LITTLE KNOWN GOSPEL FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW: Critical Knowledge for Christians In the Time of Trump. Part 4

The real story of the Moneychangers and the Temple

What your Sunday school won’t tell you
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The most powerful illustration in the Gospels of Jesus’s power and rage against those who are unrepentant and corrupt in their service to the upper class elite was his driving the money changers out of the temple of Jerusalem.
“Driving out.” No, I don’t think this is just Jesus having a stick and knocking a few heads, as is usually portrayed by the picture books.

The temple of Jerusalem was packed on this special holiday week with many hundreds of devout Jews. The money changers booths lined the walls of one of the largest and most strongly-guarded temples in the world. These booths, not incidentally, had just recently been added to the temple precincts to squeeze still more money out of the peasants of one of the Roman Empire’s poorest provinces. And these precincts were well guarded.
Imagine Jesus walking into Mar a Lago on a busy weekend. And driving everyone out. Security guards, local police, secret service, billionaires and supplicants, high government officials, and even waiters if they tried to resist. But this is worse than Mar a Lago. This is the largest Temple in the entire province. That Jesus actually did this is well documented in scripture and certainly explains the peculiar circumstances in which the temple administration tried him for apostasy. And hired a mob to make sure he wasn’t pardoned by Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate. Pilate was confused. He said “these messiah crackpots are everywhere. The guy is harmless”. Crackpot Messiahs from the Galilean hinterlands claiming divine power and authority were sufficiently common that several per decade came through Jerusalem. And they were mostly harmless. But Jesus? A real terrorist threat!

So one has to wonder…
How did he pull off what was essentially the heist of the millennium??
What extraordinary power did he exercise? Did he have help fighting what must have been dozens if not hundreds of angry devotees, priests, and officials.... not to mention dozens of armed guards?
And those money changers!? They would not have gone quietly. Their coins scattered on the temple pavement and lost, their bodies no doubt bruised and broken, this would not go well for these poor victims of a leftist revolutionary mob.
Somebody call FOX news! This villain Jesus must be exposed for the corrupt usurper he is:
Here’s the story from FOX News, Jerusalem:
Tuckus Carlsonius: “Infamous terrorist Jesus Christ and the JC 13 gang have looted the Temple of Jerusalem during the sacred week of Passover in an unprecedented act of terror. Tonight we hear from an eyewitness and victim of their crimes…Ahmed Ben Epstein is one of Jerusalem’s top merchants, a pillar of the Temple Establishment. Ahmed, this has been a disaster for all of Israel. My condolences for all you have endured. That’s a mighty bad bruise over your eye. Was that..?”
Epstein: “Oh yes! From the attack. It was terrible. I’ve had to get stitches. My gold embroidered cloak was also ruined. It is irreplaceable…but so much worse, I had the cream of the latest crop of young girls! These gorgeous young sex slaves were slated for the harems of Judea’s finest citizens, and at age 11-13 they were the perfect “10s”. Those JC 13 thugs just cut their bonds and set them free. What shameless immorality! I can’t even calculate the losses. And our money changing business was one of the chief economic engines in all of the Temple complex. I don’t know if the local economy will ever recover after this heinous terrorist attack.”
TC: (Looking at the audience) “Yes! When will we take action to stop this terrorist JC 13 gang?”

In this terrorist assault on all of the billionaire class of Israel, we see Jesus’ rage against both the priests who perpetrate the lies of salvation through blood sacrifice and his anger at the greed of the priestly and business classes, who ripped off the poorest peasants in the Roman back country by feeding on their Jewish faith…and their gullibility.

Now we all remember that Jesus is most merciful to the repentant sinner. But for those who are unrepentant? Like these boys? Not so much.

Donald Trump when asked in an interview if he had any moral errors to seek forgiveness for in his life, said “no.” Among his hundreds of lies, this was probably an honest response. Unrepentant.

And his hordes of followers screaming for the wall? Calling his cages summer camps? Attacking journalists trying to reveal the horrors? Unrepentant.

But now we have to add another layer to Jesus’ outrage. Imagine that all of this thievery, and spiritual manipulation and lies from these priests and money changers included rape, sexual abuse, enslavement of young girls, building cages for children ripped away from their parents, and the willful destruction of all life on our planet to feed the greed of the billionaires.
And now imagine all of this is being ordered by the most Christian ally of the Evangelical Christian community and endorsed by his most Christian followers. In the name of Jesus.

Now do you begin to get how pissed off Jesus really is? Do you begin to understand what that means for you, Trump voters?
So, I’ve got a bit of advice for you Evangelicals voting for Emperor Trump:
When you get to hell, which is the cage you are headed for, please don’t make the mistake of calling on Jesus for salvation.

He remembers what you did...
To him.
And in His name!
Of course while you are still alive it might be useful to remember that Jesus loves the repentant sinner. But just “I’m sorry”? It will, I guarantee, not be enough. You must join him in fighting against the evil represented by this “Evangelical” crowd, and the man they elected King. And join those Progressive Democrats with their strange names, colored skin and radical ideas about “Socialism.” Funny thing is most of them are also Christian. Socialist Ideas began, in fact, for the first time in history, with Jesus and his disciples, who shared their wealth with each other and the community. Jesus was the first socialist.

They are trying to feed the hungry. Trying to house the homeless. To comfort the immigrants who seek asylum because our Government, under Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, destroyed their government and their labor unions, to turn these countries into slave states for United Fruit. They are trying to bring Christian values back to a country that once taught these values to the entire world. Call this “Socialism” if you want. I call it being “Christian.” I call it following Jesus.

I have heard from some Evangelical sources that we should not politicize Jesus’ message of personal salvation. This was the opinion of that great Evangelist Bill Graham. Sorry, Bill, that horse has already left the stable, to the terrible detriment of Jesus’ teachings, and our planet. Besides, I don’t recall Jesus being squeamish about politicizing his true message when the need arose. Remember?

So why do I still call myself an Evangelical Christian?
Good question. Especially since I am not only a New Testament scholar, I am a scholar and teacher of all world religions, frequently quoting ancient scriptures from Hindu, Buddhist, and Kabalistic sources. And like Jesus himself and his fellow Pharisees, I am fully versed in the reality of past life experience. (Did you know John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah the Prophet? Jesus says it in Matthew. And this conversation is regarded as perfectly normal by his disciples. And accepted by most early Christians… until it was excoriated from the faith and its proponents murdered by a Roman Emperor. Yes. That again. ) I could certainly find a faith more ethical and accurate than the blood soaked Christian faith of today. But I remain a Christian. Why?

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