Man’s Inhumanity…

WED, JUNE 17, 1998, 9:38 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

… in the name of… Me. Yes, o son, from these early years of Paul’s missionary journeys… with a message of love and salvation… there was hate, anger, and violence. The Jews were My chosen people, and their history told of their slavery in Egypt and of My rescuing them, through Moses… now called, in your “Bible School” “The Great Escape”. Yet even this was full of violence – the Egyptian soldiers following to kill these escapees… with them being crushed and killed by the waters of the Red Sea.

Their religion developed, and by the time of Paul it was established, ritualistic, and “set”. Because it had competition from other religions it had to “protect itself”. So now comes Paul, a Jew, a Pharisee, but one who has been chosen and directed by the resurrected Christ. Thus, in the Jewish context Paul interpreted this Jesus, Who was crucified on the insistence of the Jewish leaders and those influenced by them, as the Messiah. The Jews had waited for a Messiah, and Paul was preaching that He had come, and they had rejected and crucified Him.

And, further, he preached that this death was a willing sacrifice on the part of Jesus and His Father, God, and acceptance of this was the “new” means to salvation. The Jewish laws and restrictions were no longer necessary. But… man’s inhumanity was evidenced once again, by the descendants of those who had been enslaved victims. Paul’s new message, even as he tried to cloak it in Jewish traditions and theology, was a threat. When there is a threat to what you believe (and want to believe) what do humans do. Arrest, beat, and then kill the one who brings such a message.

Thus, it is easy to feel anger and hate for this kind of religious bigotry. Yes, there is a “time to love and a time to hate”. You have never lived in a situation or circumstance where your religion is seen as a threat to those who experience life differently… and, consequently, where you are seen as a threat who must be rejected, even harmed in some way.

And, as I say this, you realize that you have not spoken out, as Paul is doing, in these passages in Acts, about your experiences with the Triune God, and, most especially, with Me, Holy Spirit. Now it is true that I haven’t demanded this of you. I have not told you that you must attest boldly that I, Holy Spirit, do converse with you regularly and loquaciously. These Teachings, especially for you are, nevertheless, latter day revelations of how I see the earth and its life forms in this time, some 2,000 years after these Scriptural stories.

I continue to comment on…

… man’s inhumanity in this modern era. Jews, Muslims, and Christians oppose each other in the Middle East. Catholics and Protestants battle in Ireland. A “facet” of the Orthodox Church punishes and rejects the successful congregation of which Michael and Wendy are active. Hindus and Moslems in and around Kashmir contemplate the employment of nuclear warheads in order to maintain dominance over the other.