THE DREAM OF PEACE

People always and everywhere dream of peace. Peace means a sense of security. It means butter, not guns. It means calmness so that disputes are settled rationally and fairly rather than by force. Peace leads to prosperity, and leisure time to cultivate the arts and sciences. The only people who benefit from war are the military and the munitions makers.

There are two kinds of peace. One is the peace imposed by empire, such as the Pax Romana of the Roman empire. Bush is seeking to impose a Pax Americana on the world, accompanied by an endless war against terror. Since his family owns companies that profit from war, this gives him the best of both worlds.

Bush's followers believe that Bush is a harbinger of the Second Coming, if not Jesus himself. In their minds, Bush is spreading a Christian theocracy, which is to be God's kingdom on earth.

In fact, the Biblical vision of peace is quite different.

He shall judge between the nations,and impose terms on many peoples.They shall beat their swords into plowsharesand their spears into pruning hooks;one nation shall not raise the sword against another,nor shall they train for war again.
Isaiah 2: 4
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/112804.htm

This vision is the basis for the United Nations, and is inscribed on its walls. The UN is designed to be an international forum dedicated to keeping peace.

One world government by force is a work of the antichrist.

In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman

Revelation- the two prophets

Dear Friends,

In order to understand the election results, fraudulent though they may be, one has to understand the hard core, millions of Christian Bush supporters, who they think Bush is, and why they worked so hard to get him elected.

These people are fanatics. They believe we are in the end-time described in the Bible, and that Bush is some sort of herald for Jesus.

Many are readers of the LEFT BEHIND series, a sci-fi narrative by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, based on prophecies scattered through the Bible. Many of the prophecies come from the Book of Revelation. This book was written by the beloved apostle, John, in his late years, while in lonely exile on the island of Patmos.

Revelation consists of a series of fantastic visions, many of which have become part of our own collective unconscious. Words and phrases like "Armageddon", "the four horseman", "the new Jerusalem" come out of the Book of Revelation.

Many Christians believe that John's visions were totally accurate foretelling of the future, and that we have now arrived at the time foretold. They perceive an orderly timetable in the book of Revelation. www.raptureready.com lays out one such calendar.

Bush scoffs at "reality-based thinking". He evidently believes that he is supposed to fulfill some mission of God and create a new reality.

Both the theology and Bush's actions lead to nuclear holocaust and extinction of life on planet earth, with the goody-goody Christians going to heaven with Jesus. I call it hell, and they are taking us all with them.

I have an alternate interpretation of Revelation, which will lead us to life, not death. As my readers know, I endeavor to relate the Bible to current events. So I'll take a stab at the passage for today, one of the most specific and strangest prophecies in the entire Book.

My commentary follows the passage.

Rev 11:4-12 I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names "Sodom" and "Egypt," where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, "Come up here." So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/112004.htm

The two prophets who have "tormented the inhabitants of the earth," these two men of whom John says-
If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouthsand devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into bloodand to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.

Who could these two men be? I nominate Bush and Bin Laden. Both are religious fanatics who are afflicting the earth with terrible plagues of hatred and fear, as often as they wish.

If they lay dead, I have no doubt that
Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days,
(via TV satellite feed, of course)
and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts.

It would be astounding to see those two false prophets resurrected, but I wouldn't care if they went to heaven, as long as they get the hell out of here.

In the name of the Prince of Peace,

Carol Wolman

ABORTION

ABORTION

The word is not to be found, in either the Old or New Testament. Moses went into great detail about rules governing menstruation, rape, and incest, but never prohibited abortion. The Hebrew midwives were very skilled, and doubtless knew of herbs that could get rid of an embryo in the first trimester. If Moses (or God through Moses) was concerned about this practice, he surely would forbidden it.

Jesus was stricter than Moses on the subject of marriage.

Matthew 19: 8-9: Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

However, Jesus never mentioned abortion. Neither did Paul, although his comments on marriage were even more specific than those of Jesus.

How can the evangelicals, who claim to be fundamentalists and take the Bible literally as the word of God, be so vehement about abortion? They lean heavily on the commandment: "Thou shalt not kill". Yet they support killing in wars, of both military and civilians. They support capital punishment. They support the use of depleted uranium, which has produced tens of thousands of abortions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Surely this is hypocrisy.

The following verses are often quoted by abortion foes:
Exodus 21: 22 "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

This passage is not clear about whether the injury is to mother or baby, since fetuses don't have teeth. Assuming it is about the baby, clearly the pregnant woman must at least be in the second trimester, or else the fetal features would not be so clearly defined. Also, there is no mention of what happens if it is her HUSBAND who hits the pregnant woman and causes a miscarriage, which is much more likely, since pregnant women tend to avoid men who are fighting. Overall, this passage does not seem to condemn abortion in general.

The whole abortion issue is a scam. It is not Bible based at all.

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE

HOMOSEXUALITY

There is legitimate controversy about all of the passages in the Bible which refer to homosexuality. None of the references concern female-female sex. While a number of passages condemn aspects of male-male sex, none of them specifically prohibit the practice itself.

For instance: The sin of Sodom was rape and inhospitality, not homosexuality.

Genesis 9: 4- 8 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."

In Leviticus, male-male sex is labelled "unclean", along with menstruation, childbirth, eating pork and shellfish, and a host of other natural but ritually taboo activities. These are not condemned for themselves, but for their violation of "the holiness code", which defined a Jew and distinguished him/her from the surrounding tribes.

Jesus wiped away these taboos with His new definition of purity:

"It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles... what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles, for out of the heart comes evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander; these are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile." (Matthew 15:10, 18-20)

While we know nothing of Jesus' sexuality, we do know that He was very close to his disciple John, who in his gospel always referred to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved".

At the Last Supper,

John 13: 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.

In some translations, John has his head on the breast of Jesus at this point. Physical intimacy and emotional warmth with another man are clearly acceptable to Jesus.

Does Paul, that stickler, condemn homosexuality? While calling homosexual acts "unclean" in Romans Chapter 1, he goes on to say:
"I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself." (Romans 14:14).

Paul is upholding the distinction made by Jesus between ritual uncleanliness and corruption of the heart, and saying that the former is NOT a sin.

What about the following?

Corinthians 6:9-10
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders (OUTE MALAKOI OUTE ARSENOKOITAI) nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Timothy 1:9-10
"the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites (ARSENOKOITAI), slave traders, liars, perjurers and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching..."

These two passages are often quoted as proof of Paul's condemnation of homosexuals. But the references are to "homosexual offenders" and "sodomites", not homosexuals per se. The condemnation is for loose, exploitative, or otherwise immoral behavior, not for male-male sex itself. There is no passage that condemns loving sex acts between two men, or between two women, or homosexual marriage.

The Rapture took place in August 1945

Dear Friends,
It cannot be stressed too greatly that many Bush voters believe in the rapture. They believe that planet earth, or at least its fragile shell of life, is doomed to destruction. Their reading of passages such as the gospel for today (see below) is that nuclear war is prophesied, the elect will be taken directly to heaven, and the rest of us will be left behind to perish in the flames. They believe that this is God's plan, and that Bush, with all his destructiveness, has been chosen to further it.

As a psychiatrist, I recognize psychotic suicidality when I see it. When it strikes a voting majority of the citizens of the world's only superpower, I am alarmed and look for remedies. I know that a delusional system cannot be simply erased, it must be replaced by a more sensible and positive set of ideas.
Please read the gospel passage below, on which Tim LaHaye's LEFT BEHIND series is based, and then resume my commentary. We will never be able to save America and the world unless we understand and address the mass suicidal psychosis which has overtaken Bush voters.

Gospel Lk 17:26-37
Jesus said to his disciples:
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.

So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field must not return to what was left behind.

Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it. I

tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left."

They said to him in reply, "Where, Lord?"
He said to them, "Where the body is,
there also the vultures will gather."
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/111204.htm

This passage has been interpreted in various ways over the centuries. One common interpretation is that this prophecy of Jesus, made around 32 AD, refers to the razing of Jerusalem and the temple 38 years later.

Numerous sects have fixed a certain day for the "event" described in the above passage. They have thought of it as "the second coming", and prepared in various odd ways to meet Jesus, including giving away all their belongings, castrating and flagellating themselves, and voting for Bush. When the appointed date comes and goes without anything happening, the sect members are often bitterly disappointed.

These sects, or cults, clustered around the turn of the first millennium, and again around the turn of the second, which coincided with Bush's first run for president. They have sometimes ended in mass suicide, as did Jonestown and the Heaven's Gate group in recent memory. They are characterized by charismatic leaders who persuade the duped to give up all their possessions and submit to an authoritarian regime involving self-sacrifice. The Republican party is turning into such a cult.

I have been searching for a way to understand this scripture, and others like it, that will lead us to peace rather than to nuclear holocaust. The commonest response is to ignore it, and act as if such Bible passages are not worthy of a second glance. This is mass stupidity on the part of progressives. Around 70 million people have read at least part of the LEFT BEHIND series, and many of those believe that it is an accurate interpretation of Biblical prophecy, which they accept as the unerring word of God. It behooves us to understand and rebut this way of thinking.

I offer the following interpretation: the "Son of man revealed" is referring to a worldwide spiritual event which occurred in August 1945, when the atom bombs were dropped on Japan. World consciousness changed abruptly and drastically that month, as humanity grasped that it had the power to destroy life on earth.
Those "taken" are those of us who were awakened that month to the need for love and peace, personified by Jesus Christ, to rule on earth. Nuclear weapons have made hatred and war obsolete. Those "left behind" are the people stuck in the old ways of thinking, including Bush and Cheney and their ilk, no matter what their lips profess.

Jesus was saying that this realization, that only love and peace can save us, must impel us to drop our earthly pursuits and work with Him to bring about His kingdom on earth. His kingdom is not a powerful empire using shock and awe to cow its "enemies", but a shining city of hope, with its 12 gates open to everyone.

Those of us who were awakened in 1945 hold this vision in our hearts, while we fight off the vultures who are gathering over the spoils of war. Jesus says: Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. This would not be true in the case of nuclear holocaust, but it does apply to spiritual life.

If we cling to oil, and coal, and nuclear power, if we cling to a high standard of living and comfort based on these fuels, we will lose the biosphere and the hope of life for the future. Only by letting go of our attachments to the current corporation arrangement can we save our souls and our coporeal life.

The 19th chapter of the Book of Revelation describes the battle of Armageddon, with Jesus on a white horse confronting the kings of the earth and their armies, who are allied with the beast. 15Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter..

The sword of His mouth is the tongue, words spoken for the sake of truth without thought of personal gain. The iron scepter is the threat of all-out nuclear war, wielded in August 1945, which has forced us to see all humanity as our neighbors. The "night" is prolonged, as we struggle with the lesson that we learned that month. It's so simple, yet so difficult.

Matthew 5: 43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" .

When we grasp this, then we are taken by Jesus. This is the true rapture.

In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman

For more applications of the Bible to current events, see
http://biblequotes.blogspot.com/