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Friday, October 15, 2010

Lazarus, come out!

[NOTE: This is a followup to my last article on the 33 miners of Chile.]
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see."

And Jesus wept.

So the Jews said, "See how he loved him." But some of them said, "Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?"

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"

So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me." And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

 – John 11:32-44

One of the miners, Mario Sepúlveda, gave an interview shortly after he arose from the land of the dead - like Lazarus. In it he describes an ordeal with the devil.
"I was with God and I was with the devil. They fought over me. And God won, because I took hold of the better hand - the hand of God."
But I'll tell you this. When they were underground – separated from the temptations of society – they were much closer to God than to the devil. But now that they are back in society, the devil will be all around them. This is how it is for all of us whether we realize it or not. We are surrounded by temptations. Society no longer feels that it has a responsibility to protect its citizens from sin, in fact we are encouraged to engage in sin.

If you take a close look at the CNN report on the miracle of the butterfly what you will find is that it not only attacks the faith in God of the Chilean people, it attacks the Catholic Church and Christianity itself.  The CNN reporter frames the event in such a way that faithful Chileans are seen as superstitious.

The whole rescue is portrayed in such a way that it reinforces the secular world view. The rescue capsule is called "the Phoenix" – a mythical bird representing death and rebirth – rather than something like "the Lazarus" which would call attention to the resurrection of Christ. We are supposed to give thanks to man and his science, rather than God who created Man and gave him the faculties to do wondrous things.

We are supposed to ignore the simple faith of the miners that allowed them to survive for the first 17 days without any real reason to maintain their hope that they would be saved. During those first days they had to ration among themselves the food and water at their disposal, but how did they come up with a reasonable rationing plan when they had no idea how many days they would be without help from the outside?

According to news reports, the amount of food and water should have been enough to last just a few days. And yet the obvious analogy to the miracle Jesus performed with the loaves and fishes is never drawn in the mainstream press. Why not? Isn't this a wonderful opportunity to remind their audiences of the relevance of the story of Christ to modern day living? Surely this could not offend any non-Christian viewers, any more than the reminder of the mythical phoenix could be viewed as offensive by non-pagans.

Then the 33 miners had to endure many more days of living in cramped quarters; separated from their loved ones; in a world of darkness and despair. There was nothing to sustain their spirits except their own faith. Any number of things could have gone wrong with the rescue effort. They did not know how long they would have to endure their subterranean imprisonment. And despite the best efforts of their would-be-rescuers, there was always the chance that their last breaths would be taken in their shared living tomb - buried under 700 meters of rock.

But the secular press tells us we should ignore all the prayers of those buried underneath the ground and their loved ones above. We should instead focus on the marvelous technology that was used to free the miners from their live burial.

Any talk of a miraculous rescue should be instantly ridiculed. Faith should be depicted as superstition founded on ignorance. We should believe in the power of science not only to achieve a technical solution to the rescue, but to rescue us from our antiquated beliefs. And we should learn to fill that spiritual longing in our souls with material goods. Buy. Buy. Buy!

Buy, to keep the advertisers coming. Buy, to keep the economy humming. Buy, to bury our emptiness in our purchases.

In my last post, I ended with the parable of the persistent widow from Luke chapter 18, which illustrated how we should pray always in order to maintain our faith. But our secular society replaces pray, pray, pray with buy, buy, buy. We are kept constantly diverted by the next gadget, and the next, and the next; like a hamster in its cage, amused by new toys.

And as the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus, so today the secular society is plotting to kill Christianity – not by crucifying its followers, but by smothering us under an avalanche of temptations. We are unknowingly buried alive under the rubble of our possessions, and Jesus is shouting to us "Lazarus, come out!"
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, "What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation."

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish."

He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

So from that day on they planned to kill him.

 – John 11:45-53
The Catholic bishops of Chile, remind us that we should not stop praying for the 33 miners now that they have been brought to the surface. In their statement they said, "May this re-encounter with life be an opportunity for them and for all of us to appreciate the most precious things we have: life, our dignity as children of God, faith, the treasure of the family." These are things we often take for granted.

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UPDATE: I was over at the Vigilant Citizen website, where he has an article mostly about the occult significance of the number 33 as it relates to the miners. I don't happen to agree with his analysis on this one, but here is a link in case you're interested.

One of the commenters left a link to this YouTube video which shows that there is a biblical message on the back of the T-shirts the miners wore when they came to the surface. The quote is from Psalm 95 verse 4.
Porque en su mano están las profundidades de la tierra,
Y las alturas de las montes son suyas


In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
(BTW, if you want to see how badly a politically correct translation of the Bible can butcher a verse, take a look at this "gender neutral" version of this verse from the American Bishops approved New American Bible: "Whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains." It sounds like it's asking a question rather than making a statement. No wonder that the NAB version of the Psalms has not been accepted by the Vatican. This shows to what extent the American Bishops have been swayed by the American feminist movement.)



One more comment on the T-shirts. I noticed right away what appeared to be an inverted star on the front of the T-shirts, which appeared to be an occult symbol. I'm sure this was unintentional given the use of Biblical references all over the rest of the T-shirt. The star is clearly part of a stylized version of the Chilean flag.

Stylized Chilean flag on T-shirt
Rather than inverting the star, what the artist has done is to place it at a 45 degree angle in order to create a diagonal that divides the blue on the bottom and the red on the top. Unfortunately, this has the same effect as inverting the star. (In the same picture, you can see a Chilean flag on the rescue pod.)

13 comments:

  1. I updated the article by adding a video detailing the Bible verses on the T-shirts the miners wore.

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  2. I agree with your comment on the T-Shirt Baba. It looks like is part of the design, otherwise they wouldn't have bother to cite the bible.
    What do you think of the number 33 overall?

    PD: Great article as always!

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  3. Ride. I don't give the number 33 any great significance in this context. It just happened that there were 33 miners trapped at the time of the collapse. If anything, the people obsessing over it are trying to draw attention to the occult.

    For instance, the T-shirt. If some of us weren't already obsessed in studying the occult we would never have given any significance to the "inverted triangle" which as I said above is only placed at an angle. If people turned their minds to contemplating Christian symbols instead, then they would get a completely different reading about this story.

    I'm not saying that we shouldn't be concerned about overt occult symbolism in the movies and music videos, but we shouldn't get so obsessed about it that we begin to see diabolic signs everywhere. As I'm finding out by reading the "Exorcist tells his story" book which you recommended, demonic possession begins with dabbling in the occult. What starts out has an innocent curiosity can turn into a dangerous cult worship.

    That's partly why I have become insistent in placing some Christian content into each article. If people come here searching for occult knowledge (gnosis) then I intend for them to get a taste of Christianity as well. If that repels them, so be it. Hopefully, they will consider what it is they are trying to gain by reading this type of article.

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  4. "If people come here searching for occult knowledge (gnosis) then I intend for them to get a taste of Christianity as well."

    Great plan Baba, this is one of the main reasons why I read this blog. Until this day, I believe there was a miracle with the miners. As I toild you before, it was nice to hear from God in the news.

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  5. Ride. Yes it was nice to hear from God. Many of the miners speak of coming closer to God during their period of isolation from the world. Now the cynical media seems intent on finding a dark side to the miners' ordeal. It seems that they can't see a thing of beauty and just appreciate it for what it is. They have to try to tarnish it and bring it down to their level. We see this with the coverage of the Church as well.

    Peace be with you,
    baba

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  6. I heard this interpretation: 33 for Jesus, San Jose mine named for Saint Joseph, and the rescue occured on the anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima. Also, Chile's miraculous statue of Our Lady was brought to the mine site early on in the rescue.
    So...the Holy Family was there.

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  7. Anonymous. Yes, I'm sure the families of the miners would agree. Pray the rosary for them. Their struggles to be reborn from the earth has ended, but their struggles against temptation are just beginning.

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  8. I have watched your postings develop over the last few months and I have to say I am impressed. You're attention to detail, your personal analyses, and narrowing in on biblical truth in relation to the secular world.

    I'm proud of you, and wish you all the best in future work. Keep em coming regularly.

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  9. Hi Bob. I sincerely thank you for your high praise. As my priest says, "One step at a time." I know I have a long way to go, and my spiritual gifts are limited. I try to do the best with what I have. And I try to cultivate that gift through spiritual nourishment.

    In the past, I was fooling myself that I could do it on my own without God and the Church. Now at least I have achieved a little bit of humility. It's just a taste, really, of the feast that is available to all of us.

    Having lived a steadfast secular life for so long, I can fully sympathize with what other people are going through. And now I can begin to have a hint of how fully deceived I was by our culture. I'm a late starter, but at least I have found the path, and begun stumbling along in the right direction.

    Gradually I am beginning to see the world through different eyes. When Jesus commanded us to "pluck out" our eye if it should cause us to sin, I think he was referring to our internal spiritual vision, and not so much to our physical vision.

    When I read the words of Jesus in the Bible now, I believe He is trying to share with us His vision which was to be able to see simultaneously the City of Man and the City of God. He could see the person, but also the spirit - and the angels and demons that accompanied him.

    A word of caution though about not falling into the trap of the gnostics by looking for "hidden knowledge" in the Bible. For that we have the Church and the Saints to guide us, so that we don't fall headlong off the path.

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  10. To be honest the whole 33 number misunderstanding started after the zionists founded the freemasons. However 33 was the age of our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth before his crucifixion, so it is a very important number for religion too.

    Whatever sign or image, it is not the sign or image itself that assigns to itself a meaning, but the people, or the Creator.

    So for the Chilean guy, that t-shirt represented his Catholic faith, although using an inverse star, as the number 33 is a very highly symbolic number, because it was the age of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Do not pay attention to what satan says, if he tries to copy our Lord. Rather ignore him and educate others to know that what may represent for some is meant to be A or B, it does not necessarily represent the same for true Catholics.

    Beware for satan often uses true Catholic symbols and twists them to get everyone confused.

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  11. Paco. Be careful not to attribute every anti-Catholic action to "freemasons" or "zionists". I think many people attempt to use their Christian faith as a crutch to support their political beliefs. I see this both on the right and the left, and I think this is a mistake. Christ's kingdom is "not of this world".

    The Church has been stripped of its political power and in some ways this is a blessing because now the Church must rely purely on its moral authority. The downside to this is that the anti-Christian forces have taken political control and have waged a campaign to kidnap our youth and indoctrinate them with their message. Over a period of a few generations, we have seen the effects of this campaign.

    One of the chief targets has been the paternalistic family, which has been the basis of western civilization since the time of Rome. The final target is God, the ultimate father figure. The Bible is full of loving fathers and the Church itself is led by the Pope or "Papa" - the Holy Father of the Church.

    As people see the results of this anti-Christian campaign, they have begun to question its origins and its motives. Be careful in drawing conclusions. Many people like myself have been unwitting sympathizers to the anti-Christian forces. Eventually as the battle lines become clear, we must all make a choice as to whose side we're on. As Jesus says, "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." (Matthew 12:30)

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  12. BTW, as an example of the effect of anti-paternalism, take a look at various translations of Matthew 12:30. Notice that starting in the 1990s, there is movement to strip any masculine references. This is a blatant misinterpretation of the Bible for political purposes.
    http://bible.cc/matthew/12-30.htm

    ----- -- pre 1990 ------

    Douay-Rheims Bible
    He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.

    King James Bible
    He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.

    New International Version (©1984)
    "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters

    ------- post 1990 ------

    GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
    "Whoever isn't with me is against me. Whoever doesn't gather with me scatters

    New Living Translation (©2007)
    "Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me.

    International Standard Version (©2008)
    "The person who isn't with me is against me, and the person who isn't gathering with me is scattering.

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    This may seem like a relatively minor effect, but it is just this sort of gradual undermining of the Church's authority that has ultimately led to the social decay that we are now seeing. Next God will be referred to as "she". And eventually either people will worship a Christian "Mother Goddess" or turn away from Christianity altogether. This is just the sort of confusion in the ranks of the faithful that the anti-Christian forces want to create.

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    Imagine a re-translation of Shakespeare...

    What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!

    ...becomes...

    What a piece of work is a person! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!
    - or -
    What a piece of work is whoever! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!
    - or -
    What a piece of work is anyone! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!

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  13. @baba

    Dig a little bit deeper, and you will see the connections. Have you heard about the 'Octopus'?

    The 'Octopus' is an organization, not officially named that way but rather called that way by those who know about it. It is a group made up by several sub-divisions: Freemasons, Illuminati, Bilderbergs, Trilateral Commission, Rosicruxians, Zionists, Kabbalah, Rhodes Scholars, Soros Foundation, Sisters of Ishtar, Wicca, etc.

    At glance you may think of them as very different groups, yet when you dig deeper, see who funds them, see who integrates them, etc. you can easily notice they share the same ideologies and sometimes even imagery.

    This deal is a lot more like looking at the big picture and seeing how all the groups I previously mentioned are closely interconnected.

    So whenever I say Freemasons/Illuminati/Bilderberg/etc I am actually referring to all the groups integrated by the 'Octopus' members. Maybe from now on I will just say the 'Octopus' is guilty.

    And by no means I intend to politicize my comments, yet I put the blaming where it belongs.

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