Chapter 2: The Living Parable
The feature of our Father’s Baseball analogy that struck me (from skin to soul) was how He went about saying it. Analogies, plays on Words, parables and such, He normally presents to me in levity. This time, there was no familiar joviality in His tone. He made certain that I felt it. In full. From His perspective. It sounds corny, but there really is no other way for me to put it. He made me an adequate vehicle in which to express His wrath. Against The Church. Alphabetically and with unquestioning finality. No reservations.
The moment I had that, 100%, His Presence lightened up again. He warned me not to let His wrath change the good humor He has blessed upon me.
“Do not fret about incensing your book with My outrage, nor keeping it Faith-agreeable. Present the Truth. And, write it as entertainingly as possible...”
...so says the Lord God. Here is how I took those memorable Words: I’LL let you know when to pound your fist. “Faith” be destroyed? So be it. Let the chips fall where they may — “faith” in falsehood SHOULD be destroyed. Only one rule: Keep it fun and Edge-Of-Your-Seat intriguing.
Elijah immediately came to mind. Specifically, Elijah’s take on “faith” provoked by Organized Religion. How, left to its own devices, what a shambles it always becomes. You see, Elijah passionately expressed the wrath of the Living God against “The Church” of his day while keeping it fun and intriguing. Mount Carmel. ALL that well-deserved mockery. Elijah’s devastating satire. Suggesting that their god must have been off somewhere, perhaps at the latrine, taking a dump.
No sir. The Living God stopped me immediately, before I could write down one iota of what I thought was going to be my initial (and ongoing) theme. One to which I could point throughout this entire book. How Elijah’s “Church” Israel (what our Church calls “The Chosen People”) had been repopulated by “mature and fully-equipped” Baal-Worshipers. And, especially how such a catastrophe relates to our Church. What we call “The Christian Church.”
Nope, the Living God wanted a PERFECT analogy. Yep, the Lord gave me His full authority to fling devastating satire (deadlier than brother Bill Maher’s Religulous); however, I instantly saw the weakness of my Elijah-Analogy. It was not PERFECTLY timely to us — to our generation. A generation like so many before us whose eyes and ears have been bludgeoned shut. Yet, we have video. And so, God made it PERFECTLY clear to me what He wanted. A Living-Parable to aptly demonstrate the extreme passion of His wrath. One we can see and hear. And so, I asked God where to find such a thing. I’m tickled that it’s okay with Him for me to share with you His answer.
I’ll turn this part over to the Living God and let Him explain it to you:
“The ‘Out of Order’ speech from the motion picture, And Justice For ALL. Look at it this way. You, the reader, are the jury. The Christian Church is the John Forsythe character, Judge Fleming. And, I AM Arthur Kirkland, Counsel for the accused. Watch and listen. See and hear My Words brought to Life by Al Pacino.
“Members of the jury, I AM the Living God. And, I AM the defense attorney for the Christian Church. Are you ready for my Opening Statement?
“Thank you.
“Today, there are many powers that would like to get the Christian Church. By ‘get’ I mean take it down. However, I will not allow it. Against ALL conceivable odds, these powers themselves cannot allow it. And, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the Judges that would take Christianity out of your schools and public squares are not gonna get that Church, today. No. Neither will it be the Atheists, the Christ-Mythers, the evolutionists, nor the whole sightless lot of them put together. No. Because I — the Lord God Almighty — I’M gonna get that Church! ALL its leaders, members and visitors aside; for, they are, by far, the most damaged victims of it. My client, the honorable, organized religious institution, in its entirety — lock, stock and barrel, known as ‘The Christian Church’ — should go right to (blank)ing destruction!”
I know. Wow.
Very hard for us to have to hear. However, very good for God to get ALL that off His chest. He’s been carrying it around for awhile. Allow me to candidly address my Christian reader (if I still have one). Shake it off. Gather yourself together and try not to Judge the Living God too harshly.
Psalms 85:3 (KJV) “Thou hast taken AWAY ALL thy wrath: Thou hast turned Thyself from the fierceness of Thine anger...”
...by Thou letting off some steam. Consider the psalmist’s optimism (directly above) and try to receive the Lord God’s Opening Statement with some pause and gratitude.
Gratitude? We should “thank ‘God’” for saying such terrible things about our Church?
Terrible things about the clubhouse. Not the members. As for the members, that was more of a scolding than a spanking. Look at it this way: Better a harsh Word to the wise than fire and brimstone.
I get the other side as well — the Church-Approved view of “God” and “decent correctness.” I knew it the moment I viewed the Living Parable (yeah, I re-watched the “Out-Of-Order” scene online) and I warned our Father in Heaven: “Because of Your strong language, fully equipped, Mature-Christian leaders will take absolute offense to Your ‘Opening Statement’ — Your ‘Living Parable’.”
Would you like to know what the Lord God told me in response for me to pass on to our generation’s “fully-equipped” Mature-Christian commanders? Like it or not. Here is what He has to say to any and ALL offended Christian leaders out there:
“Good. In your mirror of indignation you can see what Pharisees you have become. Clearly understand: I am speaking to you as strongly as the limits of your language allows. A Pharisee clothed in his faith always finds disdain in how I speak. Yet, I speak. Your Christianity is in trouble. As Christian leaders, you concern yourselves with language. People are dying. And, yet, you concern yourself with language. Piddling with adjectives and pronouns while your house is on fire. If your Faith is pile-driven in Truth, it will stand tall against the rain of a hurricane, firm in the path of a tornado and unadulterated by the Light of My Word, no matter how I choose to express it. If your Faith is Truth then fear not. Be brave. Read on. Be strong. Put your faith to the test.”
A “Pharisee” (in case any of you are unfamiliar with the term) is one of a self-righteous gang of religious prudes. They woke up one dreary day fancying themselves the official interpreters of Mosaic Law. They were notorious for imposing rules and regulations, especially in regard to tithing and ritual purity. After determining the pure and proper ceremony for how one should wipe one’s own ass (for real) they soon became “experts” in everything. They gained the characteristics and attitude of a fascist political party, bullying their way into a self-appointed position of command. After years and years of sanctimonious practice — during which time no one could count even the slightest sin against any one of their leaders — they were accepted as a legitimate voice of authority by the Jewish hierarchy.
ALL pauses and words-to-the-wise aside, today’s twenty-first century Christian leaders are most likely incurably offended by the Living God’s Opening Statement. Par for the course. The religious leaders of the first century were incurably offended by the Living God’s Opening Statement from Jesus. Truly, to the Pharisees and Temple-Tyrants, the Word of the Living God was not “Faith-agreeable.” So... Jesus went to Thomas (a doubting skeptic), Nathanial (an honest skeptic), Simon (a zealot, who despised the godship of manmade authority), Matthew (a tax collector) and various liars (aka: fishermen — that’s a fisherman’s joke). His following grew exponentially. For what reason — considering nobody really knew him at that point? You already know the reason. Instinctively, we ALL KNOW the God’s-Honest Truth when we hear it... (provided, WE ARE REALLY LISTENING). At long last, the religious leaders had to listen to Jesus. Still, they could not accept the God’s-Honest Truth, even though they, these masters of supposedly “the Law of God,” could not argue against the God’s-Honest Truth.
If you are a Christian leader (God love you), you HAVE to read this entire book. I sincerely wish I could make it easier for you to do so. The Holy Spirit confirms, this is good medicine. Hold your nose if you must, but try to keep your eyes open and swallow hard. I plead with you. Do not unknowingly toss this book aside to quickly find something more “Faith-agreeable” to read. Hang tight. Give our Father in Heaven (through His humble, yet considered messenger) an opportunity to present His entire case to you. Cut Him some slack.
This IS our Father’s Opening Statement in Living Parable. ALL His. Not mine. You can trust that fact. It would be foolish for any author, at the outset, to so offend the very person who MUST read this entire book (ALL 55 chapters) never to get past these first few pages of Chapter 2. And, over what? A clip from a forty-year-old movie? As your author, that would be senseless. Would it not? Better for God’s emissary to chop one parable from his book out of fear — out of fear if he didn’t, many promising readers would toss his book aside and miss the overwhelming treasure within.
Therein lies the rub. The most terrible ingredient of censorship.
Fear.
If I edit ALL of what I fear you don’t want to hear, you will be left with not much of a book to read.
So... here’s the deal. If the Lord God wants it in, it’s in. Try not to Judge Him. (Or kill the messenger.) Reserve Judgment. Save it as your splendid dessert after you have finished the meal. For now, give us the benefit of the doubt. Our Father in Heaven is determined to impress upon the modern reader what He sees as an ongoing crime and His enflamed thoughts on the matter.
On a more positive note, I hope you noticed the Good News made clear in God’s Opening Statement. The Living God is in no way inconsolably furious with us Christians. Just our false doctrines and dogma. The shambles we have made of Scripture. Our rules and regulations. Church denominations. Church-Judging. Church music. Church cash-flow. Pretty much the entire manmade structure. Every physical and financial asset — from the clubhouse to the paperclips. The total corporate entity.
I know. As Christians, we are taught to think of ourselves as “The Church.” Be thankful our Father in Heaven does not see us that way.
For almost two-thousand years, The Church has acclaimed itself as the representative of God. Before examining His Living-Parable, I had never witnessed the reversal of those rolls: God representing The Church. Perhaps you saw And Justice For ALL a while back. It came out in 1979. The “Out-Of-Order” speech is still online. I browsed it up and... behold. There is no other Living-Thing on earth that can adequately serve His purpose. The setting is the criminal trial of a Judge: Judge Henry T. Fleming. In its entirety, the scene parallels God’s otherwise unparalleled outrage. Yes... unparalleled. That’s a fact. The wrath God felt for Sodom and Gomorrah pales in comparison to this. The proverbial clue that Fleming is... a Judge... says volumes. In its context and in its entirety, Arthur Kirkland’s Opening Statement is the PERFECT representation of God’s feelings, as so they are applicable to The Church. God sees ALL of our tears. Watch the Living Parable. See His tears. It only comes Alive when you hear the passion in His Voice. Take five. At least check out the video snippet (only 2 minutes long). You can Google it online by typing in your browser: and justice for ALL you’re out of order scene. Better yet, watch the eight-minute and forty-five second version — see the tears on your Creator’s face. God has GOOD reason to be angered to the point of tears. Understandably unimaginable to a Church-Taught Christian. Yet... try. Try to imagine it from God’s point of view. Imagine... for the last 2000 years, everything the world has been taught about What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross is useless error. Imagine that each and every ridiculous and overcomplicated “Atonement Theory” which The Church has spewed forth upon humanity, is just that. Ridiculous and overcomplicated. Imagine how many people went to their graves in the first thousand years AD having “faith” that the RANSOM Jesus put together (for the sake of ALL people) “was paid to the devil.” Imagine how many more of us have gone to our graves in the last thousand years “believing” in Catholic “Satisfaction” and Protestant “Penal Substitutionary Atonement.” Imagine... that every breath of this theoretical, theological rhetoric is nothing more than ignorant folklore. Living in our day and age, imagining ALL that should not take much of an imagination. Christianity’s most popular What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross theory (Penal Substitutionary Atonement) was proposed almost six-hundred years ago by men who “believed” in bloodletting and putting “witches” to death. What would Jesus call such teachers? “Blind Tour-Guides.” What would Jesus call the food being fed to his sheep? “Hypothetical fairytales — as profitable as ‘believing’ in leprechauns and pots of fairy-substitutionary-gold-dust at the end of the rainbow.”
Take an ice cream break and watch the eight-minute, forty-five second version of the Living Parable. Plug and justice for ALL-Opening statements scene-full speech into your browser. The link is still Living. Feel His passion. Watch His anger. See His tears. Hear the Living God fill-in the blank:
“My client, the honorable, organized religious institution, in its entirety — lock, stock and barrel, known as ‘The Christian Church’ — should go right to (blank)ing destruction!”
No doubt, God’s most illuminating point. So strongly gotten across to the jury. To you. To humanity.
To grasp any parable, we must first know what ALL the principle characters represent. As we know, The Church is depicted as Judge Fleming and God as Fleming’s attorney, Arthur Kirkland. You may be wondering what “the victim” represents (the young lady in the story who was raped and beaten). I will gladly spell it out so that anyone in the world can plainly see it. What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross is the rape-victim. And — as the Living God has stated for the record — the accused on trial for the dastardly deed is The Church. Unquestionably, this is God’s PERFECT Living Parable. If The Church is innocent, then the victim is lying. Lying to the prosecutor. Lying to the court. And, most essential to our ongoing discussion, the victim is lying to the jury. Which, if you will remember (in parabolic terms) the jury is you, also a victim of the alleged crime... after the fact. Likewise, it would mean that I, myself (being an equal victim after the fact and your responsible author) am lying to you as well. But, why? See? THAT is the pivotal question. In the full eight-minute and forty-five second online excerpt, God clearly expresses the exact same point to the on-the-edge-of-their-seats jury and gallery:
“If My client (Judge Fleming) is innocent, then the victim is lying.” “But... why? Why would she lie?”
What is the motive for her lie — her claim that The Judge committed this crime against humanity?
“Blackmail? No. Jealousy? No.”
As always, the God’s-Honest Truth holds up against subterfuge and speculation.
“She’s not lying.”
I once complimented a preacher who had demonstrated exceptional communication skills in the delivery of his sermon. He humbly replied to me, quoting the Old Testament:
“God can speak to us even by way of a jackass.”
Certainly then... God can speak to us by way of Al Pacino’s “Arthur Kirkland.” Looking through the big lens, this is God in Living Parable representing His client, the Christian Church. Once the principle characters are revealed, the parable itself becomes an Absolute. Play it again and again, and the Absolute-Reality of it becomes almost too obvious. There is no denying it. Every aspect of the scene fits PERFECTLY. Keep in mind, Arthur Kirkland knows beyond ALL doubt that his client (Judge Fleming) is guilty of a rape and battery, the very purpose of the trial. The Judge WANTS TO CONTINUE to rape the victim; which (in privilege) he has outright admitted to Arthur Kirkland, his attorney. Arthur Kirkland also knows, Fleming is guilty of standing idle while countless innocent die on his Honor’s watch.
The God’s-Honest purpose of this book, first and foremost, is to correct what The Church has done. Now, granted, that sounds like a formidable task. An impossible task. Considering The Church has two-thousand solid years of authority traced back to Peter and Paul and the canonized saints on its side.
I am not worried. I have pen and paper and the Living God on my side.
The Living God is certain that you, the jury, will be in unanimous agreement once the curtains have been pulled back and you can clearly see what The Church has done.
As God is my Witness, I will prove to you beyond ALL doubt that The Church has raped and battered What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross — both the Concept of Jesus and his Action. Yes. The very Action of Jesus upon the cross. His Concept? Wrapped up and buried. His Action? Murdered by ifs, ands and buts. As a result of this onslaught, we (as equal victims after the fact) continue to die. And, exactly as depicted in the Living Parable, the only hope for the Christian Church is for some higher power to step in and rule that the Living God I know is “Out of order!”
Precisely why this book is a must-read for the principalities of the Christian Church. So the very best of the best may step in and defend The Church. If it is defendable. As for my God, I have but two things to say in His defense. This is the God’s-Honest Truth. And, there is no higher power.
This is not a happy task for me. However, the Living God wants me to write it ALL down before I get killed in a car crash or keel over with a heart attack (I guess) or someone drops a piano on me. Now that humanity has come to the point where we can fully comprehend our real problem, He wants us ALL to fully comprehend (to ABSOLUTELY KNOW) the real solution. He has real passion about the real cure — the real simplicity of the cure. I have it. I am Living it. I just never thought of what to call it until I came face to face with having to write a book about it.
I guess (if you have to call me something) what I am is a true acceptor.
Now don’t get me wrong. Me labeling myself a true acceptor is not some fancy, round-about way of me saying that I am a “believer.” For, that, I can promise you, I am not. I was not born into the Show-Me State; however, I do happen to currently Live in it. You have to prove it by me. No “blind faith” here. No sir. No ma’am. I do not “believe” in God.
I KNOW God.
And... I also know how to take a gift. You either Truly-Accept it.
Or, you don’t.
I, for one, have Truly-Accepted this God-Given gift, 100%, with no ifs, ands or buts. Thus, you can call me a true acceptor. What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross... is mine.
