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In my first blog for this year of 2020 I stated that since I do not have the time nor the resources in money or staff to get my lectures turned into printed books any time soon, that this year I would commence breaking them into “bite-sized” blogs. I believe these teachings need to become available to millions now.
A few preliminary and explanatory notes are in order which will apply to this and all future blogs on this subject. First, keep in mind the date or time period that this material was first presented as lectures to a live audience. Although they may have been presented nearly ten years ago, the teaching is just as relevant today as when they were first given. As I convert them to bite-sized blogs, I will not necessarily change the dates within the lectures to reflect the current month and year.
In general, I will leave intact the original dates and other information which might be tied to the dates back then (such as who was the President at that time). However, during the course of preparing it for the present blog, I might add new information or modify the original lecture due to insights from hindsight.
Lastly, in due time, I shall make the audio lectures from which these are drawn, available in various audio formats for downloading. Now here is the first of many blogs to come on this subject.
We are going to start a new series today. Let me introduce it by way of a bit of personal and ministry history. I began teaching the Bible under the name, Stone Kingdom Ministries, back in 1988 on a part-time basis. In 1991, it became my full-time occupation. It is now May of 2010 and in all these 23 years, while I have mentioned the biblical concept of the Stone Kingdom from time to time, I have never actually presented Bible lectures in which the Stone Kingdom was the primary focus. Today, that is going to change because I am commencing a study of the Stone Kingdom. It is a very important subject.
It will not be solely about the Stone Kingdom, however, because one cannot study about the Stone Kingdom without learning simultaneously about another entity which the Bible calls “Mystery, Babylon the Great,” or which I simply call “Mystery Babylon” for short.
Therefore, this series is going to be called Mystery Babylon and the Stone Kingdom. Both of these entities are kingdoms, or we could just as accurately say, both these entities are all about government! And world government at that.
Mystery Babylon represents fallen man’s attempt to rule the world through evil or spiritual darkness, while the Stone Kingdom is all about spiritual light—the rule and reign of Jesus Christ on this earth.
Since these next several blogs is an introduction to what will be quite a lengthy series, I plan to give you in this introduction somewhat of a brief outline, or at least a list of some of the material and topics we will be studying in the course of this series.
I am confident that most of our regular listeners will be pleased that this will be an extensive and in-depth study of these two entities, because you are already aware of some of the ideas and concepts that this study will entail.
But I know that there are always people “tuning in” for the first time, and perhaps many of them will have no idea about what either of these terms refers to. I mean, honestly, of all the millions of Christians in America, what percentage of them do you suppose would be able to give any kind of coherent answer as to what the Stone Kingdom is, and where it is found in the Bible? What do you think? Ten percent? (The live audience responded almost unanimously: one percent or less!)
What about the term, Mystery Babylon? What percentage of Christians could give you some kind of basic answer as to what Mystery Babylon is and where it is found in the Bible? Again, what, maybe ten percent? (Again, the audience responded: one percent or less.)
That being the case, I intend to teach this subject starting from the ground level, as though not one of my listeners knows the first thing about either entity. At this point, some newbie, a newcomer, might be thinking: “So, James, if this is going to be perhaps dozens of lectures long, it better be interesting, it better not be boring.”
Well, frankly, perhaps I am not the most enthralling speaker in the world—I have never tried to be a showman—jumping up and down and shouting and screaming—I tend to be calm. I teach based on reason, not emotion. I would much rather persuade one person based on reason than to persuade a thousand people based on passion and emotion.
Emotion has its place, of course, but when it is used as the primary modus operandi, then you’d better watch out, because it is a tool used by those who want to manipulate you into a position where reason and common sense would not persuade you to go.
It reminds me of the story of the senator who was preparing for his speech before a large audience of his constituents, and in the margin of his speech near one particular statement, he had written a note to himself: “Weak point; shout louder!”
You see what I mean by emotion over reason. And so, if you are looking for a lot of ranting and raving and yelling and screaming, you will find none of that here. But what you will find is reason and fact-based studies of these topics, with, of course, the Bible being our standard and our guide.
I believe that the only way you will find this series boring is if you have no interest in your money and its value. And you have no interest in your freedom and liberty, no interest in your children or grandchildren, no interest in having a job to go to, …and I could go on and list a dozen more—but if those things are not enough to keep you interested in this series, then you are either so heavenly-minded that you are no earthly good (bless your heart!), or you possess very little of good Christian character and virtue, and I would wonder why you are listening in the first place.
….Except… that I know how our heavenly Father sometimes works in this area. He can take a person like that and cause them to start listening to a lecture like this and years later, the person looks back and can say, “Yep, that was a turning point. I don’t know why I listened to that guy; I really had no interest in it at all, or at least I thought I didn’t, but something just seemed to compel me to keep listening.”
That, my friends, is the Father working through His Holy Spirit. I have seen it before. Bottom line? I trust you will not be bored, because everything I will be discussing affects you in some very real way, from your bank account to your job (or lack thereof), to your health, to the kind of country in which your children or grandchildren are going to live.
As I look back now, I can see very clearly several turning points in my own life. One was in 1976. And while you might wonder if I am just standing up here before your to simply chat and recount to you a couple stories about my personal life, I can assure that there is a very real and pertinent purpose for my sharing this with you.
It was in early 1976 as I “accidentally” stumbled across some information. I was not seeking this information. I was just doing my job as a junior account executive for a public relations firm. I put the word “accidentally” in quotes because although we speak like that—using the words accidentally and coincidentally—I have learned that from the Father’s perspective, there is nothing accidental or coincidental, as though things just happen with no intelligent cause.
Just as He does things in your life, our Father had planned from the foundation of the world, for me to have that information encounter in 1976. It was life-changing for me. At the time, I had recently graduated from the Ohio State University, and like most young people sporting a sheepskin suitable for framing; namely, a diploma, I thought I had the world by the throat. In other words, I thought that, based on my college education, I had a pretty good handle on how the world operated.
But I had no idea! The information that I encountered was not limited to one book, but to a whole range of material, which after I had digested it over the course of about six months, it awakened me to the truth about how the world, including—especially including the United States—how the world really operates. [This is what we now in 2020 refer to as being “red pilled,” where, by various means, one’s eyes are opened to the way things really are. More on that in a future blog.]
And so on the 4th of July, 1976, when almost all of America was waving flags and celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I had concluded that—just as I myself had been six months previously—the American people, by and large, were totally asleep and blind to the fact that they had long ago been put in bondage.
You see, as all ruling elites know, the best way to keep people in bondage is to convince them that they are free. In other words, we have been secretly enslaved; or to say it in direct connection with the title of this series, the fact of our captivity is a Mystery to most people.
Thirty-some years ago, almost everyone would laugh and say, “That’s preposterous! We’re Americans; we are free; we’re not enslaved!” I know for a fact that they said that because once my eyes were opened, I began working to try to get others to see what I saw, and that was the reaction of the vast majority of my fellow Americans.
In fact, I worked full-time for three years trying to awaken people and I got very frustrated because so very few were interested. So very few wanted to even look and see if these things might be true! At this point in my narrative, I need to back up a couple years to my college days.
I was a Journalism major at the Ohio State University, which I “double-tracked to include both broadcast journalism and public relations. In the course of my education, I also took numerous other courses which interested me, including Philosophy, the History of Islam and Political Science.
In regard to the latter, most of our required reading were books by radical Marxists, but in most cases, I did not realize that at the time. On the occasions where I did realize the author was a communist, I prided myself on being an intelligent freethinker who could discern good from evil. Little did I know! So I graduated being utterly convinced that I understood the political spectrum—the way almost everyone in America understands it today. It looks like this:
We have a straight horizontal line which we call the political spectrum. It runs from the far left to the far right. Hence, the terms left-wingers and right-wingers.
The communists are on the far left. The socialists are very close next to them on the left, and the liberals are also on the left, but only slightly off center. And so, to be a liberal is made to appear that you are pretty much a middle-of-the-roader. But remember, it is the liberal professors and pundits who are telling us this.
I would guess that in the typical American public college or university, at least 90-some percent of the faculty are either Liberals, Socialists or Marxists; the latter being a term which covers both socialists and communists. Now, hear me clearly. I am not saying that they are all actively and consciously promoting evil, but rather that they have that mindset, having been indoctrinated that way in their own “higher” education.
And of course, the vast majority of them do not walk around campus or teach their classes with red-colored name badges and the word “Marxist-” right next to the word “Professor.” I mean, that would give it away and spoil all the fun, wouldn’t it?😉
Now I guess I should pause here for a second because some new listener might be taken aback because I just equated Marxists, socialists and liberals with evil, didn’t I? So let me just ask such a person to hold that in abeyance for now, and as we get into the series more deeply, I shall have to teach and demonstrate from history the truth about Marxism, socialism and modern liberalism and progressivism, that it is, in fact, evil. But not necessarily that all liberals are evil people—more later.
If the overwhelming majority of the professors are liberals, progressives, socialists and Marxists, is it any wonder that the vast majority of college students graduate from college as little Marxists and socialists? —without even realizing it? I know that because I was one! I have often told people that I came out of the Ohio State University a socialist by default.
In other words, in my youthful and naive ignorance, my mind had been filled with all kinds of things that just aren’t true! Now, was I ever a member of any Marxist or socialist organization? No. Back in the early 1970s, did I ever participate in the far-leftist-organized mass protests on the college campuses or elsewhere? No.
But what I am saying is that I came out of college with a mindset that I was a free-thinking individual, ergo, a liberal. And I was upset with the war in Vietnam because it looked senseless for us to be involved there.
Friends of mine had been killed and wounded in service there, and I myself was fortunate in the early 1970s to have narrowly escaped being sent to Vietnam as an Air Force radar technician, because radar sets were prime targets of the communist enemy. So if the socialists were organizing the protests against the war in Vietnam, well, then I agreed with them. Hence, a socialist by default.
I really had not thought deeply enough about the whole political spectrum to see any flaws in it. Like most people, I just accepted what I was taught. In fact, I can now see that critical thinking as a skill was not taught in the university—at least not in any of my courses, including journalism, where you would think it is absolutely necessary, but you would be wrong.
And so, among the many things that I learned that just aren’t so, is this whole concept of the political spectrum, which as I said, is the one that is generally accepted by the vast majority of Americans. It is generally accepted because it is reinforced on a daily basis everywhere in the mass media—and the term “mass media” includes Hollywood as well as the news media. No one is offered an alternative concept of the political spectrum. I had never heard of one.
Somebody is sure to be thinking by now: “Hey, wait a minute, James. Why are you getting into all this stuff about politics? I thought you were supposed to be a Bible teacher, but I noticed that you have not even read one Scripture yet.”
And I say, fair enough. Very perceptive of you. May I explain? There is an old saying something to the effect that “one should never get into a discussion of politics or religion. That’ll gitcha in trouble.”
Now, have you ever thought about this? That if you were one of the ruling elites—those who think they are above all the rest of us—and who intend to stay on top, ruling over the rest of us—that if you could get the people to quit talking among themselves about politics, then wouldn’t that help keep the people from getting together and removing tyrants from power? Of course it would!
Same with religion. If you were part of the leadership of a vast and powerful religious institution and you wanted to stay on top and keep the people in line and not question your edicts, then would it not be a good thing to convince them that “oh, you just shouldn’t talk about religion; leave that to the experts, okay?”
So, don’t talk about religion and politics? No! I reject that most vehemently! Those are two of the very most important things that should be discussed frequently and by everyone. Do you see what I mean?
“Yeah,” someone says, “but what does politics have to do with the Bible?”
Well, did you know that in the Bible only about 29 percent is dealing with personal salvation, but that about 71 percent is concerned with things related to government or politics, or you could say “national salvation?” And I don’t have to tell you that in the several hundred thousand of churches in America, there is plenty being taught about personal salvation.
Here at SKM, we assume you are already “saved.” In other words, that you have already surrendered your life to Christ. We’re here to help you grow more deeply in your understanding of the Word of God, the Christian Bible.
Jesus is the Word, is He not? And the Word is the Bible. So if you want to get closer to Jesus, our Savior, then one of the best ways to do that is to study His Word. And I intend to demonstrate to you that everything I am teaching has very much to do with His Word.
And although I have yet to refer to a single Scripture, not to worry, there are a vast array of Scripture passages which are pertinent to this subject, but again, we are just setting the stage here. We are putting some of the food on the banquet table, so to speak. Setting out some pieces of the puzzle.
Remember, this is an introduction to what is going to be a long series, and I realize that with almost every statement I make, that I am leaving out many details upon which I will expand later.
And so, just realize that if what I say raises numerous questions in your mind, if I am leaving a lot of loose ends, it cannot be helped. But I assure you, we will delve deeply into them as the series progresses.
