Section 11.)
One of the most widely held and most destructive misconceptions about Jesus is the belief that following Jesus will make a person more eager and willing to obey people above him or her in a social hierarchy. Because Jesus tells us not to resist evil, when we follow Jesus we will follow orders whenever people try to force us to follow those orders, and by doing this we will avoid the greater evil that would be created if we tried to resist evil that is done to us. Whenever evil is not done to us, though, we will remember that we are only to obey Jesus, and Our Creator. Jesus tells us not to act towards any person as we should act toward Jesus and Our Creator, and not to let any person act toward us as all people should act toward Him and toward Our Creator, when he says to His disciples, “Be not you called Rabbi, for Christ is your master and you are all brothers. And call no man father, for you have a Father who is in heaven. Neither be you called master, for Christ is your master.” (Mt 23: 5-12 & Lk 20: 45-47) Calling people by any of these names, or being called by any of these names would be a way of putting people in places that should be reserved for Jesus, and Our Creator. Of course there are also many other names that would do this. Jesus does not tell us these names because he is not a secretary or a list maker, but if we are wise will instead be our master. As such He tells us enough names for us to see what these names have in common, and then leaves it up to us to add to this list whenever we find another name that would lead us to treat people as these names lead us to treat people. And we should be very glad that Jesus, because if Jesus had taken the time to make such a list He would have had less time and energy for the rest of His teaching. Jesus knows that He must teach us what we are least likely to learn from other sources, and leave things we can do, such as making lists up to us. Making this list would have been especially time consuming if we consider all the different languages that humans speak, and if we remember that Jesus said to us, “I came that I might save the world.” (Jn 12:47) In the English language, at least two more words that would lead us to follow people as we should follow only Jesus and Our Creator, are the words reverend and pastor. The word reverend means, that which is revered. Call no man reverend, for you have a reverend in Heaven. Revere no man, for you have one whom you revere in heaven. And call no man pastor, for Christ is your pastor, and you are all brothers and sisters in His flock. People can be pastors to sheep, but only Jesus can be a pastor to people. Social Hierarchies and the attempts to give each other orders that are a part of those hierarchies are things of men, and Jesus tells us never top think of things of men before we think of things of God, when He says to His disciple Peter, , “Get behind me Satan. You are an offence to me because you do not think of things of God, but think instead, of things of men.” (Mt 16:23), and Jesus tells us to pursue things of God instead of things of man when He says, , “Do not lay up treasure on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves dig through and steal. Instead, lay up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not dig through and steal.” (Mt 6:19-23 & Lk 12:33). If people above us in a social hierarchy sometimes tell us to pursue things of God, when we follow Jesus, we will follow their orders, because at that moment things of God and things of man will be identical. Being led away from things of God by disobeying orders when people giving us orders tell us pursue things of God is just as dangerous to us as being led away from things of God by following orders that lead us away from things of God.
In Spite of Jesus’ teachings, though, we all often let certain people control what we do, and when we allow these people to control us we do so in order to put ourselves in a position that will allow us to, control other people. Most of the time, we will not enjoy being controlled by any other person, unless we receive some compensation for being controlled, and during the overwhelming majority of our lives this compensation will come from controlling other people. We all feel; the need to maintain a balance between things we enjoy and things we do not enjoy, and this is one way in which we try to maintain this balance. If we deny this we are only trying to say we are good even though Jesus has told us we are not good when He says, “Pray that you know no temptation Indeed the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26:41 & LK 22:46), When He says to His disciples, , “Pray that you know no temptation. Indeed the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26:41 & LK 22:46), and When He says to all of us, “Use unrighteous mammon to make friends, so that when it fails, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” (Luke 16:9). When Jesus tells us not to treat people as we should treat Him and Our Creator, and when Jesus tells us never to pursue things of God instead of things of man, Jesus is telling us that we should maintain the balance between things we enjoy and things we do not enjoy that He knows we will try to maintain, by seldom controlling other people, and by seldom being controlled. Jesus also tells us to let other people control us, rather than resisting evil they do to us, in Mt: 5:38-48 when he says, “resist not evil.” Knowing that Jesus tells us to do this, and knowing that Our Creator will reward any person who does what He expects that person to do, and will punish any person who does not do what He expects that person to do, gives us the emotional compensation that sometimes allows us to feel content even when we do not balance things we enjoy, with things we do not enjoy. We know that if we try as hard as we can to follow Jesus, Our Creator will give us far more that we will enjoy, than we could ever get on our own. Because we never know how much good Our Creator expects of any person we never know if any person will be punished for disobeying Jesus, (because that person may have given little, and little may be demanded of that person), and we never know if any person will be rewarded for following Jesus, (because much may have been given to that person, and for this Our Creator may expect that person to follow Jesus, more often than that person does follow Jesus.), We do know, though, that the more often any of us follows Jesus, the more likely we are to receive rewards, and avoid punishments from Our Creator. Knowing, this, though, will only sometimes lead us not to try to balance being controlled by some people, by controlling other people. When any of us is controlled greatly, we will do this. This is why, if we are seriously trying to follow Jesus, we will try to create a world in which other people try to control us as little as possible, without trying to do this by resisting evil other people will do to us. Resisting evil will only make things worse for us, any time we do it, but being controlled does hurt us by often leading us to then try to control other people, and being controlled is something we do want to avoid. (one of the ways in which resisting evil will hurt us, is that resisting evil will only lead people who are doing evil to us, to try harder to do more evil to us, and that other people will often succeed in doing this. Even people who do evil to us, do not succeed in this, though, The act of resisting will still always do greater harm to us, than could ever be made up for by any way in which it might help us.)
When we try to control other people we will always do much more harm than we will do when we let other people control us, because our natural desire to be free will set limits on how hard we will try to let ourselves be controlled, while there will be no limits to how hard we will try to control other people. (And one of the moist harmful examples of this is the way most people who have guided organized churches that have called themselves Christian Churches have tried to pervert Jesus’ teachings on this subject.) . Following orders is the most dangerous thing a person can do. The clearest lesson of history is the holocaust of word war II, in which over six million people were murdered. Most of the people who committed these murders were ‘just’ following orders’. Most crimes are committed by people who are ‘just following orders’. (including the greatest crime, the crime of war) If people never followed orders from other people, our world would be a much more peaceful and a much better place than it is. Expecting any person to do a thing because we tell them to do that thing is a way of putting ourselves in God’s place. When we are able to follow Jesus we may sometimes tell another person to do something, but we will never consider what we say to be an order, and we will never expect another person to do what we tell that person to do, if that person believes it would be wrong to do so. When we are able to follow Jesus telling a person to do something will only be something we do to use fewer words when time is short, and will only be meant as a suggestion. We will only expect people to follow our suggestions if we have earned their trust, and even then we will hope that whenever they are concerned that we may be telling them to do something that is wrong, they will ask us questions before doing what we tell them to do. Part of the reason that people who follow orders are so likely to do evil is that ordering another person to do any thing is an act of violence, and creates hate in that person; hate that is usually taken out on someone else, often while an order is being followed.
For as long as any of us, can remember, we have been bemoaning the many ways that we hurt each other: and have especially been bemoaning the suffering of war. The first examples of this that come to my mind, are Mark Twain’s story, “The War Prayer”, and the popular novel, movie, and television series “M.A.S.H.” We seem to have seen how serious this problem is. Why then, have we not come close to solving it? Can we really do no better than we have done? I think that we can do better.
What has led humanity to do better in some areas, than we had previously done?
Specialization. Creating jobs, dedicated to doing a thing better. Currently, in the area of avoiding the mistakes that lead to violence and war, no jobs are dedicated to this purpose, and the jobs that seem to come close, are actually dedicated to making people feel better about not avoiding these mistakes. As is sadly the case with most people who work in churches. Most churches have always allied themselves with violence. The main difference now, is that because our society is less hierarchical and more democratic, than it used to be, most churches are less authoritarian and more democratic, than they used to be. But these churches still support what society does as thoroughly as they ever have, and our society still uses violence as much or more than it ever has. We just choose to use violence, in a more democratic way, than in the past.
We know that whatever works as a thing that makes our lives better, is what Our Creator wants us to do. If this were not so then Our Creator would have made our world differently. And if what works sometimes conflicts with ideas that we have about what we believe is right and wrong, (as it often will, for all of us), then we must recognize that our ideas, are what are wrong, (not the reality of our world). Of course it is very important that we also remember that what seems to work in the short-tem often does not work in the long-term, and that what seems to fail in the short-term is often the very thing that we need to do if we want long-term happiness. Jesus tells us both of these things often, and this fact is one of the things, that tells us that Jesus is truly teaching the will of Our Creator.
Jesus tells us that what we most need to do, will work for us, as a thing that makes our lives better in the long term, but not in the short term, when He says, to his disciples, “Beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake. And brother will deliver brother up to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mt 10:17-18 & 21-22) Jesus tells us these things again when He says to all of us, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword. I am come to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against the mother, the daughter in law against the mother in law. He who loves father more than me, is not worthy of me. he who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. he who takes not his cross and follows me, is not worthy of me. he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life, for my sake, will find it.” (Mt 10:34-39, Mt 16:24-26, & Lk 9; 23-25), when He says, “Blessed are you when men will hate you, and when they will separate you from their company, and will reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the son of man’s sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did likewise to the prophets.” (Lk 6:22-23),
And Jesus tells us that what will help us in the short term, will hurt us in the long term, when He says, Woe to you who have been filled, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, because you will mourn and lament. Woe to you when all men shall speak well of you, for your fathers spoke well of the false prophets. (Lk 6:24-26).
Jesus tells us that if we think first about the long term effects of our actions, then our short term needs will also be met, when He says, “Take no thought for your life, for what you will eat or drink, or for what clothes you will wear. Your heavenly father knows you need these things. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow will take thought for itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” (Mt 6:25-34 & Lk 12:22-34), but that if we think first about the short term effects of an action, then we will fail to find happiness, both in the long term and in the short term, when He says, “Fear not those who can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Fear instead He who can destroy both the body and the soul.” (Mt 10:28 & Lk 12:4-5).
Jesus also tells us that we will have to do things that will seem wrong to us. One time Jesus tells us this, is when He says, “Use unrighteous mammon to make friends, so that when it fails, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” (Luke 16:9), immediately after He tells us about a man who used unrighteous mammon to keep a job that kept him from having to beg, even though this job required him to collect money owed to his employer, and in spite of the fact that Jesus tells us to “Give to everyone who asks of us, and ask for nothing in return.” (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48). This command has caused many of us to believe that anything that has too much to do with debt collection, is unrighteous, but Jesus is telling us in this passage that we will sometimes have to do that which is unrighteous, in order to make our world a place in which all people can follow Him. Even If this man had been able to avoid this unrighteous action, and had been able to accept the loss of his job, and the poverty it would have led to, many other people who face even more dire circumstances, would not have been able to avoid unrighteousness. Maybe this man was using the money that he gained through his unrighteous action, to bring about a world in which all people could avoid unrighteousness. And if this man was doing this, then Our Creator would have known this, and would have taken this into account when judging this man. And in this way, this unrighteous action might help this man. Unrighteous action will sometimes be required of all of us. This is part of our nature.
The cannibalism that is required of us is another example of this. We know that we are commanded not to kill, so we try to avoid any action as closely related to killing as cannibalism, but Jesus tells us to eat His body and to drink His blood (Lk 22:19-20 & Mt 26:26-28.), and Jesus tells us that we cannot live unless we eat his body and drink His blood. “Truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (Jn 6:53). When Jesus died, His blood flowed down from the cross to form the words of His gospels. Every time we read these words, and live by them, we are drinking Jesus’ blood. Every time we read these words, and live by them, we are eating Jesus’ body.
Jesus tells us again that we will sometimes have to overcome our aversion to lending money in order to do Our Creator’s will, when He says, “The kingdom of God is like a Lord, who before going on a journey loaned money to a number of different slaves. One slave hid the money that his lord had loaned him, while other slaves loaned the money they had been given, at interest to other people. When their Lord returned from His journey, the slaves who had risked the money they had been given to get more money, paid their lord more than he had given them. The Lord then loaned these slaves more money than He had loaned them before. The slave, who had hidden what he had been loaned, returned that money saying, “Here is what is yours. When his Lord asked him why he had not used this money to get more money, this man said, “I was afraid. I know you are a hard man: who reaps where he did not sow, and who gathers where he did not scatter.” his Lord then said, “You wicked and slothful slave, if you knew that I reap where I sowed not, and gather whence I have not scattered, then you should have made some money for me. The money that you had will be taken from you, and will be given to the slave who now has the most: For to every one who has, more will be given, but from him who has not, even that which he seems to have, will be taken away.” And the unprofitable slave was cast into the outer darkness: there will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 25:14-30 & Lk 19: 12-27)
Though Jesus command to “Give to everyone who asks of us, and ask for nothing in return.” (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48), will often make us feel that we should not loan money for repayment. If the alternative is not giving that money to another person at all, (as it was for the man in this story), then we must realize that doing this goes against Jesus’ command, just as much as loaning money for repayment.
Though we are told that the man in this story would not loan money, because He was afraid of what might happen to him if that money were not paid back. We must realize that one of the reasons he was so afraid, may have been the fact that he knew that we are commanded to “Give to everyone who asks of us, and not to ask for anything back from one who takes from us.” What we can be certain of, is that knowing this, is one of the reasons that any of us would feel fear if we were in his place. That fear will usually help us, as we are reminded every time we hear the adjective, “God fearing” used in a positive manner. This story, though, reminds us that sometimes things that we know Our Creator disapproves of, will be the best alternative available to us, because of circumstances created by our past actions. Our Creator will know our circumstances, and will judge us accordingly. And will know if those circumstances justify an action that we may take. Seeing this, should make us thankful that Jesus tells us not to judge, because we should know that we would never do all the work necessary to judge accurately. It will be best for us to follow Jesus’ command to “give to everyone who asks of you, and ask for nothing in return, (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48). If this were not so, then Jesus would not have told us to always do this. Often, though, the best we are able to do, will be less than this, and if this is the case, then we should do whatever is the best that we can do, because maybe this is all Our Creator demands of us, because maybe we have not been given enough to do more than this: “Whoever has been given much, much will be demanded of him.” (Lk 12:48). Jesus is teaching us not to let the perfect, become the enemy of the good. If Our Creator expected us to all immediately follow all of Jesus’ commands, then Our Creator would have created a world that would allow us to do this, without facing the poverty and humiliation that would come to many of us from losing a job, (which is what would happen to many of us if we immediately followed all of Jesus’ commands). Being able to be in a situation in which losing a job would not lead to poverty and humiliation, is one of the things that is given to people from whom our creator expects much.
Section 13.)
“As you would have men do to you, do you likewise to them.” (Lk 6:31, & Mt 7:12)
When we see unequivocal examples of a person doing evil, that person will often be doing evil to us. Though Jesus tells us not to resist evil, we know that if we are victims of evil we will all often resist that evil. When Jesus tells us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Mt 6:5-15 & Lk 11:2-4). Jesus is telling us to pray that we be delivered from the evil we would do if we were led into temptation. It is this evil we truly need to be delivered from. Evil we do does us far greater harm than any evil other people could ever do to us. If we hope to follow Jesus, and receive rewards He promises, we must try as hard as we can not to resist evil, and if we do resist evil, we must try as hard as we can to end our resistance as soon as possible, and we must try to, “Agree with our adversary quickly; lest he deliver us to the judge, the judge deliver us to the officer, and we are cast into prison. If this happens we will not come out until we have paid the last cent.” (Mt 5:25-26 & Lk 12:58-59). And we must try as hard as we can to forgive people who have trespassed against us so Our Father will forgive us (Mt 6:9-15). We must also remember, that however hard we try to follow Jesus, if we are led into temptation will all often fail to do these things, and when we resist evil that is done to us we will all usually want other people to help us resist that evil. Because we will all often want this, we must also help other people resist evil when they are victims of evil we would want them to help us resist if that evil were done to us, in order to follow Jesus command to do to men as we would have them do to us. (Lk 6:31, & Mt 7:12), and we should not help other people resist evil if we would not want those people to help us resist if that evil were done to us. If we were able to follow Jesus we would never want other people to help us resist evil, just as we would never resist evil, but because we are often not able to follow Jesus, then we must also often help other people resist evil that is done to them. When evil is done to other people we will all be tempted to say we would not resist that evil and would not want other people to help us resist that evil if it were done to us, so we do not have to help those people. If this is not true, though, we will be disobeying Jesus and we will be displeasing Our Creator. We must also treat people who are doing evil, as we would want to be treated if we were doing the evil they do. Whenever we do evil we should want other people to stop us, but often we will not want this but will instead want other people to help us in our evil or want them to allow us to do evil without hindrance. If we see one person do evil to another person and if we would want other people to help us resist if we were the victim of that evil, and would want other people not to resist us if we were doing that evil, then we cannot follow Jesus command to “Do to men as you would have them do to you”, (Lk 6:31, & Mt 7:12), until we change ourselves so we would not want both of these things. If we are honest with ourselves this will often happen to us and when it does all we can do in the short term is to beat on our chests, hang our heads down, and say, ‘‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner .’ (Lk 18:10-14)
While resisting evil on other people’s behalf whenever those people suffer evil that we would want other people to resist on our behalf, will sometimes lead us to resist evil when we might not otherwise resist evil, overall it will lead us to resist less evil than we would resist otherwise, because if we are obligated to resist all evil that we would want other people to resist on our behalf if we were the victim of that evil, then we will see the folly of resistance when we might never see that folly otherwise, and then we might truly become people who will not resist evil that is done to us. And in truth this is the evil we all do the most to resist. Most of the time if we say we are resisting evil on another person’s behalf we are only saying that to justify joining a fight that we want to join for reasons of our own. If we see the folly of resistance, though, we will usually see that we can help people who are the victims of evil more in other ways, than we can help them by helping them resist evil, just as when we are victims of evil we can help ourselves more in other ways than we can by resisting evil, and we will often see that resisting evil hurts the victim of that evil more than it helps the victim of that evil. Because Jesus tells us not to resist evil, we know that resistance will always hurt a victim of evil more than it will help that victim, and we know that the more people who join in that resistance the worse off the victim of that evil will be. If this were not true Jesus would not have said, “Do not resist evil.” (Mt 5:38-48). The benefits that will come to us from not resisting evil will outweigh any suffering that comes from not resisting evil because if any significant number of people in our world resist less evil than they currently resist, then the positive results of their non-resistance will lead other people to join them, and after a certain amount of time has passed we will all live in a world free of war, police, military forces, and violence of all kinds. It may take a long time before our world is completely free of these things, but any person’s refusal to resist will lead to enough progress in this direction that our lives will improve greatly every time any person does not resist evil, and will especially improve every time we do not resist evil. What Jesus tells us to do is what will work for us, and is what will make our lives better. Not resisting evil is one powerful example of this. This may sound like wishful thinking, But that does not mean it will not happen. Every positive thing that has ever occurred sounded like wishful thinking if any person predicted that thing would happen before it did. If we continue to resist evil as often as we now do, I do not believe that any of the positive changes I am talking about will occur. I am only saying that if we resist evil less often and less forcefully these things will happen. I am stating a cause and effect relationship similar in form to the statement that if a person drops a lead ball from a tower that ball will fall. As more people resist evil less often and less forcefully our world will be healed in many ways that sound like wishful thinking today.
Resisting evil on other people’s behalf whenever those people suffer evil that we would want other people to resist on our behalf, will often lead us to act unrighteously. Jesus tells us that we should sometimes be willing to do this when He says, “Use unrighteous mammon to make friends, so that when it fails, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” (Luke 16:9). Jesus is telling us that we will try to live by unrighteous mammon, that when we try to live by unrighteous mammon, unrighteous mammon will fail us, and that we will only be received into everlasting habitations if we have used the fruits of our unrighteousness to make other people our friends; If, instead of trying to avoid other people because we fear their evil would corrupt our goodness, we see that we are evil, as they are evil, and we befriend them because their evil, like our evil, causes them to need help, as we need help.
We will all resist whenever great evil is done to us, or whenever we fear that great evil will be done to us, and if we do not resist, we only do so because no one is trying to do great evil to us. Jesus tells us that our ability to refrain from evil depends mainly on the circumstances we are placed in when He tells us to pray to Our Heavenly Father, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Mt 6:5-15 & Lk 11:2-4). Jesus is telling us to pray that we be delivered from the evil we would do if we were led into temptation. It is this evil we truly need to be delivered from. Evil that is done to us does us little harm, compared to evil web do; which does us great harm. Jesus tells His disciples that, though they will try to follow His teachings, they will do evil when they are tempted, when He says to them, “Pray that you know no temptation Indeed the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26:41 & LK 22:46).
Knowing that we will not be able to follow Jesus in difficult situations we must work especially hard to follow Jesus in easier situations. Following Jesus in easier situations will lead to a world in which fewer people are placed in the difficult situations that will lead us all to do evil. For example It will be easier for us to follow Jesus’ command to sell all that we have and distribute to the poor (Lk 12:33, see also Lk 18:18-25, & Mt 19:16-24), than it will be for us not to resist great evil, and doing this would lead to world in which many fewer people will be put in a position in which they will be the victims of great evil. Jesus gives this command to a young rich man. In material terms the vast majority of those of us who live in wealthy societies today, and great number of those of us who live in poor societies today are rich. (probably at least 1 billion people in all). Chances are if you are reading or hearing these words you are one of these people. This command does not refer only to material riches, though, but also refers to every ability we possess, to every bit of energy we possess, and to our lives themselves. We are to sell every thing we have for the poor. One person may be able to help the poor most by accumulating material wealth and then selling that wealth and distributing to the poor, while another person may be able to help the poor most by dedicating his or her life to the service of the poor. Selling all that we have means that we are to develop whatever abilities in us are most valuable, and then use those abilities to help the poor. otherwise we will only have sold part of what we have. Many people can help the poor most by creating new things that will help the poor and by giving these things to the poor. For example creating a high quality free library near where poor people live, can often be the way in which a person can give the most to the poor. So also can writing a book that helps poor people learn how to live wisely and giving copies of this book or internet access to this book to the poor, or creating a work of art that helps poor people learn how to live wisely. Protecting our natural environment is another way of giving to the poor. These ways of giving to the poor will often also help people who are not poor, because the elements of a good life are the same for all people. If they do this, then this is an added benefit. They must help the poor, though, if we hope to follow Jesus’ command, and if we hope to receive rewards Jesus tells us of, and avoid punishments Jesus tells us of. Whether or not this is the way in which a particular person can give the most to the poor depends on the abilities that person has been given, and depends on the circumstances of that person’s life.
Selling all that we have and giving to the poor will still be difficult for us, though, because we fear that if we do this we will not have things we need to survive. Jesus knows we have this fear, and this is why He says to us, “Take no thought for your life, for what you will eat or drink, or for what clothes you will wear. Your heavenly father knows you need these things. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow will take thought for itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” (Mt 6:25-34 & Lk 12:22-34). If selling all that we have and giving to the poor, and giving to every one who asks of us and not asking for anything in return (Lk 6:27-36, see also Mt 5:42-48) are still more than we can do, though, then each of us should try to give as much to the poor as he or she can, and hope this will be as much as Our Creator expects him or her to do. Jesus says to all of us, “Sell your possessions and give alms. Provide yourself with wealth that will not grow old, an unfailing treasure in the heavens that no thief will come near to, and that no moth will corrupt.” (Lk 12:33, see also Lk 18:18-25, & Mt 19:16-24). When Jesus says, “Judge not lest you be judged.” (Mt 7:1-2, & Lk 6:37) Jesus is telling us not to try to determine how often Our Creator expects any person to follow Him, and a part of why Jesus tells us this is because we could not accurately judge this even if we tried. When Jesus says, “To whoever much is given. Much will be demanded of that person.” Many of the things that are given to some people and not to other people are things we cannot see or measure. People who are treated well as children, and who are taught wisdom as children will be able to do much more of what Jesus tells us to do than other people will be able to do. These people have been given the ability to follow Jesus more easily than other people, and for this reason more will be expected of these people. Even if we tried, though, we could not identify who has been treated well as a child and who has been treated poorly. Though we cannot judge, Jesus tells us that “There is one who judges.” (Jn 8:50). This one is Our Creator and we are to leave all judgement to Him.
“O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For words come from the heart”. (Mt 12:34). When Jesus asks this question of people who had said that His words had come from Beelzebub, we realize that Jesus is not saying that these people are physically unable to say good things, because Jesus tells us in many other places that people will often say good things when their hearts are evil, (especially when He tells us about people who try to speak to God, or to Him in ways that make them hypocrites, and Jesus tells us that these people’s words will not help them. (Mt 6:1-6, 6:16-18, 15-:3-9, 23:13-33, & 24:46-51, Lk 13:14-16, Lk 11:37-49, & Mk 7:2-13, including Mk 7:6 where Jesus says, “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. (See also Mt15:8)). So we know that Jesus is not surprised to hear people with evil hearts say good things. Instead Jesus is here using the word ‘speak’, to mean speaking in a way that Our Creator will hear, and that will lead Our Creator to give us things we want and things we need. It is this type of speaking that Jesus is telling us cannot come from people with evil hearts. Until we understand this, things Jesus says about how much we can accomplish by speaking about Him in the right way, and things Jesus says about how little false words will help us, will seem to contradict each other. When different things Jesus says seem contradictory to us, this is a sign that we do not yet understand what Jesus means by one or both of the statements that seem contradictory. When things Jesus seems to say about how much we can accomplish by speaking about Him in the right way, and things Jesus says about how little false words will help us, seem contradictory to us, this apparent contradiction arises from the facts that most human languages use one word, (the word, ‘speak’) to stand for at least two very different concepts, and that for us to be able to understand Jesus, Jesus must speak to us in human languages. To overcome these limitations, when Jesus uses words that have multiple meanings, He gives us examples and stories that show us what He means by these words, and Jesus tells us these examples and stories in conjunction with other teachings that help us understand what He means when He uses these words. If the Aramaic language had one word for physical utterances, and had a different word for speaking in ways that Our Creator will hear that will lead Our Creator to give us things we want and things we need, then Jesus would not have to use these methods to show us what He means when He uses the word, ‘speak.’ But no human language will ever have separate words for every thing we need to learn from Jesus, so in any language Jesus will have to use some words with examples and stories, and in many different contexts to show what He means by those words, and if we want to learn from Jesus, we must identify words that Jesus uses in this way.
By using the word speak only to refer to speaking that helps us get things we want and things we need, Jesus shows us that physical utterances that do not help us get these things, should not be called speaking. It would be more helpful to us if we used the phrase, “wasting time and energy” to refer to these utterances. We should only use the word, ‘speak’ to refer to actions that help us. Jesus also shows us that we should only use the word ask to refer to asking that Our Creator hears and that leads Our Creator to give us things we want and things we need, when He says, “Ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.” (Mt 7:7-8 & Lk 11:9-10), “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (Jn 14:14). We know that these statements apply only to people who ask by trying to live as Jesus tells us to live, because Jesus also says, “If you forgive men their trespasses, then your Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, then Your Father will not forgive you” (Mt 6:9-15), and says, “Forgive if you would be forgiven.” (Lk 6:37, see also Mt 6:9-15, and Mt 18:23-35). While a person who does not try to forgive all people who trespass against him or her, can physically utter words that ask. Asking in this way will not lead Our Creator to give that person things that person asks for, though, and for this reason should not even be called asking. We know this because we know that Our Creator will not give people He has not forgiven “anything they ask for.” Forgiveness is the voice that allows us to ask, and if we ask with the voice that forgiving can give us, then we will receive all that we ask for, and of course if we try to forgive all people who trespass against us, we will ask for very different things than we would ask for if we did not try to forgive all people who trespass against us. If we imagine ourselves asking for vengeance and receiving what we ask for we will be imagining what can never be. A person who sees that he or she needs Our Creator’s help, and who believes Jesus when He tells us we must forgive people who trespass against us, if we want Our Creator to forgive us for our trespasses against Him. Such a person will not only ask Our Creator for help. Such a person will also always try, as hard as he or she can, to forgive people who have trespassed against him or her, in order to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness. If any of us does not try to forgive people who trespass against us, then that person has not truly asked Our Creator for anything. That person may ask with the lips, but in his or her heart that person believes that he or she can get what he or she needs, without Our Creator’s help. When we do not see that we are totally dependent on Our Creator, then we will not ask, but when we do see that we are totally dependent on Our Creator then we will ask, and then we will also forgive as we need be forgiven.
Single words should always refer to useful activities, and wasteful activities should always be called corrupted versions of the useful activity they most closely resemble. For example physical utterances that do not lead Our Creator to give us things we need and things we ask for, should be called ineffective and impotent speaking and asking, but should never be called speaking or asking. Speaking in this way helps us remember how easily useful activities can be transformed into wasteful activities, and how easily wasteful activities can be transformed into useful activities. This is hard for many of us to see, though, because George Orwell described a language that was constructed in nearly this way, but with the adjective, ‘ungood’ used in the place of the adjectives, wasteful, ineffective and impotent, in his novel 1984, and alleged that, that language perpetuated repressive government. Orwell has helped all of us who have read this passage, by causing us to question the structure of languages and the influence language can have on culture (and has especially helped those of us who like me had not questioned these things before reading his book), but Orwell was wrong to allege that the language he describes, perpetuates repressive government. Orwell criticizes this language by alleging that it makes things that are different seem more similar to each other than they are. This only seems to be so to him, because our current languages do the opposite of this by making things that are similar seem more different than they are. Our current languages do this because most people who have helped shape these languages have wanted to imagine that they are more different from people they don’t like, than they are, and because languages that make similar things seem more different that they are, help them do this. Languages that reverse this trend by showing us that wasteful, ineffective, impotent, and evil things, are corruptions of useful things, help us see the harm repression does to everyone involved in repression, by helping us see that wasteful activities can be transformed into useful activities, and that useful activities can be transformed into wasteful activities. This helps us see the destructiveness of repression because we know that repression makes it less likely that either repressed people, or people repressing those people, will do useful things, and makes it more likely that both repressed people, and people repressing those people, will do wasteful things. Even a language of this sort, that is used to incorrectly identify which activities are useful and which activates are wasteful, helps us come closer to wisdom, than do languages that, (like our current languages), make similar things seem more different than they are, because seeing incorrect relationships between different things, is only one step away from seeing the correct relationships between those things while not seeing that different things are related to each other at all, is many steps away from seeing the correct relationships that exist between those things. Seeing that wasteful and useful activates can be transformed into each other, and that repression makes it more likely that any activity will become wasteful and less likely that any activity will become useful, also helps us understand why Jesus teaches that we should never try to force people to do anything that we cannot persuade those people to do, (even when those people do evil to us), when He says “If your brother trespasses against you, first tell him his fault in private. If he will not hear you, then go to him again and bring some witnesses with you. If he still will not hear you, then tell it to the church. If he will not hear the church, then let him be as a stranger to you.” (Mt 18:15-17). This tells us that if we cannot persuade our brother to stop trespassing against us, we are to let him be as a stranger to us rather than trying to force him to stop trespassing against us. Jesus also tells us not to try to force any person to do what we think that person should do, (even when that person does evil to us), when He says, “Resist not evil” (Mt 5:38-48).
One great weakness of most churches that currently call themselves Christian churches, is most evident in the poetry of John Milton.
In Milton’s poetry the only heroic characters are Lucifer and his followers. Because these are the only characters who are not guaranteed success in their fight. Everyone else in this poem, Other than God comes across as weak sycophant who is only fighting in order to be on the winning side. That we all feel this way, is evident in the fact that the only adjective that we have in our language, that means ‘requiring careful planning and great patience’ (exactly the heroic qualities required of a rebel), is the word diabolical. And that this weakness crosses languages, is evident in the fact that a friend of mine recently preferred going by the nickname ‘Li’l Diabla’ in order to convey her great determination. (Even though she is probably the best person that any of us might ever meet). That we all feel this way, is also evident in every story that we feel deeply about. Characters in these stories can only be heroic, if they are not guaranteed of success in their endeavors. Think of any story that is meaningful to you, and you will see this.
This is a wholly inaccurate description of Christianity, though. Anyone who tries to live by Jesus’ words, has been on the losing side of every battle throughout human history. And while Jesus ensures us that if we endure in our faith in Him, we will receive rewards that outweigh our suffering, these rewards will only come after we have suffered greatly. Jesus tells us this when He says, “Beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake. And brother will deliver brother up to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mt 10:17-18 & 21-22) Jesus tells us these things again when He says to all of us, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword. I am come to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against the mother, the daughter in law against the mother in law. He who loves father more than me, is not worthy of me. he who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. he who takes not his cross and follows me, is not worthy of me. he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life, for my sake, will find it.” (Mt 10:34-39, Mt 16:24-26, & Lk 9; 23-25), when He says, “Blessed are you when men will hate you, and when they will separate you from their company, and will reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the son of man’s sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did likewise to the prophets.” (Lk 6:22-23) and when He says, “There is no man, who has left house or parents, or wife or children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who will not receive many times more in the present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting” (Lk 18:29-30).
Section 14.)
A common misunderstanding
At this point I want to address a common misunderstanding that many people have about Jesus. The best way in which I can address this misunderstanding, is by here reprinting a letter that I sent to a man who read the beginning of this essay, but who still misunderstood Jesus, and who in a letter that he had previously sent to me, had said that “knowing God is more important than preaching morality”, had said that “what paul added makes Christianity overly moralistic”, had made it clear that he felt that paul was more concerned with morality than Jesus was, and had said that “If more people could know God's love, they would be more secure and tend to be more moral”. This man had also previously shown a strong tendency to disregard what He considered to be Jesus’ teachings about morality. Here is the letter that I sent to this man, to show Him the true nature of Jesus’ teachings in these areas, and to show him some of the dangerous consequences of the errors he had made.
Morality is an integral part of God. We cannot know Our Creator without knowing what Our Creator wants us to do. Jesus often tells us what Our Creator wants us to do. His emphasis is more on what Our Father wants us to do, than it is on anything else. If you want to call this, “preaching morality”, then you must admit that “preaching morality” was Jesus’ primary activity. Jesus does this much more than paul, or any of Jesus’ other followers, did this.
It is true that if more people feel more secure, then those people will tend to act more morally. But the feeling of security that Jesus’ brings, is the feeling of security that will come when a significant number of people in our world, follow His command to “Give to all who ask of you, and ask for nothing in return”. (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48). Not the shallow and easily destroyed feeling of security that comes from telling each other pleasant stories. If any person believes that Christianity is just a matter of telling each other what we want to hear, then that person’s faith in Jesus will be shallow, and will easily be destroyed. And this is what most of us, believe of churches that ignore Jesus’ commands, whenever those commands are difficult to follow.
I’m sure that you have noticed that most thinking people do not take organized religion seriously, and assume that organized religion is merely a lot of pleasant stories that many people choose to tell each other. Thinking people will only take a religion seriously, to the extent that people practicing that religion try to do difficult things. And because the commands that Jesus gave us are very difficult to always perform, if any church follows Jesus’ true teachings, then that church will be taken seriously by thinking people. Jesus is only taken seriously by most of us, because he died for His beliefs, (and is only remembered today, because He did this). And while none of us will do this much for our beliefs, if we want to be taken seriously then we must do something that is difficult for us to do.
Our Creator is very much concerned with the bottom line, and knows that we will often have to feel unpleasant emotions to make our bottom lines look as they should look, by doing what He wants us to do. Jesus tells us this when He says, “The kingdom of God is like a Lord, who before going on a journey loaned money to a number of different slaves. One slave hid the money that his lord had loaned him, rather than risking this money to get more money. While other slaves risked the money that they had been loaned, and by risking this money, got more money. When their Lord returned from His journey, the slaves who had risked the money they had been given, to get more money, paid their lord more than he had given them. Their Lord then loaned these slaves more money than He had loaned them before. The slave, who had hidden what he had been loaned, returned that money saying, “Here is what is yours. When his Lord asked him why he had not used this money to get more money, this man said, “I was afraid. I know you are a hard man: who reaps where he did not sow, and who gathers where he did not scatter.” his Lord then said, “You wicked and slothful slave, if you knew that I reap where I sowed not, and gather whence I have not scattered, then you should have made some money for me. The money that you had will be taken from you, and will be given to the slave who now has the most: For to every one who has, more will be given, but from him who has not, even that which he seems to have, will be taken away.” And the unprofitable slave was cast into the outer darkness: there will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 25:14-30 & Lk 19: 12-27)
In this story the slaves who Jesus tells us we are like, had to withstand great fear without giving in to that fear in order to do what Our Creator wanted them to do. In like manner, we will all often have to withstand unpleasant emotions without giving in to those emotions, in order to do what Our Creator wants us top do.
If we cannot point to a specific passage in which Jesus states a thing, then that thing is not a part of His teachings. And to say that it is, is only a lie. If you actually do believe that Jesus talks about God’s love for us, instead of talking about God’s demands of us, then you should be able to quote Jesus saying this. When you see that you cannot do this, you will realize that you have believed lies about Jesus.
We all want to imagine that Our Creator is more concerned with our feelings than He is. But most people who say this, do not actually believe it. The only people who believe this are those fortunate few of us who have had such pleasant lives, that their lives tell them that Our Creator is tenderly concerned with every feeling that they have. You have turned the teachings of Jesus, which are especially well suited to hold us up in difficult times, into an organized religion that is suited only to hothouse flowers.
In General the more loudly any person shouts that Our Creator is tenderly concerned with our feelings, the less that person actually believes this. In my experience, you are such a person. I am guessing that you actually have known some difficulties in your life, and that for this reason you know that Our Creator does not protect every delicate feeling that we have, and I am guessing that you do not actually believe what you say about Our Creator, but are instead hoping that if you shout this loudly enough, then you will believe it. If instead, though, you chose to believe what Jesus actually teaches us, then you would not feel the need to try to do this.
You have also suggested that I write more succinctly. If you can think of any way in which I could have clearly stated important truths that I have stated about Jesus, more succinctly than I have stated them, then I would be happy to hear about this way. In truth though I believe that to achieve greater brevity, I would have to sacrifice clarity. And clearly I do not believe that you would want me to do that. Just as in any recipe, it takes a certain amount of time for each process that is described, to occur, so also does it take a certain number of words, to clearly express any idea. When you say that I use too many words, to me you sound like the Austrian emperor who told Mozart that he used too many notes.
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Matthew 24:1-2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.
Lk7:36-59 Whoever has been forgiven much, will love much. Your faith has saved you, go in peace.
Lk 13:25-30 you shall weep and gnash your teeth when you are on the outside looking in.
Mt 23:14 & Lk 20:47 You devour widow’s houses, and make pretence of long prayer. For this you will receive greater damnation.”
Lk 9:56 The son of man is come not to destroy men’s lives but to save them.
Section 15.)
We are still in the process of being created. In this world we are individuals who are coming together to form something greater than ourselves. Our creation cannot be complete until we have come together as one with all people.
In this world we are like molecules of flour, egg, and, water that are coming together to form a loaf of bread, and this world is the oven in which we are being baked, and for us the end of this world will come when we have come together with all other people and when all nations have come together as one, and this is also when Jesus will return to our world, causing this world to end for us. We know this because everything that Jesus teaches us to do is a part of forgiving people who trespass against us, and for this reason everything that Jesus teaches us to do will help us come together with other people, and because we know that if we do all that Jesus tells us to do, harmony, brotherhood, and unity will come to us as easily and as certainly as water flows down a mountain when snow melts on that mountain’s top.
Because we often join together in groups that keep us from joining with people in other groups, temporary division such as the division Jesus tells us he brings to our world, will often be a necessary step toward all of us coming together, but the ultimate goal of all Jesus does, (including bringing us temporary division), is to help us all come together. We know this because Jesus says, “I came that I might save the world.” (Jn 12:47). If the division Jesus brings to our world, were meant to be permanent Jesus would have said that He only came that He might save a part of the world, not the entire world.
Two of the most significant ways in which we can give to all who ask of us, (as Jesus tells us to do in Lk 6:30 (27-36). see also Mt 5:42- 48), are to give people who want to live near us, our assistance in their efforts to move near us, and to move near people we think we can help most. The first of these ways of giving to all who ask of us, is the way we should try hardest to practice, primarily because, given the smallness of our faith, (Mt 6:30, Mt 8:26, Mt 14:31, Mt 16:8, Lk 12:28, & Mt 17:20), the weakness of the flesh this lack of faith leads to in us, (Mt 26:41, LK 22:46, Mt 6:5-15 & Lk 11:2-4, & Lk 16:9), and our consequent inability to do much good (Lk 18:10-14), we must always try to do whatever good we can do most easily first, and only if we succeed in doing good that is easy for us to do, then try to good that is harder for us to do, and because it is much easier to help someone move near us than to move near that person. Often we should also try harder to help people who need our help move near us, than to move near them, because often we can give more to other people if we and they are living in whatever place is more conducive to human growth, and for those of us from whom much is demanded because we have been given much, (Lk 12:48), being placed in an environment that is more conducive to human growth is often one of the things we have been given, and is one of the things Our Creator demands we share with other people. Sadly, though, we are often prevented doing this by governments that create laws that prevent people from moving freely across national borders (and we are especially burdened by these laws if we are some of the fortunate people who have been given the good fortune to live in wealthy countries, and because of this are some of the people from whom more is expected). Governments we live under also do us great harm by leading us to do violence by encouraging us, and by sometimes trying to force us, to become members of their military and police forces, even though Jesus tells us not to do violence even when violence is done to us. (Mt 5:38-41). These are only the two most obvious ways governments hurt us. Even if governments only harmed us in these ways, though, they would do much more harm to us than could ever be made up for by any good they might do in other areas, and this shows us that we would be better off if there were no governments. For much of human history the vast majority of us have assumed that governments would always exist and would always be powerful, and for this reason have not even considered trying to significantly reduce the power of governments, and this, along with the widespread denial of the fact that governments do us more harm than good, has prevented us from doing much to reduce the size of government because no one can make a change unless that person can first imagine that change and envision that change. These things have been changing recently, though, and for this reason, at this point in history we can significantly reduce the power of government if we are willing to work to do this. At any time we are capable of little good, and what good we are capable of is partly determined by the nature of the cultures and societies we live in. At this point in our history this is part of the little good we are capable of. While Jesus teaches us how we can live wisely under the yoke of governments, He does not tell us that we will be doomed to always suffer under governments, on this earth. While not living as Jesus tells us to live will do us much more harm than governments can ever do to us, governments also do us harm, and we should live without governments as soon as we are able to. If we try to lessen the power of government by resisting governments, though, we will do more harm to ourselves than governments do to us. There are many things we can do to lessen government power without resisting governments, though. One important way is to try to persuade people in governments to stop doing evil to us by speaking out against their evil. Jesus tells us to do this when he says, “If your brother trespasses against you, first tell him his fault in private. If he will not hear you, then go to him again and bring some witnesses with you. If he still will not hear you, then tell it to the church. If he will not hear the church, then let him be as a stranger to you.” (Mt 18:15-17). Jesus also tells us not to resist governments, but also not to give governments undue power over us, when He says, says to a person who asks if it is lawful to pay tribute to the romans by holding up a coin and asking whose image is on that coin, and after hearing the answer, ‘Caesar’s’ then says “therefore give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and give to God that which is God’s.” (Mt 22:17-21), a part of what Jesus is saying to that person is that when he chose to use Caesar’s money he gave Caesar power over him, so it is foolish to try to fight Caesar when he uses that power. Maybe governments will take whatever we have from us even if we don’t use their money, but if we don’t use their money it will be much harder for them to take from us, and this will reduce their power over us. If we use money, we should try not to use money created by a government. It might be better, though, for us not to use money at all. We must remember that money is a thing of man, and as such it only helps us if it helps us get things of God. If any thing of man does not help us get things of God then it does not help us at all, and then it should be discarded. Jesus tells us never to pursue things of man instead of things of God when He says to Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You are an offence to me because you do not think of things of God, but think instead, of things of men.” (Mt 16:23), and when He says, Do not lay up treasure on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves dig through and steal. Instead, lay up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not dig through and steal.” (Mt 6:19-23 & Lk 12:33) In order not to give governments the added power over us they gain when we use their money, we must either establish a money supply not controlled by a government, or must live solely by barter and trade so we will not need money. While this will require some effort on our part, it will be worth the effort it will take because of the great harm it will prevent governments from doing to us. There are also many other ways we can stop giving governments undue power over us, without resisting those governments. In most instances these ways will be different forms of not going out of our way to help a government exert control over us. No one form of not helping governments will be necessary for us to make significant moves away from government, but some significant effort will be required of us. Otherwise the momentum that has created governments will lead governments to continue and to grow more powerful, even if most of us wish there were no governments. For example if we do other things to reduce the power of government , then we may be able to move toward eliminating government while still using government money, and we might only move away from government money when we are very close to having no government, by then transferring the control of the money supply to non-governmental groups, or if our government has become a non-governmental group by no longer sponsoring police, military, or penal forces, and no longer uses force or coercion in any way, we might continue to use the same money that had formerly been controlled by a government, and we might never have to establish an alternative money supply. But stopping our use of government money as soon as possible, would help us move away from government. This might also be true of other things governments do, that would help us more than they would hurt us if they were not done by governments. These things might be able to continue unchanged, while government power is reduced in other ways, and eventually they might be transferred to organizations that do not use the force or coercion that all governments use or they might continue as a part of an organization that is no longer a government because it no longer includes police, military, or penal forces, and no longer uses force or coercion in any way.
One of the primary reasons we have a better chance of reducing the power of government now, than people have had in the past is that the idea that we would be better off with no government is much more common and widespread in our society than it has been in the past. This idea has been widespread in our society at least since 1971, When John Lennon, and Yoko Ono made us all realize that the first step toward doing this was freeing our minds from bad habits that led us to assume that governments had to always exist. (While Ono did not perform musically in the song Imagine, the lyrics of that song were taken from poems she had written in the early 60s and had published in her 1965 book, ‘grapefruit’). We must always first be able to imagine a thing before we can do that thing, and if we can imagine living without governments, then with hard work we will be able to live without governments. When Lennon and Ono also urge us to ‘Imagine no heaven’, though, they are not talking about something we can change, regardless of what we imagine. They are also talking about something Jesus knows we will all imagine, because by heaven they only mean a place in which some people will receive rewards after they die, but they are not talking about rewards people can receive in this life. Lennon and Ono showed that they strongly believed in rewards in this life, by making great efforts to act morally by opposing war. Jesus knows that many of us will not believe in rewards after we die, so He also tells us that rewards will come to his followers in this life when He says, “There is no man, who has left house or parents, or wife or children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who will not receive many times more in the present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting” (Lk 18:29-30). And most often Jesus only tells us we will receive rewards for following him, without telling us when those rewards will come. Because He knows our faith will be small, Jesus only cares that we believe enough of what He says to do what Our Creator wants us to do. Jesus tells us that what matters to Him and to Our Creator is what we do, not what we say, when he says, “Not all who say, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father. On the day of judgement, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?, and in your name cast out demons?, and in your name done many wonderful works? And I will say to them, “I never knew you. Leave me, you workers of iniquity.” (Mt 7:21-23: see also Lk 6:46). Now that over 35 years have passed since Lennon and Ono encouraged us to imagine a world without government in memorable words that I am sure the vast majority of us have heard, and that a majority of us probably heard when we were young and were most open to considering new ideas; Now we should be able to easily imagine a world without governments, and now we should now be able to start moving toward such a world.
While governments sometimes try to do things that would help us more than they would hurt us, if those things were done well, governments will not be able to do those things as well as non-governmental groups, because government actions will be poisoned by government association with military and police forces. Many people who would actively work with, and enthusiastically support non-governmental groups that tried to do the same things, will not work with governments that try to do these things because they know that anything that is done by force will lead to more harm than good. This is the primary reason Jesus tells us not to resist evil. If governments reduce their activities, many of these people will form non-governmental organizations that would do more good and do less harm than governments do. If there are enough well-intentioned people in any society to get a government to do any good thing, then those people would be able to get that thing done, and done much better without government. It is often impossible for an individual person to chose to work outside government, though, because as individuals we usually do not control the resources necessary to establish alternatives to government, but if we work together we can establish these alternatives. Sometimes we imagine that money governments get through taxes allow governments to do more good that non-governmental groups would be able to do. When we do this we underestimate the strength of the support that would come from people who realize that programs that strengthen communities would help us all, if programs that strengthened communities were not associated with government force and violence. We must also realize that tax revenues come at the terrible price of making ourselves subject to government force and coercion, and that this will outweigh any good governments do. When we want to make ourselves feel better about our world, without having to work to improve our world, we also tell ourselves that government sponsored violence sometimes prevents violence from other sources,. We must always remember though, that any use of force will do more harm than good. If this were not so, Jesus would not have said, “resist not evil.” (Mt5:38-48)
Some parts of large nations will inevitably move away from government more quickly than other parts, and because of this large nations will break up into separate nations with more or less government, as a step toward government disappearing throughout that nation. The issue of helping people who want to live near us, move near us, will probably be the issue that will lead nations to break up, because people in some parts of any nation will realize just how harmful national borders are sooner than people in other parts of that nation. Nations are things of man, not things of God, and when we realize they are not helping us get things of God we will discard them as bad habits, our society has outgrown. Throughout history steps toward this have often happened as people have moved from more oppressive governments to less oppressive governments, and every time this has happened doomsayers have predicted that people would wither and perish without the restrictive governments they have abandoned, and every time this has happened history has shown these people have been wrong. Now we are close enough to living freely to foresee the end of all government and to start to move toward that end.
Just as harmful as jobs in which we commit acts of violence are jobs in which we make it easy for ourselves and other people to commit acts of violence by causing ourselves and other people to oversimplify the reality of our world. We all make great efforts to see our world in black and white with few shades of gray because seeing our world in this way allows us to fight at a moments notice, and because we always want to be prepared to fight. If we saw the true complexity of our world we might feel indecision when we want to fight, and this indecision might make us hesitate when we want to act quickly. We mentally handicap ourselves so we will always be prepared to fight. We would be free of this handicap if we followed Jesus by trying not to resist evil, and if as a part of this we did not prepare ourselves to fight. Though we know that we will all resist evil when we are tempted, and that this is why Jesus tells us to pray, “Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:5-15 & Lk 11:2-4), we also know that , if we are not prepared to resist evil, then we will keep our evil to a minimum. If we understand Jesus we will see that we do not lose anything by being unprepared to fight because we will see that when we fight we have already displeased Our Creator, and that the outcome of fight can do nothing to change this. We will see that everyone involved in a fight loses that fight, and that no one ever wins a fight. If we do not try to prepare ourselves to fight at a moment’s notice by oversimplifying Our World then we will be able to develop the greatest gift Our Creator has given us, (Our intellects), by seeing and understanding our world as it truly is. Currently most activities people take part in lead us to oversimplify our experience of our world. We try to reduce reality to a false simplicity. Probably most harmfully we oversimplify our experience of our world by listening to oversimplified music rather than listening to music that represents reality as it is. We also oversimplify our experience of our world in nearly every activity that we call entertainment. We tell ourselves that life is such a simple experience and has such simple solutions, that there is almost no need for us to think. We tell ourselves that we are simply good, and that people we want to fight are simply bad. Shades of gray would only make us hesitate. Thinking would only make us hesitate. Through jobs in advertising people do more damage to their intellects and to the intellects of their fellow humans, than people do in any other type of job. Because we want to be fighters, we refuse to be effective thinkers. Avoiding this fate is one of the greatest rewards that Jesus wants us to receive, and is one of the primary reasons Jesus tells us not to resist evil. If we could become peaceful creatures then our thinking would evolve to so much higher a level than we currently know, that what we currently call thinking would seem to be the rudimentary mental activity of a lower form of life. This is easiest to see in the life of Jesus. Because Jesus transcended violence He is able to think far more clearly than the rest of us and the clarity of His thought is the ability that allows Him to teach us more effectively than anyone else can teach us.
If we see how little we are helped by what most people do in their jobs, and if we see how much we are harmed by what most people do in their jobs, we will realize that, in general, people who do not have jobs are much better friends to us than people who do have jobs. While often it is only random circumstance that determines which people have jobs and which people do not, often the reason that some people do not have jobs is that those people have an especially strong desire to help other people or not hurt other people, or have an especially strong desire to follow Jesus closely, because jobs they have tried to work in, (like most jobs in our world), have not allowed them to do those things, and because they have been dissatisfied with those jobs. For any social movement that aims to heal our world to have a chance of succeeding, some of these people must be among the leaders of that movement. This is so because people who do not have jobs because they have been dissatisfied with jobs they have held, because those jobs have not allowed them to help heal our world, have required them to help tear our world apart, or have not allowed them to follow Jesus closely; People like this will see much more clearly than most of us, how fundamentally our world needs to be transformed to be healed, and how fundamentally most of us need change ourselves to follow Jesus more closely. Most people who currently talk about following Jesus foster the delusion that we are all much closer to following Jesus, and to doing what Our Creator wants us to do, than we are, and foster the delusion that what most of us must do to follow Jesus’ more closely, is live in more traditional ways, and allow people above us in social hierarchies to control us more completely than we presently do, when in truth what we need to do to follow Jesus more closely is the opposite of this. We need to realize that most of the time living by traditional rules and allowing people above us in social hierarchies to control us, lead us to violate Jesus’ teachings, and realize that we need to do these things less often, to follow Jesus more closely. Most of us have been taught throughout our lives that only minor changes are required to make our world all that it should be, and that the needed changes must come almost exclusively from people who have little power, influence, or status in our social hierarchies, because most of what we have called morality in our world has always been primarily a tool we have used to try to control each other, rather than trying to improve our lives by changing our own behavior, and because people with more power in social hierarchies have been able to present their view of ‘morality’ (which stated that other people needed to change much more than they needed to change), more effectively than people with less power due to their greater access to education, and more loudly than people with less power due to their greater ability to control media. As a part of this most of us have been taught that only small incremental changes can help our world, and most of us have been so thoroughly indoctrinated by ubiquity of this message that most of us cannot even envision the scope of the changes our world needs, without automatically feeling that any change as radical as this, must be bad for our world, (as we have been thoroughly taught to feel). Most of what we hear, and see in our world, (and especially most of what is produced by people who have more power in our world), is a part of the indoctrination that causes most of us to feel strong emotions against the radical change our world must undergo to be healed; a change that will occur if any significant number of people in our world ever try to follow the teachings of Jesus. Most of us also refuse to see the true extent of the changes required for us to come close to following Jesus, because most of us do not want to do the work we will have to do to make these changes. While radical change has sometimes led to very negative consequences in the past, the radical change that will occur if any significant number of people in our world try to follow Jesus; This radical change will lead to only positive consequences. None of us can envision the extent of these positive consequences because we have only seen the broken world in which we live, and for this reason cannot see what our world will be like if it is ever healed. While none of us can see what our world will be like if it is healed, we can see how to heal our world, if we allow ourselves to see how Jesus teaches us to live, and only people who have broken free from the indoctrination that keeps most of us from seeing how far we are from where we need to be if we want to significantly improve our lives; only those people will be able to see how much we need to change ourselves. For people who have broken free of this indoctrination, to be able to lead social movements that will only be able to heal our world if they make the fundamental changes that only these people will call for, these people must have access to resources that will allow them to work efficiently in helping to start such a movement. Sadly, though, just the opposite of this is the reality of our world. People who do not want to work in jobs because those jobs do not allow them accomplish good things they want to accomplish, are usually deprived of the most basic resources they need to effectively start a social movement, or to even work effectively, as they are often not even able to maintain good health because they often cannot get enough food to eat, often cannot find heated places to live or find shelter, and often cannot find places in which they can sleep well enough to maintain good health. I am speaking of people who experience homelessness. Even many people who become homeless, solely as result of accidental circumstance and not because of any dissatisfaction with work they have had, will be among the leaders of most movements that will be able to help heal the wounds of our world, because as a consequence of the experience of being homeless, these people will also see much more clearly than most of us how fundamentally our world needs to be transformed to be healed, and because activities they will lead us to take that will heal our world, will also lead us all to follow Jesus more closely, even if they lead us to do these things for reason’s other than trying to follow Jesus. The radical change we need to make to follow Jesus requires us to change thing of man that have become a part of us, not to change things of God. Things of man are anything people have created, including all of the messages, stories, images, songs, films, and all of the other cultural artifacts that become parts of us by controlling most of what we think. Our minds as God created them, are one of the greatest gifts we have been given, but our minds as they have been degraded by the influence of things of man, are greatly diminished things that are only gruesome reminders of the glory God intends for us. Each human mind is immeasurably valuable, just as each human person is immeasurably valuable, because we all have the potential to return to the path of glory God intends for us, but if we do not set ourselves on the path to realizing this potential, by trying as hard as we can to forgive all people we believe have trespasses against us, and by trying as hard as we can not to judge any people, then we will be judged on the basis of what we are, not on the basis of what we can become. If we are judged on the basis of what we can become we will be given all we need and all we ask for, as Jesus tells us when He says, “Ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.” (Mt 7:7-8 & Lk 11:9-10), “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (Jn 14:14), see also Lk 7:50. But if we are judged on the basis of what we are, we will perish. (Mt 13:49-50, Mt 18:23-35, Mt 16:25, Lk 9:24, Mt 25:31-46, Lk 13:23-24, , Lk 17:23, Mt 10: 39, , Mt 25:14-30, Mt 7:19). We will only be able to start to develop the potential that exists within us if we pursue things of God instead of things of man. Jesus tells us how important it is for us to do this when He says to his disciple Peter “You offend me because you think of things of men instead of things of God.” (Mt 16:23). If things of man do not help us get things of God they must be fundamentally overhauled until they do help us get things of God, and we will only be able to make the fundamental changes that are needed to do this if we follow those among us who are best able to see that wholesale changes are needed. (and in today’s world we are most likely to find such people among the homeless.) For the near future, though, it will be hard for these people to assume the role as leaders that we all need them to assume, because for the near future most homeless people will probably still be deprived of the good health that would allow them to work effectively.. This must be compensated for by their joining in a symbiotic relationship with people who have better health, to start the movements that will be able to heal our world. Because poor health deprives most homeless people of mental agility, until this changes, homeless people must play the role of enunciating general principles that will guide movements that will be able to heal our world (a role they will be uniquely able to play because of their experiences and perspective), and people with better health must use their greater mental agility to work out the details of applying these principles to the many situations in which different people will try to live by them. The success of these movements, though, will be small, and slow to come to fruition, compared to the success we will have in healing our world, if the majority of homeless people in our world are able to maintain good health. We must all see homeless people as people possessed of the reckless courage our word needs. (a courage that has led them to act on the basis of principles they held dear, even when doing so led to negative consequences for them, and we must see that people like this are our world’s most valuable resource, and are critical to the successful healing our world needs to experience. Every person who wants to help heal our world should try to attract as many homeless people as possible to their city, and must try to help these people gain the good health that will allow them to work effectively. This will only be accomplished, if we realize how poor the health of homeless people is, and if we realize that less than ideal solutions are needed to help them regain enough health to work effectively. The primary obstacle to good health for most homeless people is a shortage of food, to address this problem we will have to sometimes provide food that would not be the healthiest choice for a person with enough to eat. When a person is starving, though, any food is better than no food, and often the food that a starving person needs most immediately will be high fat, high calorie food. For this reason, at least in the near future, the way in which we can do the most to improve the health of homeless people, is to find McDonald’s restaurants near city parks that homeless people can sleep in, in good weather, near apartments for homeless people, or near shelters at which homeless people are treated with dignity and respect, and establish at these McDonald’s restaurants free tabs that will allow anyone to come in at any time and order item’s off the McDonald’s Dollar menu, and be able to charge these items to this tab at no cost. In fairness to McDonald’s restaurant owners, people who establish these tabs must pay for these tabs in advance, and if food is ordered up to the amount paid on these tabs, must pay more toward these tabs as soon as possible. (and hopefully will have paid enough in advance so there will never come a must pay restaurant owners a fair service charge. Any of us who have known hunger, know that without a kitchen stocked with food, the McDonald’s dollar menu double cheeseburger sandwich, and McChicken sandwich are probably the two best ways of staving off starvation in our nation. Anyone concerned that these tabs might be misused or exploited must remember that the desire to prevent exploitation, is the greatest barrier to effectively helping each other. Jesus tells us to disregard concerns about misuse or exploitation when He says, “Give to every one who asks of you, and do not ask one who takes from you to give anything back.” (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48). Our world will only be healed when a large number of us can give this freely. One of the reason’s these tabs will do more to help most homeless people work efficiently than current meal sites will, is that the city parks they will be near to, will probably be among the most effective places for people involved in social movement that aims to heal our world, to meet for that movements to have a good chance of succeeding. Another reason is that city parks in combination with nearby public libraries that provide working public computers, will be conducive to effective work to prepare and plan for, and to direct these movements because of the combination of the physical beauty of the parks, and the access to writing tools, and tools to distribute information at the libraries. Free tabs for food from McDonald’s dollar menu’s will also help homeless people work more effectively than current meal sites do, because homeless people currently have to spend most of their time and energy walking back and forth between different meal sites, and homeless shelters. Eventually meal sites that address these concerns by serving food every time people they serve need to eat, and by being located close to, city parks, public libraries, and free apartments for homeless people; eventually meal sites that do this should replace free tabs for food from McDonald’s menus. Until this happens, though, establishing free tabs for food from McDonald’s dollar menus is the way in which most of us can do the most to help heal our world.
Because of the weakness of our faith, and the weakness of our faith, and the weakness of the flesh, and the constant backsliding it leads to, If our society is fundamentally transformed so most of us can receive rewards Jesus tells us of, it will quickly revert to a corrupted state, and will soon need =to be fundamentally transformed again if we hope to receive rewards Jesus tells us of. For this reason our society will need to be in a state of constant transformation that will only come from the establishment of permanent revolution in our world. Though the term ‘permanent revolution has been used as a justification for oppressing people it is a valuable concept that has only been discredited because it has been used by people who actually did the exact opposite of what they claimed to do by creating a power structure that was especially resistant to change. (The tendency to claim to do the opposite of what we actually do, is one of humanity’s most enduring traits.). In order to create a state in which our world is constantly transformed in a way that will allow most of us to receive rewards Jesus tells us of, many more of us must devote our energies to determining what changes are needed in our society. For unwise change could easily transform our society without improving our lives, and would sometimes even make our lives worse. Currently the only group of people in our world, the majority of whom see how fundamentally our world needs to be transformed is the group of home; less people in our world. This must change. Most importantly the academic community in our world must devote it self to determining the nurture of the fundamental change that is needed in our world. Today people in the academic community learn many things that could guide our world’s transformation if they were used to do so, but that are instead seldom used to improve our world, and are often used to make our world a worse place to live.
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Three of the teachers who teach many of the same lessons Jesus teaches, are John Steinbeck, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,
At the end of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ John Steinbeck’s Tom Joad says, “Wherever there is a person who needs my help, I’ll be there.
Martin Luther King Jr. says that, “Each of us must choose to walk either in the creative light of altruism or in the destructive darkness of selfishness. This is the final judgement. Life’s most persistent question is what are you doing for others?”
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - Loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend.
MLK Jr Compassion and non-violence help us to see the enemy’s point of view … If we are mature we may learn and profit and grow from the wisdom of
brothers who are called the opposition.
Gandhi Non-violence leads to humility. Non-violence means reliance on God.
If we would seek His aid we must approach Him with a humble and contrite
heart.
MLK Jr. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
There is some good in the worst of us, and there is some evil in the best of
us. When we discover this we are less prone to hate our enemies.
MLK Jr. Love is the refusal to defeat any man.
Gandhi The aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the beloved community,
while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.
MLK Jr. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God.
Gandhi Hatred ever kills, love never dies
Gandhi Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi Suffering cheerfully endured ceases to be suffering
Gandhi A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art and is full of true joy.
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One of the most important examples of people who do not speak against Jesus’ teachings, but who are often misunderstood when they encourage people to question the false Christianity they have been taught, is the musical group Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin never said anything against Jesus’ teachings, but they do seem to mock t-he false Christianity that leads many people to believe that saying the word “Jesus” will give them magical powers, And they did seem to tell people to question the false security they thought they had gained by saying Jesus’ name. In criticizing the false Christianity of worshipping only Jesus’ name Led Zeppelin joined Jesus who told us that His words were more important than His name, almost 2,000 years ago when He said, “Blasphemy against the Son Of Man will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Mt 12:32 & Lk 12:10). The Son of Man is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ teachings and the help Our Creator gives to people who try to follow Jesus. Jesus also tells us that Our Creator cares about what we do, not what we say, when He says, “Not all who say, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father. On the day of judgement, Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?, and in your name cast out demons?, and in your name done many wonderful works? And I will say to them, “I never knew you. Leave me, you workers of iniquity.” (Mt 7:21-23: see also Lk 6:46).
The reason Led Zeppelin is important to people who want to follow Jesus, is that Led Zeppelin, through their music, illustrates Jesus’ teaching that great joy can only come from great sacrifice, and shows us through the medium of high art how it will feel to make difficult sacrifices and to experience the joy this will allow us to know. Jesus teaches that great joy can only come from great sacrifice when He says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it lives alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. (Jn 12:24). Led Zeppelin shows us often in their music, examples of people who come to know joy by renouncing desires that had led them to suffering, and Led Zeppelin shows us how it will feel to make the difficult sacrifices that will be required to bring about joy, and to then experience the joy this will allow us to know. Led Zeppelin shows us often that great joy will only come to people who renounce destructive desires, and shows us how hard it will be for us to renounce these desires. First, though Led Zeppelin shows us what can happen when we do not renounce destructive desires. Led Zeppelin started as a blues band, and one of the primary themes of blues music is that desire can often lead us to bad places (especially sexual desire). This was the theme of Led Zeppelin’s first album. The protagonist of this album was led to great suffering by his desire, just as zeppelins have often been led to destruction by forces that guided them into obstacles. On their second album Led Zeppelin renounced a destructive desire by telling a woman who had caused the protagonist of the song “Heartbreaker”, great suffering to “go away”, and then released some of the anger this had caused this protagonist to feel, and some of the energy that renouncing this destructive desire had liberated, in the song “Living Loving Maid”. Then Led Zeppelin renounced the desire to remain in a pleasant place in the song ‘ramble on.’ After this Led Zeppelin expresses the joy that comes to a person who renounces a destructive desire in the songs ‘Moby Dick’, and ‘Bring it on Home. Before Led Zeppelin renounced these destructive desires, they had portrayed the confusion leading to tension and suffering, that comes from pursuing destructive desire in the first three songs of this album, and then insert the song ‘Thank You’ as an interlude before ‘heartbreaker’ to remind us that in reality Led Zeppelin already knew how to find joy by renouncing destructive desires, and could renounce their desires so easily that their renunciation would not even be visible to an observer, and that because of this, joy could sometimes seem to come with no effort on their part as it does in the song ‘Thank You.’ The specific example of destructive desire that Led Zeppelin portrays in this album, is the destructive desire of a man for a woman who treats him badly, so in the specific situation they portray Led Zeppelin is saying on the first three songs of this album, ‘Look at how bad things can be for a man controlled by his desire for a hurtful woman’, then Led Zeppelin shows a man breaking free from his desire for a woman who hurts him, and finally Led Zeppelin shows how much better life can be for a man after he does this. Because the example of a man controlled by a woman who hurts him is predominant in blues music, it is also predominant in Led Zeppelin’s music, but Led Zeppelin makes it clear that this is just one form of destructive desire from which need to be liberated, by also showing other destructive desires. Many people have failed to see this and have felt that Led Zeppelin’s music bore a particular animus toward women. This is wholly untrue. Women are sometimes hurtful in led Zeppelin’s songs, but they are also sometimes very helpful in other songs. It all depends on the individual woman, just as the qualities of hurtfulness or helpfulness always reside in individuals and never in groups. Later in their career Led Zeppelin also portrayed the destructive desire of false Christianity for illusory rewards that false Christians hoped to obtain without living as Jesus teaches us to live. This desire is even more dangerous because it will lead to even greater suffering, and for this reason Led Zeppelin provides its listeners an even greater service by showing the dangers of this desire and the need to break free from it in the songs ‘In my time of Dying’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven.’
Led Zeppelin also helps us follow Jesus’ command to think of things of God, instead of thinking of things of men, by helping us develop the greatest thing of God we know: our intellects. Any time we listen to music based on complex patterns and produced by using many different sounds, such as Led Zeppelin’s music, we develop our brains by stimulating electrons in our brains to travel by new neural pathways, and by thus making it easier for us to use those neural pathways in the future.
It is easiest to see Led Zeppelin’s illustration of the message that joy can only come from sacrifice if we arrange Led Zeppelin’s songs to form seven musical journeys that show us how the pain of sacrifice will lead us to joy. These seven musical journeys form Led Zeppelin’s septalogue. Led Zeppelin, of course produced many more than seven musical journeys. (they recorded 72 songs in all, though most of these songs were parts of album sides that were musical journeys, rather than being musical journeys by themselves.), but each album they released usually illustrated many different themes in different sections, with different songs on each album expressing the recurring themes of sacrifice pain and joy, in different musical styles. Putting songs expressing the same theme from different albums next to each other shows the theme they are expressing even more clearly than each song does individually and often listening to songs that express joy immediately after songs that show great tribulation shows more powerfully the connection between the two which one sees most clearly by viewing Led Zeppelin’s career as one great journey in which early albums focus more on tribulation and later albums focus more on joy. Putting songs from different albums next to each other also allows us to experience individual parts of this journey more powerfully when we hear songs that express the same theme in different musical styles immediately before and after each other. While a septalogue of seven Led Zeppelin musical journeys often puts these songs together, it also maintains Led Zeppelin’s aim of producing a first album that focuses almost wholly on the suffering harmful desires can lead us to (in which Led Zeppelin restated the theme of traditional blues music), and also maintains Led Zeppelin’s tendency to focus more on joy and less on tribulation in their later albums. The fact that Led Zeppelin’s music produces the material for seven journeys illustrates their awareness that joy cannot be maintained by rejecting a harmful desire once, but can only be maintained by rejecting harmful desires again and again, throughout ones life. For this reason Led Zeppelin’s career as a whole evokes the image of a Sisyphus who rolls a stone up a hill every morning, and who experiences intense joy throughout the rest of every day, but who has to roll that stone up the same hill, again with each new day. Each of the seven logues in Led Zeppelin’s septalogue is named for the image most strongly evoked by that logue. The seven logues correlate to the seven days of the week. The first logue should be listened to on the first day of the week, the second logue on the second day, and so on until the week ends and this cycle starts over again at the beginning of the next week just as Sisyphus starts over again every morning. Any person who prints the septalogue presented below, (or who views a print preview screen), will notice that the seven logues in order form a near circle that represents the counterclockwise reflection of Jimmy Page’s arm traveling a near circle every time he strikes one of the power chords in the heart of ‘The Song Remains the Same’ This image should be superimposed over each week so we think of each week as one circle of this chord with a pause after that chord, as there is a pause after each of these power chords in this song., and then another chord for every week we live, just as the chords in ‘the Song Remains the Same’ follow one another to reproduce the rhythm on which all life rides and is sustained.
I believe that the Led Zeppelin Septalogue week should start on tuesday because Tiw was the Norse God of war (and because in Romance languages this day is named for their God of War, Mars) Mars was the God of War),and because the first logue in Led Zeppelin’s septalogue shows great suffering as there is great suffering in war, because the beginning of the second logue shows a person still ensnared by destructive desire as a fly in a spiders web, because this man is like a man who is dead and who will soon be brought to life when he cuts himself loose, and because wednesday is named for Woden, the Norse God of Death, (and because in Romance languages this day is named for Mercury, the messenger who brings news of death), because the power of the renunciation of the third logue reminds us of the power of Thor’s hammer, (and I Nations that speak Romance languages, reminds us of the power of Jupiter’s lightning bolts), and for this reason is best listened to on thursday, because the fourth logue is even more evocative of a violent journey through death to life, and for this reason reminds us of the suffering that Jesus knew on a friday, because the fifth logue is the logue in which our minds catch up with our emotions in the renunciation we must perform, and because saturday is the day on which our minds must comprehend the meaning of Jesus’ life if we hope to be able to celebrate on sunday, because the sixth logue is the most celebratory of all logues in the septalogue, and because on the seventh day we must ride the wave of life that has been created throughout the six preceding days for one day before we start to recreate this wave with the new week because doing this requires humor and perspective, and remembering the strength of our previous renunciation, because these qualities are the hallmarks of the seventh logue with ‘Black Country Woman’ showing the use of humor and perspective in the place of the more powerful renunciations that we experienced on previous days just as the moon is like a memory of the sun that had preceded it, and with ‘In The Light’ reminding us of our earlier renunciations by showing a renunciation that is like our earlier ones but less powerful, and then we end our week with more celebration at the end of this logue, until we feel fully sated after ‘in the evening’, and night flight’ and feel ready to collapse into a deep sleep knowing we will start our journey again when we awake.
Led Zeppelin Septalogue
The music of Led Zeppelin shows us that we must accept loss to know joy and shows us how we can come through the pain of loss to find joy.
Logue I Caught in the Web (55:19)
(to be listened to every Tuesday)
1 Good Times Bad Times 2:43
2 Sick Again 4:38
3 Dyer Maker 4:17
4 No Quarter 7:03
5 Black Dog 4:50
6 Tea for One - 9:20
7 Your Time is Gonna Come - 4:40
8 Black Mountain Side - 2:03
9 Communication Breakdown - 2:26
10 I Can’t Quit You Baby - 4:39
11 How Many More Times - 8:22
Logue II Cutting Loose (?53:00)
(to be listened to every Wednesday)
1 Whole Lotta Love - 5:29
2 What is and What Should Never Be - 4:42
3 Friends - q 3:54
4 Misty Mountain Hop - q 4:38 / vpn 4 Sticks
5 Royal Orleans - q 2:58
6 The Lemon Song - 6:17
7 Heartbreaker - 4:13
8 Livin Lovin Maid - 2:39
9 Ramble On - 4:34
10 Moby Dick - 4:20
11 Hots On For Nowhere - 4:42
12 The Ocean - 4:19
Logue III Renouncing (54:11)
(to be listened to every Thursday)
1 The Immigrant Song - 2:25
2 For Your Life – 6:26
3 Since I’ve Been Loving You - 7:29
4 Tangerine - 3:10
5 Kashmir - 8:40
6 Babe I’m Gonna Leave You - 6: 43
7 Dazed and Confused - 6:29
8 That’s the Way - 5:39
9 When The Levee Breaks - 7:10
Logue IV Getting Up (53:40)
(to be listened to every Friday)
1 Celebration Song - 3:32
2 Nobody’s Fault But Mine - 6:22
3 Out on the Tiles - 4:10
4 Rock and Roll - 3:40
5 You Shook Me - 6:28
6 Goin To California - 3:38
7 In My Time of Dying - 11:17
8 The Song Remains the Same - 5:29
9 The Wanton Song - 4:13
10 Bring it on Home - 4:21
Logue V Letting Go (?55:25)
(to be listened to every Saturday)
1 Four Sticks - q 4:45
2 Gallows Pole - q 4:56
3 Achilles Last Stand - q 10:22
4 Hats off to Harper - q 3:42
5 The Battle of Evermore - q 5:52
6 Stairway to Heaven - q 8:03
7 Ten Years Gone - q 6:33
four seconds
8 Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp q - 4:16
9 Bron-Yr-Aur - q 2:06
10 Over the Hills and Far Away - q 4:50
Logue VI Avalon (57:11)
(to be listened to every Sunday)
1 Southbound Suarez - 4:12
2 Houses of the Holy - 4:02
3 Fool in the Rain - 6:11
4 Hot Dog - 3:28
5 The Rain Song - 7:37
6 Carouselambra - 10:32
7 Custard Pie - 5:12
8 Trampled Underfoot - 5:34
9 All Of My Love - 5:50
10 I’m Gonna Crawl - 5:28
Logue VII Riding the Wave (?54:27)
(to be listened to every Monday)
1 Dancin Days 3:43
2 The Rover 5:37
3 Candy Store Rock - 4:07
4 The Crunge - 3:17
5 Black Country Woman - 4:32
6 Down by the Seaside - 5:16
7 Thank You - 4:49
8 In The Light - 8:46
9 Boogie With Stu - 3:53
10 In The Evening - 6:50
11 Night Flight - 3:37
I approach the “free software”, freeware, “open-source”, conversation from the perspective of a person who wants to determine how each of these practices can help us follow the commands, “Give to all who ask of you, and do not ask for anything in return from one who takes from you”1, and “Give alms, provide yourself with treasure in the heavens”2. Both of which were given by my spiritual master, Jesus Christ. I am new to the concepts of “free software”, freeware, “open-source”, conversation, and I want to learn as much as I can about these practices. Because of My inexperience I may have some misconceptions in this area, but my current impression is that developing free software is, under most circumstances, a more effective way of following the commands of Jesus Christ I have cited, than developing freeware is. I want to know if this is true, and I also want to know if developing “free software” is always a more effective way of “giving to all who ask of us”, and of “giving to the poor”, than developing freeware is. I pose this as an open question to anyone who is concerned with healing the wounds that are tearing our world apart: a goal that will be accomplished if enough of us follow the teachings of Jesus, and to anyone who is concerned with living as Our Creator wants us to live. I hope to hear from every person who has an opinion on this matter, (or from as many people as possible). Based on my current level of understanding, I understand that the most significant difference between “free software” and freeware is that in the case of freeware the creator of this software maintains control of the source code with which this software has been created. Under what circumstances, if any, might doing this allow that software’s creator to give more to the poor? Might it allow that software’s creator to make future improvements to that software that would allow it to help the poor more, that that software’s creator would not be able to make if he or she did not maintain control of the source-code with which that software had been created. And if such circumstances might exist, what would lead to those circumstances existing, how often might they exist, and what would indicate to a person developing software if those circumstances were more or less likely to exist with regard to any individual piece of software he or she is considering developing. I know that answering these questions will require a thorough analysis of these issues, but I also know that doing this will be well worth the effort it takes, because answering these questions will allow us to determine how we can best use each of these practices to follow the moral laws of our universe told to us by Jesus of Nazareth. I especially want the help of anyone who has or might in the future be involved in the creation of these types of software. For this reason I will try to present this question and this letter to as many people as possible, and I will try to do this primarily by posting it on a blog I have recently created. Because this blog is new, it has had no visitors, and may for that reason be hard to find, and may not show up on many search engines. I hope that this soon changes, though, so if you are reading this, I ask you to try to answer the questions I have asked, and to try to do whatever you can do to increase the number of other people who see this letter. Whatever the relative merits of “free software” vs. freeware as means of giving to the poor, for either practice to work well will require a massive expansion of public libraries that provide non-obsolete public computers. Public libraries can help us all in so many ways that they should be more common and open longer hours than convenience stores. When this happens both freeware and free software will be effective means of giving to the poor. I would like to hear comments about how we can bring this about. I believe that some sort of a system through which a certain percentage of all software related profits, be voluntarily donated to a public library fund would help make this a reality.
I have not learned many things about these matters, that may seem simple and trivial to most of you who read this. Still, to me they will be new, discoveries and will often be of momentous import. While parts of the questions I ask may seem to be remedial questions to most of you, the questions I ask are also central to the happiness and the well being of the most advanced and knowledgeable of us, because recognizing that any practice, skill, or concept that we consider using, must be considered in terms of whether or not it will help us live by the principles that will allow us to heal our world; (The principles taught by Jesus Christ), is the key to all human happiness. So while I write this letter in part for selfish reasons, I also believe the questions I ask will provide a service to all people who read it.
1. (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48)
2. (Lk 12:33, see also Lk 18:18-25, & Mt 19:16-24)
One reason Jesus tells us not to engage in violence, even when evil is done to us, is because violence always begets more violence. One example of this is the violent response of Osama Bin Laden to violence from the United States government. Bin Laden took violent action against people who support the United States government because for well over 20 years the United State government has given overwhelming military support to the undemocratic government of Saudi Arabia, that he has lived under, and by doing this has allowed this government to successfully use force out down efforts to change it. When we gave Military support to the Saudi Government, we joined every fight it takes part in,. and we made the enemies of that government our enemies, and we did not show love to our enemies, as Jesus commands. Knowing that we have done this it is unreasonable not to expect similar actions to be taken toward us. For many yeas we have been attacking Saudi people, who opposed the government we supported militarily, and then we act surprised when some of the people we have attacked respond in kind and take violent action against us. We should have expected to be the recipients of violence from the moment we first gave military aid to any government, and for every moment since. That violence will beget more violence is a law as certain as any law of physics. We cannot predict exactly when or where this violence will occur, or exactly what form it will take, but we know it will come. In this way violence is like an earthquake or other natural disaster, and if the underlying causes that lead to violence are not changed, them violence is just as inevitable as any natural disaster. If we had wanted to avoid being victims of violence, we should not have initiated violence to begin with. It would be nice for us if Bin Laden loved his enemies because we have made ourselves his enemy, but we cannot ask any one to love us, if we show our lack of love for that person by violently attacking that person, as we have attacked Bin Laden. , If Bin Laden had learned how to live wisely from Jesus he would have acted differently than he has, but the same is even more true of the United States government because Bin Laden’s violence was only a response to United States violence.
In order to encourage early Christians he wrote to, not to resist violence that governments were doing to them, did to them, Paul said that governments that did violence to them had been ordained by God. When Paul said this he was also saying that governments that were practicing this violence were ordained not to have Christians working for them or with them, and that people in these governments were probably also ordained to suffer great punishment for not following Jesus. Many people misunderstand Paul’s words to mean that they can follow Jesus and still take part in government-sponsored violence. This is not an honest mistake, though, because even if a person misunderstands Paul, we all know that Jesus tells us not to resist evil, and we cannot misunderstand this command form Jesus. Treating people other than Jesus as authorities equal to Jesus often leads us to misunderstand Jesus when we misunderstand those people. We should also never treat anyone other than Jesus as an authority equal to Jesus because only Jesus is always correct and anyone else can be in error. Paul, Any of the disciples, or any other writers of the new testament are only people like us who are trying to understand Jesus, and in order not to be misled by them, we should only read their words in conjunction with Jesus, words, and we should only follow their teachings if we can see how they resonate with and reinforce what Jesus says. To imagine that any person other than Jesus could be an infallible authority like Jesus, is to tempt our faith in a dangerous and unnecessary way. It is hard enough for us to believe that Jesus is always right, (whenever we do not live as Jesus tells us to live, This is because at that moment we do not believe Jesus when he tells us that following Him will bring us greater rewards than suffering.), that to try to believe that anyone else is always right is simply to encourage ourselves to lie and say we believe what we do not believe. Though we will also sometimes lie in saying we believe Jesus when we do not believe Him,, this is more than made up for by the benefits that will come to us if w try to follow Jesus’ true teachings because trying to follow Jesus gives us our best chance of doing what Our Creator wants us to do. This is not true of anyone else.
We will be able to do much more of what Jesus tells us to do if we try to do all that Jesus tells us to do, than we will be able to do if we only try to do part of what Jesus tells us to do. This is so because doing any thing Jesus tells us to do, will help us do other things Jesus tells us to do. This is easiest to see when we recognize how selling what we have and giving to the poor will help us not resist evil. Selling what we have and giving to the poor will help us not resist evil by decreasing the amount of evil other people will try to do to us. When other people try to do great evil to us, and when we fear that other people will try to do great evil to us, we will all try to resist evil. The best chance we have of not resisting evil most of the time is to hope that little evil is done to us, and to try not to imagine false evil where no evil exists. This is why Jesus tells us to pray, “Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Every time other people try to do evil to us, and every time we fear that other people will try to do evil to us, we will be tempted to resist, and if our temptation is great, we will resist and by doing so we will do evil, and the evil we will do will hurt us much more than any evil other people could do to us. This is so because when we do evil, we harden our hearts against the victims of our evil, and against all people we might want to do evil to in the future. By doing this we make it harder for ourselves to forgive other people when they do evil to us, and we make ourselves less likely to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness. Not receiving Our Creator’s forgiveness would do far greater harm to us than any evil other people could ever do to us. If we hope to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness we must try to overcome the temptation to resist evil whenever we are tempted, but more importantly we must hope that we do not know great temptation, by hoping that other people seldom try to do evil to us. If we have great material riches other people will try to do much more evil to us than they would try to do otherwise, but if we sell all that we have and give to the poor, then other people will try to do less evil to us than they would try to do under any other circumstances.. They will do this because they will want to take our material riches from us. Sometimes people who have less in material goods than we have will try to do this, but more often it will be people who have more than we have, who will try to take material riches from us. Selling all that we have and distributing to the poor will also reduce the amount of evil other people will do by allowing many poor people to avoid work that would lead them to do evil. This is easiest to when we realize that most people who work in military and police forces do so in part because of their need for money, and that these people violate Jesus’ command not to resist evil during their best moments at work, and that often they initiate evil as a part of their work. If no one ever had to do violence to earn money, most of the fighting in our world would end. We would all sometimes still fight for personal reasons, but times that we fight for personal are far rarer than times we fight in order to keep jobs that we need in order to avoid material poverty. Selling all that we have and distributing to the poor will also help us in other ways. Jesus tells us this when He says, “Do not lay up treasure on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves dig through and steal. Instead, lay up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not dig through and steal.” (Mt 6:19-23 & Lk 12:33). And Jesus tells us this again when He tells us of a man, who had gathered great worldly wealth, and who enjoyed thinking about the things he had. “’You fool’, said God to this man, ‘Tonight your soul will be required of you, then whose will those things be.’ So it is with anyone, who lays up treasure for himself, but is not rich toward heaven” (Lk 12:15-21), and when he says to His disciple Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You are an offence to me because you do not think of things of God, but think instead of things of men.” (Mt 16:23). Selling all that we have and distributing to the poor would help us so much that if we were able to sell all we have and distribute to the poor then we would also be able to do everything else Jesus tells us to do. This is true of many of Jesus’ commands. For example if we were able to always forgive people who trespass against us, then we would also be able to do everything Jesus tells us to do, And if we were able to give to all who ask of us and ask for nothing in return this too would make us able to do all that Jesus tells us to do.
The command to “sell all that we have and distribute to the poor”, does not refer only to material possessions but also refers to every ability we possess, to every bit of energy we possess, and to our lives themselves. We are to sell every thing we have for the poor. One person may be able to help the poor most by accumulating material wealth and then selling that wealth and distributing to the poor, while another person may be able to help the poor most by dedicating his or her life to the service of the poor. Selling all that we have means that we are to develop whatever abilities in us are most valuable, and then use those abilities to help the poor. otherwise we will only have sold part of what we have. Many people can help the poor most by creating new things that will help the poor and by giving these things to the poor. For example creating a high quality free library near where poor people live, can often be the way in which a person can give the most to the poor. So also can writing a book that helps poor people learn how to live wisely and giving copies of this book or internet access to this book to the poor, or creating a work of art that helps poor people learn how to live wisely. Protecting our natural environment is another way of giving to the poor. These ways of giving to the poor will often also help people who are not poor, because the elements of a good life are the same for all people. If they do this, then this is an added benefit. They must help the poor, though, if we hope to follow Jesus’ command, and if we hope to receive rewards Jesus tells us of, and avoid punishments Jesus tells us of. Whether or not this is the way in which a particular person can give the most to the poor depends on the abilities that person has been given, and depends on the circumstances of that person’s life. Jesus says to us, “To whoever much is given. Much will be demanded of that person.” This tells us that our abilities determine what Our Creator expects of each of us.
Our world’s culture of violence originates in the interactions between parents and children and the interactions between teachers and students. Most parents expect children to be irrational beings and treat them as such allowing their primary mode of interaction with children to be rules, intimidation, yelling, threats, and violence, (all the tools of the jailer), and most teachers treat students in the same way. Then most people meet the expectations parents and teachers have of them by allowing themselves to become irrational beings who will respond only to rules, intimidation, yelling, threats, and violence, and this sort of person becomes the rule in our society rather than being the exception such people would be in any society that was contributing to the advance of human development and to the realization of human potential, and then most people will only be prevented from hurting other people by the tools of the jailer, when in a society that advanced human development most people would treat other people well for reasons they have freely accepted for reasons they discern through rationality, and only a small minority of people who deviated from that society’s norm would only treat people well when controlled through intimidation, yelling, threats or violence. Most people in a society based on force rather than rationality, (including most people in most if not all societies in our world today), will see the world as an irrational struggle that often erupts into violence, in which most of these people will only chose to refrain from criminal behavior because they know that engaging in criminal behavior makes them more likely to become victims of violence, but will instead engage only in the government sponsored violence of military and police forces, rather than believing that the legal code their society has chosen should be followed because they believe that code fosters human development and the realization of human potential, and because they believe that code is the result of a process that is designed to change and improve it whenever it does not promote these things. Currently our society is caught in a destructive cycle that will only lead to ever greater human suffering until eventually all our descendants either flee that society, kill -themselves, or enact a difficult revolution that will reverse the basic foundations of society, that will be much easier for us to enact today if we do not shirk our responsibility to create a society conducive to human development for our descendants to live in.
Jesus warns us not to create a society based on force rather than rationality when He tells us not to resist evil (Mt 5:39-48 & Lk 6:27-38), and when He tells us to use persuasion but never to use force by saying to us, “If your brother trespasses against you, first tell him his fault in private. If he will not hear you, then go to him again and bring some witnesses with you. If he still will not hear you, then tell it to the church. If he will not hear the church, then let him be as a stranger to you.” (Mt 18:15-17), and these are just some of the negative consequences we suffer from not living as Jesus tells us to live.
Our failure to live in this way is in part a result of the fact that raising children to be rational beings requires more time, energy and mental effort than yelling at those children, and because most parents are overburdened in a society in which both parents in most families work at least 40 hours a week and are forced to spend most of their “free” time preparing for their work, or traveling to and from their place of work, and in which most teachers are forced to spend most of their time baby-sitting a large number of (between 10 and 40) unruly students who because they are used to being yelled at, intimidated, threatened, and sometimes being the victims of violence, will cause serious trouble if an adult does not regularly do these things to them. All people will always be faced with obstacles to happiness though, and if these obstacles disappear new ones will arise. If we overcome these obstacles, then we will be remembered as the heroic first generation that in a meaningful way tried to give their children a better life than they had. We all know this is true because we all know that only changes within a person can truly give that person a better life in any meaningful way, and we all know that the material advances that people in the past have often claimed would improve the lives of their children, have not given those children better lives unless those children have also lived more wisely than their parents did. In spite of the great material advances that have taken place in our world there is no evidence that people alive today are any happier or any more content than people who have lived in the past, and in fact it is likely that at many points in the past people have led much happier lives than most people lead today.
If we realize the importance of healing our world, we will make great efforts to do this, and will make great changes in our world and in our societies. The first way we will do this is by increasing our emphasis on writing, and on detailed discussions of writing by all people who want to improve our world, and especially by all people who want to be teachers or students. We will increase this focus because writing is the only way we can develop plans that will allow us to improve our world. Each of us will also devote the time in our lives that we currently devote to college education, to developing plans to reform at least part of our world, and to discussing these plans with other people and starting on a course to implement them. This is already supposed to be one of the primary focuses of collegiate education, and would be the primary focus of collegiate education if we analyzed Jesus’ teachings and realized how far our world is from the way it would be if any significant number of people followed Jesus’ commands. If we realized this, the attitude of reforming our world that is partially present during these years, would not die away throughout the rest of our lives, as we tried to make ourselves more and more content with our world as it is, but our focus on reform would only grow stronger as our years grew more advanced. If many people’s plans for reforming part of our world, end up being similar to each other, that will be a good sign because the changes our world needs must each take place hundreds of millions of times in each different part of our world to be able to transform the hearts, souls, and minds of every person in our world.
Section 16.)
We can only get any thing if we first admit that we do not already have that thing.
This is most important to us with regard to our attempts to obtain the goodness that comes from truly trying to follow Jesus’ teachings. We can only obtain the goodness that comes from truly following Jesus’ teachings if we first admit that we do not already have this goodness, (if we first admit that we are evil beings, not good beings.) Though this seems so obvious that we would think all people would always realize it, sadly this is the primary obstacle to people gaining goodness or wisdom. It is even more important that we admit this about communities we belong to, than it is that we admit this about ourselves as individuals, because most of the evil we do, is done because we follow commands given to us by people who belong to the same communities we belong to. This is most true of nations and states we belong to. For many reasons it is most important that people who belong to the nation the United States see their nation as it truly is and are willing to admit the truth about their nation. The most important truth about the United States of America is that from the time the United States became deeply involved in Vietnam up to and including the present time the United States has been the greatest force for evil in our world. For a time the Soviet Union may have tried to do as much evil as we have done, but was never able to do so. Since the United States became deeply involved in Vietnam, (In the mid 1960s), The United States has been the aggressor in every fight and conflict we have been involved in. This is easiest to see with regard to the fights the United States is currently involved in. For over 20 years before September 11, 20001, the United States had been giving overwhelming Military support to the undemocratic government of Saudi Arabia, which this government then used to suppress any popular attempt to create a government responsive the people of Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden came from a powerful Saudi family, and if not for the United States, would certainly have devoted his energies to matters closer to his heart, as would most other members of Al Qaida. So it is clear to all people that by giving overwhelming military aid to the Saudi royal family The United States started its fight withy Al Qaeda just as the United States has used similar methods to start many other fights, all around our world. The only reason most residents of the United States have failed to see this, is that Bush has been so bold in his lies that residents of the United /states have been debating Bush’s lie that Al Qaeda supported Saddam Hussein, while ignoring the fact that We started our fight with Al Qaeda. Each star in the flag of the United States represents an orb of the fiery evil we have spread throughout our world, And most of the evil committed by most Americans has come from support most Americans have given to the United States government, and especially to the United States Military. I try to love every member of the United States military, just as I try to love all people, and I pray for every member of the military just as I pray for any member of a violent gang. That is one of the reasons I speak honestly about the dangers and about the unchristian nature of the United States; for the sake of all the people who take part in United States sponsored evil, as well as for the sake of their victims. I am also honest about thus because I an always honest; even when I cannot see directly how it will help people because I have faith that honesty will always help people who are honest and people their actions affect, more than it will hurt those people, in the same way that I have faith that trying to follow Jesus will always help people who try to follow Jesus and people their actins affect, more than it will hurt people.
So should we ignore the United Stats as a land hostile to Jesus and try to establish a Christian society elsewhere. No we should not do this for a number of reasons. First because over 300 million people, (including me), live in the United States, and if we do not live as Jesus teaches us to live, our suffering will be great and our rewards small. Second because like the United States, all nations are evil because all nations are based on coercion and for this reason are hostile to Jesus. and because all people are evil and are hostile to Jesus. And third and fourth because The United States due to it’s great power should be able to become the first nation to overcome the fear that keeps all of us from following Jesus’ command not to resist evil, and due to it’s great wealth and it’s location, is the place where the different cultures of our world will be most likely to come together to form a new culture that will be stronger than any currently existing culture, and that is the pinnacle toward which all human history has been building. The only difference of any significance that currently exists between eastern and western cultures in our world is that western cultures have developed religions (including Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam) that focus more on ways in which Our Creator is separate from our world by focusing on commands Our Creator gives us, while eastern cultures have developed religions (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto), that focus more on ways in which Our Creator is a part of our world by focusing on more closely observing our world , and by assuming that all we need to know about our world will be discovered in this way. Each type of religion focuses on one important aspect of the reality of our world, and both of these focuses will be needed in the culture that will be represent the highest progress of our world. Joseph Campbell taught me about this difference between religions. What our world most needs is the combination of these two focuses, and the realizations that will come from this combination that the closest observation will only be of value to us if it helps us learn what Our Creator wants us to do, and that we will only be able to earn what Our Creator wants us to do through close observation that will almost certainly require us to stand in fundamental opposition to the culture of whatever society we live in when we most want to go along with that culture, because the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth will almost always be fundamentally opposed to all human cultures, and are without a doubt fundamentally opposed to all cultures that exist today, and are most clearly opposed to these cultures in their frequent practice of violence and of intimidation that will often lead to violence because the subjects of intimidation will inevitably sometimes resist that intimidation and then intimidators will fight with their victims, and in their emphasis on getting as much as one can for oneself instead of on providing ourselves with treasure in the heavens by selling what we have and giving alms, and on giving to all who ask of us and not asking for anything in return. (Lk 12:33, see also Lk 18:18-25, & Mt 19:16-24) and (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48).
The oldest cultures in our world were established in East Africa, and the oldest cultures with writing in our world were established in what is today Iraq, and since this time most civilization in our world has spread out from this point in opposite directions forming related but slightly different cultures that will come together on the opposite side of our world to form a culture that will be stronger than either eastern or western cultures are separately, and that will be the crowning achievement of our world’s history.
The dividing line between historically eastern and historically western cultures is the line that we currently call 67 degrees east longitude. Areas west of this line have been the birthplace of religions that have focused on how Our Creator is separate from our world by focusing on commands our Creator gives us, while areas east of this line have been the birthplace of religions that have focused on how Our Creator is part of our world by focusing on more closely observing our world , and by assuming that all we need to know about our world will be discovered in this way. This line may be one of very few lines that can accurately divide our world into western and eastern hemispheres, because Balkh, (The home of Zoroaster), lies just west of this line, and because Karachi, (a city that is clearly part of the South Asian civilization that Includes Bangladesh and includes most of India and Pakistan), lies just east of this line. This line should be used to divide our world into eastern and western hemispheres. One reason this should be done is that this line would come as close as possible to dividing our world into two hemispheres with equal populations, while still respecting the traditional borders of historic civilizations. (And if current demographic trends continue then about 100 years from now this line may actually divide our world into two hemispheres with equal populations due primarily to projected population growth in Africa, (while the line we currently use to divide our world into hemispheres, will never in the foreseeable future divide our world into hemispheres of equal population but was instead chosen as a way of pandering to British conceit.)) Because there is some debate about where Zoroaster lived, it may be possible that the line that best divides historically eastern and western cultures is slightly west of the line we currently call 67 degrees east, but under no circumstances will this line lie west of the line we currently call 61.75 degrees east, because east of this line we find areas that are so fully a part of Persian culture that they must be considered a part of the western section of our world. The reason we should change the way we make maps, is that using the line we currently call 67 degrees east longitude (or a line just west of this line), as our Prime Meridian will help us see where eastern and western cultures will be most likely to first come together to form the culture that all history has been building toward: a culture that will be stronger than either eastern or western cultures are separately. While these cultures could first come together in any part of our world, geography and distances do show us where they are most likely to first come together. The most logical place to look for this to happen is close to 180 degrees from the line that best divides historically eastern and western cultures, at a point that is equidistant from the historical centers of eastern and western cultures. Because the historic centers of western culture are more northerly than the historic centers of eastern culture, and because the historic centers of both cultures are located in our world’s northern hemisphere, the historic centers of western culture are closer to this line than their eastern counterparts. To find a city that is equidistant from historic centers of eastern and western culture we must go to a point approximately 9 1/3 degrees west of the line that is 180 degrees from the historic dividing line between eastern and western cultures (the line we currently call 67 degrees east longitude), and that is slightly south of most of Europe, and is north of most of Asia. Here the city we find that is equidistant from the historic centers of eastern and western culture is Seattle, U.S.A., (Though Los Angeles and Vancouver are also extremely close to being equidistant between the historic centers of traditionally Eastern ad Western cultures. And all large English speaking cities on the pacific coast of north America, Tijuana, Mexico, and inland cities up to 150 kilometers from this coast, are close enough to being equidistant from east and west, to be very likely locations of the point at which eastern and western cultures will first come together. Because of a greater historical percentage of settlement from the east than Seattle or Los Angeles have had, Vancouver may be even more likely than Seattle to be the center of the first coming together of the now separate cultures of our world. In truth all of these cities will probably be important centers in the coming together of eastern and western cultures, and the Salish Sea (also known as Kh Whulch, and as the Whulge), which borders both Seattle and Vancouver, will probably also serve as a mixing bowl in which the currents of eastern and western culture will come together.) History indicates that Honolulu, though it is much closer to the historic east than to the historic west will probably also play a leading role in the coming together of eastern and western cultures, due to the fact that it has been settled by large numbers of people from both east and west.
One of the greatest sins of the United States government has been the restrictive immigration policies directed especially at people from Asia, and the long history of other anti-Asian actions, that have kept millions of people of Asian descent away from Seattle, and away from the rest of the United States, and that has led to our current condition in which only approximately 10% of the people living in the Seattle Metropolitan area are of Asian descent. The fact that this problem can be ameliorated is clearly shown by the fact that just 200K away from Seattle approximately 25% of the population of the Vancouver metropolitan area is made up of people of Asian descent. If all people had been allowed to move freely, on average we would expect that as a whole the metropolitan areas that are so close to being equidistant between the historic centers of western culture and eastern culture would be populated roughly equally by people with western ancestors and people with eastern ancestors. And this will probably happen through the normal course of people freely moving about our world as they choose to move, as soon as barriers to movement raised by governments, are removed. It is important to remember that for any group of people to be able to contribute to fruition of world history that will occur when historically eastern and historically western cultures come together, that group of people must be eager to come together and work together with all people with clear minds and good hearts, regardless of what culture those people come from, and regardless of what part of the world those people’s ancestors have come from. A part of the reason this is so important is that the inclusion of people from many different cultures will help all people in any organization, see beyond superficial differences between people, and focus on the common goal of that organization. People in organizations in which most people share superficial cultural similarities will be more easily distracted from the goal that initially brought them together, by these superficial similarities or by superficial differences between them and other people, and such organizations will be more likely to deteriorate into mere social clubs in which people focus on superficial traits. Organizations without cultural diversity may sometimes be able to contribute to the advancement of civilization in our world, if people in them overcome this tendency and stay focused on the goal of advancing world civilization, but it will be harder for these people to do this.
Most of the cities that are closest to being equidistant between the historic centers of eastern and western cultures, will truly start to become centers of the realization of the stronger culture that will form when eastern and western cultures come together, as soon as the United States government stops restricting immigration from the rest of the world. Our great wealth makes the United States, a beacon that attracts people from the rest of the world even more strongly than the wealthiest part of Europe, (most of Europe north of 42 degrees, and west of the line we now call 17 degrees east, and just east of this line most of Sweden and all of Finland), and more strongly than Canada, though this is starting to change because of the evil of the United States government. The lack of Asian settlement in the West Coast of the United States is a measure of how hard people of European descent have fought to keep people of Asian descent out of this region. Thankfully though, this area is still sparsely settled because advanced societies have been in this area for only about 150 years, (or for less time in many areas), and for this reason, the dearth of settlement from Asia in these areas can still be reversed. This problem is not only a problem in Seattle, but is instead a great problem everywhere in the United States. Even in the San Francisco Metropolitan area people of Asian descent make up just under 20% of the population. In Los Angeles and San Diego people of Asian descent make up approximately 10% of the population, and everywhere else in the United States, (except for the New York City metropolitan area which also has about 10% of it’s people being of Asian descent), the percentage of people of Asian descent is even lower.
Most of us have a very poor sense of distances in our world, because we usually see a distorted projection of our world in the maps we use. It is important for us to correct this because a large part of the story of our world’s history is determined by the geography of our world, with certain cultures spreading to certain areas, in great part because they were closer to those areas, than other cultures were. In spite of the great advantages in mobility that traditionally western and especially European cultures enjoyed in the historic period in which they spread their culture through colonization, The spread of their culture was still greatly influenced by the fact that Europe was closer to most of the areas its culture spread to, (including South America, Africa, and most of North America), than were areas of traditionally eastern culture, including especially the area of Northeast Asia, which is historically most analogous to Europe, because with regard to written civilization, and with regard to organized religions that have many followers today, it is the youngest area of historically eastern culture in the same way that that Europe is the youngest area of historically western culture, and it has inherited these things from people from the older area of historically eastern civilization, in the same way that Europe has inherited these thing from the older area of historically western civilization. The greatest exception to the rule that most areas settled by people from western cultures, are closer to historic centers of western civilization, is the cultural area of Australia and New Zeeland. Though it is important to remember that Australia and New Zeeland are extremely far away from the historic centers of east and west, as on average Northeast Asia is located nearly 8,000 kilometers from Australia, (a distance almost as great as the average distance between the historical centers of eastern and western cultures). In the area that is nearly equidistant between the historic centers of east and west we again find settlement more from the historic west than from the historic east, so far. But it is important to remember that both Australia and New Zeeland, and northwestern North America, are still sparsely settled compared to most of the world, and that the trends of settlement to this point in history could still be easily reversed.
We should not try to make distances on our maps accurate by making directions inaccurate on those maps, though many people have tried to do this. We should instead make both distances and directions accurate by using sinusoidal equal-area projection maps with longitude lines drawn on them. These maps can be accurate because they will not try to show the surface of our globe as a rectangle, (a practice that will always lead to inaccuracy), but will instead show the circumference of our world becoming smaller the farther we get from the equator until it finally becomes 0 at the poles, and in this way will show our world as it truly is. This is achieved by sinusoidal maps because this narrowing is described by the sine function (hence the name sinusoidal), as the circumference of our world does not get smaller at a constant rate as we move away from the equator, but instead gets smaller at a slower rate at first, with this rate increasing as we get further from the equator. If we want north and south to be straight up or down on our maps, as often as possible, more than we want maps that show our world as being as connected as a flat map can show it, we can achieve this by making our maps interrupted projections that show blank spaces between different sections of the map, though we will not need to do this to see what direction is north or south at any point, so long as we draw enough longitude lines on our map, and always remember that north and south follow these lines, and that on our map north and south follow curved lines, just as most of these lines will also be curved if our map is an uninterrupted projection. The desire to straighten these curved lines is the desire that has led us into the error of drawing rectangularly shaped maps.
World maps should usually be drawn with the line that we currently call 113 degrees west, (or a line just west of this line), as their center line, to focus our attention on the point 180 degrees from the line that best divides historically eastern cultures from historically western cultures, that should be near the place where these cultures will first come together to form a new culture that is stronger than either eastern or western culture can be separately. If we choose to make our maps interrupted projections of our world with the line that we currently call 115.785 degrees west as their center line, then the first two interruptions we make should occur at the lines we currently call 33 degrees west and 163 degrees west, because these lines pass through oceans and through sparsely populated arctic areas, and because they come closer than most other lines that do this, to dividing our world into three parts of equal area.
17.325 and 19.23 degrees north, or from a point between the line we now call 117 degrees west and 115 degrees west, and between 17.325 and 19.23 degrees south. Distances from points between these lines, that are located the same distance from the equator as each other, and that are located 180 degrees longitude from each other, define exactly the same areas by choosing areas closer than a certain distance to one point, and further than approximately 20,000 Kilometers minus that distance from it’s antipodal point. This will be true of any two points that are antipodal to each other. Antipodal points are pairs of points that are located farther from each other, than any other point on the surface of our earth. And they can be found by finding two points that are located the same distance from the equator, and that are located 180 degrees longitude, away from each other. If we move from one of these points, we will be moving closer to it’s antipodal point, regardless of what direction we move, so long as we stay on the surface of the earth. This is so for the same reason that a person at the North Pole cannot go north, but instead will be heading due south, if that person stays on the surface of our earth. The North and South Poles are a pair of antipodal points. And this helps us see why we cannot move further away from our antipode, unless we leave the surface of the earth. Any point is located almost exactly 20,000 Kilometers from it’s antipode, and the average distance of any point from it’s antipode is exactly 20,000 K. This is no accident. The length of a kilometer was chosen so that this would be true.
I am uncertain of exactly which points are the points from which distances, best divide our world into older and younger regions, but I believe the exact points that best do this, are the point that we currently call 64.215 degrees east, 19.23 degrees north, and the point that we currently call 115.785 degrees west and 19.23 degrees south. I believe that these are the exact points from which distances, best divide our world into older and younger regions, because these points are exactly the same distance from two cities that have been especially important in the development of civilization in our world, and because these points are nearly this distance from two other cities that have also been important in the development of world civilization.
The two cities that are the same distance from these points are Beijing and Roma. Both cities are just over 5,459 K from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east, and are just under 14,541 K from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees south, 115.785 degrees west. The two cities that are nearly the same distance from these points are Djakarta, and Harare. With Djakarta being located just over 5,441 K from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east, and just under 14,539 K from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees south, 115.785 degrees west. And with Harare being located just over 5477 K from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east, and just under 14,531 K from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees south, 115.785 degrees west. No other places in our world are located so close to the same distance from these four cities, and very few places in our world are located so close to the same distance from any four major world cities. The line that is 500 Kilometers from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east, is also very important because approximately half the people in our world live inside this circle and approximately half the people in our world live outside of this circle. And based on current demographic projections, this will continue to be the case. Approximately half the people in our world, will live less than 5500 k from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east, and approximately half the people in our world, live more than 5500 k from this point. I hope that we always call this point 19.23 degrees north because changing this would mean that we would have to change where we place our equator. What I believe we should change, is our name for the line that we currently call 64.215 degrees east. I believe that this line be the prime meridian of our coordinate system. In other words I believe that it should be called the line of 0 degrees and should be used to divide our world into eastern and western hemispheres. This line would come as close to dividing our world into two hemispheres with equal numbers of people in them, as is possible without separating areas that are parts of one historic cultural area. The only line that would come closer to dividing our world into two hemispheres with equal populations, would be a line that is less than 10 degrees east of this line, that would separate area that have historically been part of the South Asian culture. Regardless of religious differences, Nearly all parts of India and Bangladesh, and most parts of Pakistan, are part of the Desi culture. Using this line as our prime meridian also puts areas that are most similar culturally in the same hemispheres. There are only minor differences between different cultures in our world, but what few differences there are between cultures, occur primarily between cultures east of this line, and cultures west of this line.
Not only does the line that we currently call 64.215 degrees east longitude, come much closer than our current prime meridian, to dividing our world into Eastern and Western hemispheres with equal populations, but the line that we currently call 19.23 degrees north latitude, also comes close to dividing our world into northern and southern Hemispheres with equal; populations. And if current demographic trends continue, then at some point in the future, this line will divide our world into northern and southern hemispheres with equal populations. At present significantly more than half the people in our world live north of this point. This line also does a better job than any other line we could choose, of dividing our world into regions of historically northern and southern cultures. While the Equator divides our world geographically, culturally, a line drawn at 19.23 degrees north, is for all of these reasons, much more meaningful.
The distances that best divide our world into older and younger regions are the distances, 3,750 Kilometers, 5,500 K, and 9,500 K from the point currently defined as 19.23 degrees north, and 64.215 degrees east. The oldest civilizations of our world, with regard to the development of writing and the development of the religions that are practiced by the largest number of people today, are located less than 3750 k from the point that we currently call 64.215 degrees east, 19.23 degrees north, (Nairobi is just inside this line). (Exactly the same area can also be defined as the area that is more than a distance nearly equal to 16,250 k from the point that we currently call 115.785 degrees west, 19.23 degrees south). Distances from these two points define areas that are the home of the oldest civilizations of our world, with regard to the development of writing and the development of the religions that are practiced by the largest number of people today, with fewer exceptions, than we would have if we divided our world by distances from any other points. The next oldest area of civilization in our world is the area that lies between 3,750 and 5,500 k from the point that we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east. The third oldest area of civilization in our world lies between 5,500 and 9,500k from this point, and the area of our world with the youngest civilizations is the area located more than 9,500 k from this point. Maps that we use, will be most helpful to us as tools that help us understand human history, if we draw these lines on these maps. This is easy to do on the intrernet by using a free service provided at the web address http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/calculators and by then using the feature entitled, “draw range rings around a point”, that is located at the bottom of this page.
Because civilizations in older areas, (as defined by distances from these points), are older in terms of the development of writing and of religions that are practiced by large numbers of people today, these civilizations have been able to support denser populations from an earlier date than civilizations in younger areas. These developments allowed these civilizations to support denser populations than other areas, because these developments allowed people to work together more effectively than people could work together without these developments. This difference between areas is still evident today in the fact that the older areas, as defined by distances from these points, still have significantly greater population densities, than younger areas, (as defined by these distances), have. This difference is especially great between areas closer than 5500 k from the point we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east, and areas further from this point. Areas closer than 5500 k from this point include less than one sixth of the surface area of our earth, but contain over one half of the people living on our earth.
Knowing which of these regions any area falls in, will tell us much more about civilizations in that area, than knowing whether that civilization has been more influenced by traditionally Eastern, Western, or Southern cultures, will tell us. Older civilizations, whether they are historically eastern, western, or southern, are more like each other, and younger civilizations, whether they are historically eastern, western, or southern are more like each other, than younger civilizations from either east, west, or south, are like older civilization from the same area. When look at regions of older and younger civilizations, and see that Western Europe, most of Northeast Asia, most of Africa, and nearly half of Indonesia all lie within the region of younger civilizations, we realize that civilizations in these areas generally share the characteristic of producing people who are much more willing to take part in rapid and fundamental changes in their societies, than are people from the older civilizations of our world, while people from older civilizations are more likely to focus their thoughts and energies on truths and principles that are slow to change, and especially on truths and principles that will apply in all times and all places. A part of this focus is the unquestioned assumption that rapid and fundamental social changes will seldom occur, while people from younger civilizations expect rapid and fundamental changes to occur much more often in any society . And when we see this, we realize that this difference does much more to determine the nature of life in these societies than do any differences between historically Eastern, Western or Southern civilizations. The fundamental desires of all people are the same, and the ways in which different people try to fulfill these desires are determined primarily by whether they live in younger or older civilizations. In younger civilizations, people are much more likely to try to satisfy these desires by taking part in rapid and fundamental societal change, while in older civilizations, people are much less likely to take part rapid and fundamental societal change, and are much more likely to resist such change if people from outside their society try to impose it on them. The failure to see this fact has led to the worst foreign policy mistakes in the history of our world. In the recent history of the United States, two prominent examples of this, are mistakes the United States government has made in Iraq and Vietnam. People in older civilizations are also generally more resistant to rapid and fundamental change, whether foreign governments cause that change, or whether economic factors cause that change.
While most of those of us raised in younger civilizations will never be able to develop a sense for what would feel comfortable to a person from older civilizations, and while the converse of this is also true, we can all avoid great mistakes by taking this difference into account, when we make decisions.
To this point in our world’s history the area of the youngest civilizations in our world, (the area that is more than 9500 kilometers from the point we currently call 19.23 degrees north, 64.215 degrees east), has been more influenced by western civilizations than by either eastern or southern civilizations. This may change in the future, as this region will be a region of coming together of these cultures. These civilizations share more similarities than differences, and this is especially true because these civilizations become more similar as they are transferred to this youngest part of our world. Most of the differences between East, West, and South, are superficial differences, and these superficial differences are left behind in older areas, because these superficial differences depend more on place, than the similarities between these civilizations, do.
Growing up in places that experience great changes in the amount of time between sunrise and sunset, throughout the year, or in places that regularly experience other great climactic changes, further increases a person’s expectation that fundamental change will occur often, and further increases a person’s willingness to take part in fundamental change, while growing up in places that do not regularly experience great climactic changes, increases a person’s tendency to seek out and focus on things that are either unchanging, or slow to change. The most significant example of the effect of the amount of time between sunrise and sunset, on personality, is the example of Europe. This is so because Europe is located so much further from the equator than all other densely populated lands. The cold weather that usually exists this far from the equator usually prevents these lands from supporting dense populations, but the warming effect of the Atlantic Gulf stream, makes Europe an exception to this rule. This effect accentuates the effect of Western Europe being a younger civilization, and lessens the effect of Eastern and Southeastern Europe being older civilizations.
The points between 17.325 and 19.23 degrees north, or from a point between the line we now call 117 degrees west and 115 degrees west, and between 17.325 and 19.23 degrees south, are also close to being equidistant between corresponding centers of historically eastern and historically western cultures, and are also close to being the same distance from corresponding centers of historically southern culture, but no large cities that might be sites for the coming together of these cultures can currently exist near these points because these points are located in the oceans of our world, far from land. (They are located respectively in the north Indian Ocean, and the southeast Pacific Oceans). That these points are close to being equidistant from these historical centers of culture, is illustrated by figures presented after this text.
Whatever line of longitude is determined to be the exact line on which the point is located, distances from which best divide our world into areas of older and younger civilizations, This line of longitude will be very close to the line that best divides our world into civilizations that we have historically called either eastern or western (the line that we now call 67 degrees east), and thus will be very close to the line that we should use in the same way that we currently use the line that we call the Prime Meridian. This is the primary reason that a point on this line, is the point from which distances best divide our world into older and younger regions.
Most importantly, we should use either the line that we now call 113 degrees west or a line just west of this line, as the center line on most of our world maps, and should use the line of longitude located 180 degrees from this line, as the line of 0 degrees in our spatial coordinate system, in the way that we currently use the line that we call the prime meridian. It should probably not surprise us that the line that we currently call the Prime Meridian, was chosen to pander to British conceit, rather than to reflect significant historical divisions in the cultural development of our world, because this line was chosen by British geographers, and because most other people would also have probably pandered to local conceits, if they had been in their place. We should change our maps and spatial coordinate system now, though, so that these systems illustrate significant facts about world history, rather than being drawn to pander to the conceits of any people.
Other than changing the line that we use as our prime meridian, no other change in our spatial coordinate system, will help us to better understand the history of people in our world. It would be easier to use our spatial coordinate system, if this system were a decimal system, with the total number of degrees that make up our world, adding up to some exponent of ten, instead of adding up to 360 as they currently do, but we would only want to make this change if we made a similar change in our mathematical systems, and because so many people have used our current system for so long, we may not want to do this. This change would be very similar to the change that most of our world has made to the metric system. This system is easier to use, but does not help us better understand the history of people in our world.
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Also
-15.65, -110.595, 12,778+ k from Tokyo, London, and Lagos, 13,677.498 k from Kinshasa
15.65, 69.405 also equidistant from Tokyo, London, and Lagos. Very close to just under 7,222 k from.
Pts equidistant from Cairo, and Dhaka include
app. 22, 60.57, app. 3059 K from,
a bit northeast of this a pt also equidistant from Khartoum. (Al Khurtum)
A pt. probably a bit southwest of this pt. is equidistant from and closer to Addis Abeba, Yerushalayim, and Kolkatta.
-- Pts. Equidistant from Shanghai, Rome, and Harare include app. 66.4+, 19+, (also close to the same distance from Lusaka – slightly farther from)
Pts. equidistant between Tokyo & London, located between the lines that we currently call 40 degrees west, and 175 degrees west.
49.2805, -122.775, 7,592+ k, dt V , 49.2805, -123.12564,
47.611, -122.21, 7,722+ k, dt S 47.611 -122.337, app. 12,008 k to Lagos, app.
45,5, -121.545, 7887+ K
45, -121.4, 7927- k
39.9, -120, app. 8,332 k +
37.8, -119.5, 8500 + k
35.6875, -119.01 app. 8671 k
34.05101, -118.648, 8804- k, - dt L.A.. to Lon 8783.233 k, L.A.. to T 8832.92 k, , dt L.A.. to Lag 12430.835 k, dt L.A. ,
32.7, -118.365 app. 8913 k
6.4524, -113.906, 11,057- k, 12,928.699 k to Lagos
0, -112.955, 11,574- k, 12,933.94 k to Lagos
-10, -111.475, app. 12,353 k, 12,861.922 k to Lagos, 13,924.494 k to Kinshasa
-15.65, -110.595, 12,778+ k from Tokyo, London, and Lagos, 13,677.498 k from Kinshasa
-21.5, -109.635, 13200 k
-23.015, -109.38, app 13,306 k from Tokyo, London, and Kinshasa
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We should say about Jesus, whatever will lead us, and people we influence, to try hardest to live as Jesus tells us to live. At least for most of us who have been raised in western societies, and probably for all of us, this means we should say whatever will lead us and people we influence, to try hardest to follow Jesus teachings, because trying to follow Jesus’ teachings, will give most of us who have been raised in western societies, and will probably give all of us, our best chance of learning how to live as Jesus tells us to live. For this reason we should often praise Jesus, because we often try hardest to follow individuals we admire, and for this reason we should also often find fault with and try to reform churches that call themselves Christian churches.
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flag construction
0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,
116.5
58.25
233*55 Green (bottom)
116.5*89 Red (upper left – touching flagpole)
58.25*89 Yellow (upper middle)
58.25*89 Blue (upper right)
full rectangle 233*144
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large screen version and print version, sections 1-11, top margin .80, side margins .70
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I am sending you this essay because I hope and believe you will want to help heal our world and will want to help spread the knowledge of what actions will hurt us and what actions will help us, and because I believe we can all do more to help accomplish these goals by living as Jesus teaches us to live, and by helping to spread Jesus’ true teachings by joining or supporting a church of human weakness, than we can do in any other way, (even if we learn how to live as Jesus teaches us to live, from someone other than Jesus, who does not talk about Jesus, and who does not try to follow Jesus, and even if we do not say we follow Jesus. Other teachers often teach some of the same lessons Jesus teaches, and people who follow other teachers often learn and do more of what Jesus teaches us, than do those of us who say we follow Jesus. This includes teachers we call religious teachers.) I tell why I believe these things in the essay I have attached to this email. I believe that after you read this essay you will agree with me.
When you have read enough of this essay to understand a good part of the meaning of the church of human weakness, and when you want to either join this church, help this church, or learn more about this church, please email me at gpelly.bosela@gmail.com. Right now I do not have a telephone number that I can be reached at. There is a chance that I will get the number (440) 647-5182, and if I do, then I would be eager to receive calls at this number. On occasion I will also probably be able to make phone calls from another line, and in order to facilitate conversations about ideas put forth in this essay, I will often be eager to do this.
I have sent this essay to you as an attachment to this email. This attachment contains many formatting commands that make this essay easier to read, that would have been lost if I had copied this essay into the main text of this email. Many of you may be reluctant to open this attachment for fear of viruses. Let me assure you that this attachment has been checked for viruses by a highly respected anti-virus security program that google mail uses to check all attachments that are sent with it’s mail service. If this program finds any cause for concern in any attachment it simply won’t send that attachment, so there is no reason to fear that there might be a virus in the attachment I have sent you.
This essay can also be found along with later sections that are not included in this email at http://howwecanheal.blogspot.com . At this website these later sections are included as a separate blog entry. Refer everyone you know who might want to help heal our world, to this web page. When you want to print this essay either from this attachment or from this website you may have to press the paper feed button on your printer periodically. Again the attachment has formatting commands that the website version does not have and will print in a way that will be easier to read.
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I can be reached at gpelly.bosela@gmail.com . Right now I do not have a telephone number that I can be reached at. There is a chance that I will get the number (440) 647-5182, and if I do, then I would be eager to receive calls at this number. On occasion I will also probably be able to make phone calls from another line, and in order to facilitate conversations about ideas put forth in this essay, I will often be eager to do this.
The full essay, a part of which I have just sent to you, can along with later sections that are not included in this email can be found at http://howwecanheal.blogspot.com . At this website these later sections are included as a separate blog entry. Please refer everyone you know who might want to help heal our world, to this web page. When you want to print this speech you may have to press the paper feed button on your printer periodically.
I have shown you this essay because I hope and believe you will want to help heal our world, and because I believe we can all do more to help heal our world, and can do less to harm our world, by living as Jesus teaches us to live, and by helping to spread Jesus’ true teachings, by joining or supporting a church of human weakness, than we can do in any other way. Now that you have read this much of this essay, I believe that you will agree with me.
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