Truth is the Revolution

A conflict has developed between religious truth and scientific truth. It’s a false conflict. Religious truths are not less than scientific truths at all, they are a part of the same class, and this is easy to prove. See below.

In the west, in modern society, religious truth is a second-class citizen. Scientific truths are trustworthy. Scientific truths are solid. Scientific truths are the only acceptable truths. The problem with this is one of scope. A scientific truth does not inform us about the larger questions in life. It only answers specific things like, “what is air made of” or “what makes a fire burn”. Science does not answer the bigger questions in life. For example, science does not answer the question, “How do we get organized to overcome the cabal of evil people who have gained total control of the world, who have enslaved most of mankind, who are actively destroying the ecosystem of the planet, and who threaten the world with total nuclear annihilation?”.

This is the truth: There is a network of people who have amassed incredible earthly power. These people have been ruling the world for many years. It’s hard to know definitively how long they have held power, but it seems to have been a long time. These people are absolutely heartless. They wage wars for profits, they steal from their fellow man, they kill their fellow man, and they lie whenever it suits them. They have maintained their hold of power largely because of their facility for deception. They have essentially cast a spell over the minds of mankind, to the extent that many (probably most) people are convinced these people are the good guys.

The above-mentioned truth is a religious truth. We have been told that there is an evil being, called the father of lies, who recruits people to serve him. He rewards his servants with incredible material wealth, and in exchange, they do his bidding on earth. We are told he seeks to enslave us, that those who serve him seek to enslave us. His goal, we are told, is to steal, kill, and destroy, and this is precisely what he does through his servants. This phenomenon is precisely what we see going on in the world.

So this is exhibit A, entered as evidence that religious truths are the highest truths. If we as a people are to have any hope of overcoming this situation we find ourselves in, we first must be aware of this truth, (that we are enslaved by an evil group). It doesn’t matter how thorough an understanding we have of the principles of physics if we don’t realize that we are enslaved! And this truth is a religious one that has been expressed for thousands of years by countless prophets and religious mystics all over the world.

Now consider another bit of truth, a solution to the situation we find ourselves in: If we work together we can overcome our oppressors. In order to succeed in this, we require dedication. We will need to be willing to sacrifice a great deal, perhaps even our own lives, in order to overcome the evil that confronts us. We will need to join together like a family, we will need to dedicate ourselves to taking care of each other. If someone is hungry, we will need to provide him with food. If someone is cold or without shelter, we must give them shelter. If someone is sick, we will need to take care of them. We will need to be united in love, but being united in love, we will overcome all the evils we face. By organizing ourselves into a self-sustaining community, one which does not rely on the system put in place by the oppressors, we will starve that system of support and we will starve that system of its source of power - Us.

Again the above-mentioned truth is also a religious truth. This one is sometimes known as the Gospel of Truth which was brought to us by Jesus Christ. He taught his followers that in order to overcome the devil who rules in this world they would have to forsake money and material wealth and that, instead, they would need to become the servants of one another. He taught them to love one another. He taught them to take care of each other. He taught them to forgive one another. He taught them to become a community, like a family, where everyone takes care of each other. He taught them to give everything they had, all their possessions, all their wealth, all their lands, all their time, and all their skills to supporting and growing this community. He taught them to be a community that lives in the world, but is not of the world. This, he taught them, was the key to bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth.

And this is exhibit B, entered as evidence that religious truths are the highest truths. Two thousand years ago we were already given an answer to this problem that we now face. This problem that threatens our very existence already has an answer, and we have had it all along. What truth is more valuable than this? What could be higher? What could be more relevant?

Thus my point is proved. Religious truths are the highest most relevant truths. There is nothing now, nor has there ever been anything higher or more relevant. This is our path to freedom. This is the path to peace on the earth. If only we had been listening.

I would like to go on and on in this vein, describing the ways that religious truths are the highest truths. I want to point out that even many of the little things people argue about as being unnecessary, actually are necessary - that it is only a matter of perspective. If it turns out that we actually are under attack. If, as it appears is and always has been the case, there truly is a class of people seeking to enslave us, then we should be ever on our guard. If there are people scheming to capture us, to bewilder us and capture us, then we should be careful to avoid their traps. If it is true that these people will use any form of weakness to enslave us, then we should be even more concerned and watchful over ourselves and our actions.

If people will tempt us into drunkenness or folly to catch us unawares, then we should avoid drunkenness and folly. If people will lead us into laziness or foolishness to catch us, then we should avoid laziness. If people will use sex to ensnare us, then we should turn our eyes away from the sexually impure. To remain safe, and to help others stay safe too, we should guard ourselves against all these things. We should recognize we are under attack, and we should remain focused on what matters, (that we are being enslaved! That we are under attack!). These too are religious truths, which we have all taken so lightly of late, but they were never any laughing matter.

The people who fight against us are not laughing, they are cold and calculating. They are carefully working, generation after generation to ensnare us and tighten their grip over us. We, on the other hand, have become careless. As a result, we have fallen into their hands.

But we need not despair because we have also been given the antidote. We have been given the antidote to the problem we face, that of the evil which rules the world, and it is the greatest truth. We have already been told the answer.

We join together in love and take care of each other. This is all we have to do. We put our lives into God’s hands, and we dedicate ourselves to following the advice God gave us. He told us, through his many messengers, time and time again, to take care of each other. To join together, to be one people, dedicated to each other, dedicated to peace, founded in love, and most of all, dedicated to God.

This is what I am talking about when I suggest that now, as things turn dark, we need this more than ever. As the forces of evil work to enslave us all, more than ever we need to come together. More than ever we need to follow the advice we have been given. More than all we need the help of God. These are the things we need most of all right now, and I am suggesting it is time for us to fall in line and follow the highest truths. Let us join together and follow as servants and follow God.

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About the author

This article was originally published on Steemit.

You can find more writings by Edison Flame and follow his work using the handle @eddisonflame on Steemit.

Tyrants Be Gone: Say Hello to the New Boss

The Church is misunderstood. Like many traditional religious concepts these days, our ideas about what the church is are very far away from what the church was actually meant to be.

GOOD NEWS! Tyrants are so OVER.

That's right, there's a new boss in town.

Actually, he's been in charge for thousands of years already... But, unfortunately, his press agents got sidetracked and dropped the ball. They've done a marginal job of informing the public of the change at city hall...

I'll caution you right off the bat; if you haven't already, you might quickly catch on to where I'm going with this.

Why should that be a problem?

Well, once you catch on, you're likely to stop reading. And if you stop reading now, you'll miss out on something truly novel * and spectacularly good. Even if you stick with me and read this all—if you don't clear your mind and really listen carefully—you're still likely to miss the point.

And, my friend, that would be a crying shame.

A couple of millennia ago, something utterly unprecedented happened. The Creator of the universe and all it contains—Jesus/God himself—entered creation as an infant.

He spent a lifetime on our planet, demonstrating what a real man ought to be.

When the PTSB (Powers That Shouldn't Be) violently ended his life, Jesus' death served as a necessary sacrifice, one that would make complete amends for all the shortcomings of all who would believe.

After three days in a stone-cold tomb, Jesus proved himself to be God Almighty by rising spectacularly from death, never to die again.

But you've heard it all before, right?

If you're a Christian, probably even if you're not, you've likely heard some form of this message, perhaps tagged as "The Gospel” (i.e. the good news). That message is correct, as far as it goes, unfortunately, it doesn't go far enough. There's more to the message; more strikingly good news that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

There's an important component of this good news about Jesus that hasn't been reported, either sufficiently or accurately. The missing part is the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Aren't you sick and tired of tyrants?

I've been trampled on all of my life (if you have the interest, time, and patience, you can read an autobiographical account of the highlights here). Beginning in the year 2020, the Covid debacle has opened the eyes of many to the inherent tyranny of the human state at all levels—local, county, state, and national.

And so, here's the really good news for anyone who's feeling oppressed:

None of those self-appointed tyrants have any moral, God-given authority to command you to do or not to do anything.

Despite what you've been taught (and may have believed all your life), the currently existing governments, a.k.a. states, that claim the right to run everything, to rule over you, are nothing more than illegitimate gangs of thugs.

The only power they have at all is the utterly unjust, raw power to rob, hurt, and enslave you. Everything you may have been told suggesting that either God has or "the people" have authorized the state to do that dirty work is a lie from the deepest, darkest pit of hell.

Here is the crux of the matter.

Drop all your preconceptions.

Pause.

FULL STOP...

What I'm about to present is perhaps the most important, possibly even novel * assertion I make in this article:

The manifest purpose of Jesus/God's people is to form self-governing assemblies/communities constructed upon the biblical principles of a purely voluntary, cooperative society. These assemblies are to show the world, by both instruction and example, how to thrive.

We are not to support or substantively participate in the failed kingdoms of this world, which are based upon satanic principles.

Instead, we are to be and become a decentralized, distributed, replacement governance system that acknowledges only the sovereign authority of King Jesus, denying allegiance to any other jurisdiction, territorial or otherwise.

Did you get that?

All existing states/human governments as we have known them are illegitimate, ungodly, and corrupt beyond redemption. None of them are "authorized" by Jesus/God; they merely exist in his providence and sovereign will, in most cases as disciplinary agents that he uses to refine his people...

Theological theories such as "Two Kingdoms" with its notion of "dual citizenship," and a dichotomy between civil and ecclesiastical spheres of authority, are based on false (or wrongly applied) distinctions and are utterly unworkable by their very nature.

We need to focus on biblical distinctions instead. Christians are, with respect to all earthly kingdoms, "strangers" and "foreigners" while simultaneously being "fellow citizens with the saints."

Implementing God's Kingdom

To enter God's Kingdom demands that we leave the kingdoms of this world in the dust of history by establishing something utterly superior to and independent of them all, leaving them manifestly obsolete. Only as we begin to do this, as we begin to "seek first the Kingdom of God," will the masses of humanity—now oppressed by the “beast” kingdoms—begin to see and be drawn to the true King and his people.

This is not your father's theonomy or a theocracy. It is a movement toward an authentic thearchy.

God willing, in the days to come, I will continue to write essays and articles in support of this core assertion (you'll find them here). I believe that the preponderance of scripture—given proper translation and exegesis—supports this thesis. I also hope to lay bare some of the fundamental, unspoken assumptions that have created a very shaky and questionable foundation for "the way things are."

King Jesus - the New Boss

So, say hello to the new boss, He's actually been The King for almost two thousand years, though the church has largely dropped the ball on manifesting that truth. And the really good news is that he's a benevolent King. He's tendered a very generous offer, one that (as of this writing) is still available to you, dear reader. Listen to what the One, True King says:

I, Jesus, have sent My messenger to testify to you of these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires, take the water of life without cost.

Jesus

If you've actually read (and considered) my essay thus far, you undoubtedly have comments and questions.

Bring 'em!

The Kingdom arrived two thousand years ago...

Isn't it time we started living like it?

*In the above article, I assert that I'm presenting something truly novel. The particular idea I believe to be novel is my conviction that God intends the church ( i.e., the local gatherings of Jesus/God's people) not to merely influence but to literally supplant all levels of the human state as we have known it; to replace all the "kingdoms of this world." I will truly welcome any evidence to the contrary (i.e. evidence that this is not a novel idea) from any quarter, as I long to coordinate and collaborate with any and everyone else who may see these truths in scripture!

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About the author

Duncan has been haunting libraries since the age of two, and is a habitual science
fiction reader. His innate drive to know what makes things tick has driven him to
dismantle and decipher both technological artifacts and systematic theologies.

A Jack of all trades, Duncan has been a carpenter, technical writer, engineer, and political pundit, though he has since abandoned politics for pure crypto-thearchy. His current passion is reading through the New Testament in Greek and attempting to persuade fellow Christians of the incredibly Good News that the Kingdom of God can be a here and now reality if only we would begin to realize and live for it.

To discuss the Kingdom of Heaven with Duncan, you can reach him on his blog or by email at creator@sidefire.com.

Our Church

The Church is misunderstood. Like many traditional religious concepts these days, our ideas about what the church is are very far away from what the church was actually meant to be.

Most people these days think about the church as a place, but the church is not a place. The church is a people. The church is more than a people, it is a blessed family. The church is the family of God. The church is the people of God. The spirit of God lives in the church, which is inside the hearts of His people.

Lucas Thompson recently wrote,

Jesus says that we should not only go to church and put something in the collection plate, but also that we should LIVE in the church, seven days a week, and give everything that we have to the work of the church.

Someone commented,

I agree with most of what you say but I disagree with the part about living in the church and giving all your worldly possessions to the church.

And of course, why wouldn’t she say this? To her, even thinking about living in the church sounds crazy. It would be terribly cramped and uncomfortable for all of us to live inside that one building together. There aren’t showers or beds or rooms there. Clearly, it would be unfit accommodations for a large group of us.

But what if the church isn’t a mere building but a group of people? What if instead the church is a group of devoted and loving believers in God? What if it was a group of people who worked and lived in a community together? What if the church was a group of people who took care of each other and helped each other? What if the Church was a group of people who worked to spread the love of God throughout the world everywhere they went?

What if giving money to the church meant pooling everyone’s money together to provide for the common good? What if the church money was used to take care of everyone in the church? What if the needs of the people of the church were all considered and everyone worked together to take care of everyone else in the church?

How much stronger would we be if we were all working together? It is well known that people united are stronger than people divided.

How much happier would we be if we were part of a community? We are social beings, this is well known, and this sense of community is something we sorely miss these days.

These days families are far apart. Neighbors fence off their houses and lands, and they hardly know each other. There is so little love among us! It is sad to see how isolated we have become as a people. How much better would it be to be a part of a close knit and loving community of believers? Imagine how wonderful it would be to be a part of a great family — a family of God.

The True Church of Jesus Christ

Remember what Jesus said when his mother and brothers came to speak to him? He motioned to the believers around him and said, “Here are my mother and brothers!”

He was starting the Church even back then. He was starting a fellowship of believers, dedicated to each other, dedicated to taking care of each other, and dedicated to God. He taught people to be united in peace and love. He taught people to love one another, and to take care of each other. He taught people to live peacefully together, and to be servants of one-another; this was the foundation for the Church. This is the true church of Jesus Christ.

The question I have is, where is the church now? I am crying out for it, wishing I could find it. Every day I am praying to God, I am pleading with him to bring the church back together. I am pleading for God to breathe life back into us, that we might join together in a spirit of Love. I am praying that God might bring together a beautiful people, humble and dedicated to each other.

I am praying to have more people to pray with. I want to find those shining diamonds, the good-hearted people who also love God and who also love others. I want to find those people who are deeply grateful for this beautiful life we have been given. I want to find those people who are amazed and awestruck by the beauty of this world we live in. I want to find those people who care so deeply about God’s creation, that with all their might they want to take care of it - they want to care for this planet and everything on it. I want to find the people of God, who are filled with love and kindness, and I want to join together with them in a holy body, a body filled with the spirit of God, a true fellowship of the people of God, the true Church of God.

I pray that the Lord will lead us together, that we might find each other, and that the Church of God might once again be established on earth. That we might all be united together on earth.

The price of heaven

Now I ask you, when this is the kind of Church we have, what would you give to be a part of it? Would you not give everything to be a part of it?

What could be worth more than to be a part of the true Church of God?

What greater blessing than to be a part of such a family of believers?

What greater blessing than to have a family of believers around you?

What greater blessing than to live with the Church, if this is the kind of church we have?

This is what I pray for, and I hope you will join me in praying for these things.

I long to find my people, my family, my Church of God. I miss it. I feel we live in a dark world. Many people are mean and angry and they don’t have love in their hearts. I am mostly surrounded by these types of people in my daily life, I don’t feel the love, but I long to be surrounded by the good hearted and loving believers in God.

I hope you will pray with me oh people of God. If we are lucky, the Lord will hear our prayers and He will bring us together. I hope He will. I hope and pray for this more than anything.

God bless you and peace be with. I am praying, please pray with me.

Amen.

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About the author

This article was originally published on Steemit.

You can find more writings by Edison Flame and follow his work using the handle @eddisonflame on Steemit.

A Message to Warriors

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility; but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage

Henry V, Shakespeare

No one has to teach us to defend our families. We are born with an instinct that seems to be an unstoppable force! Nothing is more dangerous than a parent whose young are in danger.

It is also natural to preserve and defend the things that we have worked hard to build or acquire. The warrior holds a highly regarded place in society because they stand between the enemy and everything that we love and value. They are ready to sacrifice themselves to protect the lives and property of their tribe or nation-state.

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:11

As part of the family of God, committed to living by the principles of the Gospel of Christ and by the law of the Kingdom of God, there is work for us warriors to do!

We are the line of defense that keeps our family safe from the enemy. Our family includes our spouses and children, and also a New Nation made up of every tribe, nation, language, and race all over the world. 

There is no longer division between races, genders, social classes- we are brothers and sisters with one Father in common, who loves everyone more than we love our own children!

In order to create this Family and to reconcile each one of us to Himself, Our Father has gone to great lengths to rescue us, to forgive us, to liberate us from our bondage to sin and death and hell and the curse.

His desire is to accomplish this purpose for all people -- to reconcile all things and all people to Himself. He is not willing that anyone should be destroyed, but that all should come to repentance.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1

The mystery of His will, His purpose, and His plan for the fullness of time is to unite ALL things in heaven and on earth, thereby healing everything and everyone. We understand that Jesus' incarnation, death, and resurrection were the ways in which God brought his plan into reality.

His plan to create a new family, a new nation, a new kingdom, and a redeemed people who belong to him was initiated through Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus. Not even death.

In his resurrection, we can see the Reality of our own New Life.

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We are invited to join our Lord and Master in bringing His purpose to full fruition. We are invited to cooperate with His Spirit in bringing His family together- in uniting all things under His Lordship. Through our words and actions, other people should be able to clearly see that they are loved and that they are welcome.

Why is there so much division? Turmoil? Destruction? Falsehood? Suffering? If a loving and all-powerful Creator wants Unity and Harmony, Fellowship and Peace, why do we not see that Reality in our world? 

The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God". 

2 Corinthians 4:4

Hatred is the product of our enemy. 

Our enemy does not want humans to see the Truth revealed through Christ, that God loves them and has done everything he can to bring them into his family. 

Satan uses all the power at his disposal to keep people in delusion, believing falsehoods and maintaining division. If we are weak in our faith and do not maintain our spiritual armor, he will do the same to us. We will stop seeing the glory of God and his plan of redemption and start seeing other humans as our enemy.

Condemnation and hatred are products of our enemy. Another name for Satan is "the accuser." When we think of our enemies, opponents, or people different from us as being beneath us, deserving of damnation and punishment, or beyond hope, we place them in a category that Jesus does not place anyone in, even though he has every right to. 

We do not have the right to judge.

The standard of measurement we use against others is the standard that will be used against us. What we plant is what we harvest. That is why we pray, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." When we condemn others we serve the deceiver, the father of lies.

Jesus (the embodiment of the Revelation of God as Love) tells us, "I did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved." He knew that the world was in deep trouble. He knew how deceived humanity had become, and His GOAL was, and is, to liberate humanity from bondage and curse.

Our goal is the same as his, our message the same, our passion the same, so our actions should be the same too, we should strive to be like Him. Yet, we are not capable of this without being empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The only way humans have ever handled a threat to survival is to be an even bigger threat. At this point, we could annihilate every living thing with the technology at our disposal, and the ever-escalating competition for who can be the biggest military and economic threat in order to maintain "peace and safety".

By contrast, consider the most powerful being in the universe becoming human, taking on the form of a servant, obedient even unto death by crucifixion. No one took his life from him, he laid it down of his own volition. One of his last words was to forgive the ones who brutally murdered him.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:16

How should we prepare?

In the face of hardship, suffering, famine, economic depressions, and civil unrest amid vast political corruption, according to our master, we should be prepared to invite our oppressors to a massive barbeque, with all the fixins’.

If we are abused, forgive and bless, do not curse and take revenge, or treat those who want to kill us and take all our liberty as if they are not the beloved children of God…because they are!

If you are experiencing fear in regards to a perceived dangerous group, (be they racists, communists, fascists, or even terrorists) please know that it is a result of careful programming. I refer to this as a program for a reason. There are people who work, very successfully I might add, to keep everyone afraid of each other. 

The "us versus them" mentality has pushed us to the brink of disaster. We must be reprogrammed by the Holy Spirit, brainwashed (if you will) with the agenda of God's Kingdom, saturating ourselves in the Good News of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Reprogramming

All authority on Earth and in Heaven has been given to me.

Matthew 28:18

Please consider turning off all forms of media and entertainment and dedicating yourselves to prayer and fasting. The result might save our nation from destruction but more importantly, the people of God will have their hearts aligned with His and begin again to look, sound, think, and feel more like Christ.

Jesus wants to be king not only of our soul but of our bodies, of our minds, our families, and our neighborhoods.

If you are stockpiling weapons and ammunition in order to defend your property, food, or cash from marauders, you are preparing to disobey our true King, Jesus Christ. Murder begins in one’s heart.

If you are reading this as a warrior who has already taken human life, or done grave harm to an enemy on the battlefield, and your heart is hurting because of it, I have it on the word of the King that you can be forgiven. You can be healed and you can be made new. 

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is no transgression so horrible that our loving Father will not forgive.

If you have never heard of the Way of the Spiritual Warrior, the Eternal Rule of Jehovah, or the commandment to surrender our lives to the One who judges rightly and it sounds like something you want to be a part of, pray this prayer out loud often:

I want to know Christ

and the power of his resurrection,

the fellowship of sharing in his suffering,

becoming like him in his death,

so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead

Hold the line

The King is soon returning to set the world right, to unify Heaven and Earth under one rule. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. We will be like Him when we see Him as He is.

Do not fall into deception or give yourself to any dark falsehoods. Let us not engage in ill-fated and misguided attempts to solve the brokenness in the world by force, the power of humans, but through

Christ’s love. Set the captives free, bind up the wounds of the hurting, bring them into Our Family. We will never die, so do not fear those who kill the body, remember they cannot kill the soul.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus Christ, Matthew 5

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About the Author

Jonathan Cannone studied Constitutional Law and History before hitch-hiking around the American Southeast a while.

He settled down in the Allegheny Mountains, to the West of the Shenandoah Valley, where he is a husband, father of four, homesteader, and carpenter.

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love

Do you know about the Brotherhood of Eternal Love? Maybe you do not, but you should. The Brotherhood of Eternal Love is a group of people who came together like a family. They were dedicated to one another, and they were united in their love for one another. These were people who believed in and were dedicated to principles of peace and love and mutual respect for each other.

If you have not heard of the Brotherhood, it's because the Brotherhood was crushed. The people of the Brotherhood left their homes, and they moved out into the wilderness, where they set up their own camps and communities. They lived and worked together, and they began to build a whole system and society based on these principles of love and peace and mutual respect, which they all agreed upon. They lived altruistically, and took care of each other. They were united in love and peace.

The Brotherhood was growing. It was growing fast. As more and more people heard about it, they visited. As more and more people visited, they stayed. As more and more and more people visited and stayed, they talked about it. As more and more people heard about it, the cycle continued, and the Brotherhood grew. It was beautiful, but it was crushed.

This is as it has always been, of course. The brotherhood was the manifestation, once again, of an ancient message. A message of peace and love. A message of unity, and peace among the peoples. A message about working together and taking care of each other. An ancient message.

There have, over the years, been many people who brought a message like this. There have been great leaders, spiritual men, prophets and messengers in every time and place who brought this kind of message. There have been many many people over the years bringing a message like that of the Brotherhood. It is always the same message, it is always a message of peace and love. Always, these people and their followers are persecuted and crushed. They are always beaten back. They must be beaten back.

If this kind of idea escaped, if enough people learned about it, if enough people truly understood it, it would be the end of the powers that be. The forces that rule the world have a lot to gain by keeping these kinds of ideas under wraps. They maintain control by keeping people poor, divided, and distracted. They maintain control by keeping people weak and dependent. They maintain control by keeping people uneducated and uninformed.

They divide the world up into manageable parts. They keep people from one area separated from people in other areas. They demonize the other. They divide up families into smaller and smaller units, and they crush any attempt that people make to unite. They want people divided and distracted and weak. This makes them easy to control.

But the Brotherhood of Eternal Love was uniting people together. The principles of Love and Peace unite people. Forgiveness unites people. Principles of selflessness unites people. If we are all taking care of each other, we are strong. So when these ideas arise among men, when people begin to unite together under a banner of peace and love, they get crushed.

Not any more. Not this time. Not forever. The time is now, oh people of earth, for us to wake up. It is time to wake up to the truth that we are all in this together. It is time to wake up to the truth that there are actual evil people who are ruling over us and controlling us. They are controlling us with fear and lies and distractions. They are keeping us locked in our minds. All we need to do is wake up to the truth.

There is an amazing truth that we have been missing. There is an amazing truth that has been trying to get out for thousands of years. If we will unite in love, if we are dedicated to peace, if we respect each other and care for each other, if we work hard to help each other, if we sacrifice to take care of each other, if we become a family, we become strong. Love is the truth. Peace is the truth. Love Unites and Peace Unites. United we stand, and divided we fall.

There is more. How can I say all these things, without bringing up the most important thing. These truths, they are the ultimate enlightenment. When enough of us understand these truths, then the world will be transformed from a place of darkness and violence, into a place of light and peace. This is the great journey of mankind. It is a journey from selfishness, violence, and foolishness, into selflessness, love, and wisdom.

Many thousands of years ago mankind was entirely selfish and violent. In those days people ruled over others entirely by violence. The strong ruled over the weak by force and threats of force. Men stole what they could. They tricked and lied and cheated whoever they could. There was no peace.

Then something beautiful began to happen. Some people appeared who taught about a better way to live. A way of cooperation and peace was introduced. They introduced rules that people could follow to live more happily and peacefully. They told people not to kill or steal or lie or cheat. They told people to be honest and upright. They told people to be fair and caring. They told people to love each other and forgive each other. They told people to take care of the sick and the poor. They told people to seek justice for widows and orphans. They told people that all this advice was given to them from God, and that they should be thankful to God. They told people that they should praise and worship God, above all else, because God had created them and God had given them life and children and friends and families.

This is the highest truth of all, so how can I leave it out? It is true, we can have peace on earth if we dedicate ourselves to principles of peace and love, but there is an even higher truth. We were taught about this by God, our amazing creator who made us and the whole world! How many years has God spent trying to get through to us? How patient has God been waiting for us to understand? God has been incredibly patient with us, and we owe him so much, more than words can even describe. He has slowly and carefully been sending us messengers and prophets and holy men over the centuries, renewing his message over and over and over again.

He sent one person here and another person there. To each people, to all the peoples on the planet, he has slowly been bringing people into a greater and greater understanding. He has been bringing light into the darkness. As light is to the eyes, so is wisdom to the mind. As light allows us to see the physical world more clearly, so that we can move about without falling, so wisdom allows us to understand the world more clearly, so that we can interact without falling. This is the light of God, which so many have preached, it is the wisdom that enlightens our minds. It is the wisdom of peace, the wisdom of love, the wisdom of truth.

So, those of us who see this truth, we are the lights of the earth. We are reflecting the light of truth and wisdom into the world. We are shining the holy light of God into the world, that the world may come out of darkness and into the light.

Thus, we are the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. We are the people of God. We are united in love. We love each other. We love the planet. We love peace. We are a great fellowship, a great family. And here's the best part, we are about to finally have our amazing moment. We are about to finally come together as a people. We are about to take our places on the earth, shining the way for all to see.

Oh how I look forward to finally meeting you. Please hear my call, and please join with me in these difficult times. More than ever we need unity and peace. More than ever the world is being divided by hatred and strife. Let us prepare to work together, to come together, that we might find some comfort and safety during these difficult times ahead.

These times will require you to do many things you haven't done before. Take a leap of faith. Pray to God and trust in God. God may be a new concept to you, but believe me, if you put your faith in God, and follow the principles of peace and love, an amazing peace unlike anything you have ever known will descend upon you. Your heart will be calm, and your thoughts will become still. If you listen carefully, if you listen to your heart, you will sense the Spirit leading you. You will know what to do, because God does not abandon his people. God is amazing and powerful. He will protect you. He will protect us.

God bless you, oh people of God. God bless you and help you during these difficult times. I look forward to meeting you. May peace be with you always. Amen.

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This article was originally published on Steemit.

You can find more writings by Edison Flame and follow his work using the handle @eddisonflame on Steemit.

The Pacifist Case For Gun Rights

Growing up, I learned that Jesus said to love our enemies. I understood the practical application of this to mean I should just ignore people who are mean to me. I believed that obviously wars are necessary (how else could we defeat the Nazis?), and, of course, you should defend yourself if someone is trying to hurt you or steal from you.

The first time I heard the idea that people who want to physically hurt me might be the same enemies Jesus said to love, it blew my mind! Not because I disagreed, but because I never thought about it in that way before. Then I took  a closer look at what Jesus was saying:

But to you who are listening, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Luke 6:27-30

He is asking us to really see those seeking to cause us harm and look past their actions, to see who they really are, what their needs are, and to love them as God does. How can I help this person engaging in harmful behavior and maybe show them kindness and love they may have never experienced before?

In Biblical times people expected that when the Messiah came, He would be a warrior and a political leader. He instead allowed himself to be tortured and executed by political leaders. By doing so, he conquered sin and death and changed the world forever.

Jesus explained that the kingdom of God doesn't work the way the kingdoms of the world do. Whoever wants to be first must be last, and whoever wants to be greatest must be the servant of all. The way to bring about God's kingdom on Earth, the way to bring about peace, love, and justice, is by being a servant, even of those who would try to hurt you.

Now this does not mean closing your eyes to evil and sitting back doing nothing while horrible things happen. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers. Being a pacifist means very actively working toward peace. If you witness someone stealing or murdering, it is not in their best interest to allow them to continue in this behavior. However, it is also not in their best interest to hurt or murder them in order to stop them.

God's justice works through healing and restoration. Meeting evil with love is the only way to stop the cycle of violence. This is why it is also important to actively love your neighbors and heal your community before people are driven to making the choice of harming others. 

During the civil rights movement, nonviolent resistance proved to be the most effective tool. In Martin Luther King Jr's letter from the jail in Birmingham, he explained why he was engaging in demonstrations against unjust laws and the importance of engaging in this activism non-violently. Civil rights groups actively worked toward a more peaceful world by shedding light on unjust laws to expose the violence and evils occurring in the world, rather than continuing to accept the status quo. They did this in a way that was loving toward their oppressors. Their actions showed they would not seek to harm anyone and would take blows and imprisonment without retaliation, and that they would not allow their oppressors to continue in their harmful behavior. They were seeking a way of healing and forgiveness.

One of my favorite books, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, tells the story of Jean Valjean, a man driven, through poverty, to steal bread. He is imprisoned for this offense and remains there for 19 years because of multiple escape attempts. Upon his release, he finds that he is still not really free because no one is willing to hire an ex-convict. He is shunned from society and unable to even purchase food. A bishop takes him in, offers him what little food he has and a bed to sleep in. Jean Valjean, out of fear that he will never see kindness again in the future, takes the opportunity to steal the bishop’s silverware and leave in the night. He is then captured by the police. He tells them the bishop gave him the silverware, and the police take him back to get the bishop’s side of the story. To Jean Valjean’s amazement, the bishop not only corroborates his lie, but also gives him his silver candlesticks, saying he left in such a rush he forgot he had given him those as well.

This is everything of value that the bishop owns, and he freely gives it to the man who robbed him. He tells Valjean that with those candlesticks he is buying back his soul for God and that he must promise to become an honest man. This act of faith and kindness completely changes Jean Valjean’s life. In a world that treated him brutally his entire life, this was the first time anyone ever told him he has a soul and was willing to make a very real investment in his future and potential for goodness. Jean did not let this opportunity go to waste and spent the rest of his life living up to the Bishop’s investment in him. While this is a fictional example, fiction is often very adept at clearly illustrating important truths.

These examples show that we are not called to non-violence as just a rule to follow “because Jesus said so,” but because it is part of God’s plan to heal this broken world. It is our most effective tool to end suffering and create peace.

So how does the idea of gun control play into all this? Would a world of peace, love, and justice not include guns? Maybe. The thing it definitely wouldn't include is violence, as it's impossible to get there through violence. Many people believe the best way to limit gun violence is to make guns more difficult to own legally. The problem with this approach is that, in the name of peace, it increases violence. All laws are backed by force (violence). If something is illegal, the government will use force, up to and including violent force, to stop it. Of course, the government authorizes certain classes of people (military and police) to be exempt from these laws. In the case of gun laws, law enforcement officials are tasked with stopping other classes of people from merely passively owning weapons by using force if necessary. 

The only human rights are property rights. You own yourself and the product of your labor. Any attempt to harm peaceful people or steal or damage their property is a violation of their human rights. Guns are just property. Any violent attempt to separate someone from their property is not only immoral but ineffective. It is clear that other prohibition measures, such as alcohol prohibition in the 1920's and the War On Drugs, were massive failures. They not only increased violence and destroyed lives, but were ineffective at eliminating or reducing these items. This is what prohibition of any item does. 

The only way to achieve peace is by peaceful methods. Stop looking for political violence to be used against your enemies and start looking for ways to better love them. Make the decision that the cycle of violence stops here with you.