There was on owner and manager of a large real estate development in Florida. His name was Mr. Kingsman. The development had about 30,000 people living in it. There were two basic kinds of people living in the development. There were the properly holders and renters who owned or rented houses and other property in the development, and who believed they were beholden to Mr. Kingsman in some way. Typically, they were much like Mr. Kingsman in appearance and language.
The other population living in the development was the workers whose labor was building Mr. Kingsman’s development. They were mostly people who came from Mexico who had few material things and who did most of the hard labor and menial jobs in the development. Unfortunately, the powerful Mr. Kingsman regularly took advantage of those workers – he regularly paid them less than what he promised them, and regularly made them work more than twelve hours per day. Mr. Kingsman rented some of the worst properties in the development to the Mexican workers and charged a rent higher than what the properties were worth. Mr. Kingsman only gave the workers days off that he was forced to by law, and he regularly forced workers to work on those days off by threatening to fire them if they did not. Overall, Mr. Kingsman treated the Mexican population of his development very poorly. He was using them to profit himself and cared little for these people.
Now it so happened that in a relatively small span of time, four Mexican’s died of various reasons related to the poor working and living conditions in the development. This got the attention of the Governor of the State of Florida, who happened to be of Mexican descent. The Governor ordered an investigation into the reasons the four people died. When the Governor discovered how Mr. Kingsman was treating the Mexicans, he got very angry. The Governor decided to send a leader of the Mexican workers - his personal representative, Mr. Fernandez – to go and speak to Mr. Kingsman in person, hoping to get Mr. Kingsman to change. Unfortunately, Mr. Kingsman was arrogant and denied that he was somehow to blame for the deaths of the four Mexicans, and furthermore that the conditions that the Mexicans had were adequate. Even after the Governor took several actions to try and persuade Mr. Kingsman to change and treat the Mexican people better, Mr. Kingsman did not respond appropriately, but rather continued to treat the Mexican people poorly. In fact, the more the Governor through Mr. Fernandez tried to right the wrong, the more poorly Mr. Kingsman treated the Mexicans.
As such, the Governor decided to take the following action. The Governor called in the Mexican leader/representative, Mr. Fernandez, to talk with him and tell him his plan. He told the Mr. Fernandez to go and tell all the Mexican’s in the development to kill their pets on the upcoming Saturday night, and to take some of their pet’s blood and poor it on their mailboxes.
The Mexican leader, Mr. Fernandez, was a bit shocked and asked why they would need to do that. The Governor explained that he was going to send some men – assassins - to kill the oldest male child of every non-Mexican family that lived in the development. And the way for the assassins to identify which families were non-Mexican would be the absence of blood on their mailboxes. Each of the assassins would check the family’s mailbox, and if no blood was found on it they would force their way into the family’s house, find the oldest child – whether a baby several months old for younger parents, or a teenager for older parents – put a gun to their head and pull the trigger. More than likely, many of the parents of the children would witness the assassins’ murder their oldest son….they would see their eldest son killed right in front of them.
The Mexican leader was appropriately shocked and said, ‘why are you punishing all the non-Mexican families…not all of them agreed with, or approved of, Mr. Kingsman’s bad behavior towards us? Worse than that, why would you kill innocent children for the wrong-doings of primarily one man? Why are you punishing the innocent for the guilty? What you are planning to do is much more evil than anything even Mr. Kingsman has done!
The Governor was offended and said, ‘who are you to question me and my methods of dealing with injustice. I am the Governor of Florida and I can use whatever means I deem best to punish people in this state…to correct injustices.’
Mr. Fernandez said, ‘even if you think murder is the way to handle something, why not then kill Mr. Kingsman and those who do his dirty work? After all, he and those working directly for him - just a few dozen men or so - are the ones perpetrating the evil against my people, not most of the families in his development, and especially not the children of non-Mexican families. So, I ask again, are you not as bad or worse than Mr. Kingsman for the horrible injustice of murdering innocent children – the non-Mexican family’s oldest child - for the sins and bad behavior of one man and those who do his evil work?
Would that not be like killing the oldest child of every German family for the wrongs that Hitler and those who followed him committed?’
The Governor responded, ‘you are a foolish man to think you can understand my ways and to question my ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways. How dare you question my methods when all I am doing is trying to get your people some relief. You seem to be ungrateful, so perhaps I will just allow Mr. Kingsman to continue treating your people wrongly’.
Mr. Fernandez responded, ‘well sir, I don’t think I am ungrateful. I just don’t think that killing innocent children is the proper way to right the wrongs of Mr. Kingsman and his followers’.
End of story.
OK dear listener, please think about that story for a few moments. What do you think about the Governor… what did you think of the Governor when he said that he was going to kill all of the oldest children of the non-Mexican families?
Would you characterize him as a just leader?
Would you characterize him as a person who leads with compassion?
What do you think about his desire to kill all the oldest children of the non-Mexican families?
I would suggest that if you have a moral compass, you should be able to judge that killing the oldest child of all the non-Mexican families is horribly wrong and evil.
Wouldn’t you agree?
OK, now take a few moments to see if you can think of any other historical stories that are parallel to that one?
Let me give you a hint. Think bible stories.
Is there a story in the bible that is just like the one you just heard? Does the name Moses bring anything to recollection? Do you remember the Exodus story from the bible? You know, the one where the Egyptian Pharaoh was mistreating the Jewish people in order to build the temples and other structures the Pharaoh wanted. Supposedly God sent Moses to the Pharaoh to tell the Pharaoh to “Let my people go”, the “my people” being the descendants of Jacob that lived at that time among the Egyptian people as slaves.
If you recall, God supposedly kept sending Moses to the Pharaoh and each time the foolish and proud leader of the Egyptians refused to let his slave-workers go, God would bring some type of escalating natural disaster upon the Egyptian people. After nine attempts to get Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go, God brought what turned out to be his final judgment…he sent his destroying angel to kill every first born among the Egyptian people. The only way to be spared the destroying angel’s murderous wrath was to put the blood of a sheep on the door trim. Unfortunately, and apparently God could not tell which was an Egyptian family and which was a Jewish family without the blood of an animal on the door trim. So, if you were a family living in Egypt at the time - and even if you thought that the way Pharaoh was treating the descendenats of Jacob was wrong - your eldest child would be killed by that God for the sins of the Pharaoh.
OK, try and substitute the following characters in the story you just heard. Mr. Kingsman is the Egyptian Pharaoh at the time of Moses. The Mexican worker-leader Mr. Fernandez is Moses. The Governor is the god portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures for the Moses story. Now see if you can find an essential faulty parallel in the two stories. Was there anything represented in the Mr. Kingsman and Mexican story that is not a legitimate parallel with the Pharaoh, Moses, God story? I think if you do an honest comparison, you will answer, no, there is no essential difference.
There is one significant difference, however. The story I made up in this message had the Mexican leader Mr. Fernandez rebuke the Governor for his murderous, immoral methods, something that Moses did not do in the bible story…Moses did not say, “Do not kill the Egyptian children God, for that is wrong”. Moses did not attempt to intervene for the innocent eldest child of each of those non-Jewish families.
So, dear listener, what do you think of this? Are you someone who trusts in the bible? Are you someone who has believed Paul’s doctrine that everything in the bible is God breathed and thus represents the God of the universe? If you are that kind of person, the truth in this article should prompt you to reconsider that belief. Is the God represented in the Jewish scripture the same God that is represented by the person called Jesus of Nazareth? For those not blinded by their religious dogma, the answer is clearly no. Take this story for instance. The one who calls himself the Light of the world taught:
“God so loved the people of the earth that He sent his only beloved Son to help them.” and "Love your enemies".
What did the god represented by the Jewish scripture say regarding his thoughts towards the people living in Egypt at the time? That same saying of the Light might be changed to:
“For God cared so little for the people of Egypt – and rather so favored the people of Jacob – that he killed the innocent oldest child of all non-Jewish families in order to show how mad he was at that entire people group instead of just the guilty ones”.
Dear listener, surely the two Gods represented in those two sayings cannot be reconciled, or that the God represented is so inconsistent and fickle in his mood swings and judgments and in his character in terms of what is right and what is wrong, that he is not worthy of listening to.
Some will say I am bashing the Jewish people with this message. That is an irrational claim without a reasonable basis. What I am doing is looking at a story in the Jewish scripture and pointing out a major inconsistency with another voice found in the bible. I am pointing out the contradiction between the god portrayed in the Moses-Exodus story with the God portrayed by the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As a disciple of Jesus, I hate no-one nor seek anyone’s harm. Rather, as a student of one who called himself “the Truth”, I seek to know truth, and reason – the method to know truth – says that the god portrayed in the Moses story is very different than the one portrayed by the Light.
So, perhaps the most important question you will hear in this message, dear listener is this…what are you going to do with the truth in this message? Are you going to avoid it because of the implications it has on your beliefs about God or about the bible? Are you going to try and find comfort in the words of the theologians and your religious leaders as they dance and sing with their thousands of words to try and reconcile the natures of the two Gods portrayed between the Jewish scripture and the words of the Light of the world? Are you going to buy their books and attend their seminars and take their bible classes to try and counter the simple truth that has been revealed in this message? The simple truth that the god who would kill innocent children to punish the injustices perpetrated by an adult man and his followers, could not be the same God who states the unchanging principle of “love your enemies” and “do good to those who mistreat you”. The simple truth is that it is not the same God…it is not the same being.
If you can accept this truth, you would be on your way to freedom. Please listen to the Light when he says:
“If you continue in my teachings/words/truths, then you are my follower; and then you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free”. John 8
The Light of the world never said, “listen to the scripture in order to understand my Father”. No, rather and in stark contrast he said:
“Whomever has seen me has seen the Father”, and…
“You do possess and study the scripture, for you think that in the scripture you have eternal life, but those scriptures point to me and yet you are unwilling to come to me so that you may find Life”.
The saying could not be clearer. You can find it in John chapter 5.
Why do so many reject the Light and his simple and clear instructions and teachings regarding how to know the Creator God of the universe? Here is the answer, if you can receive it:
“And this is the judgment, that the people of the earth loved the darkness rather than the Light because the things they do are evil”.
The simple truth is that our conscience – that metaphysical part of us called our soul – knows at some level that we are guilty of lovelessness - that is living a less than perfectly selfless life - and thus we draw away from the Light for fear we will experience justice for our faults or bad thoughts or behavior…we would rather hide in the darkness than stand in the Light.
Another simple truth is, part of that darkness we love is violence among humans, especially violence that is directed at people who are different than we are or who we do not like or who we think are guilty of something bad or who “deserve it”.
What better way to encourage us to hide in the shadows than to present a god who is quick to kill human’s in order to solve problems. What better way to keep people in the darkness than to create a god who is vengeful, does not care about justice, but rather will kill innocent people in order to punish the guilty. Surely humans should rightly cower before that god, and many do.
This message’s purpose is to set people free from that cowering existence…of being afraid of God, for if fear is your primary attitude towards God, then you will never want to get to know him. How many people want to get to know someone they are afraid of? I would suggest that if we need a person to be afraid of, start with ourselves for we – not God - choose our eternal destiny, and that is a BIG deal.
For all who don’t know or understand God, there is a way out…turn to the Light of the world in order to know what God is truly like. The Light says, “And this is eternal Life – to know God the Father and the one whom He sent, his Son”.
What does this mean for you, dear listener? If you are a bible or scripture person – a Christian or Jew – you must be willing to let reason inform your understanding of God. If you do not, then you are no better than people of other religions you judge as wrong or ignorant.
Don’t hang onto traditions that warp your view or understanding of God. Agree with the simple truth that a god who would kill innocent children in order to punish an evil adult is a god not worthy of worship or respect.
Take the next step and consider that the god described in the scripture (apart from the Light’s witness) is a god of men’s creation and not the true and living Creator. Agree that the bible, while containing some accurate historical events, was written by people who painted their own versions of the story according to their own imperfect understandings of God…often getting the facts of historical events right while equally oftentimes getting the 'why it happend' wrong, usually blaming it on an angry god.
Don’t’ trust in imperfect authors who could not overcome their own individual and speculative understandings of God…people who had an incomplete or wrong understanding of God. Don’t trust in Paul who asks you to accept a god that has innocent children murdered in order to accomplish his will.
How can a person know what is wrong or right about God you might ask? By having the correct standard to know God. And what is the correct standard? It is the one who says:
“If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”
“Everything I see my Father doing, I do.”
“I don’t speak on my own initiative, but rather I speak what I am given by my Father.”
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall never pass away.”
“The words I speak are not mine alone, but rather the Fathers who sent me.”
“No one knows the Father but the Son, and those to whom the Son reveals Him to.”
It is that simple. Read the account and words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth and try and find fault yourself in his person or teachings or deeds. Use reason to examine the core teachings of the one who called himself the Light of the world. When you are done, receive what passes the test of reason and use faith to leave the darkness and come into the Light.
The Person and words of Jesus of Nazareth represent the Creator God of the universe. No other source reveals the nature and character of the living God better than his only unique Son who knows the Father perfectly and who represented him perfectly. He says, 'My Father so loves you much and wants to be with you that he sent a guide to get you Home…'
Why would you not give Jesus of Nazareth a full and fair chance to inform you about God? What is so offensive about his primary teaching for mankind – love one another?
I urge you to stop checking your mind in at the door when evaluating “God” things. Don’t hear the truths that have been revealed in this message about the god described in the Moses story - in the bible and the scripture - and just dismiss them as irrelevant to you or life. Love truth…use reason to find the God who spoke through the Light and said:
“And this is eternal Life – that you might know your Father, and the one He send, me”.
Please, allow the Leader and Rescuer to take you Home and come, join the peaceful revolution and help others experience the same transformation!