The Prophet’s Trilemma

The call it the Lord, Liar or Lunatic Trilemma.

It was made popular by Josh McDowell, but I understand it first came from C.S. Lewis. In summary, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, among other things. You cannot simply say He was a good teacher. Either he was lying about being the Son of God, or He was a madman who really believed it, or He was the Son of God as He claimed.

Yes, one could pick it apart logically, but the impact is still sharp. The point here is, the same thing can be applied to anyone who claims to be a prophet of God.

I have made such a claim. Further, I put myself in a bind by claiming to have a predictive message from God: If America sends troops and/or vehicles against Iran, we will fail and fail miserably in battle. I can’t pretend to speak for other nations involved, or if they act alone. I know only my firm conviction what will happen to the US. I say without hesitation this is a word from God.

If we do go to war against Iran, and after a reasonable time frame, what I say does not happen, then I am wrong and it’s not a Word from God. The Bible says some pretty harsh things about people who claim to speak for God and it turns out false. For the time being, I rather doubt anyone will attempt to carry out the provisions of the Law of Moses, but it would be justified, in one sense.

You see, my pronouncement of this message as being from God arises from a certain set of beliefs. This is what I honestly believe, so the liar option is gone. If my message is wrong, so are all of my beliefs. But this is not something I can simply correct by changing my mind. These beliefs, so far as I can tell, arose from outside my intellectual control. These beliefs aren’t going away. That is, if I’m wrong, I’m going to question my grip on reality altogether.

It seems to me in my rational mind we are dangerously close to attacking Iran. I’m so deeply committed to honesty, I need to set this in stone, as it were, before we get there. If we attack Iran and subdue the government, and if after some reasonable interval, nothing happens to our troops and equipment, then I will find myself unable to continue writing. I won’t be able to trust my own mind, and I would hate for any of my readers to keep on trusting me, and be led astray by my madness.

It’s possible we won’t do it, in which case we’ll never know either way. The point is, I want to make clear I know what’s at stake. If this fails to come true, I’m pulling all my stuff from the Net. Not out of embarrassment, but out of a concern for everyone else, because if I can’t trust my own heart on this, you and I would be crazy to think anything else I say is worth the trouble.

Manipulation Detector Working? (Updated)

It doesn’t require a weird conspiracy theory to see the lies and manipulation.

How is your manipulation detector working? Can you measure the high level of garbage coming out the mainstream media today? The current ruling regime of the US is setting us up for a fresh sucker punch. Here’s the obvious steps:

1. You and I know Osama bin Laden was dead a decade ago. The man had been in fragile health for some years, and the CIA spent quite a bit of money on his medical care, even sending agents to visit him in the hospital. It doesn’t matter what bin Laden knew; the CIA was using him.

2. Since that time, we have had piles of videos with fake bin Ladens. It didn’t take any serious expertise to see it was not him. So it should come as no surprise if you view photos of the guy they shot yesterday, it’s also not him (I saw the photo, but it fell victim to government censorship just a short time later). The facial features and hair color alone are different enough to give it away.

(Edit: The photo in question was a fake of a different sort. It was not censored, but removed because the original post I saw used an old hoax photo dredged up yet again, trying to fool us one more time. So now what we have is a body not seen by any third party, dumped into the ocean, taken from a compound burned to the ground. Net result is no change to my original thesis. BTW, how long does a DNA test take? Hint: Labs say their fastest turn-around is not possible in less than 48 hours.)

3. So every time they waved the dead guy at us, it was about the same time there was some outcry over a fresh attack on rights and liberties.

4. Today we see the news about expecting al Qaeda and other CIA black ops promising new forms of terrorist retribution for the death of some guy they know is not bin Laden. These threats will justify, at the very least, making sure no one pays any attention to the popular backlash against the likes of TSA. More likely, this heralds some fresh assault on our perceived rights and liberties.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking all this runs along any single thread of planning. This coup is bigger and smarter than that. There are an awful lot of brilliant folks involved in both major parties working every angle of this thing. They’ll estimate the popular response and take that as a cue what they can get away with. The public announcement of bin Laden’s death has been in the can for some years, and it was pulled out of a much wider collection of propaganda stunts all lined up and ready.

Even then, it’s all a distraction within a distraction. They already know some of us have this figured out in advance, and they have something for us, too. As long as there are folks selling information, there will always be information to be sold. The Controlled Opposition has many faces, too — there’s something for everyone.

That is, except for Christian Mystics like myself and a few others. Having opted out a long time ago, most of what we see now is just so much entertainment, and mighty poor entertainment, at that. The real story is Western Civilization is crumbling, hollow and rotten to the core. It’s just another case of “Babylon is fallen, is fallen…” Everything has a price and that’s all that matters, according to Babylon. Don’t be bought; don’t make your heart for sale. Opt out and let it all pass you by, while you give yourself to the really important stuff of showing the truth in how you live.