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From
the Book of Luke, Chapter 12:51 Suppose ye that I
am come to give peace on earth? I  tell
you, Nay; but rather division: 52 For from
henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two,
and two against three. 53 The father shall
be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother
against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in
law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her
mother in law. - words attributed to the Radical Rabbi Jesus.
Mystics,
scholars and theologians have argued over the words written above
attributed to the Master Mind Jesus for centuries. The Mystical
Jesus spoke so often from the "Soul" that few have understood
His words ... and unless we have reached to the depths of our soul for
the understanding ... most of us will only have opinions. The
following is going to be "my opinion" as to what He meant in
the recorded passages from the Book of Luke:
It is my
opinion that Jesus was referring to His impact on religion. Man
(generic) has created religion and therefore it is filled with the
cultural and traditional biases of man's experiences and beliefs.
The masses of people are more loyal to their religion than they are to
God ... for few will leave religions or churches that hold them to
beliefs and concepts that no longer serve them ... and this is the
radical message of Jesus ... religion divides us ... it can make us
arrogant, self-righteous and hold us in ignorance of the Truth.
Since Jesus taught in parables demonstrating their effectiveness in
making a point, I will illustrate this statement with a story ... this
one is a true story: I was in a meeting one day with a Jewish man
and his Christian decorator. The man introduced me as a minister
of Religious Science and said that I taught a wonderful philosophy that
gave people a beautiful understanding of Life. In turn, he asked
the decorator what her religion taught and she replied that she believed
in the "Lord Jesus Christ and the only ones who would go to heaven
are those people who accept Jesus as their savior and are born
again." ... I sat quietly as I listened to this woman go on
about how only the "saved" would enter into heaven and eternal
life ... she explained, everyone else is lost. Now this woman knew
she was talking to a Jewish man and also someone who I am certain, she
did not believe to be a Christian in the "true" sense of being
a Christian ... in other words ... she was telling us that we were
doomed to go to hell and she was thanking Jesus for the opportunity to
"witness" for Him.
Now, you take the arrogance
of the woman in the story above ... multiply it by millions of people
who share her beliefs ... and this accumulated "belief" in
separation and evil equals disease, war and catastrophes. It is
our collective consciousness of low-level hate that has created all the
discord on the planet. God has created a "Garden of
Eden" for us to enjoy ... but we are so unwilling to share it ...
and even religions will teach us this low-level hate derived from
"separate-ness" and judgments of inferior and superior
religious beliefs. Dr. Joseph Murphy stated
that to believe that God has any concern about whether we are Christian,
Jewish, Muslim, Atheist or any other religion is superstitious and
ignorant. God is Mind ... what we believe into It we
experience ... and that is the Truth taught thousands of years before
Jesus and reinforced in the Teachings of Jesus. Life is
consciousness and that is why Jesus knew that "religion would
separate us" ... cause us to hate one another rather than love one
another until we realize the Truth that will set us free.
The photo of the Iraqi boy above has been
placed with this message for a reason. It is my opinion, that were
Iraq a "Christian" country they would never have bombed them as
heavily as they were. ((CBS)
They're calling it "A-Day," A as in air strikes so devastating
they would leave Saddam's soldiers unable or unwilling to fight.
If the Pentagon sticks to its current war plan, one day in March the Air
Force and Navy will launch between 300 and 400 cruise missiles at
targets in Iraq. As CBS News Correspondent David Martin reports, this is
more than the number that were launched during the entire 40 days of the
first Gulf War. On the second day, the plan calls for launching
another 300 to 400 cruise missiles. "There will not be a safe
place in Baghdad," said one Pentagon official who has been briefed
on the plan.) Our
bombing of Iraq was not suffered exclusively by Saddam Hussein and his
supporters ... there were thousands of children, just like the little
boy above, who endured the devastation of bombs over Baghdad and
throughout Iraq ... and those in charge of this bombing and those who
made the decision to bomb Iraq ... were by and large Christians (General
Boykin ... "My God is bigger than your God").
So, where is our
peace ... when can we ever find it when we have collectively shared in
the ignorance and superstitions of those who Jesus talked about so many,
many years ago. There will be no peace ... until the world's
consciousness is satisfied with war, hate and separation. And it
is still not satisfied ... or there would be an out-cry against war so
great that never again would the children of any religion, any country
... have to endure what the children of Iraq have endured ... which to
them must have seemed like an apocalypse. The
most consistent and frequent promoter of peace and human rights for the
last two decades has been Pope John Paul II. From Iraqi War I to
Iraqi War II, he has echoed the voice of Paul VI, crying out before the
United Nations in 1965: "War No More, War Never Again!"
John Paul II stated before the 2003 war that this war would be "a
defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally
justified." Why haven't the
voices of the traditional Christian ministers; Joel Osteen, Pat
Robertson, Billy Graham, Creflo Dollar, Jerry Falwell, Joyce Meyers, T.
D. Jakes ... and the hundreds of other Christian religious leaders ...
shouted out against this war? As Christians they must realize
that it is a "sowing and reaping" Universe.
And
So It Is!
Maximum Love,
Rev.
Hank Bates
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