The devil comes with many names. Satan, Iblis, Al-Shaitan, etc. According to Abrahamic tradition, Iblis is an angel, albeit a Jinn, and is made from fire. Hence, Iblis is more superior than other angels. Iblis is also proud of its ‘special position’ and superiority and could not comprehend why it had to bow down (prostrate) to Adam, which was a weak mortal made merely from earth, clay, mud. Hence Iblis defied God commandments for refusing to bow (prostrate) to Adam.
As punishment for that defiance, Iblis was expelled from God’s inner circle and was no longer God’s special angel. Iblis swore to God he would destroy Adam and all his descendants and, from that day on, Iblis’s main mission is to instigate humankind and bring them to hell with him. And one of the sins Iblis is using to lead humans astray is the sin of pride and superiority, the same sin that got Iblis into trouble with God in the first place.
The Curse of the Serpent
The cursing of the serpent is described in Moses 4:20-21:
And I, the Lord God, said unto the serpent: Because thou hast done this thou shalt be cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; and he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The Qur’an records a passionate exchange of words following Lucifer’s expulsion from heaven that could just as easily fit the scene described here. In the account, Satan unleashes a tirade of threats, followed by a summary dismissal by God: “‘Because. [Thou hast adjudged me to be erring],’ [the Devil] declared, ‘I will waylay Your servants as they walk on Your straight path, then spring upon them from the front and the rear, from their right and from their left..’ ‘Begone!’ [God] said.
[Satan,] nettled by this rebuke and the curse, .flares up in his pride and announces what his program for the economic and political order of the new world is going to be. He will take the resources of the earth, and with precious metals as a medium of exchange he will buy up military and naval might, or rather those who control it, and so will govern the earth-for he is the prince of this world. He does rule: he is king. Here at the outset is the clearest possible statement of a military-industrial complex ruling the earth with violence and ruin. But as we are told, this cannot lead to anything but war, because it has been programmed to do that. It was conceived in the mind of Satan in his determination “to destroy the world.” The whole purpose of the program is to produce blood and horror on this earth.
Adam and Eve collectively received three punishments. The first, to Adam, was ‘by the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread.’ This is the curse of the difficulties of agriculture, the hard work of planting, harvesting, and working the land. The second curse is to Eve, that she would ensure pain and suffering in bearing children. The third curse is “Vehu yimshol bach”, that man holds power over woman.
One can see these three as simple facts, and as a life sentence for each of us. But one commentator suggests that these are three challenges that we, as humans, are meant to overcome. In fact, we have, as a society, overcome the first two. With agricultural technologies, with plows and other innovations, it’s not actually all that hard to get bread from the ground. And with medical advancements in fertility, and with the epidural, women can choose not to suffer much pain in childbirth, and we no longer consider a woman in the delivery room to be at risk of losing her life. It is the third one, the power of men over women, that we are now struggling to overcome. The world is experiencing a reckoning, when it comes to male power.
. are not merely a reminder of the. Fall; they are as well a sign of impending joy: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”37
The DOWNFALL!!! (Who SCAM WHO???)
God had said to Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for on the day that you eat of it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16–17).
However, after God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs, and the two of them became husband and wife, that crafty old serpent (really, just a glorified snake) got busy.
Though Adam was in the garden with Eve, the serpent ignored him completely. Instead, he went to work on Eve: “Did God really say, ‘You may not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Notice the not-so-subtle twisting of God’s words. God had really said, “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden” . . . except one. The serpent ignored that completely, and focused Eve’s attention on that one tree as if it were the only tree in the garden.
Now, some people have complained that God told Adam, not Eve, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yes, that’s true. But clearly Adam had told his wife: Eve was well aware of God’s prohibition. She replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You may not eat of it, nor may you touch it, or you will die” (Genesis 3:2–3). (Ahem! There’s a little trick here about which tree is in the middle of the garden!)
“You will certainly not die,” the serpent said, “for God knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And in fact, that tree did look mighty tempting to Eve. She ate some of its fruit. (The Bible says nothing about an apple!) Then she gave some to her husband, and he ate it too.
The Naked Truth!!!
Just as the serpent said, their eyes were opened . . . and they realized with horror that they were naked.
The consequences of disobedience
You see, the serpent was lying to them. Adam and Eve did die a very real death on the day they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It was the death of their innocence.
Being naked had never been a problem before. The very last verse of Genesis 2 says, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25).
Does a baby feel ashamed when it is naked? No. In fact, as long as they’re in a warm and comfy place, babies and toddlers usually love to be naked! That’s because they are innocent.
This was the first consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Their innocence died that day. Suddenly they knew, not just intellectually but through hard experience, the difference between good and evil.
Up to that point, they had innocently and sweetly trusted themselves to God’s care and direction, not questioning or resisting anything God said. They therefore lived a life of goodness and love, and God provided for all of their needs.
They already knew what good was. What the tree of the knowledge of good and evil added was the knowledge of evil. Now that they had eaten from it, they could no longer live the simple, innocent, and good life they had experienced up to that point. They would now experience sorrow, toil, and struggle.
Adam and Eve’s nakedness before they disobeyed God is akin to the innocent nakedness of babies, or of lovers with one another. After they disobeyed, it became more like the shameful, humiliating nakedness of being strip searched in jail or at airport security. They now had something to hide.
The guilty and embarrassed couple quickly sewed together some fig leaves and made loincloths for themselves (Genesis 3:7).
To go through Death, for death shall comes upon us All!!! For being of disobedience...
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, saying, “You may not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you; and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you will return. (Genesis 3:17–19)
Condemnation. First the serpent was cursed. Eve was then condemned to sorrow and subjection. Last of all Adam was dealt with—the ground was cursed for his sake—with the result that his life from then on would be one of sorrow, hardship, and toil. Spiritually he died immediately. Ultimately he would die physically, too.
Genesis 2:17 is, ‘in the day you eat thereof, dying you shall die’
Cheating Death
The first Enoch was the son of Cain. The second Enoch was a descendant of Seth, the third son of Adam, and great-grandfather of Noah (Genesis 5:22-29).
The Bible cryptically states that this second Enoch "walked with God, and was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24), thus suggesting that Enoch avoided death at the age of 365. Therefore, some consider Enoch to be one of the "Two Witnesses" in the Book of Revelation due to the fact that he did not die. This esoteric passage lead the second Enoch figure to be associated with various mystical texts, such as the Book of Enoch and movements in both Judaism and Christianity. Later, Enoch was referred as a prophet in Islam and called Idris (إدريس).
Enoch is often confused with Enos. Enos was grandson to Adam (Genesis 5:5-6), and great great grandfather of Enoch (Genesis 5:9-18).
“And mention Idris in the Book, surely he was a truthful man, a Prophet. And We raised him high in heaven. (19:57-58)
Gen 5:21-24 (NAB) When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 Enoch lived three hundred years after the birth of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 The whole lifetime of Enoch was three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Then Enoch walked with God, and he was no longer here, for God took him.
In another tradition it is narrated from ‘Abdullah Ibn Suhas that Idris used to travel from city to city and used to fast. When it was night, he used to halt and he was provided his sustenance at that very place. The angels used to take his good deeds to the skies like other people’s deeds. The Angel of Death wished to meet Idris and after getting permission he came to Idris and said, “I wish to be in your company.” Idris agreed. They became friends and were together for a long time. He would fast during the day and at night when he used to get sustenance, he used to eat. He used to invite the Angel of Death to eat with him but he said, “I don’t require food,” and remained busy in prayers. Idris used to sleep due to fatigue but the Angel of Death was neither lazy nor tired; neither did he sleep. In this manner some days passed until one day they passed by an orchard. The grapes were ripe. The Angel of Death asked Idris whether they should take some of the grapes and break their fast. Idris replied, “Glory be to Allah, I invited you to eat from my share of sustenance and you refused. You are now inviting me to eat other people’s grapes without their permission. You have recompensed my companionship in a nice way. Tell me who are you?” He replied, “I am the Angel of Death.” Idris said, “I have one request from you.” The Angel of Death asked him what it was. Idris said, “I wish you to take me up to the skies.” The Angel of Death took Allah’s permission, seated him on his wings and took him up to the skies.
Idris said, “I have one more desire. I have heard that death is very difficult so I wish to taste it so as to verify that it tastes as I have heard it.” The Angel of Death took Allah’s permission. Then he held the breath of Idris for sometime then removed his hand and asked Idris how found it? Idris replied, “Very severe, more severe than what I have heard.” Then Idris said, “I have one more desire. I want to see the fire of Hell.” The Angel of Death ordered the keeper of Hell to open the door. When Idris saw it, he swooned. When he regained consciousness he said, “I have one more request. I would like to see heaven.” The Angel of Death asked the permission of the keepers of Heaven and Idris entered it and said, “O Angel of Death now I will not come out of it. Allah has said every soul will have to taste death which I have tasted and Allah has said there is no one from you who will not come near Hell and I have seen it and about the heavens it is said that the people of heavens will remain in it forever.”
Be Quick or Be Dead... Outsmarting the Angel Of Death as... An act of Defiance???
Devils /Satan On Earth, Devil / Satan In Hell... as oppose to God On Earth, God In Heaven...
Over the 300 years since the ascension of Jesus, the Christian world was in disarray. So, in 325, Constantine brought together 2,000 bishops from all over the world with instructions that they would not be allowed to go home until they resolve the issue of the nature of Jesus and his relationship to God.
The discord of the Christian world was whether Jesus was human or divine.
After months of quarrelling and arguing, the Council handed to Constantine what is now known as the Nicene Creed, outlining for the first time the official and sanctioned orthodox beliefs of the Christian Church.
“He is Light from Light, true God from true God, and begotten not made, of the same substance as the Father.” Jesus is literally the Son of God (as Paul said) and not allegorically the Son of God (as the Jesus Movement of Jerusalem said).
Did God enter Creation thru the Virgin Mary as such to be fallen in Love?
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men … whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Matthew 12:31-32
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness Mark 3:29
And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. Luke 12:10
It's A SIN!!!
Basically, this doctrine is based on the Letters of Paul.
Those who disagreed with this Creed were immediately banished from the Christian Empire and some even put to death for the crime of heresy and/or blasphemy and their teachings banned.
In 398, another group of bishops assembled in Hippo Regius to canonise what Christians today call the New Testament. More than half the 27 books of the New Testament are either by Paul or about Paul.
It must also be noted that there was serious conflict between Paul and the Jesus Movement of Jerusalem regarding other matters of doctrine. The Jesus Movement argued that Jesus came to fulfil the Laws of Moses, not to abolish them like what Paul argued. And to become a Christian you must get circumcised and you are not exempted from circumcision like Paul said, who himself was circumcised.
(In fact, there are many more differences).
In 57, James and the apostles demanded that Paul come to Jerusalem to face the Apostolic Council to answer to the charge of deviant teachings. In Paul’s own account of the meeting in a letter to the Galatians soon after that, Paul said that he was ‘ambushed by false believers’. Paul, who was clearly upset and at odds with the Council, left Jerusalem for Rome after that to continue with his own church that was considered a breakaway church from the Church of Jerusalem.
And this is the bone of contention for the Muslims. Jesus as the Son of God has a literal meaning and not, as some Christians say, is merely allegorical. Paul (whose version of Christianity Malaysian Christians follow) meant it literally and not allegorically, and the Church of Jerusalem disagreed with this and called it deviant teachings.
And this was why Paul was ousted from the Church of Jerusalem, after which he set up his own church in Rome, and considered a deviant church by the Church of Jerusalem. James and the Apostolic Council insisted that Jesus was human and not divine and to say otherwise is blasphemous. So can you imagine the outrage of the Muslims when you say that Jesus is the Son of Allah? Even James, the brother of Jesus, was outraged.
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. 1 Timothy 6:1
I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Revelation 2:9
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying … he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him. Leviticus 24:13-16
Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die … And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick … And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. 2 Samuel 12:14-18
OMG!!!
Four Catholic men and a Catholic woman were having coffee in St. Peters Square. The first Catholic man tells his friends, "My son is a priest, when he walks into a room, everyone calls him 'Father'." The second Catholic man chirps, "My son is a Bishop. When he walks into a room people call him 'Your Grace'." The third Catholic gent says, "My son is a Cardinal. When he enters a room everyone bows their head and says 'Your Eminence'." The fourth Catholic man says very proudly, "My son is the Pope. When he walks into a room people call him 'Your Holiness'." Since the lone Catholic woman was sipping her coffee in silence, the four men give her a subtle, "Well ...?" She proudly replies, "I have a daughter, slim, tall, 38" DD bust, 24" waist and 34" hips. When she walks into a room, everybody says, "Oh My God!!!"
Jesus Christ!!!
A Sunday school teacher is concerned that his students might be a little confused about Jesus, so he asks his class, "Where is Jesus today?" Steven raises his hand and says, "He's in Heaven." Mary answers, "He's in my heart." Little Johnny waves his hand furiously and blurts out, "He's in our bathroom!" The surprised teacher asks Little Johnny how he knows this. "Well," Little Johnny says, "every morning, my father gets up, bangs on the bathroom door and yells 'Jesus Christ, are you still in there?!'"
Jesus Saves!!!
Jesus and the devil were arguing over which one of them was the better computer programmer. "I am!" Jesus shouted. "No, I am!" the devil countered. "I am!" "I am!" "Me!" "No, me!" "EEEEEEENOUGH!" God bellowed, and the whole universe disappeared into darkness. When the lights came back on, two computers were sitting in front of them. God said "Now, whoever makes the best computer program in twenty minutes wins." Jesus and the devil both sat down, typing and clicking furiously. This went on for about 15 minutes, but then there was a power failure, and everything went dark. When everything came back up again, the computer screens were both blank. The devil tried in vain to get back everything he had lost. He came up empty-handed. Jesus pressed one key and it all came back. The devil looked at him in astonishment. "No way! How did you do that?!" Jesus turned to him and smiled, and said "Everybody knows Jesus saves."
Verse 171, chapter 4 of the Qur’an talks about Jesus and has this to say:
O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, “Three”; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.
Early Christianity was divided into two sects (just like what happened to Islam soon after the death of Prophet Muhammad). There were the Unitarian Christians of James, Peter and the other Apostles, and the Trinitarian Christians of Paul. And (just like what happened to Islam as well) the Unitarian Christians and the Trinitarian Christians fought it out for more than 300 years about whether Unitarian Christianity or Trinitarian Christianity is the correct version of Christianity.
Actually, while Paul may have insisted that Jesus was divine and was the Son of God, the Trinity itself was not introduced by Paul. That came in the year 220 when Tertullian first coined the term from the Latin word Trinitas and who argued that Jesus shared divinity with God — the Lord, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
It was not until another 100 years during the Council of Nicaea in 325 that the Trinity was properly formalised. However, this was strongly opposed by the Unitarian Christians who regarded the Trinitarian Christians as deviants who believed in heresy. Constantine, who himself was not a Christian, expelled those Bishops who opposed the Trinity and the Trinitarian Christians won the fight.
It took another 56 years during the Council of Constantinople in 381 before the church ratified the Nicene Creed. By then, over those 56 years since 325, all the opponents of the Trinity had been exterminated through persecution and genocide.
Anyway, by then all those who had participated in the 325 Council had already died. Most were in their 50s, 60s and 70s in 325 and some were in wheelchairs and could hardly walk so by 381 they could not possibly have still been alive. Hence, even if they had not been killed, they would have died natural deaths anyway.
Now, why did Emperor Constantine who was not even a Christian take so much trouble to interfere in Christianity and decide what form Christianity should take? In fact, it was Constantine who called for the Conference and who took charge of the proceedings.
The reason was because the Roman Empire was so badly weakened due to religious conflict and would collapse if he did not unite the Unitarian Christians and the Trinitarian Christians — or at least get rid of one in favour of the other. And Constantine decided that he would support the Trinitarian Christians and eliminate Unitarian Christianity by killing off all the Unitarian Christians.
If Constantine had chosen the other way around instead, today, the Vatican would be the Unitarian Church and not the Trinitarian Church and Muslims and Christians need not have killed each other for 1,400 years and fight in Malaysia about who gets the right to use the word ‘Allah’ — since Jesus would not be the Son of Allah.
Ironic is it not that one man by the name of Constantine made a decision that would result in millions of deaths over more than 1,400 years, and most of these deaths the result of Christians killing Christians, the worse being during the 1600s 30 years war in Europe where half the population of some countries was exterminated?
An Act of Deviant or Defiant?
The church is a mighty force, a distinct, permanent social influence of the highest order, and every political calculation in which it is omitted, or in which it is treated as of little consequence, is unsound. Every head of a state, therefore, who would estimate the vastness of this influence must consider its nature.
This is what Napoleon does. As usual with him, in order to see deeper into others, he begins by examining himself.
" To say from whence I came, what I am, or where I am going, is above my comprehension. I am the watch that runs, but unconscious of itself."
These questions, which we are unable to answer, " drive us onward to religion; we rush forward to welcome her, for that is our natural tendency. But knowledge comes and we stop short. Instruction and history, you see, are the great enemies of religion, disfigured by the imperfections of humanity. . . . I once had faith. But when I came to know something, as soon as I began to reason, which occurred early in life, at the age of thirteen, I found my faith attacked and that it staggered."
This double personal conviction is an after-thought, when preparing the concordat. " It is said that I am a Papist. I am nothing...
Napoleon actually crossed the Alps on a donkey but his spin-doctors had many copies of this painting commissioned and distributed all over Europe
The Mohammedan religion is the finest of all. In Egypt the sheiks greatly embarrassed me by asking what we meant when we said ‘the Son of God.’ If we had three gods, we must be heathen. …
An Italian prince in church one day gave a piece of gold to a Capuchin who was asking alms to buy souls out of purgatory. The monk, enchanted at receiving so large a sum, exclaimed, ‘Ah, Monsignore, I see thirty souls departing from purgatory and entering paradise!’
‘Do you really see them?’
‘Yes, Monsignore.’
‘Then you may give me back my gold piece, for those souls certainly will not return to purgatory.’
That is how men are imposed upon…. Jesus said he was the Son of God, and yet he was descended from David. I like the Mohammedan religion best. It has fewer incredible things in it than ours. The Turks call Christians idolaters. (7)
Napolean on God...
On the 2nd of December 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris. According to legend, during the coronation he snatched the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, thus displaying his rejection of the authority of the Pontiff. As the nineteenth century progressed, Napoleon turned the armies of the French Empire against every major European power and came to be known as ‘the scourge of Europe’. The Romantics viewed him as ‘a descendant of Milton’s Satan’ - a tyrant who had exposed the hollowness of the rhetoric surrounding the French Revolution. Curiously, Bryon viewed him as an exemplary tragic figure and experienced a strong sense of self-identification with Napoleon, even commissioning a carriage to be made which was an exact copy of the one the Emperor had abandoned at Waterloo.
2nd December 1804: Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of the French
Most people look at Napoleon Bonaparte mainly from his military achievements. Students of Napoleon, however, will know he is more than just a military genius. He was also a social engineer. He did a massive social re-engineering not only of France but of the entire Europe. He demolished the Hapsburg and Holy Roman Empires and planted the seeds of nationalism into the hearts and minds of the Europeans.
From the ashes of the empires rose republics. France was in the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleon wanted to export the spirit of the revolution to the rest of Europe. Napoleon’s mission finally ended 100 years later with the collapse of the Russian monarchy. During those 100 years many new countries were born all over Europe that transformed from absolute monarchies to republics (or constitutional monarchies) with the rule of the people, for the people, by the people.
In Egypt I was a Mussulman ; here I shall be a Catholic, for the good of the people. I do not believe in religions. The idea of a God ! " And then, pointing upward : " Who made all that ? " The imagination has decorated this great name with its legends. Let us content ourselves with those already existing ; " the disquietude of man is such that he cannot do without them ; in default of those already made he would fashion others, haphazard, and still more strange.
The positive religions keep man from going astray ; it is these which render the supernatural definite and precise; he had better take it in there than elsewhere, . . . at Mademoiselle Lenormand's, in the stories got up by every adventurer, every charlatan, that comes along."
An established religion "is a kind of vaccination which, in satisfying our love of the marvellous, guarantees us against quacks and sorcerers ; the priests are far better than the Cagliostros, Kants, and the rest of the German mystics."
In sum, illuminism and metaphysics, the speculative inventions of the brain and the contagious over excitement of the nerves, all the illusions of credulity, are unhealthy in their essence, and, in general, anti-social.
Nevertheless, as they belong to human nature, let us accept them like so many streams tumbling down a slope, except that they remain in their own beds, and, in many of them, no new beds, and not in one bed alone by itself. " I do not want a dominant religion, nor the establishment of new ones. The Catholic, Reformed, and Lutheran systems, established by the concordat, are sufficient. "
With these one need not grope one's way in the unknown. Their direction and force are intelligible, and their irruptions can be guarded against. Moreover, the present inclinations and configuration of the human soil favor them; the child follows the road marked out by the parent, and the man follows the road marked out by the child.
For instance : " Last Sunday, here at Malmaison, while strolling alone in the solitude enjoying the repose of nature, my ear suddenly caught the sound of the church bell at Ruel. It affected me, so strong is the force of early habits and education! I said to myself, What an impression this must make on simple, credulous souls ! " Let us gratify these ; let us give back these bells and the rest to the Catholics. After all, the general effect of Christianity is salutary. " As far as I am concerned, I do not see in it the mystery of the incarnation, but the mystery of social order, the association of religion with paradise, an idea of equality which keeps the rich from being massacred by the poor. . .
Society could not exist without an inequality of fortunes, and an inequality of fortunes without religion. A man dying of starvation alongside of one who is surfeited would not yield to this difference unless he had some authority which assured him that God so orders it, that there must be both poor and rich in the world, but that in the future, and throughout eternity, the portion of each will be changed."
Alongside of the repressive police exercised by the state there is a preventive police exercised by the church. The clergy, in its cassock, is an additional spiritual gendarmerie, much more efficient than the temporal gendarmerie in its stout boots, while the essential thing is to make both keep step together in concert. Between the two domains, between that which belongs to civil authority and that which belongs to religious authority, is there any boundary line of separation? "I do not see where to place it; its existence is purely chimerical. I look in vain ; I see only clouds, obscurities, difficulties.
The civil government condemns a criminal to death ; the priest gives him absolution and offers him paradise." In relation to this act both powers operate publicly in an inverse sense on the same individual, one with the guillotine and the other with a pardon. As these authorities may clash with each other, let us prevent conflicts and leave no undefined frontier; let us trace this out beforehand ; let us indicate what our part is and not allow the church to encroach on the state.
The church really wants all ; it is the accessory which she concedes to us, while she appropriates the principal to herself. " Mark the insolence of the priests who, in sharing authority with what they call the temporal power, reserve to themselves all action on the mind, the noblest part of man, and take it on them selves to reduce my part merely to physical action. They retain the soul and fling me the corpse !" In antiquity, things were much better done, and are still better done now in Mussulman countries. "
In the Roman republic, the senate was the interpreter of heaven, and this was the mainspring of the force and and strength of that government. In Turkey, and throughout the Orient, the Koran serves as both a civil and religious bible. Only in Christianity do we find the pontificate distinct from the civil government." And even this has occurred only in one branch of Christianity. Everywhere, except in Catholic countries," in England, in Russia, in the northern monarchies, in one part of Germany, the legal union of the two powers, religious control in the hands of the sovereign," is an accomplished fact. " One cannot govern without it; otherwise, the repose, dignity, and independence of a nation are disturbed at every moment." It is a pity that " the difficulty cannot be overcome as with Henry VIII. in England. The head of the state would then, by legislative statute, be the supreme chief of the French church."
Unfortunately, France is not so disposed. Napoleon often tries to bring this about, but is satisfied that in this matter " he would never obtain national cooperation"; once " embarked," fully engaged in the enterprise, " the nation would have abandoned him." Unable to take this road, he takes another, which leads to the same result. As he himself afterwards states, this result "was, for a long time and always, the object of his wishes and meditations. It is not his aim to change the faith of his people ; he respects spiritual objects and wants to rule them without meddling with them ; his aim is to make these square with his views, with his policy, but only through the influence of temporal concerns." That spiritual authority should remain intact; that it should operate on its own speculative domain, that is to say, on dogmas, and on its practical domain, namely, on the sacraments and on worship; that it should be sovereign on this limited territory, Napoleon admits, for such is the fact, and we have only to open our eyes to see it.
Right or wrong, spiritual authority is recognized sovereign through the persistent, verified loyalty of believers, obeyed, effective? In other words, a powerful force. It cannot be done away with by supposing it non-existent; on the contrary, a competent statesman will maintain it in order to make use of it and apply it to civil purposes.
Like an engineer who comes across a prolific spring near his manufactory, he does not try to dry it up, nor let the water be dispersed and lost; he has no idea of letting this remain inactive; on the contrary, he collects it, digs channels for it, directs and economizes the flow, and renders the water serviceable in his workshops.
In the Catholic Church, the authority to be won and utilized is that of the clergy over believers and that of the sovereign pontiff over the clergy. " You will see," exclaimed Bonaparte, while negotiating the concordat, "how I will turn the priests to account, and, first of all, the Pope ! " " Had no Pope existed," he says again, " it would have been necessary to create him for the occasion, as the Roman consuls created a dictator under difficult circumstances." He alone could effect the coup d'etat which the First Consul needed, in order that he might constitute the new head of the government a patron of the Catholic Church, to bring independent or refractory priests under subjection, to sever the canonical cord which bound the French clergy to its exiled superiors and to the old order of things, " to break the last thread by which the Bourbons still communicated with the country."
"Fifty emigre bishops in the pay of England now lead the French clergy. Their influence must be got rid of, and to do this the authority of the Pope is essential; he can dismiss or make them resign." Should any of them prove obstinate and unwilling to descend from their thrones, their refusal brings them into discredit, and they are "designated as rebels who prefer the things of this world, their terrestrial interests to the interests of heaven and the cause of God."
The great body of the clergy along with their flocks will abandon them ; they will soon be forgotten, like old sprouts transplanted whose roots have been cut off ; they will die abroad, one by one, while the successor, who is now in office, will find no difficulty in rallying the obedient around him, for, being Catholic, his parishioners are so many sheep, docile, taken with externals, impressionable, and ready to follow the pastoral crook, provided it bears the ancient trademark, consists of the same material, is of the same form, is conferred from on high, and is sent from Rome.
The bishops having once been consecrated by the Pope, nobody save a Gregory or some antiquarian canonist will dispute their jurisdiction. The ecclesiastical ground is thus cleared through the inter position of the Pope. The three groups of authorities thereon which contend with each other for the possession of consciences? the refugee bishops in England, the apostolic vicars, and the constitutional clergy? disappear, and now the cleared ground can be built on. "The Catholic religion being declared that of the majority of the French people, its services must now be regulated.
The First Consul nominates fifty bishops whom the Pope consecrates. These appoint the cures, and the state pays their salaries. The latter may take the oath, while the priests who do not submit are sent out of the country. Those who preach against the government are handed over to their superiors for punishment. The Pope confirms the sale of clerical possessions; he consecrates the Republic." The faithful no longer regard it askance. They feel that they are not only tolerated, but protected by it, and they are grateful. The people revere their churches, their cures, the forms of worship to which they are almost instinctively accustomed, the ceremonial which, to their imagination, belongs to every important act of their lives, the solemn rites of marriage, baptism, burial, and other sacramental offices.
Henceforth mass is said every Sunday in each village, and the peasants enjoy their processions on Corpus-Christi day, when their crops are blessed. A great public want is satisfied. Discontent subsides, ill-will dies out, the government has fewer enemies ; its enemies, again, lose their best weapon, and, at the same time, it acquires an admirable one, the right of appointing bishops and of sanctioning the cures. By virtue of the concordat and by order of the Pope, not only, in 1801, do all former spiritual authorities cease to exist, but again, after 1801, all new titularies, with the Pope's assent, chosen, accepted, managed, disciplined, and paid by the First Consul, are, in fact, his creatures, and become his functionaries. Over and above this positive and real service obtained from the sovereign pontiff, he awaits others yet more important and undefined, and principally his future coronation in Notre Dame. Already, during the negotiations for the concordat, La Fayette had observed to him with a smile : " You want the holy oil dropped on your head" ; to which he made no contradictory answer. On the contrary, he replied, and probably too with a smile : " We shall see ! We shall see !"
Thus does he think ahead, and his ideas extend beyond that which a man belonging to the ancient regime could imagine or divine, even to the reconstruction of the empire of the west as this existed in the year 800. (I am not the successor of Louis XIV".," he soon declares, "but of Charlemagne. ... I am Charlemagne, because, like Charlemagne, I unite the French crown with that of the Lombards, and my empire borders on the Orient." "Had I returned victorious from Moscow, I intended to exalt the Pope beyond measure, to surround him with pomp and deference. I would have brought him to no longer regretting his temporality ; I would have made him an idol. He would have lived alongside of me.
Paris would have become the capital of Christendom, and I would have governed the religious world the same as the political world. ... I would have had my religious as well as legislative sessions ; my councils would have represented Christianity; the Popes would have been merely their presidents. I would have opened and closed these assemblies, sanctified and published their decrees, as was done by Constantine and Charlemagne." The Pope, as with the marshals and the new dukes, must have a landed income settled on him, consisting of "property in different parts of the empire, two millions of rural revenue free of all taxation." Necessarily the Pope must have two palaces, one at Paris and the other at Rome. He is already nearly fully installed in Paris, his person being all that was lacking. On arriving from Fontainebleau, two hours off, he would find everything belonging to his office ; "the papers of the missions and the archives of Rome were already there." " The Hotel Dieu was entirely given up to the departments of the court of Rome. The district around Notre Dame and the He St. Louis was to be the headquarters of Christendom."
Rome, the second centre of Christendom, and the second residence of the Pope, is declared " an imperial and free city, the second city of the empire "; a prince of the empire, or other grand dignitary, is to reside there and "hold the court of the emperor." "After their coronation in the cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, the emperors " will go to Italy before the tenth year of their reign, and be "crowned in the church of St. Peter at Rome." The heir to the imperial throne "will bear the title and receive the honors of the King of Rome." Observe the substantial features of this chimerical construction.
Napoleon, far more Italian than French, Italian by race, by instinct, imagination, and souvenir, considers in his plan the future of Italy, and, on casting up the final accounts of his reign, we find that the net profit is for Italy and the net loss is for France. Since Theodoric and the Lombard kings, the Pope, in preserving his temporal sovereignty and spiritual omnipotence, has maintained the sub-divisions of Italy; let this obstacle be removed and Italy will once more become a nation.
Napoleon prepares the way, and constitutes it before hand by restoring the Pope to his primitive condition, by with drawing from him his temporal sovereignty and limiting his spiritual omnipotence, by reducing him to the position of managing director of Catholic consciences and head minister of the principal cult authorized in the empire. In carrying out this plan, he will use the French clergy in mastering the Pope, as the Pope has been made use of in mastering the French clergy. To this end, before completing the concordat and decreeing the organic articles, he orders for himself a small library, consisting of books on ecclesiastical law. The Latin works of Bossuet are translated for him, and he has drawn up an exposition of the Gallican parliamentary doctrine. The first thing is to go down to the roots of the subject, which he does with extraordinary facility, and then, recasting and shaping the theories to suit himself, he arrives at an original, individual conception, at once coherent, precise, and practical; one which covers the ground and which he applies alike to all churches, Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and even Jewish, to every religious community now existing and in time to come.
So long as belief remains silent and solitary, confined within the limits of individual conscience, it is free, and the state has nothing to do with it. But let it act outside these limits, address the public, bring people together in crowds for a common purpose, manifest itself visibly, it is subject to control; forms of worship, ceremonies, preaching, instruction, and propagandism, the donations it provokes, the assemblies it convenes, the organization and maintenance of the bodies it engenders, all the positive applications of the inward rosary, are temporal works. In this sense, they form a province of the public domain, and come within the competency of the government of the administration, and of the courts.
The state has a right to interdict, to tolerate, or to authorize them, and to direct their activity at all times. Sole and universal proprietor of the outward realm in which single consciences may communicate with each other, it intervenes, step by step, either to trace or to bar the way; the road they follow passes over its ground and belongs to it; its watch, accordingly, over their proceedings is, and should be, daily; and it maintains this watch for its own advantage, for the advantage of civil and political interests, in such a way that concern for the other world may be serviceable and not prejudicial to matters which belong to this one. In short, and as a summary, the First Consul says, in a private conversation : "The people want a religion, and this religion should be in the hands of the government!!!"
What is the reason why Napoleon Bonaparte crown himself emperor?
On May 18, 1804, Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, and made Josephine Empress. His coronation ceremony took place on December 2, 1804, in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, with incredible splendor and at considerable expense. Napoleon even paid for Pope Pius VII, who had signed the Concordat of Rome, to travel to France for the occasion, believing that his presence would imbue the event with a solemn, religious feeling. Pius agreed to come, hoping to win Napoleon's goodwill towards Rome and the Papal States. However, at the ceremony, Napoleon surprised everyone by not allowing the Pope to crown him. Instead, he placed the crown on his own head, and then crowned Josephine Empress. A few months later, on May 26, 1805, Napoleon crowned himself again– this time with the iron circlet that symbolized the rule over all of Italy. Napoleon next moved to recreate an aristocracy, a long French tradition that had been eliminated by the Revolution. In 1808, Napoleon started granting titles of nobility to people who served him particularly well. The royal court of the French Emperor became a public spectacle of pomp and elegance. Court protocol and rules of etiquette became very complex and regimented. Josephine reveled in her new role as Empress, and cultivated a famously impressive style. Yet Napoleon himself, even though he had intentionally made a spectacle of his court, found his new role somewhat uncomfortable and difficult. He preferred to work long hours in his study to escape from court life.
Napoleon now led a double life. On the one hand, he was a stately Emperor cloaked in ermine robes. On the other hand, he was an obsessive workaholic, often staying in his study for days on end writing letters and preparing various plans. Yet Napoleon understood well the importance of maintaining a splendid image: he commissioned all the leading French artists to create art that would depict a positive view of the Empire. Chief among these artists was Jacques-Louis David, whose paintings and portraits depicted Napoleon as intensely heroic.
Couple of reasons: First, he was a man with a considerable ego. There is no reasonable argument against him needing to be the centre of attention and the top of the heap.
Second, the Revolution, capital r, had failed. After the execution of Robespierre, certain people in positions of influence in France began to realise that popular rule and Rousseau's idealism wasn't helping anyone, in the form that it had manifested. Pressure began to build for the concentration of power in a single body, or even a single charismatic individual of genius, who could hold power and also maintain the respect of those who would wish to take it from him.
Third, once Napoléon became Consul, the advance to Imperial rank was politically indifferent, and had a ring of historical inevitability. As Consul, he was Rome, a symbol of liberty, peace, power and culture, ideally suited to revolutionaries fuelled by a lust for freedom from the oppressions of the corrupt church and nobility. But Rome ruled from the Pillars to the Tigris, Rome is the property and the aspiration of a hundred nations: as Emperor, Napoléon becomes a new figure; Charlemagne, king of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, the scholar-warrior who began the end of the dark ages and made Europe a power and France the great power within it, the ultimate symbol of a France ready to build a new empire; and for the first decade or so, it must have seemed to those who knew their history that Charlemagne had indeed come again to rule the French people and bring them to greatness.
Napoleon's dictatorial ambitions were illustrated by his self-coronation and resultant slighting of the Pope. Why did Napoleon want to invite the Pope if he was going to crown himself? He did so to heighten the importance of his action. By putting the imperial crown on his own head while the Pope stood by, Napoleon made a symbolic gesture stating that he would be subservient to no one on earth, and that Rome would never command him.
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte
"My primary desire was to liberate the Jews and make them full citizens. I wanted to confer upon them all the legal rights of equality, liberty and fraternity as was enjoyed by the Catholics and Protestants. It is my wish that the Jews be treated like brothers as if we were all part of Judaism. As an added benefit, I thought that this would bring to France many riches because the Jews are numerous and they would come in large numbers to our country where they would enjoy more privileges than in any other nation. Without the events of 1814, most of the Jews of Europe would have come to France where equality, fraternity and liberty awaited them and where they can serve the country like everyone else."
Napoleon was the first leader in Europe to grant liberty, equality and fraternity to all religions. In this lithograph of the period, Napoleon is granting liberty to the Jews.
Following in the wake of the Napoleon Wars (1804-1815) in which Napoleon conquered much of Europe, came the emancipation of the Jews of Western Europe. For hundreds of years the Jews had been economically and politically marginalized and physically confined to the ghettoes of Europe. After Napoleon, the Ghetto walls came down and the Jews of Western Europe were free to enter European society for the first time. For better and for worse, this represented one of the greatest periods of transformation for these Jewish communities. These new freedoms allowed the Jews of Europe to prosper and have tremendous impact on European society, but also led to a wave of secularization, assimilation and even conversion to Christianity.
Why did Napoleon do this?
It just doesn't make sense, because he had nothing political to gain. However, the answer could be discovered in a private conversation that Napoleon had with Dr. Barry O'Meara, which took place on the Island of St. Helena. On the 10th of November 1816, Dr. O'Meara (who was Napoleon's personal physician at the time) asked the Emperor point blank as to why he was encouraging and supporting the Jews. The Emperor Napoleon replied, and I quote, "My primary desire was to liberate the Jews and make them full citizens. I wanted to confer upon them all the legal rights of equality, liberty and fraternity as was enjoyed by the Catholics and Protestants. It is my wish that the Jews be treated like brothers as if we were all part of Judaism. As an added benefit, I thought that this would bring to France many riches because the Jews are numerous and they would come in large numbers to our country where they would enjoy more privileges than in any other nation. Without the events of 1814, most of the Jews of Europe would have come to France where equality, fraternity and liberty awaited them and where they can serve the country like everyone else."
During the different periods of Napoleon's career, his sympathy for the Jews was clearly noted. He did everything he could to assure that the Jews were treated on an equal basis as Catholics and Protestants.
The French Revolution in 1789 was to change all the various restrictions that Jews had to face in France. It was on the 27th of September 1791 that France adopted a decree, which accorded the Jews of France full citizenship. However, the Legislative Assembly, did not take any specific measures to apply this new freedom that was granted to the Jews. The National Convention closed the synagogues, forbid the use of the Hebrew language and in general made their lives difficult.
Under the Directory, the synagogues were open again and Jews got involved in business and in political life. But, in general, the Jews were barely tolerated. Before Napoleon took over the leadership of the French government, the political situation of the Jews was precarious, unstable, and had to submit to negative laws, and according to specific regions of France, they were some times treated in a liberal manner and some times in a tyrannical manner.
Napoleon was the only government leader that gave Jews equality when most other nations kept them in bondage. When strong opposition in France manifested itself, Napoleon stood firm in his support of Jewish equality. When Napoleon came to power, he did not liberate the Jews for political reasons because there were not much more than 40,000 in all of France, who were living in various provinces.
The province where Jews were most persecuted was Alsace, where half of the Jewish population of France was living. In Paris, there were approximately 1,000 Jews. They were excluded from doing business, excluded from government positions and from the purchase of property.
The new law dated the 8th of April 1802, which dealt with the organization of various religions, the principle leader of this law was Jean-Etienne Portalis who said: "Jews should participate as equals, like all other religions as permitted by our laws."
Although there was tremendous opposition by the anti-Semites, Isaac Cerf-Berr, one of the leading Jewish citizens, presented to Minister of Religion Portalis a specific plan that would ensure Jewish integration into the population. The plan was brought to Napoleon at his camp in Boulogne in 1805. He approved the plan and instructed Portalis to implement it as quickly as possible.
It was in 1806, after the Austerlitz campaign, that Napoleon aggressively supported total liberty for the Jews. Notwithstanding this, the French newspaper, the Mercure de France, published a violently anti-Semitic article stating that the Jews could have freedom in France provided they all converted and became Catholic.
Great opposition to Napoleon's plan to make equal citizens out of the Jews living in France was led by Molé, Beugnot, Segur, and Regnier. Notwithstanding this heavy opposition, including anti-Semitism generated by numerous newspapers, Napoleon was quoted as saying, "This is not the way to solve the Jewish question. I will never accept any proposals that will obligate the Jewish people to leave France, because to me the Jews are the same as any other citizen in our country. It takes weakness to chase them out of the country, but it takes strength to assimilate them."
The decree issued on 30th of May 1806 requested that a special assembly of Jewish leaders and Rabbis from all of the different French departments, would meet in Paris and discuss all outstanding matters including answering questions dealing with accusations against the Jews made by the anti-Semites.
On the 23rd of July 1806, all of these representatives met in Paris. During this time Napoleon stated: "My desire is to make Jews equal citizens in France, have a conciliation between their religion and their responsibilities in becoming French, and to answer all the accusations made against them. I want all people living in France to be equal citizens and benefit from our laws."
One hundred eleven representatives of the Jewish community, representing all the various departments of France and Northern Italy met at the City Hall situated at St. Jean on rue des Piliers. Napoleon had requested answers to accusations made against the Jews so he could understand their position clearly. The reunion of so many Jews from the different parts of France represented the renewal of the famous "Sanhedrin" which ruled Israel from 106 to 170 before Jesus Christ.
The Sanhedrin continued to be an important force in Israel until 72 AD when the Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin replaced the monarchy in Israel in those days and it was their authority that administered the country. They interpreted the law, and sat as judges in major cases. This was the first time since the Sanhedrin was disbanded in Israel that the great liberator "Napoleon" reconvened it.
Tsar Alexander of Russia protested violently against the liberation of the Jews and encouraged the Orthodox Church in Moscow to protest aggressively. Catholic Austria and Protestant England also protested. In Prussia, the Lutheran Church was extremely hostile towards Napoleon¹s decision and reaction in Italy was also not favorable but not as aggressive.
Napoleon was concerned about these protests, which also included some leading personalities in France. Therefore, in 1806, after the campaign of Prussia, and shortly after the victory at Jena, he made a speech in the city of Posen on the 29th of November 1806, where he gave the results of the deliberations of the Sanhedrin, which pleased him very much.
The Sanhedrin was convened again on 31st of January 1807 for two months, in order to fine-tune the law that would make the Jewish religion equal. The special decree of 1806 liberated the Jews from their isolation. Judaism became the official third religion of France and the method Napoleon implemented to have Rabbis serve the nation is still in effect today and is the basis of the government's relation to the Jewish population.
ONE UNITY...
The uncle of Napoleon, Cardinal Fesh, also got involved. He told Napoleon, "Sire, so you wish the end of the world to come with your actions to give the Jews equality as Catholics."
Even Marshall Kellermann supported by Mole mobilized opposition to Napoleon's laws about the Jews and recommended strongly that the Jews be prohibited from dealing in commerce. The Emperor replied formally and strongly, "We must prevail in encouraging the Jews who are only a very small minority amongst us. In the departments of the East, we find a great number of Jews that are very honest and industrious."
Because of the tremendous amount of criticism that Napoleon was receiving from such famous personalities as Chateaubriand, Cardinal Fesh, Marshal Kellermann, Tsar Alexander and numerous others, Napoleon felt obligated to introduce a "Restrictive Decree." On the 17th of March 1808, this decree limited the freedom given to the Jews. His plan was to reduce criticism to a manageable level and then gradually, over time, remove the restrictions one-by-one.
On the 11th of April 1808, Napoleon received into a special audience, Mr. Furtado and Maurice Levy of Nancy, who wanted to express the emotions of their co-religionists about the restrictive decree. After hearing them out, he immediately ordered 13 departments, including those of Le Midi, The Southwest and Les Vosges to eliminate the decree. In June of that same month, Livourne and the lower Pyrenees were also ordered to remove the "Restrictive Decree."
Therefore, within three months of this restrictive decree, more than half of the departments involved were able to reinstate the liberty extended to their Jewish citizens. The last holdout was Alsace. This province eventually removed the restrictions.
Therefore, in 1811, all restrictions were removed and nothing from a political or civil activity distinguished the Jews from non-Jews in France.
Due to the close collaboration between the administration officials and the local Rabbis and leaders, the Jews were able to leave the ghettos where they were confined and to participate freely in the life of France. Jews were able to enroll in the universities, participate in whatever professions they wanted and were able to work for various government agencies. Nothing was prohibited any more.
The Imperial Almanac of 1811 reported that the Jewish religion was now one of three religions accepted by the French government. Napoleon's effort to liberate the Jews was effective, not only in France, but also in all the other countries where France ruled. The new Civil Code, which Napoleon created, assured liberty, fraternity, and equality of all peoples regardless of their religion or station in life.
After the Congress of Vienna and the creation of the Holy Alliance, the laws permitting equality, liberty and fraternity were retracted and were not applied again until 1830 when the principles fixed by the French Revolution and the First Empire, were re-instated.
In 1811, thanks to Napoleon's effort, Portugal allowed Jews complete freedom and permitted them to open their synagogues that were closed for over 200 years. Prussia followed in 1812 but retracted the liberal laws in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo. Other European nations assimilated the Jews between 1824 and 1867, notably Holland in 1830, Sweden in 1834 and Switzerland in 1838.
It is remarkable that in England, it was only in 1858, after Lord Lionel Rothchild was elected five times, was he permitted to take his seat in parliament. It is also interesting to know that the laws that were passed in France in 1808 are still in existence even to this day.
The Jews of France offered a special prayer in Napoleon's honor because they were so thankful to him for having granted them religious freedom. These pages are a reproduction of the original Hebrew prayer. For it's English translation, see Below.
BREAKING THE LAW!!!
Prayer of the Children of Israel Citizens of France and Italy for the success and prosperity of our Mater's Army The Emperor, the King Napoleon the Great (may his glory shine) Composed in the month of Cheshvan, year 5567 (1807)
Psalms chapter 20,21,27, 147
I implore Thee, Creator of Heaven and the Universe and all who inhabit it. Thou hast established all boundaries and limitations of the world and each nation with its respective language. Thou didst give the Sceptre of power into the hands of their kings to lead the people under their reign with righteousness, justice, an uprightness; that each person in his own place should live in peace.
How fortunate we are, how good is our lot, that from Thy hand glory and beauty were poured out upon the head of a powerful man, full of vibrancy, NAPOLEON the Great, to sit on the Throne of France and Italy. Could another be found as worthy as NAPOLEON deserving of such honours and kingship, who shepherds his people with sincerity and with the understanding of his heart? Thou, GOD, hast wondrously bestowed Thy kindness upon him. As other Kings of the world approached to fight him, Thou didst protect him on the day of war, Thou didst save him from those who stood up against him, until he subdued them and they sought peace from him. With his kind spirit, he spoke words of peace to them.
Kings have now untied to break their treaty and replace peace with the blood of war. They have gathered armies to fight against him and against all those who admire him. They have come to our borders, and our master, the Emperor, the King, is standing with the might of his army to confront them.
O GOD, master of greatness, strength, power and beauty, we implore Thee to stand next to his righteousness; help him, support him with Thy mighty arm: guard him as the apple of Thine eye with an abundance of strength and health. Save him from all evil and tell him "I am your salvation."
Send Thy light and truth, that they may lead him. Render foolish all those who rise against him for evil. Let Thy light shine upon his plans. Strengthen his armies and those of his allies.
May he succeed in all his endeavors and reign over his enemies. May they seek peace from him, for he is a man who loves peace, and peace he will exercise among his nation.
Father of compassion, Master of Peace, implant in the heads of all Kings and their advisors thoughts of peace and tranquility for the benefit of all mankind. Let the Sword not pass through our land and spill the blood of our brethren. Let all nations unite in total peace and tranquility forever.
May the words of our prayers be acceptable to Thee.
Amen.
Will there be Peace A Thousand Years or Many Many Years More????
Appendix
Letter to the Jewish Nation from the French Commander-in-Chief Buonaparte (translated from the Original, 1799)
General Headquarters, Jerusalem 1st Floreal, April 20th, 1799, in the year of 7 of the French Republic
BUONAPARTE, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMIES OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC IN AFRICA AND ASIA, TO THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS OF PALESTINE.
Israelites, unique nation, whom, in thousands of years, lust of conquest and tyranny have been able to be deprived of their ancestral lands, but not of name and national existence!
Attentive and impartial observers of the destinies of nations, even though not endowed with the gifts of seers like Isaiah and Joel, have long since also felt what these, with beautiful and uplifting faith, have foretold when they saw the approaching destruction of their kingdom and fatherland: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35,10)
Arise then, with gladness, ye exiled! A war unexampled In the annals of history, waged in self-defense by a nation whose hereditary lands were regarded by its enemies as plunder to be divided, arbitrarily and at their convenience, by a stroke of the pen of Cabinets, avenges its own shame and the shame of the remotest nations, long forgotten under the yoke of slavery, and also, the almost two-thousand-year-old ignominy put upon you; and, while time and circumstances would seem to be least favourable to a restatement of your claims or even to their expression, and indeed to be compelling their complete abandonment, it offers to you at this very time, and contrary to all expectations, Israel¹s patrimony!
The young army with which Providence has sent me hither, let by justice and accompanied by victory, has made Jerusalem my headquarters and will, within a few days, transfer them to Damascus, a proximity which is no longer terrifying to David's city.
Rightful heirs of Palestine!
The great nation which does not trade in men and countries as did those which sold your ancestors unto all people (Joel,4,6) herewith calls on you not indeed to conquer your patrimony; nay, only to take over that which has been conquered and, with that nation¹s warranty and support, to remain master of it to maintain it against all comers.
Arise! Show that the former overwhelming might of your oppressors has but repressed the courage of the descendants of those heroes who alliance of brothers would have done honour even to Sparta and Rome (Maccabees 12, 15) but that the two thousand years of treatment as slaves have not succeeded in stifling it.
Hasten! Now is the moment, which may not return for thousands of years, to claim the restoration of civic rights among the population of the universe which had been shamefully withheld from you for thousands of years, your political existence as a nation among the nations, and the unlimited natural right to worship Jehovah in accordance with your faith, publicly and most probably forever (Joel 4,20).
OMG!!! If There's Peace there wouldn't be 72 Virgins in Heaven to be at Peace. #crazy So Damn CRAZY... Indeed!!!
"I WANTED TO BE A MARTYR FOR GOD AND THE HOMELAND. GOD WOULD HAVE GIVEN ME HAPPINESS IN PARADISE. I WOULD BE GIVEN SEVENTY-TWO VIRGINS..."
"HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN ME RIVERS OF HONEY."
"NO ONE CAN TELL YOU HOW MUCH YOU'LL GET WHEN YOU ARE IN PARADISE..."
Welcome to Paradise City... Yeah!!!