British Israelism

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Dear Bishop Manchester, Concerning the Glastonbury traditions, what do you think of British Israelism? Yours faithfully in Christ, Wayne.

British Israelism, also known as Anglo-Israelism, is the belief that the lost ten tribes of Israel migrated to Europe and then to England and became the primary ancestors of the British people, and thereby, the United States. It is often accompanied by the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.

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The main body of evidence cited by believers in British Israelism consists of what they consider to be Biblical identification marks and the birthright blessings given to Joseph (Genesis 49: 22; I Chronicles 5: 1-2) and to his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48: 14-20), which they believe apply to Britain and America. Adherents believe that biblical prophecies reveal that Israel will lose all trace of her lineage (Isaiah 42: 19, Hosea 1: 9), will become a great and mighty nation (Genesis 12: 2, 18: 18, Deuteronomy 4: 7-8), be named "Great," ie Great Britain (Genesis 12: 2), will be a blessing to other nations (Genesis 12: 2-3), that they will become many nations (Genesis 17: 4), that their descendants will be Kings and rulers (Genesis 35: 11), that they will keep the Sabbath (Exodus 31: 13), that they will be a missionary nation (Isaiah 49: 6, 66: 19), will rule over others (Genesis 27: 29, Deuteronomy 15: 6), become envied and feared (Deuteronomy 2: 25, 4: 8, 28: 10), that they will lend to other nations (Deuteronomy 15: 6), that Israel will inhabit the "isles" of the sea (Isaiah 24: 15), that Israel's new home will be northwest of Eretz Israel (Isaiah 49: 12), and that it will spread abroad (Genesis 49: 22).

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Is British Israelism true and biblical? In order to determine this, we need to examine the two primary claims, namely that the ten tribes were lost, and that the ten tribes migrated to England.

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2 Kings 17: 18 states that Israel was deported to Assyria in 722 BC. After this time, mention of the ten northern tribes (Israel) is rare in scripture. However, other scriptures (and historical records) indicate that some of the people of the northern ten tribes remained in the land. Second Chronicles 35: 18 records Israel celebrating the Passover with Judah approximately ninety years after the Assyrian deportation. It is likely that many people of the northern ten tribes fled to Judah to escape the Assyrians, and even more fled to the safety of Judah after the Assyrians had ransacked Israel. Second Chronicles 15: 9 records people from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon settling in Judah long before the Assyrian invasion. In the New Testament, the prophetess Anna is said to be from the tribe of Asher (Luke 2: 36), one of the supposed ten lost tribes. Many people from the northern ten tribes were deported to Assyria, however, never to be mentioned again. At the same time, there is sufficient evidence in scripture to prove that the ten tribes were not entirely lost, but rather to some degree rejoined with Judah in the south. It is likely that when Judah was deported by the Babylonians, the people would have sought out the Israelites in Assyria, which is very near Babylon, and rejoined with them. In the returns to Israel recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah, the scriptures nowhere limit the returnees as being entirely from the tribe of Judah.

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It is possible that some of the deported Israelites emigrated to Europe and England? A journey from Assyria to England would have nevertheless been exceedingly difficult in ancient times for a large number of people. While it is possible that some Israelites migrated to Europe and indeed England, it is highly unlikely that this occurred to any significant degree.

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The primary goal behind British Israelism is to claim that England and the United States have inherited the covenant promises God made to Israel. This is clearly not evident according to the terms and on the scale expressed by proponents of this theory.

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The Grail Church

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Dear Bishop Manchester, I recently heard your talk on TalkSport Radio and so looked up your website concerning the Grail Church. How does one become part of the Grail Church I wonder? I would be very interested in finding out more about the Grail Church and wonder if it may be possible to meet you at your retreat sometime? Yours faithfully in Christ, Wayne.

The Church of Christ is never a place, but always a people; never a fold, but always a flock; never a sacred building, but always where believers gather in His name. The Church is you who pray, not where you pray. A structure of brick and marble can no more be a Church than your clothes of serge or satin can be you. There is nothing more sacred than you — for your soul is the sanctuary of God.

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Christianity came to Britain in the first century. Tertullian of Carthage (circa 208) said that the Christian Church of his day "extended to all the boundaries of Gaul, and parts of Britain inaccessible to the Romans but subject to Christ." Eusebius of Cæsaria (circa 260-340) in his Demonstratio Evangelica said: "The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the Isles called the Brittanic Isles." Sabellius (circa 250) revealed: "Christianity was privately confessed elsewhere, but the first nation that proclaimed it as their religion and called it Christian, after the name of Christ, was Britain." Polydore Vergil, court antiquary to Henry VIII and a foremost scholar of his day, wrote: "Britain partly through Joseph of Arimathea, partly through Fugatus and Damianus, was of all kingdoms first to receive the Gospel."

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Gildas, the British historian, in the sixth century, wrote: "We certainly know that Christ, the True Son, afforded His Light, the knowledge of His precepts to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Cæsar." Elsewhere he affirmed that "Joseph introduced Christianity into Britain in the last year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar." Tiberius died on 16 March AD 37, which supports the traditional date for St Joseph of Arimathea mission to Britain of AD 36. Britain was outside the Roman Empire, as the Claudian invasion did not occur until AD 43.
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Martin of Louvain, in his Disputoilis Super Dignitatem Anglis it [sic] Gallioe in Councilio Constantiano (1517), recorded: "Three times the antiquity of the British Church was affirmed in Ecclesiatical Councilia. (1) The Council of Pisa, AD 1417. (2) The Council of Constance, AD 1419. (3) Council of Siena, AD 1423. It was stated that the British Church took precedence over all other churches, being founded by Joseph of Arimathea, immediately after the Passion of Christ."
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On page 87 of The Grail Church, I wrote: "To the native Celts the Grail Church became known as the British Church; so as to distinguish it from the Anglo-Saxon English Church. When the Anglo-Saxons adopted Roman Christianity the British Church receded until it eventually vanished. Yet the memory of the Holy Grail could not be eradicated; indeed, its symbolic potency only grew with the passing of time."
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The Holy Grail was considered to be a relic of inestimable value as the Cup of the Last Supper that was later used by St Joseph of Arimathea to collect a few drops of the Saviour's blood. Apocryphal writings credit St Joseph with possession of the Cup.
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"Cardinal Baronius, curator of the Vatican Library and certainly the most outstanding historian of the Roman Catholic Church, writes in his Ecclesiastical Annals in reference to the exodus of AD 36: 'In that year the party mentioned was exposed to the sea in a vessel without sails or oars. The vessel drifted finally to Marseilles and they were saved. From Marseilles [St] Joseph [of Arimathea] and his company passed into Britain and after preaching the Gospel there, died'." [The Grail Church, Holy Grail, 1995, page 30.] 
 

Thus the Holy Grail came to the British Isles where, six centuries later, it went missing. In later legends, as a result of the Holy Grail being lost, the country was strangely afflicted with large areas becoming an uninhabitable wasteland. Those who ventured there died. And a sixth century monk named Gildas wrote a history [Gildæ sapientis de excidio et conquestu Britanniæ] which spoke of a great famine and disease that rendered the island of Britain virtually uninhabitable, resulting in mass migration to the Continent. He attributes the catastrophe to the Britons' loss of faith. There are parallels with then and now. A steep decline in moral attitudes and social behaviour, plus, more significantly, the distortion and loss of faith, makes us ripe for a coming wasteland. There is a difference, however, because this time it might be on a global scale.
 

On Good Friday 1973 twelve people founded Ordo Sancti Graal on the summit of Parliament Hill at London’s Hampstead Heath. Following three months of spontaneous occurrences, they developed into a dispersed Order of disciples with both radical and traditional approach. By this point the principal founder, namely myself, was in minor orders within an autocephalous branch of the Catholic Church in Great Britain. Seventeen years after the founding of Ordo Sancti Graal, I took Holy Orders and was later episcopally consecrated by three independent Catholic bishops.
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I contributed to a Channel Four British television programme about the Holy Grail in February 1997, and a documentary film for America’s NBC channel in early 1998 which was filmed at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. These transmissions included the Nanteos Cup, the remnant of a wooden bowl thought by some to be the Holy Grail. The Cup’s location remains undisclosed.
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Christianity came to Britain in the first century and is the essence of our civilisation. Lose it and we lose everything. The consequence of that loss is already apparent. On page 87 of The Grail Church is written: “To the native Celts the Grail Church became known as the British Church; so as to distinguish it from the Anglo-Saxon English Church. When the Anglo-Saxons adopted Roman Christianity the British Church receded until it eventually vanished. Yet the memory of the Holy Grail could not be eradicated; indeed, its symbolic potency only grew with the passing of time.”

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Traditional Christianity is disappearing as atheism, relativism and heresy spread on a scale hitherto unseen. The primary purpose of the work begun at Easter 1973 is to provide spiritual sanctuary in a land awash with soul-killing materialism and moral bankruptcy by actively seeking to reclaim Britain for Christ.
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A table for twelve is always set at the Order's private retreat and chapel in England. This number represents those who joined at the founding of the Order inaugurated on Good Friday 1973 at the summit of Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, London. The Order belongs to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church which autocepahlous jurisdiction under our primacy is universally known as Ecclesia Apostolica Jesu Christi.
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Novi et æterni testamenti — it is the priest who recites these words at the consecration of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord — Hic est enim calix Sanguinis mei: novi et æterni testamenti. We stand for this inheritance which Jesus Christ gave to us. It is His Sacrifice, it is His Blood, it is His Cross, the ferment of all Christian civilisation and of all that is necessary for salvation. The Order exists for the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity, for the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the love of the Church, for the love of bishops, of priests, of all the faithful, for the salvation of the world, and for the salvation of souls. By keeping the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by keeping His Sacrifice, by keeping the Eucharist — the Eucharist which has been bequeathed to us by our predecessors, the Eucharist which has been transmitted from the time of the Apostles unto this day — we shall hold fast to what is true.
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When the precious mitre was placed upon my head on the feast of St Francis of Assisi in 1991, I already understood that a crown of thorns was contained within. I said as much in a radio interview soon afterwards in the United Kingdom. And for those who make the choice to take up their cross and follow Him, there begins a journey where space and time is transcended — a journey that will never taste death.
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This life is a dream from which death is merely an awakening.

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Public Request for Private Meeting

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Good afternoon, Is it true you've extended an offer of a private meet with David Farrant? If so, he seems to be up for it, under the proviso that Dennis be present at the same time. Are you up for it? - Anthony Hogg

It seems not inappropriate, as in the northern hemisphere we move into the darkness which accompanies an autumnal equinox, to have someone hidden behind a demonic mask raise a query about a man convicted of such devilry as graveyard vandalism, desecration and black magic death threats in order to enquire about something that has long since been a matter of public record. I offered to talk to this person privately at my coastal retreat soon after the turn of the century, and again two years later. He rejected the invitation.

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Anthony Hogg

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I am willing to meet anyone provided time and circumstances permit. In this particular case, as established earlier this century, I would be prepared to meet the individual privately at my retreat. Previously he had wanted journalists to be present. This I found unacceptable. I do not want the occasion to be sensationalised and exploited for gratuitous publicity. My terms were that it was to be a private meeting where only the two of us are present and that it should not involve anyone else, least of all the media. He did not accept. Now, according to someone who wears a demonic face, he is willing to agree to a meeting provided "Dennis be present at the same time."

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By "Dennis" I must presume that Anthony Hogg is referring to Dennis Crawford? If so, I find this a most bizarre request given the antipathy Dennis feels toward the character who wants him present. I can nevertheless ask Dennis Crawford to join us. I am reasonably confident he will agree. In all other respects my terms stand. There can be no other third parties and no liaising with newspapers etc. Refreshments, of course, will be made available, as they always are; though I entertain my doubts as to whether this man's acceptance is genuine given that it is being made through someone in Australia who is relatively unknown to me. The man whom this potential meeting would involve, if it went ahead, knows exactly how to contact me via e-mail, private message or indeed by normal correspondence. Yet he has not done so. I am, therefore, wary of what ostensibly appears to be people playing games for the purpose of generating self-publicity. That is something I am not "up for."

David Farrant

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Shapeshifting

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Hello Bishop. I own a book called The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments. It contains the book of Enoch. I was reading Enoch chapter 8 and it says "And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures and alchemy." The notes for that verse at the bottom of the page reads. " Ethiopian commentators explain this phrase as 'changing a man into a horse or mule or vice versa, or transferring an embryo from one womb to another." Do you Bishop, think that shapeshifting was taught to men prior to the Flood? - Ruben

The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch) is a pseudepigraphic work ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah and son of Jared (Genesis 5: 18). While this book today is non-canonical in most Christian Churches, it was explicitly quoted in the New Testament (Letter of Jude 1: 14-15) and by many of the early Church Fathers. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church to this day regards it to be canonical. It is wholly extant only in the Ge'ez language, with Aramaic fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls and a few Greek and Latin fragments. There is no consensus among Western scholars about the original language: some propose Aramaic, others Hebrew, while the probable thesis according to E Isaac is that 1 Enoch, as Daniel, was composed partially in Aramaic and partially in Hebrew. Ethiopian scholars hold that Ge'ez is the language of the original from which the Greek and Aramaic copies were made, pointing out that it is the only language in which the complete text has been found.

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The Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim. The fallen angels went to Enoch to intercede on their behalf with God after he declared to them their doom. The remainder of the book describes Enoch's visit to Heaven in the form of a vision, and his revelations. The antediluvian patriarch Enoch according to Genesis "walked with God and was seen no more, because God took him." This walking with God was naturally understood to refer to special revelations made to the patriarch, and this, together with the mystery surrounding his departure from the world, made Enoch's name an apt one for the purposes of apocalyptic writers. In consequence there arose a literature attributed to him.
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It influenced not only later Jewish apocrypha, but has left its imprint on the New Testament and the works of the early Fathers. The canonical Epistle of St Jude, in verses 14, 15, explicitly quotes from the Book of Enoch; the citation is found in the Ethiopic version in verses 9 and 4 of the first chapter. There are probable traces of the Enoch literature in other portions of the New Testament. Passing to the patristic writers, the Book of Enoch enjoyed a high esteem among them, mainly owing to the quotation in Jude. The so-called Epistle of Barnabas twice cites Enoch as Scripture. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and even St Augustine suppose the work to be a genuine one of the patriarch. But in the fourth century the Enoch writings lost credit and ceased to be quoted. After an allusion by an author of the beginning of the ninth century, they disappear from view. So great was the oblivion into which they fell that only scanty fragments of Greek and Latin versions were preserved in the West. The complete text was thought to have perished when it was discovered in two Ethiopic manuscripts in Abyssinia, by the traveler Bruce in 1773. Since, several more copies in the same language have been brought to light. Recently a large Greek fragment comprising chapters i-xxxii was unearthed at Akhmîn in Egypt.
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Scholars agree that the Book of Enoch was originally composed either in Hebrew or Aramaic, and that the Ethiopic version was derived from a Greek one. A comparison of the Ethiopic text with the Akhmîn Greek fragment proves that the former is in general a trustworthy translation. The work is a compilation, and its component parts were written in Palestine by Jews of the orthodox Hasidic or Pharisaic schools. Its composite character appears clearly from the palpable differences in eschatology, in the views of the origin of sin and of the character and importance of the Messias found in portions otherwise marked off from each other by diversities of subject. Critics agree that the oldest portions are those included in chapters i-xxxvi and (broadly speaking) lxxi-civ.

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Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is when a being undergoes a transformation. Commonly the transformation is purposeful, and not a curse or spell. In some folklore once the shapeshifter transformed, it began to get harder and harder to change back to ones original form. Vampires and werewolves are somewhat similar. Vampires, in older pieces of mythology and folklore, were thought to be able to transform into a wolf or a bat, thus giving the vampire bat its name. Most shapeshifters change into an animal, they were believed to only be able to change into an animal, or person that they had seen.
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The most important aspect of shape-shifting, thematically, is whether the transformation is voluntary. Circe transforms intruders to her island into swine, whereas Ged, in A Wizard of Earthsea, becomes a hawk to escape an evil wizard's stronghold. A werewolf's transformation, driven by internal forces, is as hideous as that which Circe enforces, and when Minerva transforms Cornix into a crow, Ovid put into Cornix's mouth that "the virgin goddess feels pity for a virgin and she helped me" because her new form enabled her to escape rape at Neptune's hands. When a form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect is one of confinement and restraint; the person is bound to the new form. In extreme cases, such as petrifaction, the character is entirely disabled. Voluntary forms, on the other hand, are means of escape and liberation; even when the form is not undertaken to effect a literal escape, the abilities specific to the form, or the disguise afforded by it, allow the character to act in a manner previously impossible.

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I could not opine as to whether shapeshifting was taught to men prior to the Flood. What I will say is that the phenomenon is not uncommon among demons.

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Heresy

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Hello Bishop Manchester. I recently heard a debate online between a sedevantist named Peter Dimond and a Catholic named William Albrecht that believes that the chair of Saint Peter is not vacant. The sedevacantist believed that both John Paul II & Benedict XVI were both Heretics for some of the things that they did, & because they were heretics they both automaticaly lost the right to be popes. While the non-sedevantist named William Albrecht said that he believed that both John Paul II & Benedict XVI were in error in some of the things that they did, he said that they were not manifest herectics. My question is what is, or what do you beleive the definition of a heretic is? - Ruben

Sedevacantism is the position held by some Traditionalist Catholics who claim that the Papal See has been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Sedevacantists believe that subsequent Popes have been neither true Catholics nor true Popes by virtue of allegedly having espoused the heresy of Modernism, or of having otherwise denied or contradicted solemnly defined Catholic dogmas.

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The term "sedevacantism" is derived from the Latin phrase sede vacante, which literally means "the seat being vacant," the seat in question being that of a bishop. A specific use of the phrase is in the context of the vacancy of the Holy See between the death or resignation of a Pope and the election of his successor. "Sedevacantism" as a term in English appears to date from the 1980s, though the movement itself is older.

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The term heresy connotes, etymologically, both a choice and the thing chosen, the meaning being, however, narrowed to the selection of religious or political doctrines, adhesion to parties in Church or State.

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Josephus applies the name (airesis) to the three religious sects prevalent in Judea since the Machabean period: the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes. St Paul is described to the Roman governor Felix as the leader of the heresy (aireseos) of the Nazarenes (Acts 24: 5); the Jews in Rome say to the same Apostle: "Concerning this sect [airesoeos], we know that it is everywhere contradicted" (Acts 28: 22). St Justin (Dialogue with Trypho 18) uses airesis in the same sense. St Peter applies the term to Christian sects: "There shall be among you lying teachers who shall bring in sects of perdition [aireseis apoleias]".

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St Thomas defines heresy: "A species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas." The right Christian faith consists in giving one's voluntary assent to Christ in all that truly belongs to His teaching. There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to Pagans and Jews; the other by restricting belief to certain points of Christ's doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics. The subject-matter of both faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit of the faith, that is, the sum total of truths revealed in Scripture and Tradition as proposed to our belief by the Church. The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to his own approval. The heretical tenets may be ignorance of the true creed, erroneous judgement, imperfect apprehension and comprehension of dogmas: in none of these does the will play an appreciable part, wherefore one of the necessary conditions of sinfulness - free choice - is wanting and such heresy is merely objective, or material. On the other hand the will may freely incline the intellect to adhere to tenets declared false by the Divine teaching authority of the Church. The impelling motives are many: intellectual pride or exaggerated reliance on one's own insight; the illusions of religious zeal; the allurements of political or ecclesiastical power; the ties of material interests and personal status; and perhaps others more dishonourable. Heresy thus willed is imputable to the subject and carries with it a varying degree of guilt; it is called formal, because to the material error it adds the informative element of "freely willed."

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Simply not accepting the Christian faith in Medieval England was not a punishable offence unless the person had previously been a Christian, in which case they might suffer the punishment for apostasy. Heresy required more; the public and, to quote William Blackstone in Book IV of his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1756), obstinacy in the disavowal of Christian doctrines.

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09.09.09

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Dear Bishop Manchester, please could you tell me the significance of the number nine? - Nikolett

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Nine has a special significance in mathematics as the sum of digits of numbers derived from multiples of 9 are themselves always a multiple of 9. For me, the number 9 represents Jesus Christ who is God Incarnate. The numerological value of "Jesus" is 9, as is the numerological value of "Christ." The numerological value of "Jesus Christ" is also 9. The hidden name of Jesus was composed of the same four Hebrew letters as Tetragrammaton, but with one letter added in the middle, the Hebrew letter Shin, ie "IHShWH," which can be rendered into English as "Yeheshuah." This was held by Christian kabbalists of the Renaissance to have deprived Tetragrammaton of all its power, even as Jesus Christ had supplanted the God of the Hebrews and the New Testament had displaced the Old Testament. This view was first explicitly set forth by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463 - 1494) in his seminal seventy-two conclusions on the kabbalah, published in 1486. In the fourteenth conclusion, he argued that the insertion of the Shin into Tetragrammaton represents the descent of the fiery Holy Spirit into the four-fold realm of matter: the Incarnation of God in human form. Pico held that the addition of the Shin made the previously ineffable "IHWH" pronounceable.
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This premise was defended by the first great non-Jewish kabbalist Johannes Reuchlin (1455 - 1522) in his highly influential work De Verbo Merifico (On the Wonder Working Word), and his later work De Arte Cabalistica (On the Science of the Kabbalah). Reuchlin held that with the birth of Jesus, the name of the four letters had been rendered powerless; its abilities to cause miracles having passed into the name Jesus. This is why in the Gospels the name of Jesus has such force in casting out demons and healing the sick. By using the holy tongue, Hebrew, and the numerical methods of the kabbalah, Reuchlin maintained that the truths of Christian doctrine could be proved and, moreover, that all occult, ie hidden, secrets could be laid bare.
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Hence Christ said: "Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give you." And : "In My name they shall cast out demons." So the name of four letters is no longer necessary, the whole virtue thereof being translated into the name Jesus. Neither is there any other, as Peter confirmed, under heaven given unto men by which they may be saved."

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ONE - Denotes unity, and commencement. The first occurrences of words or utterances denote their essential significance, in interpretation. Words that occur only once, in the originals, are emphatic and important. First day, Light.

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TWO - Denotes difference. If two different persons agree in testimony it is conclusive. Otherwise two implies opposition, enmity, and division, as was the work of the Second day.

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THREE - Denotes completeness, as three lines complete a plane figure. Hence, three is significant of Divine perfection and completeness. The third day completes the fundamentals of creation-work. The fourth, fifth, and sixth days are the counterpart and repetition of the first, second, and third, and correspond respectively. The number, three, includes resurrection also; for on the third day the earth rose up out of the deep, and fruit rose up out of the earth.

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FOUR - Denotes creative works (3+1), and always has reference to the material creation, as pertaining to the earth, and things "under the sun", and things terrestrial.

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FIVE - Denotes Divine grace. It is 4+1. It is God adding His gifts and blessing to the works of His hands. The Hebrew Ha'aretz (the earth), by "Gematria" (ie the addition of the numerical value of the letters together) is a multiple of four, while Hashamayim (the heavens) is a multiple of five. It is the leading factor in the Tabernacle measurements.

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SIX - Denotes the human number. Man was created on the sixth day; and this first occurrence of the number makes it (and all multiples of it) the hall-mark of all connected with man. He works six days. The hours of his day are a multiple of six. Athaliah usurped the throne of Judah six years. The great men who have stood out in defiance of God (Goliath and Nebuchadnezzar and Antichrist) are all emphatically marked by this number.

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SEVEN - Denotes spiritual perfection. It is the number or hall-mark of the Holy Spirit 's work. He is the Author of God's Word, and seven is stamped on it. He is the Author and Giver of life; and seven is the number which regulates every period of Incubation and Gestation, in insects, birds, animals, and man.

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EIGHT - Denotes resurrection, regeneration; a new beginning or commencement. The eighth is a new first. Hence the octave in music, colour, days of the week etc. It is the number which has to do with the Lord, Who rose on the eighth, or new "first day." This is, therefore, the Dominical number. It or its multiple is impressed on all that has to do with the Lord's Names, the Lord's People, the Lord's works.

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NINE - Denotes Finality of judgment. It is 3 x 3, the product of Divine completeness. The number nine, or its factors or multiples, is seen in all cases when judgment is the subject.

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Psychokinesis / Telekinesis

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Hello Bishop. I would like to ask you what's your opinion on telikinesis? -Ruben

Psychokinesis - sometimes referred to as telekinesis or mind over matter - is the ability to move things or otherwise affect the property of things with the power of the mind. Of psychic abilities, true psychokinesis is one of the rarest. Few have been able to demonstrate this ability, and even those demonstrations are highly contested by the sceptics. One of the most celebrated and scrutinised psychics to claim psychokinetic powers was Nina Kulagina, a Russian woman who discovered her abilities while attempting to develop other psychic powers. She is reported as having demonstrated her powers by mentally moving a wide range of non-magnetic objects, including matches, bread, large crystal bowls, clock pendulums, a cigar tube and a salt shaker, among other things. Some of these demonstrations have been captured on film. The sceptics contend that her abilities would not stand up to scientific testing, and that she may be nothing more that a clever magician. Felicia Parise, an American medical laboratory technician who allegedly was able to repeatedly demonstrate telekinetic movement of small objects beginning in the 1970s, in the first reported instance spontaneously, and then with practice by intense conscious intention. She said her inspiration for making the attempt was in viewing the black-and-white films of Nina Kulagina performing similar feats. Some of the items Parise reportedly caused movement in were a plastic pill container, compass needle, and pieces of aluminum foil (the latter two under a bell jar filmed by a magician). During the height of her fame in the early 1970s , the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper in the United States, then printed in all black and white, featured her in a large photo on its cover seated at a table attempting to perform telekinesis with the headline: "First American to Move Objects with the Mind." Parise eventually retired from performing telekinesis due to the physical stress on her body.

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The term "telekinesis" was coined in 1890 by Russian psychical researcher Alexander N Aksakof. The term "psychokinesis" was coined in 1914 by American author-publisher Henry Holt in his book On the Cosmic Relations and adopted by his friend, American parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine in 1934 in connection with experiments to determine if a person could influence the outcome of falling dice. Both concepts have been described by other terms, such as remote influencing, distant influencing, remote mental influence, distant mental influence, directed conscious intention, "anomalous perturbation" and "mind over matter." Originally telekinesis was coined to refer to the movement of objects thought to be caused by ghosts of deceased persons, mischievous spirits, angels, demons, or other supernatural forces. Later, when speculation increased that humans might be the source of the witnessed phenomena not caused by fraudulent mediums and could possibly cause movement without any connection to a spiritualistic setting, such as in a darkened séance room, psychokinesis was added to the lexicon. Eventually, psychokinesis became the term preferred by the parapsychological community. Popular culture, however, preferred telekinesis to describe the paranormal movement of objects, likely due to the word's resemblance to other terms, such as telepathy, teleportation etc.

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I retain an absolutely open mind on the question of telekinesis, having witnessed far more bizarre and unexplained phenomena than objects mysteriously moving or being moved by the power of someone's mind.

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Edward Kennedy

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Do you have an opinion on the death of Senator Ted Kennedy? Do You think it's appropriate for a pro-abortion politician to receive communion and a Catholic funeral? -Ruben

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (22 February 1932 – 25 August 2009) was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party who was first elected in November 1962. He leaves behind a scandalous political career which was laced with lurid tales of drugs, sexual abuse and moral degeneracy.

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Two things immediately spring to mind when I think of Ted Kennedy. One is the name of Mary Jo Kopechne and the Chappaquiddick incident, which was never satisfactorily explained; the other is, despite his bipartisan legislative practices, for many years Kennedy was a polarising symbol of American liberalism.

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On the night of 18 July 1969, Kennedy was on Martha's Vineyard's Chappaquiddick Island at a party for a group of young women who had worked on his brother Robert's presidential campaign the year before. Kennedy left the party, driving a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 with one of the women, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne and later accidentally drove off Dike Bridge into the Poucha Pond inlet, a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy escaped the overturned vehicle, swam to safety and left the scene. He did not call authorities until after Kopechne's body was discovered the following day. On July 25th, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a sentence of two months in jail, suspended. That night he gave a national broadcast in which he said: "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately," but denied driving under the influence of alcohol and denied any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne.

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In January 1970, an inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown, Massachusetts. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered the inquest be conducted in secret. The presiding judge, James A Boyle, concluded that some aspects of Kennedy's story of that night were not true, and that "negligent driving appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne." A grand jury on Martha's Vineyard staged a two-day investigation in April 1970, but issued no indictment, after which Boyle made his inquest report public. Kennedy deemed its conclusions "not justified." The most likely explanation for his behaviour was that he was severely under the influence of drugs or alcohol and did not want his blood tested so soon after the incident, leaving the unfortunate young woman to drown. Kennedy denied the allegations, which dogged his failed 1980 presidential election challenge against incumbent Jimmy Carter.

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His personal life was as appalling as his political career. Time magazine once described Kennedy as “Palm Beach boozer, lout and tabloid grotesque” while Newsweek said Kennedy was “the living symbol of the family flaws.” Kennedy himself later acknowledged: “I went through a lot of difficult times over a period in my life where [drinking] may have been somewhat of a factor or force.” Twice he was involved in drunken incidents in Washington restaurants to which police were called, with one involving physical contact with a waitress.

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The unemployed, the disabled, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, women's causes, the IRA and some others who employed violent means to achieve their end — all found in him an eager advocate. But not unborn children: unexpectedly for a Roman Catholic, Kennedy approved federal payments for abortions. Kennedy often deviated from the Roman Catholic Church's doctrines, as he was divorced and latterly came out in support of stem cell research (although the Vatican vehemently opposes it). Kennedy was a member of the Roman Catholic Church; but at the same time he shared important values with secular humanists. Whether he should have received Communion when alive and be given a Roman Catholic funeral is something for others to debate. There is much the modern Church does which seems incompatible with its traditional pre-Vatican II position. Kennedy is also known as the “godfather” of America’s immigration policy since 1964, and is possibly the one individual most responsible for the current demographic displacement of European Americans from that continent. As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Senator Kennedy had chief oversight responsibility for the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, which he allowed to degenerate into one of the most ineffective agencies in the Federal Government. He was the chief sponsor of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which abolished the national-origin quotas that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924.

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My particular concern with the late Senator was his liberalism. The liberal's ideal is shown in his promotion of the "anti-hero" in literature, the theatre and the cinema, where the coward comes out on top. To the liberal mind, it simply is not right that there should ever be losers in anything. A world with no winners would, of course, belong to the losers and that sort of world is naturally one in which the liberal would be in his element. They reject Man as he is and always will be; and they substitute an abtraction. In the pallid world of pure intellection they project a picture of Man as they would have him be: a two-dimensional being, a mere shadow in the real world.

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Intrinsic in liberals and liberalism is a flabbiness of person and outlook. Liberals cannot bear what is true. Weak themselves, but with more than their share of conceit and vanity, they construct in their minds an alternative world where people of their kind, instead of being serfs, are kings. It is liberalism that is the eternal weakener of nations by atrophying their national spirit. It is liberalism that, by its influence, brings about a progressive degeneration of the mind, body and soul of a people that is vibrant and healthy. In modern liberalism are reproduced all the vices of the old liberalism, but with some additional features making an even more nationally destructive philosophy. The old liberal faith in "freedom" as an absolute good has been replaced by a valuation of freedom that is entirely selective. The disintegration of western society currently underway is in no short measure due to the disease of liberalism.

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Ted Kennedy was an archetypal liberal.

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