The Book of Trump
I had never read or learned about the Bible when I was growing up and shied away from it when I did grow up. As someone who was born a Jew ethnically, but raised pretty much without any religious indoctrination it seemed irrelevant. I knew the Old Testament was the Jewish people’s book but not much more than that. I knew there was a central figure named Jesus but mostly he scared me hanging on that crucifix, blood dripping and all. And anyway somewhere along the line I got the message that us Jews were unfairly blamed for his death (as well as so many other things).
I always believed in God, but my lack of spiritual upbringing left me searching for something “missing” most of my life — a center, an anchor, a GPS system to guide me, to help me sort out moral choices.
For awhile I forgot about Higher Powers, however you choose to name them and the unseen figure I called “God” I used to talk to when I was a little girl. I lived my life as most of us do. Very focused on the earthly and material attainments. Raising and providing for me and my family. For me, I truly believed that the bigger the job I had, the more money I made, the bigger my office and title was, would equate to how much I mattered (or mattering at all) and to how much people would like me. And what other people thought was very very important.
About six or seven years ago though, I began to “wake up” to my separation from my soul and the soul of life and reconnect to that guy/girl/energy I used to call God. I remembered what I had forgot. I learned that the physical me was just a channel for the real me, — the one connected to that Higher Source. I still was and am an earthly, human being of course and will be until I choose to leave this body — terribly flawed and all that. I still struggle with righteous choices, temptations and mostly imperfections although slightly less so than before. Or at least I am more aware of it when I do.
I started seeing myself differently but I also started seeing the world differently. I learned that we are a part of IT and we belong to IT and not the other way around. I learned how we were raping this beautiful sphere of a planet that is our Mother, that which sustains us and provides for Life. Raping it and raping it and raping it. Just to line the pockets of a few greedy people.
I saw, despite the wrath of others who felt differently that each one of us, even the ugliest of us was part of one divinity. So when we called people “monsters” for heinous acts or spewed hatred we really were saying that ourselves. The bigger question for me was why would the Divine create any of this darkness at all if the Divine is Love. And the only reason I or others I talked to could come up with which still only partially satisfies me is that we need the “contrast”, the duality to even know what Love is.
Just as we are witnessing now with the throngs of regular people, all colors, ages, orientations rising up together against this stark contrast to Love that is our current President and administration — sometimes it just seems to take extremism of one type of energy to activate the other. Otherwise we just remain complacent and leave open spaces for darker energies to occupy.
In her early teens, during a tumultuous time in her life when her father and I were divorcing, my daughter became a Christian — the kind of Christian that follows what Jesus really said. She is a seeker and spreader of love. She is a person I look up to with a strong, noble center, a person leading her life to make a difference in the lives of others, the kind of person I wish I could have been at her age. She began to introduce me to how becoming a Christian helped her and I began to listen.
I didn’t become a Christian per se, I shy away from “labels” as such, but I began to be very interested in what Jesus had to say — as a revolutionary and as an ascended master. As a teacher of love, compassion, non-judgment, forgiveness. So in a way, in my heart I did become a Christian. I thought that his teachings might not be such a bad thing to follow, maybe they could serve as that guidepost, that GPS I’d been looking for my whole life.
Recently, an opportunity serendipitously arose to study the Bible. Since I never learned it I got curious what the fuss about this book was all about. And I have been stunned! Each week I walk out of our class, and shake my head at the similarities between then and now. It’s all laid out. Right there in black and white in these sacred volumes. Over and over and over — and over again.
The people stray, they disobey the laws of God (love, brotherhood etc), bad things happen, sometimes very bad things. So then they wake up and go back to listening to God. For awhile. Then they forget. They are human. They need another lesson. Another opportunity. For hundreds and hundreds of years they do this.
Until finally Jesus arrives and speaks of a new consciousness. A new way of being.
One of the participants said that “God must be really angry right now at what He is seeing” to which the minister replied — “No, God has been around a long time, He (She/It) has seen it all, many times before.” You see, it’s kind of a pattern…
Right around the time of the inauguration and its aftermath, we were reading Samuel 1, chapter 8 Verse 10. The context is that the people were in such chaos trying to rule themselves that they asked for a King. Neither God or Samuel who was the “judge” leader at the time wanted that, he wanted them to see that He was King but he told Samuel to give them what he wanted.
So obedient as he was, Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a King. He said (with my comments for the current day inserted )
“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to his horsemen… he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands (his cabinet and the GOP)… to plow his ground (Mir a Lago?, Trump Tower??) and to reap his harvest,(business interests?) and to make his implements of war (well we all know this one) and the equipment of his chariots (his plane etc). He will take your daughters to be perfumers and bakers (loss of women’s rights). He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards (the environment) and give them to his courtiers (his rich friends and said cabinet nominees and GOP). He will take your male and female slaves (the incarcerated, the poor) and the best of your cattle and donkeys (our taxes?) and put them to his work
And in that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for your selves.”
The last line of that passage is ” but the Lord will not answer you in that day”. I left it out because I didn’t want to scare you — or me. But mostly its because I don’t agree. I think our Higher Source/Self WILL answer us. Maybe not on “that day” But it will on the day we rise to a new way of being, to a new level of consciousness where love becomes the bottom line.
Not to be too dramatic (ok yes I am being kinda dramatic because it kinda is), but I think we are witnessing the GREAT OPPORTUNITY, a turning point in the evolution of our species and our civilization.
The Bible speaks of an apocalypse (I haven’t got to that part of “studying” it yet myself but I heard about it
) I know enough to know that it can be interpreted in different ways either as an event of cataclysmic proportion that causes great destruction signifying the end of the world.
Or, it can be interpreted according to the Greek word for apocalypse which is “apocálypsis” and means “a revealing or an uncovering … It is like a curtain or veil that is lifted so that what is behind it can be seen or the contents are suddenly disclosed. The Book of Revelation has a similar meaning as it is an uncovering or revealing of something that was previously unseen or hidden. It is like a curtain or veil that is lifted so that what is behind it can be seen or the contents are suddenly disclosed. The Book of Revelation has a similar meaning as it is an uncovering or revealing of something that was previously unseen or hidden” (Jack Wellman/Patheos)
The Apocalypse could be the absolute end of the world — kaput, gone, extinct — OR it could be the”end of the world as we know it”- the end of hate, the end of greed, the end of being separated from your Self, others and the planet, the end of profit over people, the end of war, maybe even the end of suffering??? Could it be??
So, I think this is where we are at. We can go one way or the other. Inbetween is no longer a viable option. The veil is indeed being lifted and we are finally seeing what’s behind it.The ultimate “turning point”. Could this be the “second coming” we have all heard about, not in the form of a person but in the lack of form, a new consciousness based on Love. Look, look how people are rising up and above, not just the marginalized, not just the segregated or discriminated against but all of us seeing that we believe in liberty, justice, true democracy after all and willing to do something about it.
This verse and chapter, this “Book of Trump” may not be what it appears to be. Especially to Trump and company. It looks like it could be the demise of our democracy if not our world but it actually, in the end, may be our saving grace.
I for one have hope. These are truly revolutionary times
