| Next, Jesus was asked why he speaks in parables and he explains it is because people cannot make the determination between the two worlds unless they have been in them both, therefore, his words will only reach those who truly understand them, and to everyone else they will not hear, though they have ears and will not see, though they have eyes: (10) The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” (11) He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. (12) Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. (13) This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. (14) In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. (15) For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ (16) But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. (17) For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:10-17) The writings of Jesus’ alleged apostles, having been cleaned and approved by the Roman authorities, were well suited for the masses. The church could continue to keep the secret to themselves, but for the masses, they would be served lifeless bread and lifeless water on a plate being passed around asking for donations. Churches and cathedrals would continue to enshrine the original ideas within their art and only those who were privy to the knowledge could put the imagery together. Church Tithes and Land Ownership Alex Del Mar gives us a summary of the way land use worked in early Rome: “The lands of the church, or ecclesiastical organization, were not alienated by grants conveying absolute or allodial tenures. They belonged to that Lord of Heaven who was ready to receive unconditionally, but never to unconditionally grant. Such lands could not be sold. Mortmain held them; they were inalienable; their usufruct alone was negotiable; the grant or conveyance of such usufruct constituted a benefice or fief; and in after times, when this was paid for with the services of freedmen, instead of money, it was called a feud.” (148) Rome had a claim to the land of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as far back as 400 AD, when they build monasteries, temples, altars, cathedrals, cemeteries, etc., all of which were consecrated to Rome forever afterwards. Once land was consecrated it could no longer be sold, transferred or used for profane uses. (149) The Catholic Church from its initial onset controlled approximately half of the lands and one fourth of the population of the Roman Empire. (150) |
The Roman clergy were the first to introduce concepts of internal discord for the profit of the church and state. The empire being so large that clerics could easily assemble interstate dissention and in the words of Del Mar: “There is scarcely a quarrel of the dark and medieval ages that cannot be traced to the machinations of the clergy, who derived a profit both from the spoils of war, from the negotiation of truces, which their address and knowledge of letters enabled them to monopolize, and from the dissentions of hundreds of petty and jealous states.” (151) Extractions of tithes of the mother country from the sister states goes back to the early times and nothing has changed. Gold used to be delivered and offered up to the priesthood which would store it in a safe house, and this went back at least to the days of Apollo and the Greeks, according to Herodotus. In every religion the priesthood has exacted a tithe from the followers, whether it’s the Brahmin, Buddhist, Assyrian, Egyptian, Hebrew or Christian. (152) The greatest boon to church tithes were the holidays, of course, when good cheer and service to others were heavily pushed on the guilt mechanism of the populace. The Pentecost was originally a Jewish feast (Shavuot), a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest and was later transferred to the celebration of God’s gift to Moses of the tablets on Mount Sinai. (153) The word, in Greek, means the “fiftieth” or the 50th day after Passover, according to the Jewish tradition. In Judaism the Festival of Weeks was a harvest festival that was celebrated seven weeks and one day after the first Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Deuteronomy 16:9) or seven weeks and one day after the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:16). (154) In Christianity, the Pentecost is celebrated on the Sunday that is the “fiftieth” day of Easter, thereby linking Easter with the original Passover, which may have already been obvious to some people, but it’s worth pointing out because every single Christian holiday goes back to a Jewish holiday which goes back to some celebration of fertility, the mushroom, and the resurrection of growth in nature. This is further evidenced by the baptisms that took place on this particular holiday, during Easter, and at the Pentecost on the last day. In England there was celebrated a “Whitsunday” for the all-white clothing worn by the newly baptized. (148) Middle Ages Revisited, p. 85; Muratori, Cited in Robertson's Charles V., I, 225. Note H, sec. IV (149) ibid, p. 78 (150) ibid, p. 86 (151) ibid, p. 95 (152) ibid, p. 107 (153) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pentecost-Christianity (154) Apples of Apollo, p. 162; Balz, Horst Robert; Schneider, Gerhard (1994). Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament |