SWORD, BELIEF, &  PEACE

Jesus said, "Don't think I came to bring peace on the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword." (Matthew 10:34). Yes, our Lord said that! We like to think of him as the Prince of Peace because we like peace better than war. Esaias called him the Prince of Peace, but that leaves us with a contradiction, doesn't it. Isn't Jesus clearly denying that he brings peace? People don't want to hear their preachers make a sermon from this verse! After all, we are a peace-loving people.

There are other statements of Jesus which preachers don't use for sermons, statements which reveal a Lord who clearly has a more complex message than we are willing to hear. It's as though God's design is a coin with two sides, and we wish to see only one side, ever. So, how are we supposed to understand God's message? How shall we view Jesus? Is he peace, or sword? If we listen to his own words, the question is pretty clearly answered, isn't it?

But, if we consider the general history of God's people through Old Testament times, there wasn't much peace. If we survey the history of mankind, the times of peace are few. If we look at our own Greek or Germanic ancestry, we find our ancestors glorifying war, actually dedicating their lives to it as though it was the purpose of living. Homer's Iliad is arguably the greatest piece of literature excepting our Bible, heroes throwing their lives into battle without reservation, with little hope of dying peacefully in old age. Our modern society knows something of war, too. Our soldiers are involved in war someplace, nearly continuously. While American soil hasn't been a war-zone since the War Against the South, our cities are equally as unsafe as cities in a land at war. The word "peace" is kind of like the word "heaven;" we fantasize about it hoping for it one day, but without optimism for the near term.

Our cities are like bird-nests, places which need to be secure and safe for raising of nestlings; war must be kept away from the women and children, out of sight, most especially out of reality-consciousness. Our society is feminine in character, dedicated to nurturing, care-giving, compassion, and mercy. That's all we want to see or know. If men want to war, let them do it someplace else! We don't want to see that side of God! If there is no war in our feminine society, men have little value. Women use them for seed, and as slaves, but the general contempt toward men is palpable. Men are portrayed as ridiculous by news and entertainment media. Women have claimed, and obtained by our default, the traditional male roles of leaders, providers, counselors, and even fathers. Our modern society is quite dramatically opposite the societies of Bible and history.

So, what am I saying here, that we should have more war? What kind of nonsense is that? Do I really expect to convince anyone to value the sword over peace? No, I don't expect that, nor do I expect anyone to be willing to look objectively at Jesus' statements. Our society is content with an idea of peace, and quick to oppose anything contrary. Regardless, I shall examine this issue as best I can because I think this other side of God's nature is important to a balanced and healthy society. How it is important will hopefully come to light in this examination.

The word "sword" symbolizes battle; for each person to use in battle against enemies. So, what enemies does Jesus have in mind, that he brings a sword? If we are his soldiers, then who are the enemies for us to battle? Well, on one hand, there are foreign nations which would like to destroy our nation, and there are criminals who do violence against us. Those are enemies in this world. But, Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world. So, let's consider the enemies which our spiritual leader would war against. St. Paul says we war not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. For Jesus' lost-sheep the battle is spiritual. But what does that mean?

Unfortunately, along with abdicating men's traditional social roles, we have also turned our eyes away from our origins, our God-given responsibilities, and even the idea that God has a purpose for us beyond giving us His kingdom in the future ages. We have conceded to Satan's lies that we are not true Israelites, while letting his children from Cain and Esau claim our inheritance. We true Israelites have rejected our true lineage as God's chosen race, taking the back-seat in His program where we try to sit quietly murmuring that we outsiders can be onboard too because we have "grace." We practice religion without enthusiasm, preaching a gospel of love, peace, and mercy in order to fill the pews with women, while stilling our own restless souls that demand we stand up like David against enemy forces which have conquered us. Alas, men dare not rise to battle, of any kind, because they no longer have honor in our feminine society. To consider battle against spiritual forces gets one's leash jerked quick and hard by those who define our values. Any man who dares to stand up, saying with David, "I'll show you there's a God in Israel," will find himself standing alone with wives and children throwing stones at him. Just sit back-down in your cushioned pew and be content with love, peace, and mercy. No matter that we are spiritually defeated, living in the misery of Satan's hell; we want peace, at any cost. Samuel Adams, a true Israelite who helped establish our promised-land, said in 1776:

His words were applicable for that time of American Revolution, and they are equally applicable to American Christians today. It is to such people as Adams speaks that Jesus will say on that last day, "depart from me, I never knew you." The Christian churches of modern America are sadly not more than painted sepulchres, wherein trembling women weep and their men mumble, "Oh, how I wish I could do something, but it'll all be okay when Jesus comes." The organist plays Onward Christian Soldiers, and everyone feels better.

I tell you, if you don't know where you are from, or who you are, you can't know where you are going! If you wish to abdicate from your responsibility as a child of God, to sit slouching, with eyes downward, in the back seat where the light is dim, then "grace" can't save you, and you're no value to Jesus. If you do that, you are not representing your all-powerful Sovereign, or nobility, or integrity, or principles, or courage, or any other characteristics of God's mighty sons. The sword lays out there in the open, dusty and dull, waiting for another David. But if you glance at it, you'll feel worse; better not to look.

I'm writing this piece to men, men who have defaulted and must bear the responsibility for this disaster. If men are willing to abdicate, why shouldn't women usurp their power. I'm not writing to women, who seek government largess and peace while resenting the men who burden them with another mouth to feed. God's program will ultimately require men to step forth to represent their Lord with courage and council. When women see men standing upright again, they might turn away from a government that offers them security and safety. Women want something in men that they aren't seeing; after all, they have nestlings to worry about.

That's the scene! Pretty sick isn't it? But that description is about physical life in a wicked world; how does it relate to spiritual battle. It does in this way: we individuals, along with all races and creatures on this planet, are all symbols. That's right, just symbols. Look at it this way, God is having a dream and we are all figments of His imagination, each of us acting as a symbol of some characteristic or value or problem or power or principle. We individuals are symbols who play out God's dream on the stage of this world, deluded into thinking that we have existence separate from the dreamer. We value and protect our physical lives as though we are really some "thing." Really, we are only characters in God's dream, to whom He gives some very special powers. But, if we refuse to admit we have the powers, then we are worthless. If white-race European Christians knew who they were and from where they came (lineage) and knew their purpose, then they could easily learn their special powers and their responsibilities as members of the body of Christ, Who by means of "Word" creates all that is.

Ah, yes, this is the direction we shall go, to look at ourselves as members of the body of Christ, One with the Father. Think about that! We "lost sheep of Israel" are MEMBERS of Him Who is One with the Father. When Jesus identified Himself with God, the church called it blasphemy. If you recognize yourself as part of that same Christ, are you not identifying yourself with God also, since He is One with God? Is it blasphemous to identify oneself with God? In John 10:34 Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6 which says "ye are gods." I ask you this; if you are a god, given special powers by the Father, then what good are you if you deny your godhood and those powers? You ask, what powers? You have the powers of creative Word! Israelites, as members of Christ's body, CREATE the world which we know by believing that things are as they are. It is the elect of Israel who create this imaginary reality by believing en masse that things are thus. As a whole body unit of the Christ, we create this world by what we believe (faith), and we've done a bad job! It's a mess, and it's our fault. You used your powers to create a sorry mess, while denying that you had such powers. Now, dear Christian, it's time to learn what you've done, and begin to correct it. First you must be willing to look at the false beliefs you hold, for your creation gives evidence that you believe some bad stuff! You don't know who you really are, nor who your ancestors were, nor what God has destined for you, so you helped the enemy instead of Christ. The excuse of ignorance doesn't carry any clout; you were given the Truth by Him who is Truth, but you rejected it. This mess of a world is your fault, and you must accept the blame. Now, it's up to you to overcome your false beliefs; how will you destroy the spirit of falsehood that lives within you and drives you?

Your false beliefs are your sin, and that is what must be overcome. As Jesus healed each cripple, he told him to "go and sin no more." He told him to stop believing in ailment! Sin is the cause of our world-ailment. Sin is not just the violation of commandments. Christian religion doesn't teach what sin really is, but you'd better find out, for that is what you must conquer in order to perfect your beliefs and your world. Let's just take a quick look at a definition for sin: sin is anything which hinders your spiritual path toward perfect holiness. The Greek word for sin means "missing the mark," that you are focused upon something different from real Truth, that your witness is false. Your enemies are many, a multitude of your own sins which hinder your spiritual progress. Your sins are of the mind, being negative, limited, ignorant, wicked, earthly sensualistic, materialistic, self-obsessed, atheistic, and ungodly.

Well, that's simply how it is in this world. You blew-it because you didn't know the truth, and the world is wicked as a result. The world is a symptom of what you believe; it is a result, kind of like a disease, but World is not the cause. You/we are the cause! Correcting world problems will not correct the spiritual cause that is in our mind. So, let's go up to a higher level of understanding. All the world's evils are just symbols of what the dreamer is dreaming; they reflect flaws in our beliefs, but they can serve to point us in the right direction if we are willing to look there. The problem is in our own mind. If we create a world that manifests our beliefs, that world will only be light to the extent that we believe what is really True. Truth is Christ.

The task of God's elect, for which he has prepared us, is to make the world holy by perfecting our divine minds and eliminating sins from our lives. It is this release of sins (false beliefs), or perhaps destruction of them, that Satan opposes. Our battle against sin is illustrated in the paradigm of Israel's entry into the promised-land, when God told the Israelites, "In the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them." (Deuteronomy 20:16-18) You see, that event was a model, a paradigm, a symbol of God's plan whereby we spiritual-beings destroy our negative thoughts and beliefs, which then results in our creation of the final promised-land, the kingdom of Heaven. Physical events, creatures, and races are like figments of a dream, each of which symbolizes something of the dreamer. If we would perfect our dream we must destroy our negative thinking, and then evils will no longer exist for us. God's elect of Israel, who make up the body of Christ, perform this function of participating in God's program. Christ (the whole body of Christ) is the instrument of creation. All other creatures and races of people benefit or suffer depending on how well we do our work. If we do well, then God's justice, through Christ, governs the kingdom. Then people who do well are greatly blessed; if not they suffer just consequences. It will be that way in the perfect kingdom ahead, if we awaken to Truth and fulfill our destiny.

Do you want to see your powers in action? Look at the world around you. If you see chaos, violence, immorality, injustice, then recognize that those people or events are reflections (symbols) of beliefs which you hold. It is your world; you are responsible for it, and now you must fix the mess you've made. You have some bad thoughts, and must somehow get rid of them. They are difficult to release because you have already given them so much power. So, with God's help, we must do war against evil by battling the negatives in our own minds. The Sword which Jesus brings is the weapon we use in our war. The battle ground is in the mind of the dreamer, and we are His warriors. By perfecting our own minds, we perfect the world! As we succeed in righteousness, evil people and injustices and dark horrors will cease to exist. As we learn to use our powers for God, we can say to a mountain, "be moved," and it will be right where we believe it to be. So shall the mountain of evil be gone and a perfect kingdom of God be as we believe it to be.

That's the war for God's elect to fight, as I see it. This is a superficial description, I know, and I hope I am not oversimplifying it. Enemies, which we created by believing in them, are not always defeated easily, thus battle can be fearsome and serious. Our dark thoughts are manifested in dark races who then act against us to destroy us. We can even imagine dark thoughts to sometimes appear holy and good, but that appearance is like a flower in the field, today blooming and tomorrow gone. Not all dark people are enemies, many are good friends, and that makes things even more confusing. We can hardly tell friends from enemies, so let us turn within our own minds to do the battle against our own negative thoughts; then real enemies will disappear and only friends will remain.

Perhaps I am understating the actual battle; it may turn out to be more than a mental exercise, requiring physical swords against physical enemies. In that case, let us go forth will full dedication to perform God's will and cleanse the kingdom of God from all foreign creatures, just as He commands us to do. My suggestion, when battle becomes physical, is to carry in your pocket a copy of Psalm 91, and to read it often. And to remember the confidence of David, when he stepped forth fearlessly, saying "I'll show you there's a God in Israel." But never forget that you were given a life to spend, not to keep, and it is how you spend it that determines its value.

Now, let's talk about peace, that "peace which passes understanding," for which we long so desperately. When Satan is defeated and no longer reigns over this world as Lord, then Christ, our Prince of Peace will reign as Sovereign, and we will have our promised land. Until that time, Satan uses the idea of peace cleverly against us to promote "peace-on-earth and good-will toward all men." That mistranslation is consistent with Satan's program of protecting and saving all his evil children. The angels really said "on earth peace to men of good-will." The difference is significant! Our Christ does not promote peace for all men of the world because many of them symbolize our evil thoughts. For them, the sword! Yes, Christ is our Prince of Peace, and our holy estate will be perfect peace in His kingdom. The Christian religion teaches and promotes a world-peace, with the unintended result that all the evil players will be safe to continue working Satan's program. Satan doesn't want his children (symbols of our sins) to be destroyed. The figments of the dream have claimed control of the dream, demanding a continued existence, and wanting to destroy the dreamer as though that would insure their longevity. Satan has successfully convinced most Christians that peace is the highest value, no matter what the cost. Such misguided belief on our part serves to protect Satan's kingdom of World from the sword of Christ! You see, the battle arena is in the mind; it is a matter of beliefs. We war not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. Those principalities and powers are manifested through all types of media. Network News and TV sitcoms and movies and magazines and newspapers all cooperate to destroy Christian values. We find immorality, pornography, crime, violence, and Satanic horrors entertaining as we sit comfortably in our living rooms where we are receptive to suggestion because we feel safe there. Christian values have been replaced with Satan's values so subtly that we don't realize we've been reprogrammed. We sit contentedly in soft chairs, laughing at Satan's humor (trashing Christian values in sitcoms), safe behind double-locked doors, wanting peace at any cost. To this Jesus says, "Don't think I came to bring peace on the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword." (Matthew 10:34). Praise God for over-riding our bad judgment.

Men, Christian warriors, listen to me; you need to understand the difference between boys and girls, which you have innocently failed to do because your glands blinded your minds. I think the best analogy is that of birds, nesting on the side of a cliff. For the female, the nest is her world and her nestlings are more important than anything else on the planet. She wants that nest adequately feathered, and uses the male to help with the task. Then the male fertilizes the eggs, and "brings home the bacon" for the chicks. The male bird doesn't get to live there, and really doesn't care to. He does his duty, but he'd rather be riding the updrafts at the cliff-edge for sport, or defending the nest site as the mighty protector. The nest is her world, not really his! His world is mental and spiritual; he thinks strategy, and plans defenses, and fantasizes battles against aggressors; he spars with others in play, preparing himself for battle if necessary. He philosophizes, theorizes, invents, conceives strategies, and feels like a Lord, while she raises nestlings and maintains a home. She doesn't need him very often, and doesn't recognize the value of the instincts which motivate him. She gives her attention to the little ones, while he languishes, something like a drone bee. Okay, that is just an analogy, which isn't perfect, but conveys a general idea.

In our human society, the feminine side of God is manifested as the female, a woman, who exists as a symbol of that half of God's nature. Adam's wife's name is, in the Greek Septuagint, not "Eve" but "Zoe" which is the Greek word for life. She is the life-principle. Her instincts are to nurture life, to show compassion and care, never destroying life. She promotes love, peace, and mercy as qualities which society accepts as Godly, which they certainly are. We actually think of our Almighty Father in such terms which are feminine characteristics. What we neglect is the fact that these feminine qualities must be kept in balance with masculine qualities of aggressiveness, protection, violence, destruction, killing of enemies: the general expression of dynamic force, being relative to the more passive nature of the feminine.

Well, modern society doesn't like masculine qualities; Christians actually preach against them while exalting the feminine. There is no balance at all! Society has become a feminine structure which rewards feminine values and punishes the masculine. In our society, we hardly dare discuss the possible value of masculine qualities, and certainly not in the company of women! Feminine qualities have become the general religion for modern society. Liberal politics, 1960's hippies, humanist philosophers, Freudian psychologists, and Christian preachers all tout the same religion: that all races are equal in value, that peace is more important than freedom, and that God's masculine representatives should be tried in a world court and condemned. The entertainment industry ridicules the masculine role in society, portraying fathers and husbands and soldiers as laughably ignorant. When entertainers do cater to the masculine audience with good-heroes who fight against evil, those heroes are usually sex-obsessed.

Legislators and the judicial system make a business out of defending the rights of criminals who have attacked white-race Americans. They have made self-defense by whites nearly illegal, and attorneys get rich from victims. All in all, Satan's world is nearly complete. The wicked figments of the dream have control of the dream and have a choke-hold on the dreamer. They perceive Israel (the dreamer) as their enemy who must be destroyed so they can have their kingdom of World without opposition from God. The flaw in their strategy is, of course, that when the dreamer is destroyed, the dream ends along with themselves. Nevertheless, their instinct for preservation of World is so powerful in Satan's children, of Cain and Esau, that they cannot do otherwise. They cannot relinquish their instinctive nature, for they are anti-God in their very essence. Their spirit is that of the fallen angel, Lucifer.

The spirit of Israel is that of Christ! We, too, are driven by instinct, to destroy evil when necessary so we can attain the kingdom of God. We dream of a peaceful kingdom in heaven; We want a heaven of Godly values rather than wicked ones. So, in order to achieve this, we must revive within ourselves the masculine nature of war, destruction, killing enemies, and forceful cleansing of a wicked world. We must eventually take up Jesus' sword and go forth to kill our own sins, including those who exist as symbols of our sins. We won't kill to glorify violence, but in order to purify our own minds. It will be like sweeping the floor while envisioning a clean floor in our minds, rather than focusing upon the dirt which is swept out. Always we must focus upon God, His will, and the holy estate for which He destines us. Killing my sinful nature is not a thrill, but it will be a thrill to become holy, no longer having any consciousness of sin.

Now, reader, does Jesus' sword look a little better to you?

by Roger Hathaway, April, 2000

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