Taming The Messiah

In the history of the Ottoman Empire, the seventeenth century has often been considered an anomaly, characterized by political dissent and social conflict. In this book, Aslıhan Gürbüzel shows how the early modern period was, in fact, crucial to the formation of new kinds of political agency that challenged, negotiated with, and ultimately reshaped the Ottoman social order. By uncovering the histories of these new political voices and documenting the emergence of a robust public sphere, Gürbüzel challenges two common assumptions: first, that the ideal of public political participation originated in the West; and second, that civic culture was introduced only with Westernization efforts in the nineteenth century. Contrary to these assumptions, which measure the Ottoman world against an idealized European prototype, Taming the Messiah offers a new method of studying public political life by focusing on the variety of religious visions and lifeworlds native to Ottoman society and the ways in which they were appropriated and repurposed in the pursuit of new forms of civic engagement.

In The Taming of Jesus by Christianity, Wayne Mahan peels back the layers of Christianity to provide his readers with a dramatic account of how the original radical teachings of Jesus were domesticated and transformed into a world-changing religion. Mahan's book is written for a modern public that has become increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of formal, institutionalized religion. He demonstrates that Christianity has at its core Jesus' demand of love, embodied in the Sermon on the Mount, and that this demand was simply too radical to form a viable religion. Mahan walks the reader through the New Testament, showing how this radical demand of love stands at the center of the synoptic gospels, and how it is systematically transformed by Paul and the Gospel of John into a faith in Jesus as atoning sacrifice and God-Man that is formalized and institutionalized by the Council of Nicaea. In a surprising and compelling presentation, Mahan argues that this transformation of the Christian message was a necessary betrayal that allowed the original radical message of Jesus to be carried within a palatable host religion, rather than be rejected and abandoned two millennia ago. The Taming of Jesus combines a succinct survey of the New Testament with a pointed examination of the central ideas of the Christian faith

Noah’s ark was an invention of God (elohiym—the plural (three) form of one God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). God the Son later became the incarnate Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the very Christ. The original Son of God was undoubtedly the divine agent that communed with Noah, inspiring him with the great invention of God to preserve life through the perils of a world-wide Deluge. Noah was the master builder and preacher of righteousness. God could have translated the people and animals to heaven or some other world before that horrific water holocaust of the entire earth, and relocated them back to earth when the Flood was over. But God chose not to do this. God chose a cooperative effort of God and man at great cost to preserve life on earth during that fearful water holocaust. But the ark, as well designed and built as it was, was in itself not sufficient to preserve life. It required the mighty power of God and the heavenly angels to guide and preserve the ark and its inhabitants during that fearful ordeal. “For this they [last day scoffers—evolutionists] willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:5-7 and context (KJV). In the imminent future we face the fearful peril of one third of the population of the earth being incinerated in a nuclear holocaust (Revelation 9:14-21); also the peril of the corona of the sun going out in darkness, like what happened briefly July 19-23, 2013 (Google dark sun), and the earth’s population freezing to death, or the sun continuing its nova sequence, scorching the earth with great heat, and then going out in darkness. What we desperately need now are new inventions of God, the cooperation of God, men, and angels to preserve life in fire, make the sun unnecessary, flood the entire earth with light and clean energy (Revelation 21:23). God has already inspired one man, said of Lucifer himself to be the Everlasting Father incarnate, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the very Christ, with designs of God of inventions to preserve and restore earth to Edenic condition in this doom of fire. The inventions are already roughly designed and the master builder found and educated. All that is needed now are believing people donating money for these costly heavenly inventions. God will not do this all by Himself. He will work with us as we give our all, be it little or much. This book will tell all about the inventions of God for now, to preserve life through fire and to make the sun unnecessary. What is most needed now is belief in God’s Messiahs. So in this book there will not only be science and technology, but theology, history, and prophetic evidences in favor of Messiah A and Messiah B—Jesus of Nazareth and Gordon L. Ziegler of Lacey, Washington U.S.A. Any and all may now make tax deductable donations to Benevolent Enterprises to actualize the divine inventions to preserve life from a holocaust of fire, restore the earth and its people, and make the sun unnecessary with heavenly light and heat.

The New Messiah is a novel of personal discovery set in the 1970's. Neal Shelley is an idealistic poet who falls in love with a woman he meets while hitchhiking across America during the Bicentennial summer of 1976. But despite the storybook beginning, the love affair soon fades and Neal is left disillusioned and searching for answers in his life. In his disheartened state, he conceives a utopian plan to launch a new messiah movement which he hopes will end his and everyone else's unhappiness. He enlists his charismatic friend, Andrew Moore, to pose as a modern-day savior. They begin their mission with a sermon on the Venice Boardwalk. The initial sermon succeeds brilliantly but then Neal's plan takes an unexpected turn as Andrew starts to truly believe he is the Chosen One. Inspired by actual events, The New Messiah shows how American youth culture in the mid-1970's-characterized by a quest for higher consciousness; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; recreational drug use; pop mysticism; irreverent humor; and cynicism and alienation in the post-Watergate "malaise" era-was the soil out of which a messiah movement could grow. One of the most striking features of The New Messiah is its play-like format. The story is told through the conversations of the characters. The authenticity of the dialogue in the party scenes, street scenes, and intimate one-on-one scenes will no doubt be appreciated by readers who lived through that time period. College-age readers today may also find much to identify with in the novel's depiction of 70's youth culture.