Wars and Rumors of Wars…

Does the winner ever tell the real story? Or even do the losers? I am sure there is a middle ground in all of it. What is the truth, or as close to the truth as is possible?

It’s as bad as trying to figure out what’s inside the nice package at the grocery store? What are the real ingredients… you know the ones they don’t want us to know about? So here we go… let’s dig in and see what’s behind the war doors!

Ezekiel 36:26–27  the Lord gave Ezekiel a prophecy promising the coming of the Messiah and the new testament made with God’s people for renewal. He said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them”.

Matthew Henry’s commentary on this scripture. He wrote:

“Don’t you think this promise to the children of Israel includes us? By nature aren’t we just as cold and indifferent as they were, and just as selfish? But thanks to God’s mercy and grace, He can and will give each of us a new heart—a tender, sincere, living heart conscious of spiritual pleasures. In order to do this, God puts His Spirit within us as our Teacher and Guide; He inclines us to walk in His statutes; He furnishes us with the wisdom, the will, and the power for every good work we do.

“If we walk in newness of life, if we have a share in the divine nature, and if we have a title to the new Jerusalem, we have a new heart and a new spirit. If we have a new spirit, we act from new principles; we aim at new goals. It’s only by God’s renewing grace, however, that such a drastic change can be created in our hearts and lives. Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

“Therefore, if God graciously gives us a new heart and a new spirit, we must keep His judgments and make His Holy Word our guide. God does His part; we must do our part. The promise of God’s grace should constantly quicken us to do our best. Without His grace, we can do nothing. Surely converting grace makes the soul that was once a wilderness “blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.”

Indeed that scripture does refer to us and to all who believe. The Lord spoke his Word to the Jews first and then he turned unto the gentiles which means nations. He instructed his apostles and disciples to go into all nations and tell them of the gospel which means the good news that Jesus has risen and the plan of grace and salvation.

And so they did, and with great tribulation. Which tribulation has followed all who love the Lord in all their travels to share the good news.  Just as the Lord said that it would.

And so, let us unravel a bit of our own forbidden history – Wars and Rumors of Wars…

When did the United States stand as a free nation on its own feet not under the influence of the Crown and or at war with it?

The liberties and freedoms we were given have been an illusion and we have strived to achieve that end that we all believed. It has been and yet is a struggle to have the God given liberties we proclaimed to have desired to set forth. The devil is in the details and the battles have been ongoing.

Now tell me, which generation had no wars?

This war map takes us up to the year 2,000.

U.S. Government Resources about the Indian Wars (1789–1891)

This guides focuses on the Indian Wars between the U.S. Government and different American Indian nations from 1789 to 1891.

• American Indian Treaties| National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• America’s Wars | U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Buffalo Soldiers: The Early Years (1866-1890) | National Park Service
• Eastern Indian Wars | National Museum of American History (NMAH)
• Indian Treaties, 1789–1869 | NARA
• Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations | National Museum of the American Indian
• Indian Wars and their Cost, and Civil Expenditures for Indians | A U.S. Census Bureau document using 1890 Decennial Census Data
• Indian Wars Campaigns | U.S. Army Center of Military History
• Western Indian Wars | NMAH

Iraq

• Overview
• Persian Gulf War (1990–1991)
• Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2010)
• Operation New Dawn (2010–2011)

Afghanistan

• Overview
• Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–2014)
• Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (2015–2021)

Featured U.S. Government Information on Veteran and Military Resources

• Casualty Status (as of 11/21/2023) | U.S. Department of Defense
• Public Health: Military Exposures | U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Veterans History Project Collection: 21st Century Conflicts: Afghanistan and Iraq | Library of Congress

In retrospect, the greatest tragedy has been to the indigenous people who were here first and conquered by the British and those who were destined to take the entire sea from shining sea into its boundary.

The point to be made in all of this is that Manasseh is rising up and will soon stand on its own legs as a great nation and his brother Ephraim will follow him in respect as being a great nation. So far Ephraim has held onto the land with its fingernails digging deep into it with all it has.

The day will come when the two brothers share the respect for each others domain. That is biblical. This day is approaching when all will know they are one people with the same creator.

Which bring us back to Manasseh. Manasseh’s name literally means “making forgetful”; Joseph said he chose that name “because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household” (Genesis 41:51). Joseph had a new life in Egypt and a new family.

Jacob Blesses the Sons of Joseph; Jacob’s Dying Prophecy (1689 B.C.)

Genesis 49: 8- 22, 8 And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these?   9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.   10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.   11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed.   12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.   13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him.   14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.   15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,   16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.  

17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.   18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.   19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.   20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.   21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.   22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

We look to excerpts from Matthew Henry Commentary for his input on Jacob giving the birthright to both Ephraim and Manasseh.

“Here is, I. The blessing with which Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph, which is the more remarkable because the apostle makes such particular mention of it (Heb 11 21), while he says nothing of the blessing which Jacob pronounced on the rest of his sons, though that also was done in faith. Observe here,

“1. Jacob was blind for age, v. 10. It is one of the common infirmities of old age. Those that look out at the windows are darkened, Eccl 12 3. It is folly to walk in the sight of our eyes, and to suffer our hearts to go after them, while we know death will shortly close them, and we do not know but some accident between us and death may darken them. Jacob, like his father before him, when he was old, was dim-sighted. Note, (1.) Those that have the honour of age must therewith be content to take the burden of it. (2.) The eye of faith may be very clear even when the eye of the body is very much clouded.

“2. Jacob was very fond of Joseph’s sons: He kissed them and embraced them, v. 10. It is common for old people to have a very particular affection for their grand-children, perhaps more than they had for their own children when they were little, which Solomon gives a reason for (Prov 17 6), Children’s children are the crown of old men. With what satisfaction does Jacob say here (v. 11), I had not thought to see thy face (having many years given him up for lost), and, lo, God has shown me also thy seed! See here, (1.) How these two good men own God in their comforts. Joseph says (v. 9), They are my sons whom God has given me, and, to magnify the favor, he adds, “In this place of my banishment, slavery, and imprisonment.” Jacob says here, God has shown me thy seed. Our comforts are then doubly sweet to us when we see them coming from God’s hand. (2.) How often God, in his merciful providences, outdoes our expectations, and thus greatly magnifies his favors. He not only prevents our fears, but exceeds our hopes. We may apply this to the promise which is made to us and to our children. We could not have thought that we should have been taken into covenant with God ourselves, considering how guilty and corrupt we are; and yet, lo, he has shown us our seed also in covenant with him.

Matthew Henry explains the crossed hands and how the younger has often been selected over the older.

“5. In blessing them, he crossed hands. Joseph placed them so as that Jacob’s right hand should be put on the head of Manasseh the elder, v. 12, 13. But Jacob would put it on the head of Ephraim the younger, v. 14. This displeased Joseph, who was willing to support the reputation of his first-born, and would therefore have removed his father’s hands, v. 17, 18. But Jacob gave him to understand that he know what he did, and that he did it not by mistake, nor in a humor, nor from a partial affection to one more than the other, but from a spirit of prophecy, and in compliance with the divine counsels. Manasseh should be great, but truly Ephraim should be greater.

“When the tribes were mustered in the wilderness, Ephraim was more numerous than Manasseh, and had the standard of that squadron (Num 1 32, 33, 35; 2 18, 20), and is named first, Ps 80 2. Joshua was of that tribe, so was Jeroboam. The tribe of Manasseh was divided, one half on one side Jordan, the other half on the other side, which made it the less powerful and considerable. In the foresight of this, Jacob crossed hands. 

“Note. (1.) God, in bestowing his blessings upon his people, gives more to some than to others, more gifts, graces, and comforts, and more of the good things of this life. (2.) He often gives most to those that are least likely. He chooses the weak things of the world; raises the poor out of the dust. Grace observes not the order of nature, nor does God prefer those whom we think fittest to be preferred, but as it pleases him. It is observable how often God, by the distinguishing favors of his covenant, advanced the younger above the elder, Abel above Cain, Shem above Japheth, Abraham above Nahor and Haran, Isaac above Ishmael, Jacob above Esau; Judah and Joseph were preferred before Reuben, Moses before Aaron, David and Solomon before their elder brethren. See 1 Sam 16 7. He tied the Jews to observe the birthright (Deut 21 17), but he never tied himself to observe it. Some make this typical of the preference given to the Gentiles above the Jews; the Gentile converts were much more numerous than those of the Jews. See Gal 4 27. Thus free grace becomes more illustrious.

“II. The particular tokens of his favor to Joseph. 1. He left with him the promise of their return out of Egypt, as a sacred trust: I die, but God shall be with you, and bring you again, v. 21. Accordingly, Joseph, when he died, left it with his brethren, ch. 50 24. This assurance was given them, and carefully preserved among them, that they might neither love Egypt too much when it favored them, nor fear it too much when it frowned upon them. These words of Jacob furnish us with comfort in reference to the death of our friends: They die; but God shall be with us, and his gracious presence is sufficient to make up the loss: they leave us, but he will never fail us. Further, He will bring us to the land of our fathers, the heavenly Canaan, whither our godly fathers have gone before us. If God be with us while we stay behind in this world, and will receive us shortly to be with those that have gone before to a better world, we ought not to sorrow as those that have no hope.

2. He bestowed one portion upon him above his brethren, v. 22. The lands bequeathed are described to be those which he took out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword, and with his bow. He purchased them first (Josh 24 32), and, it seems, was afterwards disseized of them by the Amorites, but retook them by the sword, repelling force by force, and recovering his right by violence when he could not otherwise recover it. These lands he settled upon Joseph; mention is made of this grant, John 4 5. Pursuant to it, this parcel of ground was given to the tribe of Ephraim as their right, and the lot was never cast upon it; and in it Joseph’s bones were buried, which perhaps Jacob had an eye to as much as to any thing in this settlement.”

That being said, we look at the history of Manasseh whose roots are also strong in the indigenous people of the Americas. Without going into all of the history prior to the colonies… we will fast forward to our Ephraim roots with Great Britain which historically came to be the largest empire in the history of the world until after world war II when it dispersed its hold on many nations. (Which is a host of history in and of itself).

Which bring us to “The Age of Discovery” …

When you read these facts, like it or not, you must note that there were people living in North America with their own governments, customs, cultures, worship to the creator of all living things and they were invaded as though they were animals to be liquidated.

It was their land that the Europeans and colonies were dividing up for themselves. They felt justified in doing so due to the Papal Bull called “Dum Diversas”. This read as follows:

Papal Bull Dum Diversas – June 18, 1452

On June 18, 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas. This decree authorized Alfonso V of Portugal to deem inferior and to kill or enslave any “Saracens (Muslims) and pagans and any other unbelievers of Christianity and take their possessions.  The decree facilitated the Portuguese slave trade from West Africa and made it legal to invade other nations who differed from their own.

The same pope issued another bull “The Romanus Pontifex” on January 5, 1455 to the King of Portugal (Alfonso V) as a follow-up to the Dum Diversas, that now extended to all the Catholic nations of Europe, giving them dominion over discovered lands during the Age of Discovery. Along with sanctifying the seizure of non-Christian lands, and to take their property, including their land, their resources and anything they possessed including their lives if they resisted enslavement. This decree justified enslavement of native, non-Christian peoples in Africa and the New World.

                        Papal Bull Dum Diversas

“We weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso — to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit — by having secured the said faculty, the said King Alfonso, or, by his authority, the aforesaid infante, justly and lawfully has acquired and possessed, and doth possess, these islands, lands, harbors, and seas, and they do of right belong and pertain to the said King Alfonso and his successors”.

When European nations began taking advantage of the Papal Bull, there needed to be some means of protection against discovery rights, so in 1493 Alexander VI issued the bull Inter Caetera stating one Christian nation did not have the right to establish dominion over lands previously dominated by another Christian nation. This led to establishing the Law of Nations.

Together, the Dum Diversas, the Romanus Pontifex and the Inter Caetera came to serve as the basis and justification for the Doctrine of Discovery, the global slave-trade of the 15th and 16th centuries, the theft of the land of all indigenous peoples in the Americas and the Age of Imperialism.

Sadly, few are aware that this indeed was the course of the conquest of the new world.  The more appropriate name for such Papal Bull would be “The Legalized Massacre of Humanity” or “Legalized Theft and Genocide”. Today we would call it “crimes against humanity”.

That being said, today the Law of Discovery Doctrine is still on our congressional books.

We also note that the history of the indigenous people is one of Biblical nature and these ones have migrated at different times throughout history. Many of these indigenous peoples in both the north and south Americas were Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonian and Asian descent.

(That history is a very deep dive and one those who hold history have tried to erase. They would rather have you believe they were all heathens, savages, cannibals and even aliens.)

They don’t like to stress the fact that they used the same people to fight in their wars for their causes, both sides promising them land and freedom back, with secret intent to deliver none of it. Nor do they announce freely that many of the patterns of government used by indigenous tribes were adopted and used in the government of the USA. Nor the fact that the so called savages who knew not the Pope, had their own newspaper, in established towns with homes built as well as any in Europe.

Propaganda isn’t new, it has been a tool of the ages! Lies are told to sway one’s thinking, feelings, and decisions. Now just who would ever do a dirty thing like that?

Another fact is that many Native American tribes fought in the Revolutionary War. The majority of these tribes fought for the British and some fought for the Americans.

Many of these tribes tried to remain neutral in the early phase of the war but when some of them came under attack by American militia, they decided to join the British. Other tribes joined the British in the hopes that if the British won, they would put a stop to colonial expansion in the west, as they had done with the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Read: Native Americans in the Revolutionary War – History of Massachusetts Blog

Now during this age of discovery, it wasn’t just the British and the Colonies out to take the land from those who were here first. It was a free for all with many European nations like France and Spain who also wanted to have their share of it, all while those who lived here first were trying to hold onto it. But hey, Dum Diversas… if you aren’t Catholic you aren’t human, just ask the Pope. Therefore… move aside you heathens!

To be continued…

In part 2 we will concentrate on the United States of America, from the point of the colonies and into revolutionary war and those who were here first. What exactly did America win and what was in the Treaty of Paris? We will also include part 2 and 3 of Babylon Communication as it applies to all our worldly wars.

KEEP ON PRESSING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD! PRESS, PRESS, PRESS!

DIANNE