The People

The majority of "the people" are passive; blind, deaf, and dumb. They follow their mis-leaders into chaos and catastrophe. God sends his prophets/messengers to warn and correct, but to no avail, except for the few whose hearts and minds are set right and who are able to be led to safety. These remaining few become the remnant, the survivors and progenitors of the next cycle. However, this time the cycle is different. This time nuclear weapons enter the scene. If there had been nuclear weapons when Rome fell, we wouldn’t be here today to discuss the matter. The presence of nuclear weapons changes God’s evolutionary, remnant plan into no-plan. It changes the remnant into no-remnant. Man has never before been able to achieve stability and avoid the abuse of power and the downfall of empire. Are we more mature now? Are our leaders different than prior leaders? Are we wiser? Have we stopped straying from God’s laws and ways? Since the death of Adam and Eve, our world has been without direct divine leadership. The majority of "the people" are passive; blind, deaf, and dumb. They follow their mis-leaders into chaos and catastrophe. God sends his prophets/messengers to warn and correct, but to no avail, except for the few whose hearts and minds are set right and who are able to be led to safety. These remaining few become the remnant, the survivors and progenitors of the next cycle.

False prophets were usually paid staff under the king. . . They "prophesied" what the king wanted to hear. . . he preaches of peace. . . They steal the name of the Lord, use their own authority in His name and claim their own self-exalted status. . . They lead the people with false assurance.

Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls

DSC He will atone for all the children of his generation, and he will
4Q541.9 be sent to all his children of his [pe] ople. His word is like a
word of heaven, and his teaching is in accordance with the will
of God. His eternal sun will shine, and his light will be kindled in
all corners of the earth, and it will shine on the darkness. Then the
darkness will pass away [fro] m the earth, and thick darkness from
the dry land. (spiritual darkness) (my parenthesis)
They will speak many words against him, and they will invent
many [lies] and fictions against him and speak shameful things
about him. Evil will overthrow his generation […] His situation
will be one of lying and violence [and] the people will go astray
in the days, and be confounded.

The first paragraph describes the Son of Man perfectly; his "eternal" existence, "his word like a word of heaven," and his "teaching in accordance with the will of God" could apply to no other person. The first line of this first paragraph refers to the concept of atonement. This erroneous concept is an example of how revelation is shaped by the cultural mind set into which it is given, just as a cup gives shape to the coffee poured into it. We must distinguish between the facts described and the prophet’s interpretation of those facts; i.e. the same level separation that the Urantia Book teaches: fact, meaning, value. The events can still be accurate even if the prophet’s assumptions and interpretations of these is incomplete or inaccurate; i.e. the coffee tastes the same no matter which cup you choose to put it in.

The People

Amos 2 :7 Thus said the Lord :
760 BC They (Northern Israelites) have spurned the Teaching of the Lord
And have not observed His laws;
They are beguiled by delusions
After which their fathers walked.
They have sold for silver
Those whose cause was just
And the needy for a pair of sandals.
Ah, you who trample the heads of the poor…
And make the humble walk a twisted course!
You alone have I singled out
Of all the families of the earth—
That is why I call you to account
For all your iniquities.

Amos 3:9 Gather on the hill of Samaria
And witness the great outrages within her
And the oppression in her midst
They are incapable of doing right
-declares the Lord.
They store up lawlessness and rapine
In their fortresses.

The Lord tells us through Amos, that since he has singled out the people of Israel and has taught them about his laws and ways, that he will therefore hold them more accountable for their iniquities, even though the other "families of the earth" do the same or worse. "To those whom much has been given, much will also be expected."

Drought, famine, pestilence and military losses accumulate against the Northern Tribes (Israel), because they(the 'people' here) have turned their back on God, and the Lord says :

Amos 4 :11 Yet you have not turned back to Me.

Amos 5 :1 Hear this word which I intone
As a dirge over you, O House of Israel :
Fallen, not to rise again,
Is maiden Israel;
Abandoned on her soil
With none to lift her up…
For thus said my Lord God :
The town that marches out a thousand strong
Shall have a hundred left
And the town that marches out a hundred strong
Shall have but ten left.

The Lord now tells the people in advance that disaster approaches them (the Assyrian invasion) because God has "abandoned" them to their own devices by taking away his special protection of them.

Amos 3 :7 Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
Without having revealed His purpose
To His servants the prophets.
A lion has roared,
Who can but fear ?
The Lord God has spoken,
Who can but prophesy ?

Melchizedek tells us through Amos that God "does nothing without having revealed His purposes" through His servants the prophets. In this regard, today is no different than yesterday. God will again reveal His plans to those who will listen.

The calamities that befall a nation are the direct result of the spiritual and moral degeneracy that exists. When a people and their leaders separate themselves from God to pursue their own gain, they also separate themselves from the source of all wisdom and prudence. Our selfish acts carry the seed of their own destruction just as night follows day. The warp and woof of reality is justice and mercy. One can go against this grain but the friction generated burns up the result.

Reunion

Hosea 2 :1-2 The number of the people of Israel (Northern Tribes) shall
be like that of the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
or counted; and instead of being told, "You are not my people,"
you shall be called Children of the Living God. The people of
Judah and the people of Israel shall assemble together and
appoint one head over them;:

UB p. 1220 The advances of civilization are all born in this inner world
of mankind. It is only the inner life which is truly creative.
Civilization can hardly progress when the majority of any
generation devotes their interests and energies to the materialistic
pursuits of the sensory outer world.

UB p. 1013 True religion must ever be, at one and the same time, the
eternal foundation and the guiding star of all enduring
civilizations.

We now can understand that the problems of our outer world have their origin in the world within us. Now, back to Hosea again as he speaks to 'the people' of ancient Israel:

The People

Hosea 4 :1 Hear the word of the Lord
O people of Israel!
For the Lord has a case
Against the inhabitants of this land
Because there is no honesty and goodness
And no obedience to God in the land.

Hosea 4 :2 False swearing, dishonesty, and murder,
And theft and adultery are rife;
Crime follows upon crime
For that the earth is withered;
Everything that dwells on it languishes—

The earth is withered implies drought which is caused by the spiritual and moral degeneracy that exists in ancient Israel.

Hosea 4 :11 Wine and new wine destroy
The mind of my people.

Hosea 4 :14 A people that is without sense must stumble.

Hosea 6 :4 Your goodness is like morning clouds,
Like dew so early gone ?

Hosea 6 :6 For I desire goodness, not sacrifice
Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 7 :4 They commit adultery, all of them (Israel)

Hosea 7 :8 He (Ephraim/Israel) is rotting away.
Strangers have consumed his strength.
But he has taken no notice,
Also, mold is scattered over him.

Hosea 7 :10 Though Israel’s pride has been humbled
Before his very eyes,
They have not turned back
To their God the Lord;
They have not sought Him
In spite of everything.

Hosea 8 :2 They do not cry out to Me sincerely
As they lay wailing.
They debauch over new grain and new wine,
They are faithless to Me.

Hosea 8 :3 Israel rejects what is good;
An enemy shall pursue him.

Although this was written by the prophet about ancient Israel, the same recurring events and cycles go on. America can easily substitute for Israel in the modern version of above. Shall we not take heed? Hosea continues:

Hosea 8 :7 They (the people) sow wind,
And reap the whirlwind

Hosea 9 :1 For you have strayed from your God:
You have loved a harlot’s fee.

Hosea 10 :4 They (ancient Israel) conclude agreements and make covenants (contracts)
With false oaths, And justice degenerates into poison weeds,
Breaking out in the furrows of the fields.

Hosea 12 :7 You must return to your God;
Practice goodness and justice,
And constantly trust in your God.
But so as not to cause despair, The Lord says:

Hosea 14 :5 I will heal their affliction,
Generously will I take them back in love
I will be like dew to Israel;
He shall blossom like the lily.

Those who unknowingly bring about God’s prophecy will be totally oblivious to that prophecy. When we turn away from God, we also turn away from the source of all wisdom and knowledge. We are "blind and blinded," "stupid and stupefied." To many of us, living religion is crystallized into "a commandment of men, learned by rote." We pay lip service to God but have no living connection to Him. What we say and what we do are two different things. Since God, and only God, is the source of love and life, we , like the living branch of a vine, become cut off and withered by our separation from Him.

The People

Isaiah 30:9 It is a rebellious people,
Faithless children,
Children who refuse to heed
The instruction of the Lord;
Who say to the seers,
"Do not see."
To the prophets,
"Do not prophesy truth to us;
The peoples gather.
Who among them declared this,
Foretold to us the things that have happened?
Let them produce their witnesses to be vindicated,
That men, hearing them, may say, "It is true!"
My witnesses are you,
-declares the Lord—

This assembly of nations and people has never yet occurred, but will occur, and we (the readers) will be witnesses to the truth of this prophecy that we are now reading.

Isaiah 43:12 Beside Me, none can grant triumph
I alone told the deliverance
And I brought it to pass;
I announced it . . .
So you are My witnesses.

Jer 4:19 Oh the walls of my heart:
My heart moans within me…
Disaster overtakes disaster…

"The Lord’s" heart breaks watching his children’s chosen fate of destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. With frustration the Lord says:

Jer 4:22 The people are stupid
They give Me no heed;
They are foolish children,
They are not intelligent
They are clever at doing wrong.
But unable to do right.

Jer 5:23 Yet this people has a wayward and defiant heart
They have turned aside and gone their way…
Among My people are wicked men,
Who lurk, like fowlers lying in wait
They set up a trap to catch men…
So their houses are full of guile;
That is why they have grown so wealthy.
They have become fat and sleek…
And they prosper.

Jer 5:30 An appalling, horrible thing
Has happened in the land;
The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule accordingly;
And My people like it so.

This fits our country perfectly today. Ends of ages are very similar. America is repeating the history of ancient Israel. Human beings are very predictable. We repeat the same mistakes over and over again. We do not learn from our mistakes. We see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. As God says "My people are stupid, foolish, and unintelligent." We never heed our true prophets. We don’t love truth and so we can’t recognize it when it is right in front of our face.

The collapse of this nation is heralded by its near total disrespect and disregard for the truth. Jesus says, "I have come into this world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears and listens to My voice." We, like Pilate, respond "Truth? What is truth?"  Also consider these quotes about truth.

Truth

Mk 4: 22 Nothing is hidden that will not
UB1682 be made manifest (Jesus)
UB 1713A You cannot compel men to love the truth
UB 43C All truth is both beautiful and good
UB ll25A All truth takes origin in God

Worldly Wisdom

And so, the leaders lead the people, as the blind lead the blind. And we love to have it so! Notice very carefully, the "wise" reject the Lord (God) and therefore their wisdom amounts to nothing. If you answer the most important question about life wrong, the question of God, everything else you think, do, or know, is colored by this gross misperception of reality. Modern science is far, far more compatible with the idea of an intelligent creative source than it is with the idea of an infinitesimally small, random accident appearing from out of nothing. The physical constants, such as the mass of the electron, are so finely tuned, that if just one of them were changed, by an extremely small amount, then the prerequisite conditions for life would be eliminated! The probability of these constants being so finely tuned by a random accident is so infinitesimally small that it is indistinguishable from zero. And yet this is just what most of our scientists actually believe. They readily accept that a universe can just pop out of nothing for no reason, but to believe that Jesus gave sight to the blind is intolerable. Let us be very clear, the assumptions of most of our scientists, philosophers and other "intelligentsia" are not supported by logical analysis but rather are articles of faith, lacking any plausible rationale whatsoever. History will look back at our so-called "modern intellectuals" with a wide-eyed stare of disbelief; that so many, for so long, could have been so wrong, about so much.

Fortunately, the laws of modern physics speak for themselves. They tell us that every part of our Universe is connected to every other part by instantaneous connections. The reason for this is that what we see and measure is a lower dimensional reality embedded in a higher dimensional reality. The seemingly disparate and separate universe phenomena are really unified and coherent at higher reality levels. Modern physics is now contemplating a universe of ten physical dimensions rather than the three dimensions that are apparent. The equations for our modern laws greatly simplify when represented in this ten dimensional form, which may prove to be the form of a new physics for the 21 st century. Time will tell. The Urantia Book also tells us that the physical universe is based on the number ten. In truth, no one understands what simple words such as space, time, energy, and mass are. These words are symbolic representations describing a reality that transcends all mental constructs about said reality. The greatest error in philosophy is the confusion of our symbols about reality, with reality itself. For example, everyone has heard about the "wave – particle duality" of quantum physics. Hundreds of books have been written about this subject of how small particles can sometimes behave like waves, and vice-a-versa, waves can behave like particles. This confuses us to no end, until we realize that reality is telling us that there are no such things as either particles or waves and that the actual reality is something altogether different and beyond our ideas about that reality. The source of all reality is the transcendent God and therefore, reality is "made out of" something wholly transcendent to mere mortal ideas about it. And so, reality, like a banana peel, slips ever faster from our hands as we try ever harder to squeeze and define it by our artificial mental constructs. The duality is not in nature, rather is it unavoidably introduced by our analytic models of nature. Reality is whole. The process of analysis must break reality’s wholeness in order to study it. The real limit is not in nature itself, but rather in the way a human, finite, mind must function. The source of the world around us is the absolute, transcendent, and infinite God; and since the source of something determines the nature of that thing, all reality is transcendent and "miraculous," wholly beyond the finite grasp of man. Modern physics tells us that when finite mind contacts infinite reality, paradox results. In fact, paradox is a marker for the contact between the infinite and the finite. Paradox tells us that there is something more in addition to what our analytic symbols can represent. The whole is always greater than the part. Humility always results from the understanding of our true insignificance amidst the infinite. And yet, we are deemed worthy by God to inherit an infinite kingdom. Now, returning to the main text of Jeremiah. The Lord says:

The People

Jer 9:1 Oh, to leave my people
To go away from them –
For they are all adulterers,
A band of rogues.
They bend their tongues like bows;
They are valorous in the land
For treachery, not for honesty
They advance from evil to evil
And they do not heed Me
declares the Lord…

Jer 9:14 One man cheats another
They will not speak the truth…
Lo, I shall smelt and assay them – …
And I will make the towns of Judah
A desolation without inhabitants.

Jer 9:11 What man is so wise
That he understands this?
To whom has the Lord spoken.
So that he can explain it:
Why is the land in ruins
Laid waste like a wilderness
With none passing through.

Jer 50:4 In those days and at that time – declares the Lord – the people of
Israel together with the people of Judah shall come and shall weep
as they go to seek the Lord their God.
They shall inquire for Zion;

Ezek 3:27 "He who listens, listens and he who will not shall not – for they are a
rebellious breed."

Ezek 33:11 As I live – declares the Lord God – it is not
My desire that the wicked shall die, but
that the wicked turn from their evil ways and live.

Ezek 34:1 The word of the Lord came home: O mortal, prophesy against
the shepherds: Ah you shepherds (leaders) of Israel, who have been
tending yourselves!…

Ezek 34:12 I will rescue them (the people) from all the places to which they
were scattered on a day of cloud and gloom. I will take them out
from the peoples and gather them from the countries…I Myself
will graze My flock, and I Myself will let them lie down – declares the
Lord. I will look for the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, I will
bandage the injured and sustain the weak.

Mal 2:8 You have made the many stumble at your rulings…
You disregard My ways…
You have wearied the Lord, with your talk.
But you ask, "By what have we wearied Him?"
By saying, "All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord,"
And in them He delights, or else,
"Where is the God of Justice?"

God explains through His prophet exactly what it is that "His people" do that He finds so displeasing. The lack of justice makes "many stumble at your rulings" God says to man. "The disregard of His Ways" means the lack of compassion and love as well as of justice. On top of it all, the people show no understanding of what they are doing wrong and "weary" God by excusing and confusing evil for good and asking incredible questions such as: "where is the God of Justice?" In the first instance, this means that the people mistake evil for good, as evidenced by the false shepherds, they follow and support. In the second instance, the people project their own failings onto God Himself blaming Him for their own failures, thus washing their hands clean of all responsibility. And so it is, we so easily deceive ourselves, preferring fantasy to reality.

Living honestly and sincerely requires effort, courage, and self-sacrifice. Rather than an escape from reality, the opiate of the masses, true religion requires the full engagement of reality with body, mind, and spirit.

The people who will go the most wrong in the messianic time period upcoming are the same people who went the most wrong in ancient times as well; i.e. the Northern Tribes, who are Israel, who in turn are the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, foremost among the Ten Northern Tribes. The Northern Tribes then become the Lost Ten Tribes who migrate to northern and western Europe, and then later to America, surfacing today after 2000 years as Christians, some of whom occupy the equivalent to the "promised land" of yesterday-- America. Ephraim is very probably America today and Manasseh is very probably Great Britain. The "wicked of Ephraim and Manasseh" are the leaders and power elite of these two countries.

American is Ephraim because the Lost Ten Tribes first settled in Northern and Western Europe, from there the Lost Ten Tribes later settled America. The bravest, most courageous, most freedom loving and most religious of Europe settled America. The "cream of the crop" of the entire world moved west. America is directly related to Ephraim of ancient Israel. Both America and ancient Northern Israel started out on the right tract with the love and blessings of God. When both their wealth grew, both abandoned God and went chasing after the false gods of money, sex, and power. Both had leaderships that led the people (the majority) far away from the sustenance of truth. Deceit, lawlessness and decay beset Israel and beset us today. Israel’s prophets arose and were ignored even as they were killed and imprisoned. America, like Israel, will ignore her prophets as well. The outcome will be the same, making for a precise repeat of history. The beginning is like the end. America, like the Northern Tribes, is blessed with fruitfulness, bounty, and God’s grace. Both became proud and defiant, lawless and licentious, arrogant and capricious. Both become blind, deaf, and dumb to the events around them that ultimately swallow them up. Not only is America Ephraim by heredity, but America is also Ephraim by history. It is from America and Great Britain that the most destructive leaders of Christendom will come and they will be the ones who lead the persecution of the elect. They are, and will be, "the wicked of Ephraim and Manasseh" of Dead Sea Scroll prophecy.

4Q166 "Woe to the city of blood; it is full of lies and rapine" (Nahum 3:1)
Teacher of Interpreted, this is the city of Ephraim, those who seek smooth
Righteousness things during the last days, who walk in lies and falsehood.

I’m afraid Ephraim is America. America is the modern counterpart of Northern Israel of 700-800 BC. Both chase after the false gods of wealth, power and sex. America is a country populated by the offspring of the Lost Ten Tribes of yesterday. History ends where it began, so many years ago; and again it is the most favored, the most blessed, Ephraim who goes astray. "America, O beautiful, God shed His grace on Thee!" We have gone from "In God we trust" to the "God almighty dollar" in just two hundred years!

The "city of Ephraim" that is full of lies and deceit may be Washington, D.C. which is also known as the "den of iniquity." Such places of concentrated evil end in the seeds of their own destruction. Perhaps those nuclear secrets, we have been so diligent to give to our enemies will be our undoing. And just as in ancient days, "the people," the majority, follow along dancing a merry tune – oblivious and exultant. Even more frighteningly, we next have:

4Q166-7 "The prowler is not wanting, noise of whip and noise of rattling
wheel, prancing horse and jolting chariot, charging horseman, flame
and glittering spear, a multitude of the slain and a heap of carcasses. There is
end to the corpses; they stumble upon their corpses."(Nahum 3:1-3)

Teacher of Interpreted, this concerns the dominion of those who seek smooth
Righteousness things from the midst of whose assembly the "sword of the nations
shall never be wanting." Captivity, looting, and burning shall be
among them, and exile out of dread for the enemy…there shall be no
end to their slain.

The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he
who reads them insomuch as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth
than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. (Thomas
Jefferson)

These are the voices of highly respected individuals of great intelligence, many of them now of legendary stature. Such voices, independently attesting to the same truths, must be taken with utmost respect and consideration. Manipulation and control of values, attitudes, and ideas is much in evidence during our daily lives and are the only evidence necessary to confirm the reality of these statements. But one can not see what one is not aware of.

There is an alternate media growing up on the internet, which portrays the other unreported side of events. One must sift, judge, and correlate all the available facts before making an interpretation.

Next,we focus on our corrupt financial system, which is a direct descendent of the one developed in Babylon four thousand years ago.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes
me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war,
corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong
its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is
aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this
moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even
in the midst of war. (Abraham Lincoln – in a letter written to William
Elkin less than five months before he was assassinated.)

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together
in society, they create for themselves in the course of time, a legal system
that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. (Frederick Bastiat –
1801-1850, in Economic Sophisms.)

The fact is that there is a serious danger of this country becoming a
pluto-democracy; that is, a sham republic with the real government in
the hands of a small clique of enormously wealthy men, who speak
through their money, and whose influence, even today, radiates to every
corner of the United States. (William McAdoo – President Wilson’s
national campaign vice-chairman, wrote in Crowded Years, 1974.)

This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people
no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for
corporations. (U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes)

As only proper, we will finish this chapter with Emily’s own words as she pondered the scenes of future events as they moved across her field of vision.

E.D. #345 Funny—to be a century –
And see the People—going by –
I—should die of the Oddity –
but then – I’m not so staid – as He –
He keeps His Secrets safely – very –
Were He to tell – extremely sorry
This Bashful Globe of Ours would be –
So dainty of Publicity –

The people stray away from God and follow their leaders into calamity as previously. The congregation of the elect and the congregation of the righteous must turn away from the majority’s popular opinions and actions in order to follow God’s will rather than man’s. The people are blind, deaf, and dumb to God’s truth and fall away from God because they do not love or thirst for truth as do the elect and righteous.

The above excerpts are from the book, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand" written by Edmund J. Roache, MD.