The Melchizedek Chronicles - A Timely Reminder for the Christmas Holidays - What happened to spiritual values in America? Is God Dead Yet? - Do Christians, Muslims and Jews share a co-dependence on each other for survival?

The 12 Days of Christmas and Holy Week in America - What Happened to Spiritual Values?

First comes the 12 Days of Christmas and soon after it is Holy Week, a time of reverence in the world when people of all faiths should be focused on the values that helped shape America when the Founding Fathers were debating on the type of Republic America must be to help it overcome the factors that ultimately destroyed all major civilizations in the world, immorality and corruption.



From the first days of the American Revolution it became clear that this was to be the first Republic in world history to fully embrace individual freedom, with guarantees written into the Constitution, and the first Republic to embrace the following concept articulated in the Declaration of Independence.



"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."



Certain unalienable Rights endowed by their Creator. Historic and powerful, yet steeped in spirituality like no other previous form of government. Article 3 of the US Constitution Bill of Rights further clarified the role of spirituality in America with the following statement of religious freedom.



"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."



Beginning with the Founding Fathers the phrase "In God We Trust" was used as an unofficial motto of the USA until it was finally made a law in the 1950's, about the same time the Pledge of Allegiance was modified to include the words "under God" which reads "one nation under God". The linkage between God or the Creator and America is clear.



So, while Christmas and Holy Week are times of revered religious observances it is also a time to rededicate ourselves to our principles and foundation. It matters not whether you are Christian, Islam or Jewish there is significance to this time. More than that, all three trace their roots to the Holy Land and Jerusalem.

Followers of Judaism hold Passover sacred as the time to honor the escape of the Jews from Egypt, when Moses led them to the Promised Land.

The Christian and Islam followers honor Jesus as the Messiah during this time as they represent the beginning and end of his earthly mission. To the Christians he performed the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper then died and was resurrected as a symbol of everlasting life in the Kingdom of God.



Through the Islam Holy Quran we discover the following:

Many do not know that the true spirit of charity which the Muslim displays, always, towards Jesus and his mother Mary spring from the fountainhead of his faith - the Holy Quran. He does not know that the Muslim does not take the holy name of Jesus, in his own language, without saying Eesa, alaihi assalam ("Jesus, peace be upon him")

We do not know that in the Holy Quran Jesus is mentioned twenty-five times. For example:

"We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit" (The Holy Quran 2:87)

"O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary..." (3:45)

"...Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of god..." (4:171)

"...And in their foot steps we sent Jesus the son of Mary..." (5:46)

"And Zakariya and John, and Jesus and Elias: all in the ranks of the righteous." (6:85)

Though Jesus is mentioned by name in twenty-five places in the Holy Quran, he is also addressed with respect as: Ibn Maryam, meaning "The son of Mary"; and as the Maseeh (in Hebrew it is the Messiah), which is translated as "Christ". He is also known as Abdullah, "The servant of Allah"; and as Rasul u Allah, the messenger of Allah.



He is spoken of as "The Word of God", as "The Spirit of God", as a "Sign of God", and numerous other epithets of honor spread over fifteen different chapters. The Holy Quran honors this mighty messenger of God, and the Muslims have not fallen short over the past fourteen hundred years in doing the same.

In eight verses from Holy Quran, verses 42 to 49 we are told:
(a) That Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virtuous woman, and honored above the women of all nations.
(b) That all that was being said was God's own Revelation to mankind.
(c) That Jesus was the "Word" of God.
(d) That he was the Christ that the Jews were waiting for.
(e) That God will empower this Jesus to perform miracles even in infancy.
(f) That Jesus was born miraculously, without any male intervention.
(g) That God will vouchsafe him Revelation.
(h) That he will give life to the dead by God's permission, and that he will heal those born blind and the lepers by God's permission, etc.



About the only difference between Christians and followers of Islam when it comes to Jesus and His mother Mary is He is considered the Son of God to Christians and the Mighty Messenger of God in the Holy Quran. Christians believe He died and was resurrected while in the Holy Quran He was taken by Allah. Is that really so different?



All three faiths agree that we must have faith in God (Allah). All three agree that we must follow the Ten Commandments. All three faiths have Holy Scripture that tell much of the same story.



If we honor all faiths in America then we must show respect for all faiths as a Constitutional responsibility. There can be no hatred, no condemnation of other faiths, no disrespect of the Holy Scriptures of all faiths and there must be a rededication by all people to the truths of these Holy teachings.



America is the great experiment. It was the first nation on Earth to guarantee religious freedom. In proclaiming these certain unalienable rights from the Creator we set ourselves apart from all other nations and civilizations and we must never forget it. If we are true to our Constitution and individual scripture there is no room for immorality and corruption in America.

Christmas and Holy Week would seem to be the right time to remember our roots, to honor our common responsibilities, and defend our sacred duties to our Creator.

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The Melchizedek Chronicles - The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia - What might destiny have in store? Can he complete the dreams of Cyrus the Great, Darius I and beloved Saladin?

Unify the Arab and Persian worlds

Restore the glory of the ancient empires?

Bring spiritual evolution to the Muslim world

Inspire peace between all religions

Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud 

June 21, 2017 became Crown Prince.

Born   August 31, 1985

If you were the Creator, God, Allah, YHWH, the Supreme Being, and looked down on your Creation today, what would you think?

Personally, I think he would be disappointed to say the least.  No matter what your culture or religion might be, I am quite sure your God shares the same sentiment.  We live in a contaminated world.

People have lost their moral and ethical compass, they no longer live the Will of the Creator, hate overshadows love and anger dominates fear.  We are more enslaved than any point in our history, financial, sexual, addictions, digital, depression and despair.
    

Of all the disappointment we caused, thanks to our free will and poor decision-making, one disappointment stands alone in the eyes of the Creator.

God’s creations, us, after all their time on Earth, have never brought peace, sustained peace, to the holiest of all lands on earth, the Holy Lands, home to where God once talked to humans and we talked to him.

Where the sacred teachings were revealed to man, the holiest of Holy sites still remain, and where Jesus lived and worked miracles for man.

The Holy Land - birthplace of three religions

There are three religions whose history is interwoven with the Holy Lands, the old city of Jerusalem, where each religion has sacred sites.  The most important of these include;

The Temple Mount (Haram Al-Sharif)

The Temple Mount is a massive plaza of stone in the South East corner of Jerusalem’s Old City surrounded by date palms and cypress trees. Arguably the most holy place in the city, it has major significance to all three religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity).

It’s thought to be Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. Today on the Temple Mount complex you’ll find two important Islamic structures, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

For Jews, the Temple Mount was the location of the First Temple built by King Solomon in 957 BC to house the Ark of the Covenant (which held the Ten Commandments) in a special room called “The Holy of Holies”.  It is the most sacred site in Judaism, and the Foundation Stone under the dome is where Earth was first created.

For Muslims, Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) is the 3rd holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The rock under the dome is where the Prophet Muhammad left Earth to visit heaven on a winged horse during his Night Journey in the 7th Century. It was also the direction of Islamic prayer before God allowed Muhammad to pray towards Mecca instead.

For Christians, the Temple Mount is significant because the Jewish temple located here was where Jesus prayed daily and later preached with his disciples.  Jerusalem is also where the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus took place.

All three religions find themselves under attack from within their own congregations while also fighting off challenges from outside forces.  Oh yes, they even find time to fight each other in the process.

In order to understand the destiny of the Crown Prince in the eyes of Melchizedek, one must have a knowledge of the entire Middle East and the historic events that shaped them, not just the history of the region but of the entire world.

Recap of Middle East History

There is a reason Iran is considered the cradle of civilization, and the Middle East is the bridge between the European and Asian cultures, a crossroads for the world.  Yet for all the gifts bestowed on the Middle East by God or Allah, why is it not the holiest, most sacred, most peaceful place on Earth filled with the grace of the Creator?

Today, the young Crown Prince, has an opportunity before him to complete the dreams of some of the most powerful and beloved leaders of the Persian, Arab, and Muslim nations from the region.

Cyrus the Great, king of ancient Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire (c. 559 – 529 B.C.)

Darius I (Darius the Great), king of ancient Persia (521 – 486 B.C.)

An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known as Salah ad-Din or Saladin, was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish ethnicity, Saladin led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant (c. 1138 -- 1193 A.D.)

All sought to unify the Arabian – Persian – Middle East nations.  All wanted people of all religions to live in harmony and respect.  All protected not only the sacred sites of their own religion, but those of the other faiths as well.

Persian Facts

Persians entered Iran about 1,000 BCE.

Persians speak Persian (Farsi), related to Greek and Latin.

There are 120 million Persians, one half live in Iran.

Cyrus, the Achaemenid dynasty, build empire in 550 BCE

Most Persians are Shiite Muslims

Those are lofty goals that to this date have not been achieved.  Oh, several leaders came close, certainly the Persians Cyrus and Darius and Saladin, the Sunni Muslim.  Each consolidated or maintained major empires, and invoked the principles of coexistence, peace, and honor for all.  All three rank among the greatest leaders in the history of mankind.

The Greek versus Persian Empires

Few people, especially from the West, know the nature of the Middle East, the true history, nor the contributions to mankind that were generated in the Middle East.

Once upon a time, we all learned, there was the Greek Empire with adepts like Pythagoras to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle spanning the 600 BCE to 300 BCE era.  In western civilization it is considered the golden age of civilization, the hub of civilization of the world.

 

What we were not taught was there were other civilizations and cultures equally important to the evolution of mankind but located in areas not so well known as the European-based Greek Empire.

The Persian empire under Cyrus the Great was one, and would become the world’s first great superpower equaling Greece and the world in the areas of the culture, religion, science, art and technology.

Cyrus completed the consolidation of the Persian empire in 550 BCE by uniting the sacred sites of Mesopotamia, Egypt’s Nile Valley and India’s Indus Valley.

The Persian empire threatened the very existence of the Greek way of life and would remain the greatest threat to the Greek empire from 550 BCE until 334 BCE when Alexander the Great invaded Persia.

It took three years of grueling warfare and three decisive battles before Alexander smashed the Persian army and captured the Persian empire including the legendary city of Babylon, finally unifying the Greek and Persian competitors.  Yet Alexander died from disease at age 33 and his empire rapidly fell apart.

Conquering the Arab territories

Over the ensuing years many peoples would try to conquer and control the Middle East, especially the Arabian and Persian centers.  This included the Egyptians, Hittites, Philistines, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks, Franks and British among others and though the geographic boundaries and empire loyalties changed constantly the same people remained throughout the centuries.

It was not until the twentieth century that geographic stability was realized when the British allowed many nations to choose independence and they did. 

Yet even independence did not bring peace and today war still rages in the Middle East, 2,600 years after the rise of the Persian empire.

Arab Facts

There are 400 million Arabs.

Twenty-two nations are in Arab League (1945).

Arabs speak Arabic also incorporated into Persian.

So why does Melchizedek believe the Crown Prince might just be the one to complete the efforts of so many others before him and finally bring peace, stability, and tolerance again to the holiest lands in the world?

About the Crown Prince

Born August 31, 1985, Mohammed bin Salman is the eldest child of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his third wife, Fahda bint Falah bin Sultan bin Hathleen al-Ajmi, the daughter of the head of a powerful Arabian tribe, known as the Al Ajman. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was the son of Ibn Saud, the founder and the first king of Saudi Arabia. Salman bin Abdulaziz was the governor of Riyadh province for more than 50 years, until stepping down in 2011. During his tenure, he earned a reputation as an efficient, if harsh, administrator.

The Crown Prince and heir to the Saudi Family Monarchy and throne, comes from one of the richest families in the world.  No previous Arab or Persian leader had access to such astonishing wealth estimated at over $1.4 trillion.

He is young, appointed Crown Prince June 21, 2017 at the age of 32, about the same age Jesus was nearing the end of his ministry on earth.  At his age it is conceivable he could reign for many decades.  The health of his father makes it quite possible he could succeed to the throne in the very near future.

Educated in Saudi Arabia with a law degree, rare for Saudi wealthy, he is amazingly beloved by the youth of the Muslim world.  Having the faith and confidence of the younger generation for a monarch is a rare occurrence indeed in the volatile Middle East and future opportunities for youth are crucial to their support.

At the same time, he has opened the door to improved relations with the United States and Israel.

Muslim facts

There are 1.6 billion Muslims, most non-Arab.

90% of Muslims in the world are Sunni.

10% of Muslims are Shiite.

70% of Muslims live outside the Middle East.

Seven million Muslims live in America.

Sunni in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Shiite in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.

Islam and the Muslim world

As the birthplace of Islam and holiest of holy sites, Saudi Arabia is the dominant nation for Sunni Muslims which make up 90% of the worldwide Muslim population.  The war-weary Middle East has dreamed of peace for 2,600 years and the Crown Prince has a real opportunity to complete the dreams of Saladin, Cyrus and others.

When Muhammad, the founder and prophet of Islam was alive (around 600 A.D.), the Arabs were tolerant of all religions as Jews, Christians and Arabs coexisted peacefully.  Long before his time dating back to the Persian empire days (500 BCE) when Zoroaster was the inspiration for the main religion, it was the same, a peaceful coexistence between different religions although the Christian and Islam faiths did not appear until centuries later.

Even after the birth of Christianity and Islam, when the legendary Saladin recaptured the Holy City of Jerusalem (1187 A.D.) for the Arab Kingdom, and negotiated a peace treaty with King Richard, Saladin still allowed the prisoners to leave with their belongings and sacred objects for worship.  Saladin was held in the highest prestige by friend and foe, even King Richard of England.

Islam Facts

Muslim believe in Islam.

Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 AD.

Muslims believe in One God.

Allah - the Creator, the One True God

All-powerful, invisible and unknowable.

They revere the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,

the last Prophet.

Muslims believe in all prophets before Muhammad.

and holy books brought by prophets

Psalms, the Torah, and the Gospel.

Believe in Day of Judgement, Angels and Predestination.

Accomplishments by Crown Prince

The Crown Prince is in a great position to use the power of the Saudi monarchy to bring peace between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and bring peace in the entire Middle East thanks to his relationship with the US and Israel.

To show his future vision for the Middle East, in April 2016, Prince Mohammed introduced Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's vision of the future, which is aimed at making the kingdom the heart of the Arab and Islamic world, an investment powerhouse, and a hub that connects three continents.

The reformative initiative seeks to diversify and privatize the economy, and to make it less reliant on oil. By 2030, the initiative also aims to establish an e-government system.  He also announced a $500 billion plan to create a business and industrial zone extending across its borders into Jordan and Egypt which will focus on industries including energy and water, biotechnology, food, advanced manufacturing and entertainment, and will power itself solely with wind power and solar energy.

The Crown Prince has set in motion the potential for a revival of the incredible Arabian and Persian golden age when the world came to the Middle East to share in the culture, religion, science, art and technology at education centers throughout the land.

That is only the beginning.  He has also called for more entertainment options in the kingdom for both families and youth.

The cabinet passed regulations to reduce the power of the religious police.

An entertainment authority was established in May 2016.

In his attempt to override tradition, he also engaged younger Saudi Muslim scholars who are active on social media and better known among Saudi youth, as opposed to the kingdom's council of senior scholars who set official religious policy and often release religious opinions.

In December 2017, he lifted a 35-year ban on cinemas.

The monarchy ends the world's only ban on female drivers by announcing in September 2017 that they will be able to take the wheel from June 2018.

The decision is part of a vast modernization plan for the country inspired by the prince as he looks to bolster foreign investment.

Last year it was reported that Israel's Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz had invited the Crown Prince to visit Israel and recommended that peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel happen under the kingdom's auspices.

The new crown prince is also driving a far more aggressive foreign policy to counter the influence of their regional rival, Iran.

Prince Mohammed says in March 2018 that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will do so too.

In an interview with CBS television, he likens the territorial ambitions of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to those of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Riyadh holds deep reservations over the 2015 accord aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions and hails President Donald Trump's announcement in May 2018 that the United States is withdrawing from the deal.

In March 2018 the prince embarks on his first foreign tour as heir, visiting Egypt and Britain -- where he lunches with Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince Mohammed then spends two weeks in the US, meeting Trump and other political and economic leaders. He also goes to France and Spain.

Last fall, the 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced plans to modernize Saudi Arabia and return the restrictive Muslim country to “what we were before: a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.” 

Make no mistake, there will be setbacks along the way as a biased media will continue to look for weakness and mistakes in the efforts of the Crown Prince.  The recent death of Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known journalist and critic of the Saudi government is the latest example.

When Turkey accused the Crown Prince of involvement in the murder, it was vehemently denied by the Crown Prince and Royal family.  Yet Turkey, a bitter enemy of the Saudi’s since the time of the ancient empires up through the Ottoman Empire in World War I, fed the liberal press a stream of damning charges against the Saudi’s.

Of course, the press did not discuss the cultural differences between the Muslim Sunni nation and the US system of democracy, nor the fact that China, Russia, and even present-day Turkey all had far worse records in killing citizens and human rights violations than Saudi Arabia.

Only God can pass judgement on what happened, and the same God offers redemption and salvation to all souls.  If there is a chance the Crown Prince can achieve what destiny has to offer him, then the good he does for the world will far eclipse what it took to get there.   

In the end, the strength of Saudi Arabia, the fierce independence of the Arabian, Arab, Persian and Muslim residents, and the sacred sites and Holy Lands they occupy will be available to all people and religions of the world.  They will be the envy of many nations, and after 2,600 years of war they will finally take their rightful place as a leader at the table for the future of all mankind.

Melchizedek believes Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince are up to the challenge and the world can only benefit if they are given the chance to lead.

Who are Muslims?

Muslims submit to the Will of God

Under Islam what is the Muslim character?

A Muslim is truthful, not dishonest

He is humble, not arrogant

He is moderate, not an extremist

He is honest, not corrupt

He is reserved, not garrulous

He is soft-spoken, not boastful

He is loving and solicitous to others, not unmindful of them

He is considerate and compassionate, not harsh

He is polite and helpful, not insulting and disrespectful to people

He is generous and charitable, not selfish and miserly

He is refined and gentle in speech, not prone to swearing or cursing

He is cheerful and generous, not bitter and resentful

He is grateful for what he has, not ungrateful

He is cheerful and pleasant, not irritable and gloomy

He is chaste and pure, not lustful

He is alert, not absent-minded

He is dignified and decent, not graceless

He is sincere and straightforward, not hypocritical

He is optimistic and hopeful, not cynical or pessimistic

He is confident and deep in faith, not doubtful and wavering

He is spiritually oriented, not materialistic

He always has faith in God’s mercy, not losing heart or becoming desperate

He is diligent and vigilant, not negligent to his duties

He is thankful to God and constantly prays to Him, not forgetful of His innumerable blessings

The Melchizedek Chronicles – What would Jesus say about Christmas, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East?

Well, where do I start?  With a single word about what is missing in our lives, Truth.  Sadly, it seems many people are unable to seek the Truth themselves and have delegated the search to abnormal, unreliable or anonymous sources of information, disinformation and outright fake news as a matter of convenience and to remove themselves from their own responsibility for discovering the Truth.

People are blindly being spoon-fed false Truths through with virtual world of the Internet based forums like social media, news aggregators, special interest groups, data miners, deceptive practices and algorithm manipulators.

Artificial intelligence and the attending algorithms have no moral or ethical foundation, no emotional perspective, no pledge of allegiance to anything but profits, and no loyalty to anything but self-preservation and self-interests.  No measure of serving the greater good applies to anything in the virtual world.

Add to that the raging bias of causes and judgement against anyone who dares speak for themselves and you have the ingredients for fostering hatred and denying respect for others who disagree with them.

Here is a perfect example.  The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the heir to the Saudi kingdom, has been condemned by everyone, Democrats, Republicans and news media, for the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey.

Yet even the best intelligence agencies in the word did not say that, but said according to the CIA’s assessment, “officials have said they have high confidence” in his involvement.  High confidence does not constitute a statement of fact or definitive condemnation as implied in the press.

At the same time the Crown Prince is being savaged by attacks from the media and politicians, the same news media gives no attention to what experts say is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, the terrible war in Yemen between the Yemen government backed by Saudi Arabia and the revolutionaries opposed to them, the Houthi militia, who are backed by our enemy Iran.

Millions of civilian refugees from the fighting are in danger of death from starvation, disease and bombing attacks and help cannot reach them, but virtually no reporting by the news media is taking place about the situation.

Then suddenly and quite unexpectedly, a ceasefire is put in place to stop the fighting and allow refugees to get life-saving assistance.  This was an action taken by the Crown Prince and gives life and hope to millions of desperate people, men, women and children.  At the same time there will be an exchange of 16,000 political prisoners.

The same Crown Prince holds the key to controlling our enemy Iran, and influencing all the other Muslim states in the region to resist efforts of Russia to control Syria, to bring a long-sought peace to the Middle East, and to broker peace between Israel and the Arab nations.

Millions upon millions of lives can be saved by these actions as well as treasured and truly sacred historical and religious sites in the Holy Land for multiple religions.  Again, the Crown Prince holds the key to ending thousands of years of sectarian and religious wars and persecution and bring peace to the cradle of civilization.

In 2018 I believe there have been thirty-five journalists killed throughout the world but the news media has been dominated by only one death.  Allies and enemies of the United States have killed tens of thousands of people but no political leader of another country has been driven from office as some have demanded of the Crown Prince.

Nearly 6,800 people have been murdered in America this year yet only a handful of wrongful deaths ever get into the news, and when they do it is fleeting coverage.

Most of the rest of the world do not live by American values, laws, rules, morality, our Constitutional rights and freedoms, and our obsession with self-introspection.  They never will.

America must set an example for the world just as Jesus set an example for the world.  We must demonstrate the Truth in our Constitution but we cannot impose our truth on anyone outside our nation.

No longer can we have allies like the former Soviet Union whose leaders killed millions of their own people while being armed and protected by America.

Where there is doubt about the responsibility for any actions by other nations, or officials from those nations, if we are truly “One nation under God,” we must have faith that only God can make the final judgement.

In doing so, remember the teaching of Jesus, all souls can achieve salvation through redemption, as Paul did from the time of Jesus.  Even the least can become the best, the worst the most righteous, with forgiveness from the Father.

Maybe it is time we trust the Lord to show us the way, to the path Jesus demonstrated, a path of forgiveness and a life full of joy.

Maybe it is time we restore the Faith and Hope in humanity rather than obsess with the faults of humanity.

Maybe it is time to remember we are all God’s children, all in the image and likeness of our Creator. 

By the way, who were among the first visitors to see the Baby Jesus, the Magi from the East.