Sunday 22 March 2020

On Ringing A Bell


In my last blog I referred to how the “ingeniously-scripted fable” of the New Testament needs now “to  be part of the general Reset going on in the world” - because of the novel coronavirus pandemic; an ‘infection’ needing a major cleanup  - so that we can get to the Truth of all things, under the pressure of Crisis creating Opportunity (and great Crisis creating great Opportunity).  I was reminded of this particular aspect of our current ‘opportunity’ today when the family I am currently living with, of staunch Mormons, invited me to join them in their front-room Sacrament service (with a statewide call for ’social distancing’ having closed down all crowd activities including church services).  Being an extended member of this family now, I felt, and feel, it fair enough that I join them in their activities, including some of their Church activities; in order to be supportive of ‘the family,’ but with some degree of keeping in the background, in my own space.(1)  And speaking of ‘my own space,’ after partaking of the Sacrament - and watching a ‘chapter’ of the Book of Mormon on the TV with them, as part of the Service - I retired to my room, and reflected on this whole situation.  And felt drawn to look back through one of the books in my library - ‘Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus’ (by Joseph Atwill) - for a particular piece of information…and ah, there it was.

I remembered it vaguely, from my reading of the book a few years ago, and heavily-underlined treatment of it, and of its, er, revelations: The particular story of how the Christian Sacrament service came into being.  It was part of Atwill’s incredibly detailed ‘eye’ for detail, which helped him see the clever parallels between the New Testament’s treatment of Jesus’ (purported) public ministry and the Roman general Titus’ ‘later’ military campaign in Judea to put down a major revolt against the Roman imperial yoke by Jewish zealots, which resulted in his siege and sacking of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple there.  In the contemporary historical record called ‘Wars of the Jews’ by a man named Joseph bar Matthias, better known as Josephus - a former Jewish general-cum-governor in that region who, through services to the emperor Vespasian (Titus’ father), became adopted into that imperial household (name of the Flavians, and hence his name coming down to us as Josephus Flavius, or vice versa) - he recounted a story out of Jerusalem during Titus’s siege of it wherein a woman named Mary, out of desperation, killed and ate her young son.  

Bingo.(2)  

And as if that weren’t ‘suspicion’ enough: Consider that in his historical writings he recounted an anecdote wherein, having joined ‘the enemy’ (in order to live to fight another day), he one day saw three of his former compatriots, having gotten involved in the rebellion, hanging on crosses, and pleafully asked his benefactor, Titus, to intercede on their behalf.  Which the soon-to-become Son of Man in the NewTestament er, story deigned to do.  But with two of them dying, “under the physician’s hands.”(3)  With one surviving.  Under the intercession, as recounted in the report, and as repeated here, of a man named - Joseph.  

There is more, in this vein.  Much more.  But you get the picture.

I hope.   

And may it spread.  To help counter many current infections of the human race.  On all levels.     


P.S.  Just to ‘record,’ for the record, that I note, from an article by Dr. Mike Adams appearing on the site of The Common Sense Show today, that in my old ‘home town’ county, of L.A. (having moved out of there to here at the end of last October, the move prompted by financial reasons), they have now given up on testing their public for the virus and are going strictly to containment activity, whereby the estimation of infections “will likely reach something on the order of 70% of the population….(t)hat’s around 7 million people becoming infected…” which could result in 1 million requiring hospitalization, and 140,000 - 420,000 deaths (figured at a 2% - 6% fatality rate).  Plus the allied factor: “Expect chaos.  Expect looting and violence.  It’s LA, after all, and the gangs are barely kept in check even during good times.  Oh, and on top of all that, it’s going to be difficult to get food, too, since food production is cratering and food supply lines have largely collapsed.” 
     All the more reason to shift the monetary and financial systems into a higher gear.  One that acknowledges that
     we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  And having such an experience of that state of being now, that we really need to 
     live by the Truth of things.  And not the falsity of them any longer.
     In all things.


footnotes:

(1) It has become obvious that they would like to have me join them in their religious belief, feel a certain amount of discomfort from how I am ’distant’ from them in that regard.  (Especially feeling the great need to convert people - to ’save’ them - as the Mormons do, as extremely sincere Christians.)        

(2) It was part of five “conceptual parallels,” and in precise “sequence.” that he outlined, between the - purported - public ministry of Jesus, as set back at the beginning of that generation, and the historical military campaign of Titus, culminating in the destruction of the Temple (in 70 AD/CE as reckoned in our dating of time).  The parallels down even to the names of characters.  
   Historical in the case of Josephus’s publically-acknowledged writings.  Fictional in the case of his most likely primary role in the writing of what has come down to us as the New Testament.  And that estimation includes the ‘gospels’ ascribed to one Saul-become-Paul.  With much historical fact pointing to that being Josephus’s alter ego.
   (For more on that specific matter, see esp. the works of Ralph Ellis dealing with that time period.)

(3) As recounted in ‘Life of Flavius Josephus’.

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