Travel plan idea blog

THE PROPHECY
(2792 words)

by
Kenneth G. Ramey

Isaiah did more to anticipate the coming of the Christian era, and to clear up the confusion about it, than anyone did. Still, one has to be alert to the language and symbols used in his writings:
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.

Mountains and hills define the relative merits of religions existing at the time the
Prophecy was made. Isaiah was suggesting that, with the impetus provided by coming events, the One God of the Jewish nation would (temporarily) vault into prominence over all others:
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. For the Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will light upon Israel; the light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame.

The writings of Isaiah might have been a source for the writing of the Hermetic
Tradition, but hardly the only one. As a competing sect in its own right, Judaism would naturally want to keep tabs on other religions. Just as there are Jews today who are aligned with one faction or another within the framework of their religion, so it must always have been. Isaiah seems certainly to have been part of a group of intellectuals who, because they rose above the bonds of their tradition, could let their thinking exceed the bounds of their community. They dared to envision a truth that they saw as greater even than the Holy One of Israel:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a
land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

The light, to use the writing of The Hermetic Tradition, was the Supreme Vision that defined the Nature of the All. Isaiah, and the Coterie to which he belonged, believed the Holy One of Israel could become the One God of all Nations above which there could never be another. They believed they had the power - ability to persuade - to make it happen. Isaiah, as prophet, played a vital role in the scheme. By the time he revealed his prophecy the details of the plan had been worked out, and the "essential man" selected:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his
shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor," "Mighty God," "Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Of the increase of his government there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom.

Jesus was the son of Mary, and the Immaculate Conception should be seen as
a conversion to Christianity, the beliefs of which she passed on to her son, Jesus. The Virgin Birth was the issuance of a prepared individual from the body politic, not as a result of some miraculous phenomenon.

Quotations from Isaiah are sometimes presented out of order, but without distortion of the message. Isaiah's delivery draws upon the oral and poetic traditions; a method of speaking that lent itself to ease of recollection. It was a practice against which Plato argued who preferred prose as the more accurate way of transmitting information. There is an attraction in the poetic delivery, whether written or spoken, that can lead an unsuspecting person astray. There is a harmonic tendency on the part of many to get caught up in the rhythm and verbiage so that they miss the point completely. The consequence is a contribution to the artificiality of lives; something Plato was loath to accept. By the same token, Plato's argument against it may have made poetry the preferred medium for those whose object was to confound or confuse.

Isaiah wrote in poetic fashion, as did other authors of the books of the Bible, and if his meaning is to be divined, his presentation needs be filtered from his style, and that is what I have tried to do. His prophecy was an introduction to an order intended to supercede the existing order. With the evidence of history to guide them, and based on their own experience, the Christian Coterie must surely have anticipated, because of the audacity of their scheme, they would be resisted by those in power, and they approached their task accordingly:
So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail . . .the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail, for those who lead the people lead them astray. Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly.

Isaiah makes the point that Jews are what they are taught. Christianity appealed, and lent justification, to the desire for change. For Jews who had not completely accepted the concept of Oneness, a god whose power was greater than the sums of its parts, Isaiah puts into the mouth of God words that suggest that traditions die slowly:
As my hand has reached to the kingdom of the idols whose graven images were
greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and to her images?

Isaiah was the active voice of prophecy, leaving only the act to be fulfilled; the
stage was set; the instrument of the Christian design already selected:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse - probable ref: to those who formulated the Christian concept, - and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
I have stirred up one from the north - ref: to Jesus and Galilee, - and he has come, and he shall call on my name:
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. And the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah says nothing about a virgin birth or of the Christmas story of a babe born
in a manger, no crib for his bed. Jesus had already arrived, - "and he shall call on my name". It is reasonable to assume he was an adult when he responded to the call. Jesus was taught what he must know, and was tested to be sure he was up to the challenge.

Implied in Isaiah's utterances are two of the thrice-great attributes of Hermes: Supreme Knowledge, and the Practice of Divine Cults; the third, Administration of Laws, is covered by the following:
With righteousness shall he judge . . . and decide equity; he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
In that day the root of Jesse will stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings will be glorious.

The combination of tongue - rod of the mouth - and breath is indicative of speech, or persuasion, by which the wicked will be slain - reduced to impotency. The analogy is common and is repeated in the Bible in various forms. Unfortunately, the Church decided to consider the language in the literal sense, and actually did slay opponents of the faith, a concept that led to the practice of Autos da Fe (acts of faith).

Isaiah refers to Egypt in a way that makes the writing of the Hermetic Tradition plausible as a source suitable to support his prophecy, and justify the conduct of the emerging Christian hierarchy:
In the land of Egypt . . . when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors he will
send them a savior. And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and burnt offering and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.

The Book of Isaiah is a work that draws upon the past to promote an event
by predicting its eventuality, and becomes an instrument of transition that contains interesting insights. Isaiah demonstrates the attachment of Christians to the idea of The Great Chain of Being, an idea that contains the seed of apostolic authority by insisting that authority flows from the top down since the chain extends from the heavens, the source of authority, down to earth, and vice versa. Each planet is a way station and residence of the blessed, of saints, of angles, and so forth up to the lofty realm of God, an idea based on magic as described in the Hermetic Tradition.

In a taunt directed to the king of Babylon in whose country the Jews had been made captive, and from which they were dispersed via the Diaspora, Isaiah says:
You who laid nations low, you said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high! But you were brought down to Sheol, to the depth of the pit."

Dominant religions are composites of their philosophy and that of others. The
Book of Isaiah is no exception; nor was the Hermetic Tradition; nor the Gospels that drew one upon the other beginning with Mark, not Mathew, and should be read in the order of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. Mark is the simplest of the Gospels to which each of those following make its own addition, one after the other. Joseph Cambell's book MYTHS TO LIVE BY makes the point very clearly, and is certainly worth a read.

Writing itself was an art the performance of which was as mysterious to the ignorant as was the religion it expounded, and felt by them to possess power. Those who exercised power invoked the force of the written word to impress listeners, not only because of their skill, but also because writing had an immortal quality.

The Jews, so far is as is known, were the first to utilize the written word as the sacred utterances of their God. The Diaspora lent credence to the value of writing especially as it was presented in the torah. Each segmented part of the community had its torah by which it was able to preserve its heritage and identity as Jews regardless where on earth it was. The lesson was not lost on the Christian sect that saw in the Diaspora and the torah the vehicle for spreading its own Gospel:
"And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is
sealed."

Isaiah was setting the stage for its implementation by presuming to have God accuse the leadership of the Jewish Community of instilling in the people a fear of Him learned by rote:
Therefore, the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their
discerning men shall be hid. In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction in silence.

What greater evidence is needed to show that the so-called miracle cures of Jesus
were no more than cures of persuasion? More is to follow:
Woe to the rebellious children who carry out a plan, but not mine; and who make a league, but not of my spirit, that they might add sin to sin - ref: to heretics, - who seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt. For Egypt's help is worthless and empty (as it was the purpose of the Hermetic Tradition to prove).
And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of man; - that is to say, mortal man; small m, - and a sword, not of man, shall devour him.

"Sword" is akin to "rod of the mouth," and both are references to the tongue and,
to reason, by which Christians intended to dominate their adversaries. - By its use:
The mind of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongue of the stammerers
will speak readily and distinctly. Then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert, and a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; and the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err therein.
But the redeemed shall walk there, the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and they shall obtain joy and gladness, and the sorrow and sighing will flee away.

The "wilderness" Isaiah refers to is the Jewish Community, and its degradation
by the New Order. The presumption seems to be that the One God of the Jews could and would be converted to the One God of all Nations, and Isaiah attempts to reassure the Jews. The water that he says will flow through the old community is the philosophy of the New Way, the highway - water - on which the Lord will walk to make His point:
I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am He. But you, Israel . . .you are my
servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you off.; fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
A voice cries: in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.
[In little more than a year] - not time enough for an infant to grow to manhood - you will shudder, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come (the cause of sorrow and sighing).
Tremble, you complacent ones; strip and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields - of the Bacchanalian cult, I imagine - for the fruitful vine, for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers - yea, for all the joyous houses in the joyous city. For the palace will be forsaken, and the populous city deserted . . . until the spirit is poured on us from on high - probable ref: to the anointing of Jesus - and the wilderness become a fruitful field.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert . . . to give drink to my chosen people, that they might declare my praise.

Isaiah, speaking for the Christian movement, says of God, "He made my mouth
like a sharp sword. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught; he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught" - as most of us today are the products of what we have been taught to believe is true.

The words Isaiah speaks and writes are those of a Coterie who had a vision of a
better world and how it might be achieved. The core of the Christian Movement consisted of those in whom the concept was first rooted; they in turn were served by those who were persuaded to their bidding, including John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. It is to this core that Isaiah refers when he says, as if Jesus is speaking:
I am the Lord . . . who frustrates the omens of liars, and who makes fools of
diviners; - magicians - who confirms the word of his servant (the coterie), and performs the counsel of his messengers (the Passive Voice), saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, your name remain. I presume ref: is to the sect of Christianity.
And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me (in spirit, not in fact) - who refuse the counsel - for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be abhorrence to all flesh.

It is a fact of history that symbolism should one day be used literally by the
Church (the Active Voice) and millions would die horrible deaths as a result.

KENNETH G. RAMEY 2081 Fallbrook Ct. Paso Robles, CA 93446
Darken1@sbcglobal.net

I think the idea behind vacation Bible school is that it's something for kids to do while they're on vacation -- not that the school is a vacation. It's kind of like day camp that lasts for a week.

Vacation Bible School is a one-week school of Bible study during summer vacation. It is tailored for youth, of course, so the "Bible study" isn't so intense and there are other activities. I say this as a remembrance of my time spent for maybe four summers as a "student" over fifty years ago. I never enjoyed going to those schools and always dreaded being signed up for them. Even today, seeing a banner announcing the coming of Vacation Bible School makes me cringe.

It is just something that occurs during a young students summer vacation at his or her neighborhood church.

I get it - it's not a vaction. Kind of like the Sunday School I went to as a kid.

Vacation Bible School is the best activity you can have your child in during the summer. Consider the alternatives: drugs, vagrance, couch-potatoes, video game obsession, etc... When I was searching for a vacation spot for the summer I typed in Fun Vacations, Vacation spots, etc... just be a little more specific.

Vacation Bible school is fun and enlighing for the youth and children who would love to learn about the Lord. It is for everyone, classes sometimes go for 2 weeks. I went as a children and we would have class, then lunch make things. It gives you something to do.

VBS (a Bible school that occurs during summer vacation) usually runs one week for an average of 3 hours each day, and is full of fun activities in a Christian setting. There is usually a themed program for the week like "Ramblin' Road Trip". VBS activities/programs can vary greatly depending on the denomination. It greatly shaped my young heart, my children's hearts, and now most recently my granddaughter's.

Please don't blog about vacation bible schools since it has nothing to do with travel. Thanks, K