By Abdu Rafiu
There is an awakening sweeping through many parts of our world and questions are arising in the minds of a great many. Many are perplexed that world leaders have not been able bring about an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. It is believed that with the emergence of hawkish Donald Trump, the war in the Middle-East would be further muddled up. The increasing spate of sudden deaths everywhere is self-evident. War is never a picnic anywhere. Consider the mindless killings and devastations, the shocking and frightening destruction of properties, and the endless columns of displaced people heading to nowhere in particular, seeking refuge and humanitarian help to continue living. Rather than abating, the wars both in Ukraine and Gaza are escalating, and the end is not in sight in all the theatres of war, including Sudan not too far from Nigeria, indeed literally speaking, just across our corridor!
Many are dazed that that despite his impeachments and convictions in court, Trump still emerged winner in the race to the White House. He cannot even wait until January before flexing muscles and baring his fangs. According to Stephen Collinson of CNN, “President-elect Donald Trump is already flexing raw power, showing he may try to subvert Washington’s checks and balances and leaving foreign leaders scrambling to come to terms with his victory. Early signs from Mar-a- Lago, the Florida club and estate where trump is building his new administration, suggest that when he moves back into the White House in January bolstered by a thumping win and a democratic mandate, he will act with maximum force.”
To push his plans for mass deportations, CNN Collinson says: “In a move that recalled the late-night drama of his first term, Trump posted on Truth Social shortly before midnight that he had named Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and an advocate of Trump’s plans for mass deportations, as border czar.” The most prominent face today in the world’s public space and consciousness is Mr. Trump.
I have also been asked: “Sir, why do the Jews still not accept Jesus Christ as the physical incarnation that was foretold?” For how much longer is our world going to continue like this? That is the next logical question. Is it the decline into the vortex of darkness the world has fallen into that the Americans have thrown up Mr. Trump in the belief that he will make America great again? The decline may have triggered an awakening with the Americans sensing some emptiness in their souls. There is prosperity quite alright with many in an appreciable degree of wellbeing. There is a sensing of something indefinable yet in their souls which is driving them to seek albeit in the dark alley. There is this yearning to fill a void. Their experiences under the oppressive rule of crumbling materialism have touched them deep within as to crack them open and demand for a government they believe would lead them back to God from Whom they had strayed and estranged themselves; the Holy Light that they had banished from their lives—their homes and schools. They demand the return of the Holy Will in the running of the affairs of their government. They want prayers back in their schools, attributing soullessness and decline in their values to “banishment of God” from their daily living. They made this a condition for voting and deciding who their political leader would be to avert what they sensed was an inexorable march in the direction of Armageddon.
An elected leader rises through the ranks of the electorate. He is their mirror, who has packed into himself their strengths and weaknesses, more of the latter in these times of purification in whom they will find the leader at their sins. As their whip and the whip of the world with everyone experiencing their nakedness and emptiness of souls, there may in genuineness arise a seeking of the face of the Lord. In other words, loathsome as Trump may appear in “making America great again” the world waiting in bated breath will be forced to go into deep contemplation: Who am I? Why am I passing through this vale of matter in these times? A return to serve the Holy Will must undoubtedly mean Holy Victory for the Light! I am only thinking aloud, after all true leaders are not electable; they are born not made, sent not electable. But you ward off like with like! I am just reflecting! Pam Wasserman says in ‘World Population by Religion: A Global Tapestry of Faith’: “Today, some 85 percent of people around the globe identify with a religion.”
Wasserman adds, “The United States is home to the largest Christian population (11.3% of the world total), followed by Brazil (8%), and Mexico (5%)…The countries with the largest proportions of the world’s Muslim population are Indonesia (13.1%), India (11%), Pakistan (10.5%), and Bangladesh (8.4%). He gives exhaustive demographics of practically all the religions of the world!
It is a measure of the decline in this crucial Age that, as it would seem, the world cannot boast of a considerable number of eminent persons, of considerable standing and respect who could as a group wade into the Russia-Ukraine war as well as the war in Gaza since the United Nations Assembly is widely regarded as no more than a talking shop, and some other regional groups such as NATO are partisan. The Non-Aligned Nations are aloof!
Mankind has reached the end of its wits. It must seek knowledge, seek the knowledge that answers all questions of life and existence and take giant strides out of the present chaos and confusion in several parts of the globe.
THE JEWS AND THE MESSIAH
The question I received following the series on The Steps of Recognition is: Why do the Jews still not accept Jesus Christ as the physical incarnation that was foretold?
It was and still is because they had a different expectation and image of the Messiah. In appearance the Lord Jesus looked like any other person on the street. There was nothing extra-ordinary about him. Out of ignorance, however, they expected an extra-ordinary person in appearance and one who is not restrained by any laws and impossibilities, one who could appear and disappear as he might deem fit and so wish; a man who could fly in the air or jump down from a tree without sustaining injuries. Was He not mocked while hanging on the cross in excruciating agony by His traducers: “Those who passed by were yelling insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘The One who would demolish the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If Thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross!”In the same way the chief priests, with scribes and elders, mocked Him and said, ‘He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He has put His trust in God: let God rescue Him now—if He wants Him!’” (Matthew 27: 39-43).
The Lord did not show outwardly any striking difference from any other man. In his childhood years he displayed nothing extra-ordinary He was natural like any child. So people passed Him by in false expectation, dreaming of a different fulfillment. They did not know that anyone who would live on earth, in accordance with the immutable Law of the Most High God, regardless of the Realm the person may be coming from, must take on the earthly body. He would have to be born and undergo the normal and sequential processes of growing and development. Indeed, if the Lord Jesus were to appear today and stand at Martins Street, Lagos, many would pass Him by without recognizing Who He is.
The material cloak more referred to as earthly body by which a man is identified is fashioned in the womb of his mother by nature beings from the food the expectant mother eats, from plants, legumes or meat as the case may be. It is the food doctors or midwives prescribe for any would-be mother. The body is fashioned before the soul incarnates in it. The soul takes possession of the womb when the pregnancy has gone half-way. When the soul enters the expectant mother experiences the first kick. From then on the woman begins to glow. This is because the woman is inhabited now by two souls, her own and that of the incarnating soul. This entry of the soul is usually in the fifth month of the pregnancy.
Therefore, since even the Divine being piloted into the womb of Mary is subject to the eternal and unchanging Laws of God that permits of no exception the Lord Jesus had to don the earthly garment of the body and he showed no striking difference from any other person in Nazareth or Jerusalem! So, as it was and still is with every entry of a soul into an expectant mother’s womb, so was it with Jesus Christ. Didn’t the Lord Himself say He had not come to abolish the laws but to fulfill them? Of course, it is expected that the Real Being, what constituted His Core coming from the Heights, He was piloted by a very High Being and accompanied by Angels, and there was rejoicing in the firmament. The Angels that came were with Him for 40 days before they returned to their Realm.
What I am getting at is that the Jews could not distinguish the Divine Core of the Lord Jesus from the core of a human being which is spiritual. The point of origin of man is the Spiritual Realm more generally referred to as Paradise, but that of Christ is even beyond the Divine Realm. The Divine Realm and the Throne of Grace, the Abode of God the Father, are separated by an ocean of flames that only Christ and the Holy Spirit, both being Parts of the Father as His Sons, can cross.
The second reason why the Jews did not accept the Lord Christ was that they had the mistaken belief that the prophesied Messiah was going to be a mighty hero who would sweep away the yoke of the Roman dominion, power and influence over Israel, and halt taxes being paid to Rome. The hero Messiah would lead Israel to power and influence, and indeed lead them in war against Rome. Judas in fact had a deal with the Resistant Movement to get the Lord involved in insurrection during Passover Festival when a lot of pilgrims would come to Jerusalem. But instead of rebellion, the Lord Christ preached that they should love their enemies as themselves and pray for them. The feverish, imminent expectation of this strong saviour that would bring about a turning point in the lives of the Jews was often intermingled with apocalyptic expectations.
However, being from the Highest Heights, from the Luminous Heights, the Son of God came to this world only in order to draw the attention of mankind, beginning with the Jews, to their wrong ways of living to show them the way out of their self-inflicted entanglements. He came to show mankind the only way leading upwards which He did through His Teachings and exemplary conduct. He had no understanding of futile, fleeting earthly desires as national pride, political influence or the craving for power. According to the enlightenment of these times, He had nothing but sharp words of rejection for sham religion that clings to formalities. He had severely criticized hypocrisy and errors and branded them for what they were.
So the Jews began to ask themselves if really this was the Messiah they were promised and were expecting. For them He certainly was not! Their unbelief was such that when the Lord was ready to begin His Mission the memory of the Holy Night and the Radiant Star had faded from even His earthly parents. Hence, His calls to awaken hardly found any response. Indeed, it was when Joseph, who had been the best of an earthly father and friend, was on his deathbed that the bandage fell from his eyes and he saw in his last moments the Cross radiating behind Christ Jesus and the Dove above His head and deeply stirring were his last words: “So, thou art He after all!” The Lord Jesus stood alone by his deathbed. As for Mary, motherly anxieties over her Son taking on the political and priestly establishments beclouded her clear and full recognition. All regarded the Lord as troublesome! Mary fought an inner battle with her doubts right up to the grievous walk to Golgotha. Only there did recognition of His Mission and with it belief, finally come to her.
In Bethany when the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, it caused so much sensation and uproar that in nearby Jerusalem, the Great Sanhedrin, the supreme court, met for an urgent and special session to discuss the situation that had arisen from it: “What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation” (John 11, 47-48). Caiaphas, who was the High Priest and President, swept aside any last hesitations in dealing with the Lord. He succeeded in convincing his colleagues that now at last the “troublesome and dangerous” Nazarene must be done away with. Referring to Paragraph 82 of the penal code, he said: “Even the execution of an innocent person can serve in the maintenance of law and order, and the salvation and order, and the salvation of God’s people.” He went on: “It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” (John 11: 50).
They invoked many sections of their penal code to entrap the Lord and get rid of Him. They referred to Him as pseudo-prophet who seeks by means of visions, illusions, false oracles, magic, exorcism, hallucinations or genuine miracles to seduce Israel to apostasy. A section says alarmingly that the president of the Great Sanhedrin has the right in exceptional cases to pass over any obstructive regulations in order to put a swift and radical end to apostasy.
I have gone this far to show that the Jews did not recognize the Lord Jesus as the expected Messiah. The non-recognition persists up till this day. It is a carry over. And they are still expecting the Messiah till today. These were a people who had been carefully prepared for their very high tasks, to recognize Him and among whom He lived—in their midst, how much less the subsequent generations that only read about Him.
But events now and in years to come, given the intensified and accelerated purification going on in several parts of the world which may also have led to the emergence of Donald Trump, they will be brought down on their knees to supplicate the Most High, the Throne of Grace, for help! It is then they will come to recognition. The Power of the Lord already anchored in Israel more than 2,000 years ago is still intact and living. It is being supplemented and driven by the Rays of the Power of the Holy Spirit to bring about total purification in that land. It is then they, nay, the world in general, will recognize, shout and hail Jesus as the Lord and Light. It is the same anchored power which those open in their midst tap which makes Israel arguably the most technologically powerful nation in the world. Lock up an average Jew, he will come out the following day with a bomber!
KEMI BADENOCH AND CRITICS
Some Nigerians have descended very heavily on Kemi Badenoch, the new Leader of Opposition in the United Kingdom, over her comments on Nigeria. The vehemence and venom in the tone of some of the criticisms astonish me. And I wonder what she said that Nigerians have not exhibited or proven her right many times over. They have done worse, stealing the country blind. How many Nigerians are in jail houses in Asian countries over drug-related offences! President Obasanjo himself has just said many things in far away the United States. As a retired Nigerian Ambassador said to me, no one has gone into Kemi Badenoch arguments and punctured nor denied her claims. The umbrage is that she said what she said, coming from a rising figure of Nigerian descent for that matter! They are not prepared to allow her mature into her high tasks!!
The question is: Do you break a mirror held to your face because you don’t like what you are seeing?
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