Spirits in the Sky - The Day the Music Came Alive - Buddy Holly born September 7, 1936

If February 3, 1959 was the day the music died when Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash in Iowa, then September 7, 1936 was when the music came alive at his birth.  What a decade preceded the birth of Buddy Holly, especially when it came to American icons.

Marilyn Monroe was born June 1, 1926, James Dean February 8, 1931, Elvis Presley January 8, 1935 and Buddy Holly September 7, 1936.  All would grow to dominate the entertainment industry and all would die way too early in life.  Their respective ages were Buddy Holly 23, James dean 24, Marilyn Monroe 36 and Elvis 42.

Buddy Holly was popular for all of two years while alive, 1957 - 1959 and during that time he created a remarkable body of work so extensive that new Buddy Holly albums were released until ten years after his death, in 1969.

Among entertainers citing Buddy Holly as a major influence on their careers were the Beatles, Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.  Rolling Stone magazine ranked Buddy number 13 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.  He was one of few white entertainers to ever appear at the Apollo Theater in New York City performing shows August 16-22, 1957.

In perhaps an indication of his awareness that he had little time on Earth not only did he stockpile a wealth of recordings but he met his wife to be, Maria Elena Santiago in NYC and proposed on the first date, married her two months later, and died six months later.  She had just discovered she was pregnant and canceled touring with him.  Within 24 hours of hearing of his fatal plane crash on the news she had a miscarriage and lost their child.

Buddy, parents & Maria Elena

The following is an article written by Alan Hanson comparing the careers of Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.

Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley Comparisons

by Alan Hanson

“Buddy Holly could have been a country singer, or pop crooner, could have and probably would have fitted his talent to whatever music was happening when he came along. It happened to be rock ’n ’roll. But it only fully became rock ’n’ roll the day Buddy Holly started singing it.” —Paul Williams in his book, “Rock ’n’ Roll: The 100 Best Singles”.

Elvis center Buddy far right

Paul Williams may have been over stating things a bit, but Buddy Holly certainly earned his currently accepted status as one of rock ’n’ roll’s founding fathers in the late fifties. In 1986, Buddy and Elvis Presley were both named charter members of the newly established Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The two men had many other things in common. Both were born in the deep south and raised in poverty. Early contact with country music and rhythm and blues stimulated their youthful, creative musical spirits. There were obvious differences, as well. Buddy looked like the typical boy next door, while Elvis’s smoldering looks oozed sexiness. Holly was an accomplished guitar player and songwriter; Elvis was neither. On stage, Presley’s voice and energy were boundless, while Buddy depended more on instrumentation and his unique “hiccup” vocal style.

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Buddy Holly was born a year and a half later on September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas. Coincidentally, the currently accepted definitive biographies of both men were published a year apart—Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis in 1994 and Ellis Amburn’s Buddy Holly: A Biography in 1995. Most of the following references to Holly’s life and career come from the Amburn volume.

• Family backgrounds were important

Growing up in the late and post-Depression years, both Buddy and Elvis were “mama’s boys,” due to weak father figures. According to Amburn, “The situation would have far-reaching consequences for Buddy, who would make the mistake of relying on stronger personalities who were not always trustworthy.” Elvis had the same weakness, but fortunately for him the man in whom he put his trust, Colonel Parker, brought Elvis incredible fame and wealth, while Buddy’s manager held him back and stole a fortune from him.

An advantage that the young Buddy had that Elvis lacked was a trusted sibling. The youngest of four children, Buddy found in his eldest brother, Larry, a confidant he would cling to for the rest of his life.

When his other brother, Travis, came home from the war in 1945, he taught Buddy how play the guitar. Around the same time, about 900 miles to the east, Elvis Presley received a guitar for his eleventh birthday and began learning how to play it with help from his uncle and church pastor. A natural affinity for the instrument allowed Buddy’s guitar playing to progress at a rate that amazed his family.

Hank Williams, Sr., was Buddy’s first musical idol. According to Amburn, though, when Buddy first heard Fats Domino sing on the radio, he saw his future. “It was as if the heavens had opened,” Amburn explained. “But it was more than just the music. From that moment on, Buddy identified closely with blacks.” Meanwhile, an adolescent Elvis was experiencing a similar epiphany in Memphis, to where his family had moved in 1948.

Although a year younger, Buddy Holly got started in professional music before Elvis. Around 1951, when Buddy was 15 years old, he started jamming with another Lubbock musician, Jack Neal. The two put together a country and western act and played live entertainment Saturday morning for youngsters at Lubbock movie theaters. In September 1953, “The Buddy and Jack Show” made its debut on KDAV radio. On November 10 that year, a station DJ recorded an acetate of the duo singing and playing. It was just a few months after Elvis had walked into Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Service to make an acetate of “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”

• Buddy the tortoise, Elvis the hare

As rock ’n’ roll became more prominent on the radio during Buddy’s senior year in high school, he and Jack began playing the new music at sock hops, store openings, and community shows. Meanwhile, things were happening much faster for Elvis in Memphis. By the time Buddy graduated from high school in 1955, Elvis already had four singles out on Sun Records and had worked the concert circuit across the south for a year and a half.

Everything changed for Buddy when Elvis came to Lubbock five different times in 1955. “What is certain beyond any doubt,” Amburn declared, “is that when Elvis Presley hit Lubbock in 1955, he transformed all the C&W pickers in Buddy’s circle into rockers. ‘Without Elvis,’ Buddy once said, ‘none of us could have made it.’ Though rock ’n’ roll had burst on the world of West Texas the previous year with Bill Haley’s ‘Shake, Rattle, and Roll,’ it was Elvis who whispered freedom into the ears of embattled Baptist boys like Buddy and unleashed a new generation of rockabillies.”

“Elvis changed Buddy,” singer Waylon Jennings, then another young West Texas musician, later told Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick. “It was the beginning of kids really starting to think for themselves, figuring things out, realizing things that they would never even have thought of before.”

Buddy’s brother Larry remembers when Elvis was late for one of his early 1955 appearances at Lubbock’s Fair Park Coliseum. “In Elvis’ absence, Buddy and his front band blew the roof off the coliseum, playing until Elvis came on,” Amburn reported. “Many people in the audience preferred Buddy to Elvis, Larry proudly recalled, although Buddy was still a beginner.”

Buddy Holly True Love Ways

On October 15, 1955, Elvis appeared at two venues in Lubbock. After finishing up at the coliseum, he gave another show at the Cotton Club, the city’s major dance hall. “We opened for Elvis,” recalled Sonny Curtis. “Bales of cotton were stacked around the stage to protect him from the audience. The most beautiful girls in Lubbock were trying to climb the bales to get at him. That’s what impressed us as much as his music. We’d been hillbillies but after the Cotton Club we were rockers like Elvis.”

• Buddy Holly knew Elvis “quite well”

The extent of Buddy’s personal relationship with Elvis in 1955 is unclear. “Buddy and Elvis got along pretty good,” Larry claimed. “When Elvis came to town, Buddy found him a girl. She was not anyone you’d find on this side of town.” As for Buddy, during his Australian tour in 1958, he told a DJ that he’d once known Elvis “quite well.”

Back in Lubbock in 1955, though, Elvis was clearly Buddy Holly’s idol. Buddy even made a leather guitar case for his J-45 that matched the one Elvis used to carry his Martin D-28. “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” Elvis’s Sun record that topped Billboard’s C&W chart in late 1955, was Buddy’s favorite Presley song. Late in the year, Buddy and his band performed on "The Big D Jamboree," Dallas’s Saturday night country and western radio show. Sid King, another musician on the show that night, described Buddy as “virtually a carbon copy of Elvis.”

According to Amburn, in 1955 there was another Lubbock visitor who would play an important role in the careers of both Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Colonel Tom Parker came to town looking for a talent to manage. Amburn says that both Elvis and Buddy “intrigued” the Colonel, who decided to focus on Elvis. He thought enough of Buddy, though, to recommend him to Nashville talent agent Eddie Crandall.

That led to Buddy’s first big break in show business. When he and his band opened for Bill Haley and the Comets at Fair Park Coliseum in October 1955, Crandall was there to see Buddy. On December 2, Buddy signed an exclusive management contract with Crandall. That was less than two weeks after Elvis left Sun Records and signed a contract to record for RCA. Soon Crandall got Buddy a record deal with Decca.

As 1956 dawned, it looked like both singers’ dreams of fame and fortune were about to come true. Both Elvis and Buddy had January dates in Nashville for their first recording sessions for their new labels. While 1956 would turn out to be a spectacular breakout year for Elvis, for Buddy it was a year of failure and exploitation that would test his resolve to make it as a professional entertainer. In RCA’s Nashville studio on January 10, Elvis recorded “Heartbreak Hotel,” which would reach the top of Billboard’s pop chart in May, launching Presley’s fabulous run through the end of the decade. Meanwhile, Buddy’s Nashville Decca session on January 26 was a disaster that led to nowhere.

• Decca a little bit country, RCA a little bit rock ’n’ roll

Amburn explained how differing philosophies at RCA and Decca dictated totally different outcomes for the two young singers. “In the growing conflict between C&W and rock ’n’ roll … country music would be split down the middle, RCA and at least half of the C&W establishment fleeing to rockabilly … and the other half remaining straight country singers.” Some at RCA may have had their doubts, but they allowed Presley to do his thing. “At Decca,” noted Amburn, “Buddy’s mentors would prove less amenable to the new music; in fact, they hated rock ’n’ roll.”

The result was that instead of viewing Buddy as a potential new rockabilly star, Decca tried to force him into the existing country music model. The result was predictable. After Buddy’s first single, “Blue Days, Black Nights” and “Love Me” was released on April 16, it sold only 19,000 copies. “It’s a wonder the world ever again heard of Buddy Holly,” Amburn noted. Buddy’s second release for Decca also failed miserably, and at year’s end the label declined to renew his contract. As 1957 dawned, Buddy was penniless, his career no further along than it had been 12 months before.

The one positive thing Buddy took from his failed year at Decca was some experience with songwriting. For his January 1956 Nashville session, the label asked Buddy to show up with four original songs. One of the songs Buddy wrote and recorded for Decca, “That’ll Be the Day,” came off poorly and was never released by the label.

In January 1957, without a manager, a band, or a recording contract, Buddy returned to Lubbock and considered quitting the music business. Deciding to give it one more try, he formed another band and drove ninety miles northwest of Lubbock to record at Norman Petty’s recording studio in Clovis, New Mexico. There, on February 24, 1957, Holly’s life changed when he recorded a rocking version of “That’ll Be the Day.”

Petty took the acetate to Nashville and got Buddy a one-record contract on the Brunswick label. Amburn called Brunswick, “a kind of trash-basket label in which Decca dumped its undesirables.” “That’ll Be the Day” by the Crickets, the name of Buddy’s new band, was released nationally on May 27, 1957. It spent 22 weeks on Billboard’s Top 100 pop chart, peaking at #3. It reached that same number on Cash Box magazine’s list of “Best Selling Singles.” Buddy Holly had finally hit the big time.

• Buddy Holly's career took off in ’57

He had a lot of catching up to do, however. By the time “That’ll Be the Day” became Buddy’s first hit record, Elvis already had five #1 singles and eight gold records. Holly had two more of his own compositions lined up to follow his first hit—“Peggy Sue” and “Oh Boy,” both recorded at Clovis in July 1957. Both charted in the top 10 late in the year.

Suddenly, Buddy Holly was in great demand. With the Crickets, he appeared three times on American Bandstand and twice on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Christmas time in 1957 Buddy co-starred with Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Everly Brothers on Holiday of Stars Twelve Days of Christmas Show in Times Square. As the new year began, Buddy Holly found himself Decca’s top recording artist.

Like Elvis had in 1956, Buddy Holly spent much of 1957 and 1958 on the road. Unlike Elvis, though, who headlined his own tours, tightly controlled by Colonel Parker, Buddy’s only option was to join the great rock ’n’ roll package tours, organized by promoters like Alan Freed and Dick Clark. “Planned and mounted like military campaigns, these all-star caravans swept across the country in buses,” Amburn explained, “playing as many as 70 cities in 80 nights.” Buddy toured the nation and Canada with other rock stars, such as Frankie Lymon, Gene Vincent, Paul Anka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran, The Everly Brothers, Connie Francis, The Drifters, Chuck Berry, Buddy Knox, and Danny and the Juniors.

Although Buddy never met Elvis again after their 1955 encounters in Lubbock, their paths almost crossed again in Vancouver, B.C., in the fall of 1957, when both were out on tour. Elvis was there on August 31 for his controversial show at Empire Stadium. Buddy came through eight weeks later with a package tour booked into the Georgia Auditorium. Hall of Fame DJ Red Robinson interviewed both stars prior to their shows. Buddy expressed a longing for a break in the grueling rock ’n’ roll grind. “Enervated from singing his guts out in nightly rock shows,” Amburn explained, “he longed for a radical change in musical trends, confessing that he’d rather sing songs that didn’t require him to scream and shout.”

Elvis and Buddy both recorded their rock ’n’ roll versions of some R & B classics, including “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Ready Teddy,” “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” and “Rip It Up.” Although Elvis never recorded a Buddy Holly song, Buddy recorded one of Elvis's from the soundtrack of his 1957 film, Jailhouse Rock. According to Waylon Jennings, Buddy’s version of “(You’re So Square) I Don’t Care” is the best example of the “Buddy Holly sound.”

Buddy Holly - Oh Boy

The package tour format allowed Buddy to perform overseas, something Elvis often expressed a desire to do but never did. In January 1958, Buddy, along with Anka and Jerry Lee, flew out of New York for a tour in Australia. They stopped in Hawaii along the way, where Buddy performed a free show for military personnel at Schofield Barracks, the same venue where two months earlier Elvis had given his final concert of the 1950s. While in Australia, a DJ asked Buddy if Elvis was his favorite singer. “I guess he’s one of them,” Buddy responded. Soon after returning from Australia, Buddy and the Crickets left for England, arriving on March 1, 1958, for a twenty-five-day British tour.

• Rock ’n’ roll’s first wave played itself out

While Buddy was still in abroad, cracks were beginning to appear in his career and in rock ’n’ roll music in general. Buddy’s record sales began to decline. His single releases of “Maybe Baby” and “Rave On,” both considered early rock classics today, stalled at #18 and #37 respectively on the Top 100. “It’s So Easy,” another Holly classic, didn’t chart at all in 1958. Neither of Buddy’s albums reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s album chart. When Alan Freed’s forty-four-day “Big Beat” package tour, which included Buddy, ended with a riot in Boston, it galvanized the societal enemies of rock ’n’ roll to mount an all out war against it. Elvis was taken away by the army, and Jerry Lee Lewis’s career never recovered after it was revealed he had married his 14-year-old cousin.

The only good news for Buddy Holly in the latter half of 1958 was his marriage to Maria Elena Santiago in August. That fall, however, Buddy and his wife left Lubbock and moved to New York City. Buddy had fired his manager, but it was too late. Much of the money he had earned through record royalties and touring was gone, spent or tied up by the man Buddy had trusted to handle his financial affairs. (Reading Ellis Amburn’s account of how Norman Petty mismanaged Buddy Holly’s career should make all Elvis fans say, “Thank God for Colonel Parker.”)

In early 1959, Buddy Holly, with a pregnant wife and living off the generosity of his wife’s aunt, did something he didn’t want to do—he signed on for still another all-star package tour. The “Winter Dance Party” was to be a twenty-four-day meander across the upper Midwest in a converted school bus in the dead of winter. His death at age 22 in an iowa cornfield plane crash on February 3, 1959, abruptly ended the brief yet brilliant career of Buddy Holly.

According to Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen in their book, Elvis: Day by Day, Elvis learned of Holly’s death at his army posting in Germany on February 5. The authors state that Colonel Parker’s assistant, Tom Diskin, sent a telegram of condolences to Holly’s family on Elvis’s behalf.

• Death brought fame to Buddy Holly

Recognition as one of rock ’n’ roll’s pioneers, denied him in life, came to Buddy in many forms in death. In addition to being charter members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both Holly’s and Presley’s images appeared on U.S. Postal stamps in 1993. Buddy had five entries—“That’ll Be the Day,” “Not Fade Away,” “Rave On,” “Peggy Sue,” and “Everyday”—on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (Elvis had 11 on the list.) “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” are on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of songs that shaped rock ’n’ roll.

No Graceland exists for Buddy Holly pilgrims. His birthplace in Lubbock was demolished years ago, and in the 1990s, his family sold off their Buddy Holly keepsakes and memorabilia. In Lubbock there is the Buddy Holly Center, inside of which is The Buddy Holly Gallery, a permanent display featuring, according to the center’s web site, “Artifacts owned by the City of Lubbock, as well as other items that are on loan.” Included in the display are “Buddy Holly’s Fender Stratocaster, a songbook used by Holly and the Crickets, clothing, photographs, recording contracts, tour itineraries, Holly’s glasses, homework assignments, and report cards.”

Like Elvis’s fans, the Buddy Holly faithful honor their rock idol by gathering each year on the anniversary of his death. Starting in February 1979, on the twentieth anniversary of his death, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy gave his final show on February 2, 1959, has hosted an annual Buddy Holly tribute weekend. The 2013 event is being expanded to four days to accommodate the ever-increasing number of rock ’n’ roll fans who attend. It’s not quite the same as the candle-light vigil at Graceland during Elvis Week, but those who are moved to do so can trek through the snow to a nearby cornfield where a marker memorializes the lonely spot where “the music died” back in 1959. | Alan Hanson (October 2012)

By Alan Hanson - The Elvis History Blog 

NASA Takes My Birthday Photo September 6 - Look closely under the cloud of Hurricane Dorian

Thanks NASA...

The Melchizedek Chronicles - Who is the mysterious Biblical person Melchizedek? What is his role in God's Plan?

Seven concentric circles - explosion of the Creator's Thought 

Seeking Out Seekers of Truth

The Melchizedek eight pointed star

Who is the mysterious Biblical person?

Never born and never dies?

Melchizedek has been around since the Beginning of Time and serves as the overseer of God's Plan for Creation.  Melchizedek calls God the Unknowable One, since only the Creator can know the Creator, the Oneness responsible for all that is. 

Every person out there should have heard of the name Melchizedek.  A most mysterious person of the Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah, and Islamic Qur’an, Melchizedek is clearly one of the closest people to the Creator, the protector of the Mission of Jesus, the Overseer of all of Creation, and the best friend the Human race will ever find.

The duties of Melchizedek extend to long before the appearance of mankind on Earth.  According to Melchizedek, the Big Bang took place nearly 30 billion years ago.  It took nearly three billion years before Earth formed and became hospitable for humans.

Our record of the past is very, very limited so far.  Melchizedek speaks of a total of seven Human Life Cycles on Earth, of which this is the last.  Our known history dates back a few million years within the current seventh cycle, leaving billions and billions of years of our time on Earth unknown to us.

The point is there is incredible information from our true past we are yet to discover and it will be necessary to discover before we reach the End of Time.

In the course of being around all those billions of years, Melchizedek had to guide humanity through Christian, pagan and other forms of civilization throughout time as all humans are God's children.

In this, the Christian era, our sacred knowledge is limited to a few thousands of years yet it s critical to our understanding of all that took place before.  Since we do not view humanity as a single entity, as God intended it to function, we must rely on those sacred teachings where we find Melchizedek in various religions and this is what you would find.

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Dictionaries - Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Melchizedek

Melchizedek [N] [E] [H] [S]

Priest of "God Most High" who appeared in patriarchal times, but whose significance was remembered throughout Old Testament times and eventually explained in the Book of Hebrews.

Melchizedek and Abraham.  Melchizedek of Salem came out to pronounce a blessing on Abraham who was on his way back to Hebron after rescuing Lot from Kedorlaomer, king of the East ( Gen 14:18-24 ). Melchizedek provided food and wine for a sacral meal. As they ate, Melchizedek pronounced a blessing on Abraham in the name of God Most High.

The willingness with which Abraham acceded to Melchizedek as a priest of God Most High is a most interesting aspect of this narrative. This name apparently connoted the same meaningful theology to Abraham as the name "God Almighty" ( Exod 6:3 ). Abraham also equated God with "Creator of heaven and earth" ( Gen 14:22 ; cf. v. 19 ) in his ascription-confessional to the king of Sodom.

A Priest Forever. Psalm 110:4 reads: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" This is a royal psalm. Two significant points are made about the One who is to sit at God's right hand. First, the order of Melchizedek is declared to be an eternal order. Second, this announcement is sealed with God's oath. Neither of these affirmations applied to the Aaronic order of priesthood.

Jesus Christ as the Great High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek. The Book of Hebrews presents Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, as a priest after the order of Melchizedek (4:14-7:28, esp. 5:5-11 ; 6:13-7:28). The author draws directly from Psalm 110:4 several crucial points to explain that the high priesthood of Christ has superseded and is superior to the priesthood of Aaron.

First, the priesthood of Melchizedek is an "order forever" ( 5:10 ). In contrast, the priesthood of Aaron had a history of disruptions and termination.

Second, the references to being "without father or mother" ( 7:3 ) and to being an "order forever" ( Hebrews 7:3 Hebrews 7:16 Hebrews 7:17 Hebrews 7:24 ) are to be understood as referring to the kind of priestly order rather than to the longevity of a particular priest of Abraham's time. Jesus even carries the longevity of his priesthood back to the Godhead (Hebrews 7:15 Hebrews 7:26 ; cf. 1 Peter 1:20 ).

Third, the divine guarantee for the priesthood of Melchizedek rests on God's oath.

For the writer of Hebrews to look at these Old Testament passages about Melchizedek along christological lines is in keeping with the practice of other New Testament writers. Early Christians were convinced that it was they upon whom the end of the ages had come and hence felt that the Old Testament was written in some divinely intended way to point to them.

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Dictionaries - Easton's Bible Dictionary - Melchizedek

Melchizedek [N] [B] [H] [S]

King of righteousness, the king of Salem (q.v.). All we know of him is recorded in Genesis 14:18-20 . He is subsequently mentioned only once in the Old Testament, in Psalms 110:4 . The typical significance of his history is set forth in detail in the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. 7. The apostle there points out the superiority of his priesthood to that of Aaron in these several respects, (1) Even Abraham paid him tithes; (2) he blessed Abraham; (3) he is the type of a Priest who lives for ever; (4) Levi, yet unborn, paid him tithes in the person of Abraham; (5) the permanence of his priesthood in Christ implied the abrogation of the Levitical system; (6) he was made priest not without an oath; and (7) his priesthood can neither be transmitted nor interrupted by death: "this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood."

The question as to who this mysterious personage was has given rise to a great deal of modern speculation. It is an old tradition among the Jews that he was Shem, the son of Noah, who may have survived to this time. Melchizedek was a Canaanitish prince, a worshipper of the true God, and in his peculiar history and character an instructive type of our Lord, the great High Priest ( Hebrews 5:6 Hebrews 5:7 ; 6:20 ). One of the Amarna tablets is from Ebed-Tob, king of Jerusalem, the successor of Melchizedek, in which he claims the very attributes and dignity given to Melchizedek in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

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Dictionaries - Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary - Melchizedek

Melchizedek [N] [B] [E] [S]

King of justice

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Dictionaries - Smith's Bible Dictionary - Melchizedek

Melchizedek [N] [B] [E] [H]

(King of righteousness ), king of Salem and priest of the most high God, who met Abram in the valley of Shaveh, which is the kings valley, brought out bread and wine, blessed him, and received tithes from him. ( Genesis 14:18-20 ) The other places in which Melchizedek is mentioned are ( Psalms 110:4 ) where Messiah is described as a priest forever, "after the order of Melchizedek," and ( Hebrews 5:1 ; Hebrews 6:1 ; Hebrews 7:1 ) ... where these two passages of the Old Testament are quoted, and the typical relation of Melchizedek to our Lord is stated at great length. There is something surprising and mysterious in the first appearance of Melchizedek, and in the subsequent reference to him. Bearing a title which Jews in after ages would recognize as designating their own sovereign, bearing gifts which recall to Christians the Lords Supper, this Canaanite crosses for a moment the path of Abram, and is unhesitatingly recognized as a person of higher spiritual rank than the friend of God. Disappearing as suddenly as he came, he is lost to the sacred writings for a thousand years. Jewish tradition pronounces Melchizedek to be a survivor of the deluge, the patriarch Shem. The way in which he is mentioned in Genesis would rather lead to the inference that Melchizedek was of one blood with the children of Ham, among whom he lived, chief (like the king of Sodom) of a settled Canaanitish tribe. The "order of Melchizedek," in ( Psalms 110:4 ) is explained to mean "manner" = likeness in official dignity = a king and priest. The relation between Melchizedek and Christ as type and antitype is made in the Epistle to the Hebrews to consist in the following particulars: Each was a priest, (1) not of the Levitical tribe; (2) superior to Abraham; (3) whose beginning and end are unknown; (4) who is not only a priest, but also a king of righteousness and peace. A fruitful source of discussion has been found in the site of Salem. [SALEM]

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Encyclopedias - Condensed Biblical Encyclopedia - Melchizedek

Melchizedek

During Abram's sojourn in Canaan this priest and king met and treated him with hospitality (Genesis 14:18-20 ). Much mystery appears to hang about this distinguished personage. Various theories have been advanced concerning him. Some assert that he was God Almighty. This is not a fact, for he was "the priest of the most high God" ( Genesis 14:18 ). Others assert that he was Jesus Christ. This is not a fact, for he was "made like the Son of God" ( Hebrews 7:3 ). It is asserted in the Scriptures that he was a man ( Hebrews 7:1-4 ). If you will reflect that the Scriptures deal with him in his official capacity, the difficulties and mysteries surrounding him will immediately vanish. Let us take a closer view. The history of the world, from the Biblical standpoint, naturally divides itself into three different periods, which for want of better terms I will designate, the Patriarchal dispensation, the Jewish dispensation, and the Christian dispensation.

Each dispensation is characterized by a priesthood peculiarly its own. There was no regular priestly line from the transgression to the giving of the law of Moses. In a general way, it may be asserted that every man was his own priest ( Genesis 4:1-4 ; Genesis 12:7 Genesis 12:8 ; Genesis 15:8-18 ; Genesis 26:19-25 ; Genesis 31:43-55 Genesis 35:1-15 ; Genesis 46:1 ). During this age Melchizedek appeared. He was king of Salem and priest of the most high God. We know nothing of his duties or prerogatives as priest or king.

We know that he did not belong to any special priestly order. His priestly office was independent of all other men. In the priestly office he was without father, and without mother, and without descent. No record was kept of his installation as priest, his official acts, or his death, hence, so far as the record is concerned, he was without beginning of days or end of life. At the inauguration of the second dispensation an entire family was set apart to the priestly office, and the priestly office remained in that family, and was transmitted from father to son and from generation to generation to the death of Christ ( Exodus 29:1 Exodus 29:29 ; Numbers 17:1-13 ; Numbers 18:1-7 Hebrews 7:11 Hebrews 7:23-28 ). David predicted that a priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek ( Psalms 110:4 ).

This is repeatedly affirmed by the author of Hebrews. The priesthood of the Christian dispensation is after the order of Melchizedek, and not after the order of Aaron. Jesus became a priest when he entered heaven by his own blood ( Hebrews 8:1-4 ; Hebrews 10:11-12 ). His priesthood is independent. He had no predecessor, and he will have no successor. He will remain in heaven and officiate as priest until the work of redemption is done.

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Gib Kocherhans wrote an article titled "The Name “Melchizedek”: Some Thoughts on Its Meaning and the Priesthood It Represents."  He wrote this for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, better known as Mormons.  There is a Priesthood of Melchizedek within the Mormon Church.  In these article excerpts he says;

Why, then, does that sacred priesthood, which was titled the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God, bear Melchizedek’s name rather than that of some other prophet and patriarch (see D and C 107:3). After much study, I have concluded that the name Melchizedek is a name of deep significance, and that we can know, at least in part, why the Lord selected this particular name to identify his holy priesthood.

Too often a search to understand such things ends before it begins. Old Testament matters, we often conclude, are so peculiar and unusual that few can expect to understand them. So we give no further thought to any relationship between the name and ourselves.

But what of the name Melchizedek? Here is a term even stranger to our experience than Aaron. Yet the name is so significant that it is used to identify the order of priesthood by which the Savior atoned for the sins of the world (see Heb. 5–8). Why is Melchizedek given the singular honor of having the higher priesthood bear his name when we wish to avoid too frequent use of the Lord’s name (see D and C 107:3–4).

“Melchizedek was a man of faith, … And his people … obtained heaven” (JST, Gen. 14:26, 34). But this criteria would suggest that the priesthood could just as well bear the name of Enoch (see Moses 7:13, 21)—by virtue of the compelling impact of his similar accomplishments.

In fact, this miracle of both Melchizedek and Enoch preparing and then seeing translated an entire city into the presence of God is indeed a feat so powerful upon the imagination that none should misunderstand the allusion to either a Melchizedek or an “Enochian” priesthood as being the priesthood powerful enough to take us to heaven. Perhaps at last we have found the reason.

Yet, why is it that only Melchizedek has his name used to designate the “Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God”?

We turn again to the scriptures and see that they explain that it “is because Melchizedek was such a great high priest” (D and C 107:2), and that “there were many before him, and … many afterwards, but none were greater; therefore, of him they have more particularly made mention” (Alma 13:19; italics added).

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In truth, there are many names and responsibilities related to the Creator given to Melchizedek and there is no one else in the sacred texts garnering so much attention and evoking so much mystery.

Clearly, this is a person of high privilege to have direct access to the Creator and Jesus Christ among many others in the world outside of time.

My intention is to let you decide for yourself.

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In an article titled THE GREEN MAN AND THE KING OF SALEM, published October 7, 2013 by Philip Jenkins, the following excerpts reflect the Qur’an and Melchizedek.

One very popular Qur’anic hero is al-Khidr, “The Green One,” who appears in Sura 18, al-Kahf, verses 60-82. Seeking Wisdom, Moses travels to meet “One of [God’s] servants”, whom commentators universally identify as al-Khidr (18.65). Moses, in unexpectedly meek mode, begs to follow the Servant as a disciple, despite al-Khidr’s constant warnings that Moses could not stand the pace.

Through Islamic history, al-Khidr has fascinated scholars and ordinary believers alike. They note that Moses treated him so respectfully, suggesting that he was very important, and perhaps a prophet, or at least a saint, a wali, a friend of God. In tradition, also, he never died, placing him in a select category limited to Idris, Ilyas and Isa (Enoch, Elijah and Jesus). In some versions, he owes this immortality to having found and drunk the Water of Life. Sufis rank him very highly as one who attained the highest levels of mystical insight.

The most important thing we know about al-Khidr is who he is not. He cannot be a Biblical figure who is named elsewhere in the Qur’an, or he would have been identified accordingly. That immediately rules out Moses (obviously), Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, and many other obvious names. Subject to that limitation, he must be a figure known in Jewish and Christian memory as a mysterious being of extreme supernatural power, one of mysterious origins, without known circumstances of birth or death.

Unless I am missing something obvious, that really leaves only one candidate, and that is Melchizedek, King of Salem. (I am certainly not the first to make that point). As I wrote in a recent post, “In the canonical Bible, Melchizedek appears briefly as a king and priest who meets Abraham, and blesses him with bread and wine (Gen. 14). Throughout Christian history, Melchizedek has fascinated readers as a forerunner of Christ, and of the priesthood.” He features frequently in European art, usually in a Eucharistic context.

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If you have not had the opportunity to meet and communicate with one having the mystical and spiritual status of Melchizedek you should try, because his perspective is with The Creator and Jesus and he has spent since the Beginning of Time trying to help guide us to eternal salvation.

For years I have been influenced by the teaching of Melchizedek and this and the other articles I write under the The Melchizedek Chronicles and previously Conversations with Melchizedek title are my attempt to share with you the enormous wisdom and teachings of this immortal being who has been to Earth many times in many forms working to keep us all on the Road to Kingdom Come.

However, it is up to you, as you travel the Road to Kingdom Come, to discover the remaining truths we must find.  No one can tell you what to think.  You and you alone, must seek out, find the answers to our salvation, and then help lead all others to salvation and reunion with the Creator.  

There is only one frequency of Truth in God's Creation as told by Melchizedek.  It has been consistent since long before humans were placed on Earth by God, and Truth has been unchanged since the Beginning of Time.

Seek it out and you will find eternal salvation.

The Melchizedek Chronicles - Mother Earth, Turtle Island, Gaia or just plain Home - God's Gift to Us!

Miraculous – Magical – Mysterious – Mythical

Majestic – Magnificent

One of God’s Gifts to Us

Gifts from Our Creator

©Jim Putnam

(words and music)

How can we look around

say that is yours and this is mine

The land, the sea, the air

they all withstood the test of time

What gives us the right

to put up fences and build walls

Lock people in, lock people out

it should not be that way at all

For the gifts from our Creator Father spirit long ago

Were given to us for all man to share to help us know

That when the final age of man is gone the lights have all gone out

It matters not how much you took but what you gave to those about

How can we go on and poison

water, land and air

Strip the Earth of all God’s gifts

don’t we even care

We’ve shown that we can’t get along

after all these years

Sometimes think the rains we feel

are spirits shedding tears

 For the gifts from our Creator Father spirit long ago

Were given to us for all man to share to help us know

That when the final age of man is gone the lights have all gone out

It matters not how much you took but what you gave to those about

I was inspired to write that song after many meetings with the Hopi spiritual leaders in Arizona.  It was what I felt as an outsider thinking about how the Hopi might react to what we have done to Mother Earth.

Ironically, the Hopi, who are charged with protecting Mother Earth from humans, do not share my concerns.  To the secretive and mysterious Hopi what we have done was predicted by ancient prophecy which must be fulfilled in order for all of us to spiritually evolve.

Mother Earth was a gift from Father Creator for all to share in harmony with nature.  Earth provided people with food, shelter, warmth, water, and vast open spaces to live in harmony with the plant and animal kingdoms.  We were also given herbs and other natural treatments to keep us from getting sick.

Various species would come and go as Earth changed over the millions and billions of years it has been here.  Humans have been here most of Earth’s existence but we are not native to Earth, we were created and placed here by God, making us the first alien inhabitants.  Of course, we were given the means to recreate so in time we would populate the world.

Yet take a good look at the history of the world and humans have played a disproportionate role in causing problems.  Prophets and prophecies of both Native and migrating cultures predicted many of the conditions we face today, and by and large they were caused by people, not the planet or nature.

Weather cycles take place with or without people, as there have been four previous Ice Ages, three before humans existed according to science.  However, the impact of humans on weather patterns and cycles can be instrumental in changing the weather conditions and breaking the weather cycles.

For example, this past year the weather performance has been so convoluted that weather anomalies have become the standard rather than the oddity.  Earthquakes were far more intense, hurricanes were more devastating with storms doing abnormal things, while floods and fires broke records during times when they were supposed to be dormant.

Once again this year we faced record early floods in the Midwest United States, tornadoes have already started killing people, the flood and fire dangers are even greater, and every month new records are set for unseasonably hot or cold temperatures.  Siberia, of all places, had a 100 degree rise in temperatures due to a split vortex in the Arctic.

Undetected comets have crashed to the Earth while volcanoes like the monstrous Yellowstone Super volcano have experienced swarms of steadily increasing earthquakes, what many believe is a precursor of a giant eruption.

So, is Mother Nature angry, or is God punishing us for failing to live in harmony with the Earth?

I prefer to listen to the Hopi and the Melchizedek prophecies when it comes to the past and future and both sources are in somewhat agreement.  Many of these natural anomalies are indeed caused by actions of humans, some recent and some in our past.

Make no mistake, both the Hopi and Melchizedek said Mother Earth is a miraculous work of creation and will take care of itself.  It is a living life force with a spirit and soul like most of creation and no matter how destructive, how disrespectful, how possessive we may become with our Earth, it can and will take care of itself.

The Earth is a creation machine, recreating and repairing itself whether damage came from human greed or cosmic meteors.  It has been doing this for over 13 billion years.  In recent years the arms programs, space exploration, mining techniques, and the ever-present electromagnetic waves created by human devices have done their damage.

We poisoned the Earth with deadly radiation from over 2,000 nuclear explosions since 1945 yet earth still absorbs, and processes the deadly radiation before spitting it back out through volcanic eruptions, fissure discharges, earthquakes, and other tools available to Earth to repair itself.

Our neglect has an impact, and it has consequences, not just on earth but throughout the galaxy and should we cause too much damage it may become necessary for the God or Gods to send in aliens to help repair the damage to earth caused by the first aliens, us, to habitat this planet.

Polarization controls our creation, when things become out of balance, changes must be made.  We are in such a time right now.  Technology, like everything else human, is subject to the will of the inventor.  Technology can be good, and technology can be bad.  It can save people from formerly inoperable diseases, yet it can murder hundreds or thousands of people in a single flash.

Why is it we choose to continue to disrespect Mother Earth and expect no consequences for our actions?  When Mother Earth strikes back with a vengeance it is not the response of an angry or vengeful God, but the survival instincts of one of God’s most miraculous of all creations, Mother Earth.

Pray for Mother Earth that she can continue to protect and provide for us and pray for humanity to stop the senseless destruction of the gifts of our Creator.  The time is at hand.