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Editor's Note: The material in the following article consists partly of information given in Parts 11 & 12 of our series of taped messages entitled Which Bible, Which Version? It also includes additional material which was left out for lack of time. Thus, those who hove already heard parts 11 & 12 on tape might find the additional information of benefit.
For those who have not heard any of the series on tape, I want the reader to know that the matter of bible versions, translations and manuscripts and their history is not a simple topic. I have been reading, studying and researching this subject for approximately five years. I did not come to my conclusions without looking at all sides of the question. I have studied the pro-W & H (anti-KJV) position as well as the opposite position. I was using several modern versions in my bible teaching when I was challenged to study the matter So, for a fact, I did not come to the study with a preconceived pro-KJV bias; if anything, just the opposite was the case. Anything within brackets [ ] within a quotation, are by this editor.
Introduction
In the course of our lengthy series of taped messages entitled: "Which Bible, Which Version?", it became necessary to dwell at length on the lives and activities of two prominent churchmen from the 19th century: Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott and Dr. Fenton John Anthony Hort. These two men are the primary reason why there are now so many different versions of the bible on the market, thus making the choice of which bible to select very confusing for the new Christian. The New Testament of the KJV is based upon a collation of Greek manuscripts called the Textus Receptus, Latin for "Received Text." This simply means that it is the Greek text which was received down through the centuries by true bible believers.
The Textus Receptus is representative of 90 percent or more of the extant manuscripts. This was true both a the time the KJV was translated and it is still true today, despite ignorant assertions to the contrary. Because of the overwhelming agreement among these 90 percent or more of the manuscripts, the Textus Receptus is also sometimes called the Majority Text. Other closely related names for it include the Common Text, the Byzantine Text and the Traditional Text.
Westcott & Hort (W & H) despised the KJV and the Textus Receptus. They had their own agenda and decided to make a new version of the Greek New Testament. They derived it primarily from two manuscripts, the Vaticanus (designated as Codex B) and the Sinaiticus (designated as Codex Aleph); and of these two, they leaned much more heavily on Codex B. The Vaticanus had been squirreled away in the Vatican, evidently for centuries. Not surprisingly, its "readings" convey a Roman Catholic perspective and bias.
This Greek N. T. of W & H became the basis of the Revised Version of 1881. Westcott & Hort were the dominant forces on the Revision Committee. The very title itself - Revised Version - is a lie, since it was not a revision of the KJV at all, but an entirely new bible, intended to supplant the KJV. Now, over 100 years later, the KJV and its Textus Receptus stand nearly alone against the onslaught of other English language bible versions. Nearly every other bible version available today has its New Testament derived (either directly or indirectly) from W & H's Vatican-based Greek text.
We do not have the space in this article to review the material of the previous ten taped messages which elucidate all the many reasons why we believe the Textus Receptus is to be preferred over W & H's text or their modern offspring texts. But it was thought that even without having heard the tape series the Kingdom Journal reader would still find this particular aspect of the activities of W & H to be most fascinating. Our account reaches from the halls of Cambridge University, where W & H were students and teachers, to the campuses of today where numerous young people are being taught to "contact their spirit guides." It reaches from the study of ancient biblical Greek manuscripts to the creation of the United Nations charter. It connects W & H's extracurricular activities with persons who were prime movers and shakers later associated with the secret "Round Table Group," and their creations, the Royal Institute for International Affairs (R.I.I.A.) and its American subsidiary, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Do "Private Activities" Matter?
The whole purpose of this series is to assist my listeners and readers to know what the differences are between the various literally scores of English versions of the bible out there. And with that understanding, you will know which version is the most reliable. Since "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," then it is only logical that the more perverted from the true word of God that our particular version is, then the more we are going to be stifled in our faith.
When I began this subseries on W & H, I stated that it was important that we not only look at the relative merits or lack of merits of their work in bible translating and theorizing, but I said that it was also important that we look at where they were coming from theologically. What doctrines did they believe? Did they hold to the foundational doctrines of Christianity such as the inspiration of Scripture and the blood atonement of Christ? We found they did not.
We can now easily see how important it is to know where these men stood on these doctrines. They stood against these pivotal doctrines. Westcott & Hort gave all the appearances of being pious and devout and devoted to finding the true and original words of the New Testament. But it's hard to spot a wolf when he looks like a sheep.
Not only do we need to examine W & H's theological positions, but it is also important that we examine the crowd they hung around with. What kind of activities were they involved in when they weren't doing "God's work"? After all, just because a man is a superlative scholar when it comes to Greek, that should not mean that we automatically give them carte blanche to edit our scriptures, should it? We would want to have men who not only are learned in the languages, but also men whose faith in the scriptures is unquestioned, and whose personal life attests to his good character. For example, you wouldn't want a great Greek scholar editing a new bible if you knew he was a homosexual, would you? The simple fact is, when it comes to God's word, and when it comes to who is going to tell us what those words are, we want to have a godly man doing it. By the way, whether King James I was a homosexual or not and his influence on the KJV is something we will discuss in our next audio message in this series.
So that is why we need to look further at the lives of Westcott & Hort. Yes, these boys knew their Greek; but what did they do when they weren't translating Greek? We will now demonstrate that W & H were involved in some very curious activities for the better portion of their adult lives... activities which should make any Christian have serious questions about them - we're talking here about what is generally labeled "the occult."
Now if they were involved in using herbs or getting chiropractic treatments, I would not have the least problem with that. I find nowhere in the scriptures where those practices violate God's laws. In fact, in the Psalms and elsewhere herbs are commended for the use of man.
We do not have the space in this article to get into a full blown treatment of the occult or what is generally referred to as "the New Age Movement." But I am assuming many of our readers are somewhat familiar with what some of these things are things like: psychokinesis, mental telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, levitation, telekinesis, channeling, spirit guides, ESP, hypnotism, seance, medium, trance, divination, distant healing meditation, reincarnation, witchcraft, sorcery, casting spells, necromancy, etc.
That list is a mixed bag. Did you notice that there is at least one term in that list which is associated with the occult, but which is also urged upon Christians by our own Scriptures? Meditation. Of course, how it is done makes all the difference between good and evil, doesn't it? But there was at least one other term then which properly belongs to true Christians.
Having assumed most of you are familiar enough with these things I hope you will understand as I relate some of my experiences with what some people call "the occult" and others might just use the term "psychic phenomena." The experience that I want to tell you about is not so much my own experience but rather that of a friend of mine.
My Friendship with an "Occult" Master
For many years now I have known a man who has many of these psychic abilities. This man is utterly amazing. He has this uncanny ability to read peoples' minds. He is clairvoyant. Upon just meeting a person, he has been able to tell them very personal things about events and things in their past. He has also been unfailingly accurate in predicting the future for both individuals and geopolitical events. In addition to all that, he is apparently able to heal some people by just touching them. He has been seen to levitate - I, personally, haven't seen him do that - but reliable individuals have reported they saw him do it.
I live in the Great Smokey Mountain range of western North Carolina and we have some very beautiful, green and misty mountains all around us. I don't know what it is about the mountains whether there are some kind of special energy fields at certain places or what, but another thing my friend likes to do is to go up on a mountain, way up near the top, sometimes by himself; and guess he just sort of communes with God up there. I also know that, on occasion, he has taken a small number of people up there with him, and he is able to induce them into some sort of trance where they see visions. I don't know if he hypnotizes them or what. But anyhow, that's a little bit about my acquaintance with these sort of matters.
Now ponder this question: if I were to take a poll of a cross section of Bible-believing Christians; let's say I were to go into Sunday morning worship service in anyone of the thousands of bible-believing churches across the land; and, let's say I gave that testimony about my friendship with this man who has all these supposed (and I believe he does have) "psychic abilities." And if I were to ask these people, these bible-believing Christians: "Do you think I should associate with this person,or should I stay away from him?" What do you think most of those church people would say?
I think they would probably overwhelmingly say to stay away from him, don't you? Why would they say that? Most of them would answer "because those types of activities are part and parcel of 'the occult' and Christians are warned to stay away from them and from anybody who practices those kinds of things." That's what I think most church-goers would say. Then I would tell them: "Oh yes, there is one thing that my friend told me years ago that has stuck with me all these years. And what he said had such a forceful and major impact upon me that I never forgot those words. He said: "Greater works than these shall ye do"! (Jn. 14:12) Yes, my Christian brothers and sisters, my friend with all those so called "psychic" abilities is Jesus Christ.
Could not Christ read minds? When he was confronted with the Pharisees, the scriptures tell us he knew their thoughts. Did he not heal the centurion's child at a distance? Did not Jesus tell the woman at the well about her past: that she had had five husbands? Did he not tell the apostle Peter his future when he told hem how he would die? Did he not levitate when he walked on water? Did he not take Peter, James and John with him up on a high mountain where the apostles all went into a trance and saw the transfigured Christ and Moses and Elijah in a vision?
The point is this: Just because some Christian, or some Christian minister, or some book from the Christian bookstore tells you that something is "occult" and forbidden in the Bible does not make it so! Be like the Bereans. Check these things out for yourself and see if the Bible indeed condemns what they are telling you it condemns.
Throwing the Baby out with the Bath
How many of you take herbs? Oh, you do? Well, my friend, you're a New Ager; you're into the occult...according to some Christians. I have a book purporting to expose the New Age Movement. Along with certain genuine pagan practices which the authors rightly condemn, they also condemn herbs and iridology and chiropractic and reflexology.
Be careful, my friends. Just because some "New Age" people might use herbs or might practice chiropractic or they might use iridology, that doesn't make those things "New Age" or occult. This book that condemns those things was not written by a couple of fanatic idiots. It was a husband and wife team and they both hold doctorate degrees. One thing my wife and I try very hard to instill in our children is the need to, and the ability to think critically. (No, that doesn't mean to be thinking of ways to criticize everyone!) Part of it means that you don't just accept something because it is in print - or worse yet, seen on TV. One of the most important steps in the critical thinking process is to find out something about the author and where he is coming from. Does he have an ax to grind? Or do they stand to benefit financially or otherwise by promoting a certain viewpoint?
In the case of the husband and wife team who labeled herbs and iridology and chiropractic as New Age and Occult - and oh yes, they also threw in homeopathy, too. -To help with your critical thinking process, let me inform you that these two authors are medical doctors! So do you think they might have an ax to grind? Or might it be to their benefit to slam any alternative health practices? Now, you must understand that I am not putting down all medical doctors. We need them, and I thank God for the good ones that are out there. But again, the point is, because the terms "New Age" and "occult" are such broad brushes, we must be very careful that we don't throw the baby out with the bath.
For example, I remember that about a year ago, when I gave a message about the Wizard of Oz, showing that it is the Israel message in disguise, that some people got upset because they felt the presence of a rainbow and a wicked witch in the movie made the movie qualify for being occult and therefore Christians should stay away from it. But as I pointed out then: I don't care if one hundred percent of New Age adherents have their little rainbow trinkets dangling from their rearview mirrors,' that doesn't make the rainbow an evil symbol.
God gave the sign of the rainbow to our ancestor Noah as a sign of covenant promise, and we shouldn't be afraid or reluctant to use it!
As far as witches are concerned, does not the bible tell us to refrain from witchcraft? Absolutely! But it does it not necessarily follow from that therefore, that we cannot tell our children Grimm's fairy tales simply because there are witch characters in some of the stories. In my opinion, it is perfectly alright to read those fairy tales to your children when the children are of appropriate age and maturity.
Rightly Dividing the Word
The most often-cited passage in the scriptures dealing with the occult is found in Deuteronomy 18, verses 9-12, which reads:
DEU 18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
DEU 18:10 There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
DEU 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
DEU 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Now the words themselves on the page in my bible are printed quite clearly, but the meaning of those words is not always so clear. And this is where the problem arises and why so many well-meaning Christians would end up condemning Jesus Christ their Savior as being some sort of occultist simply because they did not understand what is and what is not forbidden in the bible. For example, in verse 10 and 11, I would guess that most of our readers know the proper meaning of the phrase "to make his son or daughter to pass through the fire," but I daresay that the average Christian would have no idea that it referred to child sacrifice; burning their children alive as a sacrifice to Baal or Moloch.
I discussed that practice in my message Abortion at Jericho [tape #230], and I gave its modern application. Yet, some Christian parents who might go out camping with their kids might get upset and think that their teenage boy was "into the occult" if they saw him take a dare from his buddy and go jumping over the campfire. Or take the phrase "an observer of times" in verse 10. In our kitchen my wife has one of these calendars where each month has 30 or so of these little 1 inch square blocks for each day so you can keep your schedule for the month real handy. She always has the current month hanging up on the refrigerator door with those little magnets. Does this verse mean that my wife is an "observer of times"?
Well, not hardly. That is patently ridiculous! So before we going labeling something as "occult" or someone as "New Age" in a derogatory fashion, let's be sure we understand what God meant in his word when he uses those certain words.
By the way, let me just say something about those who are not Christians yet, but are clearly what most people would call New Agers. There was a time in my life before I was a Christian when I was looking desperately for answers. It was in my early 20's. I believed in reincarnation for several years. I was a Rosicrucian - very low level; you understand. I read tons of books about UFOs and psychic phenomena. I think I had about 40 or so books about Edgar Cayce alone and many about Atlantis, the hollow earth, and all that sort of stuff. My point is this. Today I know some people who are what Christians would call New Agers, and maybe they are, but I discern that many of them are simply looking for answers to life, just like I was.
(Not that I now have all the answers, you understand, but I have and believe God's Word, which does have all the answers.)
And if God chooses to draw some New Agers to himself through Jesus Christ, then I am willing to be there to be a witness to them if God so chooses. Not a lapel-grabbing, "beat 'em over the head with the bible" type of witness, but a witness of my life, my attitude of love towards them, and a willingness to meet them where they are at, and to have an answer for them from God's word - when they ask. So let us not rashly condemn New Agers simply because they have not found answers and peace in Christ yet, but let us be willing to be ambassadors for Christ to them, when the opportunity arises.
Now I told you the story of my "psychic" friend Jesus, and I have discussed a few terms from Deuteronomy 18:10 in order to warn to you to be careful about judging someone as a New Ager or condemning someone as being into "the occult," based on a superficial understanding of some of the words in Deuteronomy 18:10 & 11. Some of those words and terms are a bit fuzzy at first glance, as we have just demonstrated.
Nevertheless, when one is certain about the meanings of the word or term, then it is appropriate to condemn the activities of anyone violating it. And that brings us back to Westcott and Hort, because the meaning of the word "necromancy" is not hard to understand. B's lexicon tells us it is a combination of two different Hebrew words which has the meaning "to seek or to ask of the dead." So I think Webster's dictionary is biblically accurate when it defines necromancy as "conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events."
Necromancy = "Channeling"
Today, necromancy is called channeling. Edgar Cayce was a necromancer. It matters nothing if the entity which purports to give the information tells you he is the spirit of Julius Caesar or John F. Kennedy or some cosmic space brother, channeling or the use of so-called spirit guides is absolutely forbidden. It is necromancy. Why is it forbidden? Because it is the satanic counterfeit for the real thing. Christians are to have God's Holy Spirit as our Spirit guide. And that Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ himself, as we are told in:
GAL 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Now that we understand what necromancy is, let us turn our attention to Bishop Westcott and Dr. Hort, and I want to show you that there might not even be a New Age Movement today had it not been for some groundwork laid by our two anti-heroes.
It began back in the days when W & H were working on their post-graduate degrees at Cambridge. I have quoted this previously in this series, but it bears repeating here. This is from a letter from Hort to Rev. John Ellerton in 1851. In the middle of the letter, Hort offers his feelings about the Received Text:
I had no idea till the last few weeks of the importance of texts, having read so little Greek Testament, and dragged on with the villainous Textus Receptus think of that vile Textus Receptus leaning entirely on late MSS [abbreviation for manuscripts - Editor]; it is a blessing there are such early ones.1
In an introduction to this section of The Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, Hort's son writes this about his father:
Yet be found time to attend the meetings of various societies, and in June joined the mysterious company of the 'Apostles.' He remained always a grateful and loyal member of the secret Club, which has now ca. 1896] become famous for the number of distinguished men who have belonged to it. In his time the Club was in a manner reinvigorated, and he was mainly responsible for the wording of the oath which binds the members to a conspiracy of silence....
Two other Societies of widely different aims were started in this same year, in both of which Hort seems to have been the moving spirit; one a small club formed for the practice of choral music, the other called by its members the 'Ghostly Guild.' the object of which was to collect and classify authenticated instances of what are now called 'psychical phenomena' for which purpose an elaborate schedule of questions was issued. The 'Bogie Club,' as scoffers called it aroused a certain amount of derision, and even some alarm; it was apparently born too soon. 2 [All emphasis by KJ editor, unless otherwise noted.]
Yes, the Ghostly Guild, or sometimes, simply referred to as the Ghost club, did arouse alarm among some Christians. They evidently knew or suspected what W & H were involved in. Hort's son says the club was born too soon. Well evidently so because, historically speaking, this club became the embryonic form of the current channeling fad.
If we were to select a key Scripture verse for this essay, would be:
1TI 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
As we trace the activities and associations of W & H, what is clear from this verse is that there was prophesied to be departures from the faith (i.e.. apostasy) due to giving heed to what are called seducing spirits, and the doctrines of devils. In her book New Age Bible Versions, Gail Riplinger traces this necromancy connection by quoting from a number of sources which chronicle the history of the occult and/or the history of psychic organizations. But before we get into that, I want to give you my opinion about this book. I have read it three or four times now and I have some serious reservations about it. I think it is worth reading, but it must be read critically. I think she is off-base in a number places, but these objections are primarily related to my disagreements with her understanding of certain bible doctrines. The book is very valuable for its comparison of hundreds of passages in the KJV versus the NIV, NASB and other modern versions. It is very interesting book, but you cannot accept everything at face value.
"Channeling" Traced to W & H's Ghostly Guild
Ms. Riplinger traces the origins of the current New Age movement to the occult revival of the mid- to late 1800's. In particular, we find the channeling or necromancy fad is traced to the Ghostly Guild of W &H. One of her sources is a secular hook on the history of the occult. It is called The Occult Underground by James Webb and I obtained a copy of it to verify Ms. Riplinger's statements. Webb is obviously sympathetic to the New Age Movement.
Before we quote Webb, we need to give a definition of a key word: A "spiritualist" is one who seeks contact with the spirits of the dead. In other words, a spiritualist is a necromancer. On page 40 James Webb is chronicling the history of an organization known as the Society for Psychical Research, (S.P.R.). It is one of the key organizations since the 1800's.
The S.P.R. was a peculiar hybrid of Spiritualist cult and dedicated rationalism... The first is the concentration of early S.P.R. research on the problems of Spiritualism and survival after death. [Notice, the S.P.R.'s chief area of concern was necromancy, a practice forbidden by the bible.] The concern of the early researchers with the possibilities of immortality was by no means exclusive, and in view of the current fascination with the claims of Spiritualism was perfectly natural. However; it is difficult to escape the conclusion that in certain cases the SPR fulfilled the function of Spiritualist church for intellectuals.3 [In other words, necromancy became an idol, a false god for certain intellectuals. (Including Westcott & Hort?)]
Some of the names involved in the founding of the S.P.R. will prove later in this essay to be highly significant.
In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research was founded In effect it was a combination of those groups already working independently in the investigation of spiritualism and other psychic phenomena (telepathy, clairvoyance, etc.). Of these the most important was that centered round Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers and Edmund Gurney, all Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, and deriving its inspiration from the Cambridge University Ghost Society, founded by no less a person than Edward White Benson, the future Archbishop of Canterbury. As A. C. Benson wrote in his biography of his father, the Archbishop was always more interested in psychic phenomena than he cared to admit. Two members of the Ghost Club became Bishops [Benson and Westcott], and one a Professor of Divinity [Hort]. Of the Benson family more will be heard later; it is with Sidgwick, himself a close relation of the Bensons, and his SPR that we are now concerned.
The Society was set up with the loosest of terms of reference. It was to examine 'that large group of debatable phenomena designated by such terms as mesmeric, psychical, and spiritualistic."4
Further evidence that the S.P.R. is traceable back to the Ghostly Guild society of W & H and Benson is found in sources cited in New Age Bible Versions.
...[T]he S.P.R. concurs in its official history, The S.P.R.: An Outline of its History, by W. H. Salter. It refers to the transmutation of "Westcott, Hort, Lightfoot and Benson's" "Ghostly Guild" into the S.P.R., calling the Ghostly Guild "the parent society," " a society from which our own can claim direct descent".. They list their interests as "telepathy, pure clairvoyance, communication from 'some spirit' in or out of the body [and] physical phenomena commonly called spiritualistic.
The Ghostly Guild gave birth to the S.P.R. which the author of Crash Course on the New Age cites in the lineage of the New Age movement and current channeling craze.
"The evolution from traditional mediumship to contemporary channeling has been gradual. The original spiritualism had its start in 1848... Organizations like the Society for Psychical Research in Britain were formed... When Russian-born Helena Petrovna Blavatsky founded Theosophy in 1875, the slow transition toward modern channeling began... her two chief works, Isis Unveiled, and The Secret Doctrine laid the foundation for the modern New Age belief system."
Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, also cites the S.P.R.'s impact on today's New Age movement. Sidgwick predicted this saying, "I'm pretty confident that the whole scientific world will have accepted this [channeling] before A.D. 2000.5
By the way, both those books of H.R. Blavatsky were the result of channeling, just like the Urantia book was in the 1930's - if case any of you are familiar with it. It was first published in the 1950's. Concerning modern channeling, Riplinger states this:
The 1990's box office hit "Ghosts," with its all star cast, is steering a generation of moviegoers to seances and mediums. The Stanford Research Institute reports that over half of Americans have had contact with ghosts. This figure will swell as federally funded projects, such as Confluent Education, instruct students to 'contact their spirit guide.' The medium's darkened salon has been transformed into a brightly lit television studio which hypnotizes viewers, pulsating twenty fiendish frames per second, Today Los Angeles viewers watch Gerry Brown channel "John the Apostle' every Sunday at midnight.
Cable television in New York sports an entire show devoted to amateur channelers. [The] Mini-series "Out on a Limb" featured channeler Kevin Ryerson. Emmy award winner Sharon Gless thanks her channeler in front of millions of mesmerized viewers. In tracing the recent revival of channeling, scores of history books.. point to one origin: Westcott and Hort. These new version authors did not stop with their "Hermes" Club, but went on to engage in spiritualism and to organize a society called the Ghostly Guild.6
New Age Networking a Century Ago Turning once again to The Occult Underground, in chapter two, "The Necromancers," we find this:
Among the famous names which appear in the record of the activities of the Society for Psychical Research, are William Crookes, Oliver Lodge, Andrew Lang, Conan Doyle, and Arthur and Gerald Balfour.7
Many of you perhaps recognize the name of Conan Doyle as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame, but how many of you recognize the very important name of Arthur Balfour Now this may become a bit cumbersome with the many names am mentioning, but the interesting thing is that they are all related either by blood, or by common secretive groups to which they belonged. Key names include Balfour, Blavatsky, W & H Lightfoot, Benson and Sidgwick. We already know that W & H and Lightfoot went on to create a new Greek text and a new bible Benson became Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest ranking authority in the Church of England, the Anglican church. Henry Sidgwick was a student of Westcott's, in fact, his protege‚g‚. Sidgwick was also a cousin of Edward Benson and related to Balfour by marriage. In 1859, while Westcott was secretary of the Ghostly Guild, they recruited Sidgwick as a member. Then when Westcott left Cambridge, Sidgwick became the group's secretary. Riplinger reports that:
Sidgwick was among a number whose disillusionment with Christianity was spawned during Westcott's tenure at Trinity College in Cambridge. [The] author of The Fabians, a history of communism and socialism in England, writes:
"In this same period a group of young dons from Trinity College, Cambridge, were also turning to psychic research as a substitute for their lost evangelical faith.. spiritism as a substitute for Orthodox Christian faith."
Sidgwick himself explains, sounding much like an echo from one of Westcott's lectures.
"Recent historical and textual criticism had shown beyond doubt that most of the evidence for the New Testament miracles (not to mention the Old Testament) can not be unfairly described as remote and hearsay...[I]t is quite certainly far weaker than the evidence for, let us say, the miraculous events associated with modern Spiritualism. [quoted by Riplinger from pg. 53 of The Founders of Psychical Research ].8
So with these kinds of beliefs what do you suppose Henry Sidgwick went on to do as his life's occupation? Why, he became a college professor, of course, . . so he could train others in his disbelief. In addition to the Ghostly Guild, W & H and friends either founded or were part of two more very exclusive and secretive small groups.
During this period (the 1870's and early 1880's), the bond between the S.P.R.'s Henry Sidgwick and the bible revisors, Westcott' Hort and Lightfoot, became tighter. His sister Mary married Westcott's best friend, E.W. Benson (Ghostly Guild). Sidgwick, a man considerable "impressed" with an open Luciferian [H.P. Blavatsky] and himself experimenting with "automatic writing," was invited by both Westcott and Hort to join two other 'secret societies'.
These societies were so exclusive that they both limited their membership to twelve. The first group, 'The Apostles', is listed in the index of The Founders of Psychical Research as "extremely select"...
In a letter to Rev. John Ellenton [sic, should be "Ellerton"], Hort himself admits the questionable character of the group. He wrote, "I fear you scarcely tolerate my having joined 'the Apostles'." The letter further quips that 'one of the members does not believe in matter.' Sidgwick was elected to membership in 1857; The Founders of Psychical Research cite this membership as the cause of his rejection of his Christian upbringing. He describes the intensity of the group as "the Best corporate bond I have known in my life."
[From The Founders of Psychic Research, p.48:] "The spirit of the society gradually came to absorb and dominate Sidgwick completely and to influence the whole direction of his life."
Another member, F.D. Maurice, admits 'the Apostles' "determined the course of his whole life also." This 'course' caused him to be expelled from his professorship because of "heresy" discovered in written correspondence between he [sic] and Hort.9
We discussed Maurice earlier in our studies of W & H and noted that Maurice was a deity of Christ-denying Unitarian and was Hort's mentor, both at Cambridge and later. It was to Maurice that Hort wrote time and again seeking answers to his theological questions. In 1872 Westcott started another group which be named the `Eranus'. Sidgwick was, of course, one of the select members, as was another S.P.R. official, Arthur Balfour. Hort also belonged and wrote that it was a "senior Apostles club...[T]he original idea was [Westcott's]; its members met regularly. " Hort's room hosted the meetings during 1877. 10
It is important that the reader realize that it was during this very period (1870's and 1880's) that Westcott & Hort were producing their Vatican manuscript-based, new Greek text for the New Testament, which they then secretly substituted for the Textus Receptus in the work of the Revision Committee, a Committee which they dominated.
During this period (the 1870's) Sidgwick was actively involved in seances at "Balfour's townhouse." These seances "composed of their friends," appear to be the same "group of intimate friends" described as the membership of 'the Apostles'.
Who's Who in 'the Apostles and Eranus Clubs is as current as the direct mail Christian book catalogue received in my mail today. Members, such as Trench, Alford, Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort, all have books in print today, which the academic and seminary communities list as 'standard works' on the Greek text of the New Testament."
Do you see how nearly all-pervasive the influence of Westcott & Hort and friends has become? Go into any pastor's study today and you will most likely find volumes by the W & H crowd on his shelf right next to B's Concordance. After hearing many of these names repeated in various excerpts several times now, I trust the reader begins to grasp just how closely linked all these people are.
Riplinger also shows how these same people who were involved in the occult activities, particularly necromancy, were also deeply involved in the push for a one-world government.
This trial marriage of religion and government took place between Westcott, Hort and Lightfoot, as 'helpmeets' - and their consort in the Eranus Club, Arthur Balfour, upcoming Prime Minister of Great Britain. Balfour, "inspired by reports of human levitation"..went on to take the leadership role in the Ghostly Guild's baby, the S.P.R. The Dictionary of National Biography cites him as saying, "bring metaphysics back" and recalls his open declaration of his love for contacting "the dead" and "in our power to communicate with them."
Again we see historians pairing the Theosophical Society and the S.P.R. The Occult Underground cites one historian who, "...saw the early 1880's as a period filled with portents. The many organizations he saw founded - Hyndmans's Democratic Federation, The Theosophical Society, The Vegetarian Society, The Society for Psychical Research [S.P.R.], The Anti-Vivisection movement he characterized as 'tending toward the establishment of mystical ideas and a new social order.'
[The reader is well aware that "vegetarianism" is alive and well, especially in New Age circles, but one might be surprised to learn that the Anti-Vivisection movement is also still extant. Though itself a very narrowly-focused group, its cause has become much more widely known today as the "animal rights" movement!]
Arthur Balfour, who was a member of Hort's Apostles, Westcott's Eranus, as well as President of the S.P.R., soon became the Prime Minister of England and instrumental in the first League of Nations. [Emphasis by Riplinger.] New Age planner Vera Alder writes recently:
"The embryonic World Government is potentially already there founded essentially upon the League of Nations."...
Balfour not only headed the S.P.R., holding seances at his home, but initiated a group called 'The Synthetic Society' whose goal was to create a 'one world religion'. He invited Frederic Myers of the S P R. to join and together they created "The preamble of all religions." It include the dogma, "departed spirits can communicate."
'Synthetic Society' membership was reportedly dominated by proponents of Hegel's dialectical philosophy, which in practice became Marx's dialectical materialism. These strange bedfellows, communism and occultism, are uncovered in The Fabians, a book detailing their interconnection in England. According to its authors, Edward Peace and Frank Podmore were instrumental in the genesis of both the S.P.R. and the various Marxist societies of London. Peace referred to the work of Westcott, Hort and Sidgwick's 'Ghostly Guild' and his own Marxist activities as "our common work."
The Fabians mentions the complicity of two S.P.R. presidents, Arthur Balfour and his brother Gerald, with the Marxist harbingers of the day. This connection between England's Spiritualists and Socialists is further seen in Annie Besant's vitae where the [Roman Catholic-leaning] Oxford Movement (of which Westcott and Hort were in sympathy), "Friends of Russian," the Dialectical Society, and finally, leadership of Blavatsky's Theosophical Society merge.12
Of course, if you are at all familiar with the beliefs of the New Age movement, then you know that oneness is a central tenet. So the idea of a one world government seems only natural to them. After all, "we are all one," they believe. "We are all part of the cosmic super consciousness. You, me, the trees, the kitty cats, the rocks, the birds, the flowers. We are all of one essence. We are all part of the universal whole. We are just different vibrations emanating from Mother Earth"... and all that type of nonsense.
That is pantheism and Gnosticism and monism all wrapped up in one. (Pun intended.) The great lies of the New Age movement are many, but those three are some of the most basic ones:
1. Monism: the belief that everything and everybody, including God, are one.
2. Pantheism says that God is everything: a rock a tree, you, me. But God himself tells us very plainly in his word that he is entirely separate from his creation, and that we commit idolatry when we worship the created rather than the Creator. So that flushes this Mother Earth worship right down the drain. Moreover, God tells us plainly through Paul in 1 Cor. 15 that we are not all one.
1CO 15:38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
1CO 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes and another of birds.
3. Gnosticism, which was a second century heresy, is back in our day with a full fury. But its modern beginnings started with our friends Westcott & Hort. Some of the key features of Gnosticism included a pre-occupation with the non-physical, that is, pre-occupation with the world of spirits. Also, women clergy were common, along with a Mother Goddess (Mother Earth).
It is beyond the scope of this essay to go into depth into either the New Age movement or Gnosticism, but let me refer the reader to one book of only about 110 pages which neatly ties the two together. It is called The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for the New Age by Peter Jones. Jones clearly demonstrates the connection between the ancient Gnosticism and modern manifestations, including militant feminism, Eastern religions, homosexual rights, nature worship and political correctness.
Gnosticism is essentially a heresy of self-deification.
Riplinger further traces the influence of W & H's creation, their Greek text of the New Testament, upon many of the modern Bible versions. In this context, she finds it frightening what the New International Version (NIV) translators have done with Hebrews 9:10. The KJV reads:
HEB 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
But notice what the Billy Graham-recommended NIV has for that last phrase. It says: "external regulations applying until the time of the new order." According to Riplinger, neither the Greek words for "new" nor "order" are in any manuscript This is just one example of many she sets forth in order to demonstrate the subtle, and some not-so-subtle, changes in the new bible versions to gradually prepare the Christians for the New World Order.
I want to turn in another direction now. I will leave you to read Riplinger's book if you want the nitty-gritty on how the various modern translations are seemingly trying to guide Christians toward the New Age Movement/New World Order. She does a fine job at that, but I want to turn to another aspect which she scarcely touches upon.
Conspiracy buffs will prick up their ears to hear, not only of Balfour's esoteric comradeship with Westcott and Hort, but of his membership, beginning in 1881, [sic,' should be 1891] in another 'secret society' with Cecil Rhodes, multimillionaire and founder of the famous Rhodes scholarship. This society is said to be the germination for the C.F.R. (Council on Foreign Relations). This fetal circle had an inner circle of three, followed by another circle of three, and so on. The C.F.R., according to 'conspiracy' enthusiasts, blends politicians and international financiers in a brew which, though "reeling like a drunkard" at times, is propelling the nation states toward a one world government. (Bush is a member, as were half (28 of 59) of the major appointees of the Reagan administration.)
[Nothing has changed with the accession of Bill Clinton. Again, scores of CFR members permeate the top ranks of the current administration. We are ignoring the Trilateral Commission (TC) in this historical sketch since it was only created in 1973 by international banker and top-echelon conspirator David Rockefeller, but savvy students of international affairs know that it interlocks with the CFR and has great power behind the scenes as well.]
The pet name given this sphinx is the 'New World Order', a phrase which peppers our daily diet at increasing rates. President Bush's nationally televised speech before Congress on September 11, 1990, during the Iraq crisis, hailed "The dream of a new world order." Senator Gepphart's [Sic] Democratic response encored these exact words again. United Nations leader Robert Mueller continues the litany, calling for a 'new world order." On the August 22, 1990 public television news, Henry Kissinger said that the Iraq regime was not cooperating with "the new world order." [NOTE: Kissinger's entire career has been that of high-level flunky for the Rockefeller interests.]
It is presumed that most of our readers are somewhat familiar with the aforementioned conspiratorial groups: the TC, the CFR, the Rhodes Scholarship program, etc. Twenty years ago when was first coming into a knowledge and understanding about these groups, you were considered a real loony if you talked about thing like that, but not so any more. Among the more conservative churches in America, Christians of many denominations are being, awakened to these facts.
Many people are aware that Pres. Clinton was a Rhode Scholar.... and that he was under the tutelage of Professor Carroll Quigley when he was a student at Georgetown University, the Jesuit-run school in Washington. In fact, in his inaugural address President Clinton acknowledged his debt to his late professor.
Professor Carroll Quigley is notable for having "spilled the Quigley also wrote another book which is not as well known. It is called The Anglo-American Establishment, published posthumously in 1981. It is from the material in these two books that the following information is primarily gleaned.
For the time being, we will have to let Westcott, Hort and company dangle while I develop this other thread which is woven through the fabric of history of the past 150 years. Let's start this thread in the present and work backwards.
Here in Asheville, North Carolina, where I live in the beautiful area where the Blue Ridge mountains conjoin the Great Smokey mountains, there is a most famous tourist attraction. It is called the Biltmore Estate. It was originally 10,000 acres stretch-lug from Highway 25 in south Asheville all the way to Mt. Pisgah.
In the age of the "robber barons" in the mid- to late 1800's, one Cornelius Vanderbilt made a vast fortune in the shipping business. His son George Vanderbilt came to Asheville in the 1890's a built the 265 room (!) European castle-style mansion. If ever Asheville, be sure to spend a day or two to get a glimpse at how American "royalty" lived 100 years ago. The Biltmore Estate now owned and run by George Vanderbilt's grandson, William Vanderbilt Cecil. (His mother was George's daughter, Cornelia.)
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to become acquainted with Mr. Cecil. I wondered when I met him why he spoke with a semi-British accent. Subsequently, I learned that he was educated in England, Switzerland and Harvard, and also served stint in the British navy. But before he took over operations of the "old homestead" at the Biltmore Estate, he was vice president the international department of David Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank.
Now, if you thought that the Vanderbilt family might be rather well off and influential, then the Cecil family of Great Britain makes the Vanderbilts look like they're from the "other side of the track.' You see, Mr. William Cecil is descended from the Cecil family England who not inaccurately have been described as the family behind the English throne. The story of the Cecil dynasty - obviously from a sympathetic viewpoint - is given by one of their own in the book called The Cecils of Hatfield House: An English Ruling Family by David Cecil.
For some 370 years, Hatfield House has remained the home of one family which has repeatedly held the political destiny of England in its hands. Lord David Cecil begins by recalling his own childhood.... There is the great treasure of the papers private and public, gathered by the Cecils: letters from Elizabeth to Raleigh and Drake and Philip Sidney, a letter from Mary Queen of Scots used to convict her of complicity in Darnley's murder, letters from Philip of Spain and Catherine de' Medici, ... over 300 volumes of papers to launch a voyage through three centuries of history.
The first part of that voyage is dominated by the figures of Queen Elizabeth I, who founded the fortunes of the Cecil family and passed much of her dramatic and dangerous youth at Hatfield, and her chief ministers William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and his son Robert, 1st Earl of Salisbury...
The most striking part of the book deals with the years of [Queen] Victoria and the early 20th century, when the Cecils again rose to political eminence, beginning with the 3rd Marquess, [Lord Salisbury (Robert Cecil)] for fourteen years Prime Minister of England. His children included Lord Cecil of Cheloid, famous for his part in founding the League of Nations.4
So by now you must be wondering how all this ties in with Westcott and Hort. We need to trace a few more threads; The Cecil family was so important to Carroll Quigley's study of the ruling conspiracy that he devoted chapter 2 of The Anglo-American Establishment to what he calls "The Cecil Bloc." Before we turn to that, however, I must refresh your memories concerning Cecil Rhodes and Lord Alfred Milner.
Cecil Rhodes was financed by the Rothschilds and gained control of the gold and diamond mines of southern Africa. Zimbabwe, which was formerly called Rhodesia, was named after Cecil Rhodes. In 1891, years before his death, Rhodes and Milner set up a secret society and poured all Rhodes' wealth into it.
One result was the establishing of the Rhodes Scholarships whereby talented young men from America (like Bill Clinton, Strobe Talbot and numerous others) would be brought to Oxford University. There they would be indoctrinated and trained in the pursuit of the goal of a one world government. All this was going on in the late 1800's at the same time that W & H were modifying the bible in order to bring Protestants back to Rome thus helping towards a one world religion.
After Rhodes' death, Alfred Milner and Lord Nathan Rothschild had control of the Rhodes fortune. From this point, Quigley traces the origin of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in England, and its counterpart and subsidiary in the United States the Council on Foreign Relations. As most of our readers know "our" federal government has been firmly in the hands of the CFR (and hence, in the hands of those who control Britain) since at least the 1940's, and to some extent before that. With that background on Milner and what sprang from his group, listen to Quigley's description of the interconnections of the Cecil family.
The Milner Group could never have been built up by Milner's own efforts. He had no political power or even influence. All that he had was ability and ideas. The same thing is true about many of the other members of the Milner Group, at least at thetime that they joined the Group. The power that was utilized by Milner and his Group was really the power of the Cecil family and its allied families such as [then follows three lines of names and titles of nobility which we will here omit except for the most important to us:] Balfour. The Milner Group was originally a major fief within the great nexus of power, influence, and privilege controlled by the Cecil family. It is not possible to describe here the ramifications of the Cecil influence. It has been all-pervasive in British life since 1886. This Cecil Bloc was built up by Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne and third Marquess of Salisbury (l83O-1903).15
Although he was a leader of the "opposition'' political part Robert Cecil (Lord Salisbury) served in Disraeli's government; First as his Secretary of State for India. and then as Foreign Secretary. The Jewish Prime Minister, Disraeli, became a frequent visitor to the High Church (Anglican) Cecil dynasty's Hatfield House. Disraeli became "very friendly'' with Robert Cecil's children. "He sought their company and charmed them."16 Was he helping indoctrinate the sons on the need for a one world government? It is no accident that Robert Cecil's son, Lord Cecil of Chelwood, along with his cousins, the Balfours, was instrumental in the establishment of the League of Nations, Lord David Cecil writes:
My grandfather. . .had come to the conclusion that peace could no longer be maintained by hand-to-mouth diplomatic means but only by an establishment of an agreed established international system. [In 1897, he had written:]`The federation of Europe is the only hope we have.'
Of course, the New World Order concepts of the United Nations and the European Community were in the planning process long before Lord Salisbury (Robert Cecil) came around to the idea, but it goes to show that these things were not simply the spontaneous reactions to the horrors of the first and second world wars, as high school history books often deceptively assert. Continuing with Quigley's account, notice how succinctly Quigley now describes the methods of operation of the Cecil Bloc in obtaining and maintaining political control over a nation.
These methods can be summed up under three headings:
(a) a triple-front penetration in politics, education, and journalism:
(b) the recruitment of men of ability (chiefly from All Souls)[not unlike Harvard and Yale in the US] and the linking of these men to the Cecil Bloc by matrimonial alliances and by gratitude for titles and positions of power; and the influencing of public policy by placing members of the Cecil Bloc in positions of power shielded as much as possible from public attention.
The triple-front penetration can be seen in Lord Salisbury's [= Robert Cecil's] own life. He was not only Prime Minister for a longer period than anyone else in recent history (fourteen years between l885 and 1902) but also a Fellow of All Souls (from 1853) and Chancellor of Oxford University (1869-l903), and had a paramount influence on The Quarterly Review for many years. He practiced a shameless nepotism, concealed to some extent by the shifting of names because of acquisition of titles and female marital connections... Lord Salisbury's practice of nepotism was aided by the fact that he had two brothers and two sisters and had five sons and three daughters of his own. One of his sisters was the mother of Arthur J. Balfour and Gerald W. Balfour...
The degree to which Lord Salisbury practiced nepotism can be seen by a look at this third government (1895-1902) or its successor, Balfour's first government (1902-1905). The Balfour government was nothing but a continuation of Salisbury's government, since, as we have seen, Balfour was Salisbury's nephew and chief assistant and was made premier in 1902 by his uncle. Salisbury was Prime Minister and foreign Secretary; Balfour was First Lord of the Treasury and Party Leader in Commons (1895-1902); his brother, Gerald Balfour, was Chief Secretary for Ireland (1895- 1900) and President of the Board of Trade (1900-1905); their cousin-in-law Lord Selborne was Under Secretary for the Colonies (1895-1900) and First Lord of the Admiralty (1905 1910). Arthur Balfour's most intimate friend, and the man who would have been his brother-in-law except for his sister's premature death in 1875 (an event which kept Balfour a bachelor for the rest of his life), Alfred Lyttelton, was chairman of a mission to the Transvaal in 1900 and Colonial Secretary (1903-1906).18
Quigley then goes on for pages to list and detail the further interconnections of the Cecil family as the ruling elite of Great Britain. Two are worth noting at this point in connection with Robert Cecil's nephew, Arthur Balfour. The first is really an aside to our story, but notice that in the late 1800's, Rothschild bankrolled Cecil Rhodes in order to gain control of the gold and diamond wealth of southern Africa. By near the turn of the century, as the Boer War raged in southern Africa; Rhodes, Nathan Rothschild, Alfred Milner and Arthur Balfour were all part of the inner comrades of Rhodes' secret society. Thus, given that Balfour and his Uncle Bob (Cecil, i.e.,Lord Salisbury) had a hammerlock on British political affairs (including foreign and colonial policy),it is not surprising that Britain went to war in colonial southern Africa against the industrious Boers. The Boers were descendants of the Germans, Dutch and French from since the 17th century and were in position to the monopolistic interests of the Rothschild-Rhodes combine.
The second point is that Arthur Balfour - whose occult and ecromantic interests and connections with Westcott & Hort we have already shown - was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, alma mater of W & H, and where both W & H later taught - Hort, for his entire life. Thus, Balfour would have been a student there with Sidgwick and he was probably also under the tutelage of Westcott, along with Sidgwick.
The second generation of the Cecil Bloc was famous at the time that it was growing up (and political power was still in the hands of the first generation) as "the Souls,'' a term applied to them partly in derision and partly in envy but used by themselves later. . . The frivolity of this group can be seen in Margot Tenant's statement that she obtained for Milner his appointment to the chairmanship of the Board of Inland Revenue in 1892 merely by writing to Balfour and asking for it after she had a too brief romantic interlude with Milner in Egypt. As a respected scholar of my acquaintance has said, this group did everything in a frivolous fashion, including entering the Boer War and the First World War.19
"The Souls" - a fitting name! Can you imagine the millions of "souls" whose blood is on their hands? It is described very well in Revelation 17 and 18. The great end time world ruling power labeled "Mystery, Babylon the Great,'' is said to be responsible for ''the blood of the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." (Rev. 18:24)
After submitting several pages of Cecil Bloc interconnections, Professor Quigley remarks:
This complicated interrelationship of family connections by no means exhausts the links between the families that made up the Cecil Bloc as it existed in the period 1886-1900.20
We will spare the reader further possible tedium by simply noting that Quigley has an appendix in the book in which he lists a roster of those people, whom he found evidence to believe, made up the secret society of Rhodes and Milner, the secret society whose goal it was/is to rule the world, whose power was (or still is?) that of the Cecil Bloc (in alliance with the Rothschilds?).
(It should be stressed that your editor has no reason to believe that Mr. William A. Vanderbilt Cecil of Asheville, North Carolina, has any conspiratorial aims or ambitious, notwithstanding the fact that his forbearers or kinfolk in England may have.)
Finally, to come full circle now, Quigley, towards the end of the chapter on the Cecil Bloc, rather matter-of-factly mentions this:
One of the enduring creations of the Cecil Bloc is the Society for Psychical Research which holds a position in the history of the Cecil Bloc similar to that held by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in the Milner Group.
The Society was founded in 1882 by the Balfour family and their in-laws, Lord Rayleigh and Professor [Henry Sidgwick.21
Students of history, of course, recognize that we have not yet mentioned that piece of paper for which the British Foreign Secretary and former Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour is most noted: the infamous "Balfour Declaration," made in November 1917, in the heat of WW I, Professor Quigley states:
Probably no document of the wartime period, except Wilson's Fourteen Points, has given rise to more disputes than this brief statement of less than eleven lines. Much of the controversy arises from the belief that it promised something to somebody and that this promise was in conflict with other promises, notably with the "McMahon Pledge" to Sherif Hussein. The Balfour Declaration took the form of a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild. one of the leading figures in the British Zionist movement. This movement... had aspirations for creating in Palestine.. some territory to which refugees from anti-Semitic persecution or other Jews could go to find "a national home."
Balfour's letter said, "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."22
Does anyone naively think that Balfour made this public declaration of British policy without first hammering out the details in private with his fellow Round Table intimate comrades, Alfred Milner and Nat Rothschild? In Lord Milner and the Empire,Jewish writer Vladimir Halperin admits that Milner helped draft the declaration.23 Perhaps it is too much to expect that Halperin would also expose his fellow religionist Nat Rothschild's role in the declaration's drafting.
The Milner-Rothschild relationship was described in Terence O'Brien's biography, Milner, p.97, "Milner went to Paris on some business with Alhponse [Sic] de Rothschild... Business calls in the City included a formal visit to Rothschilds. . . weekend with Lord Rothschild at Tring, and visit with Edward Cecil [(1867-1918), Robert {Lord Salisbury} Cecil's fourth son], [and] Lord Salisbury [James Cecil (1861-1947), Robert's oldest son] at Hatfield [House]..." Milner attended a Zionist dinner given by Lord Rothschild, sitting next to Lawrence of Arabia, who interpreted for him in a talk with King Feisal.24
Since early in his career, Milner had been closely allied with "the City" in London (not "of London," for those who know the difference). He became board chairman of Rio Tinto, a key cog the Rothschild empire. That ambiguous Balfour Declaration made possible the founding of the state of Israeli (Israel-lie) in May 1948 on behalf of the Israelite impostors, and has wrought all the turmoil that has ensued since.
Thus, we have now seen how indeed politics and religion are not such strange bedfellows after all. The symbiotic relationship between the two professions has been the norm throughout most of history. We have seen that while the connection was not always so visible during the late nineteenth century, nevertheless the connections were there - among other places, in the seance parlors... a place where learned bible scholars and politically powerful men shared common interests: not only of contacting "the spirits of the dead," but also of establishing a one world religion order to complement a one world government. But, alas, Babylon is falling and the age of Jewish-Esau-Red-Edom is coming to end. Despite the best efforts of Westcott, Hort and their "co-Horts," most bible versions still assure us that all the plans of the ungodly will not stand before the sovereign plan of Yahweh, the Most High God, who rules over all the kings (and would-be kings) of earth.
Arno C. Gaebelein and the Scofield Bible Reference
Notes
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
OCCULT REVIVAL The Legacy of Westcott & Hort
The Necromancers
The Political & Occult Connections
of Westcott & Hort
The Society
for Psychical Research
The
Networks Of Westcott & Hort
A look at Samuel Untermeyer
Rapture Studies
End notes
1. Arthur Fenton Hort, The Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, Vol.1 (London 1896) p.211
2. ibid., pp.170-172
3. James Webb The Occult Underground (La Salle, W 1974) p.40
4. ibid., pp.36, 38
5. Gail Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions (Munroe Falls, OH 1993) p. 410
6. Ibid., p.402
7. Webb, p.37
8. Riplinger, p.408, 409
9. ibid., p.415, 416
10.ibid.
11.ibid.
12.ibid., pp.418, 419
13.ibid., p.420
14.David Cecil, The Cecils of Hatfield House: An English Ruling Family (Boston, MA 1973) from the dust jacket
15.Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment (New York 1981) p.15
16.Cecil, p.234
17.ibid., p.247
18.Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment, pp.15-17
19.ibid., p.30, 31
20.ibid, p.20
21.ibid., pp.31, 32
22.Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time (Los Angeles 1974), p.246
23.quoted in Eustace Mullins, The World Order (Staunton, VA 1985). p.13
24. Mullins, p.14
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