printer. The Xerox Colorqube 8880 was a $2,200 investment of resources, all of it paid for by a brother in Christ who wanted to contribute to the ministry to men in prison. The quality of the print is excellent, and the printer has operated flawlessly. I have been using it since late August, a span of about 4 months, and I have printed more than 70,000 pages of ministry material in that span of time.
Shortly after receiving the printer I mentioned the need of automating the prisoner newsletter mailing list and tying it into the publishing program I use to print 144 distinct editions of the Parables Bookshelf Newsletter. Previously, I had to pull up each edition of the newsletter separately and select the recipients from a pop-up menu, comparing them to printouts I had for every man on the mailing list to see which newsletter they were to receive next. A brother in Christ responded and developed an application that has made mailing list management and the weekly printing a very simple and streamlined process. Now all I have to do is open an Excel spreadsheet, press two buttons, one that calculates the next newsletter for each man, and the second to send them all to the printer, and the job will run without any further input from me. I can sit back and watch as the routine opens Microsoft Publisher, loads each individual newsletter, selects the recipients for each edition, and spools them to the printer. It has saved me many hours of labor each week.
I typically print the newsletters on Saturday. The printer will run 5-6 hours non-stop. About once an hour I will have to load another ream of paper. This automation has allowed me to recover a solid block of time as I can answer correspondence or work on new writings while the newsletter application does the work I formerly had to do.
The cost of the prisoner newsletter ministry is now running close to $1,000 each month, with half of that amount going to postage. Yet day by day Yahweh has moved upon the hearts of His people to spontaneously send in financial gifts. At no time in the past year have I had to delay the printing or mailing of newsletters due to a lack of funds. Oftentimes the money would come in on the very last possible day in order to avoid a delay, but it has always come in.
In a sense, I see the abundant rain we have had in Georgia as a parallel to the blessings of the Father during the past year. When many areas of the country have been experiencing drought, we are receiving an abundance of rain. So too, I can look back on 2015 and testify that Yahweh has been faithful to supply every need. I am deeply grateful for the many members of Christ’s body who have supplied what has been needed to carry on the work of the ministry. I have been blessed to give freely to others of every spiritual treasure Yahweh has given to me. Others have freely given of their material blessings. All things have worked together for the building up of the kingdom of God.
Galatians 6:6
And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.
I do not know what experiences the year 2016 will bring, but I am confident of Yahweh’s unfailing love and unwavering faithfulness throughout it all. A river of Yahweh’s grace has run throughout the entire span of 2015 and I anticipate it continuing in the coming year.
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Illusion and Reality
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A common adage states that “Seeing is believing.” This expression has never been less true than in this modern age of television, broadcast media, and the Internet. A disciple of Christ would be very ill advised to believe what their eyes see and ears hear in the media today. Everything needs to be tested.
In the image above all that was necessary to create the illusion of a man hanging from a parking lot stripe with his briefcase falling downward was to rotate the image 90 degrees to the left. There is no image manipulation, nothing computer generated, only clever framing and the positioning of the subject in order to create an illusion.
From the very earliest days of “moving pictures,” from which the current term “movies” is derived, the big screen was used to make that which is false appear as reality. Most people have seen movie sets where entire towns were constructed that appeared substantive and real, yet every building on the movie lot was nothing more than a facade. Only the front face and a limited portion of the sides of each building were constructed. Viewers could not perceive the deception. If a person were to walk around the back of the buildings they would discover that the majority of the structure was missing. Yet, by skillful placement of the cameras, the ruse could not be detected by the movie or television viewer.
Berlin Street Stage Set
The greatest amount of material broadcast over the television, projected onto the movie screen, or displayed on a computer, has always been fiction. In many cases there is no deliberate fraud involved, for the viewer is informed that what they are watching is fiction. There are many genres of fictional entertainment, including Horror, Science Fiction, Drama, Romance, Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Westerns, Musicals, etc.. Directors, cameramen, actors, staging, wardrobe, special effects, and other personnel involved with the television and movie industries who can create the most realistic productions are accorded the greatest honor and receive the most generous compensation.
The world rewards these individuals for their accomplishments in being skilled deceivers. The world rewards those who demonstrate the greatest ability in making that which is false and illusory appear as real. I am fully persuaded this will no longer be true once the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. This present world is dominated by, and in the power of, the great deceiver. Consequently the world idolizes and rewards those who are deceivers. We live in a twisted world where honor, fame, and riches are accorded to those who most exemplify the nature and actions of Satan.
Consider the role of an actor. Their job is to skillfully and convincingly pretend to be someone they are not and to exhibit qualities, emotions, and reasoning that is not their own. This is often described as “getting into character.” Actors have to become very proficient in the art of deception. They have to be able to exhibit anger on demand, or to shed tears of sorrow or grief. They have to be convincing in their portrayal of romantic interaction with a person they hold no such feelings for, and may not even like.
Richard Gere and Debra Winger - An Officer and a Gentleman
One of the most popular movies of 1982 was An Officer and a Gentleman starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger. They were convincing enough as lovers that the movie which cost $7.5 million dollars to make grossed $129 million dollars at the U.S. box office alone. It garnered another $55 million in rentals, and in the relatively small market of Sweden the movie was viewed more than one million times while in theaters. It was the highest performing R rated movie of 1982 and the 3rd highest grossing of all movies for the year. Yet, in reality Gere and Winger did not even like one another. According to Louis Gossett, Jr., another actor in the film, Debra Winger hated making the movie and she described Richard Gere as a “brick wall,” and the movie’s director Taylor Hackford as “an animal.”
In Greek society, these stage actors would be called “hupokrites,” or hypocrites. Fallen humanity has always inordinately, and unjustly, rewarded the hypocrites. Those who are most able to deceive mankind are inevitably showered with honor and material wealth by society. Two thousand years ago in the land of Judea the masters of illusion and hypocrisy were the religious elite. The Son of God identified the Scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites, or stage actors. These men were every bit as much pretenders as the A-list actors and directors of Hollywood today. Like present day performers, the Scribes and Pharisees were elevated to a status which was undeserved.
Matthew 23:14, 27-28
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses, even while for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation... Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
We have already observed that the word “hypocrite” describes a stage actor, someone who is playing a part. Christ further stated that these men made long prayers in public for a “pretense.” They were “pretenders.” Outwardly they appeared beautiful, but their true character was ugly, offensive, being marked by gross wickedness. Nevertheless, it was very profitable to be a pretender in Jewish society in Christ’s day even as it is profitable to be a deceiver today. Christ stated:
Matthew 23:5-7
“They do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments. And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi.”
The Scribes and Pharisees were the most disreputable, the most morally repugnant, and the least humanitarian members of society. Furthermore, they were the greatest exemplifiers of the character of Satan, to the point that Christ declared them to be the offspring of the devil.
John 8:44
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He... does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”
The Son of God declared the truth. The Scribes and Pharisees were charlatans. They were liars, pretenders, and there was no truth in them. Yet, in spite of this reality, the Jewish people showered these men with honor and material reward. They reserved for them the seats of honor at their banquets. They greeted them with words of respect. They spoke reverently of them as their “rabbis” which means alternately both “teachers” and “great men.” We see the same regard accorded to the Hollywood elite of our day, and if you can receive it, Hollywood has become the religion of the people, populated with its numerous “idols.”
Deuteronomy 4:19
And beware, lest you lift up your eyes... and see... the stars... and worship them.
Hollywood Idols
I want to emphasize that societies are culpable for the deceptions foisted upon them. Whenever evil men and women perpetrate great deceptions upon a populace, the people themselves share responsibility. The Scribes and Pharisees would not have been able to attain to such exalted roles, and remain in them, had not the Jewish people given them their support. Similarly, the populations of nations today are responsible for the deceptions they fall prey unto. This may appear on the surface to be counterintuitive, for a person who is deceived does not know he or she is deceived. The responsibility of the people lies at a more foundational level, however. People are deceived because they do not love truth. A people who do not love truth will become susceptible to lies and deceptions.
The Bible teaches that sinful man, the descendants of Adam, are predisposed to prefer lies rather than truth. I believe that as Christians we must acknowledge this reality or we will not be able to comprehend how governments and other agents could possibly pull off immense deceptions of the scale of the Apollo moon landings. If we begin with the assumption that most people love truth and are not easily deceived, we are beginning with a worldview that is not in agreement with the testimony of Yahweh.
Jeremiah 5:31
“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so!”
Isaiah 30:9-10
“For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of Yahweh; Who say to the seers, ‘You must not see visions’; And to the prophets, ‘You must not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us pleasant words. Prophesy illusions.’”
These are remarkable declarations! Yahweh testified that His chosen people love false words. When He would send to them prophets to speak truth to them, they would seek to silence the prophets. They would demand that the messengers of God prophesy illusions. This condition of fallen man continued after the time of Christ. Men have always loved their illusions. Humanity has a predilection for falsehood and lies.
II Thessalonians 2:10-11
Because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved... for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.
Nor is this merely a Jewish problem. It is the condition of fallen humanity. The apostle Paul declared this to be the condition of all men, both Jews and Gentiles.
Romans 3:9-12
Well then, are we [Jews] superior and better off than they? No, not at all. We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin [held down by and subject to its power and control]. As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God. All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one!
[Amplified Bible]
The testimony of Scriptures is that fallen Adamic man prefers lies over truth. It was a lie that Eve believed when she ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Adam also chose to embrace the lie of Satan rather than to walk in the truth of Yahweh. From that moment forward, men began to demonstrate a preference for lies rather than truth. It was not long before man had exchanged the truth of the Creator for lies as they began to worship the sun and moon and stars, and began to fashion images of men and animals and creeping things out of wood and metal in order to worship these objects as god.
Some would protest, “But those were days of darkness and ignorance. Mankind is much more intelligent and sophisticated today!” Yes, they are so advanced that they reject the fact of their creation by God and have embraced the lie that life emerged in the distant past from the primordial soup as single celled amoebas, an arrangement of molecules into proteins and other biological building blocks that eventually led to more advanced life forms. At some point life began to flourish in the oceans, and then emerged onto the dry land where it continued to diversify and attain ever more complex forms until it could be described as “intelligent life.”
This same “scientific” theory suggests that man descended from a common ancestor as the great apes. The mass of humanity who adhere to this pseudo-scientific confusion deny that the creation arose from intelligent design, from a Creator. This garbage science that men call Evolution, promoted by a man who was a racist eugenicist, is taught in all of the public schools, colleges, and universities of the land. (Note: The full title of Darwin’s book was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.) Evolution is the ONLY explanation for the origin of mankind that is treated as having any credibility by the governments and academics of this world, yet there is no truth in it.
Evolution by Daniel Lee
Brothers and sisters, if this world system under the dominion of Satan will believe the enormous lie of the evolutionists, and will “exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:23), then why should it be difficult to conceive of man having been duped into believing that in the late 1960s the American space program sent men to the moon to walk about on the surface, hold a telephone conversation with the President, and then climb back into their space ship and fly back to earth? The very nature of this age we live in is one of great deception. Men are not walking in truth. Their minds are filled with the falsehoods of Satan which are promulgated by his human servants.
I John 5:19
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
We live in a time when Christianity observes two pagan holidays, Christmas and Easter, as their most sacred events of the year. It would require only a minimal effort on the part of the believer to discover the true origins of these observances. Christmas is nothing more than the Roman Saturnalia repackaged for Christian consumption, and Easter still bears the name of the pagan goddess it honored in its origination. The name Easter is a form of the Germanic Eostre, the Babylonian Ishtar, the Aramean Astarte, and the Canaanite Ashtoreth who is named as one of the false deities worshiped by pagan cultures in the Old Testament, and which the Israelites so often embraced at the displeasure of Yahweh.
I Kings 11:5
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians...
One of the most commonly recognized symbols of Christianity today is the steeple resting atop the churches which lie at every street corner in America.
Church Steeples
The steeple, like the holidays of Christmas and Easter, were borrowed from ancient idolatry. They hail from the land of Egypt where the obelisk was the ubiquitous symbol of the solar deity, the sun god. The Protestant churches have followed the pattern of the mother harlot, the Roman Catholic Church, who stole her obelisks directly from the land of Egypt and set them up in prominent locations, revealing the profane nature of her character.
The Lateran Obelisk
The obelisk in the picture above is located on the grounds of the Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. It was commissioned by Pharaoh Thutmose III and finished by his grandson Thutmose IV. It was erected in the temple complex of Karnak, a center for the worship of the Sun god Amun-Ra, but later moved to its location next to the Mother Church of Roman Catholicism. An even more famous obelisk stands in the center of the plaza of St. Peter’s Basilica. This obelisk was taken from Heliopolis, the center for sun worship in Egypt. The very name Heliopolis means “City of the Sun.” This obelisk is seen in the image below on the far right.
The word obelisk means “shaft of Bel.” Bel is an alternate spelling of Baal. The obelisk alternately symbolizes a ray of light from the sun, for Bel/Baal was a solar deity, and the male sexual organ as shown in the central image above. What should be obvious to any Christian who studies the Bible is that there is no mention of Christ or His disciples erecting an obelisk or a steeple in association with the worship of Yahweh. Neither is there any Biblical precedence for Christians observing Christmas or Easter. What we do discover is that Yahweh’s people in the Old Testament fell away into gross idolatry as they worshiped both Baal and Ashtoreth, an act which always resulted in judgment.
Judges 2:11-13
Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked Yahweh to anger. So they forsook Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtoreth (Ishtar/Astarte/Easter).
The Israelites served Baal and Ashtoreth. Today the churches have an obelisk atop the building, denoting Baal worship, and their most holy day of the year is Easter, which is synonymous with Ashtoreth. Nothing has changed. Satan is the great deceiver who deceives the whole world.
Brothers and sisters, nothing in this world is as it seems. We live in a world of falsehood, lies, and deception. These things are not the exception, they are the rule. How many churches today have a steeple atop the place where they meet? How many churches observe Easter, mixing the profane symbols and rites of the fertility goddess (Easter eggs, colored grass, flowers, bunny rabbits) with the holy sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Christ? How many Christians serve the traditional Easter ham, an animal that was loathsome to the Jews and declared unclean by Yahweh? How does the meat of a pig symbolize the pure and spotless Son of God? Yahshua was crucified at Passover, fulfilling the symbolism of the Passover Lamb. Yahshua is the Lamb of God, not the ham of the goddess.
The origin of the Easter ham is not difficult to discover. The son of Ashtoreth was Tammuz. From ancient times his devotees taught that he was slain while hunting a wild boar. The razor sharp tusk of the boar cut into the leg of Tammuz and he bled to death.
Tammuz Dying - Note Gash on Thigh
Tammuz was considered a god, and was worshiped by the Canaanite people among whom the Israelites dwelt. They adopted the worship of Tammuz, and of his mother whom they called “the queen of heaven.”
Jeremiah 7:18
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven...
It is not coincidental that the Roman Catholics refer to Mary, the mother of Christ, by the same phrase. They have attributed to Mary the same worship and veneration which idolaters have from ancient times accorded to Ashtoreth, the queen of heaven. To commemorate Tammuz’s death each year the ancient Canaanites would mourn for forty days. This is where the Roman Catholic observance of Lent arises. On Ash Wednesday ash is applied to the forehead of the worshipers in the emblem of the Tau, the first letter of the name Tammuz, and his ancient symbol. For the next forty days Catholics fast from certain pleasures as a sign of mourning, culminating on Easter morning when Tammuz was reported to be reborn.
Ezekiel 8:14-16
Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these." Then He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.
Brothers and sisters, even the church has not escaped the deceptions of Satan, the most cunning of all created beings. He has filled the world with lies. The church itself is walking in an illusory world where the holy and profane are vilely mixed together without knowledge or understanding. Only a few perceive the profaning work of an enemy who has sown tares among the wheat and filled the churches with doctrines of demons and many idolatrous practices.
I ask you, if Satan can induce the church of Christ to place obelisks on their buildings, and replace the feasts of Yahweh (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles) with pagan observances that were not practiced or sanctioned by Christ or His apostles, a deception that has encompassed millions of people and has persisted for more than a millennia, then why should it be deemed incredible that Satan has deceived mankind for the past 45 years regarding man having walked on the moon. It would not be any more challenging or difficult for Satan to pull off a moon landing deception than it would be for him to persuade mankind that the universe began with a Big Bang from matter whose existence is impossible to explain, that living matter arose spontaneously from that which was inanimate, that God is a golden calf, that Christ was born on the Saturnalia, that Easter is a Christian holy day, or that churches should have obelisks on top of them. Satan is the GREAT DECEIVER who deceives the ENTIRE WORLD. Those who walk in truth are always a small minority, and they are commonly declared to be heretics and deceivers. The light shines in the dark, but is rejected by the people, for their deeds are evil.
Before setting before your view the evidence of the moon landings having been merely one more lie of Satan carried forth by his earthly disciples, I have sought to lay a foundation by which the reader might recognize that deception is pervasive throughout the world. It should not seem incredible to any believer that great deceptions are carried forward with immense success in this world. Deception, illusion, and men of darkened understanding are what we should expect in a world that lies in the power of the evil one.
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Who Really Controls America’s Government?
Having established that there is an interlinking network of transnational corporations which control global commerce, the next step toward establishing a true and non-illusory view of the world is to demonstrate that these corporate powers are intertwined with the governments of nations. Indeed, the prevailing form of government on Earth is Corporate Fascism. This is true whether one is speaking in reference to the United States or to Russia, whether discussing the United Kingdom or China. The outward appearance of national governments is largely a charade. To use an expression from the previous chapter, it is “theater.” Even as the media has their “puppet theater,” so do the governments of the nations have their “political theater.”
What is Corporate Fascism? In 1932 an essay was published by Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, and Giovanni Gentile. The writing was titled La Dottrina del Fascismo (The Doctrine of Fascism). In this essay the following statement appears.
“Fascism should more properly be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
Some writers in discussing the evident collusion between governments and corporations have declared what has arisen to be Fascism. Others define it as Corporatism. I have chosen to refer to it as Corporate Fascism. The word Fascism derives from the Latin Fascis which describes a bundle of rods attached to an axe. Fasces is the plural of Fascis. However, many English writers tend to use “Fasces” for both singular and plural references. The Fascis was carried by a Roman magistrate as a symbol of his authority.
On either side of the Speaker’s rostrum in the U.S. House of Representatives, there is an image of a Fascis hanging on the wall.
Fasces in the House of Representatives
America’s founding fathers adopted the fascis as a symbol of the government they had created. They were hearkening back to the Roman ideal from which it originated. The fascis is also a prominent feature of the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln’s hands rest over the tops of two fasces.
The National Park Service has a page devoted to the Lincoln Memorial on which it describes the meaning of the fasces.
In ancient times, fasces were a Roman symbol of power and authority, a bundle of wooden rods and an axe bound together by leather thongs. Fasces represented that a man held imperium, or executive authority. Exercising imperium, a Roman leader could expect his orders to be obeyed, could dole out punishment, and could even execute those who disobeyed. The fasces he carried symbolized this power in two ways: the rods suggest punishment by beating, the axe suggests beheading. On its surface, the fasces imply power, strength, authority, and justice. Depicted throughout the Lincoln Memorial, the fasces mean all this and more.
As one approaches the Lincoln Memorial from the plaza below, he or she passes by the first of these fasces at the base of the main stairs. The carving is easily missed even though it is more than ten feet tall, but to miss it is to miss the introduction to the theme of the memorial. There on the end of the wall is a carving of rods with an axe bound by a leather thong, the classic Roman fasces. The fasces indicate the power and authority of the state over the citizens, commanding respect. But there is a twist. A bald eagle's head sits atop the axe, an American touch on an ancient Roman symbol. Adding to the American-ness, there are thirteen rods shown in the fasces, suggesting the thirteen original states that achieved independence from Britain and formed the United States. Seen as symbols of the states, and the American motto "E Pluribus Unum," or "Out of Many, One," the rods bound together suggest the union of the states and their bond by the Constitution. Each state is weaker individually, but together, they are stronger. This concept is so important that it is presented long before visitors reach the building itself and see the representation of the Savior of the Union.
[Source: http://www.nps.gov/nama/blogs/Secret-Symbol-of-the-Lincoln-Memorial.htm]
If you are an American and imbibed the usual political indoctrination throughout your school years, you may be shocked at what is written above on this official government website. Perhaps you were raised to view government as a servant of the people. After all the Constitution speaks of a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Why adopt the fascis as the symbol of American government? “The rods suggest punishment by beating, the axe suggests beheading... The fasces indicate the power and authority of the state over the citizens.”
If any President exercised the power of the Federal government over the citizens of the nation, it was surely Lincoln. He used the full might and force of the U.S. military to wage war on America’s citizens. He imprisoned tens of thousands of northern citizens without charge or trial for the duration of the war simply because their opinions were considered a threat to his war aims. The American Civil War, which was conducted entirely under the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, claimed the lives of an estimated 620,000 to 850,000 soldiers from both sides of the conflict, depending on which report is cited. It has been estimated that another 200,000 to 250,000 civilians died during the conflict as a direct result of the war.
The association of fascist forms of government with strong arm dictators is firmly established. Lincoln is no exception. Although the symbol may have originally had more positive associations, signifying strength through union, and limited federal government, it should be remembered that the Roman Republic eventually gave way to the Roman Empire where Caesars ruled with the authoritarian might of absolute dictators. It could be argued that the fascis adopted by America’s founding fathers prophesied symbolically of a similar path for this nation.
I think it should be self-evident that America can be rightly defined as a fascist state. The adoption of the symbol of the fascis speaks for itself. Yet it is important to clarify that America is a Corporatist Fascist state. The framers of America’s Constitution may have intended for the government to answer to the citizens of the nation, but this is no longer the case. It is now the corporations that have control of the government.
As misguided as Thomas Jefferson was (see the book Dragon Flood for details), he understood one thing correctly. One of the greatest threats to a free, peaceful, and prosperous society are the money powers of this world. In a letter dated May 28, 1816, addressed to John Taylor, Jefferson wrote the following.
The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated (expressed disapproval of). I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens...
If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their interests require...
Much I apprehend that the golden moment is past for reforming these heresies. The functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it...
And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies...
It is interesting to note that in the nascent history of America as an independent nation, one of her most renowned founding fathers lamented that the republican form of government he had envisioned had not manifested according to his desires, and was under threat of being co-opted by outside powers. Jefferson measured a society’s republican status according to whether the citizens of the nation had control over their government. The first government under the new Constitution of the United States was seated in 1789. A mere 27 years later Jefferson was lamenting that there was a need to amend the Constitution to restore and safeguard the nation’s republican character.
In thinking of Jefferson’s disappointment in relation to the nation he had labored to establish, I am reminded of Christ’s words to the seven churches of Asia Minor as recorded in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation. Christ addressed the churches for their departure from a manifestation of His own life and character. The departure was so severe in some cases that Christ warned that their standing before God was in jeopardy.
Revelation 2:5
Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place - unless you repent.
Not being a Christian, Thomas Jefferson had no power to call upon to preserve his vision for a more perfect union, a union where special interests and outside powers were kept in check. The tendency of men toward corruption was only constrained by the separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government and the defined limits of those powers in the Constitution. Men, however, are seldom kept in check by law. The history of Israel from the time of Moses forward provides evidence of this fact. The Jewish people were soon devising disingenuous interpretations of the Law which enabled them to sin while pretending obeisance to God. Christ rebuked them often for their hypocrisy.
Mark 7:9-13
Then he said, "You skillfully sidestep God's law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: 'Honor your father and mother,' and 'Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.' But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, 'Sorry, I can't help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.' In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others."
(NLT)
The jurists and politicians in America have done the same thing to the U.S. Constitution that the Jewish people did to the Law Yahweh delivered to Moses. The Constitution has been redefined to mean something quite different from the intent of the authors. Just as in the case of the Israelites, a charade has been carried on as dishonest men pretend to respect, defend, and abide by the Constitution. To state the matter plainly, America’s politicians and the media continually speak of the United States as a Constitutional Republic where the citizens are empowered through the exercise of democratic principles, while in reality the government operates as a Corporate Fascist state.
If you would walk in truth, you must abandon your pleasant illusions. America never attained to the vision that her founding fathers set forth. She was quickly corrupted by special interests. Her power and authority were usurped by those who had the coin to purchase influence. The year after Thomas Jefferson wrote his letter to John Taylor, he corresponded with Dr. Josephus B. Stuart. In that writing Jefferson stated, “The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imitations. It is raising up a moneyed aristocracy in our country which has already set the government at defiance, and although forced at length to yield a little on this first essay of their strength, their principles are unyielded and unyielding.”
Jefferson understood the threat to a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” It was the financial powers, the bankers and industrialists of the world. They would persist until they had full control of the government, and the democratic process was nothing more than an empty exercise, an illusion of democratic government which the people continued to carry out, despite the fact that the citizens no longer had any real control.
It took time for the bankers to achieve complete power over the American government. Twice in the first century of America’s existence, a national bank was set up which began to exert an unwarranted control over American society and government. Twice, the national bank was closed down as the people and their elected officials perceived the bank’s threat to the American republic. The First Bank of the United States was largely brought about through the influence of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury during George Washington’s Presidency. It was established in 1791, in the third year of the United State’s existence. Many people realized the threat such an institution represented to the liberties of the citizens and to the democratic process. William Pitt, then Prime Minister of England, stated, “Let the American people go into their debt-funding schemes and banking systems, and from that hour their boasted independence will be a mere phantom.”
On February 25, 1791 President George Washington signed the bank bill into law, establishing the First Bank of the United States (BUS). The charter for the bank was for twenty years. In 1811, when Congress had to vote on whether to renew the bank’s charter, the vote to renew failed by a single vote. For the next five years the United States existed without a central bank. In 1816 the Second Bank of the United States (SBUS) was voted into existence by Congress and signed into law by President James Madison. It too was given a twenty year charter. Interestingly, it was war debts that were used as the main justification to establish both of these central banks. The existing debts from the American Revolution were cited as the main impetus for establishing the First Bank of the United States, and debts incurred from the American conflict with England in the War of 1812 were cited as the main reason to establish the Second Bank of the United States. It is conveniently coincidental, is it not, that the year following the dissolution of America’s first central bank, the nation found itself engaged in a second costly war with England?
Through the expansion and retraction of credit, the SBUS caused chaos in the American economy, a ploy that has often been repeated by central bankers, and which has led to recent boom and bust cycles in the American and global economies. As the citizens of America became aware of the complicity of the SBUS in causing chaos in the national economy, a vocal opposition arose. The champion of this opposition was President Andrew Jackson. In a veto message given on July 10, 1832, Jackson stated the following.
It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing the constitutional power “to coin money and regulate the value thereof.” Congress have established a mint to coin money and passed laws to regulate the value thereof. The money so coined, with its value so regulated, and such foreign coins as Congress may adopt are the only currency known to the Constitution. But if they have other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transferred to a corporation. If the bank be established for that purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent, Congress have parted with their power for a term of years, during which the Constitution is a dead letter. It is neither necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power to such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional.
With these words, President Jackson clearly defined the struggle that had been long taking place in the U.S. government. The Congress was being induced to abdicate its powers over the money of the nation as a cabal of bankers were seeking to usurp the same right. It was understood by men such as Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson that whoever controlled the nation’s money supply would inevitably control the government. This is a truth clearly understood by the bankers. In 1790 Mayer Amschel Rothschild, head of the Rothschild group of international bankers, said, “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who makes its laws.” This is a truth that Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, understood as well. It was he who stated,
When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.
It required a soldier with the courage of Andrew Jackson, a hero in the War of 1812, to defy the bankers and refuse to renew their charter. Members of Congress attempted to renew the charter for the central bank several years before it was due to expire. President Jackson opposed the bank’s renewal and vetoed the bill. His veto was sustained. The banking powers attempted to assassinate Jackson on more than one occasion, but were unsuccessful. Martin Van Buren reported in his autobiography that Jackson stated to him in 1832 “The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I shall kill it.” One of the most famous quotes ascribed to Andrew Jackson relating to his war with the banking powers, is the following.
Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal I will rout you out!
With the dissolution of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836, American society entered into a period of its history where no central bank existed. This banking era was altered in 1863 when the National Banking Act was passed. Note that this occurred in the midst of the American Civil War. Wars have also been beneficial to banks and big business. This bill did not create a central bank like the First and Second Banks of the United States. However, it did establish federal regulations for the oversight of banks. Before the bill passed, each state had its own set of banking guidelines. In order to induce banks to come under the oversight of the Federal government, a tax of 10% was imposed upon state bank currency. This drove many state chartered banks to convert to national banks. By 1870 there were 1,638 national banks in the United States and only 325 state banks. The change in the financial character of America from state to federal control mirrored the shift of power that was taking place as the sovereignty of individual states was declining in the face of a massively expanding federal government.
Despite the fact that no central bank existed in the United States during this period, an immense financial power began to emerge. This financial power consisted of interlocking bank relationships in the United States, many of which had relationships with foreign banks, or were controlled by them.
JP Morgan
(Photographed by Edward Steichen in 1903. A trick of light was used to make the chair’s armrest appear as a dagger.)
By the early 1900s the immense wealth and power of the private bankers began to alarm members of Congress. In 1912 a congressional committee was convened to examine what was referred to as the “money trust.” J.P. Morgan was the leading figure of the money trust. J.P. Morgan, Chase & Co. is one of the leading financial corporations in the world today. Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the Pujo Committee which was formed to investigate the money trust.
In December 1912, Morgan testified before the Pujo Committee, a subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency committee. The committee ultimately found that a cabal of financial leaders were abusing their public trust to consolidate control over many industries: the partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. along with the directors of First National and National City Bank controlled aggregate resources of $22.245 billion. Louis Brandeis, later a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, compared this sum to the value of all the property in the twenty-two states west of the Mississippi River.
[Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan]
This massive aggregation of wealth into the hands of a few men gave them immense influence over the politics of the nation. That financial wealth has a direct correlation to political power should not be difficult for a Christian to comprehend. The Bible reveals that men have always had a tendency to be corrupted through bribes. That American politicians sold their loyalty to whoever was willing to pay for it is merely a consequence of the sinful nature.
Proverbs 19:4
Wealth makes many friends...
Proverbs 19:6
Every man is a friend to him who gives gifts.
Exodus 23:8
And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.
Psalms 26:9-10
Do not take my soul away along with sinners, nor my life with men of bloodshed, in whose hands is a wicked scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes.
Proverbs 17:23
A wicked man receives a bribe from the bosom to pervert the ways of justice.
By the early 1900s the situation had become dire as the money powers expanded their control over the American economy and government. A number of Congressmen and Senators began to speak out in alarm. Among them was Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., who stated the following:
The government prosecutes other trusts, but supports the money trust. I have been waiting patiently for several years for an opportunity to expose the false money standard, and to show that the greatest of all favoritism is that extended by the government to the money trust.”
Speaking of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, Lindbergh stated,
This Act establishes the most gigantic trust on Earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized, the people may not know it immediately but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed.... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill.
[Congressman Charles Lindbergh Sr., December 1911]
Despite the protests of Americans like Congressman Lindbergh, the Federal Reserve Act passed. Lindbergh’s statement, “the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized,” and his prediction that the terrible consequences of this abdication of power by the government to a private corporation would become apparent in just a few years, seem in hindsight to be prophetic. Three years after the Federal Reserve Act passed, the U.S. Mint released a new dime that has come to be known as “the Mercury dime.” Officially this was the “Winged Liberty Head dime.” Yet, like many acts of government carried out by men with occult allegiances, there is the explanation given to the “profane,” and another explanation reserved for those who are worthy to be told the truth. In this case, however, the profane masses of American citizens easily saw through the deception and recognized the image on the dime as the Roman god Mercury.
Mercury Dime
Mercury was considered by the Romans to be the patron god of financial gain and commerce. The artist who created the impression for the Mercury Dime was Adolph Alexander Weinman. Adolph Weinman also sculpted the two Sphinxes which stand outside the House of the Temple in Washington, D.C.. The House of the Temple is the headquarters of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in North America. I am confident that Weinman was quite familiar with the occult significance of the images he was contracted to sculpt. Significant to the subject at hand is that the reverse side of the Mercury dime was adorned with the image of the fascis.
I believe this was a not-so-subtle message by the money powers that they now controlled the government of the United States. They now held the power to punish all those who defied their authority. In the same fateful year of 1913 when the Federal Reserve Act was passed transferring the control of America’s money to a private corporation of international bankers, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. This amendment gave Congress the right to enact an income tax, but income was NOT defined as payment received for labor. The 16th amendment did NOT create a wage tax. Nevertheless, the government and Internal Revenue Service would later declare the Sixteenth Amendment to have given Congress the authority to implement a wage tax on the American populace. Thus 1913 became a very dark year for the citizens of America. It was the ultimate year of the enslavement of the people by the money powers.
Opposing the money powers is a dangerous act. Another early opponent of the Federal Reserve was Senator Robert M. La Follette. A Wikipedia article on Senator La Follette states, “La Follette has been called ‘arguably the most important and recognized leader of the opposition to the growing dominance of corporations over the Government.’” The money powers are the chief promoters of war. Senator La Follette stated, “Every nation has its war party... It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition.”
Senator La Follette experienced the ruthless tactics of the money powers when he stood firmly against entry into World War I. He was one of only 6 U.S. Senators to vote against entry into the war. He was treated slanderously in the media and among other politicians. In a speech before the Senate He stated the following:
Six Members of the Senate and 50 Members of the House voted against the declaration of war. Immediately there was let loose upon those Senators and Representatives a flood of invective and abuse from newspapers and individuals who had been clamoring for war, unequaled, I believe, in the history of civilized society. Prior to the declaration of war every man who had ventured to oppose our entrance into it had been condemned as a coward or worse, and even the President had by no means been immune from these attacks.
Since the declaration of war the triumphant war press has pursued those Senators and Representations who voted against war with malicious falsehood and recklessly libelous attacks, going to the extreme limit of charging them with treason against their country.
This campaign of libel and character assassination directed against the Members of Congress who opposed our entrance into the war has been continued down to the present hour, and I have upon my desk newspaper clippings, some of them libels upon me alone, some directed as well against other Senators who voted in opposition to the declaration of war.
In 1932 Congressman Lindbergh’s son, Charles Lindbergh Jr., was regarded as the most popular man in America. In 1927, at the age of 25, he became the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. This gained him instant fame. Like his father, he was a member of the America First party, an isolationist group that did not believe America should involve itself in European wars. In the book Dragon Flood I have set forth the actions of the money powers in fomenting global wars. It is always the bankers and industrialists who profit from war. A man of Lindbergh’s popularity, who publicly stood against America joining World War II, was a problem for the money trust. The views of the Lindberghs stood in direct opposition to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt hailed from the New York banking community, and was thoroughly a servant of the financial powers.
In 1932, what has come to be known as “the crime of the century” was committed when Charles Lindbergh Jr.’s twenty month old son was kidnapped. The child’s body was discovered two months later. Two years after the kidnapping and murder, the crime was blamed on a German immigrant named Bruno Hauptmann. The trial was a farce with manufactured evidence and false witnesses. Hauptmann maintained his innocence to the end, even when an offer was made to commute his death sentence to life in prison if he would admit his guilt. The Lindbergh family was so beset with public interest in these events, and intrusions of their lives, that after the trial they secretly fled to Europe to regain some privacy. In doing so the schemes of the money powers were fulfilled as they rid themselves of a main source of popular opposition to America entering the war in Europe.
Another champion of the people who stood against the money trust was Congressman Louis T. McFadden. I believe Congressman McFadden would perceive the esoteric message found on the Mercury dime. He confessed that the U.S. government had been usurped by the private banking corporation known as the Federal Reserve. With the patron god of the bankers on one side of the dime, and the fascis of government on the other, the establishment of a Corporate Fascist state was being proclaimed. Following are a selection of quotations by this duly elected government official.
It was not accidental (the 1929 stock-market crash). It was a carefully contrived occurrence. ... The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is eager to enter into close relationship with the Bank for International Settlements... The conclusion is impossible to escape that the State and Treasury Departments are willing to pool the banking system of Europe and America, setting up a world financial power independent of and above the Government of the United States... The United States under present conditions will be transformed from the most active of manufacturing nations into a consuming and importing nation with a balance of trade against it.
What is needed here is a return to the Constitution of the United States. We need to have a complete divorce of Bank and State. The old struggle that was fought out here in Jackson's day must be fought over again... The Federal Reserve Act should be repealed and the Federal Reserve Banks, having violated their charters, should be liquidated immediately. Faithless Government officers who have violated their oaths of office should be impeached and brought to trial.
We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the FED. They are not government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers.
The Federal Reserve (Banks) are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this Nation is run by the International Bankers.
The money powers sought to silence Senator McFadden. They attempted to assassinate him twice. Some believe they succeeded in their third attempt.
On May 23, 1933, Congressman Louis T. McFadden brought formal charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank system, The Comptroller of the Currency and the Secretary of United States Treasury, for numerous criminal acts, including but not limited to, CONSPIRACY, FRAUD, UNLAWFUL CONVERSION, AND TREASON. The petition for Articles of Impeachment has thereafter been referred to the Judiciary Committee and has YET TO BE ACTED ON.
Congressman Louis McFadden died a mysterious death in 1936. The only reference I could find of it comes from the excessively right wing rag of the time, “Pelley’s Weekly,” that stated on Oct. 14th: “Now that this sterling American patriot has made the Passing... it became known among his intimates that he had suffered two attacks against his life. The first attack came in the form of two revolver shots fired at him from ambush as he was alighting from a cab in front of one of the Capital hotels. Fortunately both shots missed him, the bullets burying themselves in the structure of the cab. He became violently ill after partaking of food at a political banquet at Washington. His life was only saved from what was subsequently announced as a poisoning by the presence of a physician friend at the banquet, who at once procured a stomach pump and subjected the Congressman to emergency treatment."
[Source: http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_02/lancaster102102.html]
Thirty years later another popular leader stood in opposition to the money powers. This man was President John F. Kennedy.
On April 27, 1961 President Kennedy gave a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The quotations in the image above are taken from that speech. I will repeat them here with additional content for those who have difficulty viewing the image.
The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings...
Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.
If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.
It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions - by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence - on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.
John F. Kennedy angered the powers-that-be, refusing to be controlled by special interests, and he too paid with his life. I am reminded of David’s words when he was informed of the murder of Ishbosheth, the son of King Saul, and ruler of Israel.
II Samuel 4:9-12
“As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, when one told me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?” David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron.
President John F. Kennedy was killed as he rode beside his wife in an open convertible on a sunny day in the streets of Dallas, Texas. After Kennedy had been shot once, his terrified wife turned to help her husband when he was then shot a second time. In horror and shock she sought to climb over the trunk of the car to escape the carnage. Those money powers and world rulers of wickedness who would commit such unrighteous acts deserve the same treatment that David exacted on the murderers of Ishbosheth. One day they will be punished by Yahweh, but that day is not yet.
Even more recently, another politician elected by the people of the United States to represent them in government, experienced a similar fate. He too dared to stand against the money powers. Congressman Lawrence Patton McDonald was a cousin of General George S. Patton who was also killed by the money powers at the end of World War II. I have written about that incident in the book Dragon Flood. You should be beginning to see a pattern here. Whether an influential private citizen, a powerful military official, or a member of the U.S. government, those who stand in opposition to the true powers that rule the nation will be silenced. As Senator La Follette stated, “Every nation has its war party... It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition.” I have made mention of only a few among a great many who have met similar ends.
Brothers and sisters, in 1913 the U.S. Congress and President handed over the governance of America to private corporations. The Federal Reserve is a private corporation whose constituent members are global banks which are also corporations. As demonstrated in the preceding chapter, these banking corporations are interlinked with transnational corporations in the oil, automotive, electronics, military hardware, precious metals, mining, and numerous other industries. Is it any wonder that the policies of American government always work to the benefit of the transnational corporations? Have you not yet understood why corporations pour so much money into elections and the lobbying of U.S. government officials?
Consider that since 1913 the United States has been engaged in almost continual wars all across the globe: World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, War in Yugoslavia, the first and second invasions of Iraq, War in Afghanistan, War in Libya, War in Syria, War in Ukraine, etc.. These wars were not fought to safeguard American interests as the government and media declared. They were wars of corporate interest. They were wars fought for control of the resources of nations, resources coveted by transnational corporations, and for the establishment of other Corporate Fascist regimes.
I highly recommend the book War is a Racket written in 1935 by U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Butler. After a career in the U.S. military, including service during World War I, General Smedley Butler came to the realization that the only ones who profit from war are bankers and corporations, and their profits are huge. General Butler sadly confessed that he had spent his years in military service as an “enforcer” for the biggest, most corrupt, group of racketeers that exist in this world. Blinded by patriotic fervor, few in the military realize that they are not servants of the United States people, nor are their activities promoting the welfare of America as a nation. They are indentured servants of a corporate fascist government system that seeks always its own interests and profits. General Smedley Butler wrote:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
[Source: Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket]
Brothers and sisters, this is the real world with the illusions stripped away. The Space Race, like the Cold War, was just one more fiction of the corporate fascists to engage the populace in supporting their ultimate goals of global domination. We are nearing the end game. Things will get very interesting in the days ahead.
Note: This post has been edited to correctly identify "fascis" as the singular form, and "fasces" as the plural form, of the Roman symbol.
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Friday, December 18, 2015
Network of Deception
The image above of a globe formed of points of light is taken from a scientific report published by systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. The points of light represent 1,318 transnational corporations (TNCs) which form the core of the world economy. Strongly Connected Components (corporations) are depicted as red lights, while very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue.
In the journal PLOS One, the report titled The Network of Global Corporate Control was published on October 26, 2011. This scholarly article has proven to be a boon to “truthers” who have long asserted that there is a cabal of global financiers and industrialists who constitute an invisible government which dictates the policies of nations, controls the global economy, foments wars, and is responsible for a myriad of deceptions foisted upon mankind, including numerous false flag events such as 911, the London subway bombings, the Boston Marathon bombings, etc.. The men and women who control these transnational corporations are able to get away with their heinous atrocities and acts of deception due to the fact that they also control the global media. This gives them control over the news narrative. They also control a majority of politicians and government officials, providing them with immunity from any prosecution.
I am going to cite sections of this landmark study published in 2011, for although the corporate landscape appears different today than it did in the 1960s and 1970s, the situation present today also existed during the years in which the Apollo moon missions were conducted. There has long been an interlinking network of corporate entities which constitute an unseen hand that rules over the affairs of nations. These corporations are experiencing a continual merging into a smaller number of colossal super-corporations, but the network has been present for centuries.
It is important that Christians see the world as it really is, not as it is portrayed by the media, public and private education systems, educational textbooks, and the government. The journal PLOS ONE features reports of original research from all disciplines within science and medicine. They are an independent, peer-reviewed journal for scholarly research. Excerpts from the article they published appear below.
The Network of Global Corporate Control
Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, Stefano Battiston
Published: October 26, 2011
Introduction
A common intuition among scholars and in the media sees the global economy as being dominated by a handful of powerful transnational corporations (TNCs). However, this has not been confirmed or rejected with explicit numbers. A quantitative investigation is not a trivial task because firms may exert control over other firms via a web of direct and indirect ownership relations which extends over many countries. Therefore, a complex network analysis is needed in order to uncover the structure of control and its implications...
Network Topology
In terms of connectivity, the network consists of many small connected components, but the largest one (3/4 of all nodes) contains all the top TNCs by economic value, accounting for 94.2% of the total TNC operating revenue...
A generalization is a strongly connected component (SCC), i.e., a set of firms in which every member owns directly and/or indirectly shares in every other member... The second characteristics (sic) is that the largest connect component contains only one dominant strongly connected component (1347 nodes). Thus, similar to the WWW (World Wide Web), the TNC network has a bow-tie structure. Its peculiarity is that the strongly connected component, or core, is very small compared to the other sections of the bow-tie... The core is also very densely connected, with members having, on average, ties to 20 other members. As a result, about 3/4 of the ownership of firms in the core remains in the hands of firms of the core itself. In other words, this is a tightly-knit group of corporations that cumulatively hold the majority share of each other.
Discussion
In detail, nearly 4/10 of the control over the economic value of TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control over itself. The top holders within the core can thus be thought of as an economic “super-entity” in the global network of corporations. A relevant additional fact at this point is that 3/4 of the core are financial intermediaries. Figure 2 D shows a small subset of well-known financial players and their links, providing an idea of the level of entanglement of the entire core.
Figure 2 D
[Source: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0025995]
The image below represents the transnational corporations control relationships, with the power being primarily held by the small number of entities in the center of the bow-tie.
The Strongly Connected Components in the center number 147 corporations at the time the report was published. This number has since shrunk as power is even more concentrated now due to the shakeup in the financial and corporate world which began in 2008. Following the publication of this study, it was commented on by numerous other magazines and Internet websites. Immediately below is an excerpt from an article posted on the Forbes website.
The 147 Companies That Control Everything
Bruce Upbin, October 22, 2011
Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have taken a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide and analyzed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them. They built a model of who owns what and what their revenues are and mapped the whole edifice of economic power.
They discovered that global corporate control has a distinct bow-tie shape, with a dominant core of 147 firms radiating out from the middle. Each of these 147 own interlocking stakes of one another and together they control 40% of the wealth in the network. A total of 737 control 80% of it all... This is, say the paper’s authors, the first map of the structure of global corporate control.
[Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/10/22/the-147-companies-that-control-everything/]
Next is an extract from an article published by New Scientist.
Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world
New Scientist, October 19, 2011
As protests against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy...
The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere. But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world’s transnational corporations (TNCs)...
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies – all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity – that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. “In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network,” says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.
[Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354-500-revealed-the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world/]
The last article I will cite was published on the website of Global Research Canada.
Bankers Rule the World: “The Network of Global Corporate Control”
Stephen Lendman, December 16, 2011
The study says 147 powerful companies control an inordinate amount of economic activity – about 40%. Among the top 50, 45 are financial firms. They include Barclays PLC (called most influential), JPMorgan Chase, UBS, and other familiar and less known names.
Twenty-four companies are US-based, followed by eight in Britain, five in France, four in Japan, and Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands with two each. Canada has one.
Moreover, “top ranked” companies “hold a control ten times bigger than what could be expected based on their wealth.”
As a result, they have enormous influence over political, financial, and economic activity...
Transnational giants are the dominant institution of our time - especially financial ones with money power control of everything.
They decide who governs and how, who serves on courts, what laws are enacted, and whether or not wars are waged. Corporate dominance, especially financial power, and democratic values are incompatible.
They operate ruthlessly as private tyrannies...
Nothing in America’s Constitution or statute laws endow corporations with their rights. They usurped them by co-opting Washington, the nation’s courts, state capitals, and city halls.
As a result, over half the world’s largest economies are corporations. Financial ones controlling the power of money are most dominant.
Corporate personhood enhanced their power, yet imagine: Although corporations aren’t human, they can live forever, change their identity, reside in many places globally, can’t be imprisoned for wrongdoing, and can transform themselves into new entities for any reason.
[Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/bankers-rule-the-world-the-network-of-global-corporate-control/28235]
I found some of the statements in this last review to be thought provoking. Consider how well the entity known as a corporation meets the needs, and serves the plans, of Satan. He too is not human. He can live forever. He changes his identity to suit the situation. He resides in many places globally, and he is beyond the reach of the justice system of man. Satan is the ultimate architect of the corporation, for it serves his purposes well. He wanted to create an entity that did not suffer the limitations imposed upon mankind. By placing power and wealth into the hands of corporations, his schemes can continue on without interruption when key men die.
Why is it important to know that the world is controlled by a network of transnational corporations? Men and women interpret the information they are confronted with through the filter of their worldview. If their understanding of the world is skewed, inaccurate, or false, then so will their interpretation of the events in the world around them be wrongly understood.
As an example, if you are a Christian residing in the United States, a deception has been promulgated that asserts that America is a democracy with free elections, and any citizen of the nation can run for, and be elected to, public office. Any Joe on the street has the potential to become President of the United States. The idea that the individual citizen’s vote counts, and that government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is believed by a great many who have had this notion taught to them since their earliest days in school.
There were many years that I walked in naivete, believing what I had been taught, a false worldview reinforced to me even by spiritual leaders who urged their congregations to get out and vote. The scales fell off of my eyes in 1992 when the Presidential race was between three men: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and H. Ross Perot. With a little investigation I learned that all three men had direct ties to the Rockefeller money trust in America. No matter who Americans voted for, they were electing a Rockefeller agent. I realized at that time that the elections were all rigged and I have not voted since. Americans do not actually choose the candidates they get to vote on. They are handpicked by the powers-that-be.
In the book Dragon Flood I wrote of the deception carried out by powerful men who have followed a carefully crafted plan of deception. These ruling elite convince the average citizen that the power to rule themselves is a reality guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution. The citizens are led to believe that they are the ones in charge of choosing their elected officials and approving the laws of the land. Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, and considered the father of American advertising and political propaganda, revealed the truth of the matter. Following is an excerpt from the book Dragon Flood.
Bernays had a true “insider’s” perspective into the machinations of government. Stuart Ewen in his book PR! A Social History of Spin, describes a visit he paid to Bernays at his home.
He led me through a dark room off the landing. Its walls were covered with scores of framed black and white photographs, many of them inscribed. Wordlessly, yet eloquently, the pictures placed my ancient host close to the heartbeat of a century. Bernays on his way to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Bernays standing with Enrico Caruso. Bernays and Henry Ford. Bernays and Thomas Edison. Bernays and Dwight David Eisenhower. An inscribed photo portrait of his uncle, Freud, was also conspicuous. Bernays with the “great men” at the “great events” of the twentieth century.
Bernays and President Eisenhower
Bernays wrote of the power a small group has in selecting even those candidates who will become President of the United States.
A presidential candidate may be “drafted” in response to “overwhelming popular demand,” but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room.
[Source: Propaganda, Edward Bernays]
Things have not changed much since the day in which the above statement was written. Much has been written about the Bilderberger Group in recent years. This group of extremely wealthy and powerful global persons derives their name from the hotel they met at for their first annual meeting. It is true that a small number of men and women still meet today in hotel rooms to determine who will be given the rule of the nations. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were whisked away during the midst of campaigning for the Presidential nomination of their party in 2008. Their sudden absence was the subject of much speculation. It became known that they were taken to attend the annual Bilderberger conference, at which it was determined that Obama would become President and Hillary Clinton Secretary of State. Those elected to public positions are acting as the pawns of the true powers that have placed them there.
There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.
[Source: Propaganda, Edward Bernays]
As one reads the writings of men like Edward Bernays, Walter Lippman, Ivy Lee, and other pioneers of modern propaganda, it becomes evident just how pervasive the practice of manipulating public opinion has become. The following statement of Bernays, written in 1928, could have been written as a commentary on America’s current President.
Again, the objection is raised that propaganda is utilized to manufacture our leading political personalities. It is asked whether, in fact, the leader makes the propaganda, or whether propaganda makes the leader. There is a widespread impression that a good press agent can puff up a nobody into a great man.
[Source: Ibid]
Truly, there has seldom been a less accomplished man who was portrayed as a great statesman, than the current President (Barack Obama). Many were astonished when after his election to the Presidency he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There was no basis for the award. He had not brokered any peace agreements. He had no political history of accomplishment. All the awards and popular press he was receiving were part of a massive, organized plan to manufacture an image of a great man out of a nobody. The ruling elite chose Obama as a figurehead to accomplish their purposes. They manufactured a false history for his life, and the public by and large has accepted it due to the universal and continuous flood of propaganda that has attended his ascension to public office.
Although Obama is a willing instrument of men in carrying out the destruction of America as a wealthy nation of great liberty, he is not the one making decisions. Those who created his public image and arranged his election to the Presidency are the true powers behind the throne. As far back as 1928 Edward Bernays wrote:
The public actions of America’s chief executive are, if one chooses to put it that way, stage-managed.
[Source: Ibid]
Edward Bernays did not apologize for his views. He believed that it was right and necessary for an enlightened minority to guide the masses.
Ours must be a leadership democracy administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses. Is this government by propaganda?... It must be enlightened, expert propaganda through the creation of circumstances, through the high-spotting of significant events, and the dramatization of important issues.
[Source: Ibid]
Consider carefully what is declared here. An “intelligent minority,” a global elite, believe it is their right and duty to regiment human behavior. They accomplish this control of mankind through creating events and circumstances that will provide a context to move the masses in a particular direction. That which passes for spontaneous news events today are seldom spontaneous, or news. They are dramatizations played out on a world stage with the intent of manipulating mankind. The global elite need the masses to consent to their schemes leading to a one world government. They refer to the work of propagandizing the masses as “manufacturing consent.” By deceiving and manipulating the people, the consent of the nations is gained.
Do you perceive this deception all around you? Are your eyes opened to perceive the hidden hand that guides events? Or do you still believe that America is a nation where the government serves the people? Are you so blinded by propaganda that you believe America can be changed by electing a Republican instead of a Democrat for President? Do you perceive that the candidates of both parties have been hand picked, and they are equally servants of an invisible government?
[End Excerpt]
I groan inwardly when I hear from Christians today who speak with effusive praise of men like Donald Trump. Trump is saying all the things that patriotic American conservatives want to hear. He appears to be a champion of the common man. Brothers and sisters, it is all an ILLUSION. We live in a world where many illusions are manufactured to deceive the people. It is necessary that you practice the discernment needed to determine what is true and what is a lie. Donald Trump is a servant of the global elite. He is a corporation man. He has received financing amounting to billions of dollars for his real estate investments from the same transnational banking interests that control the policies of national governments.
With a word these financial rulers could bring Trump’s empire crashing to the ground. He could be left financially destitute, his reputation sullied, and his life ruined at the whim of the corporate masters. Although he speaks defiantly, and gives an appearance of being independent, he is in reality a corporate slave. Donald Trump is playing the role that has been assigned to him. He will do the will of those who hold the reins of power, for he knows very well the consequences of defying them. Donald Trump’s real estate empire is heavily leveraged with debt. The debtor is always slave to the lender.
Like Ronald Reagan, Trump is an actor. His words do not match his life and actions. He is a godless, proud, sexually immoral, dishonest, scheming individual who has risen to wealth and power through the assistance of the Luciferian financial corporations that dictate the course of nations. If Trump were elected he would betray every promise made while campaigning, in the same manner that Barack Obama did after his election. There are a large number of videos on YouTube that have juxtaposed Obama’s campaign promises with his words and actions after he was elected President, revealing that he has done just the opposite of what he promised to those who voted for him.
Brothers and sisters, if you are engaged in watching the American political process on corporate media, you are observing political theater. It is play-acting. It is hypocrisy. There is no truth in it. It is an illusion that has been pulled over people’s eyes. Edward Bernays spoke the truth when he stated that the actions of America’s Presidents are “stage-managed.” The political world set before the eyes of the populace is puppet theater for the sleeping masses. Hollywood has been surreptitiously telling people this for many years. They know the public is so bewitched by illusion as they stumble sleepily through the dream world they are living in, that no one will take notice.
In the film clip below from the science fiction movie Serenity based on the television show Firefly, there is a scene when the crew of the ship seek information from Mr. Universe. Mr. Universe is a computer expert who is tapped into all forms of communications of the Empire which spans 30 worlds. Mr. Universe informs the crew that there is “the signal” which is raw and unedited, and then there is the “puppet theater” to entertain the somnambulant masses.
Serenity - Puppet Theater Clip
Mr. Universe: Do you think you are in a hot place?
Crew Member: That is what we are looking to learn. Is there any follow-up on News wave?
Mr. Universe: There is no news. There is the truth of the signal - what I see. And, there is the puppet theater, the Parliament jester’s voice for the somnambulant public.
Crew Member: Well what about this? Did this make the puppet theater?
Mr. Universe - The Truth of the Signal
The movie Serenity was released in 2005. Significant to the subject at hand, the movie’s plot revolves around the crew of the Serenity uncovering a government plot to add a drug called Pax, or Paxilon Hydrochlorate, to the air processors of one of the worlds they have terraformed. The drug was intended to render the citizens of this world passive so they would not resist the control of the interplanetary government. The drug had an unintended effect, however, as most of the people lost the will to do anything. They even quit eating and just laid down and died.
There is a parallel present in this movie to the unseen government of our world, a government which is using the airwaves to render the populace amenable to their control. In Latin, the word Pax means Peace. The illusions that the global elite are spreading through the airwaves and various media are intended to render the populace pliable to their will and cooperative with their goals, even if those goals mean the ultimate death of the majority of mankind.
Mr. Universe stated, “there is the puppet theater, the Parliament jester’s voice for the somnambulant public.” The word “somnambulant” is defined as “walking or having the habit of walking while asleep, resembling or having the characteristics of a sleepwalker.” Sadly, this word describes not only the majority of people in this world, it also is a fitting description of most Christians. The apostle Paul wrote:
I Thessalonians 5:5-6
We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
Brothers and sisters, if you are not perceiving the world of illusion all around you, you are neither alert nor sober. You are stumbling sleepily through this world and doing so can only result in great harm for there are evil men and devils who seek to devour you.
I will mention one other well known and often quoted Hollywood reference to the deception that has been perpetrated by men and devils upon humanity. These words come from the movie The Matrix.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
What is expressed here is true. There is an illusory world that has been pulled over the minds of men. Like a drug, the deception being poured forth through the media, through entertainment, from the government, from advertising, even from the church pulpits, induces men and women to see the world as something it is not. This was equally true in the 1960s and 1970s. The government and media, even religious leaders, acted in concert to persuade humanity that America’s space agency was able to repeatedly send men to the moon and return them safely back to Earth.
I have not yet begun to present the evidence of this deception. It is necessary at the beginning to show you the level of control present in this world system. A control that reaches into every facet of society, controlling the flow of information, shaping the ideas and beliefs that are required for an “intelligent minority... to regiment and guide the masses.” This intelligent minority see themselves as the Illumined ones, the Illuminati. In their minds, those who are deceived by the illusions of the ruling elite deserve to be deceived and to experience the consequences brought on by their lack of discernment.
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