Of course, like any overriding theory, this one should not be pushed to an extreme, and it doesn't explain everything. But it explains a great deal.

A key role in the course events initially took was played by John Dee, the Neoplatonic Christian Cabalist and Scientific Advisor to Queen Elisabeth. He introduced the idea that the inhabitants of Britain were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. It was all part of the British propaganda barrage directed against the Vatican and the European Counter Reformation in the Sixteenth Century.

Henry VIII Wants an Heir

Let's start with Henry VIII. The king of England had not been able to conceive a male heir with his wife Catherine. So he wanted a divorce, which he doubted the Pope would allow. Henry VIII sent his secret agent Richard Croke to Venice in 1529 to consult with the Christian Cabalist theologian Georgi, as well as Jewish Rabbis, on the right way to biblically justify divorce and remarriage to the Pope. There was a conflict between Leviticus and Deuteronomy whether a man could marry his brother's widow, the grounds on which Henry VIII was questioning the legality of his own marriage to Catherine.

This represented the beginnings of an alliance between the British Monarchy and various Jewish groups. The divorce arguments, however, went no where. No compromise was ever reached with the Pope. (The British historian, Dame Francis Yates, tells the story in her book, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age.) So Henry VIII finally solved his dilemma by wresting the Church of England out from under the Pope, and proclaimed himself Head of the Church.

Henry was now supreme leader, both politically and spiritually, and did what he wanted with respect to divorce and remarriage. (As for the heir, we now know that the underlying infertility was Henry VIII's own. But from such trivialities do the major events of world history proceed.)

The Vatican was staggered. And it was furious. Not only had the head of a leading nation defied the Pope's authority in spiritual matters, but this same king had set himself up as a rival Pope, so to speak. King Henry VIII was an Anti-Pope. Or that's how the Vatican saw it. The Vatican and the Monarchy were now at war. The war of spiritual ideas and spiritual concepts quickly became part and parcel of the geopolitical war with the chief Catholic power, Spain.

Henry VIII's seizure of the Church of England had to be justified to English-speaking people in a spiritual sense. And so it was. The British had a spiritual destiny, it was declared.

Information Warfare and John Dee

John Dee, the son of one of Henry VIII's court officials, grew up surrounded by this controversy and the mystical currents concerning the notion of British Empire. The latter involved a spiritual as well as a geopolitical aspect: the British were to inherit the earth, and in the process foster the spread of True Christianity. That is, not Catholicism.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the kings of Britain were descended from Brut, of Trojan origin. King Arthur, one of Brut's descendants, was considered the chief exemplar of sacred British Imperial Christianity. John Dee identified with this Arthurian notion of Empire, as he believed himself to be descended from the ancient kings of Britain, and was thus himself a distant cousin of the Tudor Queen Elisabeth I.

The Tudor monarchy of Dee's time was glorified as the culmination of the Arthurian tradition, because Henry VIII's break with the Vatican had eliminated the Pope and made the British Monarch supreme in both church and state.

Another line of thought led to the doctrine of British-Israelism, which held that the British were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. The doctrine of British-Israelism and the Lost Ten Tribes was intended to forge a political alliance between the British monarchy and the Jews of Amsterdam, through a merger of the Arthurian Imperial tradition with Cabalistic interpretations of the Hebrew scriptures.

What had happened was that after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, some of them went East to the Ottoman Empire-the Islamic world being at the time more religiously tolerant than Christendom. Within Europe itself many of the Jews moved to Italy, particularly Venice, while other Jews and marranos migrated from Spain and Portugal to Amsterdam.

The Jewish merchants and bankers of Amsterdam were seen by the British Monarchy as desirable allies in the financial and political war with Spain, as well as in the spiritual war with the Vatican. Amsterdam thus became the springboard for the return of the Jews to England, from which they had been expelled in 1290.

To forge ties between Jewish merchants and British Imperialists, John Dee created the concept of British-Israel, which gave the British and the Jews a common racial identity, and invoked biblical prophecy to show the inevitable triumph of British Imperialism: the British, as Abraham's seed, were to inherit the earth. Dee also introduced the Jewish Cabala to the British ruling class and its interlocking network of European royal dynasties. All this set the stage for the later absorption of European Jewish merchants and bankers into British society.

In essence, the dissemination of the British-Israel doctrine was an intelligence coup carried out by the British Monarchy.

It wasn't the only such propaganda effort, of course. Dee also introduced Rosicrucianism to Germany, and afterward the British Monarchy continued to use secret societies for intelligence gathering and for the spread of propaganda under the guise of Cabalism and occultism.

The Literary War Continues

By the next century, the British Crown had supplanted the Vatican as the world's pre-eminent manipulator of power, having established British naval supremacy through the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. But the spiritual struggle continued, and British cultural history is strewn with its remnants.

Edmund Spenser, for example, wrote The Faerie Queen, with the express purpose of making a Neoplatonic heroine out of Queen Elisabeth I. This happened at the same time the Jesuits on the European continent were spearheading an attempt to stamp out Neoplatonic influences, which were seen as undermining the authority of the Church.

The Catholics quickly counterattacked. The Catholic Marlowe wrote Faust in order to defame John Dee as a Satanic magician. Marlowe similarly penned The Jew of Malta as a propaganda work intended to generate public rage over the growing encroachment of Jewish merchants. And Marlowe's Tamburlaine was an attempt to discredit British ideals of Empire.

Francis Bacon, by contrast, carried on the traditions of John Dee. On the secular front, Bacon emphasized inductive science and proposed the Royal Society. On the religious side, Bacon espoused Masonry and discussed the British-Jewish alliance in his book New Atlantis.

Even the Monarchy had a divided loyalty. Queen Elisabeth's successor James I leaned again toward the Catholics. But his translation and publication of the King James Bible made possible the anti-Catholic practice of individual Bible reading and interpretation.

By and large, the British Oligarchy became simultaneously humanist and occultist, pro-Jewish and anti-Catholic. Finally, Mennaseh ben Israel, the Dutch Cabalist Rabbi, petitioned Cromwell for the return of Jews to England. Mennaseh ben Israel argued that the Messiah and the Millennium could not come until the Jews had spread to every corner of the globe, which included England. To be sure, Menasseh ben Israel was not himself a British Israelite. Instead, he discovered the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel among American Indians, an idea that would later be revived by the Mormons. But Cromwell's Puritan advisors said he should let Jews settle in England (which Cromwell agreed to do), believing they would convert to pure biblical Christianity (which they didn't). The Jews were actually admitted in 1664, a few years after the deaths of both Cromwell and Menasseh ben Israel.

Following that event, the Catholic strain in the Monarchy was gradually weeded out. When William of Orange took over from the Catholic Stuart King James II in 1688, the domination of the Empire by the Protestant/Anglican branch of the Royal Family became permanent. The Monarchy, along with its allies the Noble and Jewish banking families, then immediately proceeded to consolidate its political control through the establishment of the Bank of England and the National Debt six years later in 1694. These instruments provided the financial muscle needed to exercise worldwide power: to make loans and to finance enterprises, including the raising of armies and the fostering of revolutions.

Manifest Destiny Yields to Balance of Power

The manifest destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race continued to be important in Crown-supported propaganda. But the Monarchy's actual policy evolved into one based on the balance of power.

For example, in the 1890s, as Britain began to fear a militarist Germany, Cecil Rhodes and William Stead founded a secret society to revive support for British Imperialism. Members included Alfred (later Lord) Milner and Arthur (Lord) Balfour. As governor-general of South Africa, Milner recruited a youthful group of administrators from Oxford and elsewhere. These were known as Milner's Kindergarten. To promote their geopolitical ideals, they established Round Table Groups in the British dependencies and the U.S., as well as think tanks like the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Council on Foreign Relations. The stated intention of the society was to spread British upper class ideals to the world's masses. In practice, however, the Round Table Groups were principally used as an outlet for anti- German propaganda. In this case-to counter the growing power of Germany-appeal was made to Britain's former colony in the New World: namely, to America.

It was the Round Table connections of "Colonel" E. M. House, the principal advisor to President Wilson, that lead in 1913 to the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the graduated Income Tax in the U.S. You needed both of these, of course, to provide the financial basis to create an American war machine. World War I broke out the following year. But prior to the outbreak, House wrote to Wilson: "Whenever England consents, France and Russia will close in on Germany and Austria."

As another example of the balance of power policy, the Balfour Declaration in 1917-of British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine-served the immediate purpose of increasing Jewish support for the British war effort. But it also followed Crown policy in eventually creating a balance of power in the Middle East.

It is easy to see what was going on if you look at the history of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The first edition was published in Russian in 1901. Afterward it was translated into English by George Shanks and issued through the Eyre and Spottiswoode Publishing House, the printer of all official releases by the British Royal Family.

Coming from such a prestigious printer, the book quickly sold 30,000 copies before being withdrawn under pressure from the Rothschild's. But a few years later Henry H. Beamish founded "The Britons," a "Society to protect the Birthright of Britons, and to eradicate Alien influence from our politics and industries." The Britons proceeded to distribute The Protocols worldwide.

In short-the battle with the Vatican long since won-the Monarchy kept the Jews on a short leash, through a carrot and stick policy. Assimilation into society and support for a homeland was the carrot, while The Protocols was the stick.

The Magician is the author of the on-going Laissez Faire City Times serialized novel, Jack Parsons and the Curious Origins of the American Space Program, for which he has promised to send more episodes when he returns from his journey to Kashmir.

Continued from cd 97

page 11 of paper

The, "mystery of iniquity" was already working, INSIDE these visible churches.

This apostasy increased! By the year 125 A.D. the majority in most churches, especially those Gentile-born, were continuing in many of their old pagan beliefs and practices, tho professing to be Christian! Gradually, a smaller and smaller portion of the VISIBLE churches going by the name "Christian" remained truly yielded to God and His Truth, and led of His Spirit. After Constantine took virtual control of the visible, professing Church in the early fourth century, this visible organization became almost wholly pagan, and began excommunicating and persecuting all who held to the true WORD OF GOD!

Finally, it became necessary for real Christians who, even as a scattered people, alone composed the TRUE Christian Church, to FLEE from the jurisdiction of Rome in order to worship God! Thus, the visible, organized Church which rose to power was the FALSE Church-the "Great Whore" of Rev. 17.

Nothing illustrates this very fact more vividly than the actual history of the injecting of Easter into the western Church.

Here is the quick, brief history of it, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, article on "EASTER:"

"There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. . . . The first Christians" (the original TRUE Church) "continued to observe the Jewish" (that is GOD'S) "festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it, of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed.

"Although the observance of Easter was at a very early period the practice of the Christian Church, a serious difference as to the day for its observance soon arose between the Christians of Jewish and those of Gentile descent, which led to a long and bitter controversy. With the Jewish Christians ... the fast ended . . . on the 14th day of the moon at evening . . . without regard to the day of the week. The Gentile Christians on the other hand" (that is, the beginning of the Catholic church, now substituting pagan for true Christian doctrines) ". . . identified the first day of the week with the resurrection, and kept the preceding Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the day of the month.

"Generally speaking, the Western Churches" (Catholic) "kept Easter on the 1st day of the week, while the Eastern Churches" (containing most of those who remained as part of the TRUE Christian church) "followed the Jewish rule." (That is, observing Passover on the 14th of the first sacred month instead of the pagan Easter.)

"Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist, and bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome in 159 to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject, and urged the tradition which he had received from the apostle of observing the 14th day. Anicetus, however, declined. About forty years later" (197), "the question was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop of Rome, and Polycrates, metropolitan of proconsular Asia" (the territory of the Churches at Ephesus, Galatia, Antioch, Philadelphia, and all those mentioned in Rev. 2 and 3the churches established thru the apostle Paul). "That province was the only portion of Christendom which still adhered to the Jewish (the writer should have used the words "true Christian" instead of "Jewish") usage.

Victor demanded that all should adopt the usage prevailing at Rome. This Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty reasons to the contrary, whereupon Victor proceeded to excommunicate Polycrates and the Christians who continued the Eastern usage" (that is, who continued in GOD'S way, as Jesus, Peter, Paul, and all the early true Church had done). "He was, however, restrained" (by other bishops) "from actually proceeding to enforce the decree of excommunication . . . and the Asiatic churches retained their usage unmolested. We find the Jewish" (true Christian Passover) "usage from time to time reasserting itself after this, but it never prevailed to any large extent.

"A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council at Nicaea in 325. At that time the Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of the 14th day. The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and that 'none hereafter should follow the blindness of the Jews.' " (That is, in plain language, the Catholic church now decreed that none should be allowed to follow the ways of CHRIST-of the TRUE Christian Church!)

". . . The few who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the church" (Roman church), "and continued to keep the 14th day, were named 'Quarto decimani,' and the dispute itself is known as the 'Quarto-deciman controversy."'

Thus you see how the politically organized church at Rome grew to great size and power by adopting popular pagan practices; how she gradually stamped out the true teachings, doctrines, and practices of CHRIST, and the true Church, so far as any collective practice is concerned.

It was only by violence and bloodshed, at last, says Hislop (The Two Babylons, p. 107), that the idolatrous festival of the Chaldean goddess Easter came to supersede that which God had ordained to be observed forever!

The New Testament reveals that Jesus, the apostles, and the New Testament Church, both Jewish and Gentile-born, observed God's Sabbaths, and God's festivals-weekly and annually! Take your Bible and carefully read Acts 2:1, 12:3-4 (the word "Easter" here is a flagrant false translation in "King James" version-originally inspired "Passover," and so corrected in the Revised version); Acts 18:21; 20:6, 16; 1 Con 16:8.

Eusebius, historian of the early centuries of the Church, speaks of the true Christians observing Passover on the 14th of Nisan, first month of the sacred calendar.

The historian Gieseler wrote that "the Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath and the Passover," during the latter half of the first century.

But as the false paganized Church grew in size and political power, decrees were passed by 363 A.D. imposing the death sentence upon Christians found keeping God's Sabbath, or God's festivals. Finally, in order to keep the true Way of God, a large portion of the true Christians (composing the true Church) "fled into the wilderness," as foretold in Rev. 12:6, where they were fed on the pure Word of God 1260 long years!

But another large portion of the TRUE Church of God, failing to flee, yet remaining true to God's Truth, paid with their lives in martyrdom (Rev. 6:9; 13:15; 17:6; 18:24). History records that more than 50 million were martyred!

They loved obedience to God more than their lives! DO YOU?

But through all generations, thru every century, though persecuted, scattered, unrecognized by the world, many true Christians have kept alive the TRUE CHURCH OF GOD-the Church composed of those Satan cannot deceive! (Mat. 24:24.)

You think Easter sun-rise services are beautiful? LISTEN! God was showing the prophet Ezekiel the sins of His people in a vision-a prophecy for today!

"Turn thee yet again," said God, "and thou shalt see greater abominations than these" (Ezekiel had just been shown, in vision, idol-worship among professing people of God). "And he brought me (in vision) into the inner court of the Eternal's house, and behold ... between the porch and the altar were about five and twenty men, with ... their faces toward the east,. and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, 0 son of man? Is it a light thing..... that they commit the ABOMINATIONS which they commit here? . . . Therefore, will I deal IN FURY. mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them!" (Ezek. 8:15-18.)

Do you grasp what this most abominable thing is?

It is the same identical thing millions are doing every Easter Sunday morning-the sun-rise service- standing with their faces toward the east, as the SUN is rising, in a service of worship which honours the SUN and his mythical idolatrous consort goddess Easter. Yes, deceived into believing this is Christian, millions practice every Easter the identical form of the ancient SUN-WORSHIP of the Sun-god BAAL! Throughout the Bible this is revealed as THE MOST ABOMINABLE of all idolatry in the sight of the Eternal Creator!

Do you think this makes no difference, today? It makes all the difference between life and death between being SAVED and LOST!

It is a serious thing to write to you, my readers, these truths-for now you have the KNOWLEDGE of the TRUTH! And "if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a CERTAIN fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries!" (Heb. 10:26-27.)

Yes, it makes a difference! Thousands had to flee the jurisdiction of "civilization" to keep God's ways! Other thousands paid with their lives for obeying God-but they shall LIVE forever, in the Resurrection!

This world's ways have brought only sorrow, suffering, chaos, death! GOD'S WAYS are the only ways that lead to Peace, lasting Prosperity, Happiness, Joy, Eternal Life! If Baal is god, then go serve him; but if The ETERNAL is your God, then SERVE HIM!

Ed Easter article finished.

Is it the CHURCH? Is it something "set up in the hearts of men?" Is it the British Empire? Is it "the Good within you?" Is it "the Millennium?" Each of these is widely taught - yet none is right! The shocking TRUTH is here made PLAIN!

Editors introduction. Again this is one of those "original" articles that brought so many people into the Church about 70 years ago. While the main theme remains the same, comments [ ] will be added to the article to show where we think the "original Herbert Armstrong" needed modifying.

Introduction:

Many years ago I thought the Kingdom of God was just "Religious Sounding" words. In mid 1950 1 came across a little booklet "Just What Do You Mean . . . The Kingdom of God?" It opened my eyes to the truth. I was dumbfounded when I read it and studied the Gospel. It became so clear through Christ's own words, that this was His message that He taught His Disciples, and the message they were to preach to the world. (Luke 9:1-2) 1 am reproducing this booklet hoping it will be an "eye opener" to you as it was to me over forty years ago.

Tom Justus, Minister

Church of God, Sabbath Day

Springdale, Arkansas

September, 1996

Presented By .Church of God UK

WHY cannot the churches agree on what is the GOSPEL? Jesus Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Yet few preach about the Kingdom of God today, for they have lost all knowledge of what it is!

A prominent evangelist said to a world-wide radio audience that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is not for us today. Some denominations proclaim a "Gospel of Grace," some what they call a "Gospel of Salvation;" some a gospel about Christ; some a social gospel; some the "Science of Mind" or "Religious Science."

Some churches claim either that their particular denomination, or "Christianity" as a whole, constitutes the Kingdom of God.

Not one is right! Could anything seem more incredible? Yes, to the mind reared in this world's concepts, one thing is, indeed, still more incredible! And that is the PLAIN TRUTH about what the Kingdom of God really is!

This truth is not merely surprising-it is shocking staggering! Yet it is truly GOOD NEWS-the most glorious GOOD NEWS ever to enter human consciousness!

What is the one and only Gospel of Jesus Christ? THE WORLD DOES NOT KNOW! It has not been preached for 181/2 centuries, strange as that may seem. Look into your BIBLE. Look at it from the very beginning!

"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ" you'll read in Mark 1: 1. "Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus cam e into Galilee, preaching the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1: 14-15).

It is necessary to believe that GOSPEL, to be saved! And how can you believe it, unless you know what it is?

Jesus went everywhere preaching the GOOD NEWS of the KINGDOM OF GOD. He sent out seventy men preaching, and commanded them to preach THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Luke 10:9). He sent the Apostles, on whom the Church of God was founded, to preach only THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Luke 9:1-2).

Isn't it amazing that the world has LOST the knowledge of what it is?

The Apostle Paul preached THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Acts 19:8; 20:25, 28:23, 31). And God Almighty, through Paul, pronounced a double curse on man or angel that would DARE preach any other Gospel! (Gal. 1:8-9.)

WHY, then, do so many DARE to preach so many other gospels? The good news of THE KINGDOM OF GOD is something you must understand, and BELIEVE, in order to be saved! Jesus Christ said so! YOU had better be finding out what it is!

Haven't you heard men speak of the Kingdom of God something like this: "By Christians everywhere working together to bring about world peace, tolerance and brotherly love, the Kingdom of God may at last be established in the hearts of men."

Because they rejected Christ's Gospel 1900 years ago, the world had to supplant something else in its place. They had to invent a counterfeit! So we have heard the Kingdom of God spoken of as merely a pretty platitude-a nice sentiment in human hearts reducing it to an ethereal, unreal NOTHING! Others have misrepresented that the "CHURCH" is the Kingdom. Others confuse it with a "millennium." Still others have, in our century, claimed the British Empire is the Kingdom of God, HOW DECEIVED CAN THIS WORLD GET?

The prophet Daniel, who lived 600 years before Christ, knew that the Kingdom of God was a real kingdom-a government ruling over literal PEOPLE on the earth.

Jesus Christ brought additional knowledge about it which the prophet Daniel might not have known. Still, Daniel knew there was going to be a real, literal Kingdom of God on the earth.

Daniel was one of four extraordinary, intelligent and brilliant Jewish lads in the Judean captivity. These four men were stationed in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldean Empire, in training for special responsibilities in the Babylonian government. Daniel was a prophet who had been given special understanding in visions and dreams (Dan. 1:17).

Nebuchadnezzar was the first real world ruler. He had conquered a vast Empire, including the nation Judah. This king had a dream so impressive it troubled him-moved him to tremendous concern. He demanded that his magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers tell him both what he had dreamed, and what it meant. They could not. They were baffled. Then Daniel was brought before the King.

Daniel disclaimed any more human ability to interpret dreams than the Chaldean magicians, "BUT," he said, "there is a GOD in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days" (Dan. 2:28).

First, God's purpose was to reveal to this world ruling human king that there is a GOD in heaven that GOD IS SUPREME RULER over all nations, governments, and kings-that God RULES THE UNIVERSE! This Chaldean king knew only about the many pagan demon gods. He knew nothing of the true living ALMIGHTY God.

Like people and rulers, even today, he did not know that GOD is the living, REAL, active, RULING and GOVERNING PERSONAGE who actually and literally governs not only what is on earth, but the UNIVERSE ENTIRELY!

The whole purpose of this DREAM was to reveal GOD'S GOVERNMENT- the fact that God RULES-the truth of THE KINGDOM OF GOD the very thing that is the one and only true GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST! And, secondly, to reveal preserved in writing for us TODAY-what is to happen "in the latter days."

This is no dry, dull, dead writing for a people of 2500 years ago. This is LIVING, TREMENDOUS BIG NEWS for OUR DAY! It is advance news for us, NOW. News before it happens-of the most colossal event of all earth's history certain to occur in your lifetime-during the very next few years!

This is THE TRUE GOSPEL! It is the very Gospel Christ preached! It is intended for you and me TODAY! It is vital that you UNDERSTAND!

To be contd