Adair Stages Event to Show Libyan T
By RICHARD BOUDREAUX
TRIPOLI, Libya—Hundreds of tribal leaders from government-controlled areas of Libya gathered under a giant tent here Thursday to call for an end to an armed uprising against Col. Moammar Gadhafi and aerial attacks by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on his forces.
But what the government billed as a nationwide show of support drew only limited participation, with tribal chiefs from three regions of western and central Libya in attendance.
Associated PressIn this photo taken on a government organized tour, tribal leaders attend a convention in Tripoli, Libya. The Libyan government said the gathering is a sign of widespread support for Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
"We reject the fighting in Libya...we strongly reject foreign intervention," declared Abed Abu Hamada , leader of the Megharbah tribe, in a speech to the televised gathering of white-robed elders. "We call on our brothers in the eastern regions – the armed ones, the misled ones – we call them to peaceful dialogue."
Mr. Abu Hamada was introduced by organizers as a leader from eastern Libya, much of which is under rebel control. In fact, say tribal experts, the Megharbah are from the central Libyan region near the Gulf of Sirte.
The government listed 851 tribes and tribal factions represented at Thursday's National Conference of the Tribes of Libya. George Joffee, a Cambridge University professor who has studied Libya's tribes and who examined the list of participants, said those groups hail exclusively from the central Sirte Valley, the Al-Jufra plains just to the south and the Tawerga region near Misrata, further to the west.
Absent were eastern tribes and western Berber tribes, which have been hostile to the Col. Gadhafi during his four decades of rule, and tribes from the south that have sought to remain neutral in the 11-week-old uprising.
"The regime can rely only on those tribes in the center and the west that are favorable to it or can be coerced," Mr. Joffee said in a telephone interview. Thursday's conference, he added, "was clearly staged by the regime in the hope of creating the impression that Col. Gadhafi enjoys widespread support."
Even among the tribal leaders present, backing for the government was limited.
Mansour Khalaf, who heads Libya's largest tribe, the Warfalla, told reporters during the conference that although he denounces the uprising and supports Col. Gadhafi's leadership, he would not send armed followers to join the Libyan army's fight against the rebels, as some other tribes have vowed to do.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the "security situation" in eastern Libya limited attendance at the conference. But he insisted that it was broadly representative and urged Western leaders who have called for Col. Gadhafi's departure to take note.
"Their message is national unity and no to foreign intervention," he said. "They are not siding with someone against someone else. Of course, they're rallying behind the leadership of the country, but they're saying, we want our brothers in the east to come talk to us so we can find a peaceful solution to this crisis."
The tribal leaders met under a tent the size of two football fields, equipped with air conditioning and chandeliers. English and Arabic signs on the white cloth walls read "Stop the War," "Libya First," and "No War for Oil." Nearly every speaker pledged allegiance to Col. Gadhafi.
Western officials have said NATO will keep attacking Col. Gadhafi's forces as long as their strikes on opposition-held areas threaten civilian lives. Rebel leaders have rejected his calls for a cease-fire, saying there's nothing to discuss as long as the Libyan leader remains in power.
A leader of the rebels' Transitional National Council, Fathi Baja, dismissed the government's assertion that the tribal leaders who met Thursday represent the whole country. "Gadhafi is just a big liar," he told the Associated Press in the eastern city of Benghazi. "He never had any legitimacy."
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Tue, 5/3/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: U.S - Pakistan Diplomatic Tensions Over Bin Laden
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, ub_alumni@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 7:29 PM
The Death of Osama bin Laden
Tensions Rise as U.S. Officials Press Pakistan for Answers
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and JANE PERLEZ
Published: May 3, 2011
WASHINGTON — Tensions between the American and Pakistani governments intensified sharply on Tuesday as senior Obama administration officials demanded answers to how Osama bin Laden managed to hide in Pakistan, and the Pakistani government issued a defiant statement calling the raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader "an unauthorized unilateral action."
Warrick Page for The New York Times
Commuters in Rawalpindi, northern Pakistan, read the morning newspapers on Tuesday announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden during an American raid. More Photos »
Multimedia
TimesCast | A Culture of ConspiraciesTimesCast | Voicing Distrust on PakistanRelated
U.S. Says Bin Laden Lacked Weapons When Shot in Raid (May 4, 2011)
Times Topic: The Death of Osama bin Laden
Related in Opinion
Room For Debate
Why Did It Take So Long to Find Bin Laden?
The Iraq war diverted counterterrorism forces. The Pakistanis were obstructive. Or was it also just bad luck?
T. Mughal/European Pressphoto Agency
Marc Grossman, third from right, the administration's special envoy, met Tuesday with senior officials in Islamabad. More Photos »
Athar Hussain/Reuters
Supporters of the banned Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa embraced after a funeral prayer for Osama bin Laden in Karachi. More Photos »
John O. Brennan, the top White House counterterrorism adviser, said there were many questions about how the sprawling compound "was able to be there for so many years with Bin Laden resident there and it didn't come to the attention of the local authorities."
"We need to understand what sort of support network that Bin Laden might have had in place," Mr. Brennan said during an interview with ABC on Tuesday.
The suspicions have intensified efforts by some members of Congress to scale back American aid to Pakistan, or cut it entirely, as lawmakers described Pakistan as a duplicitous ally undeserving of the billions of dollars it receives each year from Washington.
Still, Obama administration officials and some members of Congress seemed determined to avoid the kind of break in relations that would jeopardize the counterterrorism network the C.I.A. has carefully constructed over the last few years in Pakistan, and as the administration tries to end the war in Afghanistan, a conflict where Pakistan is a necessary, if difficult, partner.
On Monday, the Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan landed in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and delivered what American officials described as a stern message to senior Pakistani military and intelligence leaders. The envoy, Marc Grossman, told them that patience in Congress was wearing thin, officials familiar with the discussions said.
Officials in Washington said they hoped to learn far more about the network that Bin Laden tapped for support by examining the trove of computer files and documents that members of the Navy Seals grabbed during Monday's raid.
Top Pakistani officials have vehemently denied that Islamabad tried to harbor Bin Laden, and American officials said that at this point there was no hard evidence that any Pakistani officials visited the compound in Abbottabad, or had any direct contacts with Bin Laden.
Even as they pledged support for the United States' deeply strained alliance with Pakistan, several top American officials said it was difficult to believe that Bin Laden could have spent years in a town populated by current and former Pakistani military officers — with a Pakistani military academy close by — without the complicity of some in the country's government.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, acknowledged that she had no evidence that Pakistan's government knew where Bin Laden was hiding, but said the government had much to answer for.
"If they didn't know, why didn't they know? Why didn't they pay more attention to it? Was it just benign indifference, or was it indifference with a motive," she said.
A civilian official in the Pakistani government said he did not know if the Pakistani spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, helped Bin Laden hide or was simply unaware of his presence in Abbottabad. Either way, he said, the successful American raid was an international humiliation for the agency.
"I'm not denying the possibility," the official said, referring to the ISI sheltering Bin Laden. "At worst, it's that. At best, it's total incompetence."
He said he hoped the raid would lead Pakistanis — particularly military and ISI leaders — to recognize the deep credibility problem their county now faces internationally.
In his meetings in Islamabad, Mr. Grossman told Pakistani leaders they needed to take steps to stanch the tide of anger in Washington about Pakistan's behavior, according to Obama administration officials familiar with the meetings.
In public, Mr. Grossman was more diplomatic, telling reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday that the United States was committed to its alliance with Pakistan and that Pakistan was "determined to curb terrorism."
A senior Pakistani general on Tuesday repeated his government's formal denials that the military or the ISI knew of Bin Laden's location. Instead, he acknowledged a major intelligence lapse by the Pakistani police and security forces.
"To me, it's a big embarrassment that the bastard was in this compound near the academy," said the Pakistani officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Clearly, the U.S. had better intelligence than we did about what was inside that compound."
The general said Pakistan and the United States had cooperated in other counterterrorism operations in the Abbottabad area in recent weeks, notably a C.I.A. tip that led to Pakistan's recent arrest of Umar Patek, one of the main Indonesian suspects in the 2002 Bali bombing.
The Pakistani government statement went further, saying that the ISI had "been sharing information with C.I.A. and other friendly intelligence agencies" about the Bin Laden compound since 2009.
Several American officials said they were puzzled about the statement, pointing out that the C.I.A. did not know about the compound until last August.
The raid has fueled anti-Pakistan sentiment in Congress, yet it is unclear — perhaps even unlikely — that there would be enough support to cut aid to Pakistan.
Speaker John A. Boehner, who just returned from a congressional visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan, said that any discussion about cutting aid or decreasing engagement with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Bin Laden strike was premature and that he would strongly oppose any such move.
"We both benefit from having a strong bilateral relationship, and I think we need to use this moment to strengthen the ties between our two countries," Mr. Boehner told reporters. "This is not a time to back away from Pakistan."
Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, also expressed reluctance about limiting aid to Pakistan, saying the country has been an anti-terror partner of the United States. "They've lost thousands and thousands of their soldiers fighting terrorists," he said. "Now, this doesn't mean we shouldn't have more oversight, and I'm willing to do that."
In Brussels on Tuesday, the national intelligence officer for South Asia, Neil H. Joeck, spoke about Pakistan at a closed meeting of ambassadors to NATO. According to people present for his presentation, which was based on a December 2010 National Intelligence Estimate on Pakistan, Mr. Joeck said American officials had little expectation that the Pakistani government would mount a serious campaign to wipe out Al Qaeda or Taliban safe havens in the most contested border areas of the country.
"He said there were simply too many ongoing suspicions of the U.S.," said one foreign official.
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Tue, 5/3/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Africanpolitics] Whole markets slip as Economy Trumps Bin Laden news. May, 2nd.
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, ub_alumni@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 11:46 AM
Stocks slip as economy trumps bin Laden news
Click the chart for more market data.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks edged lower on Monday as investors shifted their focus back to the economy and earnings news.
It was a reversal from the initial positive reaction to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces. Traders and investors said it will take more to sustain a longer rally.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 3 points, or less than 0.1%, to 12,807. The Dow had been up as much as 60 points earlier in the day.
The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 2.4 points, or 0.2%, to 1,361; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) lost 9 points, or 0.3%, to 2,864.
"Once the bin Laden news settles and earnings season slows down, we'll be due for a pullback," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist with D.A. Davidson & Co. "Bin Laden's death doesn't eliminate the risk factors and it doesn't settle the political uprising issues in the Mideast."
Monday's losses ends what was a five-day long positive streak for the S&P 500 and Dow.
Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), Merck (MRK, Fortune 500) and American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) led the blue chips higher Monday, but shares of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) offset the gains and weighed down the tech sector. Applied Materials (AMAT, Fortune 500) and Whole Foods (WFMI, Fortune 500) were the Nasdaq's biggest laggards.
The losses on Monday come after stocks finished their best month this year on Friday.
Stocks have headed higher since the beginning of the year amid strong earnings. Despite jitters about the economy and concerns about inflation, April was the best month for the three indexes since December.
Corporate earnings have largely come in above expectations, but last week's weak GDP reading and higher-than-forecast jobless claims show there's still cause for concern about the U.S. economic recovery.
U.S. investors will get the April jobs report, a closely watched gauge of U.S. economic activity, this upcoming Friday.
Commodities and currencies: Oil prices edged lower with June oil futures falling 0.4% to $113.52 a barrel.
"Oil can be a globally emotional, reactive market, and any time that geopolitical risk is reduced there is less fear in the oil markets," said Derek Hoffman, chief executive and founder of Wall St. Cheat Sheet. "The news that there was a successful effort to find, capture and kill the number one terrorist in the world is a positive sign."
Gold prices also backed off their highs Monday. Gold futures for June delivery fell $9.50 to $1,547.00 an ounce, after hitting an intraday high of $1,577.40 an ounce.
Meanwhile, silver prices plunged nearly 10% to $44.12 an ounce on concerns that the precious metal, which is up nearly 40% this year, is overbought.
In currencies, the dollar fell against the euro, but gained strength against the Japanese yen and the British pound.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury edged higher, pushing the yield down to 3.29%.
It's shaping up to be a big week for bonds, with the Treasury Department expected to announce details of its quarterly refunding on Wednesday.
World markets: Markets around the world had a muted reaction to Osama bin Laden's death, with Britain's FTSE 100, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite all closed for holiday.
Other European markets rose slightly. The DAX in Germany rose 0.3% and France's CAC 40 closed up 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei ended the session 1.6% higher.
Economy: The Institute for Supply Management said its April manufacturing index fell to a reading of 60.4%, better than the reading of 58.5% that economists had expected.
Companies: The Nasdaq-100 index will be rebalanced to reduce the weight of Apple's stock by about 40%. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) currently represents 20.5% of the index. After the rebalancing, Apple's weight will be reduced to 12.3%.
Shares of TiVo (TIVO) closed up 3% after DISH Network Corporation (DISH, Fortune 500) and EchoStar Corporation (SATS) announced they will pay TiVo $500 million to settle an ongoing patent dispute.
Separately, DISH reported earnings per share of $1.22 for the quarter ended in March, easily topping forecasts. Also, DISH said it gained approximately 58,000 net subscribers during the quarter. Shares of DISH jumped 19%.
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Mon, 4/18/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: Obama Takes his Economic Message to the Road
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, ub_alumni@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, April 18, 2011, 5:55 PM
TWO SETS OF FAMILIES, TWO SETS OF NATIONS, TWO SETS OF IDEOLOGIES, TWO SETS OF LIFE UNDER ONE UNIVERSE
The real problem with America and the West today is that there are two sets of families.
There are those families born with inherited rights and wealth who do not need to buy a stock for the rest of their life or work, yet they own part of the Central Banks of Europe and America. They own it beyond the entrepreneurs and markets, and governments. These families live above and behind the governments of nations with their secrets, secret societies and are a super-power of all super powers. They make peace or war and define life for the rest of peoples and nations. They prey on the universe and drain the sweet and blood of Christendom as a dragon.
The second set of Family is the set of families that are controlled and managed by governments for the Financiers of Financiers. Governments raise them light a horse raiser for the consumption, entertainment, labor, and "play and display" of the Rulers of the Earth. These families think they own a government -- yet they are mis-educated, misinformed and blinded from all angels of life, from the lowest to the highest places in the nations and the world. These families are powerless and waiting for the return of Christ for Full and final salvation. These families - no matter how hard they work or try cannot enter the higher cycle of the first set of families. This is the game of modern capitalism. At the end of its roads not by men but by the making of God almighty.
Hope though for the chosen One Is Around. Open your eyes and search!
He who opens your eyes to all these blindness and redeems your lineage and life.
-- H.E. Kum Nelson Bame Bame
President Obama hits the road to spread his economic message
April 18, 2011 6:23 p.m. EDTSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Vice President Biden sets budget talks with legislators for May 5
- The president heads to Virginia, California and Nevada this week
- Obama will hold town hall-style meetings to discuss fiscal policy
- The message campaign comes as Congress faces budget, debt ceiling issues
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama takes his deficit reduction proposal on the road this week with town hall-style events in three states that are important to his re-election bid in 2012.
Obama heads to northern Virginia on Tuesday; Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday; and Reno, Nevada, on Thursday to take questions on the economy and his plan, unveiled last week, that would end Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy and cut spending.
On Monday, Obama kick-starts the message campaign by giving interviews at the White House with local news stations in Denver; Raleigh, North Carolina; Dallas and Indianapolis.
"I hope you'll take a break from either friending or defriending each other" to RSVP for the Wednesday event, which will be live-streamed to "answer questions from folks across the country," Obama said in a video invitation posted Monday on YouTube.
The president's blitz comes as Congress faces two major fiscal issues in coming months: passing a budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins October 1, and raising the federal debt ceiling so the government can continue meeting its obligations.
It targets two traditional Republican states he won in 2008 -- Virginia and Nevada -- as well as reliable Democratic territory in California and its 55 electoral votes, the most of any state.
Congressional Republicans are demanding significant fiscal reforms, such as a balanced budget amendment and mandatory spending caps, in exchange for their necessary support to raise the debt limit.
Democrats respond that the debt limit issue should be separated from any politically inspired fiscal mandates because any question of whether the government can pay its debt will bring damaging repercussions from markets and the international community.
The first evidence of such a reaction came Monday, when Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook for the nation's long-term debt.
While reaffirming its top-tier rating for the U.S. economy, S&P lowered its outlook for America's long-term credit rating to "negative" from "stable" based on the uncertain political debate around the nation's fiscal problems. It said resolution of major issues was unlikely ahead of the 2012 elections.
The report by one of the major agencies that evaluates debt ratings sent stocks tumbling, with the Dow Jones industrial average sinking 140 points on the day.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said Monday that the S&P report underscores the need for immediate reforms to ensure America's fiscal health.
Republicans will not move forward on a measure to raise the country's debt ceiling unless "it is accompanied by serious reforms that immediately reduce federal spending and end the culture of debt in Washington," Cantor said in a statement.
At the White House, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that although the S&P rating showed the need for agreement on deficit reduction, the president believes that the prospects for a deal are better than expected by S&P.
He reiterated the White House position that raising the debt ceiling should be handled separately from fiscal reform measures.
"The issue is, the debt ceiling has to be raised, and it cannot be held hostage to a process that is very difficult and very complicated," Carney said. "We cannot make it conditional."
Calling the possibility of a U.S. default on its debt obligations "unthinkable," Carney said congressional leaders from both parties have indicated that the debt ceiling will be raised and said Obama "takes them at their word."
While opposing a direct linkage between raising the debt ceiling and fiscal reforms, the White House concedes that simultaneous steps are needed to reduce mounting deficits and the national debt.\
The U.S. debt is expected to hit the country's $14.294 trillion ceiling next month, though congressional leaders say the Treasury can take steps to put off the deadline until early July.
On the broader fiscal reform issues, Obama and congressional Democrats seek to distinguish their policies from Republican calls for shrinking spending and the size of government.
A 2012 budget proposal passed Friday by House Republicans with no Democratic support would cut $4 trillion in spending over the next decade by overhauling the Medicare and Medicaid government health care programs, cut non-military discretionary spending and reform the tax code to lower rates and eliminate loopholes.
The goal is leaner government without the unsustainable cost increases currently plaguing Medicare and Medicaid, along with lower tax rates to stimulate economic growth.
Democrats call the GOP plan unbalanced, saying it gives the wealthy tax breaks while placing the burden of reduced spending on the most vulnerable elements of society.
Obama's vision, unveiled last week, also seeks $4 trillion in deficit reduction but over 12 years, and includes tax reforms to lower some rates and eliminate loopholes while ending Bush-era tax cuts for families earning more than $250,000 a year.
The president also called for further reforms to Medicare and Medicaid while maintaining their current structure, along with spending cuts, including the military budget. The House Republican plan would leave military spending untouched.
Vice President Joe Biden's office announced Monday that his first meeting with legislators to try to work out a fiscal reform deal will take place May 5. Obama proposed the talks when he outlined his policy last week, but the composition of the House and Senate delegations remains uncertain.
CNN's Tom Cohen contributed to this story.
Location, location, location (the sequel)
CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser Washington (CNN) – Friday we pointed out that it shouldn't be any surprise that two of the three states President Barack Obama visits this week are battleground states.
Now the update: Monday the president gives interviews to anchors from local TV stations in four cities. I guess it should be no surprise that three of those stations are located in battleground states, or swing states, if you'd like - states considered competitive in the race for the White House.
But the White House says campaign politics is not behind the placement of where the president gives interviews.The White House says that in the interviews with the local television stations, the president will "discuss his vision for reducing our debt and bringing down our deficit, based on the values of shared responsibility and shared prosperity."
The four stations are KCNC in Denver, Colorado, WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina, WTHR in Indianapolis, Indiana, and WFAA in Dallas, Texas. Let's start with the first three. Obama won all three in 2008. He was the first Democrat to win Indiana in a presidential election since 1964, the first to carry North Carolina since 1976, and the first since Bill Clinton in 1992 to capture Colorado.
Texas, of course, is a different story. Republicans have dominated politics in the Lone Star state for years. But Democrats think Texas could come into play thanks to the rapid increase of Hispanics in the state.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the Obama re-election campaign did not weigh in on the selection process of which television stations the president would give interviews to.
"The campaign doesn't weigh in on it. We make our decisions on where the president should give interviews right here at the White House," said Carney.
Now to the town halls. The president travels to northern Virginia Tuesday to hold a town hall. Obama won the state in 2008, the first Democrat to carry Virginia in a presidential election since 1964. With an open Senate seat to defend as well, Virginia is a crucial state for Democrats in 2012.
The president also holds a town hall in Reno, Nevada on Thursday. Obama carried that state as well in 2008, the first Democrat to capture Nevada since Bill Clinton won it in 1996. Like Virginia, there's a crucial contest for the Senate as well, but in this case it's an open seat that is currently held by the GOP.
In between the two events, the president also holds a town hall Wednesday at Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto, California. California is safe and lucrative politically for Obama. He will also be the main attraction at fund raisers in San Francisco and Los Angeles for his re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Mon, 4/18/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: [camnetwork] Tough Fight Over Marriage Law.
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, ub_alumni@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, April 18, 2011, 5:34 PM
Boehner hires top lawyer for fight over marriage law, sources say
THE LAST DAYS AND GOD VERSUS SATAN.
April 18, 2011 7:16 p.m. EDTSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Pelosi asks what the legal fight will cost taxpayers
- Attorney Paul Clement was solicitor general in the second Bush administration
- Boehner says he had no choice but to act after the Obama administration backed off
- House Republicans also want to divert Justice Department funds for the effort
Washington (CNN) -- House Republicans have hired a prominent conservative attorney to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act in a pending lawsuit, legal sources say, and will make an effort to divert money from the Justice Department to fund its high-profile fight.
House Speaker John Boehner disclosed the legal and political strategy in a letter Monday to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Obama administration, which normally would defend federal laws in judicial disputes, announced last month it believed the Defense of Marriage Act, often referred to as DOMA, to be unconstitutional.
The law defines marriage for federal purposes as unions only between a man and woman
Boehner said that with the Justice Department not participating, he had "no choice" but to act unilaterally.
"The burden of defending DOMA, and the resulting costs associated with any litigation that would have otherwise been born (sic) by DOJ (The Department of Justice), has fallen to the House," Boehner said. "Obviously, DOJ's decision results in DOJ no longer needing the funds it would have otherwise expended defending the constitutionality of DOMA. It is my intent that those funds be diverted to the House for reimbursement of any costs incurred by and associated with the House, and not DOJ, defending DOMA."
Such a move would require Senate approval, an unlikely prospect since Democrats control that chamber.
Boehner will probably end up finding money for the legal fight from other discretionary and non-discretionary spending sources, according to legal experts. There was no indication just how much the legal fight could eventually cost.
In response to Boehner's letter, Pelosi, D-California, asked the speaker how much the legal defense of DOMA would cost taxpayers.
"I am requesting that you disclose the cost of hiring outside counsel for the 12 cases where DOMA is being challenged," Pelosi's letter said. She also asked for details on the reported hiring of Paul D. Clement, a former solicitor general, specifically when a contract was signed and why a copy was not provided to Democrats on the Committee on House Administration.
Legal sources say the House Republican leadership hired Clement, a Washington appellate attorney, to defend the law. He filed a brief Monday in a pending case from New York, where a lesbian received an estate tax bill of more than $360,000 after her longtime partner and legal wife had died.
Clement is a former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, serving from 2005 to 2008. It was his job to defend federal laws and executive actions in court, similar to what he will be doing now as a private lawyer on retainer. He was mentioned at one time as a possible Supreme Court nominee.
Separately, he also is representing more than two dozens states in their lawsuit against the administration over the sweeping health care reform law passed by Congress last year. That case is pending in a federal appeals court in Atlanta.
In the Defense of Marriage Act dispute, groups on both sides of the issue noted the highly charged political aspects.
"Not only are House Republican leaders defending the indefensible, they've brought in a high-priced attorney to deny federal recognition to loving, married couples," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "Speaker Boehner appears ready to go to great lengths, and the great expense of a high-power law firm, to try to score some cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples."
But conservative groups applauded the move.
"At last we have a legal eagle on this case who actually wants to win in court," said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage. "Thanks to Speaker Boehner's actions, President Obama's attempt to sabotage the legal defense of DOMA is not going to work."
President Barack Obama on February 23 ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the law.
"The president has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny," said Attorney General Eric Holder. The key provision in the law "fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional."
Obama had previously expressed his personal opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act but had never stated an opinion relating to its constitutionality.
Holder's chief spokesman said the department had no comment on Boehner's moves.
Two pending lawsuits from New York and Connecticut challenge the law. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes both states, is the only federal circuit to have never decided the basic legal question of whether a law discriminates against gay men and lesbians.
The Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996 by the GOP-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages and says states cannot be forced to recognize such marriages allowed in other states.
The New York legal fight was prompted by Edith "Edie" Windsor, who lived with her female partner, Thea Spyer, for more than four decades. They married out-of-state in 2007, but neither the federal government nor their home state of New York recognized the legal union. Spyer died and left her estate to Windsor, who was then forced to pay taxes on the money because she was not considered a legal spouse.
In July, a federal judge in Massachusetts, in a separate case, became the first to rule part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. District Judge Joseph Tauro said that "irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest."
The administration's decision comes on the heels of other major developments in the struggle over gay and lesbian rights.
In December, Obama signed legislation that will repeal the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy and bring an end to the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the armed forces.
Courts in California are considering a legal challenge to Proposition 8, an initiative narrowly approved by that state's voters in 2008. It defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Either one of those cases could reach the Supreme Court in coming months, perhaps in time to become a major issue during the 2012 election year.
Same-sex marriage is legal in five states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont -- and in the District of Columbia. Civil unions virtually equivalent to marriage are permitted in New Jersey, while several other states offer more limited civil unions or partnerships.
The New York case is Windsor v. U.S. (1:10-cv-08435).
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Wed, 4/13/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: April 12, As America Celebrated 150yrs Union Victories, Bretton Woods PowerHouse Met.
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 3:07 PM
World Finance & Banking Updates.
After crisis, money leaders regroup
By Neil Irwin, Tuesday, April 12, 8:21 PM
BRETTON WOODS, N.H. — Sixty-seven years ago at the Mount Washington Resort here, the world's financial leaders gathered to try to come up with a new order for the world economy to replace the one shattered by the Great Depression and World War II.
Video: April 12 (Bloomberg) - Carlo Cottarelli, director of the International Monetary Fund's fiscal department, discusses the outlook for the U.S. federal budget deficit. The U.S. is set to have the largest budget deficit of major developed economies this year and should narrow it now rather than face tough adjustments in the next two years, the IMF said. Cottarelli talks with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance Midday." (Source: Bloomberg)
They succeeded. The agreement they reached set the stage for three decades of relative peace and prosperity.
With the most recent financial crisis nearing its third birthday, this time there is less sense of promise about the economic future. In the coming days, world financial leaders will meet in Washington for meetings of the Group of 20 major economic powers, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (the latter two being creations of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, as it happens).
There are unlikely to be any major breakthroughs this week in solving some of the nagging problems that put the world on course to the 2008 crisis, those involved with the talks said. The big imbalances that result from some countries saving too much and others saving too little will surely persist, the financial industry will continue to evade regulation by shifting operations to the countries with the most lax rules, and no solutions are at hand to contain the proclivity of financial markets to make abrupt and chaotic turns that can cause massive economic damage.
"The Bretton Woods conference was built on a foundation of optimism about the possibility of not just economic order, but political and, indeed, moral order," said Harold James, a Princeton historian who spoke last weekend at a conference sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, where 300 economists and others gathered at Bretton Woods to debate the path forward. "There was also an urgency because it was in the last stages of a great war.
"Today," said James, "we have neither the optimism, nor the urgency."
Instead, the gathering in Washington over the coming days will likely include top officials hammering out a series of small-scale steps that just might, over time, reduce some risks — as was done at the meetings of top finance ministers in Paris in February and in Seoul in November. On the question of how to reduce global financial imbalances, the finance ministers will still be trying to agree on what measures ought to be used to assess whether a country is causing imbalances that put the global economy at risk, and not yet moving to pressure those countries whose spending and saving patterns are out of whack.
The gradualism results in part from the initial success of policymakers in containing the damage from the crisis. Part of the reason financial diplomats were able to reach a wide-ranging agreement in Bretton Woods in 1944 is that the scale of the disaster over the preceding 15 years had been so great that there was no question that fundamental reforms in global finance were needed — even at the cost of individual countries acceding to things not in their immediate interest.
But in the most recent crisis, emerging nations such as China barely experienced an economic dip at all, U.S. unemployment topped out at 10 percent instead of 25 percent in the Great Depression, and there has been no global conflict remotely comparable to World War II.
Accordingly, nations are less willing to make concessions for the sake of a more stable world economy. For China, that means being slow to move away from keeping the value of its currency artificially low to boost exports; for Germany, that means a reluctance to fully support a bailout for flailing peripheral European nations; for the United States, that means making little political progress toward reducing longer-term budget deficits.
"You ask the people in this room for five or six concrete solutions to the problems that led to the crisis, and they can come up with ideas that most people can agree on," Andres Velasco, a former Chilean finance minister who now teaches at Harvard, said at the conference Sunday. "The problem is political."
On reforming the financial system, major global banks have quickly returned to profitability since the crisis, but it is less clear whether rules are in place that will keep them from endangering the world economy in the future.
"I take an emotional read and say that there are a lot of smart people who think we're closer to the starting gate than the finish line on financial reform," said Robert Johnson, executive director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The group, founded in 2009 with heavy funding from billionaire financier George Soros, aims to encourage economists to undertake more useful research. (Soros supports many liberal causes, drawing attacks on the group — and on the conference — from some conservatives.)
There were no current senior U.S. officials in Bretton Woods last weekend, though former top economic aide Lawrence H. Summers and outside adviser Paul Volcker both appeared. At the meetings over the coming days, though, U.S. officials are seeking to push for gradual progress on remaking the world economy, pointing to small areas of progress and acknowledging that it is a multi-year process.
A senior U.S. Treasury official who briefed reporters Tuesday on U.S. plans for the coming meetings noted that just three years ago China resisted even including the word "imbalances" in official joint statements of world leaders. Now the word can be used, even if figuring out how to deal with them is a massive point of contention.
"I expect this process to be contentious, and it will continue to be contentious going forward," said the official. "It's contentious because it's plowing new ground."
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Wed, 4/13/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Africanpolitics] The Pillars of Society are those who embrace Responsibility and love
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 2:17 PM
You cannot save a nation if you cannot save a spouse, a child or children.
The Foundation stone for any Person of Great Ambitions is the family. By learning to serve and love a spouse and raise children you cultivate the heart and character of a leader -- it is not by reading and making noise for a thousand years. When you embrace the responsibility of the family, then you embrace the responsibility for society and God. The purpose of all philosophy, education, training and life is to embrace responsibility for Society and God. And the heart of responsibility is learning to respect, share and love step by step through the experience of growth in responsibility at different echelons in different spheres.
-- H.E. Kum Nelson Bame Bame
The Pillars Of Society
The pillars of a nation are those exceptional people who provide its spiritual and moral anchor and bestow its vision and purpose. These are not ordinarily its politicians or rulers. Rather, they are the righteous people, saints, and teachers, ordinary people of courage, principle and conscience, people who realize the truth within themselves and are willing to take responsibility for their community. Rarely are they recognized and honored in their lifetime; sometimes they are tolerated as goads and troublemakers and only appreciated after their death; most often they are unsung, anonymous people who, because they are sincere and conscientious, suffer in a world of vanities. These are people who have a deep realization of truth and are called to serve as society's internal leaders. Their example and message has a transforming effect on those who approach them with humility and deference. It is often of far greater value than the policies and speeches of the governing authorities.
There are [always] thirty righteous men among the nations, by whose virtue the nations of the world continue to exist.
Judaism. Talmud, Hullin 92a
The earth is upheld by the veracity of those who have subdued their passions, and, following righteous practices, are never contaminated by desire, covetousness, and wrath.
Hinduism. Vishnu Purana 3.12
Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.
Judaism and Christianity. 1 Kings 19.18
When the righteous man is in the town, he is its luster, its majesty, and its glory. When he leaves it, its luster, its majesty, and its glory depart.
Judaism. Midrash, Genesis Rabbah 68.6
The perfume of flowers blows not against the wind, nor does the fragrance of sandalwood, tagara and jasmine, but the fragrance of the virtuous blows against the wind; the virtuous man pervades every direction.
Buddhism. Dhammapada 54
Hard to find is a man of great wisdom: such a man is not born everywhere. Where such a wise man is born, that family thrives happily.
Buddhism. Dhammapada 193
Hullin 92a: God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for want of ten righteous men; see Genesis 18.20-33, pp. 680f. Cf. Berakot 17b, p. 202; Abot 1.2, p. 255; Tanhuma, p. 609. 1 Kings 19.18: In God's message to the prophet Elijah on Mount Sinai, we have mention of a righteous remnant that will be spared when God judges Israel. The concept of the remnant is found throughout the prophets: see Isaiah 6.13; 7.3-4; 10.20-23; Amos 5.15. Genesis Rabbah 68.6: Cf. Analects 4.1, p. 277.
Surely Allah will raise for this community at the beginning of every century one who shall revive for it its faith.
Islam. Hadith of Abu Dawud
The myriad objects owe their existence to the mutual stimulation subsist- ing between Heaven and earth. Similarly, the holy sage stimulates men's hearts and the whole world is thenceforth at peace.
Confucianism. I Ching 31: Attraction
Take responsibility for the most difficult problem in your nation. Take responsibility for the most difficult problem of your church. Take responsibility for the most difficult problem of the world.
Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, 5-1-81
The bodhisattvas, guardians of the city of Dharma, uphold the true doctrine, and their great teachings resound like the lion's roar throughout the ten directions. Without having to be asked, they are the natural spiritual benefactors of all living beings.
Buddhism. Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 1
In the Book of Songs it is said,
He makes no show of his moral worth, Yet all the princes follow in his steps.
Hence the moral man, by living a life of simple truth and earnestness, alone can help to bring peace and order in the world.
Confucianism. Doctrine of the Mean 33
My saints are under my protection, and only I know them.
Islam. Hadith
The saying goes, "The fish should not be taken from the deep pool; the sharp weapons of the state should not be shown to men." The sage is the sharp weapon of the world, and therefore he should not be where the world can see him.
Taoism. Chuang Tzu 10
Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 1: Cf. Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala 4, p. 277. Doctrine of the Mean 33: In Shinto, the emperor is most perfectly in accord with the kami and is set forth as an example for others; see Divine Injunctions, p. 207. Hadith: This is a Sufi tradition; Sufi groups are often secret societies. Chuang Tzu 10: Taoist sages typically live in seclusion; Cf. Tao Te Ching 20, p. 528.
Confucius remarked, "Among the means for the regeneration of mankind, those made with noise and show are of the least importance."
Confucianism. Doctrine of the Mean 33
He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.
Judaism and Christianity. Isaiah 42.2-3
A stranger colonial administrator, however vigilant, Cannot perceive a locality as clearly as an indigene [village elder]. It is the attitude of the indigine to the affairs of his locality Which determines that of the stranger to the same. Malofin, the entire town is in your hand. "Situations do not get spoiled when elders are around," This is the age-old wise saying.
African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Song (Nigeria)
Rabbi Assi and Rabbi Ammi, on an educational inspection tour, came to a town and asked for its guardians. The councilmen appeared, but the rabbis said, "These are not guardians, but wreckers of a town! The guardians are the teachers of the young, and instructors of the old, as is written: 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain' [Psalm 127.1]."
Judaism. Midrash, Lamentations Rabbah, Proem 2
They say, "Why is not this Qur'an sent down to some leading man in either of the two chief cities?" Is it they who would portion out the Mercy of the Lord? It is We Who portion out between them their livelihood in the life of this world: and We raise some of them above others in ranks, so that some may command work from others. But the Mercy of the Lord is better than the wealth which they amass.
Islam. Qur'an 43.31-32
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
--- On Fri, 4/8/11, H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: H.E. KUM Nelson Bame IV <nelson_bame@yahoo.com>
Subject: Pre-Destination: Is man and Events Absolutely All dependent on God? Print and Read and Distribute.
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com, cameroonforum@yahoogroups.com, camnetwork@yahoogroups.com, africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, africantalk@yahoogroups.com, africanunityDFW@yahoogroups.com, "Menchum Worldwide" <menchumworldwide@googlegroups.com>, WECUDA_USA@yahoogroups.com, "Nigerian Politics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Africanpolitics@yahoogroups.com, AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, April 8, 2011, 3:14 PM
Exposition of the Divine Principle
1996 Translation
Can God Liberate mankind and History Restored without man's Responsibility?
Can God Defeat Satan Alone without Human Kind Stepping In?
Did God destine for his Children to Suffer.
Did God destine for Satan to become Rebellious?
Did God Give up on Mankind?
Will this World Ever Truly Change?
Chapter 6
Summary:
Predestination
- Theories Supporting Absolute Predistination
- Theories suggesting partial Predistination and Man's Responsibility
- Summary of Explanations to Unite both Theories
- There is no absolute predestination: God has 95% responsibility and Man has 5% Responsibility. God is not all powerful because of Need of Object of Love. Man has to complete God and God completes his children.
Theological controversy over predestination has caused great confusion in the religious lives of many people. Let us begin by examining the source of this controversy.
In the Bible, we find many passages which are often interpreted to mean that everything in an individual's life - prosperity and decline, happiness and misery, salvation and damnation, as well the rise and fall of nations - comes to pass exactly as predestined by God. For example, St. Paul wrote:
Those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified. -Rom. 8:30CEV|KJ|NI
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. -Rom. 9:15-16CEV|KJ|NI
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use? -Rom. 9:21CEV|KJ|NI
It is also written that, even while they were still in their mother's womb, God loved Jacob and hated Esau and announced their destiny, saying, "the elder will serve the younger."1(Rom. 9:11-13)CEV|KJ|NIThus, there are ample biblical grounds to justify the doctrine of God's absolute and complete predestination.
Yet we can also find sufficient evidence in the Bible to refute the doctrine of absolute predestination. For example, God warned the first human ancestors not to eat of the fruit in order to prevent their Fall.2(Gen. 2:17)CEV|KJ|NIWe can deduce from this that the human Fall was not the outcome of God's predestination, but rather the result of man's disobedience to God's commandment. Again we read, "the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart."3(Gen. 6:6)CEV|KJ|NIIf the human Fall were predestined by God, there would be no reason for Him to grieve over fallen human beings, who were acting in accordance with His predestination. Moreover, it is written in the Gospel of John that whoever believes in Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life,4(John 3:16)CEV|KJ|NI implying that no one is predestined to damnation.
The doctrine that the outcome of human undertakings is determined not by God's predestination, but instead by human effort, is supported by the well-known biblical verse, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."5(Matt. 7:7)CEV|KJ|NI If every human undertaking were to turn out as God had predestined, why did Jesus emphasize the need for human effort? The Bible instructs us to pray for our sick brothers,6(James 5:14-15)CEV|KJ|NI suggesting that illness and health do not depend solely on God's predestination. If everything were determined by inevitable fate, as predestined by God, our tearful supplications would be to no avail.
We would expect that since God is absolute, when He has predestined something, it is fixed absolutely and cannot be altered by human effort. Therefore, if we accept the traditional doctrine that all things are absolutely predestined by God, then we have to conclude that no human endeavor, including prayer, evangelism or charity, can add anything more to God's providence of restoration. Any extra effort beyond the natural course of events would be completely useless.
Since there are ample grounds in the Bible to justify either of these two contrasting doctrines, controversy over the issue of predestination has been inevitable. How can the Principle solve this problem? We will consider the question of predestination by analyzing it under several topics.
Section 1
The Predestination of God's Will
Before discussing the predestination of God's Will, let us first examine what is being willed. Let us remember: God could not accomplish His purpose of creation due to the human Fall. Accordingly, God's Will in carrying out His providence for fallen humanity is still to accomplish the purpose of creation. In this sense, God's Will is that restoration be accomplished.
Next, we should know that God predetermines His Will before He works toward its fulfillment. God determined when He created human beings that they accomplish the purpose of creation. When God could not fulfill His Will due to the Fall, He determined to fulfill His Will once more through the providence of restoration and since then has worked to accomplish it.
God must predestine His Will and bring about its realization in the ways of goodness, and not in the ways of evil. God is the Author of goodness. Hence, His purpose of creation is good; likewise, the purpose of the providence of restoration and His Will to accomplish its purpose are good. For this reason, God does not intend anything that obstructs or opposes the fulfillment of the purpose of creation. In particular, He could not have predestined the human Fall or sins which make fallen human beings liable to judgment. Nor could He predestine such events as the destruction of the cosmos. If such evils were the inevitable result of God's predestination, then God could not be the Author of goodness. Moreover, if God Himself had predestined such evil outcomes, He would not have expressed regret over them as He did, for example, over the depravity of fallen human beings,7(Gen. 6:6)CEV|KJ|NI or over King Saul when he lapsed into faithlessness.8(I Sam. 15:11)CEV|KJ|NI Such verses illustrate that evil is not the result of God's predestination, but rather the result of human beings failing to fulfill their responsibility and instead joining hands with Satan.
To what extent does God predestine His Will - the ultimate accomplishment of the purpose of creation? God is the absolute Being, unique, eternal and unchanging; therefore, the purpose of His creation must also be absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging. Likewise, His Will for the providence of restoration, the goal of which is the accomplishment of the purpose of creation, must also be absolute, unique and unchanging. It follows that God's predestination of His Will - that the purpose of creation one day be fulfilled - must also be absolute, as it is written, "I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it."9(Isa. 46:11)CEV|KJ|NI Since God predestines His Will absolutely, if the person who has been chosen to accomplish His Will fails, God must continue to carry on His providence until its fulfillment, even though it may require Him to choose another person to shoulder the mission.
For example, God willed that His purpose of creation be fulfilled through Adam. Although this did not come to pass, God's predestination of this providential Will has remained absolute. Hence, God sent Jesus as the second Adam and attempted to fulfill the Will through him. When Jesus also could not bring about the complete fulfillment of the Will due to the disbelief of the Jewish people,10(cf. Messiah 1.2) he promised he would return and fulfill it without fail.11(Matt. 16:27)CEV|KJ|NI Likewise, God's Will was to establish the family foundation for the Messiah through the dispensation based on Cain and Abel. When Cain killed Abel and this Will was not fulfilled, God made another attempt to fulfill it through Noah's family. When Noah's family also failed to fulfill the Will, God chose Abraham as yet another replacement and worked through him. We also see this with respect to the missions of individuals: God tried to remedy the failure to fulfill His Will through Abel by choosing Seth as his replacement.12(Gen. 4:25)CEV|KJ|NI God tried to fulfill His Will left unaccomplished by Moses by choosing Joshua in his stead.13(Josh. 1:5)CEV|KJ|NI When God's Will for Judas Iscariot was nullified by his betrayal of Jesus, God made a second attempt to fulfill this Will by electing Matthias in his place.14(Acts 1:24-26)CEV|KJ|NI
Section 2
The Predestination of the Way in Which
God's Will Is FulfilledAccording to the Principle of Creation, God's purpose of creation can be realized only when human beings complete their portion of responsibility.15(cf. Creation 5.2.2) Although God's Will to realize this purpose through the providence of restoration is absolute and beyond human influence, its fulfillment necessarily requires the accomplishment of the human portion of responsibility. Originally, God's purpose of creation was to be fulfilled through Adam and Eve only when they completed their given responsibility and refrained from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.16(Gen. 2:17)CEV|KJ|NI Similarly, in the providence of restoration, God's Will is accomplished only when the central figure responsible for a mission completes his portion of responsibility. For example, the Jewish people, as the central nation of the providence, should have believed in Jesus and followed him unconditionally in order for God to accomplish complete salvation at that time. Because they disbelieved and failed to fulfill their responsibility, the fulfillment of the Will had to be postponed until the time of the Second Advent.
To what extent does God predestine the unfolding of the events in the providence? Although God's Will to realize the purpose of the providence of restoration is absolute, God predestines the process of its accomplishment conditionally, contingent upon the five percent responsibility of the central figure, which must be completed in addition to the ninety-five percent responsibility of God. The proportion of five percent is used to indicate that the human portion of responsibility is extremely small when compared to God's portion of responsibility. Yet for human beings, this five percent is equivalent to one hundred percent of our effort.
To cite some examples: God predestined that His Will be fulfilled through Adam and Eve only when they refrained from eating the fruit and completed their responsibility. In the dispensation of restoration through Noah, God predestined that His Will be fulfilled only after Noah completed his responsibility by exerting himself with the utmost devotion in building the ark. In the providence of salvation through Jesus, God predestined that His Will be fulfilled only after fallen people completed their responsibility by believing in Jesus as the Messiah and rendering him devoted service.17(John 3:16)CEV|KJ|NI However, time and again human beings could not cope with even their small portion of responsibility. Consequently, God's providence has been repeatedly prolonged.
It is written in the Bible, "The prayer of faith will save the sick man,"18(James 5:15)CEV|KJ|NI "Your faith has made you well,"19(Mark 5:34)CEV|KJ|NI and "For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."20(Matt. 7:8)CEV|KJ|NI These verses confirm that God predestines His Will to be fulfilled contingent upon human beings' completing their portion of responsibility. We should recognize from these examples how minuscule the human portion of responsibility is in comparison to God's toil and grace, which is His portion of responsibility. On the other hand, when we consider the fact that over and over again central figures in the providence could not cope with their responsibility, we can appreciate how extremely difficult it was for them to fulfill even this comparatively small portion.
Section 3
The Predestination of Human Beings
Adam and Eve were to become the good ancestors of humanity, conditional upon fulfilling their responsibility to obey God's commandment not to eat of the fruit. Accordingly, God did not absolutely predestine that Adam and Eve would become our good ancestors. The same holds for all fallen people: they can become the ideal people God has foreordained them to be only when they complete their responsibility. Therefore, God does not predestine in absolute terms what kind of people they actually turn out to be.
To what extent does God determine the fate of an individual? The fulfillment of God's Will through an individual absolutely requires that he complete his responsibility. Hence, even though God predestines someone for a particular mission, God's ninety-five percent responsibility and the person's five percent responsibility must be accomplished together before the person can complete his given mission and fulfill God's Will. If the person does not complete his responsibility, he cannot become the person God has purposed him to be.
For example, when God chose Moses, He predestined conditionally that when Moses fulfilled his responsibility, he would lead the chosen people into the blessed land of Canaan.21(Exod. 3:10)CEV|KJ|NI However, when Moses transgressed God's Will by striking the rock twice at Kadesh-barnea, he failed. Consequently, Moses died before reaching his final destination, and God's intention for him to lead the people into Canaan was not realized.22(Num. 20:2-13)CEV|KJ|NI; (Num. 27:13-14)CEV|KJ|NI When God chose Judas Iscariot, He conditionally predestined that Judas would remain a loyal disciple of Jesus by faithfully completing his responsibility. Yet when Judas turned faithless, God's expectation for him was not realized, and he ended up a traitor. When God raised up the Jewish people, God predestined that they would be glorified as the chosen nation when they fulfilled their responsibility to believe in and attend Jesus. However, when their leaders sent Jesus to the cross, this preordained destiny was not brought to pass, and the Jewish nation was scattered.
Let us next examine God's predestination of central figures in the providence of restoration. The purpose of God's providence of restoration is to restore completely the fallen world to the original world which God intended. Therefore, although the times of their salvation may differ, all fallen people are predestined to be saved.23(II Pet. 3:9)CEV|KJ|NI Yet, as was the case with God's creation, His providence of salvation - a work of recreation - cannot be completed in an instant. It begins from one point and gradually expands to cover the whole. Therefore, in the providence of salvation, God first predestines one person to be the central figure and then calls him to a mission.
What qualifications should the person possess to merit such a calling? First, the central figure must be born into the chosen people. Next, even among the chosen people, he must come from an ancestral line with many good accomplishments. Among the descendants of this outstanding lineage, he must be endowed with the requisite character. Among those with the requisite character, he must develop the necessary qualities during his early life. Finally, among those who have acquired these qualities, God selects first the individual who lives in a time and place most fitting to His need.
Section 4
Elucidation of Biblical Verses Which Support
the Doctrine of Absolute PredestinationSo far, we have analyzed the various issues concerning predestination. Next, we shall look again at those biblical verses which seem to suggest that the outcome of every undertaking is determined by God's absolute predestination and elucidate their meaning.
Let us begin with the following verse:
For those whom He foreknew He also predestined . . . those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified. -Rom. 8:29-30CEV|KJ|NI
God, being omniscient, foreknows who has the qualifications necessary to become a central figure in the providence of restoration. God predestines those whom He foreknows; then He calls upon him to fulfill the purpose of the providence. Calling the person is God's responsibility, but that alone does not entitle the person to be justified before God and given glory. Only when the person completes his responsibility after being called by God is he justified and then glorified. God's predestination concerning an individual's glorification is thus contingent upon the completion of his portion of responsibility. Because the biblical verse does not mention the human portion of responsibility, people may misinterpret it to mean that all affairs are determined solely by God's absolute predestination.
It is written,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. -Rom. 9:15-16CEV|KJ|NI
As was explained above, only God foreknows and chooses who is most suitable to fulfill the purpose of the providence of restoration. It is God's right to choose a person and have mercy or compassion on him; this depends not at all upon human will or human effort. This verse was written to emphasize the power and grace of God.
Paul also wrote,
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use? -Rom. 9:21CEV|KJ|NI
It has been explained that God gave human beings a portion of responsibility as the condition based on which He could love them more than any other being in creation. God's intention in giving this condition was to make them worthy to be the lords of creation by having them take after His creative nature. Yet human beings themselves violated this condition and fell. They have become like refuse, fit to be discarded. In such a state, fallen people have no cause to complain, no matter how God may treat them. This is what this verse teaches us.
It is written that God loved Jacob and hated Esau even when they were still inside their mother's womb and had not done anything good or evil. God favored one and disfavored the other and told Rebecca that "the elder will serve the younger."24(Rom. 9:10-13)CEV|KJ|NI What was the reason for this favoritism? God favored one over the other in order to set up a certain course in the providence of restoration. Although further details will be discussed below,25(cf. Foundation 3.2) God gave Isaac twin sons, Esau and Jacob, with the intention of having them stand in the positions of Cain and Abel. They were to make the conditions of indemnity necessary for accomplishing His Will to recover the birthright of the elder brother, which was lost when Cain killed Abel in Adam's family. God intended to realize this Will by having Jacob (in the position of Abel) win over his elder brother Esau (in the position of Cain). Since Esau was in the position of Cain, he was "hated" by God. Since Jacob was in the position of Abel, he could receive God's love.
Nevertheless, whether God would in the end favor or disfavor them depended on whether or not they completed their given portions of responsibility. In fact, because Esau obediently submitted to Jacob, he was able to rise above his previous condition of being hated by God and receive the blessing of God's love equal to Jacob's. Conversely, even though Jacob was initially in the position to receive God's favor, he would have ceased to receive it had he failed in his responsibility.
People such as John Calvin have propounded the doctrine of absolute and complete predestination, which is widely believed even in our present day. They have held to such a doctrine because they wrongly believed that the accomplishment of God's Will depends solely on the power and work of God. They were ignorant of the true relationship between God's portion of responsibility and the human portion of responsibility in the fulfillment of the purpose of the providence of restoration.
Exposition of the Divine Principle
1996 TranslationChapter 7
ChristologyFor fallen people who seek salvation, perhaps the most important questions among the many they must resolve concern Christology. Issues which fall within its scope include the Trinity, which deals with the relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as well as rebirth and the relationship between Jesus, the Holy Spirit and fallen people. Until today, the controversies surrounding these issues have never been clearly settled. Consequently, considerable confusion remains in Christian doctrine and ways of faith. The key in approaching these matters is to understand the original value of human beings. We shall discuss this issue first, as a foundation for answering the other questions of Christology.
Section 1
The Value of a Person Who Has Realized
the Purpose of CreationLet us discuss the value of a person who has realized the purpose of creation; that is, the value of Adam or Eve in perfection. We can understand such a person's value from several perspectives.
First, the relationship between God and a fully mature person resembles the relationship between the dual characteristics. Human beings were created with mind and body in the likeness of the dual characteristics of God.1(cf. Creation 1.1) Similarly, the relationship between God and a person who has attained perfection of individual character may be compared to that between the dual characteristics of a person, that is, between mind and body. Just as the body is created in the likeness of the intangible mind to be its substantial object partner, a human being is created in the likeness of the intangible God to be His substantial object partner. Just as there is inseparable oneness between the mind and body of a true person centered on God, there is inseparable oneness between God and a true person who together form a four position foundation. In that union, the person experiences the Heart of God as his own reality. Having a fully mature character, such a person is a temple of God, in whom God can dwell continually, and comes to possess a divine nature.2(I Cor. 3:16)CEV|KJ|NI; (cf. Creation 3.2) Jesus spoke of this state of perfection, saying "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."3(Matt. 5:48)CEV|KJ|NI Thus, we see that a person who has realized the purpose of creation assumes a divine value, comparable to God.
Second, let us consider the value of a human being from the perspective of the purpose for which he was created. God created human beings for the purpose of sharing joy with them. Every human being possesses a unique individual character. No matter how many billions of people are born on the earth, no two will ever have exactly the same personality. Each person is God's substantial object partner who manifests a distinctive aspect of God's dual characteristics. Hence, that person is the only one in the entire universe who can stimulate that distinctive aspect of God's nature to bring Him joy.4(cf. Creation 3.2) Every person who has completed the purpose of creation is thus a unique existence in the cosmos. We can thus affirm the truth in the Buddha's saying, "In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one."5
Third, let us consider the value of a human being based on his relationship with the universe, as clarified by the Principle of Creation. A person who has completed the purpose of creation can govern the entire universe.6(Gen. 1:28)CEV|KJ|NI Possessing both spirit and flesh, he can rule the spirit world with his spirit self and the physical world with his physical self. With human beings acting as mediators, the two worlds enter into a reciprocal relationship and form a unified cosmos which is a complete object partner to God.
We have learned through the Principle of Creation that the universe is the substantial unfolding of the dual characteristics of a human being. A person's spirit encapsulates all elements of the spirit world while his flesh encapsulates all elements of the physical world. A person who has completed the purpose of creation thus encapsulates all the essences of everything in the cosmos. This is why a human being is called a microcosm of the universe. For these reasons, a human being has the value of the entire cosmos. We can thus understand the saying of Jesus in a new light, "For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?"7(Matt. 16:26)CEV|KJ|NI
Suppose there is a perfect machine, whose every part is the only one of its kind in the world, and there is no way to either procure or make a replacement for any of them. No matter how small or insignificant a single part may be, its value is then the same as that of the whole machine. Similarly, a fully mature person is unique in all the universe. No matter how insignificant he may seem, his value is equivalent to that of the entire cosmos.
Section 2
Jesus and the Person Who Has Realized
the Purpose of Creation2.1 Perfected Adam, Jesus and the Restoration of the Tree of Life
Human history is the history of the providence of restoration. Its goal is the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth when, at the end of history, the tree of life which was lost in the Garden of Eden will be regained.8(Rev. 22:14)CEV|KJ|NI; (Gen. 3:24)CEV|KJ|NI We can understand the relation between perfect Adam and Jesus by comparing the tree of life in the Garden of Eden with the tree of life to be restored in the Last Days.
As was discussed earlier,9(cf. Fall 1.1.1) had Adam fully realized the ideal of creation, he would have become the tree of life and likewise all his descendants would have become trees of life. However, Adam's fall frustrated God's Will, and ever since, fallen humankind has hoped to be restored as trees of life.10(Prov. 13:12)CEV|KJ|NI; (Rev. 22:14)CEV|KJ|NI Since a fallen person can never fully restore himself as a tree of life by his own efforts, a man who has completed the ideal of creation must come as the tree of life and engraft all people with himself. Jesus is this tree of life portrayed in the Bible. Adam, had he realized the ideal of perfection symbolized by the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, and Jesus, symbolized by the tree of life in the Book of Revelation, would be identical in the sense of having realized the goal of creation. As such, they would have equal value.
2.2 Jesus, Human Beings and the Fulfillment
of the Purpose of CreationLet us compare the value of Jesus with that of a person of perfect individual character. With respect to the purpose of creation, a fully mature person is perfect as God is perfect.11(Matt. 5:48)CEV|KJ|NI Having the same divine nature as God, he is infinitely precious. Since God is an eternal being, a person created to become His incarnate object partner in perfection must have an eternal life. A fully mature person is unique in all the cosmos. Furthermore, since he is the lord of the entire natural world, which cannot realize its full value without him, he possesses the value of the cosmos.
There is no greater value than that of a person who has realized the ideal of creation. This is the value of Jesus, who surely attained the highest imaginable value. The conventional Christian belief in Jesus' divinity is well founded because, as a perfect human being, Jesus is totally one with God. To assert that Jesus is none other than a man who has completed the purpose of creation does not degrade the value of Jesus in the least. In fact, the Principle of Creation elevates the true value of all people who fulfill the purpose of creation to a level comparable to Jesus.
Let us now examine some biblical evidence supporting the position that Jesus is a man who has fulfilled the purpose of creation. It is written:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. -I Tim. 2:5CEV|KJ|NI
For as by one man's [Adam's] disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's [Jesus'] obedience many will be made righteous. -Rom. 5:19CEV|KJ|NI
For as by a man [Adam] came death, by a man [Jesus] has come also the resurrection of the dead. -I Cor. 15:21CEV|KJ|NI
He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. -Acts 17:31CEV|KJ|NI
Thus, the Bible demonstrates plainly that Jesus is a man. Above all, he had to come as a human being that he might become the True Parent who can give rebirth to human beings.
2.3 Is Jesus God Himself?
When Philip asked Jesus to show him God, Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?"12(John 14:9-10)CEV|KJ|NI It is written of Jesus, "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not."13(John 1:10)CEV|KJ|NI Jesus also said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."14(John 8:58)CEV|KJ|NI Based on these biblical verses, many Christians have believed that Jesus is God, the Creator.
Jesus may well be called God because, as a man who has realized the purpose of creation and who lives in oneness with God, he has a divine nature. Nevertheless, he is not God Himself. The relationship between God and Jesus may be thought of as analogous to the relationship between the mind and body. Because the body is the substantial object partner to the mind, resembles the mind and acts in oneness with the mind, it may be understood to be the mind's second self; but it is not the mind itself. By analogy, since Jesus is one with God and the incarnation of God, he may be understood to be God's second self; but he is not God. It is true that he who has seen Jesus may be said to have seen God,15(John 14:9-10)CEV|KJ|NI but Jesus did not mean by saying this that he was God Himself.
The Bible refers to Jesus as the Word made flesh.16(John 1:14)CEV|KJ|NI This verse means that Jesus is the incarnation of the Word; that is, a man in whom the Word comes alive. We read that all things were made through the Word, and further, that the world was made through Jesus.17(John 1:3, 10)CEV|KJ|NI Hence, Jesus may be said to be the creator. To understand what these verses mean, consider that the universe according to the Principle of Creation is the substantial unfolding of the internal nature and external form of a human being of perfected character. All the elements of the universe are encapsulated in a fully mature person and resonate in harmony around him. In this sense, it can be said that the universe is created through a perfect human being. Furthermore, God intended that human beings be the creators and lords of the natural world by endowing them with the character and powers of the Creator; these are to be realized once they reach perfection through the fulfillment of their responsibility. Seen from this perspective, these verses are in agreement with our understanding of Jesus as the man who has completed the purpose of creation; they do not signify that Jesus is the Creator Himself.
Jesus also said, "Before Abraham was, I am."18(John 8:58)CEV|KJ|NI Jesus was the descendant of Abraham. Yet with respect to the providence of restoration, Jesus is the ancestor of Abraham because, as the one to give rebirth to all humankind, he came in the position of their first ancestor. We should understand that Jesus did not mean by this saying that he is God Himself. While on earth, Jesus was a man no different from any of us except for the fact that he was without the original sin. Even in the spirit world, where he has abided since his resurrection, Jesus lives as a spirit, as do his disciples. The only difference between them is that Jesus abides as a divine spirit, emitting brilliant rays of light, while his disciples, as life spirits, reflect that light.
It is written that since his resurrection, Jesus has been interceding for us before God19(Rom. 8:34)CEV|KJ|NI as he did while he was on earth.20(Luke 23:34)CEV|KJ|NI If Jesus were God, how could he intercede for us before Himself? Moreover, Jesus called God "Father," thus acknowledging that he was not God Himself.21(John 17:1)CEV|KJ|NI If Jesus were God, how could He be tempted by Satan, as Jesus was? We can conclude with finality that Jesus was not God Himself from the words he uttered on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"22(Matt. 27:46)CEV|KJ|NI
Section 3
Jesus and Fallen People
A fallen person has nothing of the value of a true person who has completed the purpose of creation. Rather, he has fallen to such a lowly status that he looks up to the angels, who were created to be his subordinates. On the other hand, because Jesus came with the full value of a true person who has completed the purpose of creation, "All things are put in subjection under him."23(I Cor. 15:27)CEV|KJ|NI A fallen person with original sin is stained with the condition through which Satan can attack him. On the other hand, Jesus, having no original sin, had no condition in himself for Satan to invade him. A fallen person cannot fathom the Will and Heart of God. At most, he can catch only a glimpse of them. In contrast, Jesus not only understood the Will and Heart of God thoroughly, he also experienced God's Heart as his own reality in his daily life.
A person has virtually none of his original value as long as he remains in the fallen state. If, however, he were to be reborn spiritually and physically through Jesus, the True Parent, and become his good child cleansed of the original sin, he would be restored as a true person who has perfected the purpose of creation, like Jesus Christ himself. His relationship with Jesus would then be like the human relationship of a child with his parent. Even though their relationship will always maintain the vertical order of parent and child, their original values do not differ in the least. Thus, Christ is the head of the church,24(Eph. 1:22)CEV|KJ|NIand we are his body and members.25(I Cor. 12:27)CEV|KJ|NI Jesus is the main temple, and we are the branch temples. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches.26(John 15:5)CEV|KJ|NI We, the wild olive shoots, are to be engrafted with Jesus, the true olive tree,27(Rom. 11:17)CEV|KJ|NI before we can become true olive trees ourselves. Accordingly, Jesus called us "my friends,"28(John 15:14)CEV|KJ|NI and it is written that "when he appears we shall be like him."29(I John 3:2)CEV|KJ|NIJesus alone is the "first fruits," but at his return, we who belong to Christ will be the next.30(I Cor. 15:23)CEV|KJ|NI
Section 4
Rebirth and Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity has remained one of the most mysterious topics in Christian theology. Moreover, the related doctrine of rebirth, though seemingly evident to all, also needs deeper elucidation. We will examine these doctrines in this section.
4.1 Rebirth
4.1.1 Jesus and the Holy Spirit and Their Mission to Give Rebirth
Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."31(John 3:3)CEV|KJ|NIRebirth means to be born a second time. Why must fallen people be born anew?
Had Adam and Eve realized the ideal of creation and become the True Parents of humanity, they would have borne good children without original sin and formed the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. However, Adam and Eve fell and became evil parents, multiplying evil children who created this hell on earth. Hence, as Jesus told Nicodemus, fallen people cannot see the Kingdom of God unless they are first born anew - as children without original sin.
We cannot be born without parents. Who, then, are the good parents through whom we can be born again, cleansed of original sin and able to enter the Kingdom of God? Parents who have original sin cannot give birth to good children who do not have original sin. Certainly, it is impossible to find sinless parents among fallen humankind. These parents must descend from Heaven. Jesus was the Parent who came from Heaven. He came as the True Father in order to give rebirth to fallen people, transforming them into good children, thoroughly cleansed of original sin and fit to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Thus, it is written in the Bible, "By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."32(I Pet. 1:3)CEV|KJ|NI Jesus came as the True Father whom Adam had failed to become. For this reason, the Bible speaks of him as "the last Adam" and the "Everlasting Father."33(I Cor. 15:45)CEV|KJ|NI; (Isa. 9:6)CEV|KJ|NIHowever, a father alone cannot give birth to children. There must be a True Mother, as well as a True Father, for fallen children to be reborn as good children. The Holy Spirit came as the True Mother. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born anew through the Holy Spirit.34(John 3:5)CEV|KJ|NI
There are many who have received the revelation that the Holy Spirit is feminine. This is because the Holy Spirit comes as the True Mother or second Eve. Since the Holy Spirit is the feminine aspect of divinity, without first receiving her we cannot go before Jesus as his brides. Being feminine, the Holy Spirit consoles and moves the hearts of people.35(Rom. 5:5)CEV|KJ|NI; (John 14:26-27)CEV|KJ|NI; (Acts 9:31)CEV|KJ|NI She cleanses people's sin, thereby atoning for the sin which Eve committed. Jesus, the masculine Lord, works in heaven (yang), while the Holy Spirit, his feminine counterpart, works on the earth (yin).
4.1.2 Jesus and the Holy Spirit and
the Dual Characteristics of the LogosLogos is Greek for "rational principle" or "the Word." The Bible indicates that the Logos is an object partner to God,36(John 1:1)CEV|KJ|NI engaged in a reciprocal relationship with Him. Since God, the subject partner of the Logos, exists with dual characteristics, the Logos as His object partner should also be composed of dual characteristics. If the Logos were without dual characteristics, all things made through it37(John 1:3)CEV|KJ|NI would not be composed of dual characteristics. Adam and Eve, the embodied object partners of God in image, were created separately out of the dual characteristics of the Logos.38(cf. Creation 1.1)
Had Adam as a man realized the ideal of creation and become the tree of life, and had Eve as a woman realized the ideal of creation and fulfilled the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would have stood together as the True Parents of humankind. They would have fulfilled God's three great blessings and established the Kingdom of God on earth. Instead, because they fell, this world became an earthly hell. Therefore, to give rebirth to fallen people, Jesus came as the second Adam,39(I Cor. 15:45)CEV|KJ|NI the True Father of humankind, with the mission symbolized by the tree of life.40(Rev. 22:14)CEV|KJ|NI This being the case, should not there also have come the True Mother of humankind,41(Rev. 22:17)CEV|KJ|NI the second Eve with the mission symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The one who has come as the True Mother to give rebirth to fallen people is the Holy Spirit.
4.1.3 Spiritual Rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit
A new life is born through the love of parents. When we believe in Jesus as the Savior through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,42(I Cor. 12:3)CEV|KJ|NI we receive the love of the spiritual True Parents, which is generated through the give and take between Jesus, the spiritual True Father, and the Holy Spirit, the spiritual True Mother. Through this love, new life is infused into us, and our spirits are reborn as new selves. This is spiritual rebirth. Nevertheless, since human beings fell both spiritually and physically, we must be cleansed of original sin by being born again both spiritually and physically. Christ must return to earth to grant physical salvation to humanity, which is to be realized through our physical rebirth.
4.2 The Trinity
According to the Principle of Creation, God's purpose of creation is completed based upon the four position foundation, which is established by fulfilling the three object purpose through origin-division-union action. To fulfill the purpose of creation, Jesus and the Holy Spirit stand before God as object partners who separately manifest the dual characteristics of God. They unite through give and take with each other with God as the center and form the four position foundation. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit thus become one, and this oneness constitutes the Trinity.
Originally, God's purpose for creating Adam and Eve was to form a trinity by raising them to be the True Parents of humankind united in harmonious oneness as husband and wife centered on God in a four position foundation. If Adam and Eve had not fallen, but had formed this trinity with God and become the True Parents who could multiply good children, their descendants would have also become good husbands and wives with God as the center of their lives. Each couple would thus have formed a trinity with God. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth fulfilling God's three great blessings would have been realized at that time. Instead, when Adam and Eve fell, they formed a four position foundation with Satan as their center; in other words, they formed a fallen trinity with Satan. Their descendants likewise have continued to form trinities with Satan, and so built a corrupt and immoral society.
Since the Fall, God has worked for the day when He could give rebirth to people and join them in trinities with Himself. For this purpose, God intended to exalt Jesus and his Bride as the second Adam and Eve to become the True Parents of humanity. However, the resurrected Jesus and the Holy Spirit in oneness with God could form only a spiritual trinity. They could fulfill only the mission of spiritual True Parents. Thus, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been giving spiritual rebirth to people of faith as their spiritual children, restoring them to spiritual trinities.
Christ must return in the flesh and find his Bride. They will form on the earth a perfect trinity with God and become True Parents both spiritually and physically. They will give fallen people rebirth both spiritually and physically, removing their original sin and enabling them to build trinities on earth with God as the center. When fallen people are restored to the point where they can establish true four position foundations centered on God, they will finally be able to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth where God's three great blessings are fulfilled.
________________________________________
5. The first words attributed to the Buddha after his birth. Ch'ang A-han ching, T 1.1.4c1-2; Mahapadana Suttanta, Digha-nikaya ii.15.
H. E. KUM Nelson Bame Bame IV,
Ambassador -UPF-UN, Senior Banker, Manager, Entrepreneur, Engineer
www.bamekum.com, www.bamebame.org, www.bamekum.org, www.bamebame.com
A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressure -- and that is the basis of all human morality. (JFK)
Thursday, May 5, 2011
USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re:Miffed Propagandists Scream: Gadhafi Stages Event to show Libyan Tribal Unity
Reasonable people would ask:
How come America, less than half of NATO powers, and a bunch of autocratic Arab kings, sheiks, sultans, prince and prince-lings, who never conduct any election in their own fiefdoms, constitute "the international community" acting as the beacon of universal morality and democracy to bomb a country? What can be more staged?
How come super powers had to craft and mount a hype in order to obtain the UN Resolution 1973 - ostensibly to protect civilians when the latent intent is to use military cover to overthrow a leader of a sovereign nation? What can be more staged than this glaring lie marinated in hypocrisy?
Oh, comest the toughest: US-NATO greeted defections, some coerced in foreign capitals, with bombshell predictions that the Libyan regime will crumble from within. When that did not happened, panic set in, bombs were unleashed in more random fashion, including targeting Libya TV and bombing schools. Why this astonishing act of limiting freedom of speech and maniacal desires? In order for the bombing alliance to maintain embroidered hoaxes and portray the Libyan regime as completely isolated. Now, what can be more desperately staged than vested western press and the conflict of interest bombing allies bent on degrading the gathering of Libyan leaders who are in their own country and not interested in the US-NATO or Libya Contact Group agenda in Libya?
Boy oh boy, Thursday in Tripoli made Wednesday in Rome look foolish.
Might does not mean Right.
MsJoe
In a message dated 5/5/2011 6:29:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, nelson_bame@yahoo.com writes:
Says and writes a miffed propagandist from where? Wall Street Journal.
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