Pages

Monday, April 23, 2007

Harry ‘the mother of all targets’ in Iraq


Here is some crazy conjecture that I can't help but wonder about. As soon as I saw this story, I immediately thought of this scenario:
If you read my post "Could Prince Charles Be The AntiChrist", notice the passage from Revelation 13:3 about the AntiChrist's deadly wound being healed. Why would Osama Bin Laden target Prince Harry? Notice that the article also mentions that Prince Harry is entitled to everything that Prince Charles has. Maybe we are looking at the wrong person. This is all just speculation that came to me when I read the CTD article. Just some food for thought, but I can't help making the connections.

Harry to go to Iraq
Prince Harry is trained as a troop leader to take command of four Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles and will be deployed in Iraq alongside 11 men who will serve under him.
(AFP/Pool/File)

The scale of risk facing Prince Harry when he goes to Iraq is revealed in a remarkable series of exclusive interviews with insurgent leaders on both sides.

By Mark Townsend
April 23, 2007

(SUNDAY OBSERVER) — Prince Harry was left under no illusions of his value as a scalp for Iraqi insurgents. Even so, senior military officers could never have predicted the sheer scale of and nature of the threats lying in wait.

Iraqi militia groups have already hatched detailed plans to seize him as a hostage when he arrives in Iraq next month. In a remarkable series of interviews, some of the most notorious paramilitary factions in southern Iraq claim that informants placed inside British military barracks in Iraq have received orders to ‘track’ the movements of the third in line to the throne.

The claims again question the Ministry of Defence’s decision to allow Harry to serve in Iraq where he and his unit will be seen as a valuable target to those attacking US and British forces.

Last night a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We have not concealed the fact that he is going out there and the bad guys know that he’s coming and we expect that they will consider him a high-profile scalp.’ Despite the threats, Whitehall officials ruled out the possibility of the prince not being sent to Maysan, the most volatile province in southern Iraq, where attacks against British forces are mounting.

He will serve with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, for a six-month tour of duty. He is trained as a troop leader to take command of four Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles and will be deployed in Iraq alongside 11 men who will serve under him.

One senior army officer who has completed three tours of duty in Basra, confirmed yesterday that Harry’s imminent arrival in Iraq was causing ‘disquiet at senior levels’ within the military. He warned that those around him, particular those under Harry’s direct command, could be at an increased risk: ‘Wherever they place him in theatre, the concern is it will attract fire towards everyone on the ground.’

He described Harry, who says he does not want to ’sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country’, as the ‘mother of all targets’.

Militia leaders claim photographs of Harry have already been downloaded from the internet and disseminated to the main insurgent groups in the area where the prince will be deployed.

Snipers belonging to Shia militia groups have, they claim, been ordered to target the 22-year-old while Sunni insurgents say they plan to hold the prince hostage to demand the release of prisoners and immediate withdrawal of British troops.

Together the testimonies suggest that Shia and Sunni paramilitary forces, traditionally sworn enemies, have joined forces to try to capture Harry, a deeply disquieting development for British senior officers.

Although some of the testimony may be bluster, there will be clearly be a concerted campaign to try to disrupt the prince’s tour of duty.

Abu Zaid, commander of the Malik Ibn Al Ashtar Brigade of the notorious Mehdi Army militia, said: ‘We are awaiting the arrival of the young, handsome, spoilt prince with baited breath and we confidently expect he will come out into the open on the battlefield.

‘We will be generous with him. For he will return him to his grandmother [the Queen] but without ears,’ added Zaid, a senior figure within the largest and strongest Shia militia group operating where British troops are deployed. We have printed out many photographs of him from the internet and given them to all other groups.

‘They know the prince is their main objective and I have every confidence he will be targeted and attacked.’

Abu Samir, a leader of the Iranian-backed Sunni group Thar-allah - meaning God’s revenge - added: ‘Our people are ready to welcome him in their special way - like Leachman.’ This was a reference to a British officer Colonel Gerard Leachman who was murdered by Sheikh Dhari, a tribal leader, in Iraq in 1920. Dhari is still considered by many Iraqis as a hero. While news of his death shocked the British public, it is credited with inspiring Arab tribes to revolt against Western occupying forces.

Samir added it would be impossible for Harry to avoid detection once in Iraq, describing his face as more familiar to Iraqis than world-famous footballers.

‘His face is now very familiar to a lot of people - more so even than Zidane and Ronaldinho,’ said Samir, a senior figure of the Iranian-financed religious party that set up offices across southern Iraq after the invasion.

Abu, a Sunni insurgent commander and former major in the Iraqi army, said that they had insiders supplying a ‘constant’ flow of information from within UK military barracks.

He said: ‘When they [the British] first arrived in Basra, we planted our people inside the British bases and headquarters, and it is these people who are now our constant source of information.

‘They have new orders to track Prince Harry’s movements. Once we have that information we will make appropriate plans to capture him. Wherever the British army decides to keep the prince we will find him.’

Another senior Sunni militia source said: ‘Plans [to abduct] are already in place. As soon as the prince arrives, the race will be on to seize him as a trophy and then to decide his fate.’

Such comments suggest that any hopes that Harry would blend in among the 7,100 British service personnel currently stationed in Iraq already appear misplaced. Among the thousands of pictures of Harry militias claim to have distributed are thought to include images of Harry on a battle tank during training. Others feature the prince fishing in Scotland with Prince Charles and Prince William along with images of the family during their annual skiing holiday in Klosters, Switzerland.

Zaid, who commands an arm of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army which has been responsible for attacks against British troops, said that if plans to abduct the prince failed then militias would try and assassinate the prince. He said: ‘Our sniper teams have also been issued with pictures so they will know his face long before he arrives in our land.

‘I would like to advise him [Harry] to stay at home among his friends. He should learn a serious lesson what is happening to British soldiers in Basra and I would like him to think 100 times before boarding a plane for Iraq.’

Last week two soldiers, members of the Queen’s Royal Lancers battle group, died after their Scimitar light tank was struck by a roadside bomb in Maysan province.

Ten British soldiers have died in Iraq this month, including two women, making it the worst month since the invasion. The total number of British dead is now 144. However, despite the deteriorating situation, Prince Harry will not receive extra security in Iraq. ‘He’s surrounded by a lot of heavily-armed men,’ said a Whitehall source yesterday.

Clarence House is being briefed regularly by the MoD.

One prominent member of the insurgency indicated that Harry might also be targeted by militias for religious reasons. Abu Ahmed, another commander within the Mehdi Army, said: ‘He should follow his mother, Diana, and rebel against the imperialistic family and not come here as a crusader, or his blood will flow into our desert.’

Although MoD officials will not comment on specific intelligence relating to threats against the prince, a spokesman confirmed that they were ‘monitoring security considerations on the ground’.

Experts believe the international media coverage towards Iran’s capture of the 15 British soldiers and Marines from the Shatt al Arab waterway in March will have underlined the value of taking Harry hostage. One Iraqi said that, if captured, the prince would be used as a bargaining chip to trade for captured Sunni insurgents and to call for the removal of British forces.

He said: ‘I hope we succeed so that we can negotiate the release of our brothers and sisters who are in prison as well as the departure of British troops.’

VISIT MY WEBSITE:

STEVE MCHENRY'S BLOG

Family Christian Stores


Amazon Unbox


Pocket Testament League

Survivor Mall

The UFO Store

Fingerhut



LinkShare

Firefox 2

BlogTalkRadio

Dara's Website


FeedBurner
Syndicate your Blog or Podcast with FeedBurner


Check me out!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Is Murder All In The Mind, Or Is There "Something" More?

"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" (Philippians 4:8).

By Thomas Horn
© 2007 RaidersNewsNetwork.com

Last Wednesday on the Fox News Channel, Evangelist Franklin Graham said Cho Seung-Hui, the killer at Virginia Tech University, was "filled with evil,” and that Satan was responsible for the mass killings of 32 people at the V-Tech campus.

"There is evil in the world, no question about it,” Graham said. "I believe Satan, the devil, is behind this … This young man was filled with evil. There’s no way to describe the fact that he could go and murder this many people and do what he did without this man being possessed by an evil spirit who brought this carnage on this university.”

Graham's view is based on religious tradition that sees murderous intentions as inspired by the Devil, "a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44).

Not everybody agrees on the origins of violent behavior, and strides in understanding human brain chemistry and genetics now have some neurologists hoping to eventually defuse violent behavior and to someday eliminate tragedies like the university massacre in Virginia.

Like Cho Seung-Hui, in March 2005, Jeffrey James Weise, a 17-year-old junior at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minn., went on a shooting spree that killed nine people and wounded 15 others at his school before he killed himself. Also like Cho, he left an electronic trail across the Internet on websites such as nazi.org, calling himself "Angel of Death," expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler, and offering public insight into his fascination with dark imagery in the months and years before the shootings.

WHAT COULD FILL A YOUNG PERSONS MIND WITH SUCH VIOLENT INTENT?

"There is no doubt in my mind that if we could have examined his brain (the killer at Virginia Tech) we would have found anomalies, and we would have been able to suggest for him to get therapies," said Dr. Allan Siegel, a neurologist and researcher at the University of Medicine of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in an AFP report this week.

"We might have been able to avoid this ... if he had been treated properly in the hospital setting."

Siegel told the AFP that clinical research as well as animal testing, particularly on cats, over some 40 years has shown that the front region of the brain, or the prefrontal cortex, including the limbic system, appears to play an important role in violent behavior.

Charles Whitman, who gunned down 16 people at the University of Texas in the 1960s, was found to have a tumor in the temporal lobe in the region of the limbic system. In 1999, when defense attorneys argued that 17-year-old Kip Kinkel - who similarly entered his school on a shooting rampage in 1998 - should not spend the rest of his life in prison, it was because Kinkel reportedly "heard voices" telling him to commit murders. During sentencing hearings Dr. Richard J. Konkol pointed out that "holes" in what is normally a smooth surface of Kinkel's brain revealed conditions consistent with schizophrenia. When defense attorney Mark Sabitt asked if this would make a person "more susceptible to a psychotic episode," Konkol responded, "I think it would."

Kinkel pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder in the May 1998 shooting rampage in Springfield, Oregon. Kinkel's parents and two students at Thurston High School died as a result of the attack. 25 other students were wounded.

"My dad was sitting at the (breakfast) bar," said Kinkel. "The voices said, 'Shoot him.' I had no choice. The voices said I had no choice." Kinkel testified that after he killed his parents he was instructed by the voices to "Go to school and kill everybody."

Murderous voices first began speaking to Kinkel at age 12 when he got off the school bus and was looking at a bush. It said, "You need to kill everyone, everyone in the world." Kinkel believes the voices came from the devil, a satellite, or from a computer chip implanted in his head by the government.

Like Kinkel, Cho Seung-Hui felt compelled to shed the blood of innocent people this week, and then to kill himself. How could such ideas enter the mind of a young boy? Notorious "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz claims "bloodthirsty voices" commanded him to kill too, and according to Berkowitz, a convert of Christianity, a 6,000-year-old demon named Sam communicated through his neighbor's black Labrador retriever instructing him to carry out the murders. Berkowitz was subsequently diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia, a disease in which the person often hears pejorative or threatening voices separate from their own. Both Kinkel and Berkowitz were also known to read pornographic and violent depictures of torture and murder. It appears from the initial evidence that Cho enjoyed the ponderings of mass murderers as well.

MURDER'S VOICE IN HISTORY


Schizophrenia is an accepted diagnosis of mental disorder and one cannot underestimate the positive contribution of such science. Yet for many devout persons like Franklin Graham and Christian psychologist James Dobson, the causes of violence in people suffering physical and mental illness, the appetite for disturbing images, and possible conditions such as schizophrenia, should be approached spiritually as well as scientifically during diagnosis and treatment. This presupposes a psychological influence of supernatural evil in some cases, and applies a literal interpretation to the words in the Bible that demonic influence affects the mind that has rejected the voice of God and fills it with "envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice" (Romans 1:29).

Early cultures often interpreted such difficult psychological expressions through metaphysics. In Greece, Dionysus was the intoxicating god of unbridled human passion. He was the presence that is otherwise defined as the craving within man that longs to "let itself go" and to "give itself over" to evil human desires. What a Christian might resist as the evil thoughts of the carnal man, the followers of Dionysus embraced as the incarnate power that would, in the next life, liberate mankind from the constraints of this present world, and from the customs which sought to define respectability through a person's obedience to moral law.

Until then, worshippers of Dionysus attempted to bring themselves into union with their god through ritual casting off of the bonds of sexual denial and primal constraint by seeking to attain a higher state of ecstasy. The uninhibited rituals of ecstasy (Greek for "outside the body") supposedly brought the followers of Dionysus into a supernatural condition that enabled them to escape the temporary limitations of the body and mind, and to achieve a state of enthousiasmos, or, "outside the body and inside the god." In this sense Dionysus represented a dichotomy within the Greek religion, as the primary maxim of the Greek culture was one of moderation, or, "nothing too extreme." But Dionysus embodied the absolute extreme in that he sought to inflame the forbidden passions and murderous thoughts of the human mind. Interestingly, as most students of psychology will understand, this gave Dionysus a stronger allure among many Greeks who otherwise tried in so many ways to suppress and control the wild and secret lusts of the human mind.

But Dionysus resisted every such effort, and, according to myth, visited a terrible madness upon those who tried to deny him his free expression. The Dionystic idea of mental disease resulting from the suppression of secret inner desires, especially aberrant sexual desires, was later reflected in the atheistic teachings of Sigmund Freud. Thus, Freudianism might be called the grandchild of the cult of Dionysus.

Conversely, the person who gave himself over to the will of Dionysus was rewarded with unlimited psychological and physical delights. Such mythical systems of mental punishments and physical rewards based on resistance and/or submission to Dionysus, were both symbolically and literally illustrated in the cult rituals of the Bacchae (the female participants of the Dionystic mysteries), as the Bacchae women migrated in frenzied hillside groups, dressed transvestite in fawn skins and accompanied by screaming, music, dancing, blood letting, and licentious behavior. When, for instance, a baby animal was too young and lacking in instinct to sense the danger and run away from the revelers, it was picked up and suckled by nursing mothers who participated in the hillside rituals. But when older animals sought to escape the marauding Bacchae, they were considered "resistant" to the will of Dionysus and were torn apart and eaten alive as a part of the fevered ritual.

Human participants were sometimes subjected to the same orgiastic cruelty, as the rule of the cult was "anything goes," including rape and other acts of interpersonal violence. Later versions of the ritual (Bacchanalia) expanded to include pedophilia and male revelers, and perversions of sexual behavior were often worse between men than they were between men and women. Any creature that dared to resist such perversion of Dionysus was subjected to sparagmos ("torn apart') and omophagia ("consumed raw"). In B.C. 410, Euripides wrote of the bloody rituals of the Bacchae in his famous play, The Bacchantes:

"Bacchantes [with] hands that bore no weapon of steel, attacked our cattle as they browsed. Then wouldst thou have seen Agave mastering some sleek lowing calf, while others rent the heifers limb from limb. Before thy eyes there would have been hurling of ribs and hoofs this way and that, and strips of flesh, all blood be-dabbled, dripped as they hung from the pine branches. Wild bulls, that glared but now with rage along their horns, found themselves tripped up, dragged down to earth by countless maidens hands."

Euripedes went on to describe how Pentheus, the King of Thebes, was torn apart and eaten alive by his own mother as, according to the play, she fell under the spell of Dionysus.

The tearing apart and eating alive of a sacrificial victim may refer to the earliest history of the murderous voice of Satan. An ancient and violent cult idea existing since the dawn of paganism stipulated that, by eating alive, or by drinking the blood, of an enemy or an animal, a person might somehow capture the essence or "soul-strength" of the victim. The earliest Norwegian huntsmen believed this, and they drank the blood of bears in an effort to capture their physical strength. East African Masai warriors also practiced omophagia, and they sought to gain the strength of the wild by drinking the blood of lions. Human victims were treated this way by Arabs before Mohammed, and head-hunters of the East Indies practiced omophagia in an effort to capture the essence of their enemies.

Today, omophagia is practiced by certain Voodoo sects as well as by cult Satanists. Eating human flesh and drinking human blood as an attempt to "become one" with the devoured is, in many cases, a demonization of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. But sparagmos and omophagia, as practiced by the followers of Dionysus, was not an attempt of transubstantiation (as in the Catholic Eucharist), nor of consubstantiation (as in the Lutheran communion), nor yet of a symbolic ordinance (as in the fundamentalist denomination), all of which have as a common goal--the elevating of the worshipper into a sacramental communion with God. The goal of the Bacchae was the opposite: The frenzied dance, the thunderous song, the licentious behavior, the murderous activity, all were efforts on the part of the Bacchae to capture the "voice" of the god (Dionysus) in order to bring him down into incarnated rage within man. The idea was not one of holy communion, but of possession by the spirit of Dionysus.

WHO'S BEHIND MURDER'S VOICE?

When one recalls the horrific rituals of the followers of Dionysus, it's easy to believe that demonic possession may have occurred. People of faith should find this idea plausible, as did the Hebrews who considered Hades (the Greek god of the underworld) to be equal with Hell and/or the Devil, and many ancient writers likewise saw no difference between Hades (in this sense the Devil) and Dionysus. Euripedes echoed this sentiment in the Hecuba, and refered to the followers of Dionysus as the "Bacchants of Hades." In Syracuse, Dionysus was known as Dionysus Morychos ("the dark one") a fiendish creature; roughly equivalent to the biblical Satan, who wore goatskins and dwelt in the reqions of the underworld.

In the scholarly book, Dionysus Myth And Cult, Walter F. Otto connected Dionysus with the prince of the underworld. He wrote: "The similarity and relationship which Dionysus has with the prince of the underworld (and this is revealed by a large number of comparisons) is not only confirmed by an authority of the first rank, but he says the two deities are actually the same. Heraclitus says, "Hades and Dionysus, for whom they go mad and rage, are one and the same."

Even the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel condemned the mind-altering madness of Dionysus as inherently satanic. He spoke of the "magic bands" (kesatot) of the Bacchae, which, as in the omophgia, were used to mesmerize the minds of men. We read, "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, Behold I am against your magic bands [kesatot] by which you hunt lives [minds/souls] there as birds, and I will tear them off your arms; and I will let them go, even those lives [minds/souls] whom you hunt as birds" (Ez. 13:20 NAS).

The kesatot, or "magic arm band," were used in connection with a container called the kiste. Wherever the kiste is inscribed on sarcophagi and on Bacchic scenes, it is depicted as a sacred vessel (a mind prison?) with a snake peering through an open lid. How the magic worked and in what way a mind was imprisoned is still a mystery. Pan, the half-man/half-goat god (later relegated to devildom) is sometimes pictured as kicking the lid open and letting the snake (mind?) out. Such loose snakes were then depicted as being enslaved around the limbs, and bound in the hair, of the Bacchae women.

The mysterious imagery of Pan, the serpents, the imprisoned minds, and the magic Kesatot and Kiste, have not been adequately explained by any available authority, and the interpretation of them as a method of mind control is subject to ongoing scrutiny. But since the prophet Ezekiel spoke of the efforts of the Bacchae to mystically imprison the minds of men through the magic bands of Dionysus, and since Pan was most beloved of Dionysus because of his pandemonium ("all the devils") which struck sudden panic in the hearts of men and beasts, and as the serpent was universally accepted by the Hebrews as a symbol of occult devotion, it can be surmised that the iconography of Dionysus represented the most tenacious effort on the part of the Bacchae to fulfill the psychological whims of evil supernaturalism.

SHUTTING MURDER'S MOUTH

In Acts 17:34 we read of the conversion of Dionysius the Areopagite. This is significant. Having the name Dionysius probably meant the parents were devotees of Dionysus, and thus the child was "predestined" to be a follower of the god. He may have also been under a mind-altering kesatot spell. Evidently the powers of darkness lost control over Dionysius's mind when he accepted the Gospel message. Jesus liberated him like He did the lunatics of Matthew 4:24 and 17:15. When Jesus touched the wild man, He left him "sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind" (Mark 5:15).

Contemporary stories of people whose minds were released from murderous madness through religious faith include David Berkowitz, the former Son of Sam killer. David accepted Christ on the prison floor. "When I finished talking to God, I got up. My mind seemed to flood with a sense of peace," said Berkowitz. "I knew from that moment that Jesus Christ heard me. I sensed in my heart that I was forgiven and that I was now free."

Ted Bundy pleaded for an interview with Dr. James Dobson prior to his court-ordered date with destiny. Bundy appeared genuinely sorrowful on videotaped interview and acknowledged the murderous effects of past sinful thinking. He asked Jesus to forgive him.

Karla Faye Tucker was the first woman executed in the state of Texas in 135 years. She testified of the mind-altering effect of drugs. On the eve of her execution, CBN reporter Kathy Chiero asked Karla, "Why do you agree to talk to the media regardless of why they are coming to you?" Karla responded, "God has given me a great big open door to share the love of Jesus and I'm going to do it. My heart has been to share with the world the love that he has poured out into me -- the forgiveness, the mercy, the way that he can change a life."

Most of us view such deathbed conversions with skepticism. Last minute loyalties attributed to a Savior in the midnight hour can bring scoffing. Yet we read of the criminal on the cross and see Jesus honoring his plea for forgiveness. Jesus extended mercy, and offered him eternal fellowship.

Perhaps others will discover what David Berkowitz says he has -- saving power that is "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Cho Seung-Hui appears to have been lost from this idea.

BOOKS BY TOM HORN

VISIT MY WEBSITE:

STEVE MCHENRY'S BLOG

Family Christian Stores


Amazon Unbox


Pocket Testament League

Survivor Mall

The UFO Store

Fingerhut



LinkShare

Firefox 2

BlogTalkRadio

Dara's Website


FeedBurner
Syndicate your Blog or Podcast with FeedBurner


Check me out!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Escaping the Matrix: Resurrection of an Ancient Conspiracy Theory

Lowe Button

David W. Lowe is the author of two books on Bible prophecy, Earthquake Resurrection and Then His Voice Shook the Earth. To learn more, visit David’s website at: www.earthquakeresurrection.com.

By DAVID W. LOWE

PICTURE THIS: political leaders conspire to cover up one of the most colossal events in history. A sinister plan is formulated. A large sum of money is exchanged. Co-conspirators are convinced to lie. The general public believes the lie and perpetuates it.

Sounds like what many believe may have happened on September 11, 2001, doesn’t it?

Not so fast. Believe it or not, this conspiracy theory is not a theory, but a fact. Conspiracy Fact. And it’s in the Bible.

No, I’m not referring to the betrayal of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane by Judas Iscariot for thirty pieces of silver. But if that is what you were thinking, you are on the right track.

Matthew 28:11-15 records the formulation of an insidious conspiracy surrounding the events that took place after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his empty tomb. This story is set up by an appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene and another Mary after his resurrection. As they fell at his feet to worship, Jesus instructed them to go and tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee, bringing us to the passage at hand:

While they [Mary Magdalene and another Mary] were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After they had assembled with the elders and formed a plan, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole his body while we were asleep.’ If this matter is heard before the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story is told among the Jews to this day.

Take special note of what transpired within the above passage:
1. The soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb, eyewitnesses to a spectacular event, told what they saw and heard to the authorities: irrefutable evidence established and corroborated by more than one witness.
2. The chief priests and elders, members of an elite group of religious authorities, gathered together in secret to discuss what to do regarding the event.
3. A conspiracy theory was formulated by these authorities.
4. A large sum of money was provided to the soldiers.
5. They were told to lie about what they saw and heard, and were instructed of the exact words to say.
6. The soldiers were promised immunity and safety by the corrupted religious elites if the matter ever came before an investigatory body.
7. The soldiers took the money and did as they were told.
8. Finally, the lie was disseminated in the public, repeated, and believed for many years after the event. The lie became truth.

This is a staggering revelation. An extremely important piece to the resurrection puzzle that is rarely preached from the pulpit. A conspiracy theory for the ages with momentous implications!

Just think: the lie about the disappearance of Jesus’ body from the tomb was repeated amongst the Jews for many years, and believed as truth. No wonder this band of disciples was so hated by the Jews of their day: not only were they viewed as a renegade religion away from the one true God of Judaism, but among their countrymen, they were believed to be grave-robbers and liars in order to spread this new religion of Christianity.

But in this case, the minority had the truth on their side, and the majority believed the conspiratorial lie formulated, carried out, and perpetuated by an elite group of leaders. Yes, a small band of disciples had the truth, and were willing to die for it at the hands of those leaders.

The first of those martyrs was Stephen, murdered by a barbaric stoning ceremony by the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews (see Acts chapters 6 and 7).

As both a Christian and a member of the 9/11 Truth movement, I am often discouraged by fellow Christians who blindly believe the news on the cable news network about this momentous event and all of the ghastly political tentacles which have grown from it. They somehow connect their Christianity to a patriotic duty to believe as truth everything disseminated by the government. I want to reach out to them, disconnect them from the Matrix, and show them all the inconsistencies in what they believe and have been told about that event. But the reaction is all too often a rolling of the eyes, silence, or in some cases, an outburst of “righteous” indignation at the mere suggestion that the leaders of our nation could conspire to do evil.

It is my hope that, in writing this piece, diligent Christians will find within themselves:
1. A new appreciation for the ability and desire of political leaders to perpetuate a lie in order to hide the awful truth from a hoodwinked populace, to protect their selfish motives, and to profit from the proliferation of the lie and its consequences,
2. A new respect for those who question the official stories perpetuated by government authorities about important historic events, and
3. A new desire to expose lies and search for and disseminate the truth.

Please remember this amazing conspiracy tucked within the story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection before calling someone a “conspiracy nut,” or calling an explanation that differs from the official story a “crazy conspiracy theory.” What you call a conspiracy theory might just be a conspiracy fact.

Finally, think about this: If you were a Jew living in the first half of the first century, and you believed the official explanation about a bunch of crazy followers of a resurrected “Messiah,” who actually stole his body from his grave and claimed he rose from the dead, you’d be believing what the majority believed. But you’d also be believing a lie, a conspiracy theory formulated by your leaders to keep you in the dark about arguably the most important event in
world history.

The resurrection of the Savior of the world.
—————
© David W. Lowe 2007

BOOKS BY DAVID W. LOWE

VISIT MY WEBSITE:

STEVE MCHENRY'S BLOG

Family Christian Stores


Amazon Unbox


Pocket Testament League

Survivor Mall

The UFO Store

Fingerhut



LinkShare

Firefox 2

BlogTalkRadio

Dara's Website


FeedBurner
Syndicate your Blog or Podcast with FeedBurner


Check me out!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.