You can read further of these things on this index page. With lightened eyes, one can see today's rabble-makers and rabble-rousers creating and stirring up wrath against the Bible and Christians. Matthew And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Don't read blasphemy--the enemies of the gospel are many and sometimes even Christian ministries give too much information as they seek to warn people of what is going on. Some of what is on this website is for those ensnared in sin so that they can be free--I do not want you to read everything that is here, be careful about what you read I wrote and compiled these things back when I was confronted with certain grievous errors.
Pray, read your Bible, do good, and fall in love with Jesus. You also need to be baptized and learn how to live the Christian life which includes doing all your daily tasks and housework, spending time with your family not forgetting your children but rather caring for them and enjoying them while working together, praying, Bible reading, walking, doing projects based on the needs of life e.
Cleave to the scriptures. They will keep you safe. I commit you to the love of God. You can find hymns and spiritual songs free--with words and music at this link to encourage, admonish, and uplift your spirit. The Christian Family Page is for the married and the unmarried. It is for those with no big problems and for those who have been harmed or abused in this life. Be careful of church people and church buildings. No Roman Catholic "church" can be right because Roman Catholic doctrines are not right.
They directly contradict the scriptures. It calls its Mary "the Queen of Heaven". In Jeremiah chapters 7 and 44 along with Deuteronomy , the Queen of Heaven is revealed to be a devil. The Roman Catholic institution says that our precious Lord Jesus is turned into a little cracker the eucharist when the priest speaks certain words at the "mass".
This is a very great blasphemy. Many Catholics possess and pray to little statue idols that they call "saints" when the Bible says do not make unto thyself any graven image ref.
Exodus --this includes images and pictures of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ many are guilty of this trespass. They light candles for the dead, bow before relics e. Their leaders have deceived them and are making merchandise of them. The love of money is the root of all evil. There are many heresies that Catholics are taught to believe but if they will only decide that the word of God is true, they can come out of these deceptions in an instant.
If you are a former Roman Catholic, you are familiar with the Romish rituals. You must never return to those unclean things. Get rid of all traces of Romanism that may be in your life--including the rosary which is used for what our Lord Jesus Christ called, "vain repetition" ref. Matthew I would not have you to be ignorant--the Roman Catholic institution is not the only apostate church The Bible also calls her the great whore Rev.
As a whore, she has MANY children. And since she is a whore, you do not know who the fathers are of these various bastard children "bastard" is a Bible word e. Hebrews One outbreak that you see is the hordes of false churches with their hierarchal systems. Instead of a pope they have a superstar pastor at the top making merchandise of the people and having all kinds of departments below him some churches even have investment counsellors.
They meet in fancy church buildings and offer endless programs and activities to keep their members busy and entertained. When we look closely at these churches we find that heresies abound across the board--whether charismatic, pentecostal, "community" church, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, "Church of Christ", Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox, "Jehovah's" Witness, Calvinist, dispensationalist Baptist, non-denominational, Christian Science, et al.
I cannot recommend one church. Be ware, dear one, be ware. Do not jump at the chance to be called by any other name but what the Bible calls you--Christian, saint, disciple, etc. Calvin was not crucified for me. I would never call myself a Calvinist, a Baptist or any such thing. A new Christian is young and a babe, like a baby. At a certain point, babies seem to start putting almost anything in their mouths. It is part of their exploration time. It is possible for them to put something in their mouth that is not good--or that is even fatal.
There are many false teachers marching all over the earth and they can--and do--fool people. Just because a group has one doctrine seemingly right does not mean that they have them all right. It also does not mean that when they use words that you know, that they mean the exact same thing that you do. They use our words, but they do not mean what we mean, but you do not know that at first. As a person stays in their organization for a while, they get led into learning and believing the blasphemies.
For instance, a mormon male may give you a King James Bible or try to tell you about the Lord, but he does not tell you that he believes that he can one day be the exact same as God the Father, which is blasphemy I've been approached by some Mormon missionaries and I asked them if they believed that they could become gods with their own planets, etc. The cults fool the unwary and lead them into error bit by bit.
Don't jump to join any group. To the unsuspecting, cultists can seem so "nice" just like that worm on the fishhook looks so nice and good to the unsuspecting fish--he eats the bait, the hook goes into his guts or head, and he quickly ends up in somebody's frying pan. Study and obey God's word Authorized Version of of the Bible and you will not be tricked. Read whole books of the Bible, don't just flip here and there or just take somebody's word for what the Bible says. When you read and obey your Bible you will get your strength and your power and you will grow and overcome.
Read whole books, don't just flip from place to place. God's people do not follow man and man's traditions. We follow the scriptures, always.
We read them until we die and they still abide forever. The word of God, the holy Bible, is our bread--you need to eat and digest your own food, and leave the television alone , no more monthly cable bill.
May you never call yourself a Baptist, Calvinist, etc. Saved people are Christians, disciples, saints. Cults take Bible doctrines and add to them, take away from them, pervert them, and twist them. We are to stay with the word itself, not somebody's perversion of the word. I heard somebody say something like this, "You do not have to be careful with God's word, it already has the care in it. Just be careful that you share it just as it is written. Today, many, many women are entering pulpits, ruling churches, and speaking during the church services giving announcements, etc.
Women are to keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak reference I Corinthians No woman should be called pastor, reverend, Adult Sunday School teacher, etc. Even if they have a question, they are to ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the church reference I Corinthians And yet we also learn from the scriptures that daughters are to serve the Lord there are a diversity of gifts, all to be used decently and in order. I know that I am putting a lot of information on you here, but you must be warned.
You will understand in time. The Bible says that there will be a great falling away at the end of time before the Lord Jesus comes back. We have already entered this falling away. The visible church has fallen away from the scriptures and many who call themselves Christians are actually unwitting agents of the spirit of antichrist as they teach their false doctrines to other people.
Perilous times have come, but fear not, little one, for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world ref. I John Your safety is in reading the word of God so that you can know the truth for yourself--and the truth shall make you free. The Lord may be preparing someone right now to hold on to your hand. But even then, you will examine that person and their teachings based on the word of God--that includes me and my writings on this website. However things work out for you, the Lord Jesus will personally be there with you until the end of the world ref.
Goodbye for now, dear one. Contents of this introductory letter: If you are not saved This is no time to be sleepy For disciples Warning to Christians Deception series and the Mother The Mother is drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus We need to know about These are the last days What nation hath changed its gods?
The Bible tells us exactly what the issue is in these end times A new calumniation against the Bible be sure to see the subsection, "Evil spirits from different occult traditions are matching up with each other and men are being led to commit the sin that hath never forgiveness.
Bullying "One conspiracy, one conspirator" Look around This is no time to be sleepy. This index page is long, but it contains important information. Major themes for these end times can be found on this index page Exodus The reader may wish to print it out and read it at convenient seasons. Antichrist blasphemies are now entered the fallen, sinful, ignorant, visible church and, through the contemplative prayer movement , people are being quickly led to commit the sin which hath never forgiveness more information is found further down in this introductory letter.
End Times Prophecies In various places of the Bible, we learn prophecies. A prophecy is a declaration or statement about something that is going to come to pass. For example, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied repeatedly in the Old Testament, even over a thousand years before he was born.
The events of these end times have been foretold the last book of the Bible, Revelation, was completed around 96 A. These events are unfolding before our very eyes. Christians will be hated and killed worldwide. Matthew And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. The beast, the man of sin, is coming. The people on earth will worship the beast but Christians will not; choose ye this day whom ye will serve--the devil or the Lord.
The beast will have a false prophet that exercises the same power as he does. The false prophet has two horns like a lamb but he speaks like a DRAGON-- we can not go by what a person looks like, we must compare their words with the Bible.
Smiles, kindly looks, and gifts mean nothing, what are they saying? Compare it with the Bible. The false prophet will deceive people by means of the miracles that he is able to do.
He will cause people to worship the first beast and to make an image to him. The false prophet will have power to give life to the image of the beast and to cause anyone that will not worship the image to be killed. It is Revelation 13 that we learn about the mark of the beast-- Without the mark of the beast, a person will not be able to buy or sell in this earth. But Anyone who receives the mark of the beast in their forehead or hand will be tormented with fire and brimstone for ever and ever see Revelation The television is a killer slaying souls across the face of the earth.
America has been tempted and paralyzed with charms and sins. Television is a chief cauldron of temptation putting bad ideas in people's minds. America's willing disobedience and sins have brought her--and her false refuse-to-obey-the-Bible-church--curses without number. America is now being further dechristianized, heathenized, and paganized. Many so-called churches are now chanting to the devil. Salt who came on the scene talking about amongst other things "Animals' Rights" which we are seeing today on a ridiculous level as well as plant "rights".
Two instances I've heard of 1 instead of killing rats found in the city, their rat families if possible must be moved from the city together in a climate-controlled environment 2 , a tree having rights in court this was south of our borders. When we look back at a "Mr. Salt" activities and his circle of associates, we find the seedbeds of sedition and subversion. Not only that, we also find the personnel by which to popularize these corrupt, seditious messages essentially through a corrupt literature and politics.
Some of "the classics" in so-called Christian textbooks can include their enchanting writings. These people knew each other and the artists popularized damning ideas for mass public consumption. The writings are still being read. A cursory look at wikipedia and a modern edition of his "Animal Right's Salt b. It looks like it was seedbed for wicked ideas look at what they discussed and look at society today -- and contact with the writers, etc.
The books and ideas that have come from these people are still read. Somebody has had power to keep them pumping through the veins of society in our schools. Taking a bird's eye view, The Fellowship of the New Life looks like the seedbed for subverting our individual lives no one could have taken us over militarily.
Its offshoot, The Fabian Society, looks like the engine to reconstruct society through political means--specifically for "communism" which just looks like the same old Dark Ages lord and serfs. According to wikipedia, the Society's basis was to promote the transfer of land and capital to the State who is the State, pretell? Does the system look anything like Paraguay Reductions?
Forget not the timing of the Congress of Vienna --see Deception 23 for more information. Today, obvious lies and absurdities do not look obvious to the deceivable. They cannot even say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand? The result of disobedience to God's word, licentious literature, brainwashing literature, "classic" literature, and more literature as they are miseducated in schools, churches, etc. America is being unmanned and effeminatized.
America is being confounded in so many ways. Looking at American society from the outside, it looks like Americans are increasingly living in a cartoon. I later read the words of some of the world's songwriters that openly admit that Dionysus is indeed the god that they are presenting reference David Cloud's writings on "rock n' roll" wayoflife.
To them that have an ear to hear, Repent of your sins and believe the gospel. Christ shed his blood and died to pay the penalty for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again on the third day. When you confess his name and follow his word, he helps you to keep his word and you will change and desire good things.
Being forgiven and being reconciled to God is called being saved. We are saved from sin and wrath. Once you get saved , come up out of that stuffed grave that you've been buried in bad habits, bad ways, television, etc. The Lord can help us to move on in life in a powerful way. There is work to do. Learn about the work lifestyle in the Deliverance Series and, as you walk with the Lord, discover your spiritual gifts.
If you see something in the air, it is not because there are true aliens. But what about devils? If you hear a voice, see lights, or whatever, compare everything to the Bible--we believe in the Bible above our senses.
This is a time of deception. You will not be deceived if you read and obey the scriptures. Read Matthew 24 and other passages as well for what is going to happen when the Lord returns.
An excerpt-- Matthew Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. Yoga: Yoga is inherently spiritual and can raise the Kundalini serpent power which is that old serpent called the devil and Satan. Although many Americans are ignorant of this, yoga is not simply physical exercise; yoga is a spiritual exercise of Hinduism that makes room for the Kundalini serpent power.
A person does not have to be looking for Kundalini in order for this to happen--the yoga itself creates the conditions. Mantras, stillness, repetition, etc. The serpent power basically tells Hindus the same thing that Satan told Eve in the garden--"ye shall be as gods. The ignorant church people are getting something similar--"panentheism" God is in everything. They are not hearkening to the Authorized Version of of the Bible and can therefore be taken by men's words even if those words are found in unauthorized Bible versions.
As I recall, I first heard of Kundalini awakening through an email we received in I have been in kundalini awkening for 10 years by a so called healer. I was very sick.
So I went to a healer. Well she happened to be a shaman yogi I was only 24 years old I have been fighting for my life ever since the kundalini rose I can't even begin to tell you Yoga is a very sick religion and spiritually you feel dead you were right when you said nothing good comes from Yoga.
Guru 's are extremly dangerous individuals. Let Christians know it could hurt your faith even just the excercise I learned more about the Kundalini after researching the contemplative prayer movement that is entering the emerging church of the devil and the fallen, disobedient-to-the-scriptures churches that would not necessarily describe themselves as "emerging church", "ancient future church", etc.
Kundalini awakening can be triggered unintentionally. Satan just waits for the conditions to be right. Some people go insane, check into mental hospitals over and over again, experience personality changes, cannot function as before, commit suicide, etc.
May you read your Authorized King James Bible diligently and obey it. Ask God to show you the old paths Jeremiah --the old way of living and worshipping God. Look for the old ways-- Father working, Mother cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. You will find rest for your soul and a whole new world will be opened to you. You will be changed at your root. Let the hearts of the fathers be turned to the children and the hearts of the children be turned to their fathers.
Sanctified parents, go retrieve your children from the school system and the playground and teach them and train them yourself at home.
Many of us Americans grew up in the school system and watching television. Now that we are parents, many of us need guidance for what we did not learn. These articles on Christian Parenting include fundamental precepts concerning caring for our children as relaxed, loving parents. Some people still naturally have this, but many of us need help. Heathens have been tampering with the Authorized King James Bible, incorporating alterations and adding all kinds of abominations e.
Go here for an excellent download and more information. In America, we have almost completely lost our manhood and womanhood. Our deceptions are great but the word of God will deliver us if carefully applied to our lives. God made man to rule. May the men reading this understand that they are the image and glory of God.
May we all repent of our sins and hide the word of God in our hearts. America is a nation of servant-serfs and we are about to pay an even greater price than we already have for our carelessness and gullibility. Woman, clean your house and teach your children at home from the Authorized King James Version of the holy Bible. Embrace Genesis - as your outline--read it to your child regularly until you both have a good understanding of it.
By God's grace and almighty power, babies can as a matter of course read while they are still in diapers children do not need to read many books, may your children be healthy, happy, respectful, and taught skills. Toddlers can read the Authorized Version of the scriptures.
Four year olds can learn cursive writing. May we rise up from the rubble of modern life and lift up God's word in the education of our children. Let us turn our hearts back toward home instead of constantly on the distant mission field. Combine this with the television and you will understand why the children are turning out deficient and full of problems--physical, mental, and spiritual.
There are reasons the school system is failing and turning out sots dull heads , rebels, whoremongers, and freaks--it is by design. Americans were once a strong, independent, rugged, innovative, productive, freedom-loving people. But now look, we are at the bottom of the barrel dependent on someone else for every morsel of food that we eat--let the grocery stores close down and see what happens across this land.
Through "progressive" education progressing toward what? Americans were in an uproar when the progressives first tried to implement compulsory schooling at the turn of the twentieth century. But now look. We kick our children out of the door at five years old and earlier if Mother works into "kindergarten".
Christians did not belong in the school system in the first place Deuteronomy --may the true disciples bail out of that sinking ship and exchange it for a sanctified homeschool under a Biblical Scholarship. Beware to ALL Christian peoples all over the whole world on every continent and on every island!
That includes those that live on houseboats! You aspire to the American model in so many ways--lifestyle, education, clothing styles, church organization and doctrines , maybe even a small family size, etc.
We Americans can quickly quench the Spirit with our tracts, suits and ties, and programs. You do not have to imitate us nor should you. Do not rush out to our seminaries and colleges. We've bought the lie that college degrees are important. Our Lord never learned letters ref. John In the American church, we've replaced the anointing with Bible college. You do not have to go to Bible college to know God or to know how to conduct a proper church meeting see I Corinthians Beware of our American missionaries, their teachings, their scripture translations, and the technologies they may want to introduce to "increase productivity" in your village.
If they bring you seeds, ask questions about those seeds. Better yet, only use your own native food and seeds. Even the seeds in America are being corrupted through false science.
Americans are oblivious as to what is happening. If you homeschool, don't blindly follow our various "Christian" homeschool curricula for they are just warmed-over worldly scholarship sprinkled with a few Bible verses! The American system is death! This warning comes from one with a college degree I destroyed that piece of paper! Don't give up your ox for a tractor machine! Don't give up the old ways! Keep your dairy goat and your broody hens. Go back in time and figure out how your forefathers did things!
Get your hand tools and live a real and simple life--it is inexpensive and your children will love it. The American model is a trap! And if you watch that filthy trance medium called television, shame on you!
You cannot have a sanctified home if you are not sanctified! Are you a Christian or not? The designer clothes, the mortgage on the big house, the credit cards, the Kraft grocery store food we know practically nothing about procuring our own food , endless sweets we are addicted to sugar , fast food, fancy restaurants, resorts, amusements, cable television, car notes, video games, spa memberships, ad nauseum--if we had listened to the scriptures, Christians would not have gotten entangled!
They would have remained separate from this net. If the preachers had preached the word and lived right, they would have warned us. But no, by and large, Isaiah describes many preachers-- Isaiah His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Today, instead of warning us and giving us good teaching and instruction to get out of this calamity, they have their game nights, plays, "watermelon Sundays", morning service, evening service, mid-week service, men's Bible study, women's Bible study, youth group meetings, special services, retreats, "revivals", etc.
And a great number of these false teachers have turned the church building into a brothel! They join in marriage divorced persons who have living spouses--in direct contradiction to the scriptures Matthew , Matthew , fornication defined as in Deuteronomy , This is adultery. And then when the adulterers have children of whoredom, the preacher smiles and holds a "baby dedication" during the church service!
This E-book is written in regards to tornadoes and information about tornadoes. Journey through our solar system and gaze in perplexaty as you witness all the wonders of the solar system in which we live. Keywords: solar , system , planets. Add to Favorites. Previous in all India Universities 1.
Mary Scharlieb and F. Harvey T. Jolly The Solar System And All You Need to Know about it English Words Ages 0 and up 41 Journey through our solar system and gaze in perplexaty as you witness all the wonders of the solar system in which we live. To ensure optimal functioning, our website uses cookies. It is offered on Newsroom as a resource. Latter-day Saints are Christians on the basis of our doctrine, our defined relationship to Christ, our patterns of worship and our way of life.
In essence, we declare that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church and the central figure in our theology. Latter-day Saints do not accept the Christ that emerges from centuries of debates and councils and creeds. We believe that the epistles of Paul, Peter, Jude and John suggest that the apostasy or falling away of the first-century Christian church was well underway by the close of the first century.
With the deaths of the apostles and the loss of the priesthood, the institutional power to perform and oversee saving sacraments or ordinances, learn the mind of God and interpret scripture was no longer on earth.
To be sure, there were noble men and women throughout the earth during the centuries that followed, religious persons of good will, learned men who sought to hold the church together and to preserve holy writ. But we believe that these acted without prophetic authority. In an effort to satisfy the accusations of Jews who denounced the notion of three Gods Father, Son and Holy Ghost as polytheistic, and at the same time incorporate ancient but appealing Greek philosophical concepts of an all-powerful moving force in the universe, the Christian church began to redefine the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Greek minds which had been ripening for Christianity had absorbed new ideas and new motives. What is the result? Such Platonic concepts as the immutability, impassibility and timelessness of God made their way into Christian theology. For example, people who believe that God cannot change his mind sometimes pray in ways that would require God to do exactly that.
And Christians who make use of the free will defense for the problem of evil sometimes ask God to get them a job or a spouse, or keep them from being harmed, implying that God should override the free will of others in order to achieve these ends. The inevitable encounter between biblical and classical thought in the early church generated many significant insights and helped Christianity evangelize pagan thought and culture.
Along with the good, however, came a certain theological virus that infected the Christian doctrine of God, making it ill and creating the sorts of problems mentioned above. The virus so permeates Christian theology that some have come to take the illness for granted, attributing it to divine mystery, while others remain unaware of the infection altogether.
Latter-day Saints believe that the simplest reading of the New Testament text produces the simplest conclusion — that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct personages, that They are one in purpose. We feel that the sheer preponderance of references in the Bible would lead an uninformed reader to the understanding that God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are separate beings.
That is, one must look to the third- and fourth-century Christian church, not to the New Testament itself, to make a strong case for the Trinity. What can we say that will make a difference in how men and women view and relate to the Savior? President Gordon B. From the beginning Joseph Smith taught that the members of the Godhead are one in purpose, one in mind, one in glory, one in attributes and powers, but separate persons. There was reaffirmed in the First Vision the fundamental Christian teaching — that Jesus of Nazareth lived, died, was buried and rose from the tomb in glorious immortality.
In the midst of that light that shone above the brightness of the sun stood the resurrected Lord Jesus in company with His Father. Through the Book of Mormon, translated by Joseph Smith, came additional insights concerning the person and powers of Jesus the Christ. We learn from the teachings of the Book of Mormon prophets that He was a man but much more than man Mosiah —9; Alma , that He had within Him the powers of the Father, the powers of the Spirit 2 Nephi ; Helaman , the power to lay down His life and the power to take it back up again.
Truly, the Book of Mormon prophets bear repeated witness that the atonement of Christ is infinite and eternal in scope 2 Nephi ; ; Alma — One could come away from a careful reading of the second half of the New Testament somewhat confused on the matter of grace and works, finding those places where Paul seems almost to defy any notion of works as a means of salvation Romans —5; —4; Ephesians —10 but also those places where good works are clearly mentioned as imperative Romans ; James —20; Revelation — It is to the Book of Mormon that we turn to receive the balanced perspective on the mercy and grace of an infinite Savior on the one hand, and the labors and works of finite man on the other.
In the Book of Mormon, the sobering realization that no one of us can make it alone is balanced by a consistent statement that the works of men and women, including the receipt of the ordinances of salvation, the performance of duty and Christian acts of service — in short, being true to our part of the gospel covenant — though insufficient for salvation, are necessary.
As we come unto Christ by covenant, deny ourselves of ungodliness and love God with all our souls, His grace—His divine enabling power, not only to be saved in the ultimate sense but also to face the challenges of each day — is sufficient for us Moroni The Book of Mormon has a high Christology; that is, the doctrine of Christ is thick and heavy on the pages of this scriptural record, and the testimony of the divinity of the Lord and Savior is powerful and direct.
One cannot read the Book of Mormon and honestly come away wondering what the Latter-day Saints believe about the Divine Sonship. At the heart of the doctrine restored through Joseph Smith is the doctrine of the Christ.
We rejoice in the message of redemption that fell from the lips of Old and New Testament prophets. More especially we exult in the realization that knowledge and truth and light and understanding concerning Jesus Christ — who He was, who He is and what marvels have come to pass through Him — have been delivered through additional scriptural records and modern prophetic utterances.
One of the main reasons Latter-day Saints are often relegated to the category of cult of non-Christian is because we believe in scripture beyond the Bible.
To be sure, we love the Bible. We cherish its sacred teachings and delight in reading and teaching it. Thomas was to depart for India where he would live with Jesus and those great masters who had taught Jesus before him.
For Jesus had destined him for a work completely unlike that of the other Apostles. It is a matter of record that Judas Thomas was also physically identical to Jesus. This was unusual but not impossible or even unknown, since he was a cousin of Jesus—as were most of the Apostles.
In the forty days between his resurrection and his leaving Israel Jesus had fully outlined to the apostles and disciples how they should teach others who would also spiritually be his disciples through them. So overwhelming did his task seem to Saint Thomas that he tried to avoid this mission.
Yet it was not long before a government official from India came to Israel to find an architect for his king, who wished a palace built by an artisan from the land of the renowned Hiram Abiff, whose construction of the Temple of Solomon was known throughout the world.
Jesus manifested in a physical body and sold Saint Thomas to the man as a slave, giving him a signed document to that effect. Thomas, historical sketches having been traced by his own hand or under his direction. For he did not reach Ephesus in time to be present at her going forth from the body, but only came there on foot the third day after her burial.
As he was approaching her tomb unawares, he was astounded to see her radiant living body emerge from the stone sepulchre and ascend. Realizing that she had finished her span of life without his presence, and fearing that he would never see her divine form again, he cried out to her in anguish of heart, imploring her not to leave him desolate.
Looking upon him with loving tenderness, the Virgin took from her waist the belt she habitually wore and threw it down to him with words of blessing. About thirty years ago the present head of the Syrian Jacobite Church, Patriarch Zachariah, felt an intense urge to find the belt, and began studying the ancient records concerning it. Noticing that one of the handwritten books he consulted had an unusually thick binding, he was inspired with the thought that the belt might be hidden there.
Cutting it open, he found the prize, whose simple touch began to work great miracles. Most of the belt has been returned to India and enshrined in a great church where every Saturday the day sacred to the worship of the Mother aspect of God in Hinduism thousands of Christians, Hindus, and Moslems gather for the sacred Eucharist Qurbana and prayers to the Virgin.
The miracles granted are beyond number. When I visited the shrine one Saturday as the guest of its administrator, Bishop Gregorios—who preached on the subject of the concept of Mahashakti Supreme Power: the Divine Feminine in Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam—I witnessed this wonderful demonstration that it is worship and not theologizing that can unite the adherents of all religions in love and harmony.
Before returning to India for the fulfillment of his commission from Jesus, Saint Thomas went to visit the Essene communities of Israel, urging that some of them come with him to India to both escape the imminent destruction by the Romans and to help him in his spiritual work. These Essenes started several villages in the same area.
At the end of the twentieth century those sites were excavated and many coins like those found in the Qumran caves were unearthed. He and Saint Thomas were sometimes seen speaking together. Apparently Jesus occasionally came down from his Himalayan abode to visit Saint Thomas and supervise his work. Jesus was the name of the man.
And what is his name? After the death of Saint Thomas his murderer, King Mazdai, became converted to the Ishanni Marga Ishanni Way , and it was then that he learned the true Name, Isha, which he had not been qualified to even hear beforehand. Nearly all those who accepted the teachings of Saint Thomas were devout Brahmins of the highest level Nambudiri and Nair who continued their religious observances, but did so according to the principles Isha and Saint Thomas had received as disciples of the masters.
Even today, some Saint Thomas Christians wear the sacred thread yajnopavita that is the distinctive mark of Hindu Brahmins. Ancient Indian historical records sometimes refer to the Ishannis as Naassenes. So this would indicate their esoteric Christian character and affinity with those esoteric Christians of Egypt—most of whom were Essenes or descendants of Essenes.
Whatever the derivation, this was definitely a name sometimes used in reference to themselves. The Ishannis had much in common with both Hindus and Buddhists. A sampradaya is a lineage of spiritual teaching stemming from an enlightened teacher, such as the Shankara Sampradaya, Ramanuja Sampradaya, Madhavacharya Sampradaya, or according to the form of God they particularly worship such as the Shaivite, Vaishnava, Shakta, or Ganapatya sampradayas. Even though they would have primarily described themselves as Ishannis, they would have meant it in the sense of a sampradaya within Sanatana Dharma, not a separate religion.
Whatever distinctive customs a sampradaya might possess, they would all consider themselves to be fundamentally followers of Sanatana Dharma, the religion based on the Vedas and the teachings of the vedic seers known as rishis. And the majority of their customs and spiritual doctrines would be absolutely identical and harmonious with one another. The Ishannis never referred to themselves as Christians.
Among themselves and with other Indians they used Ishanni in reference to themselves. Although they had friendly interchange with the Eastern Christians of Persia, Syria, and Iraq, they were insistent upon their distinction from them, as well. And that it why I am sometimes using that appellation now. Because there were profound ties between India and Persia—many Persians being followers of Vedic Religion—the Saint Thomas Christians Ishannis always considered themselves brethren of the Persian Christians, who were of the Chaldean tradition which after the destruction of Christianity in Persia became centered in Iraq.
Both the Persian and Iraqi Christians were condemned as heretics by the other churches of East and West since they did not believe that Jesus Christ was God in the sense of being an incarnation of one of the Trinity. Rather, they believed that he had begun as a man just like us and had attained the status of Christ—Son of God—as could and should all Christians.
The Ishannis believed this as well, and they, too, were called heretics by the Western Christians who persecuted them.
Again, the Ishanni Sampradaya should not be equated or confused with the Christian religion as it developed in the Mediterranean world and is now embodied in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches.
In other words, Ishannis are not Christians in the generally accepted sense, though they are followers of Sri Isha Deva. Rather, they are followers of the Sanatana Dharma, the religion of India. We cherish so much the [fact] that we could build our Christian tradition on the foundations of the Sanatana Dharma. Of course, there is the foundation laid by Christ and the Apostles and the long spiritual tradition of Christianity.
But the theological tradition of the Indian Church has to be in line with the Indian philosophical tradition, which is not necessarily only the Hindu one, but also that of the Buddhists, the Jains and other non-Christian traditions which also contribute to the Indian philosophical tradition. So we have to take this into consideration together with the Eastern Orthodox spirituality and theology.
We want to present to the world a model of Christianity that has lived for the last twenty centuries in a tradition of pluralism, but at the same time we want to keep the central elements of Orthodox Christian spirituality and doctrinal integrity.
He was buried nearby, and the earth from his tomb worked many miracles. In Marco Polo visited his tomb and took some of the red-colored earth from there. Upon his return to Venice he healed many people with it according to his own testimony. The spiritual family of Saint Thomas continued and grew.
But I will do unto thee so that they shall accompany thee and go along with thee, and that our country shall be relieved of them. The Ishanni Sampradaya spread throughout India, though never of large numbers. It is remarkable, but historical records indicate that there was no region of India in which the Ishannis were not represented, though they were mostly in South India.
Except for the vicissitudes that all societies endure, the Ishannis lived in complete peace, enjoying spiritual interchange with various Eastern Christian churches, though jealously maintaining their autonomy and distinctive ways. More than one unsuccessful attempt was made in the early centuries by the Mediterranean Christians to establish their form of Christianity in India.
At the coming of the Europeans in large numbers, however, this began to change, culminating in a full-scale persecution by the Portuguese colonialists, who first came to India in Christians from Europe were always received in total friendship by the Christians of Saint Thomas and often given places to live. In many instances the Ishannis interceded with the local rulers in gaining residency and trade permissions for the Europeans.
But sadly, on the part of the opportunistic Europeans there was no such sincere openness, and as soon as any political ascendancy was attained, pressure would be brought to bear on the Ishannis to convert to the Christianity of the Westerners. This came to an appalling climax in the last year of the sixteenth century when the Portuguese Roman Catholic Archbishop of Goa, Alexius Menezes, summoned all the Ishanni clergy and a considerable number of laymen to the town of Diamper to supposedly bring peace and reconciliation between the two churches.
In response one hundred fifty-three priests and about six hundred and sixty laymen attended. Their chagrin cannot be described when they found themselves surrounded by Portuguese soldiers who forced them at gunpoint to surrender their precious manuscripts, which were then burned in their presence at the order of the Archbishop. It was comparable in many ways with the vandalism of Omar, who by similar wanton destruction ordered the noble library of Alexandria to be consumed by flames.
The Syrian Christians of today believe that because of this cruel decree, no records are available with them to recover and establish beyond all dispute their past Church history. Pothen, The Syrian Christians of Kerala. Among the books burned were many copies of three books.
The third was a book on esoteric healing and the making of amulets from gems and herbs as the Essenes had also done called The Medicine of the Persians.
They now exist only as nearly-forgotten names. The liturgical texts containing the rites of the Chaldean tradition were especially sought out and destroyed because they revealed how utterly the other churches had departed from the original ways of Christianity, and because they expressed the correct view of Isha as a Son of God by attainment and not as the creator God incarnate as the Mediterranean Christians held.
A list of forbidden books was made at Diamper, and any who read or listened to them being read were condemned out of hand. The official acts of the Synod particularly inveighed against the Ishannis who taught school and made provisions for the religious instructions of the students in their own religions, even keeping the images of Hindu deities in the schools so the students could learn and perform their daily worship.
Those who sent their children to schools taught by Hindus where they, too, worshipped the deities were declared excommunicated, and the children were forbidden to enter a church. Priests who dared to have themselves registered as Nair Brahmins were condemned, not for a religious reason, but because it supposedly made them liable to be called up for military service. Saint Thomas had given the Ishannis a book which they used for divination to obtain guidance in the making of important decisions and to determine the future.
This was a special target of the Portuguese, who also railed against the use of Hindu diviners by the Ishannis, and all copies of this invaluable document were consigned to the flames of bigotry. The Saint Thomas Christians still use divination of various sorts. The Ishannis considered astrology a legitimate means of forecast and guidance, and used it accordingly. There were considered to be especially skilled in determining astrologically what days and times were the most favorable for marriage and the starting of journeys or any other type of endeavor.
Drawing horoscopes in not uncommon amongst them. This was a custom of the Essenes, also. They were also condemned for piercing their ears and taking too many baths!
Hardly any of the Ishannis could even understand the language in which all this was done, and they were forced through cajolery and threats to sign documents of concurrence with all that had taken place—these documents being represented to them as nothing more than statements that they had been present at the gathering. Before sending them to Rome, Archbishop Menezes interpolated many items into the signed documents to make it appear that the Ishannis had agreed to things either not actually spoken about or that were firmly resisted by them when they were brought up.
The Synod of Diamper did have one positive effect, though a backhanded one. Friendly clergy from the Syriac-speaking Orthodox Churches who came to visit their Indian brothers were arrested and deported or imprisoned. A few were burned to death for heresy. Others vanished forever. Atrocities committed against the Indian Christians were not unknown, though never officially sanctioned by the invaders—a common tactic of tyrants.
In , at the order of Portuguese ecclesiastics, a Syrian bishop, who had come to find out why communication with the Ishannis had been so long in abeyance, was imprisoned. When the Ishannis learned of this outrage they came in thousands to protest. The bishop was then smuggled out of the prison and eventually murdered. Happily, this was successful, and the yoke of spiritual bondage was thrown off permanently.
Despite skirmishes with the Europeans who were determined to re-impose their enslavement, the Ishannis managed to keep their spiritual integrity, protected by the Hindu rulers from further persecution.
0コメント