Glenn Beck in Documentary Form Discusses Fascism and Communism

Did Nostradamus Predict Hitler's Rise to Power? Prophecies of Ezekiel Highlighted In Contrast (Pics are Linked Out As Well)

This comes from a larger post from the John Ankerberg site, which itself is pulled from Geisler's, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, under the heading Nostradamus.

Nostradamus (1503-1566) was known by the Latin name of Michel de Notredame or Nostredame. He was graduated from University of Montpellier in France and was a physician and astrologer. He published a book of rhymed prophecies titled Centuries (1555). He is reputed to have predicted accurately the death of Henry II of France and many other things.

According to Andre Lamont, Nostradamus Sees All (“Preface,” 2d. ed., v), “he was well versed in the arts of astronomy, the kabbala, astrology, alchemy, magic, mathematics and medicine.”

Predictions of Nostradamus. Some critics of Christianity hold up Nostradamus as an example of someone who made predictions on the level with those in the Bible, thus canceling the claim of supernatural uniqueness made for biblical prophecy. However, on examination they fall far short of this claim. The predictions of Nostradamus show signs of an occult source and may be explained according to purely natural processes.

A Great California Earthquake. Nostradamus is alleged to have predicted a great earthquake in California for May 10, 1981. This was reported on May 6, 1981, in USA Today. However, no such quake occurred. As a matter of fact, Nostradamus mentioned no country, city, or year. He spoke only of a “rumbling earth” in a “new city” and a “very mighty quake” on May 10 [no year].

Hitler’s Rise to Power. Lamont claims that Nostradamus gave “a prophecy of the coming of Hitler and Nazism in a world divided within itself” (Lamont, 252). However, Hitler is not mentioned and the prediction gives no date and is vague. It reads: “Followers of sects, great troubles are in store for the Messenger. A beast upon the theater prepares the scenical play. The inventor of that wicked feat will be famous. By sects the world will be confused and divided” (ibid.). In this context there is a reference to “Hister” (not Hitler) by Nostradamus (C4Q68), which is obviously a place, not a person. The attempt to read back into this both his name and birthplace is stretched. What is more, Hitler grew up in Linz, Austria, not in any place called Hister.

Quatrain 2-24 reads: “Beasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers, Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube [Hister sera]. The great one shall be dragged in an iron cage when the child brother [de Germain] will observe nothing.”

This is allegedly a prophecy concerning Adolf Hitler. According to followers of Nostradamus, the lower portion of the Danube is known as either “Ister” or “Hister” (Randi, 213), which seems to be close enough to “Hitler” for their purposes.

However, the substitution of “l” for “s” in Hister, and the inversion of “t” and “s,” is totally arbitrary. In another quatrain (4-68), Nostradamus mentions the Lower Danube in conjunction with the Rhine (“De Ryn”). But if “Hister” refers to Hitler, then to what does “De Ryn” refer? Followers of Nostradamus are inconsistent, treating one river as an anagram and taking the other literally. The Latin phrase de Germain should be interpreted “brother” or “near relative,” not “Germany” (Randi, 214). Even if these highly questionable interpretations are allowed, the prophecy is still quite ambiguous. What are we to make of the “Beasts” and the “iron cage”? To say that Adolf Hitler (“the great one”) will be “dragged in an iron cage” while Germany “will observe nothing” is so ambiguous and confusing it renders the entire prophecy meaningless.

Quatrain 4-68 is also alleged to refer to Hitler. It reads: “In the year very near, not far from Venus, The two greatest of Asia and Africa From the Rhine and Lower Danube, which will be said to have come, Cries, tears at Malta and the Ligurian coast.”

As in the previous example, “Lower Danube” is here taken to mean “Hitler.” “The two greatest of Asia and Africa” are taken to refer to Japan and Mussolini, respectively. Thus, the second and third lines refer to the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Italy, and Germany. The fourth is taken as a reference to the bombing of Malta and the bombardment of Genoa (Randi, 215).

In addition to the reasons given above, this prophecy claims these events would take place in a “year very near;” but the Tripartite Pact (1941) came almost 400 years after the prediction. It is not clear how Asia could refer to Japan, and even more so, how Africa could refer to Mussolini or Italy. Again Nostradamus’s followers are inconsistent, for they interpret Asia, Africa, and the Lower Danube figuratively while providing no corresponding interpretation for the Rhine. Finally, this prophecy is ambiguous on the whole. It could be interpreted in various ways so as to fulfill many different events.

The Second World War. According to Lamont, Nostradamus forecast that, after the first World War, the Spanish Civil War, and other wars, a more furious one was foretold—the Second World War, with its aerial warfare and suffering. But no such details are given. It is typically vague and could be easily forecast without any supernormal powers. The passage reads simply: “After a great human exhaustion, a greater one is being prepared. As the great motor renews the centuries, a rain of blood, milk, famine, iron and pestilence [will come]. In the sky will be seen fires carrying long sparks” (Lamont, 168).

Evaluation

Nostradamus’s forecasts are general, vague, and explainable on purely natural grounds. Furthermore, Nostradamus shows clear signs of demonic and occult influence.

False Prophecies. An evident sign of a false prophet is false prophecy (cf. Deuteronomy 18). If Nostradamus’ predictions are taken literally, many are false. If they are not, then they can fit many “fulfillments.” As John Ankerberg put it, “it is an undeniable fact that Nostradamus gave numerous false prophecies” (Ankerberg, 340). Noted Nostradamus scholar Erick Cheetham said flatly of his prognostications in his Almanachs: “Many of these predictions were wrong” (Cheetham, 20). Some interpretations are so diverse that while one claims it is a reference to “Calvinist Geneva,” another believes it refers to “atomic power” (The Prophecies of Nostradamus, 81).

Vague Predictions. The truth is that the vast majority of his prognostications are so ambiguous and vague that they could fit a great variety of events. Consider this one: “Scythe by the Pond, in conjunction with Sagittarius at the high point of its ascendant—disease, famine, death by soldiery—the century/age draws near its renewal” (Centuries 1.6). The lines can be interpreted so as to fit any number of events in the future. When something is judged to be a fulfillment, Nostradamus will seem supernatural. Astrologers and fortunetellers use vague descriptions and imagery all the time. Nostradamus was a master at this art.

Contradictory Interpretations. There is no unanimity among Nostradamus’ interpreters about the meaning of his predictions. This lack of agreement is further proof of their ambiguity and lack of authority. In The Prophecies of Nostradamus the editors note contradictory interpretations (see I, 16; I, 51; II, 41; II, 43; II, 89; III, 97, etc.).

Predictions after the Fact. Nostradamus himself acknowledged that his predictions were written in such a manner that “they could not possibly be understood until they were interpreted after the event and by it” (Randi, 31). There is nothing miraculous about reading a fulfillment back into a prophecy which could not be clearly seen there beforehand. Not a single prediction of Nostradamus has ever been proven genuine. This means that either he is a false prophet or else he was not really seriously claiming to be giving real predictions. Perhaps he was a con artist or a literary prankster.

Tongue-in-Cheek Prophecies? His prognostications were so vague and unproductive that even the encyclopedia of Man, Myth and Magic suggests that “Nostradamus composed them with tongue in cheek, as he was well aware that there is an enduring market for prophecies and particularly for veiled ones” (Cavendish, 2017). As James Randi put it, “The marvelous prophecies of Michel de Nostredame, upon examination, turn out to be a tiresome collection of vague, punning, seemingly badly constructed verses.... From a distance of more than 400 years, I fancy I can hear a bearded Frenchman laughing at the naiveté of his 20th century dupes” (36).

Confessed Demonic Source. Nostradamus admitted demonic inspiration when he wrote: “The tenth of the Calends of April roused by evil persons; the light extinguished; diabolical assembly searching for the bones of the devil (damant—”demon”) according to Psellos” (Lamont, 71). Commenting on this, Lamont noted that “The utilization of the demons or black angels is recommended by ancient writers on magic. They claim that they have much knowledge of temporal matters and, once under control, will give much information to the operator.” He adds, Nostradamus could not have avoided such a temptation” (ibid.).

Various Forms of Occult Practices. Nostradamus was associated with various occult activities. Lamont observes that “Magic—Astrology—Symbolism—Anagrams—[are a] Key to Nostradamus” (ibid., 69). In Centuries, Quatrain 2 is translated: “The wand in the hand seated in the midst of the Branches, He (the prophet) wets in the water both the hem (of his garment) and the foot. A fearfulness and a voice quiver through the sleeves; divine splendor, The Divine is seated near” (ibid., 70). Lamont comments that here “Nostradamus followed the rites of magic according to Iamblichus. It is night—he is seated on the stool or prophetic tripod—a little flame rises. He has the divining rod in his hand” (ibid., 70-71).

In addition to the use of the occult divining rod, Nostradamus was widely known for his knowledge of astrology—another occult practice condemned by the Bible (Deuteronomy 18). But whatever their source, these predictions in no way rival the clear, specific, and highly accurate predictions of Scripture.

Conclusion. There is no real comparison between Nostradamus’ predictions and those of the Bible. His are vague, fallible, and occult. Those of the Bible are clear, infallible, and divine. The Bible made numerous clear and distinct predictions hundreds of years in advance. Nostradamus did not. There is no evidence that Nostradamus was a prophet at all; certainly he was like none in the Bible. Biblical prophecy stands unique in its claim to be supernatural.

Sources

J. Ankerberg, et al., Cult Watch
M. Cavendish, “Nostradamus” in Man, Myth and Magic, new ed., vol. 15
E. Cheetham, The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus
A. Kole, Miracle and Magic
A. Lamont, Nostradamus Sees All
M. Nostradamus, Centuries
J. Randi, “Nostradamus: The Prophet for All Seasons,” The Skeptical Enquirer (Fall 1882)
[no editor named], The Prophecies of Nostradamus

What Is Fascism? (A joining of two seperate posts, thus, re-posted)

Agree or Not?

Quoting History Series

I want to highlight a case that has, well, institutionalized the “post-modern” society. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1996), the 9th District Appeals Court wrote:

"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State."

In other words, whatever you believe is your origin, and thus your designating meaning on both your life and body is your business, no one else’s. If you believe that the child growing in you – no matter at what stage (Doe v. Bolton) – isn’t a child unless you designate it so. You alone can choose to or not choose to designate life to that “fetus”. It isn’t a “potential person” until you say it is first a person. Understand? That being clarified, do you agree with this general statement:

“If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and men who claim to be bearers of an objective, immortal truth… From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own reality…”

Sounds really close to the 9th Courts majority view doesn’t it. The above is basically saying that your opinion is just as valid as another persons opinion because both are your’s and the other persons perspective on something is formed from influences from your culture and experiences. So someone from New Guiney may have a differing view or opinion on eating dogs than an American.

Let’s compare a portion from both statements:

1. “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life…”
2. “…the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own reality…”

Whether you’re an atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim, it doesn’t matter. Your reality is just that… your reality, or opinion, or personal dogma. I want to now complete one of the quotes that I left somewhat edited, not only that, but I want to ask you if you still agree with it after you find out who wrote it. 

Ready?

“Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition…. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and men who claim to be bearers of an objective, immortal truth… then there is nothing more relativistic than fascistic attitudes and activity…. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable.”

 

Mussolini, Diuturna pp. 374-77, quoted in A Refutation of Moral Relativism: Interviews with an Absolutist (Ignatius Press; 1999), by Peter Kreeft, p. 18.

Does the Left = Communism?

And The Right = Fascism?

This blog will jump around just a bit, but the main point will be this: Fascism has nothing to do with conservatism, or the right.

First of all, let me start this blurb by stating emphatically that true fascism during WWII lived in Italy with Mussolini, who himself had a philosophy degree and even published a book (and whose son, incidentally, is a great jazz player!). Mussolini even quantified what fascism is, and you could almost take his definition and lay it over a particular political spectrum today:

“Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and men who claim to be bearers of an objective, immortal truth then there is nothing more relativistic than fascistic attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable.”

(Mussolini, Diuturna pp. 374-77, quoted in A Refutation of Moral Relativism: Interviews with an Absolutist. Ignatius Press; 1999, by Peter Kreeft, p. 18.)

(Relativism is a philosophical theory asserting that there is no absolute truth, only truth relative to the individual, or to a particular time or culture, or both. To put it another way, relativism may be defined as the radical denial of objectivity.) So fascism is almost misdefined in today’s apathetic terms, and definition is very important to not forget history and thus repeat it. Anti-Semitism is also misdefined in that it not only takes a strong-form, but a weak-form is also prevalent in today’s modern culture that should be pointed out.

Anti-Semitism can come in many forms; I would argue that when a news organization is very unbalanced in their coverage of the currant Palestinian/Israeli conflict, they are showing a bias that is feeding unhealthy views about the Semitic people and their history.

(For instance, NPR: 18,321 words in pro-Arab only segments, 4,934 words in pro-Israel segments. Bias in number of Arab-only vs Israeli-only segments: 63-percent Palestinian/pro-Arab only segments, 37-percent Israel/pro-Israel segments.)

NPR is a left leaning, tax payer funded (government), radio program. Sounds somewhat fascist to me.

Many years ago at a tire shop an older couple had their elderly mother with them and I noticed a number on her arm. This survivor and I talked for a straight forty-five minutes about history and politics. She said something that made me cringe. She said that in the early days of the rise of the Reich, it became immoral to kill rodents, but okay for abortion and euthanasia as moral choices. She applied that to our currant culture better and more forcefully than any author I have read. She mentioned also that one of the tactics of the socialists then were to shout down at public meetings any dissenters, or try and ban their freedom of speech while protecting theirs. This conversation has opened my mind up a bit more than it was previously. For instance, I now cringe when I see certain authors banned from being, well, even recommended.

For instance, a librarian at Ohio University recommended the book The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom and was voted on by his fellow professors 21-0 [with nine abstentions, so kinda like 30-0] as being a sexual harasser for recommending a conservative book. Sounds somewhat fascist to me.

See blog for Friday, April 14, 2006 (political commentary):

• TigerHawk – “Shame of Ohio State Univesity”

The political commentators of the same political philosophy, when on campuses are shouted down and threatened with bodily harm (Ann Coulter), when opposing viewpoints are not shouted down on university campuses, and the guests dont need bodyguards (Cindy Sheehan).

See blog (political commentary):

• Audacious Epigone – “Fascism in Connecticut”

Let us look at what we are told is suppose to be the political landscape if it were to be put into a line graph.

Really this is misleading. For one, it doesn’t allow for anarchy, which is a form of governance (or lack thereof). Also, it places democracy in the center... as if this is what one should strive for, a sort of balance. (The most popular -- college level graphe -- is wrong and misleading as well):

However, the founding fathers wanted nothing to do with a democracy no matter how many times a New York Times editorialist or you're teacher says we are in one:

James Madison (fourth President, co-author of the Federalist Papers and the father of the Constitution) Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general; been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

John Adams (American political philosopher, first vice President and second President) Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Benjamin Rush (signer of the Declaration): “A simple democracy is one of the greatest of evils.”

Fisher Ames (American political thinker and leader of the federalists [he entered Harvard at twelve and graduated by sixteen], author of the House language for the First Amendment): “A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will provide an eruption and carry desolation in their way.... The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.”

Governor Morris (signer and penman of the Constitution): “We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. Democracy! Savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt.”

John Quincy Adams (sixth President, son of John Adams [see above]): “The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.”

Noah Webster (American educator and journalist as well as publishing the first dictionary): “In democracy there are commonly tumults and disorders.. therefore a pure democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on earth.”

John Witherspoon (signer of the Declaration of Independence): “Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.”

Zephaniah Swift (author of Americas first legal text): “It may generally be remarked that the more a government [or state] resembles a pure democracy the more they abound with disorder and confusion.”

The Founders obviously knew what a democracy was, which is why in Article IV, Section Four of the Constitution, it says: The United States shall guarentee to every state in this union a republican form of government. California is a prime example of what the Founders did not want.

The following graph includes all political models and better shows where the political beliefs lie e.g., left or right is the following (take note, this graph is from a book I do not support nor recommend... but these visual insights are very useful):

In actuality, during WWII, fascism grew out of socialism, showing how close the ties were. I would argue that the New Left that comprises much of the Democratic Party today is fascistic, or, at least, of a closer stripe than any conservative could ever hope to be. I will end with a model comparing the two forms of governance that the two core values (conservatism/classical liberalism versus a socialist democracy) will produce. Before you view the below though, keep in mind that a few years back the ASA (American Socialist Association) on their own web site said that according to the voting record of United States Congressmen and Women, that 58 of them were social democrats. These are the same that put Hitler and Mussolini in power.

Which Do You Prefer?? Liberal Democrats want more government control, Conservative Republicans want less.

A Caller, Muhammad, Confronts Truth and History About Palestine and Israel via Michael Medved and Robert Spencer

Medved & Spencer Set Caller Straight on History from Papa Giorgio on Vimeo.

Michael Medved & Robert Spencer Talk About the Crudades & Take Call

Crusades and Islamic History - Spencer & Medved from Papa Giorgio on Vimeo.

I Added Quite a Few Q&A Sessions from Ravi Zacharias University Visits

• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- Aren't All Religions the Same? Alison Thomas, Stuart McAllister, and Ravi Zacharias Talk About Christianity's Differences 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A  -- Alison Thomas, Stuart McAllister, and Ravi Zacharias Answer Question about Truth 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- Michael Ramsden and Ravi Zacharias Answer Question About Bible Being True 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- A Columbia University Student Asks About God's Foreknowledge of Evil 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- A Columbia University Student Asks About God's Love and Compassion Towards Us 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- A Student Asks About Christianity and Homosexuality 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- A Student Asks Does a Moral Law Demand a Moral Law Giver 
• Ravi Zacharias Q & A -- Student Asks About the Immorality of God Condemning People Without Giving Sufficient Evidence

Rev. Wayne Perryman Speaks With Michael Medved About Historic Democratic Racism

The Rev. Wayne Perryman Speaks With Michael Medved About Historic Democratic Racism from Papa Giorgio on Vimeo.

Military Historian, Victor Davis Hanson, Asks If Tom Hanks Is Un-Hinged

WOW! Antique Roadshow Jackpot!

One commenter said this: "Try probably around $390,000 since she would be in a higher tax bracket now. And that's before additional fees and additional taxes."

Murtha's Passing -- Means Renewed Hope for Armenians

Interesting Murtha news from beyond the grave from Libertarian Republican:

The US House will vote on a resolution in committee on March 4 recognizing World War I-era killings of Christian Armenians by Muslim Turks as "genocide," according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Pamela Geller from the libertarian/human rights blog Atlas Shrugs gives some background, "Muslim Congressman Ellison won't call Armenian Genocide" Feb. 26:

It was the genocide that preceded the Holocaust. The Mufti of Jerusalem practiced genocide first in the Armenian genocide -- the systematic genocide of the Armenian population under the Islamic Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. The use of massacres and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees led to a total number of Armenian deaths of one-and-a-half to two million. Mufti Amin Al-Husseini swore allegiance to the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian genocide [i] . [ii] He was an officer stationed in Smyrna and participates first-hand in the Armenian genocide. One and a half million Christians were slaughtered under the sword of Islamic Jihad by the Ottoman Army. Allegiance to Ottoman Empire and Islamic world take-over was echoed by Osama Bin Laden in his post-September 11 declaration. Osama Bin Laden makes direct reference to the end of Ottoman Empire and thus proclaims his allegiance to its notion of Islamic dominion.

[....]

...Ironically, Rep. John Murtha's death seems to have given the Armenian lobby renewed optimisim. Democrat Murtha was the leading proponent in Congress for Turkey, and against the resolution.

There's some controversy over how the only [Democrat] Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota will vote. He is the only Muslim in Congress. He happens to sit on the House Foreign Relations Committee. He recently said, "I am still developing my position..."

Thomas Merton Bio #1 ~ by Ray Yungen (click book cover for link)

(See Part II and Part III)

"Thomas Merton was perhaps the greatest popularizer of interspirituality. Not only did he acquaint his readers with the rich and vast tradition of Christian contemplation (represented by fifty thousand volumes from the early church to the present), but he opened the door for Christians to explore other traditions, notably Taoism [Chinese witchcraft], Hinduism, and Buddhism. Among his many writings, several volumes explored Eastern traditions: Zen and the Birds of Appetite, Mystics and Zen Masters, The Way of Chuang Tzu, and Contemplation in a World of Action."

~ Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions (Novato, CA: New World Library, 1999), 39. ~

(I highly recommend this book)

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

What Martin Luther King was to the civil rights movement and what Henry Ford was to the automobile, Thomas Merton is to contemplative prayer. Although this prayer movement existed centuries before he came along, Merton took it out of its monastic setting and made it available to, and popular with, the masses. But for me, hands down, Thomas Merton has influenced the Christian mystical move­ment more than any person of recent decades.

Merton penned one of the most classic descriptions of contem­plative spirituality I have ever come across. He explained:

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race,... now I realize what we all are.... If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are... I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.... At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth.... This little point... is the pure glory of God in us. It is in everybody. (Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander [Garden City, NY: Doubleday Publishers, 1989], pp. 157-158)

Notice how similar Merton's description is to the occultic defini­tion of the higher self.

In order to understand Merton's connection to mystical occult­ism, we need first to understand a sect of the Muslim world—Sufis, who are the mystics of Islam. They chant the name of Allah as a mantra, go into meditative trances and experience God in everything. A prominent Catholic audiotape company now promotes a series of cassettes Merton did on Sufism. It explains:

Merton loved and shared a deep spiritual kinship with the Sufis, the spiritual teachers and mystics of Islam. Here he shares their profound spirituality. (Credence Cassettes magazine, Winter/Lent, 1998, p. 24)

In a letter to a Sufi Master, Merton disclosed, "My prayer tends very much to what you call fana" (M. Basil Pennington, Thomas Merton, My Brother [Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1996], p. 115, citing from The Hidden Ground of Love, pp. 63-64). So what is fana? The Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult defines it as "the act of merging with the Divine Oneness" (Nevin Drury, The Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult [SanFrancisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1985], p. 85.)

Merton saw the Sufi concept of fana as being a catalyst for Muslim unity with Christianity despite the obvious doctrinal differences. In a dialogue with a Sufi leader, Merton asked about the Muslim concept of salvation. The master wrote back stating:

Islam inculcates individual responsibility for one's actions and does not subscribe to the doctrine of atonement or the theory of redemption. (Rob Baker and Gray Henry, Editors, Merton and Sufism [Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 1999], p. 109)

To Merton, of course, this meant little because he believed that fana and contemplation were the same thing. He responded:

Personally, in matters where dogmatic beliefs differ, I think that controversy is of little value because it takes us away from the spiritual realities into the realm of words and ideas... in words there are apt to be infinite complexities and subtleties which are beyond resolution.... But much more important is the sharing of the experience of divine light,... It is here that the area of fruitful dialogue exists between Christianity and Islam. (Ibid., p. 110.)

Merton himself underlined that point when he told a group of contemplative women:

I'm deeply impregnated with Sufism. (Ibid., p. 69)

And he elaborated elsewhere:

Asia, Zen, Islam, etc., all these things come together in my life. It would be madness for me to attempt to create a monastic life for myself by excluding all these. I would be less a monk. (Ibid., 41)

When you evaluate Merton's mystical worldview, it clearly resonates with what technically would be considered traditional New Age thought. This is an inescapable fact!

Merton's mystical experiences ultimately made him a kindred spirit and co-mystic with those in other Eastern religions also because his insights were identical to their insights. At an interfaith conference
in Thailand he stated:

I believe that by openness to Buddhism, to Hinduism, and to these great Asian [mystical] traditions, we stand a wonderful chance of learning more about the potentiality of our own Christian traditions. (William Shannon, Silent Lamp, The Thomas Merton Story [New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992], p. 276)

Please understand that contemplative prayer alone was the catalyst for such theological views. One of Merton's biographers made this very clear when he explained:

If one wants to understand Merton's going to the East it is important to understand that it was his rootedness in his own faith tradition [Catholicism] that gave him the spiritual equipment [contemplative prayer] he needed to grasp the way of wisdom that is proper to the East. (Ibid., p. 281)

This was the ripe fruit of the Desert Fathers. When you borrow methods from Eastern religion, you get their understanding of God. There is no other way to put it. It does not take being a scholar to see the logic in this.

Merton's influence is very strong in the Catholic church and mainline Protestant denominations, and it is starting to grow in evangelical circles. While many Christians are impressed with Merton's humility, social consciousness, and piety, his intellectual dynamism is also a powerful draw. But sadly, Merton's heresies neutralize his qualities. He revealed the true state of his soul to a fellow monk prior to his trip to Thailand where his life ended by accidental electrocution. Before he left, he confided to his friend, "I am going home . . . to the home I have never been in this body" (Ibid., p. 273). I do not believe Merton was talking about a premonition of his death but rather was professing the East to be his true spiritual home.

This is not a thoughtless assertion. Virtually all Merton scholars and biographers make similar observations. One Merton devotee wrote, "The major corpus [body] of his writings are embedded in the central idea, experience and vision of the Asian wisdom" (Dea P. Patnaik, The Message of Thomas Merton, editor Brother Patrick Hart [Kalamazoo, Mi: Cistercian Publishing, 1981], p. 87).

Pages 58-61

[.....]

In his book, Thomas Merton: Contemplative Critic, Nouwen talks about these "new eyes" that Merton helped to formulate and said that Merton and his work "had such an impact" on his life and that he was the man who had "inspired" him greatly (Henry J.M. Nouwen, Thomas Merton: Contemplative Critic [San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers, 1991, Triumph Books Edition], p.3). But when we read Nouwen's very revealing account, something disturbing is unveiled. Nouwen lays out the path of Merton's spiritual pilgrimage into contemplative spirituality. Those who have studied Merton from a critical point of view, such as myself, have tried to understand what are the roots behind Merton's spiritual affinities. Nouwen explains that Merton was influenced by LSD mystic Aldous Huxley who "brought him to a deeper level of knowledge" and "was one of Merton's favorite novelists" (Ibid., p. 19-20) It was through Huxley's book, Ends and Means, that first brought Merton "into contact with mysticism" (Ibid., p. 20). Merton states:

He [Huxley] had read widely and deeply and intelligently in all kinds of Christian and Oriental mystical literature, and had come out with the astonishing truth that all this, far from being a mixture of dreams and magic and charlatanism, was very real and very serious. (Ibid.)

This is why, Nouwen revealed, Merton's mystical journey took him right into the arms of Buddhism:

Merton learned from him [Chuang Tzu—a Taoist] what Suzuki [a Zen master] had said about Zen: "Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake and become aware. (Ibid., p. 71)

Become aware of what? The Buddha nature. Divinity within all. That is why Merton said if we knew what was in each one of us, we would bow down and worship one another. Merton's descent into contemplative led him to the belief that God is in all things and that God is all things. This is made clear by Merton when he said:

True solitude is a participation in the solitariness of God -- Who is in all things.

Nouwen adds:

[Chuang Tzu] awakened and led him [Merton] ... to the deeper ground of his consciousness. (Ibid., p. 46, 71)

Pages 197-198

Howard Zinn (1922-2010)... passing from "this hell" to His hell

Some say that Zinn has such a distorted view on history that it is like if Zinn saying "to you, 'Would you like to see Versailles?' and then took you on a tour of a broken shed on the outskirts of the palace grounds. 'You see, pretty shabby, isn’t it?'" I think its worse than that. Rather, I like what Harvard University professor Oscar Handlin said in his 1980 review of Zinn's book when he denounced the "deranged quality of his fairy tale, in which the incidents are made to fit the legend, no matter how intractable the evidence of American history." That's better. A bit more of Handlin's review:

“It simply is not true,” Mr. Handlin noted,

that “what Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas, Cortez did to the Aztecs of Mexico, Pizarro to the Incas of Peru, and the English settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts to the Powhatans and the Pequots.” It simply is not true that the farmers of the Chesapeake colonies in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries avidly desired the importation of black slaves, or that the gap between rich and poor widened in the eighteenth-century colonies. Zinn gulps down as literally true the proven hoax of Polly Baker and the improbable Plough Jogger, and he repeats uncritically the old charge that President Lincoln altered his views to suit his audience. The Geneva assembly of 1954 did not agree on elections in a unified Vietnam; that was simply the hope expressed by the British chairman when the parties concerned could not agree. The United States did not back Batista in 1959; it had ended aid to Cuba and washed its hands of him well before then. “Tet” was not evidence of the unpopularity of the Saigon government, but a resounding rejection of the northern invaders.

Reason.com asks the question, "Just how poor is Zinn's history?" They then answer it:

...After hearing of his death, I opened one of his books to a random page (Failure to Quit, p. 118) and was informed that there was "no evidence" that Muammar Qaddafi's Libya was behind the 1986 bombing of La Belle Discotheque in Berlin. Whatever one thinks of the Reagan administration's response, it is flat wrong, bordering on dishonest, to argue that the plot wasn't masterminded in Tripoli. Nor is it correct to write that the American government, which funded the Afghan mujahadeen in the 1980s, "train[ed] Osama bin Laden," a myth conclusively debunked by Washington Post correspondent Steve Coll in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Ghost Wars.

Of Cuba, the reader of A People's History is told that upon taking power, "Castro moved to set up a nationwide system of education, of housing, of land distribution to landless peasants." Castro's vast network of gulags and the spasm of "revolutionary justice" that sent thousands to prison or the executioners wall is left unmentioned. This is unsurprising, I suppose, when one considers that Zinn recently told an interviewer "you have to admire Cuba for being undaunted by this colossus of the North and holding fast to its ideals and to Socialism....Cuba is one of those places in the world where we can see hope for the future. With its very meager resources Cuba gives free health care and free education to everybody. Cuba supports culture, supports dance and music and theatre."

There is also no mention of the Khmer Rouge or Pol Pot, though in a misleading digression into the so-called Mayaguez Incident, Zinn mentions that "a revolutionary regime had just taken power" in Cambodia and treated its American prisoners rather well. And it is untrue, as Zinn claims, that President Gerald Ford knew Cambodia had released its American captives in 1975 but still allowed a small Marine invasion simply to show American muscle after the Vietnam humiliation.

A People's History is full of praise for supposedly forgotten truth-tellers like "Dalton Trumbo and Pete Seeger, and W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson," all apologists for Stalinism. (Both Du Bois and Robeson were awarded the Stalin/Lenin Peace Prize by the Kremlin, and both enthusiastically accepted.) There is no accounting of communism's crimes, though plenty of lamentations that, after the Second World War, "young and old were taught that anti-Communism was heroic." Indeed, in the comic book version of A People's History, Zinn writes that the Cold War "would last for over 40 years" but "to keep it going required political and social repression on both sides" (emphasis in original).

Despite conclusive evidence from Russian archives, Zinn suggests the atom spies Morton Sobel and Julius Rosenberg were railroaded with "weak" evidence and their subsequent trials were simply to show "what lay at the end of the line for those the government decided were traitors." When Sobel confessed his espionage to the The New York Times earlier this year, Zinn told a reporter, "To me it didn’t matter whether they were guilty or not."

This is a strange sentiment for someone whose job, one assumes, is to mine the historical record in search of historical truth. But Zinn wasn't, as Schlesinger correctly said, a historian in any traditional sense. Zinn abjured footnotes (there are a number of quotes in A People's History that I couldn't verify), his books consist of clip jobs, interviews, and recycled material from A People's History, and he was more likely to be found protesting on Boston Common than holding office hours at Boston University. But it is clear that those who have praised his work do so because they appreciate his conclusions, while ignoring his shoddy methodology.

This helps explain why few of his acolytes mention the effusive blurbs Zinn provided for David Ray Griffin's two books of 9/11 conspiracy theories, Debunking 9/11 and The New Pearl Harbor, or why A People's History uses the work of Holocaust denier David Irving to inflate the civilian death toll at Dresden....

They end this "eulogy" with this thought, "Call him what you will—activist, dissident, left-wing muckraker. Just don't call him a historian." At another site (same author), he starts out by saying that much of Zinn's critiques came from the left:

Much of the criticism of Zinn has come from dissenters on the left. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once remarked that "I don't take him very seriously. He's a polemicist, not a historian." Last year, the liberal historian Sean Wilentz referred to the "balefully influential works of Howard Zinn." .... Socialist historian Michael Kazin judged Zinn's most famous work "bad history, albeit gilded with virtuous intentions."

Howard is a Marxist/Anarchist, perfectly matched with Shane Claiborne's view of history. 

Even the socialist magazine Dissent had to say that "pointing out what's wrong with Zinn's passionate tome is not difficult for anyone with a smattering of knowledge about the American past." They continue to point out that this is merely a "polemic disguised as history." I especially like the honesty of David Horowitz's "eulogy." It is called "Spitting on Howard Zinn’s Grave?"

The other day a reporter from NPR called me and asked me for my comments on the death of the lifelong Stalinist and propagandist Howard Zinn. I was a little reluctant because I knew that whatever I said, legions of unscrupulous myrmidons on the left would jump on it and say I had spit on Zinn’s grave. I also knew that while I was interviewed for ten minutes, out of what I said only a 20 second sound-bite would make it onto the air. I don’t begrudge NPR this selection. That’s what their obit was and would have to be, a collection of sound-bites.

Sure enough the bottom-feeders at FAIR pounced on my bite and accused me of spitting on Zinn’s grave. So here’s what I said that was cut from the interview. I’m not putting quotes around it because it’s from memory, but it’s pretty close to some of my remarks and captures the sense of others:  No one should celebrate the death of another human being unless they are child-molesters or murderers. 

Howard Zinn lived to a ripe old age (87), and bad human being that he was, I wouldn’t begrudge him an extra few years; he’s done about as much damage as he could.

Howard Zinn was a Stalinist in the years when the Marxist monster was slaughtering millions of innocent people and launching his own ‘final solution’ against the Jews. Put another way, Howard Zinn was helping Stalin to conduct those slaughters and to enslave  all those who had the misfortune to live behind the Iron Curtain.  Howard never had second thoughts about his commitment to leftwing totalitarians and never flagged in his political commitment to freedom’s enemies. In the years since Stalin’s death, Zinn supported every enemy of the United States in every war, and devoted his writing talents to every socialist tyrant including Mao Zedong who killed 70 million Chinese in peacetime because they got in the way of his progressive agendas.

When the Cold War was over and freedom had won — thanks to all the political forces and figures (e.g., Reagan and Thatcher) that Zinn opposed – Zinn continued his malignant course. He supported America’s enemies right to the end including the Islamic Nazis whose first agenda is to finish the job that Hitler started and then to impose a totalitarian theocracy on the infidel world.

Zinn’s wretched tract, A People’s History of the United States, is worthless as history, and it is a national tragedy that so many Americans have fallen under its spell. It is a political cartoon which even the socialist magazine Dissent described as an intellectual fraud, which it is. All Zinn’s writing was directed to one end: to indict his own country as an evil state and soften his countrymen up for the kill. Like his partner in crime, Noam Chomsky, Zinn’s life’s work was a pernicious influence on the young and ignorant, with destructive consequences for people everywhere.

 Love It! Lets let Dennis Prager finish us out, the other three videos can be found at my sister site:

Joe Biden Wrong On All Counts -- What Cheats

"Super" Zeitgeist Debunker Post! (vol.1) - 8-parts

I am including (in the tags) the "Emerging Movement" because much of what this documentary refutes, that is, what Zeitgeist proposes, is what many in the emerging movement accept. Here I speak of Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Richard Foster, Thomas Merton, and the like.

Jesse Duplantis on the Tower of Babel Never Being Built -- I "Respectfully" Disagree

I will not deal with Jesse contradicting Scripture, and hence God, when he says: "God said they built it." This is more of a historical dealing with the topic... and I must say, much of this is not me, it is Grant Jeffrey. This was in a debate via the internet and was before my proper referencing ability. Enjoy.

Language Roots: Myth or historical Remembrances

TOWER OF BABEL; true history, ancient fairytale?

THIS PAPER IS OLD, THE LINKS PROBABLY DON”T WORK ANY MORE

The Greek historian, Herodotus, about 500 B.C., described the structure, which then consisted of a series of eight ascending towers, each one recessed in turn, with a spiral roadway running around it as a means of climbing to the top.  Babylonian legend (of which we’ll get to) asserted that it had originally been built by Nimrod, which coincides with the Biblical record.  In fact, the region, about ten miles southwest of Babylon’s center is still called Birs Nimroud.  The structure as Herodotus described it was more than seven hundred feet tall, of which three hundred feet remain to this day.

The descendants of Noah built this tower.  The list of primeval nations in Genesis 10, “the Table of Nations”, is by far the most complete and accurate listing of the tribes and nations of antiquity.  One of the world’s greatest archaeologists, William F. Albright, called it “an astonishingly accurate document.”  It lists the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (the three sons of Noah) and indicates what regions they settled. Many historical documents from many cultures trace back their ancestry to these three “sons of Noah.” The ziggurats, and pyramids, and bow & arrow, as well as boomerangs being used and built by every culture on every continent is a hint to mankind all living together at one time; and having common technology.

KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S INSCRIPTION

ABOUT THE TOWER OF BABEL

Language:

Many scientists who study the origin of languages, known as philologists, have concluded that it is probable that the thousands of dialects and languages can be traced back to an original language in man’s ancient past. Professor Alfredo Trombetti (Italian linguist) claims that he can prove the common origin of all languages. Max Mueller, one of the greatest oriental language scholars, declared that all human languages can be traced back to one single oriental language. Chinese is the most ancient (although probably not the original [root] language), fully recorded, still used, language around, going back to over 3,000 years ago.

(click to enlarge)

Ancient History 101:

The French government sent Professor Oppert to report on the cuneiform inscriptions discovered in the ruins of Babylon.  Oppert translated a long inscription by King Nebuchadnezzar in which the king referred to the tower in the Chaldean language as Barzipp, which means “Tongue-Power.”  The Greeks used the word Borsippa, with the same meaning of Tongue-power, to describe the ruins of the Tower of Babel.  This inscription of Nebuchadnezzar clearly identified the original tower of Borsippa with the Tower of Babel described by Moses in Genesis. King Nebuchadnezzar decided to rebuild the base of the ancient Tower of Babel, built over sixteen centuries earlier by Nimrod, the first King of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the city of Babylon in great magnificence with gold, silver, cedar, and fir, at great cost on top of a hard surface of baked clay bricks. These bricks were engraved with the seal of Nebuchadnezzar.  At the base of the Tower of Babel is this inscription by King Nebuchadnezzar that, in his own words from thousands of years ago, confirm one of the most amazing events of the ancient past.

THE INSCRIPTION:

“The tower, the eternal house, which I founded and built.  I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enameled bricks, fir and pine.  The first which is the house of the earth’s base, the most ancient monument of Babylon; I built and finished it.  I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper.  We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the house of the seven lights of the earth the most ancient monument of Borsippa.  A former king built it, (they reckon 42 ages) but he did not complete its head.  Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words.  Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed the sun-dried clay.  The bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps.  Merodach, the great god, excited my mind to repair this building.  I did not change the site nor did I take away the foundation. In a fortunate month, in an auspicious day, I undertook to build porticoes around the crude brick masses, and the casing of burnt bricks. I adapted the ciruits, I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the portico. I set my hand to finish it.  And to exalt its head.  As it had been done in ancient days, so I exalted its summit.”

This inscription was translated by Professor Oppert. In addition, Mr. William Loftus translated this fascinating inscription in his book, Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Sinai; this incredible inscription confirms the Biblical accuracy of one of the most fascinating stories in the Book of Genesis.

The pagan king Nebuchadnezzar confirms in his own words the incredible details that a “former king built it, but he did not complete its head,” confirming the truthfulness of the Genesis account that God stopped the original builders from completing the top of the Tower of Babel.  Most significantly, King Nebuchadnezzar’s inscription declares that the reason the original king could not complete the tower was because, “Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words.”  In other words, they lost the ability to control their language and communication!

Compare the statement of Nebuchadnezzar, “A former king built it, but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it,” with the words of Moses in Genesis 11:7; “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.”  Even more startling is the phrase of the pagan king where he declared that the reason they could not complete the top of the “Tongue-tower” was that the “people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words.”

The following is a must read article: http://www.trueorigin.org/language01.asp

Yes, I believe in the literal story of the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel.  Population and language studies, independent from the Bible, confirm this amazing story.