James White handed Lee Baker his ass, but Lee is too wrapped up in his
ego (to stupid) to grasp it. Truly SAD show, but BEAUTIFUL in the Truth
it exposes.
No document in all the history of mankind has more source
evidence than does the New Testament, and those sources MATCH what the
present Greek Text, with its footnotes portray.
How that solid written
witness is then interpreted is another story and is as variable as the
pride, egos, passions and ignorance of the men interpreting it, or
rejecting it, as we see here witnessed in the person of Lee Baker.
One
needs to ask why such debates based solely upon the Text of the New
Testament have never happened in Apostolic Orthodox Christianity, no
where, no time, in her 2000 year history; is it neglect or has there
never been need for it?
At the same time, I truly appreciate the amazing
body of work done by the (mostly protestant) bible scholars. One set of
such lying scholars lead to the absurdity of "The Jesus Seminar" a
Cultural Marxist financed deconstructionist effort, and the other to
REAL SCIENCE, of whom Dr. White is a shining example.
I am archiving
this video, because Dr White's work here, spoken in non-technical
language, is an invaluable witness of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit,
patiently manifesting TRUTH, who is a Person, in a sea of Mormon created
ignorance and lies.
BTW, this ignorant ex-Mormon cannot understand the unfolding of God's
revelation in time. He was fed the idea of the validity of a "Channeled
Book" with his mother's milk, and taught the idea that inspiration means
"channeling" which DESTROYS ALL Historical Witness.
The New Testaments
is NOT a Channeled book, like a Koran by Mohammed, or a Book of Mormon
by Joseph Smith, or The Cosmic Tradition, by Max and Alma Theon, or the
Book of Law by Aleister Crowley, or Toward the light by Johanne
Agerskov, or the Teaching of Silver Birch by A.W. Austen, or Ashtar by
George Van Tassel, or A Course in Miracles by Schucman and Thetford and
HUNDREDS of MORE. Christianity sees these things rightly as the
desperation of Satan, teaching theology to those he fears will slip from
his grasp.
The New Testament as is the Old Testament, rather the
Christian Canon of Scriptures is in a totally different class and category, a
"revelation through time" an accounting of both the history and wisdom
of God's revealing himself progressively over centuries, and that
Revelation WAS, IS and Always will be Jesus Christ.
Each Theophany
(appearance of God) from God's walks with Adam in the Garden, to his
appearance in the Upper Room after his resurrection witness the exact
same TRUTH who is a person. IF one is not religiously sick with pagan superstitutions, that multiplicity of
witnesses over time revealing the same TRUTH has exponentially more
power than does some spiritually challenged person channeling the
teachings of devils.
"Our Heavenly Father:
Let us not be caught in the fear of servile religion; keeping Tradition
out of ignorance and offering our correctness as a sign of righteous
enlightenment. "Let us not be caught in the tyranny of our rational minds, which
creates innovations upon the faith, which leads us to hold prideful
theologies that diminish God to the level of OUR understanding, or
worse, which deny him altogether. "Let us not be caught by the tyranny of our emotions, mistaking our
soul's fantasy producing powers for the working of the Holy Spirit, the
Lord and Giver of Life. "Let us not be caught in the mere form of the written word of God, but
the LIFE of it. "Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, but in the
LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the LIVING WORD of God, present even
today to all who truly seek him.
"Let our keeping of Tradition spring from the warmth of YOUR Love, from a
heart that seeks continual repentance, from a broken spirit, a broken
and contrite heart YOU will not despise. "In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen"+++ +++
MONTGOMERY, ‘THE HAMMER’ SURVEILLANCE
SYSTEM WHISTLEBLOWER, BECAME THE DEEP STATE’S ENEMY NUMBER ONE AFTER
EXPOSING THE TRUTH - The American Report
16-20 minutes
By Mary Fanning and Alan Jones | May 22, 2019 Remember, do not kill a mockingbird. When a whistleblower is singing for America’s protection, we embrace and celebrate him. Inventor and software designer Dennis Montgomery, a
CIA/DOD/DHS/NSA/FBI contractor-turned-whistleblower, alerted FBI
Director James Comey’s office in 2015 that President Obama’s CIA
Director John Brennan and Obama’s Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper had turned the super-surveillance system that Montgomery
designed for foreign surveillance, known as THE HAMMER, into a domestic surveillance system. Montgomery became alarmed when Obama and his intelligence chiefs
Brennan and Clapper turned the super-surveillance system against the
American people. Montgomery asserts that Obama, Brennan, and Clapper used THE HAMMER
in a diabolically intrusive manner in order to spy on the American
people and collect massive amounts of surveillance data for “leverage”
and “blackmail.” THE HAMMER was only to be used for foreign surveillance, not to be
weaponized for domestic surveillance against the American people,
according to Montgomery and to U.S. military sources. According to those U.S. military sources, Montgomery’s surveillance
technology not only saved American lives as America’s “War on Terror”
broadened, but also featured built-in safeguards to prevent the system
from ever being used for domestic surveillance. “Multiple echelons” of government, including the FISA court, had to
sign off on each and every foreign surveillance operation conducted with
the use of THE HAMMER, those sources say. Montgomery claims that Brennan and Clapper used the
super-surveillance system Montgomery designed to spy on Article III
federal judges, including the onetime head of the FISA court Judge
Reggie Walton, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice
of U.S. Supreme Court John Roberts. Montgomery’s revelations about his super-surveillance system THE
HAMMER call into question Chief Justice Robert’s strange and
inexplicable 2012 decision that stood in direct opposition to his own
stated legal argument. At the eleventh hour, Roberts flipped and
supported the individual mandate for President Obama’s highly unpopular
Affordable Care Act. Montgomery, who is constrained by non-disclosure agreements, has
spoken about the system but has not publicly identified the system by
name. The secretly-recorded “Whistleblower Tapes” identify the name of
the system as “THE HAMMER,” as we first reported in our March 17, 2017 exclusive exposé. The March 2017 WikiLeaks CIA Vault 7 document dump confirms the name of the system as THE HAMMER (HAMR). Military sources, we can now report exclusively, confirm the
existence of the super-surveillance system known as THE HAMMER. Those
sources caution that the super-surveillance system was only to be used
for foreign surveillance.
Comey Knew
In August 2015, Montgomery turned over to FBI General Counsel James
Baker, who represented the office of FBI Director Comey, physical
evidence, in the form of 47 computer hard drives containing 600 million
pages of documents. Montgomery maintains that the data on the hard drives prove the
existence of THE HAMMER and prove that Brennan and Clapper engaged in
illegal domestic surveillance, despite the existence of safeguards that
were already in place. In August 19, 2015, Montgomery turned over the hard drives under two
immunity agreements struck with the U.S. Department of Justice. The 600
million pages of documents stored on those hard drives, when stacked one
upon another, would measure a stunning thirty miles high, says
Montgomery. The FBI provided Montgomery with a detailed receipt for the 47 hard
drives, including handwritten descriptions of each and every hard drive. FBI Director Jim Comey took Montgomery’s evidence and buried it. Montgomery’s claim that Obama, Brennan, and Clapper illegally spied on millions of Americans is by itself explosive. Montgomery’s identification, by name, of one particular U.S. citizen
that Montgomery insists was under constant surveillance “for years” by
Obama, Brennan, and Clapper via THE HAMMER has led Obama’s inner circle
to take desperate measures. The name of that U.S. citizen targeted by THE HAMMER is Donald J. Trump. Whistleblower
Tapes: Trump Wiretapped “A Zillion Times” By ‘The Hammer,’ Brennan’s
and Clapper’s Secret Computer System – The American Report The Whistleblower Tapes released by U.S. District Judge G. Murray
Snow reveal that Donald Trump was wiretapped a “zillion times.” The CIA feared Trump, maintains Montgomery. Donald Trump and his late father Fred Trump are both known for their lifelong aversion to communism. President Obama’s CIA Director, admitted communist John Brennan, feared Trump. As we previously reported, Brennan and Comey both affirmed their belief in communism. We noted in our May 12, 2019 exlusive exposé
connecting “THE HAMMER” to FBI Director Comey’s launch of the Trump
Russia Collusion investigation that John Brennan admitted during his
initial CIA polygraph test that he voted for Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
candidate Gus Hall in the 1976 presidential election. Comey, we simultaneously reported, told New York Magazine “I’d moved from Communist to whatever I am now.” Frank Marshall Davis, President Barack Obama’s mentor during Obama’s
formative years in Hawaii, was a card-carrying Communist Party USA
member (CPUSA member #47544) and suspected KGB agent who was listed on
the FBI’s Security Index, Davis’s lengthy FBI file reveals. According to Paul Kengor, “Davis hailed Joe Stalin’s state for its alleged freedom and democracy.” Stalin could only have dreamed of a Soviet surveillance system with
capabilities approaching those of THE HAMMER. Russian historian
Alexander Solzhenitsyn says that Stalin murdered 60 million of his own
countrymen during his reign of terror. With THE HAMMER, Brennan, Clapper, and Obama were implementing a
political system — communism — that is antithetical to America’s system
of justice and to the U.S. Constitution. Under the U.S. Constitution, the purpose of American government is to
secure the rights of each American to life, liberty, and private
property. Brennan, Clapper, and Obama illegally used THE HAMMER as a
technological instrument of tyranny in order to take away Americans’
inalienable rights as outlined under the U.S. Constitution. These conspirators transformed a high technology tool designed to
protect the American people from foreign threats into a tool of tyranny.
During a 2017 radio interview with his attorney Larry Klayman, Montgomery explained:
I provided to the FBI seventeen businesses of Donald Trump,
including the Trump Tower, the Trump leasing programs, all of these
different programs, and including Trump himself and the various family
members that had been wiretapped under these programs. There has been a
wiretap on Trump for years… …I was a CIA contractor both under John Brennan and under James
Clapper and these individuals were running domestic surveillance
programs in the United States collecting information on Americans…they
collected everything they could find. Bank accounts, phone numbers,
chats, emails, and they collected a massive amount of it under the Obama
administration.
According to sources, Comey was the general counsel and senior vice
president of Lockheed Martin when Montgomery was paid $8,000 to use a
supercomputer at a Lockheed facility in the Los Angeles area to collate
the tranche of data harvested by The Hammer into individual files for
each of the individuals being targeted. “The proof of Donald Trump being wiretapped is in the documents that
were handed over to the FBI” Attorney Klayman told reporter Fanning. Brennan and Clapper covertly operated THE HAMMER out of a U.S.
government facility in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fort Washington,
Maryland, according to the secretly-recorded audio tapes released by a U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow in 2015. From September 13, 2001 until June 2006, Clapper was the director of
the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), known until 2003 as
the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). Clapper’s previous post
as NGA director is an important detail because NGA is known to operate
out of Fort Washington. Obama and his henchmen were using THE HAMMER to create a tyrannical
police state in America worthy of the East German Stasi or Hitler’s
Gestapo. According to Montgomery, the FBI, under Director Robert Mueller’s
leadership, provided the computers for THE HAMMER super-surveillance
system. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation
entirely cleared President Donald Trump of collusion with the Russians. Regardless of the evidence and the $35 million dollar two-year
investigation, many, including John Brennan and James Clapper and,
according to Democrats’ spin, Robert Mueller himself, continue to smear
and characterize President Trump as guilty of collusion and treason. .
THE HAMMER Was Ground Zero Of the Trump Russia Collusion Hoax; Obama Administration Insiders Are Panicking
As Department of Justice investigators begin the hunt for the true
origins of the Russia collusion investigation, Democrat insiders are
beginning to unravel. Blood is in the water. And it is their own. Brennan, Clapper, and Comey are maintaining and even ramping up their
relentless tempo of frenetic television appearances as they struggle to
keep their stories straight. The conspirators are turning on one
another. COUP
D’ÉTAT: DOJ, FBI OFFICIALS ON MUELLER’S RUSSIA TEAM IN COVER UP OF
MUELLER’S, CLAPPER’S, AND BRENNAN’S SURVEILLANCE ‘HAMMER’ THAT SPIED ON
TRUMP, STRZOK-PAGE TEXT SHOWS – The American Report Many of these insiders appear to be well aware of THE HAMMER and of
the Obama administration’s illegal surveillance of Donald Trump. Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama administration Defense Department
official and Russia specialist, blurted out during a March 2, 2017
television appearance on MSNBC “the Trump folks if they found out how we
knew what we knew about the Trump staff dealing with Russians that they
would try to compromise the sources and methods meaning that we would
no longer have access to that intelligence.” The unravelling of the Russia collusion scheme and the coup d’etat
will lead to the trial of the century that will make the Rosenbergs look
like small-time crooks. Our May 12, 2019 exclusive feature investigation
“Comey Launched Trump Russia Investigation Day After General Exposed
‘The Hammer’” first identified THE HAMMER as ground zero of the Trump
Russia collusion investigation. The Russia Collusion investigation was a coup launched in response to the exposure of THE HAMMER. When two four-star flag officers of sterling reputation brought THE HAMMER to America’s airwaves the Deep State panicked. U.S. Air Force General Thomas McInerney (Ret.), U.S. Navy Admiral
James A. “Ace” Lyons (Ret.), and Dr. Dave Janda, during the March 19,
2017 broadcast of Janda’s “Operation Freedom” terrestrial radio program, dared to bring the truth to the American people. Within a matter of hours, the Deep State jumped into action. COMEY LAUNCHED TRUMP RUSSIA INVESTIGATION DAY AFTER GENERAL EXPOSED ‘THE HAMMER’ – The American Report Fanning and Jones revealed on May 12, 2019 at The American Report:
FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the
Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok and his supposed paramour, FBI
lawyer Lisa Page, exchanged a cryptic, indeed coded, text message on
Sunday, March 19, 2017, twenty-six minutes after retired U.S. Air Force
Four Star General Thomas McInerney read our exclusive “Whistleblower Tapes” exposé over America’s airwaves, revealing “The Hammer”… …Late
that Sunday evening, just hours after General McInerney’s radio
appearance, Strzok and Page exchanged a text message that explicitly
referenced Dennis Montgomery and Montgomery’s attorney Larry E. Klayman. General McInerney appeared on Dr. Dave Janda’s “Operation Freedom” that broadcasts from terrestrial radio station WAAM 1600. The next morning, the Russian Collusion investigation was born. Early
the following morning, Monday, March 20, 2017, FBI Director Jim Comey
announced before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
that the FBI Counterintelligence Division, where Strzok served as Deputy
Assistant Director, was investigating Trump’s connections to the
Kremlin, and that the FBI had “no information” to support Trump’s tweet
claiming that President Obama wiretapped Trump.
Montgomery’s Journey From Computer Genius To Enemy Of The Deep State
Dennis Montgomery was celebrated and hailed from many quarters as a “computer genius.” Montgomery was later reduced from whistleblower to enemy number one
of the Deep State, with purpose and forethought. Those holding and
abusing positions of power within the intelligence community who had
previously hired Dennis Montgomery as a national security contractor for
classified projects could not afford to have him expose their
duplicitous and treasonous actions. “IT IS NOT THE FACTS THAT MATTER, IT IS THE PERCEPTION” Montgomery claims that the FBI buried its investigation into his
federal whistleblower claims about illegal domestic surveillance and
that U.S. intelligence agencies, several years earlier, attempted to
destroy his reputation. According to Montgomery, the same intelligence agencies, after they had finished smearing his reputation, quietly rehired him. In 2011, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau authored a New York Times article in which they painted Montgomery as a fraud, citing CIA sources. In 2016, Montgomery sued
Risen and the publisher of Risen’s book Pay any Price: Greed, Power,
and Endless War for defamation over a chapter that portrayed
Montgomery’s work for the U.S. government as a hoax. Lichtblau has been exposed. Lichtblau, who was working as CNN editor, and two other reporters resigned
from CNN in June 2017 after CNN retracted their discredited story
linking the Trump transition team to a Russian investment fund. Only two
months earlier, CNN had recruited Lichtblau to its investigative unit. Montgomery stated:
They [the intelligence agencies] leaked false
information about me in 2009 and 2011 to the press to discredit me in
case their domestic surveillance programs ever became public. Somebody
leaked my name to [New York Times reporter James Risen] saying that my
work for the government didn’t work and so forth, which is ridiculous. My
work saved lives…he knew that I could not respond to his [Risen’s]
articles because I was under U.S. protective gag order on me saying I
could not respond to anything, and I had the state secrets privilege
filed against me that if I would have violated I would have been charged
with treason under the U.S. Espionage Act… …Stroke or no stroke, I
am going to expose the CIA and NSA misdeeds until the American people
know the truth. I have put my family for years at great risk by coming
forward. This is my last stand for America.
‘THE HAMMER’ TIMELINE
November, 2015
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow releases the “Whistleblower Tapes.”
August 19, 2015
Dennis Montgomery, under a limited immunity agreement, turns
over to Comey’s FBI 47 hard drives that he says prove the existence of
Brennan’s and Clapper’s super surveillance system.
March 4, 2017
President Trump tweets that Obama wiretapped him.
March 7, 2017
WikiLeaks dumps CIA Vault 7, confirming the existence of The Hammer (HAMR).
U.S. Attorney General William Barr appoints John Durham, the
U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to explore the origins of the Trump Russia
collusion investigation. COPYRIGHT 2019 MARY FANNING AND ALAN JONES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
To everything there is a Season, a time to weep a time to refrain from weeping.
I
once quoted a line of a "mystic" to one of my Christian fundamentalist
friends, trying to shake him from his "me and Jesus" victory parade,
realizing that his faith was not shallow, but ego driven. The line was: "Unless your feet have been baptized (immersed) in the blood of your broken heart, you have not entered upon The Way."
In his victory parade, and what the Father's have called "the Happiness
Seeking Delusion" he had no time for the profound implications of the
smallest and most complex verse in the Gospels that reads, "Jesus Wept."
How could the very Source of Life, the Creator of All Things,
standing in the full reality of the Eternal Godhead, at the same time
stand before the tomb of his dear friend, Lazarus, whose entire family
were his extended family, friends so close they were family, Lazarus'
mother, Lazarus' aunt. How could the Eternal God stand before a tomb
where Lazarus lay three-days dead, KNOWING that in mere moments he would
imbue that dead corpse with life and call Lazarus ALIVE from the tomb,
how could HE, with that knowledge, WEEP? I have heard fundamentalist,
you know the kind, the kind that say, "you should not weep, you should
CELEBRATE because they are in a better place." No one could
have had better and more complete knowledge of the fact that Lazarus
rested "in the Mercy of God" but even in that COMPLETE knowledge, as he
stood in Mortal Flesh, his heart beating, his blood flowing, his
emotions reeling, his eyes tearing, "JESUS WEPT" he did not CELEBRATE.
Some shallow Christian Fundamentalists say, "because Jesus Wept, we
don't have to, shouldn't need to, etc" thus separating their very
expression of and "reality of soul," (reality of their own psyche) from
their true humanity. In this place, on this earth, in this time we
battle "death in our members." WE ALL DO. We struggle as Saint Paul
stated, for our mortality to be swallowed up in immortality, our Death
conquered in LIFE. Those who celebrate pridefully and not in the sodden
sandals of Our Lord, risk trusting their pride and losing The Way.
So again I say, "Unless your feet have been washed in the blood of your
broken heart, you have not entered upon The Way." What is the purpose
of that broken heart? To give us the humility to put away every illusion
and lie, and grasp in our deepest self, ONLY what is REAL, RIGHT and
embued with Eternal Life. So as a sinner, whose feet are again being
baptized in the blood of my own heart, I say, "Lord Jesus Christ, who
wept at the death of Lazarus, have mercy on me also, and those we love
and walk us into the land of the living, where death holds no more
threat, where we can say with Saint Paul, " O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is a WAR folks, I
have stated that fact thousands of times in my writings and in my
videos, "THIS IS A WAR." It is a war against every LIE, every fantasy,
every illusion, and delusion that is death engendering; and contrary to
popular opinion, those who cling to LIFE, lose it. "For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my
sake shall find it," so Jesus said. What does losing one's life for
Jesus' sake mean? It means stomping on the selfishness of our own
hearts and at each moment consciously choosing to do what LOVE demands.
"God is Love" and to be bound to him, is to be bound in love. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
The orchestrated warmongering of the Western Powers The 1917 Russian Revolution was orchestrated, beginning in 1914, from the British Embassy in Saint
Petersburg, and the American Embassy in Kiev, and stoked by the
anti-monarchial , warmongering tabloid western media. Following the
overthrow of the Czarist government, the revolutionary government itself
was taken over by extremists, and the world was to face seventy years
of communist genocide against Orthodox Christians. The anti-Orthodox
views of these Western powers is well documented, and continues to this
very day as witnessed by the betrayal of Orthodox Christians in Kosovo,
Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, the Gaza strip, and now the
Ukraine. And now, the Untied States backed terrorism against the
canonical Orthodox in the Ukraine only continues what has become a long
standing hatred by the Western powers, of Orthodoxy.
Under President Obama, Washington’s propaganda machine set about to
convince the world that the Ukrainian separatists used an expensive
anti-aircraft missile system, together with Russian help, to down a
civilian aircraft with almost three hundred innocent people on board,
this in spite of the fact that the separatists had no incentive to shoot
down an airliner flying at 33,000 feet. The fact that the Ukrainian
junta does have Buk anti-aircraft missile systems and a Buk battery was
operational in the region and deployed at a site from which it could
have fired a missile at the airliner, is being completely ignored. One
Russian general familiar with the weapon system offered his opinion that
it was a mistake made by the Ukrainian military untrained in the
weapon’s use. The general said that although Ukraine has a few of the
weapons, Ukrainians have had no training in their use in the
twenty-three years since the Ukraine separated from Russia. The general
thought it was an accident due to incompetence. It is also to be
noted that the Malaysian airliner and President Putin’s airliner were
traveling on almost the identical route within minutes of one another.
Interfax quotes its source: “I can say that President Putin’s plane and
the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon.
That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at a height of 10,100 meters.
The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian
aircraft at 15:44 Moscow time. The contours of the aircrafts are
similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the colouring,
at a quite remote distance they are almost identical.” There was
some speculation that Washington decided to rid itself of President
Putin and mistook the Malaysian airliner for Putin’s jet, and before we
say the American military is too sophisticated to mistake one airliner
for another, let us remember that the U.S. Military shot down an Iranian
airliner over Iranian air space, killing 290 civilians, while thinking
we were downing a fighter aircraft of the Iranian Air Force. Is
the United States government and her Western allies, so dominated by
hate-filled hawks, that we are willing to set the stage for World War
III, or will we finally put aside our insatiable desire to control the
whole world, together with our colonialist European Union allies? Is it
really beyond comprehension that our American administration, backed by
CNN, Fox News, and an array of compromised Western Media types, is
hell-bent on continuing the long standing position that Russia is our
enemy? Do we not see that the sanctions against Russia are, in fact, an
act of war? And why are we American Christians not concerned that our
government, as it did in 1914, is saber rattling against the one
Christian nation that is attempting to withstand creeping secularism,
atheism, and militant Islam, while holding to the standards of biblical
Christianity? Let us be vigilant in our thinking, keeping
ourselves open to the truth. Blindly viewing everything our American
government says leaves us wide open to the same dangers that caused the
German people to fall prey to the Nazi propaganda machine, and we know
where that led. Perhaps a diplomatic solution called for by President
Donald Trump, could begin with the United States and her European Union
allies, stepping out of the affairs of the Ukrainian people. Perhaps we
could start looking at Russia as the potential ally she is, and not
seeing her as the enemy she is not. And, perhaps we could consider that
the Ukrainian government, facing the possible partitioning of their
country, could very well believe that bringing on World War III could be
the only way they can bring Western countries into their war with
Russia. I have been in pain of heart over this issue for a very
long time. I've made it a point of staying away from politics, but, like
the Lutheran pastors who spoke out against the Nazis, and paid the
price, I must speak out, if for no other reason than to serve in the
traditional role of the monk as prophet. We are dangerously close to war
with Russia, and as a monk I am driven to speak the truth as I see it,
unpopular as it may be. I am not being political, nor am I being
unpatriotic or un-American. I am simply a priestmonk calling upon his
nation to repent, return to our Christian roots, and basic Christian
values we've held to as a nation, since the foundation of this great
nation. With love in Christ, Abbot Tryphon
This St. Michael’s Prayer is the original version as written by Pope Leo XIII. It was originally published in the Roman Raccolta of July 23, 1898, and a supplement approved July 31, 1902.
Original Prayer to St Michael the Archangel
O Glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, and spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist Thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men; his depraved mind, corrupt heart, his spirit of lying, impiety, blasphemy, his pestilential breath of impurity and of every vice and iniquity. These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the Spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered. Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate Thee as their protector and patron; in Thee Holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to Thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, do Thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered, hostile powers.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, the root of David.
Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord
As we have hoped in Thee.
O Lord, hear my prayer.
And let my cry come unto Thee
LET US PRAY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy name, and we humbly implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel St. Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen. Pope Leo XIII, 1888
++++++
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Faith comes by hearing Saint Paul said, but many hear and few believe. Only those who ACT on faith, who believe and learn of faith through experience become Faith-filled/Faithful. Can "meditation create faith" not likely despite the Western penchant for daydreaming and calling it "inspiration."
Those who think they can experience real Faith without "doing" real worship, real faithful things, fail to understand the Nature of the Body of Christ and the Reality of The Church. Instead, they become by their individual practice "spiritual" i.e., open to the spirits but not faith-filled and faithful. They become scattered and tossed about on a sea of emotions and poorly understood or self-created teachings, full of grand ideas and grand loving motivation, decades pass and little changes, except their own entrenched faith in their own spiritual power and maybe, moral goodness.
So few Evangelicals and Protestants who rail against "works righteousness" can grasp the reality that the work of the faith is not to gain "merit" as the Romans falsely teach, or to gain righteousness has THEY falsely believe, but rather the WORK of the Faith is the "experience of THE FAITH." "Faith without works is dead" or as I say, a daydream, a mere soulish experience, where one becomes meditative and exposed to the fantasies of the psyche or the teaching of demons, or some admixture according to the danger one possibly poses to Satan's reign, were one to actually become Faith-Filled and Faithful.
"Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal Son be our example He arose and came (Luke 15:20).
(Colliander, The Way of the Ascetics)
Saturday, January 28, 2017
A Bruised Ego, in the presence of TRUTH.
When I found the theology, mindset, and discipline of the Ancient Christian Church, I experienced a period of, for want of a better term, depression, not sadness, I was elated at what I had found! It answered every single confusing theological question with which I had wrestled for practically my whole life. Yet it was insulting to realize my modern and sophisticated questions had been asked and answered, many times over the centuries, and the only reason I struggled with them was because they were absent in my "religious and philosophical circles" and it took me decades to reach to the real answers outside of "me and the bible." Something else had taken the place of true theology and true philosophy in the world in which I was raised and lived a great portion of my life.
And, at the same time, the more I was awakened to a view of my own life, I was shocked by it. I had always loved Jesus Christ like a cherished older brother, but I had NEVER stood in AWE of him. I could see the crooked paths (plural) of my life, my failings, not just in a narrow moral sense, that is sins and failings common, to one degree or another, to us all, but attitudes, ideas, and assumptions that were so wrong.
The fifty protestant and evangelical sophisms that were the book covers of my personal theology, were something that HAD TO BE self-created because there were so many protestant varieties. It created, and needs be, an arrogant individualized spirituality, mindset, and theology. Yet that path of discovery for those decades was exciting, FUN, actually. Discovering this and that, as I walked across (intellectually ) all the world's great theological traditions and studied their great tomes and listened to their teachers - I learn an encyclopedia of GOOD things.
Every faith tradition had collections of beautiful thoughts, philosophy, and degrees of spiritual understanding. The most poverty-stricken, of course, being Islam, but even the Koran has beautiful and poetic passages. While I took that virtual intellectual journey, in real life I moved from Pentecostal, to Lutheran, to Methodist, to abstaining from organized religion, to Lutheran, to Old Catholic, to Orthodox Catholic. And as I said, IT WAS GREAT FUN. I learned very much and enjoyed every new thing I learned.
You see, on this journey, I wasn't very challenged by it all, because since it was self-created, ego created from a smorgasbord of competing theologies, it wasn't challenging AT ALL. A little of this, a little of that, a wink and smile dismissal of something else. The rule was simple, "accept what felt right and seemed reasonable, and reject what is disturbing and seems unreasonable." While of course like ALL Protestants, being uniquely led by the Holy Spirit. What could be easier than that?
Yet, there it was, the confusing array of conflicting theological ideas, with their deep questions that only find answers in narrow rational and truncated "alternative faiths" called "denominations." If you are a Lutheran you are expected to believe X on some primary tenets of the faith, and a methodist in some crucial tenets officially believes the polar opposite! as does a baptist or pentecostal etc. And what to make of those innovative "revelations" like Christian Science, Christian Theosophy, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons, and the thousands of tiny sects and denomination, Fire Baptized, Hard Shell and Soft Shell Baptist, Liberal Baptists, Armenian Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, Once Saved Always Saved Baptists, and Congregational Methodists (a contradiction in terms) the conflicting versions of Presbyterianism, what was the difference between Holiness Theology, and Pentecostal Theology, and Charismatic Theology and the Jew for Jesus, Judaizer? There are HUGE differences between these last four, on primary questions. Did you know that? There is nowhere in this for one to THOUGHTFULLY "hang his hat" so to speak.
Of course, the simple-minded says "you hang your hat on belief and trust in Jesus" and unite in his "mystical body" but one has to ask, WHICH Jesus? Because contrary to the popular ecumenical MYTHOLOGY, each of these groups teaches a DIFFERENT Jesus, different in varying degrees, but none the less, DIFFERENT, with as diverse paths to their Jesus as there are different versions of him. These people talk about "unity" in the Body, without a grasp of WHO Jesus is and WHAT is His Body.
So, as I gained understanding, I enjoyed seeing cherished old theologies, spiritualities, and mindsets expose for their failure, for their "errors" i.e., heresies. Yet, there I was drinking in the Ancient Christian Faith as fast as I could, and I quickly became bored and missed the excitement of the "hunt." You see, all the innovative and creative theological and philosophical thinking was accomplished many, many centuries ago. THEY did not need ME. And in fact, some of the most mundane people understood so much more than me. It was humiliating.
Emily Dickinson wrote a poem (her intent eludes me) but for me, it perfectly expressed my experience of the Ancient Faith. I felt a funeral in my brain, there was so much that had to DIE. The ancient Saints and a couple modern ones were stomping around in my head, killing "treasured understandings" - ego invented understanding. I had so many ideas I did not need, so many opinions on crucial topics that were useless and needed to DIE. At the same time, I felt absolutely at home in my faith for the first time in my LIFE, unembarrassed by my church's teaching, knowing it could fully be defended before any atheist or heretic, and without resort to irrationality. As Thomas Aquinas rightly said, "For those with faith, no explanation is necessary. But for those without faith, no explanation is possible." So I could relax and on all those crucial teachings say, "The Church Teaches" and she does. MY unique explications were no longer needed or even HEALTHY. In my brain, that felt like DEATH.
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, By Emily Dickinson
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through -
And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum - Kept beating - beating - till I thought My mind was going numb -
And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Wrecked, solitary, here -
And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down - And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing - then -
IN honor of those saints stomping on misused brain matter, here is a requiem for those dead cells.
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Sunday, January 15, 2017
What does it mean to pray, “Thy Kingdom Come”
From ancient times and when Jesus Spoke these words, he knew the meaning was the reign of the sovereign God. The coming of the Kingdom was not an eschatological wish, but a process of pushing back and conquering all assaults upon the Image of God, all blight upon His Name, all blight upon us, upon His image WE hold.
We were created in the Image of God and from the very first ancient evil forces older than us have been locked in a singular struggle to destroy humankind. It is not just the destruction of our souls Satan seeks, but the annihilation of the human species also. So everything that is destructive and death engendering is in the playbook of evil. Evil has that one wish, the destruction of everything that is LIFE engendering, true, honest, just, pure, lovely and lovable, virtuous, good, worthy of praise.
When we pray, “Thy Kingdom Come” we are praying a prayer larger than Christ's Body, the Church. We are praying a prayer larger than religion, with concrete meaning in society, in civilization, in politics, in economic affairs and well as meaning for our own souls.
We are rejecting evil and embracing every good in this place, the universe, the earth. After all, it was created by God and remains good. It is damaged, it is suffering from the very evil I have described, but it is just wounded, not intrinsically evil of itself, as so many tainted by Gnosticism believe. They speak as if matter itself is evil, an attack upon God and in need of Hell Fire.
Php_4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
We are not just to “think” on the good, as Saint Paul teaches, but also to act on the Good, as Blessed John Paul II taught, having faced the dark night (and for some of us literally the Dark Knight) we are to ”Arise and be on our way.” Engaged in the work of the Kingdom, upon this earth NOW. WE ALL have a job to do. Some of our jobs are pretty "worldly" but God is the judge not other and we must faithfully follow our vocations, no matter how worldly.
A Christian priest in a Soviet Gulag pinned the words, “In the wondrous blending of sounds it is Thy call we hear; in the harmony of many voices, in the sublime beauty of music, in the glory of the works of great composers: Thou leadest us to the threshold of paradise to come, and to the choirs of angels. All true beauty has the power to draw the soul towards Thee, and to make it sing in ecstasy: Alleluia!
“The breath of Thine Holy Spirit inspires artists, poets, and scientists. The power of Thy supreme knowledge makes them prophets and interpreters of Thy laws, who reveal the depths of Thy creative wisdom. Their works speak unwittingly of Thee. How great art Thou in Thy creation! How great art Thou in man!”
These good things have not only the power to draw the soul toward God but also, the power to push back evil. They are tools of the “coming of the Kingdom” as all goodness, and all good actions and life engendering creativity also is.
The reign of God upon the earth, though powered by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, the people of God, extends far beyond that confine, capable of shining Light in every dark and evil corner. When we wrap it in stone and institution and limit it to “inside there” we destroy its community, society, and world changing power. The power to increase HIS reign, and push back destruction, chaos, disease, tyranny, confusion, genocide.
When a drunken degenerate politician accidentally acts for the good, helps create a degree of goodness towards a Liberty loving society, he is with us and has unwittingly advanced the Kingdom. When a scientist creates a true health engendering medicine or therapy, she has acted in the furtherance of the Kingdom. Who would doubt that the very worldly woman, called “Sister” Kenny, who was never a religious a day in her life, was not acting in the furtherance of the Kingdom of God when she pushed back the carnage of Polio with more success and less unintended consequences than any medical doctor or scientist on the face of the earth and to date, even these seven decades later her therapies stand!
When even what is ugly and evil is clearly exposed, a task that brings no pleasure and uplifts no one, it is still a furtherance of God's Reign, since daylight destroys deceit. “Where ever the bounds of beauty, truth, goodness are advanced, there the Kingdom comes” the forces of darkness are pushed back, disease and hatred, demonic distortion and hypnotic delusions, are pushed back.
Who may by their vocation and avocation, hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God? The Doctor, the nurse, the pastor, the priest, the policeman, the soldier, the automobile designer, the auto mechanic, the writer, architect, engineer, the reporter, and yes, even as Pope Francis recently said, “Even the Atheist, when he acts for the good.”
Mothers, Fathers, your JOB is to cause the Kingdom to come in your own lives, so that it may come in your home and in your children and grand children, at your jobs, at your play, at your clubs, at your vocation and avocation. Every human task that is begun with “May your Name be Hallowed, that Thy Kingdom Come and Thy Will be done, and finished with the Gloria” . . . “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen - - That task has become prayer, and PART of the coming of the Kingdom of God, even if it is fixing a leaky pipe, feeding an animal, or exposing political corruption and the conspiracies of Lucifer. As Christians this is our job to consciously DO, to engage on every level. For the non-believer and yes even the atheist, she may unwittingly cooperate. However, the more we are faithful, refusing all falsehoods, all illusions, and all delusion, consciously reaching for the good, we “influence” others toward sanity.
Progressively losing this truth, that ours is the work of the Kingdom here and now, sections of our social services have turned destructive. Sections of our government have turned destructive. Sections of our entertainments have turned destructive. Sections of our educational systems have turned destructive. Sections of our infrastructure are crumbling, some of our bridges are failing, some of our industry is failing, blowing up, burning, parenthood is failing, and greater and greater levels of the chaos of the kingdom of darkness arise.
WE HAVE FAILED in our primary task as the ENGINE of the Coming of the Kingdom, FUELED by the Holy Spirit of the Blessed Trinity, nourished upon the Precious Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, guided by Our Father in Heaven, to Hallow his name, and spread his Kingdom in our wake, as the prophet of old told of such people:
“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.”
“Blessed are those inhabiting Thy house, Yet do they praise Thee, whose strength is in Thee, Highways are in their heart. Passing through a valley of weeping, they make fountains of wilderness. They make strength of it, they go from strength unto strength.”
They go from the strength of “Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.” to the strength of “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen.”
Our Father which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins;
for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
