Today I want to address grandeur’s cause. The Basilica of Saint Peter stands on what was in the first century the gardens of Agrippina. The Emperor Nero was especially fond of this place and arranged many spectacles there, among which were the martyrdoms of the Christians. In the circus in the gardens of Agrippina is the exact spot where Saint Peter was crucified. To raise the money needed to build the Basilica over where Peter was crucified, a most grand display, and for what, the Catholic hierarchy invented indulgences. What an insult to Jesus! Priests in Jesus’ time were giving temple coins in exchange for gold and silver coins, the only coins said priests would accept, and the only way to receive forgiveness. God’s grace being for sale is why Jesus turned over the money changers’ tables.
The stained glass windows, organ and all are pleasing to our aesthetic quality, but they don’t let us know about the God that lives in us. Unfortunately, the cause of grandeur has given the world the most in insult. With indulgences, ignorant peasants could not only be forgiven of their sins, but even their family members, and all for what? So the high and mighty could display their godliness in splendor before the meek and poor in their magnificent edifices, and mumble stuff, and swing incense pots, and eat bread and drink Christ’s blood before the faithful—to perform a magic show to bring the faithful to God. Indulgences riled Martin Luther so that he established the protestant movement.
And who am I to question? It is hard for me to believe the unmitigated gall people exhibit in their religious faiths. The insult religion has brought to the world reminds me of the Salem witch trials in America in 1692. Nineteen men and women were convicted of witchcraft and hung. Dozens more languished in jail without a trial. One man, over eighty years-old, because he refused to be tried, was crushed to death under heavy stones. Such cruelty is not human. There is much to question.
The greatest danger to liberty is when liberty and justice are sacrificed for some greater cause, like the Holocaust. The suffering and death of innocent people for great and glorious causes is dumbfounding. What could be worse than the presumptuous judgments of the ignorant upon their air-headed designs. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke.
The Reverend Jerry L. Robertson has corrected me with this: “You are still moving in your fleshly desires and have wrongly concluded that by your intellect, you are able to discern answers to your questions and consequently know about God. There is only one way to God, and that is by walking in faith, accepting God’s Word as truth.” He finishes by stating that his God is a jealous God, and He will not tolerate my debating his reality. Reverend Robertson has left his tree and trying to save us all. It’s a shame. It gives secular authority a leg up.
Speaking of my “fleshly desires,” when I was fourteen my parents handed me a book authored by a Christian authority. In the book, I read that if I even thought about sex it was a mortal sin and I needed to pray to God to forgive me. I thought long and hard about that. In defiance of that crazy thinking, my answer was to pay a prostitute to have sex with me.
Why would God have created me with the desire? Christian authority does not necessarily speak God’s Word. I’ll debate Christian authority every chance I get. They are the ones who are wrong. They have little idea of the makeup of the universe.
The problem of sexual desire in young people is easily solvable. It is age old beliefs that blocks the proper solution. Young people, you have so many ways now to meet people today, why have casual sex? That’s the problem. You are not animals. There is no need to abstain from sex. We can now control pregnancy. In fact, there is currently a big political debate over religions paying for contraceptives by law. It’s a crazy law. It is not common sense on the part of either party. The aim of secular authority is to shoot down religion by law. The law is based on common sense, not religious malarkey. Rest assured that the two debating parties are interested only in their own respective powers over others. They could care less for our God-given rights.
Instead of using our God-given common sense, we have power seeking authorities giving us answers to all questions. Say I, sex is a beautiful experience that is being dragged through the muck. Sex is good for us. We should have as much as we want. The one desire that is not a sin is being made a sin. As the unfortunate result, one night stands occur. That’s the problem—young sexually aggressive males discouraged from respecting the opposite sex. It’s the stupid idea that we can replace a natural desire with something else. Pay no attention to the advice, but never have casual sex. First build a healthy relationship. It could lead to marriage and a wonderful life. Or it could tell the couple that they were not meant for each other.
I never had sex with my first wife before we were married. It was a rotten marriage. I had sex with my second wife before marriage. It was love of sex that brought us together. We were not meant for each other. My third marriage was strictly out of convenience. I thought I was past romantic love.
When I was forty-nine, I came to a jumping off place and no choice but to jump into the unknown. I was strictly on my own. That’s when I discovered who I really was. I got past my immature self and felt like I had a purpose in life. When I was on my own, everyone thinking I’d brought about my own downfall, little did they know. It was my rebirth to the person I was intended to me. It all come together, why my dreams came true when I decided to write my memoirs. I spent ten years putting my life into proper perspective.
Low and behold, the right person for me appeared. We lived together a year-and-a-half and then got married, but only for legal purposes. Our marriage was already made in heaven. I’m now eighty-six. Every day I count my blessings. There can be nothing as good as someone to love and be loved back. I love my wife more than ever. The grandeur of the external cannot stand a candle to the love that is ours for the taking.
Our problem is preachers preaching thousands of year-old ideas. The world has changed. They bring us wolves in sheep’s clothing, which brings division and war. I’m a voice of experience. I learned in the school of hard knocks that the world’s authorities are keeping us from reaching maturity. It is all a control thing. Don’t allow them to control you.
I surely must have been destined to bring this message to you. To you young people being led to slaughter by wolves in sheep’s clothing, say I, the same that happened to me can happen to the average person. It is a matter of looking within for the answers, of questioning the “old guard,” knowing it has much to lose by your independence; knowing that you have much to gain by using the reason and logic you were created to use. I’ve been here a long time. Were it not so in my life, I would not be telling you this.
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