Judaism and Christianity have long been seen as personally mutually exclusive — you can’t be both. Some are claiming this as a mutual affiliation but are not being accepted into the mainstream of either major world religion. But in a very real historic/anthropological sense neither one would exist without the other.

Devout Jews claim that their lineage back to Abraham of Ur of the Chaldees — as depicted in the Biblical Book of Genesis  — gives them their genealogical heritage to the first historic figure who developed a relationship with the One True God of the Universe — the Self-Existent One — the Great I Am, and that this is the only real connection to God in the world. Conventional Christians claim, on the other hand, that they have a spiritual genealogy through their belief in and acceptance of Jesus the Nazorean Jew of the line of David as their Savior and the One True Son of God — a personal connection that trumps and invalidates all other claims, genealogical or otherwise. Augustine of Hippo, as a pre-Reformation Doctor of the Catholic Church, wrote in his City of God, a founding work of Christian Doctrine, that the stories that follow the Children of Abraham in the Historical Books of the Old Testament — or the Torah, as Jews know it — are pure metaphor as prefigure for the Universal (Catholic) Church which is the true spiritual Israel.

And yet Jesus spoke as if he were just a  Savior and catalyst of the Plan that included the fulfillment of all the Torah and the Prophets had foretold. He came “.. to find that which was lost…” — “seeking only the lost sheep of the  House of Israel.” I explain in my book The Hidden Kingdom how I believe he was referring to what we know as the Lost Tribes of Israel and how this specific mission morphed into seeking “all who would” in general.

But here I just want to point out that — historically speaking — if there had not been an Abraham there would not have been a Jesus — as Christians believe that the coming of the Savior/Messiah as Abraham’s progeny — through whom “the whole world will become blessed”  — was a reward for Abraham believing what God told him — which he alone heard — and for his living his life as if what he had been told was more important than anything else in his human experience. And if there had not been a Christianity the Jews most certainly  would have ceased to exist as a people. I say this because — although Christian factions have persecuted and marginalized Jews since the time of the destruction of the Temple in the first and second Centuries by the Romans — it was strategically placed truly faithful Christian men and women throughout these eons who have risen up at  critical moments to take dangerous political positions and took actions filled with personal risk to make sure that those with malicious intent did not assimilate or obliterate our older brothers from the face of the earth. Many believe — for example — that if it weren’t for the moves that the Southern Baptist President Harry Truman took against the advice of virtually all his advisers and supporters — and even his wife — there would not be a nation of Israel today.

Although we have continued and still continue to try invalidate each other, we cannot help but be each others affirmation.

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If God is metaphor —

Then the devil is  argument ….

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At the end of the Gospel of John there is a passage that has led to much controversy until this day. The Resurrected Lord Jesus has just told Peter about how one day soon he will be bound and led to his death against his will. Peter — for some unknown reason – wants to know what fate awaits the “beloved apostle” John, the historically accepted author of the passage. Jesus answers cryptically, “If I want him to stay until I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.” John 21:22

Good advice for all situations. Each of us has his or her own journey to worry about. But still — what does Jesus mean to say about St. John’s fate? Are there any clues in other passages?

At the beginning of the 9th Chapter of Mark — something which should really have been included at the end of the previous chapter– is another mysterious passage about the same subject matter. Or is it …?

“And He said to them, ‘In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.’” Mark 9:1

I don’t know if anyone else has ever pointed this out. This passage is linked by many to the one I quoted above it to show that the Apostle John did not die, but is alive somewhere or was translated without dying into Heaven, like Elijah and Enoch of old. Or else, some assert, the Jesus of the Bible is a liar and a fraud.

But the author of the Book of the Revelation — beginning the recording of his visions with “I, John …”(Rev 1:9) — speaks of all the apocryphal events leading up to and including “the kingdom of God come in power …” with the introductory phrase, “I saw …”.

Jesus does not lie. The beloved John can rest in peace.

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Sailing frisbees o’er the meadow, acting playful in our planting fields.
Bearded children, angel ladies — singing love songs in our planting fields.

The days were so long as the time whistled by,
We thought the dream would last forever.
A new day would dawn on the face of the earth —
We’d walk hand in hand unafraid — like a dream;
Just a dream.

Chasing sunbeams to the treeetops, hear the wind blow through our planting fields.
Orange sunshine, purple raindrops — watch our minds blow in our growing years.

See the birds leave a trail ‘cross the cottony clouds,
Sirens wail in the distance — we’re unconcerned.
And the war raged on and our friends lay dying
In that stinking jungle far away —
So far away.

And time was a healer, leaving scars on our eyes —
Our hearts couldn’t tell us we were blind —
So blind.

Pregnant pauses, love that’s still born — hopeless causes in our harvest time.
To ivory towers on an island we drive for hours on the LIE — on the LIE —
On the LIE.

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Majestic mountains rising up to the heavens,
Lordly peaks looking over the clouds.
Blue sky surrounding, lone eagle soaring.
Majestic mountains, lordly peaks.

Powerfully bold yet bringing such comfort.
Distant and ancient, present and near.
Turning back torrents and feeding the rivers,
Majestic mountains silently shouting,

“We are but stone — earthen, unmoving,
Held by a Hand, held by a Heart.
Just a reflection of Glory abounding,
Beyond comprehension — beyond the Beyond.”

Who is majestic like unto the mountains,
Do we know of a King like these lordly peaks.
Towering above us yet stooping to hold us,
Giving strength to the weak and guiding the lost.

I lay down before you, oh Lord of the Mountains,
Stretched out before you, laid out in full.
Until my rebellion has been totally vanquished
I will go to the mountains — there is my help.

Majestic mountains rising up to the heavens,
Lordly peaks looking over the clouds.
Towering above us yet stooping to hold us,
Lord of the Mountains — I trust in you.

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If you are lonely, beaten by the world,
If you are starving for God’s righteousness unfurled,
Don’t you worry, we all know you’ve done your best.
Give thanks to God,
You are among the blest.

But if you’re rich now your wealth will fly away.
And all your power will abandon you one day.
When God’s awful mercy makes of your life its nest,
Give thanks to God,
You are among the blest.

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When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.” When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. Matt. 12 43-45

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So we have this legend, this tradition — a jolly old man with a white beard and funny old clothes who showers those of us lucky enough to reside in Christendom with gifts on December 25 in honor of Jesus’s birth.

We Christians in the Western World are the spiritual children of the Hebrew Patriarch Abraham, according to conventional interpretation. It is in fact my contention, and I have accompanied it with Scriptural and historical evidence, that we are also the long lost biological children of Father Abraham, being at our core the Lost Kingdom of Israel. But to call someone a “Son of Abraham” is, in our society, to label him a Jew, and Christians have not been known for holding this distinction in the highest of regards. And yet we do have this jolly old Semite, with a beard and funny clothes, in our Biblical ancestry — the Father of the Faithful into whose bosom believers are folded when they pass from this life, this according to the parable of the “Rich Man and Lazarus,” told by the Lord Jesus Himself.

Abraham is our benefactor, whose heirs we are. All the promises of national greatness, glory and abundance, of which we in the West — and in the United States in particular — are obvious beneficiaries, come from him through his progeny to us, whether you believe us to be his spiritual or biological heirs, or both. He is really our “Father Christmas”, who, upon the coming of the Son of God to earth and into our hearts, has showered us with the riches stored up for the children of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Our Christian antecedents have put him in a red suit, sent him to the North Pole and named him after a Christian Saint so that they wouldn’t identify themselves as brethren to the “Christ Killers,” as they so unjustly and scornfully called those descended from the same son of Jacob as the Lord Jesus himself.

But we are their younger brothers, no matter how you slice the philosophical/anthropological/ theological pie. We have had “The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” draped over our shoulders and are reveling in the Prodigal’s welcome-home feast.

Everyday is Christmas for us in the Christian West — for the time being, anyway — thanks be to God, and to Father Abraham. (read more)

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I like this display — it is the modern depiction of the overturning of the tables of the moneychangers. Of course, Jesus didn’t physically harm those ancient swindlers in any way — but then again, Santa Claus doesn’t exist as anything but a symbol, and a convoluted one at that. He is abject greed disguised as unbridled generosity. WWJD (What Would Jesus Do)? I think He would topple that idol forthwith.

I don’t know anything about the fundamental Christian beliefs of the man behind this Christmas “display.” And having them unbeknownst to me as they are, I certainly am not endorsing them sight unseen. But the display is ingenious.

Sorry, kid ….

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