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Monday, December 28, 2009

The Three 13th Amendments

Hello 92251 List Members,

I realize the following article is not everyone’s cup of tea, but as I have an interest in seeing how history has been re-written and corrupt politics has an old origin, I hope most of you will as well find an interest.  It gives a different perspective than we are often accustomed to. 

Godspeed,

Gill Rapoza
Veritas Vos Liberabit



The Three 13th Amendments
By Jon Christian Ryter
December 13, 2009

There are two amendments which appear in the US Constitution that were fraudulently declared ratified by then Secretary of State Philander P. Knox and US Solicitor General Joshua Reuben Clark. They are the 16th and 17th Amendments to the US Constitution. The JP Morgan-Rockefeller-Rothschild international banking cartel (which actually encompasses about 100 of the wealthiest families in the world) swapped New Jersey Gov. Thomas Woodrow Wilson the White House for their own private central bank. In doing so, they perpetuated the fraud on the people of the United States. To make a central bank viable, the bankers needed to be able to levy the incomes of the people of the United States. To do that, they needed Congress to enact a federal income tax. There was only one problem with that. Assessing an unapportioned tax (that unfairly and punitively targets one citizen over another) was specifically prohibited by the Constitution. The bankers needed a constitutional amendment to correct Article 1 § 8. The bankers had one other problem with this plan. Every attempt to create a permanent central bank or, for that matter, a new temporary one, met fierce resistance from the States and from State banks. To get a constitutional resolution through Congress, it would first be necessary to remove the States from the equation of governance at the federal level. The 17th Amendment did that.

Now before we go any farther, stop for a minute and ask yourself a question. But first, let’s set the scene so when we frame the question, you have a true understanding of how our government was originally set up, and why it worked so well until 1913. The year is 1907. It had been 120 years since a confederation of sovereign States formed a nation. The States designated, through a Constitution, that a Chief Executive would be elected every four years who would represent them—the States—and their interests before the nations of the world. (Keep in mind, many times the interests of the States differ from those of the people who, separately, would be represented by the House of Representatives). The States, the People and the Executive would be co-equal and, jointly, those three bodies would rule the nation. That’s what made the United States of America a Republic. Representing the interests of each State were two Senators, giving each State—regardless of its size—equal stature in the Senate chamber. Between the two bodies, the Senate is more powerful since Senators serve terms three times as long as the Representatives. Add this final picture to your thought processes. You are a governor, a State Senator or a State representative or assemblyman. You—not the people—have been electing your US Senators for 120 years. They work you, not the people. You elect the President of the United States, since he works for you. Not the people. Okay. You now have the picture.

The US Congress submits a constitutional resolution to strip you of your power. You will no longer elect the Senators. You will no longer control them. Nor will you control the President of the United States since you will no longer have any power in Washington, DC. Our power, as citizens of the United States extends no farther than selecting between a slate of candidates handpicked by someone other than ourselves. Prior to the “ratification” of the 17th Amendment, the State legislatures actually picked the candidates—and elected them. If you were a State Senator or representative, would you vote to surrender your power in Washington, DC by surrendering your State’s right to control the US Senate? Of course you wouldn’t. Yet, according to Knox and Clark, that is precisely what the States did. (Since the purpose of this article is to deal not with the fraud involved in declaring both the 16th and 17th Amendments ratified when they weren’t, but with three entirely different 13th Amendments, supposedly with the first one being ratified on April 10, 1810 (although the House Joint Resolution was not enacted by Congress until May 1, 1810).

It was actually proposed on April 27, 1810. The second one was submitted on March 2, 1861 by the 36th Congress, and the third one was proposed on Jan. 31, 1865 and ratified on Dec. 6, 1865 by the 38th Congress, we will leave the discussion of the 16th Amendment and the 17th Amendment for the time being. (If you wish more information on the fraudulent ratification of those amendments, click on “Search”, in the left column, and enter the words 16th Amendment and it will bring up every reference to the 16th or 17th Amendments on this website. Or, for even more information, you can purchase a copy of my book, Whatever Happened to America?  Click on the book cover on the left. http://www.newswithviews.com/HNB/Hot_New_Books3.htm)

Let’s take them in reverse order, since everyone is familiar with the 13th Amendment that was ratified on Dec. 6, 1865. It ended slavery in the United States. History teaches that the 13th Amendment was an extension of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday, Sept., 22, 1862. While several historians wrote that Lincoln delivered the proclamation from the Antietam battlefield, known as the Battle of Sharpsburg by Southern historians (or even as the Battle of the Cornfields) at Sharpsburg, Maryland, Lincoln did not go to Sharpsburg until Oct. 3, 1862—11 days after the proclamation was issued to speak directly with Gen. George McClellan in order to understand his logic for not pursuing Lee when the Confederate army scurried back across the Potomac, crushing Lee and ending the war somewhere in Virginia. The reason was that while history (always written by the victors) credited McClellan with a victory at Sharpsburg, Lee actually won the battle. He wisely decided to retreat back across the Potomac when massive Union reinforcements arrived on Sept. 18. Lincoln fired McClellan on Nov. 5 and replaced him with one of his commanders, Gen. Ambrose Burnside, two days later. The only contribution Burnside made to American history is that sideburns are named after him.

The Dec. 6, 1865 13th Amendment

The Lincoln Administration, which was losing the war with the South, learned in June, 1862 that England was preparing to officially recognize the Confederates States of America as a separate and distinct nation. The president held a cabinet meeting on July 22, 1862. Attending the meeting were Attorney General Edward Bates, Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair, Secretary of States William Henry Seward, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Treasury Secretary Salmon Portland Chase. Lincoln removed the Proclamation from the center drawer in his desk and read it to his cabinet, adding: “I will not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.” Seward, who believed the Proclamation would force England to abort is planned diplomacy to the South, also thought that “...it may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help. It will be considered our last, last shriek on the retreat.” When Seward said that, Lincoln returned the Proclamation to his desk and locked the drawer. Stanton, an antislavery Jacobin, and Bates, wanted “...immediate promulgation for maximum effect.” Blair noted that Lincoln gained all of his war support from his pledge to Congress, his generals and the American people, the current “border dispute” with the South was not over slavery. Blair pragmatically noted that if Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation the Republicans would lose the midterm election in November.

Lincoln, Seward and Stanton knew there were two reasons why the Emancipation Proclamation had to be issued. And, neither of them had anything to do with breaking the yoke of slavery. In fact, when the Proclamation was read on Sept. 22, it clearly and very specifically did not free any slaves held in any Northern State, nor in any Southern State bordering a Northern State (except Jefferson County in western Virginia). Since Lincoln had no authority in the South, the Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves there, either. The only area where any slaves were actually freed, was in Jefferson County, West Virginia where abolitionist John Brown was tried and hung in Charles Town, WV in 1859—for freeing slaves. (Brown, who raided a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, killing 7 people, was captured by then Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried for treason against the State of Virginia. He was found guilty and hung. [West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1861 and became a Union State in 1863.])

Seward urged Lincoln not to issue the Emancipation Proclamation until after a major Union victory—which he said needed to come quickly. Friends in England told Seward that England planned to recognize the Confederacy immediately following their next victory. That, by the way, is what brought Gen. Robert E. Lee to Sharpsburg on Sept. 17. Both sides recognized that a major victory was the key to getting, or stopping, England’s recognition, and support of, the Confederate States. And second, Stanton and his generals believed that by freeing the slaves in the deep South, they would start a slave revolt that would require Lee to divert needed men and resources from the war in order to protect what was left of the economy of the South.

The third 13th Amendment (the abolition of slavery) was proposed in House Joint Resolution on Jan. 31, 1865 and ratified on Dec. 6, 1865 some eight and one half months after the assassination of Lincoln. The amendment reads: “Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

The Mar. 2, 1861 13th Amendment

Fear of federalist abuse of power of the hands of the Jacobin Republicans with the election of Abraham Lincoln as the nation’s 16th President caused seven States to secede before the inauguration of Lincoln on Mar. 4, 1861. In an attempt to draw South Carolina (Dec. 6, 1860); Mississippi (Jan. 9, 1861); Florida (Jan. 10, 1861); Alabama (Jan. 11, 1861), Georgia (Jan. 19, 1861), Louisiana (Jan. 26, 1861) and Texas (Feb. 1, 1861) back into the nation before the Union was shattered beyond repair, President James Buchanan asked the 36th Congress to prepare a constitutional amendment guaranteeing States Rights. On March 2, 1861—two days before Lincoln’s inauguration—the 36th Congress placed a House Joint Resolution 12 Stat. 251, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, on Buchanan’s desk. It read: “Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following article be proposed to the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution, viz: “ARTICLE THIRTEEN, No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.”

Time limits for passage of Constitutional Amendments did not begin until 1933. (The 20th Amendment was the first one to include a time limit for ratification.) Thus, the States may still ratify the Mar. 2, 1861 House Joint Resolution on States Rights and deny the federal government the power to interfere with the States in any way. What that means is that ratifying the Mar. 2, 1861 proposed constitutional amendment would create a 28th Amendment that will abrogate the federal governments claim to superior sovereignty under the “commerce” and “welfare” clauses of the Preamble to the Constitution (which actually do not confer any rights on the federal government, but is simply a explanatory statement. The authority of the Constitution begins with Article I.)

Keep in mind, ratification is always contingent on the number of States in existence at the time of ratification, not at the time of submitting a resolution for ratification. That means, to ratify Buchanan’s 13th Amendment, 38 States must ratify it. Since only two States ever ratified Buchanan’s States’ Right amendment, 36 States are still needed. As you will see later, that was the problem with the May 1, 1810 Nobility 13th Amendment resolution.

It should be noted here that on Sept. 25, 1789, Congress enacted a House Joint Resolution to create an 11th Amendment dealing with congressional salaries. It was finally ratified—on May 2, 1992 as the 27th Amendment. It declares: “No law varying the compensation for the services of Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” It only took 74,003 days to ratify it. Again, there is no reason that the States cannot ratify the Joint Resolution submitted on Mar. 2, 1861 and get the federal government out of their hair once and for all because it is a certainty that the federal government would not, today, send to the States a constitutional amendment that would limit their power. Not after the fraud and subtrafuge they used in 1913 to get it. Again, to date, only two States have ratified Buchanan’s proposed 13th Amendment. (Source for this information, US Congress, House Doc. 102-188, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, 1992.) Buchanan was the first president to ever sign a constitutional amendment resolution, which he did on Mar. 2, 1861.

Liberal historians still try to paint the Buchanan States’ Right amendment as one that would guarantee the “slavery status quo” during the 19th century so they could label as “racist” any State that would try to ratify it. In point of fact, the 11 States which seceded from the United States of America did so not over the issue of slavery, but over the issue of States rights and the sovereignty of the States over the federal government.

It will not bode well for the globalists who, today, appear to be within months of collapsing the United States into a puppet state of a global Union to see the States resurrect this amendment as they did the 27th Amendment. Buchanan’s 13th amendment, overnight, would radically alter the status quo. In fact, had Buchanan’s 13th Amendment been ratified, the JP Morgan-Rockefeller-Rothschild bankers would not have been able to submit joint resolutions to enact the 16th and 17th Amendments, nor create the Federal Reserve System. And Barack Obama would not have been able to take over the US banking institution or the auto industry. Nor would he have been able to fire the CEO of GM.

The May 1, 1810 13th Amendment

In light of the potential ramifications of the Mar. 2, 1861 constitutional amendment resolution, the May 1, 1810 proposed amendment rightly resembles the attention given to afterbirth in a porcelain pail on the floor in the delivery room as everyone oogles the newborn baby. Particularly since the proposed May 1, 1810 Amendment was already part of Article 1 § 9 of the Constitution (minus the penalty). Article 1 § 9, in part, declares: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, Office or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.” The Articles of Confederation contained a similar provision as did Article 1 § 10.

The purpose of the three clauses was to clearly establish that, in the United States, there would be only one class of people: common citizens. The granting of titles of nobility created what can be construed as a European superior class of citizens. The United States was formed, and prospered, on the principles that all men are created equal. Yet some member of the new American society disagreed with that philosophy because their families were already more equal than the working class. They were the wealthy aristocracy whose ancestors came to America not with dreams of breaking the shackles that bound them to the royals of Europe, but with vast land grants bequeathed to them by those same crown heads.

Among them were the ancestors of John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and the descendants of George Calvert, William Clairbourne, Robert Livingston, Frederick Philipse, Johannes Schulyer, Stephen Van Cortlandt and the other “lords of the manors” who came to America with vast land grants from the Dutch and English thrones that authorized them to create colonies of tenet farmers. They were the Lords of the Manor.

When they came to the American colonies, the families of the manor born possessed liberal land grants that gave them absolute autonomy to write the laws, create the courts and appoint the judges in the colonies they created and controlled as microcosmic kings. But, unlike the tenets of the “patroons” who fell under Dutch rule, the tenets of the English manor lords were deemed, first and foremost, to be subjects of the King of England. Because of that, the Manor Lords could not enact any law that violated or contradicted British law. Thus the tenets of the Manor Lords were better protected from eviction-or incarceration-than the tenets of the patroons. Under the thumbs of the Manor Lords, tenet farmers or tenet storekeepers lived in virtual miniature cultures—some the size of counties, some the size of States—within the American society.

In order to protect their land grants when the Revolutionary War was fought, the sons of the manor born were made to join both Armies. The eldest son was allowed to choose which Army he would join. The next eldest son joined the other side. That way, regardless who prevailed in the war, the land grants of the manor born would be protected. Most of the American patroons and Lords of the Manor signed the Declaration of Independence. Many of them served at State level as legislators or governors or in the central government as Congressmen or Senators. They were, after all, born to rule.

That’s why Alexander Hamilton—who epitomized the aristocracy in America—tried, when the Constitution was penned, to insert a class clause into the document which reserved the vote for the aristocracy by mandating that only land owners could vote in the general elections. Since most of the new citizens of the new nation were tenet farmers who rented the lands upon which they built their homes, planted their crops, and raised their families, most would have been ineligible to vote had that clause been inserted in the Constitution. That clause would have assured that the manor born and not the common wage-earner would control precisely who represented them in the legislature. (Which is what happens today with powerful industrialists, merchant princes, bankers and their special interest groups picking the candidates and funding those candidates with enough money to overwhelm any opposing candidate.) Whether they were called patroons, Lords of the Manor, or simply tycoons, the Manor Born of America enjoyed an elevated status in the communities which they owned. Like the Lords and Earls of Europe, they were the law—and, like America’s first families of today—they were above the law.

They used both slaves and indentured bond servants to amass their wealth. They were aristocrats by birth. They were born to privilege and title and bred to rule. Because it was the form of governance under which they were born, it was natural for the Dutch patroons and the English Lords of the Manor to perpetuate the feudal caste system of Europe in the American colonies in order to perpetuate the beneficial privileges of their aristocracy.

When the Constitution was penned, most of the Founding Fathers intended to create a nation of equals. Aristocrats like Jay and Hamilton opposed the concept. As James Madison, Edmund Randolph and Alexander Hamilton met in Annapolis on May 29, 1789 to hammer out the structure of the Constitution, they settled on what was called “the Virginia Plan” to create a national government with three coequal branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The concept was based on John Locke’s Treatises of Government. The legislative system, like the British Parliament, would consist of two branches: a House of Representatives (the People’s house) and a Senate (representing the aristocracy). Because the upper chamber of the US Congress was considered the American House of Lords in which the Senators would represent the gentry, Thomas Jefferson—after the primary author of the Declaration of Independence was added to the group—felt there was an imperative need to concentrate power in the lower chamber. Constitutionally, all revenue legislation must originate in the House of Representatives. The Senate may propose amendments to the money bills which originate in the House, but the Senate may not originate revenue legislation. To further equalize the Representatives in the lower chamber, the Nobility clause was inserted in Article 1 § 9 and, again, in Article 1 § 10, reiterating “...No State shall...grant any Title of Nobility.”

When the American people began to criticize the aristocratic arrogance of President John Adams in 1797, the Federalists in Congress enacted the Aliens and Sedition Act of 1798 which made it a crime for any citizen to criticize the Chief Executive. Ten US citizens were charged under the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. All were found guilty by the US Supreme Court which tried them (giving them no right to appeal), had their property seized and were each imprisoned for four months.

As the Federalists lost favor with the voters between 1804 and 1810 Congress responded to Adam’s 1797 aristocratic arrogance by enacting the 13 Amendment Resolution on May 10, 1810 which attempted to reinforce Article 1 Sections 9 and 10. The original form of the amendment read: “If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept or retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”

Those who tout the Nobility version of the 13th Amendment as the one and only legitimate 13th Amendment claim that it was duly and legally ratified and ripped out of the Constitution because it banned lawyers and the descendants of the manor born from serving in Congress. Volumes of Internet articles written the various authors claim their version of the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1812 or, at the latest, in 1819. While there is evidence that there was an attempt to ratify it in 1811, it was not ratified that year. Keep in mind there was no time limit on passage. It could be ratified today if enough States voted to do so. A constitutional amendment on congressional pay was proposed as the 11th Amendment on Sept. 25, 1789. Seventy-four thousand and three days later, on May 2, 1992, the States ratified that resolution as the 27th Amendment.

To be ratified, three-fourths of the States in existence at the time of the ratification need to vote in favor of ratification. Advocates of the legitimacy of the Nobility Title amendment claim it was ratified in 1810. However, in 1810 there were 17 States. Thirteen needed to ratify the proposed amendment. Only 10 had by 1812 when war broke out. In 1812 there were 18 States. Fourteen were needed to ratify the treaty. Only 12 States ratified it.

During the War of 1812, the British army sacked the newly created District of Columbia and burned the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the Chief Executive’s residence. Advocates of the Nobility Title amendment insist that destroyed in those fires was the ratification certificate of Virginia which would have legally made the Nobility Title resolution the 13th Amendment to the Constitution—if it was received in 1812. It appears that Journals from the State of Virginia indicate that State ratified the Nobility amendment in 1819. At that time, there were 22 States. Seventeen were needed to ratify the Amendment. Only 12 had done. And, although the Nobility advocates insist their amendment had been ratified prior to that date, on Dec. 31, 1817, the House of Representatives asked President James Monroe to report on the status of the amendment.

On Feb. 6, 1818 Monroe instructed Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to write to the governors of Virginia, South Carolina and New York and advise them the proposed amendment had been ratified by 12 States and rejected by New York and Rhode Island. Adams was to ask those States for their official position on the Amendment. On Feb. 18, 1818 Adams reported back to Monroe that the amendment had not been officially ratified. On March 10, 1819, the Virginia legislature passed Act 280, which codified the Nobility amendment in the Virginia Civil Code, effective March 12, 1819. Had Virginia done this in 1811 when 13 States were needed to ratify the amendment, the 13th Amendment would have legally barred lawyers from serving in the United States government. However, in 1819 there were 22 States in the Union. Seventeen were needed to ratify the amendment. Only 13 States ever ratified it. Since there is no time limit on this amendment, the ratification of 25 States are still needed to send every lawyer in America, with amici briefs in hand, to the lawyers in the US Supreme Court who, themselves, would be searching for any loophole to invalidate what would then be the 28th or 29th Amendments since it would end their careers on the high court.

Today, there are 27 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Four of them were fraudulently ratified. We know the 16th and 17th Amendments were wrongly declared ratified. Only those who have studied the fraudulent ratifications of those amendments realize that the 14th and 15th Amendments, which the 11 Confederate States were forced to ratify in order to be readmitted to the Union, were also fraudulently declared ratified. All of the returning States were obligated to ratify the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments as a condition of their reinstatement into the Union. All of them deliberately altered the wording and punctuation of the amendments they certified as ratified, knowing that under the rule of law, the resolutions they ratified must be exact in word and punctuation to the same resolutions approved by all other States. If not, those 11 States would be ratifying a different amendment, and their ratification certifications would legally have to be rejected as “nay” votes.

William Seward, who remained Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of State as Johnson served the balance of Lincoln’s second term, chose to ignore the multitude of errors in the 14th and 15th amendment resolutions. Several of the Confederate States substituted completely different words. One State, certified as ratifying the 15th Amendment, substituted a completely different amendment.

Just as Seward casually dismissed the errors the Confederate States made in the 14th and 15th Amendment resolutions, Reuben Clark justified the errors most of the States made in the 16th and 17th Amendments by mitigating them with the errors excused by Seward. Clark said: “It will be observed that there were many substantial errors in wording in the resolutions of the State legislatures upon which the Secretary of State acted in issuing his declaration announcing the adoption and ratification by the States of the 14th Amendment.”

The government decided that two wrongs do make a right.

© 2009 Jon C. Ryter - All Rights Reserved


Jon Christian Ryter
Author of:
Whatever Happened To America?
The Baffled Christian’s Handbook
Prince Albert: Prophet Of Utopia


Gill Rapoza
Veritas Vos Liberabit


Sunday, December 27, 2009

Dear “Contemplative Christian”: Are You The Victim Of Seducing Spirits?


Dear “Contemplative Christian”: Are You The Victim Of Seducing Spirits?
by Ray Yungen

I once heard a radio interview with Richard Foster that revealed the high regard in which many influential evangelicals hold him. The talk show host made his own admiration obvious with such comments to Foster as, “You have heard from God . . . this is a message of enormous value,” and in saying Foster’s work was a “curriculum for Christ-likeness.” I found this praise especially disturbing after Foster stated in the interview that Christianity was “not complete without the contemplative dimension.” 1 Of course, my concern was that Foster’s curriculum would result in Thomas Merton-likeness instead.

When I look ahead and ponder the impact of [what I am saying], unquestionably there are some very sobering considerations. The contemplative prayer movement has already planted strong roots within evangelical Christianity. Many sincere, devout, and respected Christians have embraced Thomas Merton’s vision that:

The most important need in the Christian world today is this inner truth nourished by this Spirit of contemplation . . . Without contemplation and interior prayer the Church cannot fulfill her mission to transform and save mankind.2

A statement like this should immediately alert the discerning Christian that something is wrong. It is the Gospel that saves mankind, not the silence. When Merton says “save,” he really means enlighten. Remember, Merton’s spiritual worldview was panentheistic oneness.

Some will see [what I am saying] as divisive and intolerant-especially those who share Merton’s view of the future. Pastors may be set at odds with one another and possibly with their congregations; friends, and even family members may be divided on the issues of contemplative spirituality. Nevertheless, having weighed the pros and cons, I am prepared to receive the inevitable responses from fans of these contemplative mentors. And although I sincerely feel goodwill toward those I have critiqued, I am convinced the issues are of vital importance, leaving me compelled to share them regardless of the cost.

After taking an honest look at the evidence, the conclusion is overwhelming that contemplative prayer is not a spiritually-sound practice for Christians. The errors of contemplative spirituality are simple and clear for the following three reasons:

Ø      It is not biblical.

Ø      · It correlates with occult methods (i.e., mantra, vain repetition).

Ø      · It is sympathetic to Eastern mystical perceptions (God in everything; all is One-Panentheism).

These are well-documented facts, not just arbitrary opinions. Furthermore, the contemplative prayer movement is uniform, indicating a link to a central source of knowledge. Based on the above facts, we know what that source is.

The apostle Paul warns us of seducing spirits in his first letter to Timothy: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (I Timothy 4:1)

The operative word here is “deceiving” or seducing which means to be an imposter or to mislead. It is plain to see a real delusion is going on or, as Paul called it, a seduction. How then can you tell if you are a victim yourself? It is actually not that difficult.

The doctrines (instructions) of demons-no matter how nice, how charming, how devoted to God they sound-convey that everything has Divine Presence (all is One). This is clear heresy-for that would be saying Satan and God are one also (i.e., “I [Lucifer] will be like the Most High,” Isaiah 14:14). If what Henri Nouwen proclaimed is true when he said, “[W]e can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is,”3 then Jesus Christ and Satan are also united. That is something only a demonic spirit would teach!

An even more subtle yet seductive idea says: Without a mystical technique, God is somehow indifferent or unapproachable. Those of you who are parents can plainly see the falsehood of this. Do your children need to employ a method or engage in a ritual to capture your full attention or guidance? Of course not! If you love your children, you will care for and interact with them because you are committed to them and want to participate with them. The same is true of God’s attention towards those He has called his own.

And, we must not forget the most decisive indication of the Deceiver’s handiwork: the belief or doctrine in question will undermine the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as both God and man and His atoning work on the Cross. The apostle John brings out this distinction with clarity in his first letter:

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (I John 4:2-3)

It is evident then, that the whole idea of a Christ consciousness where we all have divinity, is completely unbiblical in that it negates who Jesus was and what He came to do.

The central role of a shepherd is to guide and direct the sheep. The sheep know the voice of their Master by simply following Him in faith (John 10:14-18). The Shepherd does not expect or desire the sheep to perform a method or religious technique to be close to Him. He has already claimed them as His own.

Remember! Religiosity is man’s way to God while Christianity is God’s way to man. Contemplative prayer is just another man-inspired attempt to get to God.

When we receive Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit-thus we receive God. Christians do not have to search for some esoteric technique to draw closer to God. The fullness of God has already taken residency in those who have received Christ. The Christian’s response is not to search for God through a method but simply to yield his or her will to the will of God.

When looking at principles like these, Paul’s warning becomes clear. A seduction will not work if we are wise to the ways of the seducer.

Christians must not be led purely by their emotions or a particular experience; there must be ground rules. A popular saying is: “You can’t put God in a box.” That is correct in some ways, but it’s not true if the box is the Bible. God will not work outside of what He has laid down in His message to humanity.

The answer to the contemplative prayer movement is simple. A Christian is complete in Christ. The argument that contemplative prayer can bring a fuller measure of God’s love, guidance, direction, and nurturing is the epitome of dishonor to Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. It is, in essence, anti-Christian. The late Dr. Paul Bubna, President of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, wrote in an article, “Purveyors of Grace or Ungrace”:

Knowing Christ is a journey of solid theological understanding. It is the Holy Spirit’s illuminating the Scriptures to our darkened minds and hearts that give birth to the wonder of unconditional love.4

The contemplative message has seriously maligned this wonderful work of God’s grace and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who guides the Christian into all truth. Those who have the Holy Spirit indwelling them do not need the silence. It is one thing to find a quiet place to pray (which Jesus did) but quite another to go into an altered state of consciousness (which Jesus never did). The Christian hears the voice of Jehovah through the Holy Spirit, not through contemplative prayer. Again, Jesus made it clear He is the one who initiates this process, not man:

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:15-17)

Scripture instructs us to “try the spirits” (I John 4:1). Let’s test them, using Richard Foster’s teachings. In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Foster devotes a number of pages to what he calls the biblical basis for this form of prayer. He makes reference to many instances throughout the Bible where God talked to people,-in other words, encounters between man and Divinity. But Foster then jumps straight into contemplative prayer, leading the reader to think this is how it is done when, in fact, he has not really presented a biblical basis for using the repetition of sacred words at all. He looks to the contemplative mystics to legitimize his teachings when he writes:

How sad that contemporary Christians are so ignorant of the vast sea of literature on Christian meditation by faithful believers throughout the centuries! And their testimony to the joyful life of perpetual communion is amazingly uniform.5

That is the problem. The contemplative authors are “amazingly uniform.” Even though they all profess a love for God and Jesus, they have each added something that is contrary to what God conveys in His written word.

Contemplative mystic John R. Yungblut penned the following observation that rings true for almost all such contemplative practitioners. He concludes:

The core of the mystical experience is the apprehension of unity, and the perception of relatedness. For the mystics the world is one.6

Panentheism is the bedrock of the contemplative prayer movement; therefore, the establishment of whether or not it is biblically valid is imperative.

Foster also believes, that God’s ability to impact the non-contemplative Christian is limited. Foster expresses:

What happens in meditation is that we create the emotional and spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart.7

But the Trinity already has an inner sanctuary in every Christian. It is being in Christ (via the Holy Spirit) that allows every believer to receive guidance and direction.

Furthermore, when Richard Foster cites someone like Sue Monk Kidd as an example of what he is promoting (as he does in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home), it is reasonable to expect that if you engage in Foster’s prayer methods, you will become like his examples.

Monk Kidd’s spirituality is spelled out clearly in her book When the Heart Waits. She explains:

There’s a bulb of truth buried in the human soul [not just Christian] that’s “only God” . . . the soul is more than something to win or save. It’s the seat and repository of the inner Divine, the God-image, the truest part of us.8

Sue Monk Kidd, an introspective woman, gives a revealing description of her spiritual transformation in her book God’s Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved. She shares how she suffered a deep hollowness and spiritual hunger for many years even though she was very active in her Baptist church.9 She sums up her feelings:

Maybe we sense we’re disconnected from God somehow. He becomes superfluous to the business at hand. He lives on the periphery so long we begin to think that is where He belongs. Anything else seems unsophisticated or fanatical.10

Ironically, a Sunday school co-worker handed her a book by Thomas Merton, telling her she needed to read it. Once Monk Kidd read it, her life changed dramatically.

What happened next completely reoriented Sue Monk Kidd’s worldview and belief system. She started down the contemplative prayer road with bliss, reading numerous books and repeating the sacred word methods taught in her readings.11 She ultimately came to the mystical realization that:

I am speaking of recognizing the hidden truth that we are one with all people. We are part of them and they are part of us . . . When we encounter another person, . . . we should walk as if we were upon holy ground. We should respond as if God dwells there.12

One could come to Monk Kidd’s defense by saying she is just referring to Christians and non-Christians sharing a common humanity and the need to treat all people well. Yet, while respecting humanity is important, she fails to distinguish between Christians and non-Christians thereby negating Christ’s imperative, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7), as the prerequisite for the indwelling of God. Her mystical universalism is apparent when she quotes someone who advises that the Hindu greeting namaste, which translates, I honor the god in you, should be used by Christians.13

Monk Kidd, like Merton, did not join a metaphysical church such as the Unity Church or a Religious Science church. She found her spirituality within the comfortable and familiar confines of a Baptist church!

Moreover, when Monk Kidd found her universal spirituality she was no teenager. She was a sophisticated, mature family woman. This illustrates the susceptibility of the millions like her who are seeking seemingly novel, positive approaches to Christian spiritual growth. Those who lack discernment are at great risk. What looks godly or spiritually benign on the surface may have principles behind it that are in dire conflict with Christianity.

Since the original edition of A Time of Departing came out [in 2002], two major discoveries have come to my attention. First, Sue Monk Kidd has become a widely known author. She has written a bestselling book titled The Secret Life of Bees, which has sold millions of copies. Her latest book, The Mermaid Chair, is also on the bestseller list. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I found even more profound evidence that my conclusions about her worldview were right. It seems that just a few years after she had written the book I’ve quoted, she wrote another book on spirituality. This one was titled The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. If ever there was a book confirming my message, this book is it.

In her first and second books, Monk Kidd was writing from a Christian perspective. That is why the back cover of God’s Joyful Surprise was endorsed by Virtue, Today’s Christian Woman, and (really proving my point) Moody Monthly. But with her third and fourth book, Monk Kidd had made the full transition to a spiritual view more in tune with Wicca than with Christianity. Now she worships the Goddess Sophia rather than Jesus Christ:

We also need Goddess consciousness to reveal earth’s holiness. . . . Matter becomes inspirited; it breathes divinity. Earth becomes alive and sacred. . . . Goddess offers us the holiness of everything.14

There is one portion in Monk Kidd’s book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter that, for me, stands out and speaks right to the heart of this issue. I want my readers to grasp what she is conveying in the following account. No one can lightly dismiss or ignore the powers behind contemplative prayer after reading this narrative:

The minister was preaching. He was holding up a Bible. It was open, perched atop his raised hand as if a blackbird had landed there. He was saying that the Bible was the sole and ultimate authority of the Christian’s life. The sole and ultimate authority.

I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two inches below my navel. It was a passionate, determined feeling, and it spread out from the core of me like a current so that my skin vibrated with it. If feelings could be translated into English, this feeling would have roughly been the word no!

It was the purest inner knowing I had experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul. Period.15

If Foster uses these kinds of mystics as contemplative prayer models without disclaimers regarding their universalist beliefs (like Sue Monk Kidd), then it is legitimate to question whether or not he also resonates with the same beliefs himself. At a Foster seminar I attended, a colleague of his assured the audience that when they were in this altered state, they could just “smell the gospel.” Based on the research of this movement, what you can smell is not the Gospel but the Ganges [River]!16 (This has been an excerpt from A Time of Departing, chapter 7)



Notes:
1. Interview with Richard Foster, Lou Davies Radio Program (Nov. 24, 1998, KPAM radio, Portland, Oregon).
2. Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer (New York, NY: Image Books, Doubleday Pub., 1989), pp. 115-116.
3. Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey.
4. Dr. Paul Bubna, President Briefings, C&MA, “Purveyors of Grace or Ungrace,” March 1978.
5. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1988), p. 19.
6. John R. Yungblut, Rediscovering the Christ (Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1991), p. 142.
7. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1988), p. 20.
8. Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1990), pp. 47-48.
9. Sue Monk Kidd, God’s Joyful Surprise (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1987), p. 55.
10. Ibid., p. 56.
11. Ibid., p. 198.
12. Ibid., pp. 233, 228.
13. Ibid., pp



Gill Rapoza
Veritas Vos Liberabit





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Posted By Gill Rapoza to Veritas Vos Liberabit at 12/27/2009 08:23:00 AM

Saturday, December 26, 2009

A Whitehouse Christmas Tree


A Whitehouse Christmas Tree
By Gill Rapoza
December 26, 2009 


Before we start, I just wanted everyone to know I needed to turn on the sarcasm mode for this post.  I held it off all the way through Christmas, which was only right, but today is the day after, called “Boxing Day” in some areas outside of the US.  So here is my Boxing Day contribution. 

I see BHO celebrated Christmas with his family at that DC address he seems to live at.  Or he was there for a little bit, then went to Hawaii, where he was or was not born, depending on the paperwork you saw, or did not see.  Either way, on to our story. 

Here is a nice picture of BHO and the wife in a very pleasant picture in front of their tree. 




It is a very nice picture.  And that sure is a good looking Christmas tree in the background.  Yes, Christmas trees, they always seem to bring such pleasant thoughts. 

You wonder what BHO may have been thinking this Christmas?  And the things that were important to him?  Me too.  Lets look at the tree and see if it gives us any insights. 

Oh let’s looks at this first ornament on the tree.  A closer look may reveal who is important to BHO this year.



  
There must be some kind of mistake here.  That looked like Chairman Mao Zedong.  I remember him.  That was the Chinese Communist dictator that killed around 50 million of his own people for any reason or no reason at all.  I understand he was quite the hero to the faithful Communists. 

You say Christians were locked up and killed by this same guy for the crime of preferring Christianity?  Yes I heard the same thing.  I wonder why anyone would celebrate with this guy. 

Ok let’s look at the next one and see what is hanging on the tree. 




I had to do some research on that picture.  Never seen that one before.  I saw the gay flag below the face on the ornament, but still it rang no Christmas bells.  Then I found it.  The ornament is depicting a transvestite character called “Hedda Lettuce.”  Kidding you say?  No, I only wish. 

OK, let’s find one more bulb and see what we come up with.  The next one looks interesting. 







Ah yes, celebrating Christmas with a picture of BHO on Mount Rushmore.  And with presidents gone by and much celebrated by the American people.  And yes, I too thought Christmas was to acknowledge Christ, seeing how you can clearly see the Christ in Christmas.  Well, it was just something I noticed.  Maybe some call it Obama-mas and I was just never told about it. 

So what did we learn from all this some are asking.  Me too. 

I wonder if there were any angels harking around that tree?  If there were any at the top they may have been crying would be my first thought. 

I wonder if any Communists or transvestites were there when BHO celebrated Ramadan?  I mean not counting the ones that hang around BHO anyhow.  We did not get the pictures if they did. 

Here is what I learned.  The tree was decked with killer Mao, a drag queen, and arrogance.  I saw not a hint of a Babe in a manger.  If He was there, we were not told of Him. 

Looks like another abomination in the White House. 

Sarcasm mode: Off

God rest ye, merry gentlemen (and ladies).  I hope you and yours had a Merry Christmas.

Oh, and while we speak of pleasantries, shepherds and mangers, I have a new logo below. 





I am not a sheep, but a sheepdog! 

Godspeed,

Gill Rapoza
Veritas Vos Liberabit