3/20/2010 Hidden Pavilions, a mystical work

To Anais.....

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If you are like me, the hackles on the back of your neck tend to raise when someone starts to impose his (or her) belief upon you when your beliefs have been serving you well. But most of us try to be objective and will hear someone out when a well founded point of view is offered.

So this is another point of view, which, I must admit, did not exist for me when I began this work. I had a bias and there were many things which I discovered in the adventure of this book that I was afraid to pursue. But aren't we all a bit that way? Because all adventures have a price. And because this journey does tend to be somewhat overwhelming, I will try to summarize it here in as few thoughts as possible, with the hope that it provides you an easy way to digest this book.

First, we have to ask, "What is it and who would read it?"

It is a book of remembrance of what the Biblical prophets and rabbis, during the course of time, thought. It is a reminder, in this regard, what Christians, Jews, and Moslems have been taught to believe. And ultimately that thing is The image of God, encapsulated, so to speak, in an abstract precept called The Word. That thing is also called Truth, which is something all the great minds of men have searched for over the aeons of time. And in their search each man concludes that he has seen truth and then goes out to tell the world about his new discovery. But I suspect the real truth of the matter is that a man who is permitted to peek into the Divine Truth probably reaches a point where he doesn't want to know any more.

Perhaps a common element in these discoveries, which are as diverse as the spots on a leopard, is the reduction of that Truth into something we can all touch and feel. We reduce it to flesh; and in this we can see how all the great religions of the world have seemed to gravitate towards the same end and hope: that their Teacher of Truth (or righteousness) will descend to earth in the flesh, or, in some cases, like the Christian and Buddhist, the Teacher will reincarnate and return to earth. So we have the Moslems, the Christians, the Jews, and even the Buddhists awaiting their Messiah(s).

Here, we see, the Christian awaits Jesus to return to the earth, the Buddhists await Buddha to return. The Moslems await one who will come to confirm, in the great and terrible day of the Lord, called the Day of Resurrection, that the Koran was truly dictated by the Angels to Mohammed, Finally, we discover that the Jews await Two Messiahs, and hold a tradition in common with the Essenes, who also awaited Two Messiahs two thousand years ago...Surprised?

We have surveyed what these people believe. And in the survey we asked whether any or all of their beliefs were true. We measured the Truth by balancing it against the scale of the King James Bible. We used this as our measure, because The King James Bible reflects, in our opinion, an honest attempt to remain true to the original Greek translation of the Bible. One can see that these great scholars translated phrases and precepts that simply did not make sense. They did not try to redact them to suit their impressions but rather made the translation as close to the original as possible. Imagine, if you will, these scholars of yesteryear, most certainly Christian, translating a passage in the Bible which describes Two Christs! One might think that they would have second thoughts about this and turn the rendering into some other precept, such as two dignitaries, for instance, which is what modern scholars in the American Standard versions of the Bible have done. But right now you ought to be a sceptic, concerning this notion, and we'll let you have more time to deliberate on this issue, as well as others, later on in the book.

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To ascertain what all these people believe, we have to go through all of their various books, which is a mammoth undertaking to say the least. But it is fortunate that there are books recently published which have attempted to consolidate many of the old scriptures, which are not in the Bible, under one cover. And in this I am indebted to such books as The Lost Books of The Bible  and the Forgotten Books of Eden , The Other Bible, The Oral Torah, and many others. Unless one is proficient in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and has access to many closed libraries, which excludes me, the work I have done would have been prodigiously beyond the abilities of one man.

So this book is a Search [midrash] to see if there is a common vein of truth among all the various and sundry works on and in the Bible. Some books we simply passed over, because they were obvious departures from the common thread of the other books. There are probably many other books which we have missed, owing to our own limitations in research, but we had a hunch from the beginning that what we uncover would more than sufficiently display a common pattern of Biblical Thought.....which may be, we suspect, that for which you have been seeking.

If you are like me, you might have some kind of bias in your search, perhaps beginning with a preconceived idea and trying to confirm it. This, of course, never confirms truth, but if you approach it with an agreement to yourself that you will try to be objective and not let your personal bias interfere, you will at least be exploring the way of truth. If you are like me, when you see a very clearly written verse, you would hopefully ask, Could it be true? rather than passing over it.

If you are like me, sitting in judgment on truth, you will try to be fair and listen to as many arguments as are offered. And in all fairness, we have to begin with the source of all these arguments. That source is The Bible. And it calls itself the Word ofGod.

If Truth is to be explored, sometimes it is best to approach it with a bit of naivety. And in this, in the conception of this book, I had a lot of it. And my naivety showed me how God uses fools to display Wisdom. The Bible asks, "What are the instruments of a Foolish Shepherd?" One could guess that if the Shepherd is modeled in the nature of the the writer(s) of the Bible, His instruments would be a pen and paper. In a manner of speaking this is what I became in the writing of this book.

The book is an adventure, every bit as much in the spirit of the Arthurian Legend of Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad and their Search for the Holy Grail. Many of you may not know this, but Sirs Lancelot and Galahad, those Great Knights of Lore, were (Christian) sons of Judah.. For the Lore says that they were descended from the Fisher King whose name was Joseph of Arimethea, who is the same one in whose tomb Jesus the Christ is reported to have been buried. And Joseph, as near as we can tell, was a Jew and a Son of David. So the greatest knights of Western Lore were Two Jews. Further, we see in the tale of Sir Galahad, that it is a Messianic adventure and Galahad is the Messiah.

To set off on our adventure, we created a fictional character as well. We call him the Shepherd of Arcadia. To ascertain Truth, we thought to let Him be the Messiah and discover what He will concerning these variant philosophies (and the state of the world which relies on them) today. In my somewhat unabashed naivety I wondered what He would think about the Christian Ministry today.

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Before I started this adventure, I knew absolutely nothing about the Bible, except what I had learned through osmosis living in a Christian town. I hardly ever went to church, as a boy, and I had never read through the Bible. In fact, if you are like me, you probably don't have the slightest idea what the Bible is about. And if you try to sum it up, or inquire from one minister or rabbi to another, you find a different description of it from every source. But in the course of time I found a truth which seems to sum up what the Bible is about. As near as I can see, it is about a thing called God who claims He intends to establish a Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. (I picked this up from the Lord's Prayer). And when I realized this, I discovered that this is not what the Christian Ministry have been teaching. The hopes of the Christian Ministry, it turns out, seem to be based upon another thing, like the catching up of Enoch to Heaven, called the Rapture. When Jesus returns, in rapture, the Ministry believe that all the faithful will be caught up (literally snatched up) into the clouds to meet Him and then taken to Heaven. In the course of exploring this, my Shepherd began to feel sorry for the Messiah described by the Old Testament prophets, and Revelation. For that Messiah is a man appearing in the flesh to wound and bind the dragon, who is Satan, and establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. There certainly is no catching away to Heaven in this storyline. I felt sorry for the Messiah because if the rapture takes place as the Ministry call for it, when the Messiah comes He will find no one sympathetic to His Cause. Their plan does not provide anyone to receive and support Him, so it appears.. For all those sympathetic to Him, according to modern accounts, will be safely yanked away to Heaven to avoid the struggle which the Messiah is designed to combat. So you can understand our sympathies, and you might wonder as we why the Messiah, in founding His Kingdom, must start over, trying to persuade new people to His Cause, while the faithful are safely tucked away in Heaven. And perhaps you wonder what relevance those safely tucked away in Heaven would have to this end purpose of the Bible, which claims , in a manner of speaking, to move everything in Heaven down here to earth. And perhaps, if you were the Messiah, arriving on earth, you might want to ask all these people, "Where are you going?"

Being naive, when I first opened the Bible, I made two discoveries. The first discovery is that the Tabernacle, the Tent of God built by Moses, is promised to be restored when the Kingdom is founded. And I found that the time of that event is clearly described, called the Latter Days, and occurring precisely at the time the scattered Children of Israel are restored to their land. And this is now.

If you are like me, in being objective, if some one proclaims a Truth, you answer, "All right, I accept your statement, that it is true; now let's put it to the test." If you have tested it every way you can discover, and it still holds up under the test, then we can conclude that the proclamation is true. And it remains true, of course, until new data emerges to put it to the test again. So this is what we did with God.

Our Shepherd--which the Jerome Commentary says also means Messiah in the case of Cyrus the Great mentioned in Isaiah--made another discovery,which is earth shaking in his mind, to say the least. That discovery is that the Bible's story line does not describe One Messiah. It describes Two Messiahs. And being naive, in pursuing this truth, I wrote the Christian Ministry, for starters, and then pursued it with others. Everybody I contacted was completely dumb on the issue. It should have been expected.. After all, there can't be Two Messiahs, for we have been taught that Jesus the Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God. Certainly Jesus cannot have competition. This prospect even offended my sensibilities, for I did have a Christian bias and heritage. I thought of asking God, "What hath thou wrought?"

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The formation of this book is a book of letters. They harangue on the two issues we mentioned above and delve into other areas of philosophy. Because the letters and our personal contacts met no answer, we began, in this adventure of the mind, to become a bit peeved. For we concluded that many have been hiding the truth from me. I discovered a great cover-up.

In the course of our adventure, recognizing that in going house to house there was no answer, we thought to put the questions of truth to you, my reader, and let you pass judgment on it.

Now who are you? Perhaps you are one who has never had a Bible in his hand, or who has wondered what the Bible was about and may have been frustrated trying to make sense out of it. Perhaps you are one who thinks the Bible is a book of interpretations (written by God?) and wonder how God could write something which is unclear.

Perhaps you are a Christian and have always wondered what the Jews actually believe and why they won't accept Jesus as the Christ (Messiah/Anointed One).

Perhaps you are a Jew and wonder why the Christians won't acknowledge that Jesus did not fulfill the prophesies of the Deliverer Messiah, which prophesies outnumber by far the prophesies Jesus actually claimed to fulfill. For the Jews believe that the Messiah has to match up to all the Prophesies which describe Him. Anything less than that is a false messiah.

Perhaps you are a Moslem and wonder why the Christians appear to be worshipping Two Gods; and why the Jews and the Christians do not read your book, The Koran, which you believe was inspired by God. And perhaps you wonder why the Christians call you an infidel and yet have never bothered to read your book. And you can't explain to the Christians and the Jews that they are wasting their time trying to convert you; that you have always believed that Jesus the Messiah and the Virgin Mary are True, and are, furthermore, signs of God; and you are taught to believe that the Bible is completely true. And you believe in One God and you believe that God would not create another god who could compete with Him. And you wonder what the problem is with your belief, as concerning the Christians and the Jews.

Perhaps you might be a Buddhist, or something else, and wonder, after reading through the ten thousand or so ways of achieving Nirvana, whether there might be a simpler way to ascertain truth.

Perhaps you are a Peacemaker, and really don't care what all these people believe, and you wonder why they are all trying to kill each other--many to defend their gods--and take you with them.

Perhaps you are a scholar. It may be that you hold many doctorates on various things. For certain, we have addressed you, because you hold the key of knowledge. If you see where I am in error, or have not treated a precept fairly, or where I have addressed it inadequately, be my guest to correct it. But please understand what we have had to deal with: that it is difficult to speak for God and His Prophets. While man may believe you, one can always raise up and set things straight; if you are lucky, and that one comes from God, you will not be made to look like a fool. We all, even Our Shepherd, will be weighed by the men of the future. I hope Our Shepherd will survive his test to come; and to keep Him on the straight and narrow path, we did try to restrict his thoughts, however, by causing Him to defer to the prophets' sayings; and, in doing so, we asked you to be the judge of what those sayings meant. In a manner of speaking, you are going to be Our Shepherd.

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Perhaps you, in the final analysis, are an adventurer like me and not afraid to pursue truth, even in the same spirit as the search for the Holy Grail; and are even willing to try to put on the Shoes of the Messiah to understand what is required of Him and whether all this stuff relating to Him makes sense. And in this, if you are like me, we can walk together in the Similitude of the Messiah, in His Shoes.

Are you a scholar? I'm not. At least I don't think I am. And in my early days I wondered how God would think to write a book addressed only to scholars. Certainly, if I were God, I would write a book everybody could understand and understand it without confusion.

So this is, in a nutshell, what the book is about and to whom it is written. And I wonder, after all my frustration, my time and effort, whether it can be useful to you and how you might use it. After all, you are going to discover that it intends to affect you in some way, even change you. Because the Shepherd, upon learning the truths you are about to explore, realized that with this New Truth (actually it is very old) He can single handedly change the world.

Now if you are like me, would you be afraid to do what I have done?:

To walk in the Similitude of the Messiah?.

After all, isn't this what the Body of Christ is supposed to be doing?..

A friend described this book in the context of an Alice going through Wonderland. And somewhere, we suspect, it might be seen that the gulf between fact and fiction in this book becomes blurred. After all, being true to our fictional character, I allowed Him, as any writer would do, to Live. And in order to live, I wove my personal story into the book. It kinda takes the dryness out of the work. A few tears now and then soothe the soul.

How to get through this book: If you are like me, sometimes you start thumbing through the back of a book, looking for something of interest, before you read it. Knowing this might be the case, we included a rather substantial index of Scriptural Words and phrases. We call them noun plus epitaph indexes. They are sort of a language of God. And you will find, among all the sources we used, there is a common understanding on these usages of the language of God.

We would recommend that you first browse through the Index. Check off a word or phrase which piques your curiosity. There should be a lot of them. And together we can try to understand what they are talking about.

In a manner of speaking this book is a dictionary of the Language of God. And in the course of creating it we tried to let those who expressed the words define the words.

We are hoping the index will help you get a better feel for this thing we call God. It may be even enlightening for you. It was for me. For instance, you are going to learn that the word "Star" also meant the Image of God. And we learn that in Moses's saying, a star shall rise out of Jacob and a Scepter out of Israel we can also read it as

"the image of God shall rise out of Jacob" and, since "Scepter" also means "Lawgiver", a Lawgiver shall rise out of Israel. As a sample of how this book works, we find, in Revelation, Jesus (speaking to John from Heaven) saying, "I am the bright and morning star". Now the Old Testament prophets, knowing this language, would have understood this phrase of Jesus to mean, "I am the image of God", i.e., God in the Flesh.

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Now if you are like me, you might wonder why God in the Flesh would allow himself to be killed, as it is clearly stated in prophesy and reflected in the historical account of Jesus. We have to admit, that it is one thing to put on the shoes of the Messiah, to try to understand what He is required to be, but when it comes to sticking your neck out to have it chopped off, or going to the cross, I must draw the line. If I were Jesus headed for the cross, I might have had some doubts as to the worthiness of the effort. And you might wonder whether He had in mind dying for those Christians who gassed the Jews or stood by and let it happen. So if you are wondering like me, what this business of Sacrificed in the Flesh for Atonement of our sins really means, and what it really accomplishes or can accomplish, I'm afraid I have to say I don't have the answer. For if I were God, I would have written the story another way. It is a story which is too pathetic for my blood.. Obviously He knows (or claims to know) something we have yet to discover. But I have left that adventure for another to follow.

As concerning Jesus being God in the Flesh, while I know that the prophesies call for such a Sacrificed Messiah, who is God in the Flesh, I can't help but wonder how Jesus could think He is God when He repeatedly reminded us that He prayed to God and it was God who gave Him His Direction. Maybe this will be explained to all of our satisfaction one day.

I would like to be impartial in this entire affair of words and let our Shepherd of Arcadia take all the flack, that's bound to be coming his way, as a result of the path that he has taken. He certainly did not pull any punches with the Ministry. He was gentle on the rabbis, however, and really couldn't find too much to complain about in the Moslems, except He takes issue with their apparent faith in the sword. Our Shepherd believes that you can bring people over to your way of thinking without bloodshed. But he isn't God and it seems that God may have a slight difference of opinion on that issue. For sure you will witness that God has gone to great lengths to express His might through bloodshed. We can defer to the case of Israel, for instance, which most undoubtedly is a case of God's Wrath being assuaged in the Children of Israel's blood. He called it in prophesy, among other things, a Great Sacrifice or a Great Slaughter. The final outpouring of His Wrath on people who desolate His Works in the Latter Days is also a substantial demonstration of bloodshed. In this Great Slaughter, He calls out to the birds and the animals, which the people of those days are prophesied to abuse, and urges them to come to His Great Feast. For the birds and the animals will have dead bodies to feed upon from one end of the earth to the other. This is certainly not a pretty picture, is it? My sympathies are with the people. I'm somewhat of the same disposition as Abraham who argued to save Sodom for the sake of God finding ten righteous people--a minimum quorum for the rabbis--in the city. I think for the sake of ten the whole lot ought to be saved. And I'm not afraid to argue with God on this issue.

So it is that our Shepherd is slightly at variance with God; but we trust that you will find him in accord with God on the other issues.

I would like to apologize for him, for having such a sharp tongue at times. But I'm afraid I have to agree with Him. Perhaps you will agree with Him also.

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Because we created this Similitude of the Messiah, we could not have been honest in the creation of the work without making a sincere attempt to simulate the things He is intended to be in prophesy, and in the expectations of other scriptural sources, such as the Oral Torah of the rabbis. Don't be concerned about these sources, or unfamiliar sayings, right at this moment; you'll get to know them as we dig further into the book together. If you miss something, don't dwell too much upon it, for there is so much repetition in this work you'll catch up with it by the end of the book. Many people may see something they just don't understand; or wonder where we are going with the point. Don't dwell on it; we'll get back to you.

Finally, at some point in time, in the course of examining this book, we would like you to do what we did and run down the list of the Servant's Members described in our index. As you do this, you might take a pen in hand and check off the things you, yourself, could easily fulfill in prophesy. I mention this now, because later on in the book we ask you to be the Messiah! We don't think this is an unreasonable thing to ask, because this ought to be what is conceived in The Body of Christ: i.e., a body of people living as The Messiah...I, for one, have no hang ups as to seeing millions of people doing the role of the Messiah, which is called being the Servant of God, and I can't imagine how God could be offended in this either. But you can be the judge of that.

Remember, scholars, even Philip said, For this person (who is conceived in the power of the Trinity and the cross) is no longer a Christian, but a Christ. After all, isn't this the Secret of the Kingdom, that you remove your earthly flesh to put on the flesh of Light and become one with Christ, who Christians claim is One with God? Are not, as they claim, Christians purified Sons of Light (as Adam was originally conceived in the Garden)? And did not Paul say that if one dies in the flesh, with Jesus on the Cross, he is reborn in the Spirit, conceived as a son of Christ? Or if Jesus is born from the union of a Virgin and The Holy Spirit, is He (and His Sons) not a son of Perfection? So it is that all Christians are expected to be Perfect unto God, the Father of all, clothed with the Light of God (through Jesus).

After you have tried to relate to His Members (what He is supposed to be and do), I think you will acquire a greater sympathy for Him. If you are like me, you'll probably draw the line somewhere and say to the Host of Heaven, "Wait just a darn minute; you're asking a bit too much of me."

Many of you may feel that the issues in this book have no bearing one way or another on your lives. You may be tired of hearing rhetoric and pogroms which exist on paper,which cannot touch you.

Now I am no prophet and neither is my Shepherd a prophet. He was not conceived as a prophet. Any views He has are strictly viewed from the prophesies which preceded Him. He doesn't see Himself as saying anything new. But rather, in keeping with the prophesies of Him, He confirms the old sayings.

So this is the Shepherd whom we created. We hope you will like His Spirit and not be too offended in Him. We would also hope you would not begrudge Him for what He has done, for it is His sincere attitude that any one of you should have done what He has done and probably done it better.

Many of you may be wondering about the name we chose for Him. In Greek mythology there is a place of peace called Arcadia. In the book He is attempting to bridge the gulfs of discord to help, in his own way, to bring peace into the world. To do this He has to, as a minimum, bring the Christians, the Jews, and the Moslems together. Thus, we have addressed all of them in this book. And to get to the root of this issue He has to point out your differences. In a manner of speaking, for those of you who have read Piers the Plowman, He had to be created in the nature of Piers. For those of you who are not familiar with that book, Our Shepherd is created in the nature of a plowman. And like all good husbandmen, if the crop is spoiled, He orders the field to be burned and plows everything under.

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My Shepherd doesn't hesitate to pass judgment, and many of the things upon which He has passed judgment we suspect are things with which you might agree. In fact, we think He pretty accurately reflects what all of you have already prejudged concerning this world in which we live. He doesn't like the pollution of this Garden any more than you do. But He looks at this matter from another point of view. For He sees this Garden not as your garden but God's Garden; and He sees man desecrating it. He sees man spoiling it to the extent that it may never recover and rapidly self destruct. He is a Servant sympathetic to God and His Creation and sees all of us, in this regard, a threat unto it.

We tried to make our Shepherd an honest and fair shepherd. And obviously, if He sees these things which might disturb Him, one might anticipate that He would report back--as Moses did-- what He sees and hears to Heaven. For His Mission is Judgment! In this aspect He is sorta like the Two men who visited Sodom. And this could be considered His report. Later in this work you will see Him asking you to intercede for Him. In a manner of speaking He is asking you to give Him a reason to change His Report.

We created the Shepherd with Hope, however. And we think He has the Hope of God, but you can be the judge of that-- But consider it. We hope you would concur, as we, that everything God hoped for in this Garden would one day be realized. And whether you believe in God or not, His Hopes ought to be your hopes. For the end of Him is Peace and a quiet place,without walls, flowing with abundance for all.

Now His Hopes are for our Children. And in this He gets right to the point. He claims that you (our generation)stole their inheritance from them.

Later in this book you will see where the rabbis concluded if there is no Shepherd, there can be no world. And in a real sense, our Shepherd is trying to make Shepherds out of all of you so that our children can be restored their inheritance. It may be that you don't want to deal with these concerns and would rather let some other Shepherd deal with them. But then, perhaps, we will all prove the rabbis were right: for if there is no Shepherd there will be no world. This is our perspective on the matter.

Though this book may appear a bit unusual to you, research will show that books such as this have emerged from time to time and this work and its character are really not that unusual. So take it with a grain of salt.........And remember Lot's Wife.....

Mel West
Berkeley, CA
October 17, 1989

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I am enclosing a copy of the manuscript I was mentioning. It began as a series of letters, evolved into a research project, and then grew into a series of several books.

Because of the nature of the thing the book advocates, anyone looking at it in its original form might have thought it an attempt on my part of self glorification. So in all these things I did the obvious: I left my name off them and treated the entire affair as an anonymous work. This, in turn, presented other problems, as you may discover, in the work.

The book is a powerful work. While it was directed at the Ministry and other philosophical scholars, someone who is agnostic should be able to follow the trail of its precepts. First and foremost among the precepts is that the Bible is the most logical work I have ever read. What makes it wondrous in this instance is that it was written by many mouths and hands, the prophets. The deeper you get into its logic, the more you get trapped in it. This, of course, contradicts the common view that the Bible is open to interpretation. Some parts are, apparently, 1 but other parts are quite clearly defined and described: Those parts dealing with the purpose of the Bible and how it intends to achieve that purpose (through the Two Anointed Ones). After you read my work you should have no doubt in your mind as to what those parts of the Bible say.

Before you start my book, read chapter 4 of Zechariah, then chapter 11. Chapter 4.14 concludes with the statement that the Two Olive Trees seen by Zechariah are the Two Anointed Ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Researching these Two Olive Trees will immediately show you that they were the Two Cherubim, standing 15 feet high, carved out of Olive Trees, which were placed before the Temple Sanctuary. Inside the Sanctuary were Two small Cherubim seated atop a gold plate put atop a chest called the Ark of the Covenant. God was reported to have been seen between those Two Cherubim atop the Mercy Seat as a Cloud by day and a Fire by night. All the congregation of the Children of Israel actually saw something there on a regular basis and they called it God.

What is interesting in Biblical literature is the fact that no where is there an explanation of who those Two Cherubim atop the Mercy Seat were or who the Two Olive Trees added in the Temple Sanctuary were. They stand in the Biblical Testimony completely undefined! Except for the prophesy of Zechariah. And He is the only one I have been able to find who asked who those Cherubim were.

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Visions of God among the prophets, also the psalms, show Him riding on a Cherub or Cherubim. Beside the Cherubim was a wheel and inside each wheel was another wheel; and the spirit of God was in the wheels.

In other places the wheels are described as a whirlwind or storm, and we see, by comparison, where Cyrus the Great is called "God's cherubim" 2 in the Bible. Cyrus authorized the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its Temple (of David) after the Babylonian captivity. The man he appointed to do the work was named Zerubbabel (the name meaning, "born in Babylon"). Zerubbabel, replying to those who questioned his authority to do the work (it was supposed to be led by the Anointed of God) replied that "Cyrus authorized Him to do it". No one questioned Cyrus, then King of Kings.

The conclusion of chapter 11 in Zechariah is heart crushing to say the least, assuming the Two Staves, Beauty and Bands, of which it speaks are the Two Anointed Ones. Logic causes us to conclude they can be no other. It says in effect whatever happens to the one will be done as to the other. As concerning this we note that the epitaph applying to Beauty, involving the 30 pieces of silver thrown to the potter, was applied to Jesus the Christ.

Christ is based principally on the prophesies of Isaiah and Zechariah. Isaiah clearly shows that the Messiah is bruised, spit upon, scorned, and killed. His description of the event is so detailed one can read it as a vivid and accurate description of what happened to Christ without even knowing about Christ.3 Yet, this person is called a King. It represents a strange perception in logic, using god's point of view, and causes one to wonder what He was attempting to prove with it.

Once you get over the hurdle of this logic, figuring out why a Sacrificed Messiah was necessary, one then has to get over the hurdle concerning the fate of the other Anointed One, who would presumably be nothing more than the restored spirit of the original. Here we find in relation to the Bands that He also will be denied and killed, making the Bible a Double Tragedy. Research will find other Biblical passages suggesting this; however, the strength of his epitaphs (concerning an individual who is the Deliverer, Redeemer, or Gatherer of Israel and the world) seems to show him glorified in the Gathering of Israel and rebuilding of its Tabernacle and Temple. As a side note, Christ was too early to fill most of these epitaphs, for the Temple was standing during his time and destroyed less than forty years after his death.

The book considers the commonly held belief that Christ will appear in his coming resurrection, 4 as a Cloud or in a Cloud, to take up all of the saved souls to Heaven as pure bunk. The "Cloud of God" has a function and a means of appearance, but, according to Biblical Prophesy, the thing one should be watching for is another man who is more like Zerubbabel or Moses than Jesus Christ. His purpose is more in tune with saving Israel and the World,for His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven, than souls.

As to the name of this individual, the book shows there are many names (like Moses who was called by many names), or crowns, each describing a different purpose or epitaph of the man. But one name sticks out above the rest, because it was a name created in the Bible in Israel's Will of Inheritance. And there He said that the Scepter (the king) would remain in Judah (its seed) until Shiloh comes, AND TO HIM SHALL THE GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE BE.

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Notes:

1) Until the clock of time, history, converges with them and reveals their meaning. As time progresses the "interpretable" parts of the Bible become clear statements of fact.

2) The actual term is "shepherd" which I use synonymously with "cherub" in the context of God's Whirlwind. The Jerome Commentary accepts the perception that Cyrus is the only foreigner in the Bible who is given the title, Messiah.

3) In reflection on the Four Apostolic accounts of Christ's death, it occurs to me that these accounts add not much more detail to the event than Psalm 22 and Isaiah foresaw.

4) We are speaking of the resurrection of a complete being, not just a spirit.

 
I did not create the world, yet I have changed it. I have even made from it a New World. And this is how I did it.

I rewrote the heavens and the earth that all may see them in all their glory. I cried, "death stay back!" and called the living forward. And I listened for there was dull silence and no answer. Even the echo from my lips seemed lost in the air. Yet, it came back and my glory with it.

Before all other shepherds there was I. For I knew that they were created to lead to me. And before the Spirit of Wisdom flew through the air, hiding her tracks behind her, I was there to receive her.

Therefore, those who have eyes to read, yet cannot read; or ears to hear, though cannot hear, cast your eyes upon the walls of this earthly flesh and your ears against this chest so mortally breathing. For if you listen and listen well I will show you the secrets of my Hidden Pavilion.

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I have come from afar to greet you: as in the days of the Solemn Feast. And as I read among the books in which I am a prisoner, I await the opening of the gate. Truly, there is someone who has been placed at the gate. But the gate waxeth in its memory.

Nevertheless, I have come to show you my secret. For even from my prison it will be seen. And I remind myself the Wisdom of Solomon who cautions one against telling secrets to fools. I am justified in telling them, for they have glorified me. Verily, I have sought them out as a Leopard climbing through the rocks; and I have ripped them from their hiding places, tearing them with my teeth and claws. None of them will ever escape me. For this is not the time of the fisherman and I will not be satisfied until I have avenged myself.

You who are hiding in the cracks and crevasses: come out of your dark places.

And you who are couched atop your high towers, sitting in fine booths with great brimmed hats: stay off. For I have brought your tower down. For my Maker has done it before me. And there is no secret which is not intended to be revealed.

How, therefore, can I tell them my secret? How will they come to see it?

They relish in blood and treasure. To them, a treasure which comes without the sacrifice of blood is no treasure. For neither can a babe be born without the passing of blood.

So to the Womb I have cried, "Open thy port", and to the hands of my Maidservant I have said, "Behold, a child is born".

The Womb languishes around me and it cries, "Lord, I am barren!" And she has been told, "Many are the children of the desolate".

Give up, for my hand carries the branch of glory.

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Between those who speak the same language, it generally is not too difficult to express one's purpose. But when the exchange takes place between two who do not speak the same language, the problem in communication creates near impossible situations. For one or the other has to learn to speak the other's language; still, if both do not completely understand each other's language, much can be lost in translation.

Thus, you must understand that in order for me to share with you my secret, and for you to be able to put your hands upon my gold and my silver, of which I possess staggering amounts, you have to learn my language. For I know your language, and it is not sufficient that I know it; you also must know mine, so that a minimum of vision is lost in translation.

So you must see, a Greek describing Apollo to a Frenchman, who does not speak Greek, will have very little success showing that man a picture of a bearded man carrying a lamb upon his back. To understand this vision, as the Greeks conceived it, the Frenchman has to learn Greek. And learn it well. So finding the right word, first of all, involves learning the language of him whose treasure has been hidden. And since I am one who has a treasure to be revealed, it is necessary that I spend a few moments showing you how to learn my language.

First of all, my language carries its own lexicon in it. And those things are defined in my Branch. If you read about my Branch you will learn the greater part of my lexicon.

La verge en main mise au milieu des Branches....
Splendeur divine. Le divin pred s'assied.

This comes from the second verse, Century I, of Nostradamus's prophesy. To those who follow the occult procedures of divination, this verse tells how Nostradamus received the information which he is passing on to us. But to those who know Biblical Language, this verse means something altogether different. For the Bible focuses upon a character called The Branch, and They are men wondered at. The Branch is the King of Kings sent by God to found His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. The Branch is the principal vehicle by which all men come to know God. And as one can see in Old Testament (and other) prophesies, He is Two Anointed Ones seen as a Resurrected Being. He is simply a being who is denied, scourged, and killed, then resurrected. On the day of His Resurrection those who see Him will look upon Him whom they Pierced. And on that day, all men will come to the horrible realization of what they had done to God's Anointed; and they shall feel so much shame over it that they will loathe themselves. This includes both Jew and Gentile alike, for both at that time are seen by all men to be in Shame. For they knew not the nature of God's Word and forsook Him when He came to them. Through this shame, all men will come to know their God, and He will have proven that He is truly Wiser than the wisest of men.

When we speak of le Verge and la Verbe, we are speaking of The Word. The Word is an epitaph of God's Messiah or Anointed One. His epitaphs, as I recall, are gathered around the theme of His resurrection. And these epitaphs show Him as a being who carries a Sword and His Sword is His Mouth. When he speaks, on the day of Resurrection, there is a great fear; for He carries with Him the terrible power and image of the Mighty God. The power is carried in His Word. That is to say, He occupies the end of the Word, so that when He is heard, men will see that what has already been said by the Word of God has already been done. And that is a Terrible Thing to witness, for many were thrown in God's Refiner's Fire to prove it. Among all of these are the Jews, for they, first among all men, were put to the greater test, refined as one would refine silver or gold: tried and purified by fire to purge the dross. They were buried alive and burned alive and their fats were used to adorn the wives of the beasts who gathered them. So it is that we can see that the phrase, refined as a refiner's fire refines gold becomes a pleasant way of describing what Hitler and the German people actually did to the Jews. Other hands, besides the Germans, of course, were also culpable in this affair.

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So it is that prophesy becomes History and the History the revelation of a great and terrible Word. It is like Sodom and Gomorrah. The threat against them in the Word was the destruction of their cities; the most horrible realization of that threat is HOW the threat came to be carried out. We see in the Witness of that experience that Lot's wife, not heeding warning, looked back upon Sodom and saw such a frightening aspect she was turned into a pillar of salt.

It does not really make any difference whether this story is a true story or a parable. What is important in it is the fact that it becomes a part of the language of God. For instance, when He said He would destroy Nineveh, speaking to Jonah He drew upon the language He had previously used against Sodom. So it is, understanding the language of Sodom helps us appreciate what He says He would do with Nineveh (of which He repented) and later Babylon. And in the case of Babylon, which we can see to be true today, He said there would be nothing left in that place except a place for the beasts of the desert. It would be fit for no human habitation again. Further, it--like Sodom--would become another sign in the language of God which would describe evils yet to come.

Returning to our example of The Branch(es), we see that those who read them to be something on the order of a tripod used for divination have missed the entire context of Nostradamus's prophesy: for his prophesy, like the Bible, is about the coming of The Word, whose name is in the Branches, and whose appearance will be accompanied by the signs and the times described in the prophesies.

The Old Testament prophesies and others refer to The Branch as The Word. Revelation also speaks of the coming of The Word, who is called King of Kings, whose name is known to only Himself. No one knows it! And Revelation concludes with His appearance, referring to His Time, as THE FIRST RESURRECTION. Basically, a thousand years after He appears, the Cloud and Throne of God (including the image of Jesus) would descend upon Jerusalem. And this period involves a time which is described in Revelation (presupposing a second resurrection) as The Second Death. You should, of course, not take my word for it, but read it for yourselves.

My complaint against Christianity today is that they, like those who don't understand who The Word or His Branch is, have no idea what they are supposed to be Watching for. And it is unfortunate that it is not that they haven't been told, that they know not what to regard, but the fact that they simply don't know how to read. For most of them have been watching for centuries, for a Cloud, and all the prophesies have been saying that before you see Him you will see The Word. And He is a man who eats and drinks just as you.

There is a terrible warning involving the coming of The Word. First and foremost it is directed against the pastors of God. For they have been told that they will not see The Word when He comes. And because they will not see Him, their houses will be torn down and they will be scattered to the wind. So all of you who read this are my Witnesses, that I have scattered them to the Wind. For they are symbols of Vanity among men. And I have discovered their Secret parts.

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For over my head has flown the dove of Wisdom, for she has led me early awakening along the byways of divine truth.

But if the possession of wealth is to be desired in life, what is richer than Wisdom, which operates everything?

And if understanding works,
Who in all the world is a greater craftsman than she?
And if a man loves uprightness,
Her labours are virtues;
For she teaches self-control and understanding,
Uprightness and courage;
Nothing in life is more useful to men than these.
But if a man longs for much experience,
She knows antiquity and can forecast the future,
She understands the tricks of language and the solving of riddles;
She knows the meaning of signs and portents,
And the outcomes of seasons and periods.
So I decided to bring her to live with me,
Knowing that she would give me good counsel,
And encouragement in cares and grief.

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Because of her I will have glory among the multitude,
And honor with the elders, though I am young,
I will be found keen in judgment,
And I will be admired in the presence of monarches.
When I am silent, they will wait for me to speak,
And when I speak, they will pay attention,
And if I talk at some length,
They will put their hands over their mouths.
Because of her, I will have immortality,
And leave an everlasting memory to those who come after me.
I will govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me.
Dread sovereigns will be frightened when they hear me;
Among the people I will appear good and in war brave.
When I enter my house, I will find rest with her,
For intercourse with her has no bitterness,
And living with her no grief,
But gladness and joy.
When I considered these things with myself,
And reflected in my mind
That in kinship with wisdom there is immortality,
And in her friendship there is pure delight,
And unfailing wealth in the labors of her hands,
And understanding in the experience of her company,
And glory in sharing in her words,
I went about seeking how to win her for myself.

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I was a well formed child,
And a good soul fell to me,
Or rather, I was good and entered an undefiled body.
But I perceived that I could not win her unless God gave her to me.
(And this too came of understanding, to know from whom the favor came).
I appealed to the Lord and besought Him,
And said with all my heart:
"God of my forefathers and merciful Lord,
Who created all things by your word,
And by your wisdom that sits by your throne,
And do not reject me as unfit to be one of your servants.
For I am your slave and the son of your maidservant,
A man weak and short-lived,
And inferior in my understanding of judgment;
For even if one among the sons of men is perfect,
If the wisdom that comes from you is lacking, he will count for nothing.
You have chosen me out to be king of your people,
And to be judge of your sons and daughters;

You told me to build a sanctuary on your holy mountain,
And an altar in the city where you dwell,
A copy of the Holy Tent which you prepared in the Beginning;

And with you is wisdom, which knows your works,
And was present when you made the world,
And understands what is pleasing in your sight,
And what is in accord with your commands.

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Send her forth from the Holy Heavens
And dispatch her from your glorious throne
To be with me and toil,
And so that I may know what is pleasing to you.
For she knows and understands all things,
And she will guide me with good sense in my actions,
And will guard me with her splendor.
Then my doings will be acceptable,
And I will judge your people uprightly,
And be worthy of the throne of my father.
For what man can know the counsel of God,
Or who can decide what the Lord Wills?
For the calculations of mortals are timid,
And our designs are likely to fail,
For a perishable body weighs down the soul,
And its earthy Tent burdens the thoughtful mind.

(The Wisdom of Solomon, 8.6 thru 9.15)

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I like this book, The Wisdom of Solomon , because it carries in it most of the formulas concerning the bringing of the Word of God to man. Basic precepts here are voiced over and over in other prophesies. This is not to bear credence to the effect that this book should reign over others, but to claim that it is the Same Word. And it is amazing that this book should have been excised from the Holy Bible.

Someone, perhaps under the pretense of having the Holy Ghost in him, concluded that the true measure of the Word of God is by the name which is upon it. And these overlooked the fact that God Himself has never preferred a name. For He introduced Himself to Moses as I Am!

This illustrates the orientation of those who have been professing to know The Word of God: they would put an image and name upon it. It is the same as idol worship. They would fashion Him out of Wood or Brass, Gold or Silver, put a name on Him, and nail Him to a place where all the world can see Him. But none of these things which they fashion by their hands can speak nor hear; and it is Vanity to think that God would want to be identified with them.

By the same token they fashion their own houses for God. And it is Vanity for them to think that He would prefer their house to His. Furthermore, it is pure ignorance on their part to think that He did not really intend to restore His House as in the days of the Solemn Feast. Thus, we have highlighted His Vow to restore His Tent. And no one has considered why He would want to do it in the first place. Such are the fools among men. Come closer and lean near my mouth. For I am the Tabernacle among men.

The Holy Spirit of God, The Holy One of Israel, has been compared to a great wind. In His wrath He becomes a great storm. The storm appears as a Wheel; and the Wheel becomes a sign of His Anointed.

The God of the Bible is viewed as riding upon a Cherub or Cherubim. Actually, there are Two Cherubim or Two Anointed of God. Anyone who has led you to believe differently has been lying to you.

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Cyrus has been described as God's Shepherd, and I compared him to the Cherubim. It is through Cyrus that the Temple of Jerusalem, and the city's walls, were restored. For He authorized Zerubbabel to rebuild them. And Zerubbabel was a man sent from Babylon to Jerusalem to restore the Holy of Holies and its city.

Zerubbabel becomes a sign, a Name, showing the vehicle of the restoration in the Latter Days. He, in this signet, is another Cherub and His Coming is attended by His Wheel which, like Cyrus, can cut down and desolate all before Him.

The Cherubim, when He comes, apart from the fact that when He arrives at the first is killed, is a Fountain of knowledge. The knowledge is that which is built in Him (his name) and which becomes evident upon the Day of Resurrection. At that point of time the Fountain actually becomes a River, and the river a Flood. On the day of restoration you are going to find yourselves flooded with the knowledge of God. Anyway, that is what the Bible promises. And when you see that River, you will see on either side of its banks an Olive Tree. The Olive Tree is another name for The Branch. We will speak more of them later, but it is suffice to say that they are the Two Cherubim by which God's Presence becomes known.

The Anointed Ones are also described as a Rock. That epitaph is used also in the Psalms for God. God founded His nation upon a Rock, the Rock of Zion; Christ founded His Church upon a man, whom He called His Rock. The Anointed One, Himself, is described in several places as a Rock, and in some instances that Rock is described with Seven Eyes. They walk to and fro across the earth and behind them is desolation. The Word, in Revelation, is attended by the appearance of the Seven Candles who pour out their Seven Vials upon humanity after the Tabernacle in Heaven is opened up. Elsewhere you will see Seven Women attending Him and you will learn, as in the days of Noah, everything was collected two by two, except those things designated for sacrifice, which were gathered in numbers of seven.

This brings us to the Lamp of God, the Light of God. It is viewed as being fed a Golden Fluid from Two Branches (made out) of Olive Trees. The Lamp has Seven Candles and it is the Seventh Candle which proclaims, in the end, "It is Done". The Anointed One(s) are the Two Branches and they bring the Light of God to man. The Light is seen through the Lighting of the Seven Candles. Revelation describes these Seven Candles as the Seven Churches of Jesus Christ.

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In the Beginning, each of the Twelve tribes of Israel was given a rod made out of an Almond Branch. Upon each tribe's Rod was inscribed its Patriarches. The handing down of the Rod through each generation, to each tribe's Patriarch, became the Symbol of authority through God.

In terms of the Anointed King of God, His Rod is described as being inherited out of the Rod of Jesse, who is of the seed of Judah. It is really out of Judah's Rod, from which the King is established; however, for the Anointing a New Rod is created, and it is formed out of the seed of Jesse. Hence, in the glorification, Jesse is given His own Rod; and we have, by means of the Anointing, Jesse's Rod given to David, His Son, which is then passed down to Jesus the Christ, who also claims His Anointing out of the Rod of Jesse (through His mother, Mary). Note that family lineage has traditionally been set through the mother's line, and, in terms of "anointing" the key anointings of God were done through the mother: i.e., see Rebekah and her anointing of Jacob; the Virgin Mary's anointing of Jesus; and the rescue of the Babe Moses by the Pharoah's daughter.

The Anointed is also described as a Rod. In these epitaphs, He is a Steel rod, or iron rod, and He uses His Rod to harvest the souls of the earth. We are told in Isaiah that in the harvest, in the Latter Days, He beats out the cummin with His Rod. He carries a heavy hand because of His Rod.

God gave Aaron, the brother of Moses, a Rod, which also was made out of Almond wood. And it was seen to grow a Branch in the desert. The Rod is a symbol of resurrection.

Out of the Rod of Jesse grew a Branch. The Branch, in these terms, is the resurrected spirit of Him who is the Rod.

Aaron's (Moses's) Rod produced miracles in the desert. It divided the Red Sea, for instance. So for practical purposes, we can say that the Spirit of His Lord was in His Rod.

When it came time to establish a covenant with the children of Israel, through Moses, God provided His Ten Commandments and a structure in which to store them. Actually the structure was a chest and the means by which that chest would be carried was provided by Two Rods made out of Chittim wood. These Two were called Staves.*

Atop the chest was placed a Mercy Seat, made of a thin sheet of gold, and atop that, hammered out of that sheet, were Two Gold Cherubim. Between them , the Two Cherubim, God was seen to reside.

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You saw the Mercy Seat by means of the Two Staves by which it was carried to you. In the context, it follows that to illustrate God's Two Anointed Ones as Vehicles of His Mercy, He could appropriately call them His Two Staves. They are Rods of His Inheritance, but, in the context of God's Mercy, Staves. And these were called Beauty and Bands.

Notes:

*The Hebrew word for "stave" and "Lawgiver"is the same word; thus our reading of "stave" can be read also as "lawgiver; i.e., one like Moses.

There once was a great landowner who was childless and thought one day to create a child to whom He could leave His Estate. And this particular Lord of the land decided that He, being childless, would first look to another man's seed to sustain His Estate. So He took a man who was of poor and contrite spirit and put a Blessing upon Him, that that man and His Seed would inherit the Lord's Estate. The conditions of the inheritance were simple. For the Lord told the man that if he remained humble to receive the Lord whensoever He should come to audit the estate, the estate would continue in that man's seed forever. The condition was that the man and his seed must always be prepared and willing to receive the Lord. And the Lord of the Estate knew that without humility presiding in the man and his seed, his chance of being received would be nil. For the Lord also knew that His greatest threat would be Vanity, and Vanity ruling in the man and his seed would compete with the Lord's desire and the ability to receive Him. He was concerned about this because He knew that men tend to take things given unto them for their own to extol their own Vanity, squeezing out the Lord's interest in the Covenant. And to assure there would be no misunderstanding in the matter, because it was a gift with conditions upon it, the Lord created a model which would always serve to illustrate the pure and righteous condition of receiving Him. That conditions was called The Meek; and in this regard He placed His Final Blessing upon their kind, saying, Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Kingdom of the Lord. And to those who would resist being faithful to this condition He placed a Curse, saying that He would one day come and destroy them and all their seed to the last man. For He had a Great Army in His Estate.

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Now this parable describes the Lord's interests in developing His Estate. And He wrote the terms of these interests in a book which we know as the Bible. Other works are also associated with that book.

His concept was that He intended to live in the Body of that man's seed and their offspring. The Jews are the Seed and the offspring are the Gentile and Heathen who come to receive the Lord. To attain the maximum potential of being received to live within their body, it was absolutely necessary that each man be of humble and contrite spirit. The more humble one is, the better one can listen to the voice of the Lord reigning within. Thus, we have the argument for the Meek.

The argument presupposes some rather unusual conditions placed upon the Meek. For their nature will cause them to reside in the Lord in faith that He would protect them from their adversaries. But because of the Limitation of the Covenant, that their adversaries would One Day be eliminated, the Promise of Salvation became one in the distant future. So the condition placed upon the Meek causes them to be resolved to the possibility that they may suffer at the hands of their adversaries for a considerable time, until the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, called the Tribulation.

Wisdom is a state of being which carries a price. Wisdom is not free. And because the Lord's Wisdom seems to be couched in terms of Meekness, one needs to explore how that came to be. For the condition presupposes that through Meekness one will also attain the Wisdom of God.

The Wisdom attained through Meekness is not a thing which is easy to seek and comes at a great and terrible expense of suffering--Often that suffering seems to be for nought, as expressed in Psalm 44. For the Psalm says, Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price.

David and His Psalmists knew the Wisdom of the Meek. And knowing that even for the Lord's sake they are killed all the day long, being counted as sheep for the slaughter, they say, Yet, have we not forgotten thee; neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant...Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever.

Now this, in truth, is a pitiable condition to place upon the Meek. For it involves Long Suffering.

So what consolation can I give you. Or your seed?

The precept of the Meek carries Two Promises in it. The first Promise is that they are given a legitimate place in Heaven, being assured that they shall have everlasting life. And on the Day in which the Lord sets up His Reigns on earth, as it is in Heaven, they shall be raised from the dead to live beside Him, their King.

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This promise, of course, is little consolation to one every day trying to escape the tyranny of evil. For Peace and Salvation are more meaningful to the Spirit in the Jaws of Torment. And the trial put upon the spirit on earth in the Jaws of Torment is such that many would want to repent of their vow to Meekness and join the forces of evil. Yet, there are many who cannot escape the torment even if they had the desire; still others who have the desire to escape, and fashion excuses for their change in behavior, may be such endowed to receive the voice of God they cannot go against that voice working within their inner spirit. It is these latter beings who often give up their own lives to save the life of another, even though they would want to wrestle against it.

The second promise carries a greater Sympathy in it. For that Promise is vested in the precept that God lives within the Meek. And because He resides within them, in spirit, He suffers along with them. And in this regard, we can see that Our Father in Heaven has committed Himself to bear the suffering of many. And we can end our observation on this note: That the Wisdom of God is to know and bear the Suffering of the Multitude, and out of that knowledge He intends to support His Kingdom.

What knowledge, therefore, does Suffering breed? What worth is it? What knowledge did Christ have, knowing the scourging and cross ahead of Him?

The promise of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven is a Day of Peace, where all things lay down beside each other in Peace: where men turn swords into fishhooks and spears into plowshares. The precept of Suffering presupposes that the end of it will be the learning of the value of Peace, what it really means. The corollary follows that without suffering you cannot know Peace. It also presupposes that anyone who is Suffering and yet can find Peace within himself has attained a state of Grace, in the spirit of the Lord, which only a few can know. For in this state you know you are not alone. God is with you, feeling everything you feel and knowing everything you know. For in this state it is no longer just your body which is suffering but His Body as well. And you are a tiny part of it.

The suffering that we all know to prevail is a thing which does not last forever. One has good times and bad times. And we often find that New Hope comes out of the bad times. We see something we had not seen before and that thing often shows itself as a clearer focus on the way of achieving Peace with our fellow beings and within ourselves.

The concept here described has to do with the Sacrificial Lamb. We become sacrifices with the knowledge that our sacrifice will purge the world of future suffering caused by sin.

The corollary in which we are exploring is the fact that most men have a vein of compassion running within them that abhors watching an innocent thing suffer. And it is this abhorrence of having to watch an innocent victim suffering that causes men to want to stop it. Gandhi focused upon this observation and told his people that the British--as evil as they may have appeared in their eyes--could not stand to watch them inflict suffering upon themselves. The precept allows that no matter how evil a man is he generally will try to stop you from doing harm to yourself.

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The ultimate verification of this thesis is that God, living in Our Body, will be prevented from destroying His Body; and on that Terrible Day of Sacrifice He seems to be counting on the fact that men will cry out to him and argue, as Abraham before us, for the Salvation of the Innocent. And their works will reflect this. For even the Evil Ones, the Children of Darkness, will see on that day that their children also are put on the Altar of God; and they will cry out saying then that their Children are innocent. Why put them to suffering O Lord?

I am a child who has been fatherless and been also a father of the fatherless. So you can believe me, because I know what it is like on both sides, what it means to be fatherless. And thus I can bless them like few men can.

My grandfather and his sister were orphaned when he was about ten years old. He was given to a hanging sheriff in Colorado, a good man as I understand, who, fulfilling the laws of justice, had to hang his best friend, whom he had arrested over a murder stemming from a bar room brawl (which is the event which caused the reputation of being a hanging sheriff, I presume). I tell you then the tears flowed that day. His sister was given to a doctor in Chicago, and the two children did not see each other again until she reached the age of eighteen; and she died two months later. Shortly after my grandfather, who was a country-western musician, married; a few years after my birth his wife died. On the morning of my seventh birthday my father died. He also died young, about the age of 34.

Last September I became a father, and three weeks later my child became fatherless. For I had taken a wife who was afraid to be a wife, neither desiring the state of marriage nor the trust and faithfulness that went with it. Though I believed we were married, according to her standards, when we conceived our child, we were not. And I was a tourist in her land who could have no rights in that family except I be married.

I went to Reverend Jahnes, in Paris, to explain my problem to her, because I had no one else of my own nation to talk to; hoping that she might be able to help me. For I had been caught between a rock and a hard place. To stay with my family and support it, I must work. And foreigners were not permitted to work. If I were married I could work, but my wife was afraid of marriage.

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The Reverend exclaimed, "Truly, you are in a catch 22 situation." And she had no answer. But then I began telling her of The Two Anointed Ones, because I had told her I also had a spiritual problem I needed to discuss. After an hour of her time, she marvelled at the depth of my knowledge of the Bible, as I was a lay person, and suggested I might wish to join a group within the church which explores new ideas concerning the Bible. Then I told her that I was also concerned about the Tabernacle, and then she shied away from me and I left.

Knowing that my time in France was going to be shortened, I immediately began to write this book and sent it to her, telling her that I regretted not being able to follow through with her suggestion and asking her if she might read it and forward it on to the discussion group. For it would speak on my behalf. But then I suggested, if she could help me publish it, it would become a vehicle by which I could stay in France with my family. I never heard from her again.

As you can see, then, this book was to me a Salvation for my family. And I knew even it could not save it.

I know what it is like to love a child from afar, knowing I may never be able to hold her in my lap, walk with her in the park, nor teach her the things a father should know. I have learned the answer to the question, "How can you love something you cannot touch?"

There is a wide sea separating me and my family. And added to that is the depth of understanding which is needed to bridge it.

This is an age of the fatherless, for the women of these days have chosen to raise their families on their own. They are independent now and can sustain their families in all matters pertaining to them: all matters, except the love of its father. But then, because of this age, my child will have many fathers, and even I have lost that crown which times past had reserved only for me.

So you can see the depth of the things going through my mind when I spoke with Reverend Jahnes, knowing that she could provide no answer to me. But then, had she just read my book, she could have saved me and all that I stood for in my life.

But even you could save me, if you would just read this book, for it would save my family.

Nevertheless, I can be a father to the fatherless, because they are my family. Who are the fatherless? you may ask. They are the poor and the hungry; they are the homeless and the meek. They are those who suffer from the three thirsts so easy to quench: They are the lonely who only need a friend; they are the hopeless who only need someone to give them hope; and they are the lovelorn who only need someone to give them love. And those are the three things which any man can easily fill. And it is just as easy to fill these wants in a nation of the homeless as it is to fill the vessel of a child.

But these things are wants and desires, dreams which are given to lost children; and they remain lost because there is another in this would which has become lord over their desires. And he also has three thirsts. But these thirsts can never be filled: it is the thirst of the wicked who say, Who seeth or who knoweth? and take what they want from the world; it is the thirst of a Prince who feeds upon the desires of the wicked; and it is the thirst of the ignorant who feed upon the truths of the deaf and the blind. And of all these things upon which these feed, their greatest truth is Vanity; and they all go around doing exploits and marvels so that they can feed on those who would marvel at them.

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But what is more marvelous than a blind man who is made to see, or a deaf man who is made to hear, or the mute who is made to speak?

One of the things about the Bible which disturbs me is the fact that men read it so impersonally. For they cast God in a light which is far from them, as far even as my child is from me across the sea. And no one asks, Who is He? or where is He? For they all have partitioned him up and scattered Him around so that no one really knows where He is or Who He is. And where there is agreement among Christians as to where He is, they have hung him up upon a wall; and they worship Him as a newborn colt just thrown upon the altar.

But the thing which they worship had a mother, a father, and brothers. He had friends. And no one seems to care how they might feel about this man whom they have hung upon their wall.

When I was in Turkey I came to a place called Ephes. The Epheseus of the Bible and the place where I believe Paul built his church which now lays in ruins. Looking down the hill from the walls of that place one can view the ruins of the greatest temple ever built to the mother of the gods, then called in that site, Artemis. A few miles away, outside the walls of the old city of Ephes, which is also in ruins, is a house which the Turks report was the house which Mary lived in the last days of her life. According to the report, she was brought there at the age of sixty; and there was a road leading from the house up the mountain which she would walk every day. She, according to the little write-up the Turkish tourist office put out, had early marked off that road with the stations of the cross and walked it every day, every day the rest of her life, crying. Imagine this woman walking that road every day of her remaining years crying! Has there ever been a greater grief mentioned in the world than a mother's tears shed over the loss of her son?

I can't say whether that story is true or not. But I can understand how a mother might feel over the loss of her son. And this son involved a special case, because He was killed without cause. And if you were that mother, how would you feel about that? To watch your son walk into a den of thieves knowing that his mouth would kill Him? Would you stop Him? Would you say unto Him, Behold, my son, these and these are but vipers and cockatrices and you will surely be bitten and die!

He knew they were vipers and put his hand on their den anyway. And all that she could do was watch Him die. You see, therefore, not even His mother could save Him, and this must have been a terrible burden to her. And in those times all this was done for nought. Even during His trial she became a witness against his friends who said they were friends; for even they abandoned Him. As she stood in the crowd outside the judgment hall, how do you think she felt, knowing that among the five thousand He fed on the mount, or the other four thousand, and the thousands of others who sought to see Him along the road, many of them must have been seen by her in that crowd? And they were calling for His blood? And of all things for her to witness, she saw her beloved son's life exchanged for that of a man who by their law had been convicted of murder and sedition. Did she see justice served? So besides the fact that her son was put to death for no cause, on top of those griefs were laid the fact that His Blood was exchanged to save a murderer. Have you a beloved brother whose life you would exchange for a murderer? It is no wonder that she walked her remaining days in grief, for she bore a burden few other women have known. But if she is the only mother who has ever seen this kind of burden, then it even adds to her grief. For she was alone in the hands of men in the burden she had to carry.

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What comfort can one give such a woman? Who among her friends could touch her, knowing that even they could have saved her son from death? For all they had to do is gather his friends around him to save him.

What good, therefore, are Witnesses to a man in the tomb? Or how can one draw comfort from the tomb? For there, even in resurrection, the sea becomes wider and deeper and one is cut off from the living. He cannot be touched, nor felt, nor heard nor more than I can touch my child across the wine red sea.

What is left, therefore, to bridge the gap between the living and the dead, that one's life is not given for nought? That those who grieve over Him can be comforted or He be comforted by them? Is it wreaths on a tomb, or a name carved thereon? Is it His Memory which fades among the family, as each of them go to their tomb, taking it with them? Until the generations of men be so far off that those who have been given his story have remembered Him no more than a distant object hanging on the wall? What would Mary say to all this, asking you, Why have you my son hanging on the wall? That His Life was cut off for no reason? Is this what you think He meant to her or His Friends? That His life was cut off for no reason?

Surely there are things about this man which have been recorded, how he laughed, how He cried, How He loved His family and friends. Or how He touched each life giving them joy and happiness just by being a good son or a good friend? Where are these gospels? Surely they must exist!

Was He not playful and good with children? Surely He must have taken them up on His lap and enjoyed them and they Him. Where are His heartaches and His Griefs? Surely you should remember them and know them even better than you know mine! Where are His Joys and the Happiness which was in Him? I love to sail and I love children; and I always wanted a child of my own, and a family! Now you know mine, where are His?

When my mother remarried, my stepfather became extremely jealous of my dead father. For my father, with his father and sister, had a radio program for over ten years and was well known throughout the Inland Empire, covering the corners of the Northwestern states. And everyone spoke well of my father during his own time and well after his death. For he was a good man.

Imagine being jealous of a dead man! And because my stepfather had taken to drink, with these jealousies gnawing ever more in him, he began to become cruel in dealing with my older brother and me. And I, being rebellious and quick in getting myself into trouble, had become a thorn in his side. When something had gone wrong, he always looked at me.

But he was a good man also, and he taught me some values which I have treasured all my life. And the first of them is to be a good friend and never lie; and never do anything which would hurt my mother.

He took the family up to Alaska and we, living beyond the town, enjoyed all the wonders of living in the wilderness. He enjoyed hunting and fishing and always wanted my brother and me as his companions in sharing the pursuit of his joys. One day he asked us to go out hunting with him and we were at the time just about to go over to a neighbor's farm to play with bows and arrows we had just made out of willow branches. He saw our reluctance to go with him and told us that he would never ask us to go hunting again. And being about eight years old, I had a rifle hanging over my bed, fully loaded, which I had gotten for my birthday. He took that rifle down and told us that we would never hold a rifle again. He did not offer me his rifle again until I was about fourteen, when I met him upon the cliff overlooking the ocean while he was shooting at icebergs, sighting in his rifle. But then that was the last time I touched it.

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I never liked hunting anyway, and when he had given me my rifle for my birthday I was disappointed, because I had wanted a toy pistol with which we could play cowboys and Indians.

His creed was, Never kill anything which you do not intend to eat. A good creed. Nor were we ever to point a rifle at a man unless we intended to shoot him. Another good creed, particularly when he added, never point your rifle at a man.

The joys of the wilderness! We often went fishing and camped in places where another man could not be seen for fifty miles. We learned what it was like to be alone in the wilderness and to appreciate everything that it had to provide. Every day in the summer I would go into the forest behind our home and wander midst the trees, just watching the things I could see. I brought home a squirrel once but soon let him go. In the winter I would do the same, putting on my pair of skis he had given me for Christmas. I would wrap myself in two woolen pair of socks, to protect myself from the harsh cold, often reaching 40 degrees F below zero, two sweaters, at least, and my parka. And I would wander for hours every day after school in the forest, even when it was night. For in the winter there you have days when the sun never rises.

One day my brother and I had been fighting and he had thrown a shoe at me. I ducked and the shoe sailed out through the window of our small bedroom, breaking the glass into several pieces. My stepfather had been drinking before he arrived home, because he had been out of work and spent a lot of time drinking then to sooth the pains of disuse, and became extremely mad over the broken window. He thought I had broken it. Convinced of my guilt, He sat me in a chair and began beating me, hoping I would confess that I did it. My mother was helplessly terrified, as was my brother, watching the interrogation, and I could say nothing but offer that perhaps the boys walking down the road throwing snowballs had done it. It was a lie, of course, but I could not tell the truth. And admitting I had done it would have been a greater lie. There were boys walking down the street throwing snowballs. But I had suffered severer beatings than this. He still to this day wonders, I am sure, who did it. In my late twenties he inquired, smiling, as he had by then mellowed a great deal, still drinking though, and I smiled back, saying nothing.

He took pride in my ability to withstand pain. One day, when I was about nine years old, boasting to a friend who was visiting us at the time, he called me over to him and lifted me up off the floor by my hair, saying, "Look how he doesn't cry!" He put me down and I went to my room and cried. But no one ever knew it.

Now you know all the good and all the evil in my stepfather. For the most part, in his defense, he was a good man, even a good friend to me and my brother fishing in the wilderness, and he brought a great deal of happiness to me that I would not otherwise have known. For my joy was the wilderness and Jack London himself might have envied the good life I led playing in the forest. And though I was always alone, I was never alone. For I had made many friends. Many, even the trees, couldn't speak to me nor touch me, but they gave me every joy a friend could offer.

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Now you know my griefs and my joys as a child. And you certainly know me better than the man who is hanging upon your wall on the cross. And I think this odd that you have not remembered him the same way you could now remember me: as a human being.

If you knew me personally, wouldn't you be a little curious about my life and want to inquire about other things in it? Doesn't every one have stories to tell? The stories I could tell you from my travels, in the Far East, Europe, in Turkey, Egypt, and Israel. I could bend you ear for hours on end.

All you have remembered is a man's miracles. Isn't every man's life itself a miracle? What more, then, can we say about miracles? That they part the seas, heal the sick, or raise the dead? This is nothing compared to the life of a man. For it is not miracles which touch a man's life, but the substance of his whole being; how he was loved by life and loved it.

If a stone could speak, would it speak of love? Could it know it? Or could it speak of things to come? Or even speak of the past? What can it know or what can it feel? Certainly it lasts through the ages and must have seen many things come to pass. But even then the mightiest stones become dust under our feet. And the things written on them fade as the stones fade into the dust. Is it no wonder then that dead men are soon forgotten? For only the stones in the end remember them and they turn into dust. And they last longer than anything else on earth.

How, therefore, if the stones lose their memory, can a life be remembered, or even serve to help others after his ride to the tomb? Where would you carve a memory knowing that even the stones forget to speak?

Would you carve them in one man' s life, for instance? Behold, he is gone and forgotten. Truly, the only thing left to carve upon is a nation, for a nation should not die.

But even nations die and are carried to the tomb. Where is Rome? Or Babylon? Or the nation of Egypt? Were they not the greatest on earth? And yet they too have fallen by the way. Yet, if it were not for their lives, we would not have many of the ways that have been seeded within us. For we have democracy and the ways that were good in Rome still living within us; even a great story born out of Egypt still lives within us; and we can see, because of the nation born in that story, not only a new love put within us, but also a testament that even nations need not die, the Jewish Nation is still living and breathing. And because they exist we know that even the weakest can prevail.

When we look at the endurance record of a nation, we cannot but marvel at how primitive societies have held fast far exceeding in life and joy the greatest of our civilizations. On the other hand, we must also marvel at the Chinese who have held fast since the days long before the days of Rome! Or no less can we marvel at India. There is much to be admired in the thing these nations have possessed. For they possess longevity. But even now there are things at work in them which are eroding them, and they too may follow the way of the stones, though they have already outlasted many stones!

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What, then, is the substance of their being, that we might last as long as they?

When we look at them we see that they all have something in common. What we see in the Jewish, or Israeli nation, is the thing which is in longevity. It is a traditional base which governs them. And lying at the heart of that base is the family. In Israel a special family was created and in it laws designed to keep it together as a family. Those laws worked, because we can still see that family. And we see it with even more marvel than we can show on any other, because it, above all other families on earth, was cursed. And the capstone of that curse was that the nation would be scattered and burned until but a remnant were left. Such a curse! What nation, I ask, has ever had such a pronouncement laid against it? What nation can say that even a beast like Hitler had tried to do the thing against them that he had done? For he tried to round them all up, wherever he could catch them in the world, and throw them all into ovens, exterminating them to the last man!

By comparison we can look at what has happened in Cambodia or the purge which Stalin created in the Soviet Union. In those places millions were exterminated for their beliefs. People who did not agree with the regime were branded enemies of the state and put to trial and killed. The bones in Cambodia, the great pits and the piles, testify of the horror that these people saw.

But by what measure can horror be described, one kind being worse than another? Is not the horror in killing one man the same as killing many? We see that the measure of the horror is how they are killed and the reason for it. And the most horrifying of all is if they are killed for no reason at all.

Why, then, were the Jews almost exterminated? Was it because of their beliefs, disagreeing with a government? Was it their ways that caused a nation to take their anger out on them and exterminate them? Was it because their father's had killed an innocent man and their children must be exterminated because of it? What was it? Could it have been even the justice of God?

Surely it was not for political beliefs or contrary ways that the Jews were taken to the ovens of Hitler's Germany; for they had been sifted among the nations and become as one of them. The only thing that set them apart from others was their religion, and even that was a religion which was but a father to the religion of Hitler's World. And in that, except for Christ, there could be little disagreement. And certainly should the disagreement over Christ have justified the horror which was to come? Men like to use this excuse, shoving the argument from their bloodied hands, saying, "it is the judgment of God that did it" Those Christians holding nuclear weapons in their hands, threatening the world with extinction for the cause of Christianity, seem to be saying the same thing. And I wonder how Christ Himself could feel blessed by them anymore than He could feel blessed by Hitler's Germany.

We see that the cause was not a cause common to other causes. Rather, it was an immense hatred which had been stored up in Hitler's world and for that hatred to fulfill itself it needed a scapegoat. And the Jews had been made available, because they existed, to fulfill it. The genocide occurred because they existed and they were called vermin.

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It took a lot of reasoning to manufacture this hatred which looked upon the Jews as vermin, something which should be exterminated to the last individual. It took even more reasoning for that hatred to arrive at the way the nation would be exterminated. I am sure there were many meetings among men where pros and cons were offered on the best and quickest way of exterminating them, just as there are many meetings among men today on the determination of better and more complete ways of destroying men. And basically, as those German factories dedicated to the horror testify, they settled on two methods: One method was simply shooting them. And in that method they dug huge pits, often with Jewish labour, and brought them all in a line up to the pit, shooting each behind the head as he stood on the edge of the pit. And we can only grieve for the ones at the end of the line, like lambs being marched to their death, one behind another, waiting for the moment that their life would be cut off from them and witnessing the horror of men, women, and children, people they may have known and loved, falling stripped naked, like Persephone, into the pits before them. Can anyone, then, ever know their horror or their grief? Or that of their loved ones and friends who were fortunate to have survived them and can testify of it to this day? And cannot they say, I was taken to the slaughter like a lamb without cause? Behold! I give you not a man, but an entire nation which was sent to the tomb without cause!

What will be done with them? Will they also be hung upon your wall? Will they be carved into stones to enable you to remember them? Can the mute stones speak? How will you remember them? Would you write upon the stones on your wall, or the wooden carvings thereof, that they also include these? How will you remember them? Can you write enough on those stones to justify them?

Behold, I give you a nation. You can touch them, you can speak to them. And they can touch you back and speak back unto you. They are living testimony and can tell you many things; surely more than the mute stones can speak. Would they compete with Christ for the glory that is in them or your honor? Would you break their bread or drink their wine with them? Would you take them under your wings and love them as you profess to love Christ?

What can be your joy in them? Is it that they have given their blood unto the world that the world could be purged of the hatred that dwells within it? Can there be any joy in this?

Truly, the joy that is in Israel is that he is still alive! Yet, that joy can bring but only tears, for when we look into his face we can only know his tears. For like Mary He is still living with them.

How, then, can you comfort Him? Is there anyway by which he can be Comforted? Have you even though about it? Surely He needs comfort.

Joy is in the earth that all sins can be forgotten and pass no more by our steps. But sin, once forgotten, always returns to one's door. It knocks and it is bid to enter to live again in the hearts of men. And the reason it is allowed to enter is because you carve things on stone which remember little about the life that was within it and, because of the things you choose to remember, being limited in the amount of space you can carve on the stone, what you end up carving is a testament of a thing which, if people were to read or touch, would say little and feel like stone.

Behold, then, I give you a nation which is not a stone nor never will be. And the thing which has been carved upon it is not in stone but in their hearts. And those hearts will always be asking, Where were you when I needed you? For you could have rounded up your friends and saved them. So they are a living testament that the world could not save them: I mean to say, the world in which you live could not save them. And when the report of it finally landed on the eyes of your world over six million of them had gone to the ovens and the pits.

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Was the world blind? Was it deaf? Could it not smell? Where was Christ or where was God when all this was taking place? Surely the smoke was noxious, the screaming terrible, and the trains seen heavily laden continuously passing by many homes. Surely the visas to get out of Europe were many. Were there none who could see or hear? Where are those who could not read the applications for visas? Or where are those who read the newspapers reporting upon the flood of visas waiting for permission to pass out of the doors of Hell? You see, even the living lived as stones; what more can be said for the dead?

Is there any recompense favored by the dead, the living, or even God? Surely there must be recompense. Is it special favors, special honors, or an invitation to dinner even? Verily, I say unto you, it is none of these. For they have not suffered for these nor been waiting for these. Rather, they have been waiting for their God and the House He Promised that would be restored to them. That is the recompense. For a long time they have had the face of their God turned away from them and they, as many of us, have been fatherless.

Joy is to the elect. And who among the elect is greater than those who are widows and the fatherless? Is there any more deserving Widow than the widow God hath created? Or among the fatherless are there any more deserving than they?

Come then, let us reason together. For I have written you about a great joy which can come upon the earth. But you have to open your doors to let it come in. For many are grieving to come in.

"I have always had my doors opened," you may say; and you may accuse me saying, "To whom have I shut my doors?" I answer, you have shut your doors to the fatherless and the widow.

Therefore, because I have reproved you for not opening your doors, you will go into your church and open them, calling in all the fatherless, the poor, and the widows. And give them food, quench their thirst, and heal their pains. But then, if you do this, I say unto you that you have opened the wrong doors. For you have greater doors than these that are closed.

What doors are these or these or these over here? Can you not see them?

I grieve, because I cannot speak, I cannot see, nor can I hear. Because what I see, what I speak, and what I hear you cannot. You will not. For if you could, I would not have had to show them to you.

Let me give you some eye salve, so that you can see what I see, and my ear, so that you can hear what I hear, and my mouth, so you can speak what I speak. Verily, if you can read me you can know all these things.

Woe is me! For I am like the grape gatherer who has gone out to gather the grapes and left nothing behind him because he carried pruning shears. And all the fruit has been thrown to the ground! And my wife, who was looking forward to the wine and the grapes to be on the table did not ask me as I went out the door why I carried no basket with me and only pruning shears! Had she only seen what I had in my hand! For I had told her that the wine does not please me, nor the grapes.

"What have we here?" you may ask. "Does this man prophesy?"

I am no prophet, nor would I choose to be one. For there is nothing which I see or know which has not already been prophesied. How, therefore, could I be a prophet? What else is there to prophesy?

What, then, is the meaning of this thing which I have said?

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If you were my wife and stood with me at the door as I left to go to the field and asked, Where art thou going mine husband? seeing me preparing to go out; and if I said, I am going out to gather the grapes, would that be Prophesy? Surely not. For you can see me going out into the field; and because you can see me without a basket and carrying only pruning shears you should know that I am not going to bring them back for the table, that we may feed on them, but cut their stalks and their shoots all to the ground. And that, my darling, is not prophesy. It is a statement of fact of what I am now doing.

Or if you were my wife and I complained to you that the roof on our home has leaks and the rain is now come, and you, knowing that the season has come, that soon the rains will arrive in terrible thunders, asked me at the door carrying tools for my new roof, Where art thou going?, and I said, To go up and put a new covering upon our house, would I be making a statement of prophesy? Surely not, for you can see me, my darling, going up to the roof carrying the things I need to cover it and all my tools. So there is nothing in this which is prophesy.

Of if you were my wife and I told you to get dressed and doing so began putting on my finest clothes, telling you to hurry lest we be late for the wedding, and taking you by the hand led you out the door to the church where the wedding would take place, would you think I had been prophesying to you? Surely not, for I have taken you by the hand, dressed you, and walked you out the door, showing you down the way the church we must go. So there is nothing in this which is prophesy.

Or if you were my wife and I stood at the door of our house and said, Behold the fatherless and the widows; let's round up our friends that we can together provide them comfort and shelter and then together we go out among them to lead them to shelter; would that be prophesy? Surely not. For you can see me leading you out among the fatherless and the widows to search for friends who will give them shelter and comfort. So there is nothing in this which is prophesy.

But I have come to you and found not a faithful wife, who would believe me that I can do what I have set out to do and work with me in this; but a slothful and vain wife whose house is ill kept and children abused. For she has no idea where any of them are. For most of them you have let out into other homes while you were sleeping. And while they hungered you failed to feed them; and while they thirst, you gave them little to drink. So they went out to others so that they could be fed and comforted. For ye have been drinking the wine of the field and it is a strange wine to my house. It neither tastes of good fruit nor carries a pleasant savor. And you have fallen asleep drunken by it.

"How has it lost its fruit or its savor?" you may ask. And I answer, because it has blinded you such that everywhere you go and everything you touch is turning into desolation. For you are the mother of these and the mother of those, and you have allowed them to become an abomination in the sight of all men. Never before on earth have there been any children as these; for they have wrought darkness upon the earth. And because of them every man seeth and crieth the end is come. And knowing this every man chases his brother with a net, saying, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die". And no one of them, no not one, asks, "Who can save us?" for they know that tomorrow they die.

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But thou, slothful wife, have ye not seen? Can ye not read? There is someone out there chasing all of your children and others with his net! And the day will come when they will take you by the hand and lead you into it and show you the ceiling which had been cast over their head. And when you look up on that day, you will see a net.

Is this again a prophesy? Would you accuse me of prophesy? I say to you, How can I be prophesying when I have already cast my net?
You look around you, around and above, and you say, "What net? I see no net!"
I tell you now, wondrous wife, the net is in your hand.
Come with me, for I am off to attend a marriage.
Come, father, what are you waiting for? Have I not opened the right door for it?
Come, let us reason together. And that door also is in your hands. Open it.
Blessed are they who publish the Word of the Lord.... But why, Father, do the Heathen rage?

Please send me to Hidden_Pavilions2.html, pages 37-72
Please send me over to check out Four Parables and a Prayer.html which was Chapter 5, pp. 28ff of Hidden Pavilions.
Please send me to The Tempting, a book that reviews the conflict between Apostle Paul and the early Jewish Church led by the Apostles in Jerusalem.
Please beam me back up to Maravot's Homepage

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Updated 6.13.99; 5.27.00; 3.14.02; 12.25.04; 2.11.06; 4.16.06; 3.12.10

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