ISBN: 9781558250956
This book is published in what might be the most ideal way. The printing press is subsidized by the donations of congregations of the Church from which the book issues. Herbert Armstrong, the author, established a Church, although it appears that that Church has now, as of 2009, rejected those initial teachings and have substituted some other. This is probably “not good” as what Armstrong has to say is more correct than incorrect.
The basis of the book is that there are prophecies concerning Israel that do not appear to have been fulfilled. It is the contention of Armstrong that these promises have indeed been fulfilled, only the identity of the tribes fulfilling these scriptures has been lost. The key to this mystery, suggests Armstrong, is understanding who Israel is.
Armstrong takes careful pains to separate the term “Jew” from the label of “Israel”. The Jews, he argues, are people from the tribe of Judah. The Israelis, he argues, are not the same as the Jews. While this is a great argument in terms of semantics, it is not an especially good one in practice. One need only remember World War II history to recall that anyone that looked a certain way was labeled Jewish. If a person happened to be from the tribe of Benjamin, for instance, that was not a nuance the Nazi regime cared to make. Anything that did not fit the definition of Aryan was placed in a discard pile. Anything that looked Jewish, whatever tribe that might be, was placed first on that heap.
Next, Armstrong reveals who he thinks the identity of Britain and the United States is in terms of prophetic fulfillment. While the idea he presents here is not now perhaps a new one, it was definitely a newer concept when the book was first published back in 1980. The key to unraveling the identity of these places concerns, in part, what the definition of a Jew is or isn’t, along with the identity crisis that the US and Britain are having due to their own self-inflicted amnesia.
Armstrong deduces much about Britain and its role to Israel that are not necessarily born out by history. One need only recall, for instance, that Britain decided to deny the Holocaust survivors a place in the land of Israel after declaring that they supported such an endeavor to appreciate that Britain, whatever role it is playing, is not entirely the one Armstrong believes is occurring.
On the other hand, Armstrong deduces, well before it is more commonly accepted, that Saturday may well be the Sabbath day. He also correctly notices many aspect of the United States and its role in Israel and development and subsequent prosperity. He runs dangerously close, however, in more than a few moments, to instituting a kind of replacement theology that moves the throne of Jerusalem to other places and Kingdoms that are not, by definition Jerusalem. This kind of thinking can make for some unusual prophetic interpretations about who “actually” is Israel and who or what the King or Kingdom is. Ultimately, Armstrong points back at Christ as being this, and even identifies a lot of outward Christianity as a kind of fake version or religion that was instituted, in his accounting, by Simon the Sorcerer. While he makes this case, though, he also has a very pro-industrial attitude suggesting that all the manufacturing and steel industry is a blessing or favor from God. In terms of resources, he is probably correct, but the industrialization of the country could be argued to be a kind of curse as opposed to a blessing. Since Armstrong was born in 1892, it makes sense that he would have this opinion as his life would have been during the development of industry which was seen as a positive force for that generation although the two World Wars in between times should have been a hint that not all was as it seems.
Armstrong is, without a doubt, a kind of spiritual pioneer and he got more right than he got wrong. As someone who lived through the Holocaust period, though, he sounds a little too sympathetic to forces that are not necessarily Israel and in some cases had closer ties with the enemies of Israel and elements of the Catholic Church. Britain had to fight Germany mostly because it had no choice. It then had to have the help of America to finish the fighting. Britain was not allied to America because it wanted to be, but more because it had to be. Once that alliance was over, it was back to “business as usual” which included the typical “we are not especially supportive of America because of that whole American Revolution thing.” Indeed, if we examine the alliances of Britain in the current time period, does it appear to be more aligned with Israel, or Saudia Arabia?
Once again, Armstrong does conclude that some kind of world government is likely approaching, and it will probably be in Europe. What he doesn’t appear to see, however, is what parts of Europe might be engaged in these activities. If he were seeing it clearly, it might undermine his main thesis.
Still, the book is worth a read, and a valuable addition to any modern Church library. This edition was published sometime around 2007, and that is probably the best edition to get since, as mentioned, after 2009, some heavy revision came into view that reformed the entirety of the Church Armstrong helped to birth.
ISBN: 979-8985170832
Jim Watkins has emerged as a polarizing figure. The reason for his presence being cast in this manner has to do with his internet site that supports the 1st amendment concerning its implementation of free speech. This site is recognized world-wide and is called 8kun. The debate around both his and 8kun’s existence is over what free speech is, specifically on the internet. As free speech is a right, the debate is moot. If anything, the debate should revolve around what is libel and what is slander, and who or what does a person hold accountable in such instances?
When one has the above perspective lens, one can understand the influence behind the creation of the novel of Sliced Americana. Within the pages, we are thrust into the lives of many characters who are not especially good people or even all that likable. The presence of a malignant kind of Narcissism is one of the central issues in the novel. This Narcissism disallows one to follow, in the words of the novel, a person’s “angels”. A quantum perspective of reality is introduced which explains that each of these decisions leads to differing kinds of realities. Missed connections with one’s “angels” influences one’s trajectory through the hyperspace coordinate system. Usually, this missed connection does not end well for those in the book who fail to find or heed the necessary advice.
The beginning of the novel, however, is quick to give us such a moment wherein a central character undergoes a kind of Egyptian Osiris ritual and the object that defines him as a man is removed. The reason for the removal of this organ is due, in no small way, to his pursuit of love in “all the wrong places”. The themes of sex, desire, rape and murder feature heavily within the unfolding narrative. In some cases, the characters in question die. What they all share in common is that their narratives wrap around the existence of a type of ship that cruises around the Earth that is called the ROM or Read Only Memory. Each narrative introduces a character that goes through what is best termed a kind of Sci-fi purgatory complete with a purification process that literally squeezes the corruption of the flesh from the body. The ROM has its own mission, and is crewed by people or entities who have a knack for analyzing the vectors of reality in such a way as to be able to determine who will be a good addition to the team. The plot is vaguely reminiscent of the movie The Matrix although the world in which the events take place is fundamentally darker and more corrupt. Whereas in the movie The Matrix there is belief in a prophecy, in this universe, people have become Godless and are only pointed at the existence of Him fully once they are on board the ROM.
There is a moment in the book where we understand something about the scribe who is writing the tale, or at least we think we do. The writer is caught up in the interference pattern of the work as a whole, and with the collective souls who have come before and after. The reason we cannot conclude anything about the writer, at least within the confines of the tale, is that the work is also entangled with us, as the reader. If we use the metaphysical platform proffered by the author, in reading the work that Green and Watkins have made, are we listening to our angels, or have we ignored their advice? Perhaps the only thing that can be said is that there is the book, and there the reader read it.
The conclusion of the book is a poignant one and the message is important. Suffice it to say that prophecy does eventually enter into a possible version of what America might become. The future this work points to, however, is actually one of the past at least in terms of how the world unfolded. While it is true Spain tried to conquer Cambodia, it is also true that China tried to establish itself as a preeminent enlightened empire to the point that the rest of the world was not in China’s estimation and so a wall was built to keep it (the rest of the world) out. The final showdown then will not be between Egypt in an Osiris ritual and China, but rather China versus that which it rejected at the inception and then consequently aligned itself with Egypt against. Nonetheless, Watkin’s tale does make the story more relatable by cracking open the narrative from the perspective of Alexandria. In an academic world that does not believe in God, making the narrative depend on a more Egyptian mathematical understanding of its operation is a safer bet. Egypt was never a bastion off free speech, however. Here the tale takes some liberties in inviting the symmetrical comparison. Whatever it is that America is, an Osiris rite is not sufficient to convey its ideals. America aspires to be something else. 8kun certainly desires to be something else. Probably, both are closer to the characterization of Voltaire by Evelyn Beatrice Hall:
“Her book described an incident involving the French philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvétius who in 1758 published a controversial work titled “De l’esprit” (“On the Mind”). The book was condemned in the Parlement of Paris and by the Collège de Sorbonne. Voltaire was unimpressed with the text, but he considered the attacks unjustified. After Voltaire learned that the book by Helvétius had been publicly incinerated he reacted as follows according to Hall:
‘What a fuss about an omelette!’ he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that!
‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,’ was his attitude now."
Indeed, now that my markdown has both waxed blue and has returned to black, I must place my pen down upon the table and consider this work finished.
ISBN: 978-0945657873
The Star That Astonished the World was originally written in 1996. Since that time, it is evident that how time is calculated has shifted in some ways since one can see, if they happen to search for dates mentioned in this book, that different years are accorded to events like the lunar eclipse of January 10th. Whereas the book says this is 1 B.C. there are some which now suggest that eclipse happened in 0 instead. Perhaps this is an endorsement of Martin’s theories. Perhaps not. It is hard to know why a given place calculates time as it does even now, which is why what this book is trying to do–understanding the exact birth date of Messiah–is difficult.
The two prongs of the argument that Martin advances concern an inscription found for Quinctilius, the fellow who ordered Qurinius as a Legate to take the census. The argument advanced is that Quinctilius was governor of Syria twice. This would allow Qurinius, if so, to be able to conduct the census in 3 B.C. which would place him as a character administering the census to the pregnant Mary and the accompanying adoptive father, Joseph. The evidence used to promote this claim is historical precedence of the region allowing one to hold offices more than once, when certain wars and actions were taken against the Jewish population and how the historical record might be squared with these moments, and a stone of inscription that might refer to Quinctilius near his home. (it says he was Governor of Syria twice)
A considerable amount of time is spent discussing the death date of Herod as well, which the author identifies as right around January the 10th, 1 B.C. This was when the mentioned lunar eclipse in the source material of Josephus suggests is the point at which Herod dies. Before he dies, Herod, through the Sanhendrin, sentences two Jewish rabbis to death for removing a golden eagle from the gates of the temple. The two rabbis did not do this deed on their own, but had forty youths also assist them. They saw this eagle as being a sacrilege as it was an emblem of Rome over the gates to the temple. Herod has the two rabbis burned to death before he dies on the solar eclipse to try to suggest these two rabbis did not have the favor of YHVH behind them.
When these events are assumed, Martin is then able to deduce certain other historical events that square with the account that make sense of some instructions that were given to take Herod’s effects in Jerusalem by Roman decree after his death. Likewise, it is able to place the deaths of the Jewish believers in the temple which numbered around 3,000 as being in sequence with the “Wars of Varus”. The wars in this case concerned the awards that were given Quinctilius Varus for squashing the Jewish rebellion that occurred at that time. Varus, in this sequence, later loses three legions of Roman soldiers fighting the Germanic people in 9 A.D. This Quinctilius Varus is not the same person as Sulpicius Quirinius but is the one who ordered Quirinius to take the census.
The similarity of the Roman names make this a difficult read at times. All the eclipses and heavenly happenings also make for difficulty in ascertaining timing. Martin does use the many movements of the heavenly bodies of Jupiter and Venus and the Star Regulus to and the many conjunctions they made in the sky as a way to help pin the timing down that the Maji might have followed as well as the birth of the Messiah as a consequence. He notes that by the time the Maji arrived to see the child, many renditions of the account say that the Messiah was all ready able to stand as a toddler would. Therefore, Martin places the birth in around 3 B.C. and has the Maji arriving in 2 B.C. Interestingly, Martin places the birth of the Messiah on September the 11th which he says was the Jewish New year and accords with the Book of Revelation and the final trump or trumpets sounding.
What is evident in reading this work was just how “mixed up” everyone was from about 10 B.C. to 0. Rome is in a party mode and believes it is going to be the leader in a Golden Age of prosperity and enjoys some of its most peaceful moments. A “silver jubilee” is thrown. All the signs Rome sees it interprets as being unique to its destiny. In the mean time, Israel is dealing with Herod and the problems that presents, along with a census being issued by Rome of “all the people in the world”. Dates skip around, and reliable historians like Josephus appear to mix up dates or are inconsistent. Of course, it is also possible they were edited after the fact which make it even harder to understand what was happening at this juncture of time.
Martin makes a good case, however and gets us definitely in the ball park of a plausible timeline. The events that happened then seem to be trying to re-happen now, in a different manner than before. Has the final “Trump” sounded?