​Today’s equivalent to the Cuban Missile Crisis is the stand off between the Western Alliance and Russia over Syria. 
​
The past events of history are prologues for the future events yet to happen. Similarly, prophecies in the Bible that haven been fulfilled often serve as indicators for a greater future fulfillment. The prophecy in Isaiah 17, the destruction of Damascus, was fulfilled within a decade of Isaiah'a chilling prophecy. The military superpower of the day, the Assyrians, came in and did what they did best. Damascus was captured by Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria in 732 B.C. Ten years later, Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, fell to the Assyrians. One hundred years after Isaiah, Jeremiah prophesied the fall of the rebuilt city of Damascus. And, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took the city.

Today, Syria does not loot goods from Jacob. They did that in the past with the trade routes hence that reference by Isaiah. Today, Syria's singular offense is harboring Hezbollah. The destruction of Damascus it seems will happen again, and may well be one of the triggers to the blowback, which results in the time of Jacob's trouble and Armageddon, when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies.

The following are the Biblical passages typically associated with Damascus: Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 49:23-30, Zechariah 9:1-8, and Revelation 9.

Isaiah 17 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold Damascus shall cease to be a city, and shall be as a ruinous heap of stones. 2 The cities of Aroer shall be left for flocks, and they shall rest there, and there shall be none to make them afraid. 3 And aid shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: and the remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of Israel: saith the Lord of hosts. 4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean. 5 And it shall be as when one gathereth in the harvest that which remaineth, and his arm shall gather the ears of corn: and it shall be as he that seeketh ears in the vale of Raphaim. 6 And the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it, shall be as one cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of the olive tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough, or four or five upon the top of the tree, saith the Lord the God of Israel. 7 In that day man shall bow down himself to his Maker, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel. 8 And he shall not look to the altars which his hands made: and he shall not have respect to the things that his fingers wrought, such as groves and temples. 9 In that day his strong cities shall be forsaken, as the ploughs, and the corn that were left before the face of the children of Israel, and thou shalt be desolate. 10 Because thou hast forgotten God thy saviour, and hast not remembered thy strong helper: therefore shalt thou plant good plants, and shalt sow strange seed. 11 In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape, and in the morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is taken away in the day of inheritance, and shall grieve thee much. 12 Woe to the multitude of many people, like the multitude of the roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters. 13 Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters overflowing, but he shall rebuke him, and he shall flee far off: and he shall be carried away as the dust of the mountains before the wind, and as a whirlwind before a tempest. 14 In the time of the evening, behold there shall be trouble: the morning shall come, and he shall not be: this is the portion of them that have wasted us, and the lot of them that spoiled us. (Isaiah 17:1-14)

Jeremiah 49 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
23 Against Damascus. Emath is confounded and Arphad: for they have heard very bad tidings, they are troubled as in the sea: through care they could not rest. 24 Damascus is undone, she is put to flight, trembling hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her as a woman in labour. 25 How have they forsaken the city of renown, the city of joy! 26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets: and all the men of war shall be silent in that day, saith the Lord of hosts. 27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the strong holds of Benadad. 28 Against Cedar and against the kingdoms of Asor, which Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon destroyed. Thus saith the Lord: Arise, and go ye up to Cedar, and waste the children of the east. 29 They shall take their tents, and their flocks: and shall carry off for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels: and they shall call fear upon them round about. 30 Flee ye, get away speedily, sit in deep holes, you that inhabit Asor, saith the Lord: for Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived designs against you. (Jeremiah 49:23-30)

Zechariah 9 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
1 The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus the rest thereof: for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of Israel is the Lord's. 2 Emath also in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon: for they have taken to themselves to be exceeding wise. 3 And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together silver as earth, and gold as the mire of the streets. 4 Behold the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. 5 Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Scallion shall not be inhabited. 6 And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. 7 And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite. 8 And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going and returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them: for now I have seen with my eyes. (Zechariah 9:1-8 )

Revelation 9 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
13 And the sixth angel sounded the trumpet: and I heard a voice from the four horns of the great altar, which is before the eyes of God, 14 Saying to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet: Loose the four angels, who are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year: for to kill the third part of men. 16 And the number of the army of horsemen was twenty thousand times ten thousand. And I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: and they that sat on them, had breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone, and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions: and from their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and brimstone. 18 And by these three plagues was slain the third part of men, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For, their tails are like to serpents, and have heads: and with them they hurt. 20 And the rest of the men, who were not slain by these plagues, did not do penance from the works of their hands, that they should not adore devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither did they penance from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their fornication, nor from their thefts. (Revelation 9:13-21)

Never underestimate the power of women. In the ancient world, worship of the Mother Goddess was almost universal. In the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance period, manuscripts and books were produced to warn men in places of power of the wiles and power of women.

Consider Jahel (Yah'el in Hebrew), Heber's wife, who drove a tent peg through the skull of their enemy. In the Book of Judges we read, "So Jahel Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and taking also a hammer: and going in softly, and with silence, she put the nail upon the temples of his head, and striking it With the hammer, drove it through his brain fast into the ground: and so passing from deep sleep to death, he fainted away and died." (Judges 4:21) 

Who was this poor fool? Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin of Hazor, who sough to "raise his stars above the stars of God."

And, consider Judith, who in the Deuterocanonical text bearing that name, beguiled the enemy for the purpose of severing his head from his body.

In Judith we read, "And when it was grown late, his servants made haste to their lodgings, and Vagao shut the chamber doors, and went his way. And they were all overcharged with wine. And Judith was alone in the chamber.
4 But Holofernes lay on his bed, fast asleep, being exceedingly drunk. And Judith spoke to her maid to stand without before the chamber, and to watch: And Judith stood before the bed praying with tears, and the motion of her lips in silence, Saying: Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, and in this hour look on the works of my hands, that as thou hast promised, thou mayst raise up Jerusalem thy city: and that I may bring to pass that which I have purposed, having a belief that it might be done by thee. And when she had said this, she went to the pillar that was at his bed's head, and loosed his sword that hung tied upon it. And when she had drawn it out, she took him by the hair of his head, and said: Strengthen me, O Lord God, at this hour. And she struck twice upon his neck, and cut off his head, and took off his canopy from the pillars, and rolled away his headless body." (Judith 13:1-10)

Who was this poor fool? Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, who thought he could get some action on the side while invading Judea for plunder. Like the Canaanites in the Book of Judges, he though he could raise his "stars above the stars of God."

Finally, consider the flip side to these heroines from the great tales of the Bible. Consider Salome, the  daughter Herod II and Herodias. She was the offspring of intermarriage between Edomites and the sell out Levites, who had embraced Hellenism (today we would call it multiculturalism and progressive liberalism). John the Baptist had been imprisoned for challenging her mother's honor through his accusations that Herod should not be sleeping with his brother's wife. Enamored by her beauty no doubt, Herod promised her anything if she would but dance. Let me entertain you, she did. Her feminine charms come down to use as the Dance of the Seven Veils. In exchange for what must have been a breathtaking performance, she demanded the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter.

In the gospel account according to the apostle Matthew we read, "For Herod had apprehended John and bound him, and put him into prison, because of Herodias, his brother's wife. For John said to him: It is not lawful for thee to have her. And having a mind to put him to death, he feared the people: because they esteemed him as a prophet. But on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and for them that sat with him at table, he commanded it to be given. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a dish: and it was given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother." (Matthew 14:3-11)

The poor fool was Herod, who had been played, because he regretted what he had promised to do. 

Love them. Fear them. Revere them. God knows what women are capable of in order to protect those they love. The lessons from the Bible are clear: Men, be careful, be mindful, and be ever respectful, because you could lose your head. 

Jerusalem is at the center of Jewish and Christian belief and much of the Bible. Jerusalem is believed to be the throne of God on earth, and a river flows from beneath the throne. Beneath the city’s Temple Mount is the Gihon spring, one of the four rivers from paradise.

​But, as the “eternal” and “undivided” capital of Israel, this is the stuff of religious and political propaganda, and political claims awaiting the conclusions of military conflicts and divine intervention to settle this simmering dispute.

The City of David, not too far from the birthplace of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, will be the trigger for Armageddon. And, it is to Jerusalem that Jesus Christ will return.

Since 1947, Jerusalem has been earmarked by the international community as an international city, a corpus separatum, which is Latin for a separate body. In spite of this, both Jews and Arabs claim Jerusalem as their capital city. One insists on a unified city. The other insists on a divided city. Neither side can come to a peace agreement. Both sides refuse to come to a peace agreement. Each side blames the other for the impasse. And, the give war a chance crowd, the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has triumphed. Like it or not, we are going to be dragged into Armageddon, and play a leading role.

In its long history, the city of Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times, and destroyed twice.

Jerusalem, as a matter of historic fact, has only served as a capital city for one other kingdom upon this earth. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem ruled from the city from ​1099 until 1187. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem came about in response to Muslims having desecrated the tomb of Christ and making it too dangerous for Christians to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. As a medieval feudal kingdom, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was ruled over by the following kings:

1100–1118 Baldwin I

1118–1131 Baldwin II

1131–1152 Melisende

1131–1143 Melisende with Fulk 

1143-1152-1163 Baldwin III

1163–1174 Amalric I

1174–1185 Baldwin IV

1185–1186 Baldwin V

They were not Jews, Arabs, or Muslims. They were not Turks, Egyptians, or Persians. They were unapologetic Franks and Normans - north western Europeans, Christians who practiced the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.

During the Islamic periods before and after the control of Jerusalem by Latin Christians, the city was never a capital city to others. It was just a holy city to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Only ancient Israel, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the modern State of Israel have had Jerusalem as a capital city.

In response to America’s December 6, 2017 announcement of its embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Palestinians, along with much of the Muslim and Arab world via the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on December 13, 2017 declared East Jerusalem, which is the Arab quarter, to be the capital of a hoped for State of Palestine.

The Temple Mount is located in East Jerusalem. This is where the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre sit.

So, this Christmas season, we remember the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, in Bethlehem. And, we can plainly see that the time approaches for the culmination of all things.

Jesus, the lamb of God, was born to die for all of us. The Christmas story points to Good Friday and Easter. It also points to the return of Christ as noted in the Nicene Creed - from the right hand of the Father, He will come again to judge the living and the dead. He will again cleanse the Temple to make it fit for proper worship.

Pointing to 70 AD as well as his return, Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matthew 23:37-39)

When he was taken away to be crucified, the women of Jerusalem cried, because they knew. “But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us. For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:29-31)

The Jews of the High Priest Caiaphas' Israel rejected, humiliated, and had their Messiah crucified at the hands of the Romans. This they did when they were “green.” Still young. They had gone through a series of attempts at self governance: patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, priests, and after the time of Christ - teachers, or rabbis.

Now, two thousand years later, secular atheism and Talmudic Judaism define the State of Israel. As a dry tree, in an apostate state, with out the sap of God’s Spirit as defined in the New Testament, the State of Israel hosts gay pride parades in Tel Aviv. This odd fact underscores the prophetic accuracy of the Scriptures, which lament that if God had not saved a remnant, Israel would become like Sodom. In fact, the Book of Revelation denounces Jerusalem as Sodom and Egypt.

At the apex of ancient Israel, two whores came to King Solomon to settle a custody dispute over a child. One was willing to have the child cut in half, which betrayed the grief for the loss of her own child. And, in Solomon’s wisdom, the child was given to the rightful mother, who wanted to preserve the child in one piece.

So is the case with Jerusalem and the litigants - the whores. Each is guilty of misrepresentations - lies and thefts. Yet, only one is truly entitled to lay legitimate claim. And, as a result, the consequences will be far worse than cutting a child in half.  In our day, Jerusalem has become a cup of trembling. (Zechariah 12:2)
The nations will be gathered against Jerusalem, two thirds of Israel will die. (Zechariah 13:8 ) The dry dead wood will be burned. “Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.” (Joel 3:13) And then the LORD will suddenly appear to fight to preserve the surviving remnant. In that day, all will know that the LORD is a wall, a shield, around His people.

Thieves and liars are not numbered among His people. As the angels proclaimed that first Christmas Day, “Peace on earth to men of good will.” These are those without guile, the misrepresentations, treachery, and thievery. 

This Christmas season, we should all pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

With the opening of the Museum of the Bible close to the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, I could not help but notice several evangelical groups jumping on the bandwagon to celebrate the ideas, works, and legacy of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and by extension his most rotund excellency, his royal majesty Henry VIII.

Alison Brown, a spokesperson for Museum of the Bible, appeared in an October 2017 video posted to Facebook and stated that in the early Sixteenth Century the Roman Catholic Church had degenerated, or devolved, into a system of penances and indulgences and thanks to the rise of humanism and the existence of Gutenberg’s press, Luther’s theology came forth to rescue Western Europe. 

But, these are just simplistic, in fact, they are dumbed down, views of key historical events that result in distorted politicized narratives to advance propaganda. And, they end up in comic book theology by the likes of Chick Tracts, which is designed for fifth graders or those, who rely on comic strips for their history and theology.

As the wonders of serendipity played out, I happened to be in a Lutheran Church as a venue for a home owner’s association meeting in October 2017. And there, in a Lutheran Church, which takes its name and theology from Martin Luther, was a Roman Catholic flyer for an Indulgence. The fact is the sacrament of confession and the issuance of indulgences exist to this day within the Roman Catholic Church. And, the fact that this flyer was near the altar in a denomination with friendly ties with the Vatican indicates that the wild fire that inspired Luther’s own state church has fizzled out.

This installment seeks to provoke the questions as to whether we should celebrate or reflect and reassess during the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Was it a reformation or a revolt? Should we celebrate or reassess? Did the protestors achieve their aims? Has their legacy succeeded or failed? Or worse, was the Protestant Reformation the beginning of the great apostasy - the great falling away - mentioned in the Bible as a sign of the beginning of the end - a prerequisite for the appearance of history’s last two men to deceive and terrorize the earth prior to the Second Advent?

Mythologized History
In your run of the mill Protestant propaganda and mythologized history, the narrative can imply this: Prior to Luther the powers that be had outwitted the Almighty and undermined the saving power of the Gospel. From the time of the Emperor Constantine to Luther, salvation had been blocked by the craftiness of men. Hence during that 1200 year period, when the Roman Catholic Church dominated Western European culture, the salvation that Jesus Christ and the Apostles preached ceased to become possible. And thus, due to the incompetence and impotence of God, as is the underlying premise, it took the competence of the German Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, to rescue Western Christendom from the works of the devil and his lies. 

The Revolt
Machiavelli’s political playbook called The Prince was more responsible for the Protestant revolt than Luther’s 95 Thesis. The ideas and their justifications in that political treatise had spread across Europe. The reformers did not reform, they revolted, curried favor with secular princes, and then together established their own state sponsored churches. The revolt then became violent. 

Luther’s appeal to his own conscience - the divine right of conscience, if you will - trumped the Pope’s claim to apostolic succession and any king’s claim to the divine right of rulership. This maneuver of circular reasoning was indeed clever, but it was also the same maneuver described in Genesis prior to the fall - you shall become gods, and decide for yourselves. With Luther’s words, “... to go against conscience is neither right nor safe,” the opportunity had presented itself to the princes of Europe to continue in the centuries old tug of war with the church as to whose sword should be held higher: that of the church or that of the temporal power. Those in political power, it certainly seemed, could appeal to conscience rather than to orthodox doctrine, bishops, or tradition.

What followed Luther’s epiphany was not a reformation, but a series of religious wars more horrific than World War I. My French ancestry traces back to The Thirty Years War, when Etienne and Antoine Hebert fled the Old World due to the apocalypse unleashed onto northern Europe thanks to Luther. Academics playfully refer to Luther as a bull in a china cabinet. Art historians see him as just a jack ass among the fine porcelain that had been handed down by previous generations.

These “reformers” then acted like the Taliban, like the Shiites, and like the Ottomans. They destroyed the great murals painted on the church walls - and destroyed far more than that. I have been to several English Cathedrals, like the one in Durham, England, and have seen with my own eyes what happened during the reign of Edward VI. The Romanesque period illustrations depicting many of the key narratives from the Bible - they were all gone. White washed, as if they had never existed. What happened was no different than what had happened when the Ottoman Turks took the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The barbarians - yes these so called reformers - vandalized so much of the sacred art, our shared cultural legacy. When I saw the great Durham Cathedral in England, I remembered the same horror, the same feeling of disgust and contempt that I had felt when years earlier I saw the stripped bare walls at the hands of Islamic zeal within the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.

There was little difference between these reformers and the jihadists other than the profession of their different faiths. They were cut out of the same fabric. The reformers produced wild fire that scorched all in its path.

But, is the comparison of the Protestant “reformers” with Islamic jihadists truly fair? Recall that after the Jews of Medina refused to recognize Mohammed as a prophet, Mohammed turned on the Jews with violence and the Khyber Massacre followed. Similarly, after the Jews refused to convert and heed Luther’s version of the Gospel, Luther directed the confiscation of their books, the burning of synagogues, the denial of safe passage, and more.

Luther’s theology of the Jews, in fact, had laid the ground work for Adolph Hitler’s attempt to wed German Lutheranism with the politics of Nazism. Though that failed, the cultural ground work laid by Luther made it easy for the rise of Hitler. 

In contrast, it should be recalled, Bernard of Clairvaux, a Roman Catholic, forbade harm or ill will directed towards the Jews living in Europe. Jews served as a living testimony of the covenant of God with His ancient people as well as a testimony of His wrath given their scattering. During the Holocaust, Pope Pius XII helped save close to a million Jews as recorded by both Jewish historians and as enshrined in the Holocaust Museum in Israel. But, these are inconvenient facts that undercut Protestant mythology.

Wild Fire in the Minds of Men
As early as John Wycliffe and with Martin Luther, as noble as their efforts may have seemed to them and their followers in producing a Bible in the vernacular, what resulted were Peasant Revolts. Strange fire in the minds of sincere and easily misguided men took hold. Then, the heavy hand of the state came in to maintain order. What later followed was worse with the likes of Henry VIII, who was a thief, a liar, and a murderer. He declared himself head of his state church, he seized the assets of the Roman Catholic Church, and he also murdered, or should we say lawfully executed, many of his wives. He did not have the decency to unilaterally divorce his many wives and grant them estates with an allowance. Instead, he had their heads cut off in public. Animals do not behave like this great English reformer and patron to the English Bible.

Jean Cohen, better known as John Calvin, was an early user of the term Architect of the Universe to describe God. It is a term embraced by Freemasons, and he headed the Reform Movement - a theological term to describe his sect, which was created outside of the Roman Catholic Church. With the advent of Calvin’s theology and the new permissibility to lend with interest, international money lenders returned to England during the reign of Oliver Cromwell and established the Bank of England, a central bank. Usury had been forbidden since 1290 when the Jews had been expelled, under royal decree - the first of its kind - due to usury, debasing of the currency through the widespread clipping of coins, and the public outcry against foreclosures, which in 1215 the Magna Carta had addressed - no deed in lieu of foreclosure - must have a trial by jury. Financial capitalism and total depravity work well together as is evidenced in any economic crisis.

No American Protestant in their right mind would have wanted to live in Queen Elizabeth’s England or John Calvin’s Geneva if they knew what these people had created and the penalties for not abiding during their tenure. The same is true of Oliver Cromwell’s England when the Geneva Bible wielding Puritans took control. Yet, in all romanticized and mythologized histories, villains are transformed into saints, tyranny is transformed into religious liberty, and of course doctrinal heresies are transformed into the new orthodoxy.

The Legacy
With the blows inflicted onto the church by Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII, Christendom as a unified whole had been divided, and it ceased to function as it had in the past. What followed the Protestant Reformation, the revolt, were incremental degrees of progressive absurdities and increasing stupidities, and it exists in America with a thousand and one designer denominations as evidence that we live in the Age of Apostasy. 

The Bible did not produce the Age of Apostasy where heresy is the new orthodoxy. The so called “reformers,” their Sixteenth Century formulas for salvation, and their fanatical followers did all of this as they completely forgot how to read a narrative, and instead became jolted by the staccato produced by verse numbers that inspired one line theologies as the basis for new sects and cults. When not satisfied with that, the chain reference method of study came to play as the narrative on the page was thrown out. This was made worse by preachers playing hop scotch with the Scriptures with, “Now turn with me in your Bibles here and there and back to here ... “ in order to create novel edifices for ever new doctrines, practices, and more. The power of a narrative from the Bible to speak to the hearer had been lost. In its place rose the charismatic preacher, who would later insist that the letter of the Word was dead as was orthodoxy.

Today, we see the mythologizing of history with overlays of heroic Protestant theology in the form of David Barton’s patriotic Christianity and our American heritage. While it’s true that many of our founding fathers held to Christian values, their deistic theology and anti super natural rationalism suggests that they were not Christians. The Christians, who settled the English colonies that became the United States of America, were Anglicans in Jamestown; Puritans in Plymouth; Catholics in Maryland; Moravians, Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish in Pennsylvania, and so forth. These were indeed good, God fearing people, who wanted to leave Luther and Calvin’s aftershocks behind them as England and Europe continued to quake. 

Many of the political founders of the Republic, in contrast, were theological deists, and members of secretive societies like George Washington’s Freemasons and Thomas Jefferson’s Rosicrucians. When things did not suit their fancies, like Thomas Jefferson, they took a razor knife to the Scriptures and cut out all of the offending passages - “like dung” to use this enlightened President’s own words - and cast them aside so that the gems could shine. Though Jefferson debased the Scriptures, Museum of the Bible, in one of its other videos posted to social media, considers the Jefferson Bible, the anticipation of higher literary criticism and the Jesus Seminar, worthy of show casing. 

One of the first Black Lives Matter movements was lead by John Brown, an abolitionist, who decided to take action rather than secure the power of the Spirit - as did Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles - all of whom were partakers to different degrees to the promised Divine Nature. In John Brown, a Bible believer, one man’s freedom fighter became another man’s terrorist. Brown was indeed in the moral right to demand the liberation of the enslaved peoples from Africa - those, who had been reduced to the legal status of property by a deranged Republic dominated by Freemasons and even regarded by many as a curiosity of God’s creation belonging to a pre Adamic race and beyond the pale of redemption. Where the Spirit of God is not, human reason informed by a Scripture verse or two intervenes and the result is not always nice. Brown was hanged by the neck until dead for his failed efforts.

The rippling of ironies of this tug of war between the church and state across history are seen in the symbolism in Annapolis, Maryland where State Circle sits at a higher elevation than Church Circle. The state’s governor is the head of the Episcopal Church, and during two terms as the state’s first Jewish governor, Marvin Mandel, a non believer in Jesus Christ, was also the head of the Episcopal Church. Mandel was forced out of political office due to corruption. That same church ordained women and openly homosexual men, and blessed same sex unions - all of these things affronts and mocking parodies of the values clearly described in the Bible. Yet, with “Here I stand, I can do no other ...” and Luther’s Five Solas, “Who am I to judge?" - to quote Pope Francis with intended irony.

The End is Near
Today, Bible wielding charlatans dominate the airwaves on television and radio and appeal to the come as you are crowd, willing to send in a check in exchange for prosperity since these gullible victims, sheeple, are not taught to repent, to transform their thinking, intentions, speech, associations, and behavior. Oh no. Why place demands on people to change their lives when just faith alone can be easily received. After all, the old religion was stuck in the Dark Ages, which they will remind us, though that phrase came from a hater of the church and atheist: Voltaire.

The legacy of the Protestant Reformers also includes the freak side show of Bible believing pentecostal snake handlers and strychnine drinkers in Appalachia. In those hills, gawkers come in to observe the spectacle where side bets are placed as to whether the ambulance will be called yet again to haul away the fool slain not for tempting God, but for his own idiocies.

And, consider the Messianic Jews and the Hebrew Roots Movement types. Fake “rabbis,” who have never studied at a yeshiva, preach in places where crosses have been removed - so as not to offend. From them we learn that there is no salvation in the gentile church, his name is not Jesus, it’s Yeshua, and God’s sacred name is spelled G-d in order to give everyone yet more reason to laugh. But, these subversive mamzars, Israel first Zionist infiltrators, who denounce the Catholic, Orthodox, and even Protestant churches as gentile churches, exist to make Judaism or atheism look like reasonable alternatives to faith in Christ. (Recall that in 1983, Marilyn Ferguson explained in her book The Aquarian Conspiracy that the churches would be infiltrated and subverted). They want to dismantle Western culture, which includes public celebrations of Christmas, because these “pagan celebrations” compete with their narrative that hates the legacy of the church of the ha goyim. Among them are the likes of the pentecostal messianic Dr. Michael Brown, who once said on his radio broadcast, “We cannot let the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty become the face of American Christianity.” Why? The 2016 Christian documentary film by Steve Bannon called Torchbearer featured Phil Robertson - and not a Jew, a Freemason, or one of their kind. 

Instead of taking on the murder of the unborn, legalized by Roe v Wade, we see the likes of the messianic Jonathan Cahn, another self-proclaimed rabbi, who waged a theatrical complaint about the proposed erection of the Temple of Baal in Manhattan. With the triumph of symbolism, the painful reality of child sacrifice continues, and the supernatural portal to permit evil spirits to flow into this dimension is the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court - not a recreation of Greco-Roman architecture to call attention to Muslims in the middle east destroying historic artifacts. Yet, such is the absurd state of what passes as Christianity in America where “... to go against conscience is neither right nor safe” is the banner of truth rather than millennia old orthodox doctrine to inform and guide us.

And so, many reject or walk away from Christ not for rising from the dead, but because of the televised idiocies done in his name and the nonsense done on the weekends, which are then showcased on YouTube. And with Luther’s Five Solas in hand, the fig tree that Christ said would not again bear fruit in their mind is God’s gift that keeps on giving and giving to humanity. Dr. Michael Brown, again, underscores the problem of his own making with, “We have created defective disciples.” Yes, this is what happens due to defective motives, defective theology, defective methods, and defective and deceptive practices.

The apple never falls far from the tree. Amidst the morphing of charismatic and pentecostal beliefs and practices in America there has been explosive growth in what should rightfully be called the all embracing Lunatic Fringe. Women moan like cows, men bark like dogs, prophecies never come to pass, well educated church goers drop dead when faith healing does not occur, and preachers blame those in the cushioned seats for not having enough faith. In these bizarre mental constructs that is post Protestant charismatic and pentecostal belief, instead of people heading for the exits, they are mesmerized by the “thou shalt not judge or touch God’s anointed” directives as these charlatans tweak their messages and when necessary become carpet baggers as they move on to exploit other equally uninformed and vulnerable audiences. Among them, another  pentecostal messianic, Sid Roth, functions like a Jerry Springer, show casing the latest in the bizarre from the fly over states or the inner cities for those desirous of the signs and wonders and the new things that God is doing in the earth. But, as Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has insisted, “Who needs God? We have Talmud!” So, with religion in America as it is, the atheist rabbi has a point.

The most articulate denunciation of the confusion and nonsense does not come from the Roman Catholic Church, but ironically from John McArthur, who embraces the theology of John Calvin. But, his books ranging from Charismatic Chaos to Strange Fire, which denounced charismatic and pentecostal theologies and practices, are far too polite, because Twentieth Century Christianity is witness to the unveiling of another Jesus, another Gospel, and a spirit quite different from the old time religion of the founders of the faith. And, as irony would have it, McArthur once stated a believer in Christ could repent after receiving the mark of the beast, thus earning him dis-accredidation among listeners.

Instead of Sacred Scripture, the Bible as politics and propaganda to promote foreign policy in the middle east came about due to the amazing C.I Scofield and his reference notes, all coincidently assembled when the World Zionist Congress was eyeing Palestine to advance the Rothschild funded colonial settlement project for the Jews. When Dallas Theological Seminary made the Scofield Bible its Bible in the early 1900s, it only took a couple of generations for Christian Zionism to rise into political prominence as that ideology subverted and displaced long held values of pacifism and social justice. Today, the two beasts stand among us. He looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon, the serpent of old. He is a clever devil. Deceptive. And, an adversary to the truth.

The hundreds of translations into the same language leave those, who indeed seek God, befuddled. With the spirit of inclusiveness and accommodation in mind, even Charles Darwin, Teilhard de Chardin,​ or an atheist would not be as offended to read, “And a wind from God blew over the face of the waters” rather than “And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.” In the post reformation era, these are just words, after all, and not Sacred Scripture. Ask any King James Version Only Bible believer, and you will get schooled on the foolishness - in fact, the satanic nature - of the modern translations. And, here in modern Bible translation theory and practice we have the bastard step child of higher literary criticism, like Luther, a uniquely German phenomenon.

Dykes, lesbians living in sin with other women, sit in the highest of religious offices in some mainline Protestant denominations. And, in others, same sex unions and marriages take place - grave offenses that would have made the ancient Greeks and Romans blush, because they, actually knew better. Yet, like it or not, these abominations are among the fruits of the Protestant Reformation. These are all part of Luther’s legacy - where each man, sitting under his own fig tree, can decide for himself with him and the Bible alone as to what constitutes sound doctrine and right conduct.

When new error is piled on top of old error, and greater errors seek to out do milder errors, we have religion in America, or as Ross Douthout titles his book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. It is non denominational, inter denominational, it is mainline churches subverted by Freemasons, Zionists, feminists, New Age occultists, and homosexuals all with an agenda, and each seeking to force fit its vision for the future onto the Bible and their undiscerning followers. No less than a Billy Graham, a Freemason, spread the Gospel, albeit a watered down version, to a generation mired in the sexual and drug revolution. 

It is packed with imposter apostles, fake prophets, lying signs and wonders, and just cold comfort for change. Among them the parade of ass clowns entertain the herd of goats. And the prophet Balaam rides again with the wind in his back and even ministers in the oval office.

The Green family, in its $500 million worth of wisdom in building the Museum of the Bible, saw fit to include on its board of directors Rick Warren, who has a dark cloud of many internet rumors hanging over him of promoting Chrislam, the idea that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Whether true or not, there are many who do not approve of Warren ... perhaps due to his ties with the Council on Foreign Relations, that policy group that provides the U.S. State Department with its marching orders.

So, my advice to the Museum of the Bible is to hold a dedication ceremony of their holding of the Jefferson Bible and invite the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and the like, ditch the dumbed down Protestant theology and opinions on the Reformation, drop the mythologized and romanticized historical narratives, and reduce the collection of actual Bibles that will be on display to just artifacts. Without objectivity and neutrality, controversies and offenses are inevitable. 

​October, Friday the 13th came and went. That said, that particular day was an auspicious day for at least two reasons. First, the unluckiness of the day has its origins in the slaughter of the leading international bankers of medieval Europe - the Knights Templar. Second, that day this year marked the hundredth anniversary of the visions of the Virgin Mary appearing to three children at Fatima, Portugal during World War I.

In the middle ages, the worst person to be was a lender, who had a huge book of receivables with the royal house as the leading client. This was the singular reason for the expulsion of Jews from nation after nation in medieval Europe. If the king could not repay due to moral hazard - borrowing more than his ability to repay, the solution was to enact the royal cram down - or simply abolish the debt by seizing the book of business while enacting an edict of expulsion. This happened in England in 1290, the first of its kind. But, what happened in 1314 in France was a slaughter. The establishment turned against its finest and against its own - and butchered them out of existence and the survivors fled into hiding. King Louis the Fair had 5,000 Knights Templar arrested under an array of insulting and damning charges. What began as a noble cause through Bernard of Clairvaux in 1128 came to a shameful end in 1314. The king could not repay. The king refused to repay. When the king is the law, the case is closed. It happened on Friday the 13th.

In the early Twentieth Century, during World War I, the Virgin Mary appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal. Crowds gathered along with secular journalists and scoffers like the Freemasons, who showed up to ridicule. It was October 13th. The Freemasons, who came to scoff, ended up bombing a chapel in Fatima that had later been dedicated to the Visions. What was the message of the apparitions? Repent. Wars are the scourge of God for living life outside the will of God. World War I ended, but a worse world war followed. Today we sit on the precipice of more wars, expanding wars, and even fears of new wars. 

And so, October, Friday the 13th came and went. Yet, we all know deep down that talks of peace, blustering talk, and kicking the can down the road - whether it is debt-related or nuclear technology-related - will eventually give way to the chastisement, the scourge, and the painful correction - where the living survivors will envy the dead.

There are key themes embedded in the narratives throughout the Bible. One of these themes is the names recorded in the book of life. The second book of Moses, called Exodus, records the names of the children of Israel, who went in and then came up out of Egypt. God had liberated them through Moses. 

"... the names of the children of Israel, that went into Egypt with Jacob: they went in, every man with his household:   Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Juda, Issachar, Zabulon, and Benjamin,  Dan, and Nephtali, Gad and Aser.  And all the souls that came out of Jacob's thigh, were seventy ...."

Moses, whose name means drawn from the water, kills the task master. Similarly, those baptized into Christ put to death the sinful taskmaster at work in their carnal natures. The end result is the promise in Revelation, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ in the final redemption. Those, who overcome shall be called sons of God. Their names will be forever recorded in the book of life.

​Our tribute to this central theme of redemption is beautifully depicted in our gold leaf illuminated by hand page from the Crusader era Romanesque Bible in English, which we hope to produce. 

This year, Rosh Hashanah falls on September 20th, and it marks the New Year in the calendar that marks times and seasons, or appointed times, in the Bible.  

You can own this double-matted collectible print by ordering it today online or by calling (or texting) 240-559-8535 to order.

We zeroed in on a book binder. We then tested the binder’s workmanship with a hard covered high end facsimile edition of the 1611 King James Bible produced by The Bible Museum, Inc.

Our specifications were for a period binding in black Moroccan leather with raised bands. We were so pleased with the workmanship and the transformative end result that we decided to broaden the scope of Reproduction Bibles to include Renaissance and Reformation period Bibles in facsimile where we step in as a Value Added Reseller by providing select offerings in hand crafted period bindings in real leather.

This facsimile reproduction of the 1611 King James Bible, first edition, measures approximately 11 inches tall by 8.75 inches wide by 3.5 inches thick, and weighs about 10 pounds. It is big. It is heavy. And, it is beautiful.

This King James Bible has crisp and sharp details. Each page was computer-scanned from the original, and printed on heavy cream colored paper. The period binding we have produced finishes this Bible into a master piece. A collector’s item.

The black letter typeface of the original King James Bible builds on the earlier Authorized Versions for the Church of England. We believe that the punch cutter for the blackletter typeface was Dutch. That same typeface was used in the Great Bible of Henry VIII, the Bishop's Bible under Queen Elizabeth, and also the King James Bible.

This edition contains the full prefatory content: The Dedication to King James, the translator's To The Reader Preface, the Calendar, the Holy Land Map, the Genealogy, and of course the entire Old Testament, Intertestamental Books (as specifically mandated by King James), and New Testament. This bible is exactly as it was published in 1611. It's the real thing as authorized by King James and appointed to be read in the churches. 

Some curiosities:  The word “Easter” is not in any Hebrew, Greek, or Latin Bible, yet it appears in the King James Bible. Also, the name “Lucifer” is not in any Hebrew or Greek Bible, yet it appears in the King James Bible. That word is Latin and comes out of the Vulgate, which the translator’s claimed they distanced themselves from.The fact is this: the King James Bible translators looked to the Douai-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate into English. The New Testament translation was relied upon more so than the Bishop’s Bible to inform its eventual direction, and the Old Testament was looked at to convey the key concept of God’s arch rival for the hearts and minds of men.

Bibles like this, pulpit Bibles, sell for about $700 and up. We have priced ours at $525. That is about ten times the cost of a typical Bible that too often ends up in a used bookstore, but this one is a hundred times nicer and destined to become a treasured family heirloom. We will dedicate a portion of the sale of this Bible to Hurricane Harvey relief.

Reproduction Bibles is pleased to announce that our first to print publication in the que will be a 36 line baby Gutenberg in a hand held format. This edition will be approximately 7 1/2” wide x 11” tall. This is larger than your typical bible, which tends to measure in at a smaller size and with smaller text sizes as well.  Our edition will be 15” wide x 11” tall when opened.  This edition is similar to what is properly known as the Bamberg Bible.

The mathematics behind our design format seeks to be as close as possible to the golden ratio, or the 2:1 ratio, which is why a well designed book such as the Gutenberg Bible is pleasant to look at when opened. Simply put, the width of a page is two-thirds its height. The same formula applies to the text block. That is the secret embedded in the medieval manuscript bibles as well as the Gutenberg, which sought to come as close as possible in order replicate the look and feel of a manuscript bible.

Since the established purpose of Reproduction Bibles is to reproduce medieval bibles, as they appeared, but in the English language, our edition will be true to period. There will be no doctrinal or denominationally oriented foot notes. There will be no cross references. And, there will be no verse numbers.  Instead, the authentic gothic textura text font, designed in Germany based on the actual Gutenberg Bible, will be punctuated by period Roman numeral chapter breaks, book opening letters, and chapter opening display letters, which were hand painted and then digitized for placement. (See photo below). We used the Gutenberg held by the Library of Congress as our model for developing our hand painted letters. There will not be any gold leaf illumination in this edition.

Every single epistle, prologue, preface, and argument that appeared in the Gutenberg in the Latin has been translated into English* and are part of our edition. *We are still working on translating about 200 words of Latin into English in one of the two prologues of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. One of the delightful finds in our research is that not all of the prologues from the Latin Vulgate, the text of the medieval bible, were written by Jerome. Scholars believe that several were written by some, who fell out of favor with the church due to non orthodox views. These other writers are believed to have been Pelagius and Marcion.

Our edition features sixteen page gatherings that will be smyth sewn - the proper way to produce a book so that it lasts and so that the book lays flat when opened. Our paper, not shown here, will be a high quality, acid free archival paper designed for high end digital printers that has some grit to the texture as well as subtle patterns similar to what is seen in the paper used by Gutenberg. Yes, the cost of the paper is higher than your typical book. But, this is not your typical book or your typical bible, which is cluttered with far too much text on a single page.

Our color matching has been done, and we will be ready to go to print when completed since there remains the final stage of formatting, which is the placement of the headers, book opening letters, and display letters for chapters. When we zero in on the binding, we will issue another update.