Bible Study at the Cathedral Church of Saint Luke is seldom boring. We veer from Scripture into such topics as politics, the challenges of ageing, and God’s call in our daily lives. Yet whatever the direction of our conversation, I inevitably end up in some form of this dialogue with one of the other participants:

“You can’t believe that and be a Christian,” he’ll say.

“But I do believe that, and I am a Christian.” I’ll reply and brace for his answer.

“No. You are a heretic,” I hear, followed by a rapid thumbing of pages. “THIS is what it says in the Bible.”

“I know what it says in the Bible, but I also know that there are many ways to interpret the Bible and Scripture is only one of the ways we come to know God,” I’ll counter.

“There may be other ways to know God, but there has to be an ultimate Authority,” is always his clinching argument. “You can’t rely on your own sinful heart to discern the truth. You can’t just pick and choose what to believe.”

I sigh.

This conversation has played out within the Church for centuries, albeit in somewhat more sophisticated ways. Between A.D. 325 and 787 the Church held seven Ecumenical Councils delineating both orthodox beliefs and those that it declared anathema to Christian teaching. At the Second Council at Constantinople in A.D. 553, the Church rejected earlier teachings of Origen and officially declared the belief in reincarnation to be a heresy.

Prior to the Council there had been intense disagreement within the Church over reincarnation. The belief flourished in much of the Mediterranean world, including Gnostics within the Christian community. The Eastern Church under Emperor Justinian in Constantinople took such a strong stand against it that Pope Vigilius in Rome boycotted the Council in protest. In his absence, the Council ruled “If anyone asserts the fabulous preexistence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.” Pope Vigilius was then imprisoned and teaching the doctrine of reincarnation became a heretical act punishable by excommunication.

It sometimes seems to me that the Church has directed entirely too much time and energy towards figuring out which truths are acceptable for Christians to believe and attempting to eradicate those it deems to be heresy. However, I’m also aware that if we don’t honor a common set of beliefs and traditions, the Christian faith will ultimately dilute and dissipate. So I’ve tried hard to understand why the Church came down so strongly against the idea of reincarnation.

Some of the reasons were clearly political. Justinian was looking to the Church to create a unifying glue among the diverse populations of the Roman Empire, and the growing diversity among Christian believers mitigated against that. To this end he also wanted to consolidate a central power. The belief in an eternal salvation and damnation dependent upon the sacraments cemented such power in the hands of the Church. Orthodox theology supported a hierarchical political system uniting both the Church and the State.

But there were other less political and more thought-provoking reasons why the early Church opposed a belief in reincarnation, reasons that Christians must still wrestle with today. To begin with, the idea that the soul enters successive bodies is a problem for the Christian belief in resurrection. It suggests that the soul is an independent entity from the body. While this idea provides no difficulty for Asian and Gnostic spiritualities, it directly contradicts the traditional belief that body and soul are inseparable. While Christians may differ in how they understand the resurrection, most agree that it is both physical and spiritual in nature- body and soul together.

Another difficulty Christians often have with reincarnation is that it does away with the notion of eternal damnation. Many within the Church have asked, ” would make people choose to live moral lives if they did not have such a specter hanging over them? “

Reincarnation also seems to overturn the doctrine of atonement. If Jesus did not die to save humanity from hell, what was the point of his torture and death? Why would we even need a Savior if we can return to earth and right all of our mistakes by ourselves?

Indeed, the idea of reincarnation provides a challenge to a basic sense of God’s agency and judgment. If people are reincarnated through some process of karma or other natural law, there is no room for judge or deliverer at all. The destiny of our souls seems to be taken out of the hands of God altogether.

These are only some of the reasons that Christians have opposed a belief in reincarnation and held fast to the principle that “we die once and we are judged once.” It’s understandable why the Church would deem it anathema. Still, many Christians today find it difficult to accept the lengths that the Church has taken to eradicate this heresy.

The world is rapidly changing. Western culture is post-Christian. Much of the world is in the throes of turmoil – ancient nations are tottering on the brink of collapse – uncertainty and confusion abound. While new ideas still fascinate many people.

In the midst of all this, the religion of Islam has become dominant force in many parts of the world and claims to be the final religion of universal peace. How should Christians react to this new presence, often in our midst? Just how do we form a Christian view of Islam? Does the Bible say anything about this subject?

Yes certainly, the Bible claims to be the unfolding revelation of God's purpose fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. So, any view we form of Islam must face squarely what Scripture teaches about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

A biblical basis

To gain a Christian view of anything, in the first place we must gain a biblical view. Biblical Christianity is grounded in the historic person of Jesus the Christ, or Messiah, his life, death and resurrection. Jesus was born in Judea of ​​the kingly line of David at a time when Judea was occupied and under the control of the powerful Roman Empire.

In his person Jesus fulfils the many promises God gave in the Old Testament Scriptures of One who would come to deal with the deep problem of mankind's fall into rebellion that took place at the beginning of human history. This deliverer would be an anointed king, a Messiah, a Savior and Redeemer – one who frees others at great cost. The Bible is the book of redemption and the Old Testament looks forward to the great climax of the sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of the Redeemer, the Suffering Servant of the Lord; events that are explained by the final revelation of the New Testament Scriptures.

All of the Old Testament prophecies, and there are many very detailed ones, (see Isaiah 9: 1-7, Micah 5: 2, Zechariah 9: 9, Psalm 22: 1, Isaiah 53:12) focus on Jesus the Messiah or Christ. He reveals God as the Savior who is rich in forgiving mercy and grace to all who turn back to God through faith in Jesus, his mediator. This is God's final and best word to mankind which will continue to be proclaimed until the end of the age.

Utterly unique

The Lord Jesus is matchless, beyond compare – he is unique. Openly he claimed: 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst '(John 6:35),' I am the light of the world '(John 8:12),' I am the door of the sheep '( John 10: 7), 'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep '(John 10:11),' I am the resurrection and the life '(John 11:25). He also made other exclusive claims.

His Person and work answer fully to the terrible problems of sin and guilt in a broken, fallen world. He alone is the Savior of sinners, who came from the glory of heaven, as none less than God Incarnate in order to lead a pure, spotless life and go willingly to death on a cross, bearing sin as the sinner's Substitute. Uniquely, he rose from the dead in triumph on the third day, vindicated and exalted. He is alive for evermore. All that Jesus does fulfils the Old Testament Scriptures. There is a glorious finality about all he is, all that he does, and all that he says. He is the climax – 'God with us' – his sacrifice for sin is fully accomplished, effective and never to be repeated. He is unsurpassable – Jesus is Lord!

The best good news

Now the gospel, the good news of salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ, is to be proclaimed to all the nations so that his people may be called and gathered into his universal Body, the Church. Through this good news, God calls people to repent and put faith in Christ alone. As they are enabled to respond and turn to Christ, they are justified by faith alone – given a right standing with God, not on account of any self-righteous works, but trusting only in Christ's perfect righteousness, and precious blood, shed for their sins.

Jesus is now the Lord and head of his own people. And as Creator and Redeemer, he will return at the end of this age to judge all mankind, and to usher in the new heaven and new earth in which his people will dwell forever with him. God's eternal purposes are progressively revealed throughout Scripture, and realized in and through the Lord Jesus, for the glory and praise of God.

Biblical Christianity is thus one seamless, Christ-centered self-disclosure of the Person, the accomplishments, and purposes of God as Creator, sustainer, Redeemer and re-creator of his people, and of all things – the entire cosmos.

Scripture – infallible bedrock

One of the remarkable things about Jewish history and the Old Testament Scriptures is that there is no evidence of the text being either intentionally or maliciously corrupted. This was, in part, due to the intense awareness of the Jewish priests that they were the custodians of written divine revelation, even when the prophets were so often scathing of the people's idolatry and waywardness.

This is borne out by the way the prophets proclaim how the people had abandoned God and turned to false gods and idolatrous worship. Jeremiah provides a typical example: 'From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers' (Jeremiah 7: 25-26).

Yes, many of their kings and priests did corrupt the religion that God had revealed to them, leading many of their people astray, but the striking thing is that they did not corrupt the Scriptures that witness against them how they had corrupted their religion! This is very surprising – and the two things are quite different.

Any reading of the Old Testament shows that the Jewish people often come under the severest divine censure and are frequently chastised and judged. However, they are never completely abandoned, and the divine promise of a Redeemer continues to shine as a beacon in the darkest times.

Jesus accepted every detail in the Old Testament

Jesus stamped his own approval on the Old Testament Scriptures, and he did this in many ways. He often quoted from them; never called them into question, but always affirmed that they would be fulfilled in the smallest detail, because verbally spoken by God. This is a most important argument. Jesus is 'the way, and the truth, and the life' (John 14: 6). His flawless and radiant life, backed up by his unsurpassed teaching, are in full view for all to see.

Jesus challenged a large group of religious leaders with, 'You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God' (Matthew 22:29). He often referred to himself as the Son of Man, a title of exalted stature, and told his disciples that 'everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished' (Luke 18:31). Jesus never gives a hint of criticism of the Old Testament Scriptures. He endorses them in everything down to the finest detail, and says He is the fulfilment of their central hope.

Jesus also endorsed the particular books of the Hebrew canon that were used by the Palestinian Judaism of his day, saying that, 'everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled' (Luke 24:44) . These names correspond exactly to the thirty-nine books used in our Old Testament today. He is the central theme and focus of the Old Testament Scriptures. Any charge of wholesale or even minor corruption cannot be substantiated.

A Christian view

Islam accepts Jesus as a Prophet, but strenuously denies his clear teaching about himself and also his claims to a unique relationship of an eternal Sonship (never thought of in mere human terms) with God the Father.

In view of this, Christians must patiently and gently share how Jesus' disciples also entertained thoughts of how a crucified Messiah would bring the most appalling shame imaginable – until after his resurrection. Then the wonderful truth began to dawn on them as the Holy Spirit enlightened their grieving minds that Jesus had come from the eternal Father with this one purpose in view. As he had already said to them, he had come, 'not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Mark 10:45).

Light and darkness

The wonder of biblical revelation is that God in Christ comes down to our level, apart from sin, to reach us in our fallen, sinful condition. He comes near to find the lost sheep in grace, mercy and forgiving love. He comes to find his own! But let us be absolutely clear: Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God. The Christ revealed in Scripture is pre-eminently Savior, Redeemer and Lord. The saving message of Christ transforms lives and cultures beginning in the inmost heart and soul and radiating outwards. But the imperialism of the nominal "Christian" West, as seen either in the past or the present, is FAR FROM a clear expression of biblical Christianity.

Any evaluation of Islam will take into account that it combines a mixture of teaching ranging from Arabian tribal religion, to Jewish Old Testament ideas from patriarchal monotheism, to Persian Zoroastrianism, and to early distorted sub-Christian teaching. As such, Christianity and Islam are not facets of a deeper original religion, and that once the present superficial differences are resolved, we can all settle down to world peace.

What is the real issue between biblical Christianity and Islam? All hinges on the Person and work of Christ. God has revealed his best and final word in Christ, once crucified and raised forever, a word full of grace; a rich undeserved salvation by which people are 'born again' by the Holy Spirit of God and transformed from the inside – a word for all who have not yet heard from whatever background. Come to the living Lord and Savior today, and receive his welcome, peace and joy!

Anyone who knows anything about Christianity knows that Jesus is the king and some consider him to be the king of the Jews. Jesus has been around for over 2000 years and his kingdom is starting to have more problems than ever before, as the uneducated become educated.

There are plenty of Christian leaders who live lifestyles like kings today. Their churches are financed by Christians who assume that they are following the right religion, yet don’t spend much time looking into the facts. It seems like more and more Christians assume that their Christian leaders have all of the facts and rarely seek information outside of their church.

If we look back at dictators throughout history, their followers never questioned them, without suffering certain consequences. Some of these dictators ruled their kingdom without any competition, simply because they eliminated them. They made their followers afraid to ask questions and soon they accepted anything that was told to them. Right or wrong, the dictator was without fault.

As I study more about Christianity, it seems like Christianity has become a dictatorship. Often following the same ideology as dictators from our past. They want to give their followers information, with very little resistance. Whenever someone asks an intelligent question, it’s put on the back burner and rarely answered.

If you’re a Christian who chooses to follow Christianity with out ever questioning anything, consider yourself to be the ideal follower of Christianity. I’m sure that there are plenty of other religions that would love to have people like you join them. If you ever get tired of living in the Christian dictatorship, you could always go join another religion, I’m sure that they would love to have more followers like you.

Christians need to open their eyes, or Christianity will suffer the fate of history’s dictators in the future.

On one of the articles I wrote, someone left a comment asking me if I would define truth to them. I told them that I believed truth was something that could be proven and easily explained to almost anyone. This might not make sense to me two years from now, but today the truth is something that has enough satisfactory scientific support and evidence to justify any claims that are made against or for them.

If you easily digested my explanation of truth and you consider yourself to be a knowledgeable Christian, I would love to hear what truth actually means to you and how it applies to Christianity. Jesus said something like,” If you seek the doors will be opened and you shall find your answers.”

This makes sense to me, but I still live in a world of confusion as someone makes one statement about the truth, knowing that it’s a lie. Are religious leaders allowed to communicate in deceptive ways, often twisting Bible verses to make one-sided points? I watch a lot of videos and listen to a lot of audios, while reading some books about Christianity, only to find some of these Christian leaders stretching the truth.

I don’t believe that anyone should be penalized for making a statement, but I do believe that these people need to be reeducated whenever possible and admit that they are wrong, if they actually are. People write to me regularly, pointing out things that I said in error and I believe that this makes me a better person.

I would like to point something out to any Christians reading this article. I would like you to think twice, the next time that you make a statement about something that you believe in, even though you don’t have enough evidence to support your claims.

A good example of this would be, telling people about heaven, even though there isn’t any proof that heaven actually exists and making it sound like it does. If you’ve got the proof, let’s see it if you want to base everything off of faith, you should make statements accordingly.

With over 900 churches in Rome alone, it’s no surprise that the word Italy has such strong connotations of religion. It was thought that the Romans had a religion that was unique to them although it was thought that these did not come from a single source, but instead they were a mixture of the beliefs, traditions and superstitions of those in power and a number of other providers.

As the city grew and became more developed, the views that the leaders had, slowly became part of everyday beliefs. At the very beginning, Rome had no religious structures or places to worship the spirits/ gods they believed in. It was the Etruscan kings who first built such buildings around 500 BC.

When Christianity roughly began in the year AD 1, The leaders of Rome had priests who were in charge of the religious sites of Palestine but it took them a while to figure out how they were going to continue form here. It was a difficult decision to make because the new Christians would not participate in the worship of Caesar.

After some difficult times between the Romans, the Christians and the Jews, it wasn’t until 260 AD that Christianity became tolerated and then it wasn’t until 380 AD that Christianity became the official religion thanks to emperor Theodosius. This wasn’t the only religion that was available. As the empire the Romans were creating was to continue expanding, so would the many number of people that have been conquered and into the mixing pot went all their Gods and many religious beliefs.

The ideas that were set out by the Christians spread quickly around the city, and the common languages that were spoken (Empire, Latin and Greek) throughout the area, helped make this process a lot faster. The base for many Roman soldiers around this time was usually Britain so this helped the word of the Christians spread over seas. If it wasn’t for the Roman Empire, some say Christianity may not have spread so fast or even at all!

If you plan to take a trip to Italy to find out more information on the history of Christianity and the Roman Empire, make sure you find out first what hotels in Rome are close to the historic areas you would like to visit.

All that great learning of Galen and Hippocrates, those physicians that taught that disease was caused by pathogenic agents was laid to waste during my reign of terror and the early Christian Church eagerly rushed to fill the medical void, becoming doctor to body and soul and consequently held up the advancement of medical science until probably late in the seventeenth century. The Church, in its new role as healer equated disease with vice and sin, the punishment for people leading an errant life and not listening to the voice of Rome. Their writers, whose literary plague model was the Book of Revelation, promoted and prolonged this idea. There was John of Ephesus who clearly said that the end of the world was at hand, or Zachariah of Mytilene who said that the plague was a scourge from Satan and even the more reasonable Gregory of Tours said people could only be saved by praying to St . Gall. Well, add in a few wonders like the collapse of the original dome of Hagia Sophia during the earthquake of Constantinople and it's little wonder that the religiosity of the Byzantine Empire dramatically increased during this period. It was like the twin towers falling without a valid reason.

Anyway, to get back to poor Justinian after whom I am so nobly called. Let me tell you a little about him. In his day he was also known as Flavius ​​Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus, the great Byzantine Emperor whose architectural monuments still lie strewn around Instanbul and beyond. Thank God, they didn't call me after his real name. In 525, at the age of 42, he received the title of Caesar and two years later the rank of Augustus. It was a time of great splendor as Justinian erected magnificent buildings, recruited armies and formed codes of laws, which became the basis of European Justice. People followed the teachings of progressive physicians who were creating the discipline of medical science. Into this noble world, I came wreaking destruction and forming the worst pandemic that has harrowed human kind. Today, the record of my destruction remains amongst three main sources, John of Ephesus, who wrote Historia Ecclesiastica, while wandering around the empire, the lesser known Evagrius Scholasticus and last but not least, Justinian's archivist, Procopius, who published the History of the Wars, in 550.

I started my long march around the Empire in 540. In that year I befriended people in Pelsium, Lower Egypt and within a month traders and itinerant scholars had carried me to Alexandria and Palestine. Now I won't argue with Procopius, when he said that the death toll in Constantinople, in spring of 542 became 10,000 a day, but allowing for a small exaggeration, this was more people than Justinian was losing in his battles against Italy and Persia . At any rate, following my sojourn in Constantinople, I spread throughout the empire along trade and military routes from the coastal cities to the interior provinces. I surfaced in Italy in 543, and from there, migrated to Persia, to infect the Persian army and King Khusro himself, causing them to retreat east of the Tigris to the plague-free highlands of Luristan. Gregory of Tours tells how St. Gall saved the people of Clermont-Ferrand in Gaul from me in 543, and I visited Ireland for a sort period in 544. I left as the barmen told me Guinness wouldn't be around for another 1225 years. At least they couldn't blame the Black Stuff on the Dubliners that were breaking out in black blisters, vomiting blood and some others seized by madness. And the poor doctors, not knowing what to do, just lanced the buboes and looked at the withered thighs and tongues and hoped they were living in 1784, when a few of the lads from the newly opened Royal College of Surgeon's could help them in their work. But these were other days, when in typical apocalyptic literature style, John of Ephesus seen hallucinations as "apparitions" from another worldly realm, when men wore identification tags with the fear of being left unburied and ships floated aimlessly at sea, later washing up to shore with all of their crew having become my friends.

Although the emperor Justinian contracted the disease himself, he valiantly attempted to minimise the disaster. Following the outbreak in Constantinople, Justinian commanded the palace guard to dispose of the corpses. But soon all the gravesites were filled beyond capacity, and the living resorted to throwing the bodies of victims out into the streets or piling them along the seashore to rot. He responded to this problem by having huge pits dug across the Golden Horn in Sycae and hiring men to collect the dead. Although these pits reportedly held 70,000 corpses each, they soon overflowed and Justinian ordered that the bodies should be placed inside the towers of the city walls and to pour lye down the shafts. When the decaying corpses caused a stench that pervaded the entire city, he ordered that the rotting dead should be put on ships and set fire at sea. Procopius also recorded the human dimension of the tragedy. The first day the person could feel the hard nodes or 'buboes' in the armpits and groin. By the second and third day the fever produced violent delirium in which the victims hallucinated, seeing 'phantoms of death'. He astutely observed that a person who coughed and spit up phlegm died quickly, usually by the fifth day. Students from the Royal College of Surgeons today, God bless' em, would tell you that I actually came in three forms: bubonic, pneumonic (also called pulmonary), and the septicaemic.

The bubonic form, which must exist before the other two strains can become active, is not directly contagious unless the patient harbors fleas. Since Procopius did not state that those who cared for the sick necessarily contracted the disease, it is inferred that the bubonic form was most active in the Justinianic plague. The pneumonic plague occurred whenever I decided to invade the lungs. This variety is highly contagious from one person to another, and is spread by airborne droplets. Due to Procopius' observation that the plague was not directly contagious, and the absence of the major symptoms of pneumonic plague in the accounts, namely shallow breathing and tightness in the chest, this form was probably not very active. Septicaemia occurs when the infection enters the bloodstream, and death is swift, usually before buboes are able to form. In his account, Agathias reported some of my friends dying as if by an attack of apoplexy and from this some scholars would deduct that my septicaemic form did exist during the Justinian outbreak. But either way, I wreak disaster as bubonic plague results in 70% deaths; pneumonic plague in 90% and septicaemic plague leaves no survivors. To live for ten days was considered a miracle and gave time for one to offer additional prayers for an inevitable end.

It was common for entire families and professions to be wiped out, their lineage ended and their professions to be lost to history. During the half century that the Justinian plague raged, no village or town was spared and one hundred million people died of the disease. This meant that recruits for the Roman Army became difficult to find, with the result that the empire was mostly served by barbarian mercenaries. In Justinian's final years, there were virtually no men either to volunteer or to be impressed into the service. Because he was spared, he withdrew from public life and devoted himself to theological problems. He believed that Christ was entirely divine and that his incorruptible human body was just a delusion. This blasphemy didn't suit the Christians of the period and nobody was surprised when he died two years later. Fortunately for the Romans themselves, the plague had also attacked and weakened the Persian Empire. In Italy, the Ostrogoths resumed the war, and new revolts broke out in the previously subdued African provinces. Needless to say, the Justinianic plague, apart from its devastating immediate impact, undermined the political and economical structure of the late Roman Empire, creating conditions ripe for disaster. Coupled with the other disasters, the plague reduced the population of the Mediterranean world by 40% by the year 600. Such a massive mortality rate caused depopulation of the urban centers and created a structural imbalance in favor of the desert Arabs. But before I go down that road, let us just say that I was a microbe that truly changed the history of the world!

Was Gurdjieff a Christian? The orientation of the teaching-is it Christian? Entering the new millennium, some fifty years after Mr. Gurdjieff's passing, it is important to begin to understand the part that Christianity played in his life and in the teaching he brought.

Certainly, as Gurdjieff makes clear in Meetings With Remarkable Men , he was raised as a Christian- "I know the rituals of the Greek Church well," he would say many years later, "and there, underlying the form and ceremony, there is real meaning. " His first religious tutor was seventy-year-old Dean Borsch, the highest spiritual authority of the region. As Dean Borsch aged, he asked the young priest Bogachevsky to tutor Gurdjieff and confessed him every week. For two years, Bogachevsky tutored the young Gurdjieff and then, when the priest was posted elsewhere, he had Gurdjieff continue his confessions by mail.

It is interesting to note, regarding Bogachevsky's caliber, that later he went to Mount Athos as a chaplain and a monk. Soon, however, he renounced monastic life as practiced there and went to Jerusalem. Bogachevsky joined the Essene Brotherhood there and was sent to one of its monasteries in Egypt. He was given the name Father Evlissi and later became one of the assistants to the abbot of its chief monastery. According to Gurdjieff, the Essenes had preserved the teaching of Jesus Christ "unchanged" and that as it passed from generation to generation it "has even reached the present time in its original form."

The depth of what Gurdjieff felt for this man was expressed when, in his maturity, he declared, "Father Evlissi, who is now an aged man, happened to become one of the first persons on earth who has been able to live as our Divine Teacher Jesus Christ wished for us all . " [Emphasis added.] Gurdjieff's choice of words would seem to indicate that for himself Gurdjieff accepts the divinity of Jesus Christ. He speaks, for example, of Jesus Christ as "a Messenger from our endlessness," "that Sacred Individual," "Divine Teacher Jesus Christ," and "Sacred Individual Jesus Christ."

Although Gurdjieff speaks highly of Christianity and of Jesus Christ, there are also many stories of his making fun of Catholic priests, even shouting at them on occasion. For example, his niece Luba reported in her Luba Gurdjieff: A Memoir with Recipes , "My Uncle never taught us how to go to church, or pray, or anything like that. And he never liked priests or the nuns. driving and he saw a priest, he would say, 'Shoo! Son of a bitch.' "

Gurdjieff certainly knew a great deal about Christianity-not only its religion but its esoteric foundation as well. This can be seen when he came to Russia in 1912 and took the guise of a Turkish prince, calling himself "Prince Ozay." Within a year of his arrival in St. Petersburg Petersburg he met the young English musicologist Paul Dukes, later an officer in British intelligence. Dukes reports that the prince wore a turban and spoke in Russian with a marked accent. He was of medium height, sturdily built and the grip of his hand "was warm and powerful." His dark eyes, Dukes said, "piercing in their brilliance, were at the same time kindly and sparkling with humor." After a chess game which the prince won handily, he spoke knowledgeably to Dukes in English (which Dukes said he preferred) of the Lord's Prayer. The prince told Dukes it was designed "as a devotional breathing exercise to be chanted on a single even breath."

"I have been in many churches in England and America," said the prince, "and always heard the congregation mumble the Lord's Prayer all together in a scrambled grunt as if the mere muttered repetition of the formula were all that is required."

Ozay informed Dukes that the incantation of prayers as a devotional breathing exercise was practiced in the earliest Christian Church, which inherited it from the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Brahmins, and others in the East, where it is known as the science of Mantra. This esoteric side, Ozay said, was lost in the Western Church centuries ago.

Gurdjieff had intended to found the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Russia, but the revolution precluded this. It was not until eight years later, in 1921, that he was able to establish it in France. At the time, he stated the Institute's aim unequivocally: "The program of the Institute, the power of the Institute, the aim of the Institute, the possibilities of the Institute can be expressed in very few words: the Institute can help one to be able to be a Christian. " He spoke of a Christian as being "a man who is able to fulfill the Commandments … both with his mind and his essence." St. George the Victor was proclaimed as the Institute's patron saint.

The Original Christianity

The opening of All and Everything, First Series , begins with a prayer: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and in the name of Holy Ghost. Amen." And within, Gurdjieff speaks of Christianity as based on "resplendent love," saying also that among all of the ancient religious teachings none had so "many good regulations for ordinary everyday life." He believed that Christianity is the best of all existing or future religions "if only the teaching of the Divine Jesus Christ were carried out in full conformity with its original ." [Emphasis added.] It is not clear what he means by the words "its original," but presumably a religion or teaching that came before Christianity. Something of the same sort happens with the aforementioned prayer, for he says in introducing it that this "definite utterance … has been formulated variously and in our day is formulated in the following words." He is quite clearly, then, pointing to something that was Christian but which predates Christianity.

It is clear he believes that Christianity-the religion-was mixed with Judaism, and that Judaism by that time "had already been thoroughly distorted." During the Middle Ages, Christianity was further distorted by the fantastic doctrines of hell and heaven imported from Babylonian dualism by the Church Fathers. Christianity, Gurdjieff says, had been "the religion and teaching upon which the Highest Individuals placed great hopes" -note how he separates religion from teaching-but, as a result of what he calls "absurdities" and "criminal wiseacring," genuine faith in Christianity was "totally destroyed."

Messengers from Above

Perhaps more significant for determining whether or not Gurdjieff was a Christian is that while he obviously held Jesus Christ in very high regard, he does not take him as the only Son of God. Rather, Jesus Christ was but one of a number of Messengers from Above, though of these He apparently holds a special place. Although Gurdjieff speaks of Jesus as a saint, as he does of Saint Buddha, Saint Mohammed, Saint Lama, and Saint Moses, it is only Jesus and Buddha that Gurdjieff also speaks of as being "Divine."

Gurdjieff's view of the resurrection of Jesus Christ differs radically from accepted doctrine. He holds that if a person dies and is buried, "this being will never exist again, nor furthermore will he ever speak or teach again." However, in seeming contradiction, he views the Last Supper as being a preparation for the sacred sacrament Almznoshinoo on the Kesdjan body of Jesus Christ. Almznoshinoo, he says, is a means of materializing and communicating with the higher-being bodies of a deceased physical body by the Hanbledzoinian process of intentionally coating its Kesdjan body. In order to accomplish this, a particle of an individual's Hanbledzoin must be taken while he is alive and either kept in a corresponding surplanetary formation or taken in and intentionally blended with the Kesdjan bodies of those who will afterward participate in the Almznoshinoo process.

Because Jesus Christ did not have the necessary time before he was crucified to explain and instruct his apostles in certain cosmic truths, he had to resort to a magical ceremony so that he might complete his mission while still in a cosmic individual state. It was at that moment, according to Gurdjieff, that Judas put forward an ingenious plan-the conscious betrayal of Christ-that would gain them the necessary time. Gurdjieff refers to Judas as a saint who, of all the disciples, was the most devoted and had the highest degree of reason.

Concerning religion per se, Gurdjieff tells us there are seven levels. The religions of the first three are subjective and correspond to people who are primarily instinctual, emotional, or intellectual. It is at the fourth level that religion begins to become objective, free from the distortions of personality. At this level, the practitioner is beginning to emerge from the hypnotism of ordinary life and engaging in a struggle with what it means to be a Christian. Only at the fifth level does one have "the being of a Christian," for only at this level can life actually be lived in accordance with the precepts of Christ, because one has now achieved a commensurate unity and will that is free from external influences .

Good & Evil Nonexistent

Concerning good and evil Gurdjieff is quite clear. "The fantastic notion," he says, "namely that outside of them [outside of people] there exist objective sources of 'Good' and 'Evil' acting upon their essence" is without foundation-there is no external good and evil.

Our present notion of good and evil, Gurdjieff believes, is based on misunderstanding. He says that long ago a being of Beelzebub's tribe, Makary Kronbernkzion, who was a full member of the Society of Akhaldans, an esoteric brotherhood, was the first to employ the words. In an essay he wrote, entitled "The Affirming and Denying Influences on Man," he spoke of the trinity of forces in the conscious evolution of human beings. The first force he characterized as arising from the causes proceeding in the Sun-Absolute, and issuing from it by momentum. This force, like the other two, is totally independent. Kronbernkzion called this force "Good." When the momentum of this force is spent, there is then a striving to reblend with its source, the Sun-Absolute. This fundamental World Law is characterized as, "the effects of a cause must always re-enter the cause." This second backward-flowing force, which must continually resist the momentum of the first force, he called "Evil," or the active force. From the clash and friction of these two forces is formed the resultant, which in relation to the two other forces is considered neutralizing. This trinity of forces issues from one cause, the Prime Source of all creation. As long as people project a good and evil having some objective existence outside of themselves, spiritual evolution becomes curtailed.

Gurdjieff, although raised as a Christian and no doubt baptized, had a deep understanding of Christianity, held its regulations and commandments in high regard, as he did its Divine Messenger from Above Jesus Christ, would nevertheless not be accepted by either the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches as a practicing Christian. And yet Gurdjieff, it is quite clear, would insist that he was a Christian-a genuine Christian.

Clearly, for Gurdjieff, the word Christianity has a meaning different from that of contemporary churches. After his arrival in St. Petersburg Petersburg, the subject was broached when Gurdjieff was first asked, "What is the relation of the teaching you are expounding [the Fourth Way] to Christianity as we know it?"

"'I do not know what you know about Christianity ,' answered Gurdjieff, emphasizing this word. 'It would be necessary to talk a great deal and to talk for a long time in order to make clear what you understand by this term. for the benefit of those who already know, I will say that, if you like, this is esoteric Christianity . '"

In the account it is important to note that the first use of the word "Christianity" is italicized. The word is given even greater stress by making clear that he himself emphasized the word when he spoke, "answered Gurdjieff, emphasizing the word." Saying he does not know what the questioner understands by the term Christianity, Gurdjieff adds that in any case he will answer, but "for the benefit of those who know already." On the basis of these remarks some, such as Boris Mouravieff and Robin Amis, have believed that Gurdjieff was referring to Eastern Orthodoxy as it is practiced at Mount Athos. But this is simply an external reading, which, even at that, contradicts itself.

In continuing the discussion, in the very next paragraph, Gurdjieff speaks about "the desire to be master of oneself , because without this nothing else is possible." Then he addresses the subjects of love of mankind and altruism, and concludes with "In order to help others one must first learn to be an egoist, a conscious egoist. Only a conscious egoist can help people. Such as we are do can nothing . "

In sum, one must strive to become a true individual and to do that one must practice esoteric Christianity.

Rediscovery of Original Christianity

From the remarks discussed previously, it is quite clear that Gurdjieff, in his quest for the origin of esoteric knowledge, rediscovered what he called a Christianity before Christ. "The Christian church," said Gurdjieff, "the Christian form of worship, was not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know …. This prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constit true Christianity. "

After rediscovering the essential principles and ideas, Gurdjieff traveled to Persia, the Hindu Kush, and elsewhere to reassemble the complete teaching from the many elements that had migrated northward over time. He then reformulated the teaching, which he called [or was called] the Fourth Way, for our contemporary understanding and introduced it to the West. In first speaking of its origin he declared- "The teaching whose theory is here being set out is completely self-supporting and independent of other lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time." [Emphasis added.] It is "completely unknown" because its origin is prehistoric-predating the ancient Egyptian religion, Judaism, Zoroaster, the Avesta and the Hindu Rig Veda.

So, in sum, Gurdjieff is, and is not, a Christian. The Fourth Way teaching is, and is not, Christian. It depends on what we know about Christianity, our definition of it.

For Gurdjieff, there are two forms of Christianity, its original form, and its contemporary form.

The Fourth Way, for Gurdjieff, is esoteric Christianity in its highest form. That is, if it is so recognized and practiced. Otherwise ….

Notes

1. Greek Church . GI Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World , p. 86.

2. " Passing from generation to generation ." GI Gurdjieff, First Series , p. 703.

3. " Messenger from our endlessness ." Ibid., Pp. 99, 701.

4. " Sacred Individua l." Ibid., P. 701.

5. " Divine Teacher Jesus Christ ." Ibid., P. 703.

6. " Saint Jesus Christ ." Ibid., P. 737.

7. " Shoo! Son of a bitch ." Luba Gurdjieff, Luba Gurdjieff: A Memoir with Recipes (Ten Speed ​​Press, 1993), p. 64.

8. English . Did Gurdjieff speak English? Mme de Salzmann told James Moore that Prince Ozay was Gurdjieff. Paul Dukes reports that the prince's friends spoke in Russian. "Ribald stories made up part of the conversation, some of which my host [the prince] translated to me with gusto." The Unending Quest (Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1950), p. 104. Dukes, an intelligent young man with a fine ear, makes several references to the prince speaking English. As he said he visited with the prince off and on from 1913 until February 1917, it is inconceivable that Dukes could have been misled. By making reference to Gurdjieff speaking English, was Dukes protecting Gurdjieff? As Dukes published his book after Gurdjieff's death, there was no reason to protect him. Did Gurdjieff feign not being able to speak English to make it harder for his English and American students to understand him? That's a possibility. As with many things about Gurdjieff, we are left in question.

9. Prayer . Ozay told Dukes that a greater measure of the mantric art survived in the Greek Orthodox Church, especially in its Russian branch, on account of its devotion to pure song without instrumental interference. The Orthodox Church has never allowed its singing to be crippled or debased by organ 'support,' and indeed does not permit organs to be placed in churches. Ibid., P. 110.

10. The Institute and Christianity . Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World , pp. 152-54.

11. Relation of Fourth Way to Christianity . P. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous (Harcourt Brace & Co., 1949), pp. 102-03.

12. Resplendent Love . GI Gurdjieff, First Series , p. 702.

13. " Full conformity with its original ." Ibid., P. 1009.

14. " Definite utterance ." Ibid., P. 3. Given this, it is wondered whether Gurdjieff's admonition "Do not do to others what you would not wish them to do to you" is an example of an original formulation, later changed.

15. " Thoroughly distorted ." Ibid., P. xx.

16. Mouravieff and Amis . William Patrick Patterson, Taking with the Left Hand, The Mouravieff 'Phenomenon,' Arete Communications, 1998.

17. " All taken in ready-made form from Egypt ." Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous , p. 302.

18. Makary Kronbernkzion . Gurdjieff, First Series , p. 1138.

19. " Completely unknown ." Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous , p. 286.

First printed in The Gurdjieff Journal.

William Patrick Patterson is the author of seven books on The Fourth Way, the latest of which is "Spiritual Survival in a Radically Changing World-Time."

To ask the how and when of Christianity is a lot like looking back at a twisting tunnel. From within the tunnel, you would discover that there were too many sub-tunnels to state clearly just how the whole structure started.

Yet there have been some educated hypotheses over the past few years; one hypothesis stated that the very first Church was established in Jerusalem. The establishing of the Church in Jerusalem was more of self-preservation. Without any form of collectivity, a belief system (and also economic interests) was bound to be erased as history imperceptibly drives forward in empty, homogeneous time.

The first Church

It was believed that the first Church was first established in Jerusalem before 70 AD. Because by the time 70 AD arrived, the brutes of the Roman Empire crushed the small Church. But did the first crushing kill Christianity? Absolutely not. In fact, we can say that because the first Church was harassed by power, it paved the way for the spread of the belief system. After Jerusalem, Palestine was the next place that old Christianity established itself.

Through trade and traveling disciples mission to share the word about the new faith, Christianity crossed territorial borders and spread like wildfire throughout the continents. It was during the era of imperial conquest and domination that the religion was single-handily used to colonize many countries in what was believed to be the Far East. East was just China; the West was not America but Mother Europe with the strongest bulwarks; France, Germany, etc.

When did Christianity become accepted?

Christianity was by no means accepted immediately when it began. Like all other religions, it suffered rejection and even persecution in the hands of people who had other beliefs and faiths. But with perseverance, this small Judaic remnant of an ideology reached out from its humble beginnings in Jerusalem. By 600 AD, Christianity's mission of bringing a message of peace to the land finally spread well into others areas (except in areas that were already strongholds of the Islamic faith).

Near the Black Sear, Christianity was able to establish well in Constantinople, Edessa, Antioch and Damascus. Near the Mediterranean basin, Cyrene and Alexandria were also Christianized. In between the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic Ocean, Granada in Spain and Rome in Italy were Christianized as well. When Constantine the Great became a Christian leader, Christianity began showing signs of a lasting religious system. By winning both leaders and warriors, a religion assured itself of survival.

It was during this time that the ascetic and monastic began to emerge as an extreme expression of faith in Christianity. Such expression of faith was by no means peculiar to Christianity; we find similar practices in Hindu sects and sub-groups as well as in humanist belief systems such as Buddhism and Daoism. To an extent, the monastic life was perceived as a unitary means of achieving spiritual enlightenment.

Christianity today seems to suffer from too much information, 100 years ago, there were hundreds of Christian leaders that couldn’t even read or write. Today most Christians, including their leaders, not only can read or write, but have access to more information than some large Christian churches would like their followers to know.

100 years ago, would put this at 1809 and if you were a Christian, there is a good chance that you weren’t exposed to more than three or four religions, especially if you are living in the United States. Most Christians back then only knew of one religion and today, with access to the Internet and large libraries, we can expose ourselves to more religions than we can even imagine today.

Today Christian leaders are being asked difficult questions as more Christians are being inspired, through the Holy Spirit to find the truth. The quest for the truth, a long time ago wasn’t that big of a concern, simply because most Christians, spent most of their time working and when they weren’t working, they were too tired to read and most of them, wouldn’t even think about studying the Bible.

Why would you need to study the Bible, there wasn’t anyone telling you that it didn’t make sense, every one you knew, believed in God and Christianity. We seem to forget, that there were still quite a few people, who couldn’t read the Bible, even as early as 100 years ago.

Yeah, things have definitely changed and I would imagine 100 years from now, things will be a lot different. Christianity has survived for over 2000 years, and do you think it will survive another thousand.

The devastating work of the Enlightenment Period's philosophies and their jarring conspiracy to destroy the Christian religion is a shocking travesty from the quaint showroom of history. This strange, obscure historical period fostered a dramatic polarization between good and evil that literally turned Western civilization on its head. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, no one in his right mind dared challenge the authority of the Christian religion; consequently, the Christian worldview was the supreme law of the land. Rome's brash, bombastic emperors; who viewed themselves as gods, did attempt to defy the irrefragable authority of the Christian religion's gospel message. They fed Christians to hungry lions; they beheaded and crucified many of the apostles; they used Christians as lanterns at night; they used them as sports objects in their sanguinary gladiatorial contests; they flung Christians in jail, persecuting them almost indefinitely: The pagan Roman emperors did just about everything they could to silence the voice of truth roaring from the mouths these incredible human beings, but they found out that Christianity was (and still is) like a basketball-it does not remain under water and thrives mainly in the searing fire of persecution. After almost two hundred years of poignant persecution and crucifixion and imprisonment of Christians; Constantine, a Roman Emperor, became a Christian without any proselytizing whatsoever – he did it on his own accord. The noble emperor was convinced that there had to be more to Christianity than met the eye; and, as it turned out, there was. Accordingly, Christianity was named the state religion – the supreme religion of the Roman Empire! After Rome's long, shameful, murderous campaign against innocent men and women who were just exercising their unforfeitable right to freedom of religion; the titanic might of Rome eventually caved in and collapsed under the irrepressible force and power of the truth.

And after its noble promotion by Rome itself over all other religions in the world, Christianity held sway for more than twelve hundred years: No one in his right mind had the guts to challenge the irrefutable truth of the gospel message. The Romans, closest to the transcendental resurrection of Jesus Christ in broad daylight before the eyes of men, pleaded no contest. Did anyone else have a word of disapproval? Virtually no one had anything to the contrary to say regarding the sacrosanctity and unassailability of the Christian message. The Romans had seen all the resurrection with their own eyes. Of course there was always Islam to the East, which was somewhat a challenge to the Christian message; but the Western world association with Christianity allowed it to rise way above the political reach of Islam. The Western world outdistanced Moslem societies by more than ten to one; and, for the most part, world dominion was given to the West because of its unwavering support of the gospel message. Fundamental concepts in science such as insistence on proof and the scientific method are all basically Christian ideas; in fact, Francis Bacon, a vanguard in the modern scientific movement; and Sir Isaac Newton, the most brilliant scientist who ever lived; were devoted Christians. Science is a direct offspring of the Western World's association with Christianity; however, judging from the way most science textbooks read today, you would never know this unanswerable fact. Just around the close of the Renaissance; a very intriguing, intellectual movement sprang up in France and consumed the rest of Europe and, late on, North America. Jealous of Christianity's unquestioned, unecrivocal spiritual and political hegemony in Western societies; a group of intellectuals stepped forth to the podium and began to question the claims and validity of the irrefrangible Christian message.

This most disturbing, intellectual movement focused on acquiring fresh knowledge, applying reason-driven dialogue, and understanding the secrets of the universe. Well, this writer thinks that the Romans had already figured out that the most appropriate book for comprehending the secrets of the universe was the Christian manual-the Holy Bible. The Romans, closest the indubitable resurrection of Jesus Christ, were so impressed that they used his name to divide time-BC, before Christ and AD or Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. The Romans called Jesus Christ "Lord." this author thinks that if there were any people who ought to know the person who knew the secrets of the universe were the Romans-they were in the middle of the action: They saw it with their own eyes. All of a sudden, these moral scoundrels of the Enlightenment period knew more than the Romans and wanted to know what the secrets of the universe were. In the process of all this chicanery and guileful maneuvering for spiritual and political power; Christianity was shoved aside, as a new age and civilization began unfolding in the West. The people at the forefront of this mystical, intellectual movement called themselves philosophies; as the movement had begun in France. They were an elite pool of intellectuals drawn from European society's middle class and aristocracy. These were editors, lawyers, doctors, professors, and other intellectuals from the astral circles of European society. Most of these men were deists: They used a slick, religious designation to conceal who they really were. Closer inspection of the word deist reveals that these intellectuals were not Christians; Accordingly, they created a nasty, poisonous polarization of society; and the good-evil divide greatly disrupted European life. One glance at the French Revolution; inspired by these heinous, flagitious henchmen; tells one all that he needs to know about their true identity. Merely based on the raw, unvarnished barbarity that these crooked rogues engineered in the French Revolution; their unmistakable alignment and association with the satanic bible and devil worship cannot be overlooked.

History does not give us this critical piece of information about these darkened occultists and rapacious villains who disrupted European society between 1650 and 1800; however, when their religious association is carefully studied, a disturbing picture emerges. Although the period between 1650 and 1800 is supposedly the exact timeframe of the Enlightenment Age; in all honesty, that period never really ended. This timespan cited by most historians was merely the period during which the foundation of a new kind of French Revolution-oriented society was laid. Since the time of the French Revolution, the world has never been the same. The philosophies stole many of modern science's fundamental principles from Christianity, as they were developed by Christian men and had evolved out of the context of a free, Christian-oriented kind of society. The whole idea of ​​freedom from tyranny, rule of law, the scientific method, and a host of other ideas are basically Christian in nature and origin. These ideas were stolen by the philosophies in their creation of a tortuous, new kind of society. They stole these ideas from the Christian worldview and created an exclusive club of atheists in their darkened world of what they called modern science. They vehemently pushed the vain, flawed big bang and evolution theories; both atheistic in nature, and stuffed and shoved them down the throat of an unsuspecting world. Once the scotch or Jack Daniels wears off, it is not hard to see where modern science and its machine of dishonest villains are coming from: They make themselves abundantly clear who they are. The problem is that they have shoved and stuffed all that falsehood down the throats of society's masses; who have swallowed it hook, liner, sinker, the fisherman, and his boots; thus polluting and corrupting the entire world with the garbage of their so-called modern science. What a shame! Additionally, not only have these dashing boys of the classroom podium rejected the Romans' resurrected Christ and Lord, they have the nerve to say that morals don't matter: Morals are irrelevant. What other evidence do you need that modern science is a pert production of devil worship! It's all there: It basic trademark is brash atheism and poisonous hatred for Christianity! All the facts are there. They are not even insinuated; they are boldly spoken for the whole world to see for itself who the vanguards and exponents of modern science really are.

After the French Revolution, the philosophies began to realize that their blank, blind sermon of reason was no longer resonating with society's masses; so they quietly shifted gears and swung all the way to the other side of the ideological spectrum, pumping out one irrational theory after another behind the screen of science laboratories and in the bold mirror of public classrooms. They spewed their poisonous venom against Christianity's innocence in those tame, easily controlled classroom environments; thus turning the whole world against Christianity and capsizing the ship of natural order in society. Generation after generation of college and university students was cavalierly told that Christianity was a joke. This writer's professors told him that Christianity was an old, archaic religion that no longer had any relevance in human society. This is the God truth. These unscrupulous suckers used the big stick of grade to control their students, and some even bartered grades for sexual favors from female students. These are matters of public record: These salacious stories are in the news just about every day. The atheistic world is a lie that cannot follow rule of law. It is a law unto its own self-the only kind of law that exists as far as it is concerned. And this is the way the dashing boys of modern science do business: They lie and lie and lie and pervert and distort the natural order of things. Oh what a shame! What a cruel, pathetic shame!

What a breath-taking disgrace that has been wrought at the hands of these so-called founders of modern science; nonetheless, the Enlightenment's philosophies and their venal, brawny team of modern scientists cannot take all the blame for the fading of the gospel in the West. There have been other forces, not necessarily connected to the modern science conspiracy of fraud against the Christian religion. Western civilization's inextricable tie to Christianity cannot be concealed, as it was supposedly the principal driving force behind Europe's imperial domination of most of today's Third World countries during the age of Imperialism. When Cortes went into Mexico, he pulled no bones about his clear, unmistakable mission to convert the devil worshipers there – who, at the time, were Aztecs-to Christianity; so there is no need for modern scientists to act as if the West never knew anything about the Christian religion. In the process of converting these pagan cultures to Christianity, quite a bit of transfusion of their cultural ideas to Westerners took place; Accordingly, Christianity itself began to be diluted and polluted. In time, fervent Westerners lost much of their ardor for spreading the gospel and became more consumed with the profligate matters of empire building and the day to day affairs of the Mercantile System. Indeed, much proselytizing did occur; and many colonies, both in Africa and the West Indies, adopted the Christian worldview. Even the United States claimed that it went into Hawaii to convert the Hawaiian devils to Christianity. America should be ashamed of itself to advocate unnatural policies contrary to Christianity and to snub he gospel message. Shame on you America! Oh what a shame. You have back slid and fallen from thy spiritual pedestal of nobility and grandeur to the dark, acheronic cave of witchcraft an d devil worship. Oh shame on you, America. How dare you disrespect and dishonor the God that you once served!

In addition to modern science's crass rejection of the Bible, there were other forces at work in the steep decline of Christianity's hegemony and America's frightening back slip and nerve-wracking moral decline. Westernization of the world, fueled by power-hunger and greed, generated phenomenal imperial wealth; particularly to Western European countries, which began to lose their Christian focus in the process. As the Westernization of the world proceeded with much frenzied rapidly towards the close of the nineteenth century and all the way to the middle of the twentieth century; broad global changes, which had a powerful impact on the world's major cultures, began to transpire. The rapid rise of multinational corporations in the twentieth century, especially after World War II, was one the major game changers for the Christian religion. Business concerns fostered a more tolerant sociocultural environment in the world as a whole. Accordingly, Christianity's exclusive message and monopoly on truth became less and less tolerated by major Western countries. In other words, countries like Great Britain, Canada, and the United States slowly but surely began to snub the Christian message in favor of doing business with countries which the Bible deemed pagan, gentile nations. These gentile countries typically tended to have antichristian, polytheistic religious philosophies; which, of course, the major Western countries simply ignored. And today, all the chickens have come home roast in the West. It does not take rocket science to see that the West has lost its way in the world. It is manifestly obvious that something way of the ordinary is wrong with the West. Paradoxically, many former pagan countries which have adopted a Christian worldview, even only in part, are spanking Western countries front and back. Today, China has over three hundred and seventy million Christians stuffed away in underground churches, hiding from the authorities. The result: China is rapidly becoming the world's most powerful nation regardless of what America does. America switched to darkness, and all the wealth that Christianity brought her has left: China has embraced Christianity, even just in part; and all the wealth of the world has been flowing into the coffers of Chinese society. I wonder: How clearer does the message have to get for blind people in the West to see and understand how the world really works. Things have switched around in the world; China is now sending missionaries to witchcraft-peddling America. What a shame: What a disgrace!

The rapid rise of multinational corporations has played a lusty role in the fading of the gospel in the West. These giant corporations' immense, wealth-generating power produced an elite aristocracy which dabbles in other world religions and dangerous occultic practices. In this same vein, the rise of globalism knitted all the world's economies into one colossal, interdependent fiscal machine. This technocratic change produced even more intermingling between Western countries, which were once predominantly Christian in worldview, and pagan societies that were largely polytheistic and antichristian in their philosophical disposition. As a result, Western countries; for the sake of international trade benefits, began to distance themselves from the tangled web of Christianity's exclusivism. At this juncture, it is important to point out a rather noteworthy fact: While all these changes and switching maneuvers have been transpiring, few have noticed how closely all these changes in world politics have been lining up with the Book of Revelation. But, you see: that is exactly what is wrong with the world; it does not dot its I's and cross its T's. Man has failed to make the connections that are so critical to understanding what is really going on in this world. At the same time all this is happening, computers have been shoved to the forefront; and virtually everything today is computerized. This is another Book of Revelation connection that few have noticed, and the dramatic rise of evil in the world is a frightening alarm bell that, just behind the corner, the philosophies of the French Revolution are about to strike again. In the meantime, society has been getting darker and stranger than ever before.

At the same time all of these tenebrous changes are transpiring in the world, freedoms of all kinds are gradually drying up just about everywhere. Preachers of the gospel are cavalierly told what they can say and what they cannot say; in fact, new laws, carrying stiff prison terms for preaching the Bible; are already on the books. Hate speech nowadays can be defined as someone merely exercising his First Amendment Rights, muttering to a friend from a behind door that he disagrees with sodomy and loathes the idea of ​​gay marriage. That kind of rhetoric is now considered hate speech. Well, people are called ugly all the time: Is that hate speech? No, that is ordinary speech in our progressive American society. Come on, be a good sport; how could that be hate speech! You get the drift of which way things are going, don't you? Such preposterous perversion of rule of law is what's already on the Books, with more coming down the pipe. Where are the demonstrations in the streets? There aren't any. This is the sort of thing that fuels senseless civil wars in unwise human societies. The upshot of all of these brakes on moral endeavors is a society that, sooner or later, will inescapably unravel; and when it does, woe be unto those who are alive! Plugging up the mouth of the gospel is tampering with the mouthpiece of God himself. You don't even need very good vision to see what is happening in America. The violent beast of nature has been uprooting the pillars of American society one by one. Gradually, America has been falling apart one day at a time.

In addition to the Enlightenment's philosophies' indirect tampering with Christianity through modern science's lies and deceitful practices, and government phony manipulation of the law to bescreen their naked lies and perversion of the natural order of things; there have also been direct attacks on the Christian Faith by a new breed of philosophies. These ingenious machines of evil have joined the Christian Church in America and other Western countries under the phony umbrage of converting to the one true religion; moreover, many have even started Christian Churches, wiping the slate clean from the Bible and inventing brand new theologies. They have literally cast away the basic tenets of the gospel and introduced fresh, ear-tickling doctrines-foreign to the Bible-into the Christian Church. The result: A massive watering down of the gospel message and a burgeoning proliferation of Christian Churches that have absolutely no impact on, and make no difference in, society. The decline of Christianity in America, in particular, is due mainly to this type of tampering with the gospel. These twenty first-century philosophies know exactly what they are doing: They are bent on destroying the integrity of the gospel message-and they have done just that! The rise of occultism in America and Christian leaders' rank inability to deal with it and to Christianize society speak volumes.

This sort of spiritual wickedness also coincides with the eerie rise of rock stardom and gimmickry in the Christian Church of America. This new generation of philosophies is even wiser and more lupine than their modern science counterparts. They do not express any outward animosity towards the gospel message-they are the dashing preachers of the day. They simply toss the Bible out the way and drop the bomb of godlessness on innocent, unsuspecting, church-attending people; whose wallets are cavalierly snatched by passing the offering buckets more than a dozen times in a single service. These dashing boys of guile and gimmickry know how to hoop: they know how to raise their voices and gargle their throats to stir up the congregation like a wino's ice in a glass of wine. While all this is going on; the brash introduction of a flawed societal thought stream has done the rest of the damage.

The sudden appearance of rogue ideas such as tolerance, political correctness, and moral relativism has done incalculable, irredeemable damage both to society and the Christian Church. This new thought stream's speech-censuring mechanism has been very effective at keeping Christianity at bay-that is exactly what it was designed to do! In short, a brash machinery of speech manipulation and tampering with the dissemination of the gospel along with the vulpine tricks of modern science have virtually huffed and puffed the light of the gospel out of view. Oh how sad; how pathetic! In the meantime though, the catastrophic consequences of all this perverse wheeling and dealing behind the scenes of Western civilization have been evident just about everywhere. The news is awash with tears; people are crying and sobbing everywhere. American society is in trouble, and the trouble is showing up all over the place. Saddled with a fifteen trillion-dollar debt, Republicans and Democrats fight like animals in a dogfight gone wrong. This writer wonders: Who they are trying to fool-certainly not those who can plainly see the writings on the walls "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHRASIN!" Oh dashing philosophies of America, you are steering the ship of this country in the wrong direction; you better turn around, but this author knows that you won't. People who can see far into the future are not terrorists; they are just wise, humble servants and soldiers of truth. America, the door of doom is closing in on you, turn around before it's too late-MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHRASIN! The God of the heavens; not me, America; leaves you to figure out the rest!