I am not a religious fanatic and do not hold extreme religious views but I am a Christian.

It saddens and angers me that the celebration of Christmas is being taken over by people from other religions and no religion. These people seem to want to homogenise the whole thing and have it called a ‘holiday’.  This in itself goes against the grain with me. I say ‘Merry Christmas’ and I mean it. I am giving the age old greeting to other Christians who are celebrating the birth of Christ with me.

If you are not Christian, that’s fine, do what you like, call the festival what you like, but do not expect me to conform to what you expect and wish you all ‘Happy Holidays’.

I respect the religious beliefs of others and I expect the same in return. 

In Britain the problem of not being able to openly celebrate and demonstrate Christianity, which is the religion of our country, with the Queen at the head of the church saddens and angers me.

In our city centre, there is to be no nativity scene which is an annual reminder of the birth of Christ. Why?  Because it might offend non-Christians.

The lit up figure of the Angel Gabriel that used to adorn the steps at our town hall during Christmas celebrations has been replaced by a blue metal thing that looks more like Pocahontas. The powers that be do not want to offend non-Christians.

What I would like to know is, when is someone going to take a closer look and see that these actions are offending Christians? And, yes, contrary to what some people would have you believe, there are some of us who celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

How can anyone justify stopping these things for fear of causing offence but allow restriction of our religious freedom in the process.  Religious tolerance in UK has been turned on its head. It has gone mad. We must show tolerance for every other creed but no one protects our religious rights, or shows tolerance for us.

            Washington had a firm belief of providence, and he never faltered from his belief of it.  In the book Washington and Religion written by Paul F. Boller, Jr. it says, “Washington had an unquestioning faith in Providence and, as we have seen, he voiced this faith publicly on numerous occasions. That this was no mere rhetorical flourish on his part, designed for public consumption, is apparent from his constant allusions to Providence in his personal letters. There is every reason to believe, from a careful analysis of religious references in his private correspondence, that Washington’s reliance upon a Grand Designer along Deist lines was as deep-seated and meaningful for his life.” Washington’s belief in a single God who helped him in life was a strong core for him, compared to some at that time who were atheist or polytheistic.  Washington figured out he didn’t know very much about life and the universe, and he felt like providence was extremely mysterious and couldn’t be analyzed.  Even though providence was a mystery to him, he still did all he could in all aspects of his life.

            From all the stories and speeches people have heard about Washington it is obvious he was a great man and that he did his best in every part of his life.  From the stories of the cherry tree to him never giving up hope after losing tough battles, Washington also knew he had to be the best he could be in order to become worthy of providence.  After the defeat at Germantown in 1777 he said, “We must endeavor to deserve better of providence, and, I am persuaded, she will smile on us.”  He gave his best in everything he did.  For example when he could of become king of this new country he declined it.  He knew it would be dire for the people to have a king and he turned down the offer.

            Many Christian preachers tried to make Washington look like a Christian, but truly he wasn’t.  Washington belonged to the Anglican Church just like everyone else in Colonial America.  Again written in the book Washington and Religion there is a part written by a Presbyterian minister, Arthur B. Bradford, saying,  “Often said in my hearing, though very sorrowfully, of course, that while Washington was very deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist.”  Also his toleration for differing religions was made clear when he wouldn’t allow his Continental Army to celebrate Pope’s Day.  He said it was, “ridiculous and childish.”

            Washington was firmly a deist and believed in a God who helped his creatures on earth, but he was not a real Christian.  Also Washington did his very best in every part of his life so he could be rewarded with providence.  Washington is really one of the great examples of deism of our fore fathers.  Many people look up to George Washington in the way he lived his life.  

Based upon the passage of Isaiah and certain texts in the New Testament, the narrator felt Christ said “heights” and not “heaven” in Luke 10. He stated our Lord would have spoken in Aramaic and would have said “barack obama (or ubama)”–barack for lightning and bama for heights, with an “o” or “u” sound as required by the Aramaic/Hebrew depending on certain circumstances. However, comments by Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz recorded in a Salon.com article disprove the thought that Christ would be saying “obama” or “ubama.”

While there are many well written articles and great videos disproving many other statements in the controversial videos, I would like to point something out that hopefully will help to stop, or at least diminish, the spread of future rumors that might be developed by misusing Holy Scripture.

Missing Facts

Early in the video the narrator said the Hebrew word for “lightning” in Strong’s Concordance is “barack.” Immediately this raised a caution in my mind since Hebrew, as often does Greek, usually is more descriptive than English. Sometimes there are many words, each carrying a slightly different shade of meaning and intent, that can be translated to the same English word. Such is the case with the word, “lightning.” In the original video, the narrator said, “I’ll report the facts–you decide.” It seems to me the narrator left some facts out.

Image by author

According to Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies, there are three words that are translated as lightning, viz., entries 2, 3 and 4 in the image above. Entry 1 (not shown) is a Hebrew word which is pronounced much like the English “ore” that is heavily used in the Old Testament for the word “light” and can also mean light in a spiritual sense, among other things. It is translated as lightning in the KJV in Job 37:3. One more word, entry 7, is also translated as lightning in the KJV in Exodus 20:18.

However, it is most probable our Lord spoke in Aramaic. Is there more than one possibility in Aramaic for “lightning?” According to alphadictionary.com there are six words, five of which appeared to me to be the strongest:

1. brq, brq’ (braq, barqā) n.m. lightning

  (1) lightning

2. dlq, dlq’ (delqā) n.m. flame

  (1) flame
  (2) fire
  (3) torch
  (4) lightning
  (5) splendor

3. zyqh, zyqt’ (zīqā, zīqtā) n.f. lightning bolt

  (1) lightning bolt

4. zlq, zlq’ n.m. lightning flash

  (1) lightning flash

5. kbrytny (kebrīṯānāy) adj. of sulphur

  (1) of sulphur–pl.: sooty lightning flashes

While our Lord could have said, “barack,” He could have very well said any of these other possibilities.

Confusion of Terms

The narrator states in a third video, “my updated film makes it crystal clear in a logical, exegetical manner, that the more probable context of the words Jesus spoke in Luke 10 do not speak of the heaven or shamayim of God, but rather the most likely context is the high place, or the heights or the domain of satan himself.” However, it is my opinion his conclusion was not reached in a logical and truly exegetical manner.

When it comes to “heights,” there are also a number of possible words, but we are hermeneutically veering off course if we focus upon the word “heights.” Luke 10:18 specifically uses “heaven,” and if Christ was basing that statement on Isaiah 14, usage of “heaven” is further substantiated since the main line, verse 12, has, ” How art thou fallen from heaven (shamayim, not bama), O Lucifer, son of the morning!”

Furthermore, Jesus was not talking about the Antichrist, but satan (I prefer not to capitalize that name). These are two separate beings, one possibly human (1 John 2:18) and the other angelic. The term, “antichrist,” appears only in 1 John. Most Christians equate the Antichrist with The Beast mentioned in Revelation. He is referred to in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as the “man of sin” and “the son of perdition.”

While I feel in my spirit that true Christians will sense when The Beast is arising, continued false alarms of, or illusions to, the Antichrist or The Beast will deaden what spiritual senses some of the unsaved have, causing them to be more apt to fall prey to the real Beast when the time comes.

References:

Wilson, William: Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies (MacDonald Publishing Company, McLean, VA) pp. 214, 253.

I would embed the YouTube videos I have referred to, but I feel they have had enough attention.

So some people say if you’re going through Hell, keep on going and the Devil might never know you’re there.  I personally say while you’re there, take the time to fight back and prove to him that his kingdom is gonna fall.

The best way to fight the Devil while you’re going through Hell is love.  Love can solve all problems, no matter how impossible they seem.  We’re here to love and be loved.  Your life matters.  So no matter how bad things seem, we can all relate to pain, and you are never alone. 

Never.

Pain is very real.  But hope is real, and hope is help, and help is real.  God is still in the redemption business, and that’s a business that will never fall to a Ponzi scheme or bankruptcy.  Your best days are ahead.  You are loved more than you’ll ever know. 

You are not alone.  And this is not the end of your story.

http://www.twloha.com/vision/

The problems of depression, self-injury, addiction, and suicide are very real in this world that we’re living in today.  These are not unsolvable problems however, and every one of them can be assuaged with love, and anyone suffering with any of these problems can be healed.  This is impossible on their own.  We must be the bridge that extends between these people and healing, otherwise they face a dark abysmal gap.  It is our job to lay ourselves over this gap in order to serve as the bridge that they need.  Telling them that they are sick, lecturing them, or trying to send them to a doctor are NOT the ways to help.  What they need is people to show them that they are loved and cared for, and this love will empower them to cope with their problems in new ways, ways that keep them safe.  No addiction is impossible to break, and no problem unsolvable.  There are always other people there for you. Always.

May God be with you, forever and always.

• religious people report better health
• they say they have more energy
• that their health is better
• that they experience less pain
• their social lives and personal behaviors are also healthier
• they are more likely to be married
• they are more likely to have supportive friends
• they are more likely to report being treated with respect
• they have greater confidence in the healthcare and medical system
• they are less likely to smoke.”

This was in a study of 300,000 observations in 140 countries, so it’s a pretty powerful sample size statistically.   As a religious person myself, it is always good to see the positive side.

We may have not read the Bible or any book telling us anything about spiritual beings, but we have felt we´re not alone and there´s something out there, not mentaly or physically understood. Sometimes it´s revealed!

I invite -all of you- to ask God (the real One) to draw near and tell YOU, personally, what His porpuse is (just for you).

Make a prayer, invite and challenge Him to come into your mind and life, so you can see more than our bodily eyes can see around.

May His name be revealed!

In His name,

A.T.

I never thought much of religion in those days. I didn’t even know how to multiply yet. It was just another routine I had no say in and the thought to question it never would have occurred to me. The most I remember about church is asking my mom how many songs were left before the service was over. I’d keep a tally with my fingers and count the time until we could go home.

Still, peculiarly I recall my first memory as the very moment I was baptized as a Catholic. This is astounding, considering I was only two years old at the time. Maybe I don’t exactly remember it, but only remember remembering it. What I mean is maybe I thought about it later at age three and recalled the memory at age four. Then it continued like that. However it worked, even if it’s something conjured up by my imagination, somehow I can still picture the water pouring down into my unsuspecting open eyes and filling them. It’s when I started crying.

It wasn’t until I was eight years old when I first put any real thought into it all. The time had come and I was studying for my First Communion. By that time, a new church had been built in between King Salmon and Naknek as an idea to join the communities in a warm, dry place of worship. For those who don’t know, Communion is a ritual in Catholicism and some other Christian denominations when the churchgoers get in a line to accept the body and blood of Christ in the form of bread and wine. The bread becomes Jesus’ flesh and the wine becomes his blood. When I was first told about this phenomenon is exactly when my doubts about religion started.

Looking back, I am not quite sure why my parents decided to put me through this rite of passage. My mom was a Lutheran and wasn’t allowed to take communion in a Catholic setting, and my dad had long ago denounced his Catholic upbringing and became a man of science in college. The simple, blunt explanation I was given was that I’d go to hell otherwise. I didn’t understand, because my mom had never gone through it. My sister hadn’t yet either, but I guess she still had time. What I was afraid of the most was my baby brother hadn’t even been baptized yet, meaning he was still destined for eternal damnation.

There were books I had to read and prayers I had to study. It seemed like there was a different prayer to say for anything I did throughout the day. There was something to recite upon rising, before eating, before going to bed, after sinning (oops!), and more prayers I wasn’t sure for what the purpose was. I wondered how many people said all these prayers. It seemed so demanding. What would happen if I didn’t say them? Would I go to Hell?

While reading my books, I had these questions as well the typical questions any young hedon may ask. If Adam and Eve had two sons and then one killed the other, where did all the other people on the planet come from and why are they different colors? What about the dinosaurs? What about prehistoric humans such as Neanderthals? Actually, my vocabulary didn’t cover that term yet. What about cavemen? What about evolution? I didn’t know that word yet either, but the children’s animated movie, The Land Before Time had offered a brief explanation of the phenomenon. My mom told me to keep these questions to myself when I was with Father Kelly. The cavemen and the dinosaurs were a completely different story, she explained.

This was quite perplexing. They were a completely different story? It didn’t make sense. There were fossils. There were all kinds of bones proving the case that dinosaurs were in fact very real and so were cavemen. There were human bones with resemblances to apes. There were different ages and through time, they became more and more like the humans we have today. I’d never seen these bones, but I’d seen photographs. I was told to have faith, but I did. I believed with all my heart that these bones were real, but I had to believe in God. There had to be some kind of explanation in order to believe in both.

The thought of not believing in God was unfathomable. I had to believe in Him or I’d end up suffering an eternity of relentless torture. Anytime the slightest bit of doubt surfaced, I’d tell myself I believed. It got more and more difficult as I kept reading the stories, but I managed. They were just so far-fetched.

Noah fit two of every single species of animal on the planet onto one single arc? How big was this thing? Jonah lived inside a whale? Moses parted an entire ocean? Samson had incredible strength because of his hair? It was all so silly and unbelievable, but I assured myself I believed. I had to, because God was there for me, because He loved me and was a good God.

Wasn’t He? He wasn’t very nice to Abraham or the first-born sons of Egypt. He actually seemed kind of selfish to me, from reading the first five commandments. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy? The translation from my mom was we had to church every Sunday. This worried me, because we had already broken this rule more times than I could recall. Could we make up for it if we went more than once a week?

Do not take thy Lord’s name in vain? It was more than common for any one of us to utter an “Oh, God” around the house. Sometimes my mom or my dad would say, “God damn it!” We’d all taken thy Lord’s name in vain plenty. Did that mean our destination to Hell was already inevitable? Well, if we were all going there already, than why not do whatever we wanted? I didn’t want to steal or kill, but I didn’t want to have to go to church every Sunday. It was explained to me that we can always ask forgiveness. Well, then couldn’t we just do whatever we wanted and ask forgiveness later?

There were so many holes in this system. Honor thy father and mother? For me that was no problem. I had good parents, but what about kids who didn’t have parents? What if they were like the parents of some kids at school who drank a lot of booze and beat them? Did those kids have to honor their parents?

Soon enough, curiosity overwhelmed me and I couldn’t completely honor God. I started to challenge His divine power. I wasn’t committing murder and I had no desire to commit adultery at age eight, but I started saying little prayers. They were prayers asking for things.

It wasn’t anything unrealistic. I didn’t want to ask for anything God would just laugh at me for, like a new bike or my very own Batmobile to materialize out of thin air. I’d pray for simple things like snowfall or a small gust of wind, just for proof that He existed. The things I prayed for never came true, but my studies provided an explanation. God works in mysterious ways and He will do as He sees fit for His divine plan. When I read this, I didn’t understand why anyone bothered praying in the first place.

The more I learned about my religion, the less it all made sense. It didn’t take much longer before I began thinking to the truth I had realized not too long ago. That previous Christmas, I’d come to the conclusion that Santa Claus wasn’t real. It was impossible for a man to go to every kids’ house in one night and it was very unlikely he was living on the Arctic Ocean somewhere. Still, for a quite a few years afterward, I maintained the façade that I still believed strongly in jolly old Saint Nick in order to receive presents labeled with my parents’ handwriting.

Like Santa, there were too many explanations about my religion that didn’t make sense. There was a time when I thought the Eskimos were stupid, because they thought Raven created the Earth. I’d been taught God did it, not a raven. Ravens didn’t even exist yet. He started by saying, “Let there be light.” I wondered how we could possibly know that. No one heard him say it. No one was around to write it down. Even if someone was around, written language didn’t exist yet. There were no cameras, tape recorders, phonographs, microphones, or scribes to record these events. There weren’t even people, because He hadn’t made Adam yet. None of it made sense yet, but I was determined to figure out how it all added up.

The existence of Santa didn’t add up, but God was different. What made God different was because unlike Santa, believing in Him meant I could go to Heaven. Not believing in Santa just meant no presents. It was okay not to believe in Santa. Most people didn’t. It was this particular thought that sent chills through my body as I lay in bed awake at night thinking about all this. I had already learned to add. Now I was learning to multiply.

The difference between belief in Santa and belief in God was the stakes were higher. If I denounced my faith in God and then I turned out to be wrong, I’d go to Hell. On the other hand, if God wasn’t real, I sure could save a lot of time by skipping all the relentless prayers and church sessions. My logic was that the former option had much more risk.

I continued to tell myself that I believed in God. That way, whether He was real or not, I wouldn’t have to answer to Satan. I told that to myself for years. Any time I had doubts about Him, I reminded myself quickly of the detrimental consequences if I didn’t have faith. I told myself I believed and I told others I believed, but at the age of eight, I stepped up to put the crusty white cracker on my tongue and take my first sip of wine. I never tasted blood. Although I told myself differently for a long time afterward, I think this was the moment, at age eight, that I lost my faith.

Often when this happens to someone, this person will begin the search for another religion. I didn’t. Every religion was just as preposterous as the next one. Each denomination of Christianity is just as believable as Scientology. Revelations means just as much as Ragnarok. The talking serpent in the Garden of Eden is just as legitimate as Prometheus bringing fire to the people. Jesus was a real man, but so was Paul Bunyan. It doesn’t mean the Great Lakes are the cause of him trampling around.

Much like the memory of my baptism, stories are told and they continuously change until they are finally written down. The images I have are not a memory, but the memory of a memory. Stories, like memories, change all the time. They change even more when copies are made by handwriting them. Before the King James Version of the Bible, Moses parted the Reed Sea, a much smaller body of water than the Red Sea. Stories in the book have been translated, altered, taken out, and sometimes replaced. For instance, before Eve, there was another woman named Lilith. There is a women’s music festival named after her. The story was taken out and forgotten just like the Gnostic gospels.

Explanations of the way things are were written when we didn’t know otherwise from modern science. Lightning isn’t Thor getting pissed. It’s a collection of charged particles being released. Genesis describes the sky as a dome covering the land. This suggests the planet is a flat surface, but we know better now. Galileo was persecuted for his belief that the moon didn’t have perfectly smooth surface. Now we know it has craters. Darwin used warblers to demonstrate how adaptation takes place. When moved to a new environment, later generations of the bird had beaks to match the bugs they ate. Yet some people still deny it.

Today, there are still somehow doubts about global warming, but it becomes harder to deny all the time. Now that we have a better understanding of science and nature, it astounds me that religion hasn’t yet become completely obsolete. It fascinates me. It’s why I’ve researched it and read about it, and when I do, all I find is more flaws. I’ve been told that I can find answers in the Bible, and in a way, I have. It makes me wonder if those who have said this to me have actually read it.

Simply put, I do not believe in any religion, because each religion is just a belief. Belief is not the same as knowledge. I believe elements are made up of atoms, which are made of protons, electrons, and neutrons, which are made of quarks. I’ve never seen them and it’s never been proven to me, but it’s what I’ve been told and I believe it. Even with the evidence, I can admit that believing in something doesn’t necessarily make it true.

The difference is that religion has no evidence. Each one is nothing more than a wild guess. The Pope doesn’t know anything more about what’s out there than Tom Cruise does. The ancient Greeks believed in Zeus just as strongly as the Norse believed in Odin. When the Romans were tired of believing in the Numina, they turned to the Greek Gods and gave them different names. Then later on, they heard about Jesus and all became Christian. All it took was a dominantly Christian empire for the new religion to spread. It took a little persuasion and force, and it ultimately led to the end of the empire, but it happened. Christianity was strong.

Christianity not only narrowed the creator down to one single entity, but personified Him as a humanoid father figure with strict rules and a lot of power. Somehow, this has become the most widely accepted version, with the other two parts of the holy trinity believed in, but not as thoroughly acknowledged.

Then people started having new ideas about it. For instance, Martin Luther decided a baby could go to Heaven without being baptized and that there was no such thing as Purgatory. You can’t be a true Catholic with ideas like that. He had to form his own religion. Thus began Lutheranism.

There are Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, and plenty of others with different beliefs about the same God. With all these denominations protesting nit-picky little regulations and ideas of the original Christianity, they became known as Protestants. The original Christianity became known as Catholicism, long prevailing over its predecessor, Judaism. Knowing this, if any form of Christianity has a shred of legitimacy, wouldn’t it be Catholicism? I don’t know. Ask a Protestant.

Not only are there many religions, but there is now what seems like an infinite list of Christian ones. Each one of them has the details worked out in a different way. Each denomination has members with beliefs in things that oppose the beliefs in another denomination.

Does an unbaptized baby go to Hell or not? Do we need to dedicate our lives to eliminating the wilderness of the mind so we can achieve grace or are we born with good, clean souls only to dirty them with sins as we live our lives? Do we need to be “reborn” so we can become a true Christian? Can a serial killer simply repent his horrific crimes by accepting Jesus or is it too late? Is it okay to be a homosexual or not? Does God want me to vote for George W. Bush or has He given me the gift of free will for a reason? Do we burn witches? Are the stories of the Bible completely literal or are they full of metaphor to get a point across, much like Aesop’s Fables? Who is right and who is wrong?

There are some liberal Christians who will admit no one is right or wrong, and that everyone finds their own way. However, this is contradictory to what being a Christian means. A Christian is someone who believes the only way to avoid Hell is to accept Jesus Christ as the lord and savior. I don’t believe that, so according to Christianity, I’m wrong.

Most Christians will explain that witch-burning, or in a more modern setting, the rants and raves of evangelical preachers are merely based on extremism. True, but what makes them wrong? They believe from the bottoms of their hearts what they are preaching. Don’t liberal Christians have beliefs, too? A liberal Christian typically believes God still loves homosexuals as much as anyone else, but still believes non-Christians are damned to Hell. No matter how liberal or conservative, Christians all have the same fundamental beliefs.

As strongly as some people believe in those, I just as strongly disbelieve in them. They can try to work out the details all they want. They can guess that all dead babies go to Heaven or that everyone goes to Purgatory for a while first. They can believe whatever they want to believe, but no one knows the answers, because no one knows what’s really out there. They just come up with the best guess they can. It’s what I’ve done, too.

I believe in all those little particles that make up the universe we live in. I believe in protons, neutrons, electrons, and quarks. They make up a universe with an uncountable number of galactic systems. Within those is our own galaxy, the Milky Way, with our solar system revolving around a star we’ve called the Sun. On one particular planet, the one we live on, there are living organisms. Each organism has plenty of complicated systems that digest food, photosynthesize, grow, pump blood, and transmit signals of the senses. We can smell, taste, feel, hear, and see things because of a complicated network of systems intertwined within us. Around us we have food chains, food webs, and complex ecological systems, all working together on a planet that rotates around a sun, just the perfect distance away, and just so perfectly in time that all this can take place. It all works together in one balanced, functioning system. It seems as though everything in existence has a purpose except for us. I believe something is behind all that. I believe it’s all too complicated to be a coincidence. That’s what I believe.

What I don’t believe is that anyone can explain it. Any explanation we have, including the Big Bang, Raven, Genesis, and the giant trailer park in the sky full of titans inbreeding with each other, is just a complete guess. We have some primitive ideas, because we have primitive brains. There is plenty we don’t understand.

There has to be a point where something can no longer be broken down into smaller parts, but it’s unfathomable to grasp with our minds. What’s smaller than a quark? It seems to us something can always be smaller, but we can’t explain whether or not this is true. On the other end of the spectrum, we also can’t understand the size of the universe. It can’t go on forever, can it? If not, what is outside of it? What is beyond the edge of the universe? We can’t understand, because our brains do not have the capacity to process something like complete non-existence. It’s the same reason we can’t explain whatever is behind all these complex systems in the universe.

When I think about how many stars are in the universe, or better yet, how many quarks there are, I can compare it to the number of possible guesses there could be about what religion is the true religion. Maybe somewhere down the line, someone guessed correctly. If not, maybe someday someone will, but the chances against us are astronomical. It’s why I can’t bring myself to simply pick a religion and go with it. I have plenty of questions, but I simply understand and accept the answer. The answer is I don’t know. No one does. No one can.

New Age followers know about Channeling mainly from such popular writers and channelers as Lee Carroll (Kryon),  J. Z. Knight (Ramtha), Virginia Essene (Vashta), Neale Donald Walsch (God),  and some other well published and well known authors. Since all the information about disasters of the year 2012, except for scientific one, is received by channelers, our task is to define whether we can believe in it and use it for the purpose of salvation. In this article we will study information that concerns Channeling with the aim to define whether we can believe channelers or not. Taking into account that channelers, as they claim, receive information from God or from spiritual entities who possess superhuman power and superhuman fullness of knowledge, we will suppose that their information must be true, logic, and consistent. If otherwise, we will have to be very careful in order not to make fatal mistake and expose ourselves to real danger when predictions about disasters of the year 2012 come true.

Before we start to discuss the phenomenon of Channeling I would like to tell about some tragic events that took place in the last century and followed after the people involved had established contact with some invisible entities. One of the most famous incidents took place in 1966 in Brazil where two men, Miguel Viana and Manuel Pereira, died at very mysterious circumstances that apparently were connected to the activity of a local UFO group that was at contact with aliens. Another case that shocked the entire UFO community took place in Spain at not less mysterious circumstances. It is known as the “suicide in Tarras.” Two channelerswere waiting for “space brothers” and committed suicide hoping that they could reunite withthem and leave our planet only on the condition that they got rid of their bodies. Not less terrible and mysterious deathhappened in 1977 with Serhio Bayardi Portawho was only fourteen then. Investigation held after boy’s death discovered that the boy had received the order to kill himself. As it turned out the order came from a “small cloud” that involved him into a conversation.

Judging by tragic events that happened in the Order of the Solar Temple and in the RanchoSanta Fe, suicide seems to be very popular “method” to get in touch withaliens and to go to planets where they came from. The Temple came to prominence on October 5, 1994, when 53 people committed murder-suicide simultaneously in several chalets in Switzerland and Canada. Their fiery ritual murder-suicides were meant to take members of the sect to a new world on the star Sirius. To assist withthe trip, several of the victims, including some children, were shot in the head, others were asphyxiated with black plastic bags or poisoned. Luc and Joseph wrote, in a letter delivered after their deaths that they were “leaving this earthto find a new dimension of truth and absolution, far from the hypocrisies of this world.”

A second mass suicide ritual occurred about a week before Christmas in 1995. On December 23, on a remote plateau of the French Alps police found 16 charred bodies arranged in a star formation with their feet pointing to the ashes of a fire. Like the rituals of 1994, they all died by stabbing, asphyxiation, shooting and poisoning. Their bodies were burned to a crisp as part of a cleansing ritual. Before their death, some of them left behind handwritten notes expressing their intentions of committing mass suicide. One of the notes stated: “Death does not exist, it is pure illusion. May we, in our inner life, find each other forever.”

Another mass suicide took place in the USA. When CNN television channel interrupted its broadcasting on the 26th of March, 1997, nobody even guessed what would follow after that. Millions of TV watchers were shocked by the news about thirty nine dead bodies discovered by police in an antiseptic multi-million dollar Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive community northof San Diego. They were all lying on their backs on cots and bunk beds throughout the mansion covered withtriangular purple shrouds with their hands to their sides in a prone position. Officers at the scene said it appeared, “as if they had fallen asleep.” All the dead belonged to the Haven’s Gate sect the members of which, after watching too many episodes of the “X-Files,” decided that, after twenty two years of waiting, a spaceship flying behind the Hale-Bopp comet was finally coming to pick them up. As the Heaven’s Gate web site cryptically states, “The joy is that our Older Member in the Evolutionary Level above human has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp’s approach is the ‘marker’ we’ve been waiting for. … Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earthis finally coming to conclusion ‘graduation’ from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave ‘this world’ and go with Ti’s crew.” Ti refers to Bonnie Lu Trusdale, a cofounder of the cult who died of cancer in 1985.

As you see, the phenomenon of Channeling regardless of what shape it takes in different countries almost always gives birth to such quasireligiousgroups of enthusiasts that fanatically crave for contacts withaliens. Their activity acquires one or another fantastic coloring, extraterrestrial or spiritual entities appear and relate messages of salvation in the case of global catastrophe and demand to dedicate their lives to fulfill all the tasks defined by “saviors.” At the first acquaintance withany channeling information one can get an impression that it is received from subtle invisible entities or spirits that belong to spiritual world, connected in one or another way to God, and has nothing to do with aliens. However, after thorough consideration of the matter we discover the fact that almost all those entities are aliens. Of course, they do not look like green dwarfs, they do not fly in flying saucers, they belong to different time and space dimensions, they have no material bodies as we do, however, almost all of them arrived to our planet in quite material space ships from material stars and planets.

Jose Argüelles tells the story about a sonde from Arktur that brought life on Earth from Antares. Virginia Essene and Sheldon Nidle tell about Spiritual Lords of Cosmos who created physical life in a physical Vega star system and then transferred it to Earth. According to Sal Rachele, human civilization appeared on the Earth about 10,000,000 years ago as the result of experiments with DNA conducted by Pleiadean souls of the seventhdensity with Pan in charge. Kryon, the master of magnetism and a spirit who makes adjustment for the crystalline grid of the Earth, described by Lee Carroll, though having spiritual nature, came from a space ship that is waiting for him on the Jupiter orbit. Only Ramtha, whom J. Z. Knight is in contact with, is a human being who ascended from the Earthtogether withhis body 35,000 years ago and now traveling around the entire Universe just by raising or lowering his vibration level in order to visit different realms and dimensions of both visible and invisible worlds.      

What is a Channeling then, and why it is so popular especially nowadays when the humankind lives under the threat of a possible destruction predicted by prophets whose information received from “above” was also the result of Channeling? The term “Channeling” originates from the word “channel” that has many lexical meanings including “canal” (irrigation canal, navigation canal e. t. c.) and “gutter” (a canal or a pipe for sewage water). Of course, channelers believe that “channeling” originates from the word “channel” that means “canal,” though in many cases the another meaning could be more suitable.

Many channelers instruct their followers that they must accept all the revelations of spirits or Ascended Teachers without any reflection or analyze. It is only channeler’s intuition that serves as a criterion for the verity of information. “Do not think like a man,” Lee Carroll instructs his readers in his book Do Not Think Like Human. All of them obey the instructions and believe in every channeler’s word accepting without any hesitation even the things that are strange, ridiculous, meaningless or even dangerous. The examples given earlier have shown the tragic results that occurred because some fanatics did not think like humans and accepted channelers’ messages literally and without any reflection or analyze.   

In other words, if you either hear voices in your head or feel that you are possessed with a spirit that takes control over your body and makes you act and say as it wishes, you are a channeler. In such a case, do not think like a human, do not reflect or analyze, just wait patiently and do everything a voice or a spirit tells you to do even if it is an order to leave your body in order to be saved and join to a rescue team that are waiting for you in a space ship flying somewhere on the Jupiter orbit. Many channelers who predict Earth destruction in the year 2012 assert that their “Older Members in Evolutionary Level” will take those “light workers” who are ready to be taken to space ships that will save them from future disasters. I hope my dear readers are wise and intelligent enough as not to follow this advice. Otherwise, the half of human population will kill themselves at the eve of 2012 “apocalypses” hoping that in such a way they will be able to board spaceships prepared by aliens to save them at “the end of times.”      

Life is a succession of decisions. What and who we are today is the result of the myriad of tiny decisions that step by step brought us to this place in our lives. What you weigh is more or less the product of each tiny decision to eat or not to eat, and if so, what we decided to eat at the time.

You have as much greatness hidden within you as any other man or woman who is living or has ever lived. However, greatness comes to each of us in “seed-form”; and as any farmer will tell you, it’s not whether or not you have a seed that brings forth the harvest, it’s what you do with that seed.

In order to see a harvest either at the farm or in your own life, there are some things you must be willing to do.

Firstly, the farmer must believe in the process. If he does not believe in seedtime and harvest, he will not put forth the effort to plant the seed.

You too, must believe in “the process” of success in any area of your life. Many claim to believe in slogans such as, “The early bird gets the worm, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, if at first you don’t succeed try, try again, and “no pain, no gain” even as they snuggle deeper into the couch clutching the remote control in their hand. But if you truly believe in the process, then like the farmer, you must be willing to toss the seed of your dreams and efforts here and there and everywhere trusting that though every seed will not bring in a harvest, some seeds will take root and bring forth the fruit of your labor!

The farmer must believe that something is happening even when he does not see it with his eyes, when the seeds are buried deep beneath the ground. He can not doubt the seeds are still there and doubt the process continuing to dig up the seeds over and over and expect to see results.

Likewise, we must do all that we know to do for success in our lives and then trust that the process will bring forth fruit; whether it is a job, career, relationship, ministry or anything else we desire, we must believe in what we cannot see with our eyes at times knowing that as we hold steadfast in our faith, the day will come when we will eat the bounty of the fruit of our harvest!

So don’t lose faith. Don’t quit. The marathon runner knows that the last mile before crossing that finish line is the hardest, the legs can feel like lead, everything inside can be screaming “Stop!!!” but if it was easy to win a marathon all of us would have the ribbons and trophies lining our mantles. It’s not, it’s the hardest thing in the world sometimes but the prize keeps the runner running and the dreamer dreaming and the lover loving. The bible says it like this: Phil: 3:14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”.

No matter what you set out to do in life, if you are successful, you will have to come to peace with the thought of pressing and reaching for the prize but the great thing is…You can make it! Keep on pressing, press until you surprise yourself! And remember, only God can count the apples in a single seed!

Quick Overview

1. Introduction

2. Where has Jesus’ teachings of love gone

3. Did Jesus teach the modern version of Hell

1. Introduction

Mahatma Gandhi once said something along the lines of “I love your Christ, but not your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  It is my goal to explain, in this article, why a lot of people outside of Christianity feel the same exact way.  I will be discussing a lot of doctrines and theology in a very short space and amount of time, so please bear with me.

2. Where has Jesus’ Teachings of love gone

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!” -Jesus (Matthew 5:43-44a)

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” – Jesus (Matthew 7:12)

A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. – Jesus (Matthew 22:39)

When an outsider looks at Christianity today, they see not the love of Christ, but the intolerant bigotry of Christians. How can it be that such ignorance and hate has overshadowed the teachings of love by this once great man?  I am not saying that Jesus was without anger. On the contrary, he showed it at times. But, hey, he was only human. One infamous time was when the temple was being used as a point for collecting taxes. This angered Jesus so much, he tipped over the tables that were being used.  This, I believe, was caused by the complete hypocrisy of the Pharisees of his time. He spoke again and again over their hypocrisy, and when he saw what was going on in the temple of his God, it was a snapping point.  But Jesus spoke more of love then he would let anger show.

Today, Christians show barely any (if any) love for those who contradict their beliefs and teachings. In fact, the whole of Christianity is in chaos with with the disrespect and intolerance they show each other who worship the same God differently. Where have Jesus’ teachings of love gone?  They are no where to be found in modern Christianity.

3. Did Jesus teach the modern version of Hell?

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” – Jesus (Matthew 5:22)

Christians today seem to think that if the bible was inspired by God, then it was inspired in the english language and meant exactly for the people of thier time and culture.  This is far from the truth. When studying the bible, you cannot study each verse individually and get an accurate view of what is being said. In fact, an accurate study of the bible is one where you study each book as a whole. As welling as studying a whole book, you must learn about different contexts in which the bible was written.  Geographical context, historical context, literary context and cultural context all play a huge part in interpreting what the bible says. Without those, you will land far away from the real meaning of Jesus’ sayings. For those without the tools to do so, please visit this link and you can get most of what you need for free. I study using that tool and it helps me out a lot.

With that being said, to keep this short enough to keep your attention span, I will be using only the two most important contexts: Cultural and Literary.

When Jesus spoke about Hell fire, was he talking in a literal sense? If Jesus were a modern American, I would say yes. But he wasn’t.  He was a first century Jew living in Roman occupied Judea. The way the communicate through language and description is differnt from the way a modern American would.  At the time of Jesus, when a person spoke of fire and wasn’t litteraly talking about a fire they had just built, it was very seldom literal.  To Jews of the time, Fire was an analogy used for judgment. So, if Jesus were to say something like “Hell fire” he probably would have simply meant the Judgment of Hell, not a literal fire and brimstone Hell.

The point for Literary context is simply this: Does an eternity of fire and torture for only 80 years (at most) of sin equate with a loving God? I would say not. Yet, love was Jesus’ main message all through out his ministry. Every chapter in the four gospels your read will have a mention of the love  of Jesus and his God. The Jesus of the Gospels and the Hell of modern Christianity is one of the most incompatible things I have ever come across.

So, what was the Hell Jesus spoke about? Well, I would much rather you study and figure that out, but I will help start you off with a few passages and some website that will help you get started thinking. Here are some passages

http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/jesusteachingonhell.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_darkness

Note: These articles are not meant to be, in my opinoin, scholastic. They are here to get you thinking so you can do some real studying on the subject.