"Crusades: from Eden to Armageddon."

by Raphael C. Jerome

PREFACE

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

In 1991, a Western world coalition led by the United States went to war with Iraq. In the year 2003, history brings the West again at war in the cradle of civilization. And while heads of states, politicians

and theologians all try to explain the crisis in the M.E. (Middle East), again we see history repeats itself in these events, just as King Solomon wisely said: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be;

and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

From the earliest writings of recorded history, the M. E. has been the object of wars and bloodshed. Due to the fact that all who attach any importance to the events of that area of the globe, base their concern on God and religion, maybe God should be to blame for the evil that is prevalent in that area

of the world; this may be true, as He Himself said ,“ I God, create evil” Isaiah 45:7

But if God is going to be the object of an accusation that the world is going to pots because of the M. E. crisis, should we maybe attempt to give Him a fair trial? Well, since He is not here in the physical realm, we may have to rely on what He has left us to go by: the Bible and its related historical research and apocryphal texts.

But in order to find the truth about the present day problems in the M.E. as seen in the Bible, we first may need to rid ourselves of some of the fairy tale ideas that have been passed on to us since Sunday school. What is the Bible to us? Is it a book of fantastic fairy-tales filled with geological, astronomical and medical miracles having no place in the realm of reality, but rather nearing magic and performed by a “fairy grand-father” to keep his favorite children out of trouble? Is it a hope we rely on just when there is nothing left to hope in? Or maybe there is truth in what Karl Marx says about religion being

the “opiate of the people” helping people to feel good about themselves, so they “forget” to question themselves about the plight of a humanity seemingly forsaken by God? Or is it even a security blanket we carry with us by closing our eyes tight-shut to the outside world and repeating our pet verses to reassure our hearts, just like a chanted mantra?

What shall we do to rise above the fairy-tale “fairy-God-Father” image we give to the Bible and to stop looking at God with the eyes of the surreal in the same way we look at Merlin the Magician, or the good fairy in Pinocchio who will one day give us our true nature, if we are good enough to deserve it. Only then will we finally understand what it tells us about our world, its past, its present and its future. There is nothing wrong with the surreal or the imagination of man, but the surreal is just that, the imagination of man, yearning for his soul freed from this lower dimension, whereas God’s supernatural feats are the ultra-reality and we are caught a little bit under until we mature enough to be trusted with greater freedoms.

It could be that maybe, by looking at this book away from the influences of our times and our childish imagination (probably originally influenced by well-meaning mothers in order to explain God and His Word to their children) - as we mature in our understanding of the Scriptures and receive them within the parameters of their own merits - we shall discover the Truth that will show us where and what is

the Promised Land; and that it can be conquered for His children without firing a shot!

Additional TITLES coming soon è by Raphael C. Jerome

As a PREFACE becomes available for each, it is posted! Stay tuned. . . JEROME -Home- è pg. 2

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