“Their government/industry collaboration will use this system to manage the rage when Americans finally wake up to the fact that this outlaw gang has stolen our democracy, our civil rights, our country and way of life — while we huddled in orchestrated fear from a flu-like illness.” – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr) is an attorney, author, activist, and chairman of the CHD nonprofit. That “outlaw gang” he describes includes specific names familiar to MHProNews’ professional readers. Kennedy lays out supporting evidence in his medical forward that blends news, historic, and other data-driven analysis. RFK Jr is the son of the slain Senator Robert F “Bobby” Kennedy and nephew of the assassinated President John F. “Jack” Kennedy. Few Americans have the resources, insights, and connections RFK Jr has. Fewer still are willing to use such knowledge to fight legal battles and wage an info counter-war against specific billionaires, their corporate and political allies. Several of those Kennedy names and exposes are members of his own Democratic Party. RFK Jr also calls out specific examples of corrupt officials and corporate giants from Republican, Socialist, and other political belief systems too. Kennedy is equal opportunity in seeking accountability for what is arguably criminal activity, doing the job that an honest media should be doing. A traditional role of media is to hold the powerful and corrupt to account. But when much of mainstream media and other institutions are failing, RFK Jr and others are aiming to exposing and end the efforts of a corrupt cabal to “steal” the American Republic.
Kennedy is making specific as well as broader points that apply to our industry’s interests. His preface to “The Truth About COVID-19 — Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal” uniquely reveals several trends that further threaten the independents, consumers, and homeowners in our affordable manufactured home profession. Two of the several reports on the World Economic Forum (WEF) backed Great Reset being pushed in the U.S. under the mantra “Build Back Better” are linked here and here. They should be part of the must-reading for our industry, because the plan arguably threatens the interests of all but the highest level insiders that RFK Jr and others are exposing.
The tragic and cruel gutting of good people in our manufactured housing by manipulating modern Robber Barons has its parallels in other parts of American economic, social, political and spiritual life. What follows from Kennedy is politically incorrect and flies in the face of what fellow-leftist and attorney Glenn Greenwald has called “a blinding propaganda” that aims to pacify and mislead Americans. Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s powerful, evidence-supported, and well-reasoned insights from the left are being applauded by voices those on the right. Kennedy and Greenwald are not alone in raising these concerns from the left, as regular MHProNews readers know. But there are voices on the right that have raised parallel issues too.
Conservatives and true – vs. faux – liberals and others are coming together to raise alarms.
The latest evidence-driven barrage from Kennedy against ‘the billionaires and technocrats’ have orchestrated what Kennedy calls “the 2020 COVID Coup.” The release of his insights happens to come at the most sacred season for Christians and the commemoration of the Passover for Jews.
Rephrased, Kennedy is covering some new ground but also plows soil that merits the extra attention. When propaganda from what he called the “government/industry collaboration” is daily and ongoing, logically the antidote to intellectual poison must be ongoing too.
What RFK Jr wrote gives a quick glimpse into just how effective propaganda methods have been in other places, as well as in America. The medical aspects of what he is saying on behalf of Dr. Joseph Mercola are likewise supported by other voices that includes those in the medical profession. So, much like the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) or MHProNews are willing to challenge the plutocrats and oligarchs that have formed an Iron Triangle in our industry, Kennedy, Dr. Mercola and others are taking on those in Big Pharma who have corrupted the medical profession and who are aligned with powerful governmental interests and politicos.
Today’s evidenced-based news, views, and analysis are a blend of the current assaults on our liberties. It is a useful tee up for a Biblical look back at Good Friday which includes the ancient prophecies that eerily predicted Jesus’ gruesome execution hundreds of years before hand, and concluding with additional MHProNews information and commentary that wraps it all up.
With no further adieu, let’s first dive into the eye-opening, reason- and evidence-based observations of attorney and CHD chairman, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Americans wake up! Outlaw technocrats are stealing our democracy
In the foreword to “The Truth About COVID-19,” by Dr. Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins, CHD Chairman RFK, Jr. says the pandemic is being used to shift wealth upwards, abolish civil rights and destroy democracy.
Thu Apr 1, 2021 – 10:30 am EST
April 1, 2021 (Children’s Health Defense) – EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the foreword, by Children’s Health Defense Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to “The Truth About COVID-19 — Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal.” The soon-to-be-released book, by Dr. Joseph Mercola, physician and founder of Mercola.com and Ronnie Cummins, founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association, can be pre-ordered here. The official release of the book is April 29.
Government technocrats, billionaire oligarchs, Big Pharma, Big Data, Big Media, the high-finance robber barons and the military industrial intelligence apparatus love pandemics for the same reasons they love wars and terrorist attacks.
Catastrophic crises create opportunities of convenience to increase both power and wealth. In her seminal book, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” Naomi Klein chronicles how authoritarian demagogues, large corporations and wealthy plutocrats use mass disruptions to shift wealth upwards, obliterate the middle classes, abolish civil rights, privatize the commons and expand authoritarian controls.
A consummate insider, the former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel is known for his admonition that vested power structures should “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” But this treadworn strategy — to use crisis to inflame the public terror that paves the road to dictatorial power — has served as the central strategy of totalitarian systems for millennia.
The methodology is, in fact, formulaic, as Hitler’s Luftwaffe commander, Hermann Göring, explained during the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg:
“It is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any country.”
The Nazis pointed to the threats from Jews and Gypsies to justify the homicidal authoritarianism in the Third Reich. The dictatorial demagogue, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the House Unamerican Activities Committee warned against communist infiltration of the U.S. State Department and film industry to rationalize loyalty oaths and the Blacklist.
Dick Cheney used the 911 attack to launch his “long war” against amorphous terrorism and the Patriot Act abridgments that laid the groundwork for the modern surveillance state.
Now the medical cartel and its billionaire Big Tech accomplices have invoked the most potent, frightening and enduring enemy of all — the microbe.
And who can blame them? Increasing the wealth and power of the oligarchy is seldom a potent vessel for populism. Citizens accustomed to voting for their governments are unlikely to support policies that make the rich richer, increase political and social control by corporations, diminish democracy and reduce their civil rights.
So demagogues must weaponize fear to justify their demands for blind obedience and to win public acquiescence for the demolition of civil and economic rights.
Of course, the first casualty must always be freedom of speech. After stoking sufficient panic against the hobgoblin du jour, robber barons need to silence protest against their wealth and power-grabs.
In including free speech in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison argued that all our other liberties depend on this right. Any government that can hide its mischief has license to commit atrocities.
As soon as they get hold of the levers of authority, tyrants impose Orwellian censorship and begin gaslighting dissenters. But ultimately they seek to abolish all forms of creative thinking and self-expression. They burn books, destroy art, kill writers, poets and intellectuals, outlaw gatherings, and at their worst, force oppressed minorities to wear masks that atomize any sense of community or solidarity and prevent the subtle, eloquent nonverbal communication for which God and evolution have equipped humans with 42 facial muscles. The most savage Middle Eastern theocracies mandate masks for women, whose legal status — not coincidentally — is as chattels.
The free flow of information and self-expression are oxygen and sunlight for representative democracy, which functions best with policies annealed in the boiling cauldron of public debate. It is axiomatic that without free speech, democracy withers.
The most iconic and revered monuments of democracy therefore include the Athenian Agora and Speakers’ Corner at Hyde Park. We can’t help feeling exhilaration about our noble experiment in self-government when we witness the boisterous, irreverent debates in the House of Commons, or watch Jimmy Stewart’s filibuster scene in “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” — an enduring homage to the inseparable bond between debate and democracy.
To consolidate and fortify their power, dictatorships aim to replace those vital ingredients of self-rule — debate, self-expression, dissent and skepticism — with rigid authoritarian orthodoxies that function as secular surrogates for religion. These orthodoxies perform to abolish critical thinking and regiment populations in blind, unquestioning obedience to undeserving authorities.
Instead of citing scientific studies to justify mandates for masks, lockdowns and vaccines, our medical rulers cite WHO, CDC, FDA and NIH — captive agencies that are groveling sock puppets to the industries they regulate. Multiple federal and international investigations have documented the financial entanglements with pharmaceutical companies that have made these regulators cesspools of corruption.
Iatrarchy — meaning government by physicians — is a little-known term, perhaps because historical experiments with it have been catastrophic. The medical profession has not proven itself an energetic defender of democratic institutions or civil rights. Virtually every doctor in Germany took lead roles in the Third Reich’s project to eliminate mental defectives, homosexuals, handicapped citizens and Jews.
So many hundreds of German physicians participated in Hitler’s worst atrocities — including managing mass murder and unspeakable experiments at the death camps — that the allies had to stage separate “Medical Trials” at Nuremberg. Not a single prominent German doctor or medical association raised their voice in opposition to these projects.
So it’s unsurprising that, instead of demanding blue-ribbon safety science and encouraging honest, open and responsible debate on the science, the badly compromised and newly empowered government health officials charged with managing the COVID-19 pandemic response collaborated with mainstream and social media to shut down discussion on key public health and civil rights questions.
They silenced and excommunicated heretics like Dr. Mercola who refused to genuflect to Pharma and treat unquestioning faith in zero liability, shoddily tested experimental vaccines as religious duty.
Our current iatrarchy’s rubric of “scientific consensus” is the contemporary iteration of the Spanish Inquisition. It is a fabricated dogma constructed by this corrupt cast of physician technocrats and their media collaborators to legitimize their claims to dangerous new powers.
The high priests of the modern Inquisition are Big Pharma’s network and cable news gasbags who preach rigid obedience to official diktats including lockdowns, social distancing and the moral rectitude of donning masks despite the absence of peer-reviewed science that convincingly shows that masks prevent COVID-19 transmission. The need for this sort of proof is gratuitous.
They counsel us to, instead, “trust the experts.” Such advice is both anti-democratic and anti-science. Science is dynamic. “Experts” frequently differ on scientific questions and their opinions can vary in accordance with the demands of politics, power and financial self-interest. Nearly every lawsuit I have ever brought pitted highly credentialed experts from opposite sides against each other, with all of them swearing under oath to diametrically antithetical positions based on the same set of facts. Science is disagreement; the notion of scientific consensus is oxymoronic.
The modern intention of the totalitarian state is corporate kleptocracy — a construct that replaces democratic process with the arbitrary edicts of unelected technocrats. Invariably, their fiats invest multinational corporations with extraordinary power to monetize and control the most intimate parts of our lives, enrich billionaires, impoverish the masses and manage dissent with relentless surveillance and obedience training.
In 2020, led by Bill Gates, Silicon Valley applauded from the sidelines as powerful medical charlatans — applying the most pessimistic projections from discredited modeling and easily manipulated PCR testing, and a menu of new protocols for coroners that appeared intended to inflate reporting of COVID-19 deaths — fanned pandemic panic and confined the world’s population under house arrest.
The suspension of due process, and notice, and comment rulemaking meant that none of the government prelates who ordained the quarantine had to first publicly calculate whether destroying the global economy, disrupting food and medical supplies, and throwing a billion humans into dire poverty and food insecurity would kill more people than it would save.
In America, their quarantine predictably shattered the nation’s once-booming economic engine, putting 58 million Americans out of work, and permanently bankrupting more than 100,000 small businesses, including 41,000 Black-owned businesses, some of which took three generations of investment to build.
These policies have also set into motion the inevitable dismantling of the social safety net that nurtured America’s envied middle class. Government officials have already begun liquidating the 100-year legacies of the New Deal, New Frontier, the Great Society and Obamacare to pay the accumulated quarantine debts. Say goodbye to school lunches, healthcare, WICS, Medicaid, Medicare, University scholarships, etc., etc., etc.
While obliterating the American middle class and dropping an additional 8% of Americans below the poverty line, the 2020 “COVID coup” transferred a trillion dollars of wealth to Big Technology, Big Data, Big Telecom, Big Finance, Big Media behemoths (Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch) and Silicon Valley Internet titans like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Jack Dorsey. It seems beyond coincidence that these men, who are cashing in on the poverty and misery caused by global lockdowns, are the same men whose companies actively censor critics of those policies.
The very Internet companies that snookered us all with the promise of democratizing communications have created a world where it has become impermissible to speak ill of official pronouncements, and practically a crime to criticize pharmaceutical products. The same Tech/Data and Telecom robber barons, now gorging themselves on the corpses of our obliterated middle class, are rapidly transforming America’s once-proud democracy into a censorship and surveillance police state over which they profit at every turn.
For example, this cabal used the lockdown to accelerate construction of their 5G network of satellites, antennae, biometric facial recognition and “track-and-trace” infrastructure that they, and their government and intelligence agency partners, will use to mine and monetize our data for free, compel obedience to arbitrary dictates and suppress dissent.
Their government/industry collaboration will use this system to manage the rage when Americans finally wake up to the fact that this outlaw gang has stolen our democracy, our civil rights, our country and way of life — while we huddled in orchestrated fear from a flu-like illness.
Predictably our other constitutional guarantees lined up behind free speech at the gibbet. The imposition censorship has masked this systematic demolition of our Constitution, including attacks on our freedoms of assembly (through social distancing and lockdown rules), on freedom of worship (including abolishing religious exemptions and closing churches, while liquor stores remain open as “essential service”), private property (the right to operate a business), due process (including the imposition of far-reaching restrictions against freedom of movement, education and association without rule making, public hearings, or economic and environmental impact statements), the 7th Amendment right to jury trials (in cases of vaccine injuries caused by corporate negligence), our rights to privacy and against illegal searches and seizures (warrantless tracking and tracing), and our right to have governments that don’t spy on us or retain our information for mischievous purposes.
Silencing Dr. Mercola’s voice, of course, was the Medical Cabal’s early priority. For decades, Dr. Mercola has been among the most effective and influential advocates against the pharmaceutical paradigm. He was an eloquent, charismatic and knowledgeable critic of a corrupt system that has made Americans the world’s top consumer of pharmaceutical drugs. Americans pay the highest prices for drugs, and have the worst health outcomes among the top 75 nations.
Putting opiates — which kill 50,000 Americans annually — aside, pharmaceuticals are now the third biggest killer of Americans, after heart attacks and cancer. Like a prophet in the wilderness, Dr. Mercola has argued for years that good health does not come in a syringe or a pill, but from building strong immune systems. He preaches that nutrition and exercise are the most effective medicines, and that public health officials ought to be pushing policies that discourage reliance on pharmaceutical products and that safeguard our food supplies from Big Food, Big Chemical and Big Ag. These predatory industries naturally consider Dr. Mercola to be Public Enemy #1.
Big Pharma’s $9.6 billion annual advertising budget gives these unscrupulous companies control over our news and television outlets. Strong economic drivers (pharmaceutical companies are the biggest network advertisers) have long discouraged mainstream media outlets from criticizing vaccine manufacturers. In 2014, a network president, Roger Ailes, told me he would fire any of his news show hosts who allowed me to talk about vaccine safety on air. “Our news division,” he explained, “gets up to 70% of ad revenues from pharma in non-election years.”
Thus, pharmaceutical products were both the predicate and the punchline of the Cancel Culture. The Pharmedia long ago banned Dr. Mercola from the airwaves and newsprint while turning Wikipedia — which functions as Pharma’s newsletter and propaganda vehicle — into a mill for defamations against him and every other integrative and functional health physician.
At COVID’s outset, the social media robber barons — all with their own financial entanglements with Pharma — joined the campaign to silence Mercola by ejecting him from their platforms.
It’s a bad omen for democracy when citizens can no longer conduct civil, informed debates about critical policies that impact the vitality of our economy, public health, personal freedoms and constitutional rights. Censorship is violence, and this systematic muzzling of debate — which proponents justify as a measure to curtail dangerous polarization — is actually fueling the polarization and extremism that the autocrats use to clamp down evermore draconian controls.
We might recall, at this strange time in our history, my father’s friend, Edward R. Murrow’s warning: “The right to dissent … is surely fundamental to the existence of a democratic society. That’s the right that went first in every nation that stumbled down the trail to totalitarianism.” ##
© March 31, 2021 Children’s Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children’s Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children’s Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.
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There is such a thing as righteous anger. A character in the classic dark comedy and dramatic movie “Network” said, “First you have to get mad!” Well, perhaps more accurately – first anyone must start with understanding what has happened and ongoing, and how that impacts you and your loved ones. Then, it is only natural that you or others may become angry once that impact sinks in. Not many would ‘vote’ for slavery. But what Kennedy, Dr. Mercola, Glenn Greenwald, and others from the right and left are saying is a slide into the Great Reset which is feudalism under a new name. Unless you are one of those billionaires or are in league with them, the odds are excellent that you know people that have been harmed by this real-life drama that Kennedy detailed, and/or have been harmed by it yourself. For those who have not yet suffered, your time may well come if this is not stopped.
There might be a few modest tweaks to the above that could be made by what RFK Jr wrote, such as the number of business lost due to COVID19. It is certainly well over 100,000. But a forward has to be written in advance of a book’s publication, so, that must be kept in mind. Rephrased, what Kennedy said on balance is so apt and precise, it is hardly worth the effort at this time to make any modest tweaks. Indeed, almost every sentence or two merits being turned into one of our signature quotable quotes.
Beyond the blinding propaganda machine that the billionaires and their corporate interests control, there is a tendency in human nature to doubt that someone could be so evil as to conceive of such scandalous plots to undermine their fellow Americans by the tens of millions. But the case can easily be made – especially today – that the same or even more evil deeds have occurred in the past.
When Kennedy’s penetrating set of charges are laid in the context of the ultimate betrayal commemorated on Good Friday, it makes it easier to grasp that truly evil or willfully self-serving people can blind themselves into selling out and betraying Goodness itself. If you or those you care about have been betrayed, one of Jesus’ own disciples sold him out for a mere 30 silver coins.
While the above from Kennedy is disturbing but useful contemporary information, what follows should be eye opening revelations that are timeless beliefs held by billions who hold them to literally be the Word of the Eternal God, Who Created all things.
The Scriptural readings for today are those used by numerous Christian churches. They begin with the reading from Isaiah the prophet. Hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus, Isaiah provided prophetic insights into what the suffering Messiah would endure. Keep in mind that About Jesus says that several hundred Hebrew or Old Testament references and prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. That source says that numbers of those ancient references applied can be applied to Jesus. “Scholars differ in their answers, generally ranging from about 200 to 400” being the number of prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. That would be a lot of evidence supporting the belief of Christians that Jesus came to fulfill the promise made to Adam and Eve that a redeemer would come to free humanity from its errors and sins.
But put those hundreds of prophetic or parallel references centuries before Christ into context. Who else even comes close to being able to make that claim? So, in Biblical readings starting from Isaiah and Psalm 32, which then precedes the New Testament readings, consider this as God’s timeless word to all of humanity, you and me included. Per CNA, the following.
Good Friday Readings
First Reading: Isaiah 52:13—53:12
13 Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
14 As many were astonished at him — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men —
15 so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.
1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Psalm: Psalms 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25
2 In thee, O LORD, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame; in thy righteousness deliver me!
6 Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.
12 I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
13 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
15 But I trust in thee, O LORD, I say, “Thou art my God.”
16 My times are in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors!
17 Let thy face shine on thy servant; save me in thy steadfast love!
25 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear.
8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
9 and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
Gospel: John 18:1-19:42
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
3 So Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”
5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
6 When he said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again he asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he; so, if you seek me, let these men go.”
9 This was to fulfil the word which he had spoken, “Of those whom thou gavest me I lost not one.”
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus.
11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?”
12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him.
13 First they led him to Annas; for he was the father-in-law of Ca’iaphas, who was high priest that year.
14 It was Ca’iaphas who had given counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. As this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with Jesus,
16 while Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door, and brought Peter in.
17 The maid who kept the door said to Peter, “Are not you also one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “I am not.”
18 Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves; Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together; I have said nothing secretly.
21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me, what I said to them; they know what I said.”
22 When he had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
24 Annas then sent him bound to Ca’iaphas the high priest.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “Are not you also one of his disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
26 One of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”
27 Peter again denied it; and at once the cock crowed.
28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Ca’iaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover.
29 So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”
30 They answered him, “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over.”
31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.”
32 This was to fulfil the word which Jesus had spoken to show by what death he was to die.
33 Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”
35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done?”
36 Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.”
37 Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”
38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again, and told them, “I find no crime in him.
39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover; will you have me release for you the King of the Jews?”
40 They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barab’bas!” Now Barab’bas was a robber.
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.
2 And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe;
3 they came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.
4 Pilate went out again, and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime in him.”
5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him.”
7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid;
9 he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer.
10 Pilate therefore said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.”
12 Upon this Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend; every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gab’batha.
14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
17 So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol’gotha.
18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
19 Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
20 Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.
21 The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, “Do not write, `The King of the Jews,’ but, `This man said, I am King of the Jews.'”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom;
24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfil the scripture, “They parted my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
25 So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag’dalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.”
29 A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth.
30 When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him;
33 but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
35 He who saw it has borne witness — his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth — that you also may believe.
36 For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of him shall be broken.”
37 And again another scripture says, “They shall look on him whom they have pierced.”
38 After this Joseph of Arimathe’a, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body.
39 Nicode’mus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds’ weight.
40 They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.
42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”
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Left-leaning Wikipedia says that: “Crucifixion is a method of punishment or capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden beam and left to hang perhaps for several days, until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Romans.” It was a cruel form of torture. It was an early weapon of terror meant by the Roman state to deter anyone who would challenge their rule. Because if you challenged Roman rule crucifixion was a common death sentence.
The Scriptural selections above have parallel readings from other Biblical books, including the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Among the takeaways?
Pilate tried to find Jesus innocent of the charges against him. But the Jewish leaders – who were in some ways, collaborators with Rome, but in other matters not – would have none of it. If Jesus was Messiah, that threatened their personal authority.
But in fairness, serious Jews and Muslims alike share a view of God as “one.” It is a blasphemy for a serious Jew or Muslim to think of God as a Trinity of three persons — Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit.
That noted, there are several places in the Hebrew Scriptures where God is referred to in the plural, rather than the singular. Perhaps the most famous is Genesis 18:1-4 which said:
18 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,[a] do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
But well before the above, there is another example in Genesis. Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Genesis 3:22 states, “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us.’
Us and our are clearly plurals – not a singular person. Abraham venerated and quickly served the “three men” and called them “Lord.” This is interesting, because it is one more example of the bishop of Hippo 396 to 430 A.D., St. Augustine’s observation — that the Old Testament is the New Concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Revealed.
https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/masthead/seek-first-the-kingdom-of-god-and-his-righteousness-all-things-will-be-yours-jesus-christ-matthew-633-holy-thursday-good-friday-easter-sunday-triduum/
Additional thoughts on the events from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday using Scripture and lacing it into the events of our time are found in the Masthead report and commentary, linked above.
In conclusion, the battle between Good and evil has been at play since before human history. The devil – and the chief devil is known as Satan or Lucifer – was once an ‘angel of light’ who decided to rebel against an all-good God to have his own dark kingdom. Sound familiar? That is the pattern of human history too. The signs of our times are illuminated by timeless Biblical insights, which do not call us to be passive in the face of evil. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr put it well in the quotes below.
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That’s a wrap on this installment of the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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