Bible verse by verse

[_LeVay]

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people (Lev. 18:24-29).

2 Chronicles 20:7
New International Version
Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?


Romans 9:21-23

King James Version
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

Hi, LittleNipper.

I tried to share some wonderful news with you in another thread but I think you must have overlooked it because you didn't respond.

The wonderful news I want to share with you is this: God told me he's giving me your house and everything in it because he says you're a murdering pervert and he's sick and tired of all your murderous perversions. God says I have to kill you, your wife, and your son but I can spare your daughter if I agree to rape her and enslave her. What a sweet deal!

I know all of this is true because God told me he never lies.

Praise God! Praise him for ever!!!!!!!!

Amen!

P.S. Nipper, would you please mow your lawn and clean your house so that everything will be nice and tidy during the killing, raping, and enslaving? Thanks!

[_LittleNipper]

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people (Lev. 18:24-29).

2 Chronicles 20:7
New International Version
Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?


Romans 9:21-23

King James Version
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

Hi, LittleNipper.

I tried to share some wonderful news with you in another thread but I think you must have overlooked it because you didn't respond.

The wonderful news I want to share with you is this: God told me he's giving me your house and everything in it because he says you're a murdering pervert and he's sick and tired of all your murderous perversions. God says I have to kill you, your wife, and your son but I can spare your daughter if I agree to rape her and enslave her. What a sweet deal!

I know all of this is true because God told me he never lies.

Praise God! Praise him for ever!!!!!!!!

Amen!

P.S. Nipper, would you please mow your lawn and clean your house so that everything will be nice and tidy during the killing, raping, and enslaving? Thanks!

Firstly, you never previously owned my house.
Secondly, I'm not a squatter, but paid for the land and house.
Thirdly, the Messiah has already come --- His linage has been assured historically
Fourthly, we are presently still living in the Age of Grace and not the dread of the Mosaic Law.
Fifthly, I never practiced child sacrifices as have witches.
Sixthly, I don't promote homosexual relationships and bestiality nor pervert God's definition of marriage, as does witchcraft.
Seventhly, You are on record promoting Satanic worship.
eighthly, Satan is but a created being and totally inferior to the Creator of EVERYTHING.
Ninthly, Satan does lie.
Tenthly, Jesus Christ is LORD.

[_LeVay]

Firstly, you never previously owned my house.

God told me my ancestors owned the land your house sits on, and that your ancestors stole it from my ancestors, and that your ancestors are guilty of murders and perversions. Are you calling God a liar? The fact that you're implying God is a liar might be part of the reason why God has given me your house and everything in it, and why he commanded me to slaughter and enslave your family. Why else would God command me to slaughter and enslave your family?

Secondly, I'm not a squatter, but paid for the land and house.

See above.

Thirdly, the Messiah has already come --- His linage has been assured historically

Yes, that would be the same Messiah who told me your ancestors stole land from my ancestors, and that your ancestors are guilty of murders and perversions, and that your house and everything in it belongs to me. I don't see why you are I are even having this discussion because we are in complete agreement--we both agree that God's commandments must be obeyed.

Fourthly, we are presently still living in the Age of Grace and not the dread of the Mosaic Law.

Are you saying that gives you the right to treat stolen property as your own? Are you saying you and your ancestors should not suffer the consequences for the murders and perversions you have committed? Are you suggesting God is not just?

Fifthly, I never practiced child sacrifices as have witches.

I suggest you discuss that with God after I've performed the slaughtering and enslaving that God has commanded me to perform. I really don't want to do this to you, but God commanded me to do it and therefore I have no other choice but to obey his commandments. And in any case, this short mortal life is of little consequence when compared to the eternity you and your family will spend with God after I've slaughtered and enslaved you. You should really be thanking me, LittleNipper.

Sixthly, I don't promote homosexual relationships and bestiality nor pervert God's definition of marriage, as does witchcraft.

Yes, I'm sure God will be happy to discuss that with you after I've performed the slaughtering and enslaving that God has commanded me to perform. Really, you and your family should be overjoyed because you'll be in heaven with God that much sooner. You should thank me, but only after you've thanked God for commanding me to slaughter and enslave you.

Seventhly, You are on record promoting Satanic worship.

No, I'm not--you would know this if you'd bothered to read any of my posts. And in any case, are you suggesting God is not allowed to speak to whomever he feels like speaking to? Are you trying to put limitations on whom God can and can't speak to? Are you trying to put God in a box?

eighthly, Satan is but a created being and totally inferior to the Creator of EVERYTHING.

God--not Satan--is the one who gave me your house and everything in it. Are you going against the will of God?

Ninthly, Satan does lie.

God--not Satan--is the one who gave me your house and everything in it. Can you prove he didn't?

Tenthly, Jesus Christ is LORD.

Which is why I'm inclined to believe him when he says you and your ancestors are guilty of murders and perversions. Because God doesn't lie.

[_LittleNipper]

Well, the reality is when God gave Israel the city of Jericho, the Israelites had marched around the city seven days and on the seventh day they marched around the city 7 times ------ and the walls fell out flat. The people of the city were all killed (except for Rahab and her family) and not one Israelite was hurt. So, I guess that if you march around my house 7 days, and on the seventh day march around 7 times, and all the doors and windows open themselves, and you come in and I didn't kill you, then I'd have to say that God told you that you could have my house. BUT I don't imagine you'd even bother marching around my house one day let alone seven. I cannot imagine the doors and windows would open themselves (miracles are like that). And I would kill you if you came after me and my family. And I'm sure the soldiers of Jericho felt the same, but God had the Israelite's back. So, IF GOD told you that HE gave you my house then you would have to place your faith in what HE said on the line-----but I don't think God said anything to you except what is written in the Bible. And you are not an Israelite, and my house is not the Promise Land. But things certainly turned around for Israel in 1948 - 1967...

PS> If you are not a Satanist, you certainly wasted a lot of time copying and pasting the wrong book.............................

[_LeVay]

Well, the reality is when God gave Israel the city of Jericho, the Israelites had marched around the city seven days and on the seventh day they marched around the city 7 times ------ and the walls fell out flat. The people of the city were all killed (except for Rahab and her family) and not one Israelite was hurt.

That's very instructive, LittleNipper. Why don't you tell me about some of the other ways God likes to slaughter, enslave, and rape his children? (For educational purposes only. )

So, I guess that if you march around my house 7 days, and on the seventh day march around 7 times, and all the doors and windows open themselves, and you come in and I didn't kill you, then I'd have to say that God told you that you could have my house. BUT I don't imagine you'd even bother marching around my house one day let alone seven. I cannot imagine the doors and windows would open themselves (miracles are like that).

So you're telling me you don't really believe in any of that magical crap in the Bible? I always suspected you were a closet atheist on a secret mission to make Christians look stupid, but now I know for sure. Keep up the good work, LittleNipper.

And in any case, it's not gonna happen like that, not by a long shot. Here's how it'll go down. Like all post-middle age Christians, you're morbidly obese, you've got blood pressure so high dogs can hear it, your lower extremities have venous insufficiency, and you're covered with venous stasis ulcers. You're gonna drop dead all by yourself...unless you're really an undercover atheist on a secret mission. [/sarcasm]

And I would kill you if you came after me and my family. And I'm sure the soldiers of Jericho felt the same, but God had the Israelite's back.

See above, Mr. Southern Fried Chicken.

So, IF GOD told you that HE gave you my house then you would have to place your faith in what HE said on the line...

But you already made it crystal clear you're an undercover atheist who doesn't believe in any of that magical crap, didn't you? (You really need to work harder on keeping your story straight, LittleNipper.)

...but I don't think God said anything to you except what is written in the Bible.

You sure about that, Mr. Southern Fried Chicken? What's your blood pressure right now?

And you are not an Israelite, and my house is not the Promise Land.But things certainly turned around for Israel in 1948 - 1967...

Different land, different promise.

PS> If you are not a Satanist, you certainly wasted a lot of time copying and pasting the wrong book.............................

Yeah, right, as if you actually read anything anybody else posts.

[_LittleNipper]

1 Kings 8:1-66 Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes. They brought the Ark of the Covenant to the Temple from a location in the City of David, also known as Zion. All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the annual Festival of Shelters --- held in early autumn --- the month of Ethanim. The priests and Levites moved the Ark of the Lord along with the special tent and all the sacred items that it housed. Before the Ark, King Solomon and the entire community of Israel sacrificed so many sheep, goats, and cattle that they lost count.

The priests carried the Ark of the Covenant into the inner sanctuary of the Temple—the Most Holy Place—and placed it beneath the spread wings of the cherubim, forming a canopy over the Ark and its carrying poles. The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Temple’s main room—the Holy Place—but not from the courtyard. This being true up to the time this book was completed. In the Ark were only the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Mount Sinai. When the priests left the Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the Temple. The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple.

Solomon prayed, “O Lord, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness. Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever!” The king turned around to the entire community of Israel standing before him and gave this blessing: “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father, ‘From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have never chosen a city among any of the tribes of Israel as the place where a Temple should be built to honor my name. But I have chosen David to be king over my people Israel.’” Then Solomon said, “My father, David, wanted to build this Temple to honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord told him, ‘You wanted to build the Temple to honor my name. Your intention is good, but you are not the one to do it. One of your own sons will build the Temple to honor me.’ And now the Lord has fulfilled the promise he made, for I have become king in my father’s place, and I now sit on the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised. I have built this Temple to honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And I have prepared a place there for the Ark, which contains the covenant that the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire community of Israel. He lifted his hands toward heaven, and prayed, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven above or on the earth below. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today. And now, O Lord, God of Israel, carry out the additional promise you made to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, ‘If your descendants guard their behavior and faithfully follow me as you have done, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ Now, O God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David, my father. But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. May you watch over this Temple night and day, this place where you have said, ‘My name will be there.’ May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of your altar in this Temple, then hear from heaven and judge between your servants—the accuser and the accused. Punish the guilty as they deserve. Acquit the innocent because of their innocence. If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave their ancestors. If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession. If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is— and if your people Israel pray about their troubles, raising their hands toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart. Then they will fear you as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors. In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands because of your name, for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to the Lord by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name, then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause. If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to their land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their enemies and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name— then hear their prayers and their petition from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. Forgive all the offenses they have committed against you. Make their captors merciful to them, for they are your people—your special possession—whom you brought out of the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt. May your eyes be open to my requests and to the requests of your people Israel. May you hear and answer them whenever they cry out to you. For when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Sovereign Lord, you told your servant Moses that you had set Israel apart from all the nations of the earth to be your own special possession.”

When Solomon finished making prayers and petitions to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands raised toward heaven. He stood and in a loud voice blessed the entire congregation of Israel: “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. May he give us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands, decrees, and regulations that he gave our ancestors. And may these words that I have prayed in the presence of the Lord be before him constantly, day and night, so that the Lord our God may give justice to me and to his people Israel, according to each day’s needs. Then people all over the earth will know that the Lord alone is God and there is no other. And may you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.”

Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. Solomon offered a peace offering of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats. The king and the people of Israel dedicated the Temple of the Lord. The same day the king consecrated the central area of the courtyard in front of the Lord’s Temple. He offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of peace offerings there, because the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence was too small to hold all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. Solomon and all Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters in the presence of God. A large congregation had gathered from as far away as Lebo-hamath in the north and the Brook of Egypt in the south. The celebration went on for 14 days in all—7 days for the dedication of the altar and 7 days for the Festival of Shelters. After the festival, Solomon sent the people home. They blessed the king, joyfully and glad because the Lord had been good to David and to all Israel.

Young's Literal Translation (YLT)


1 Then doth Solomon assemble the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, princes of the fathers of the sons of Israel, unto king Solomon, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah from the city of David -- it [is] Zion;

2 and all the men of Israel are assembled unto king Solomon, in the month of Ethanim, in the festival -- [is] the seventh month.

3 And all the elders of Israel come in, and the priests lift up the ark,

4 and bring up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that [are] in the tent, yea, the priests and the Levites bring them up.

5 And king Solomon and all the company of Israel who are met unto him [are] with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that are not counted nor numbered for multitude.

6 And the priests bring in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah unto its place, unto the oracle of the house, unto the holy of holies, unto the place of the wings of the cherubs;

7 for the cherubs are spreading forth two wings unto the place of the ark, and the cherubs cover over the ark, and over its staves from above;

8 and they lengthen the staves, and the heads of the staves are seen from the holy [place] on the front of the oracle, and are not seen without, and they are there unto this day.

9 There is nothing in the ark, only the two tables of stone which Moses put there in Horeb, when Jehovah covenanted with the sons of Israel in their going out of the land of Egypt.

10 And it cometh to pass, in the going out of the priests from the holy [place], that the cloud hath filled the house of Jehovah,

11 and the priests have not been able to stand to minister because of the cloud, for the honour of Jehovah hath filled the house of Jehovah.

12 Then said Solomon, `Jehovah hath said to dwell in thick darkness;

13 I have surely built a house of habitation for Thee; a fixed place for Thine abiding to the ages.'

14 And the king turneth round his face, and blesseth the whole assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel is standing.

15 And he saith, `Blessed [is] Jehovah, God of Israel, who spake by His mouth with David my father, and by His hand hath fulfilled [it], saying,

16 From the day that I brought out My people, even Israel, from Egypt, I have not fixed on a city out of all the tribes of Israel, to build a house for My name being there; and I fix on David to be over My people Israel.

17 `And it is with the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel,

18 and Jehovah saith unto David my father, Because that it hath been with thy heart to build a house for My name, thou hast done well that it hath been with thy heart;

19 only, thou dost not build the house, but thy son who is coming out from thy loins, he doth build the house for My name.

20 `And Jehovah doth establish His word which He spake, and I am risen up instead of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah spake, and build the house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel,

21 and set there a place for the ark, where [is] the covenant of Jehovah which He made with our fathers in His bringing them out from the land of Egypt.'

22 And Solomon standeth before the altar of Jehovah, over-against all the assembly of Israel, and spreadeth his hands towards the heavens,

23 and saith, `Jehovah, God of Israel, there is not a God like Thee, in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the kindness for Thy servants, those walking before Thee with all their heart,

24 who hast kept for Thy servant David my father that which Thou spakest to him; yea, Thou speakest with Thy mouth, and with Thy hand hast fulfilled [it], as [at] this day.

25 `And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep for Thy servant David my father that which Thou spakest to him, saying, There is not cut off to thee a man from before Me, sitting on the throne of Israel -- only, if thy sons watch their way, to walk before Me as thou hast walked before Me.

26 `And now, O God of Israel, let it be established, I pray Thee, Thy word which Thou hast spoken to Thy servant, David my father.

27 But, is it true? -- God dwelleth on the earth! lo, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens do not contain Thee, how much less this house which I have builded!

28 `Then thou hast turned unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to hearken unto the cry and unto the prayer which Thy servant is praying before Thee to-day,

29 for Thine eyes being open towards this house night and day, towards the place of which Thou hast said, My Name is there; to hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant prayeth towards this place.

30 `Then Thou hast hearkened unto the supplication of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel, which they pray towards this place; yea, Thou dost hearken in the place of Thy dwelling, in the heavens -- and Thou hast hearkened, and hast forgiven,

31 that which a man sinneth against his neighbour, and he hath lifted up upon him an oath to cause him to swear, and the oath hath come in before Thine altar in this house,

32 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast done, and hast judged Thy servants, to declare wicked the wicked, to put his way on his head, and to declare righteous the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

33 `In Thy people Israel being smitten before an enemy, because they sin against Thee, and they have turned back unto Thee, and have confessed Thy name, and prayed, and made supplication unto Thee in this house,

34 then thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast forgiven the sin of Thy people Israel, and brought them back unto the ground that Thou gavest to their fathers.

35 `In the heavens being restrained, and there is no rain, because they sin against Thee, and they have prayed towards this place, and confessed Thy name, and from their sin turn back, for Thou dost afflict them,

36 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast forgiven the sin of Thy servants, and of Thy people Israel, for Thou directest them the good way in which they go, and hast given rain on Thy land which Thou hast given to Thy people for inheritance.

37 `Famine -- when it is in the land; pestilence -- when it is; blasting, mildew, locust; caterpillar -- when it is; when its enemy hath distressed it in the land [in] its gates, any plague, any sickness, --

38 any prayer, any supplication that [is] of any man of all Thy people Israel, who know each the plague of his own heart, and hath spread his hands towards this house,

39 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, and hast forgiven, and hast done, and hast given to each according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest, (for Thou hast known -- Thyself alone -- the heart of all the sons of man),

40 so that they fear Thee all the days that they are living on the face of the ground that Thou hast given to our fathers.

41 `And also, unto the stranger who is not of Thy people Israel, and hath come from a land afar off for Thy name's sake --

42 (for they hear of Thy great name, and of Thy strong hand, and of Thy stretched-out arm) -- and he hath come in and prayed towards this house,

43 Thou dost hear in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, and hast done according to all that the stranger calleth unto Thee for, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee like Thy people Israel, and to know that Thy name hath been called on this house which I have builded.

44 `When Thy people doth go out to battle against its enemy, in the way that Thou dost send them, and they have prayed unto Jehovah the way of the city which thou hast fixed on, and of the house which I have builded for Thy name;

45 then Thou hast heard in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and hast maintained their cause.

46 `When they sin against Thee (for there is not a man who sinneth not), and Thou hast been angry with them, and hast given them up before an enemy, and they have taken captive their captivity unto the land of the enemy far off or near;

47 and they have turned [it] back unto their heart in the land whither they have been taken captive, and have turned back, and made supplication unto Thee, in the land of their captors, saying, We have sinned and done perversely -- we have done wickedly;

48 yea, they have turned back unto Thee, with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and have prayed unto Thee the way of their land, which Thou gavest to their fathers, the city which Thou hast chosen, and the house which I have builded for Thy name:

49 `Then Thou hast heard in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and hast maintained their cause,

50 and hast forgiven Thy people who have sinned against Thee, even all their transgressions which they have transgressed against Thee, and hast given them mercies before their captors, and they have had mercy [on] them --

51 (for Thy people and Thy inheritance [are] they, whom Thou didst bring out of Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron) --

52 for Thine eyes being open unto the supplication of Thy servant, and unto the supplication of Thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all they call unto Thee for;

53 for Thou hast separated them to Thyself for an inheritance, out of all the peoples of the earth, as Thou didst speak by the hand of Moses Thy servant, in Thy bringing out our fathers from Egypt, O Lord Jehovah.'

54 And it cometh to pass, at Solomon's finishing to pray unto Jehovah all this prayer and supplication, he hath risen from before the altar of Jehovah, from bending on his knees, and his hands spread out to the heavens,

55 and he standeth and blesseth all the assembly of Israel [with] a loud voice, saying,

56 `Blessed [is] Jehovah who hath given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He hath spoken; there hath not fallen one word of all His good word, which He spake by the hand of Moses his servant.

57 `Jehovah our God is with us as He hath been with our fathers; He doth not forsake us nor leave us;

58 to incline our heart unto Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commands, and His statutes, and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers;

59 and these my words with which I have made supplication before Jehovah, are near unto Jehovah our God by day and by night, to maintain the cause of His servant, and the cause of His people Israel, the matter of a day in its day;

60 for all the peoples of the earth knowing that Jehovah, He [is] God; there is none else;

61 and your heart hath been perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commands, as [at] this day.'

62 And the king and all Israel with him are sacrificing a sacrifice before Jehovah;

63 and Solomon sacrificeth the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he hath sacrificed to Jehovah, oxen, twenty and two thousand, and sheep, a hundred and twenty thousand; and the king and all the sons of Israel dedicate the house of Jehovah.

64 On that day hath the king sanctified the middle of the court that [is] before the house of Jehovah, for he hath made there the burnt-offering, and the present, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for the altar of brass that [is] before Jehovah [is] too little to contain the burnt-offering, and the present, and the fat of the peace-offerings.

65 And Solomon maketh, at that time, the festival -- and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entering in of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt -- before Jehovah our God, seven days and seven days; fourteen days.

66 On the eighth day he hath sent the people away, and they bless the king, and go to their tents, rejoicing and glad of heart for all the good that Jehovah hath done to David His servant, and to Israel His people.

[_LittleNipper]

1 Kings 9:1-28
Solomon finished the matter of building the Temple, and the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do. The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had done before at Gibeon. The Lord said that He heard Solomon's prayer and petition, and set this Temple apart to be holy for this time. And He said “As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads in amazement. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’
And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters on them."

Solomon took 20 years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time, he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.) But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased with them. “What kind of places are these, my brother?” he asked. So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means “insignificant”). Nevertheless, Hiram paid Solomon 9,000 pounds of gold.

This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s Temple, the royal palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon. So Solomon rebuilt the city of Gezer.) He built up the towns of Lower Beth-horon, Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness within his land. He built towns as supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites --- descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not completely destroyed. Solomon conscripted them for his labor force, and they serve in the labor force as of this record. Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for forced labor. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, government officials, officers and captains in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers. Solomon appointed 550 of them to supervise the people working on his various projects. Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. Then he constructed the supporting terraces. Three times each year Solomon presented burnt offerings and peace offerings on the Lord's alter. He also burned incense to the Lord. And so he finished the work of building the Temple. King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, a port near Elath in the land of Edom, along the shore of the Red Sea. Hiram sent experienced crews of sailors to sail the ships with Solomon’s men. They sailed to Ophir and brought back to Solomon some sixteen tons of gold.

Young's Literal Translation (YLT)


1 And it cometh to pass, at Solomon's finishing to build the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king, and all the desire of Solomon that he delighted to do,

2 that Jehovah appeareth unto Solomon a second time, as He appeared unto him in Gibeon,

3 and Jehovah saith unto him, `I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication with which thou hast made supplication before Me; I have hallowed this house that thou hast built to put My name there -- unto the age, and Mine eyes and My heart have been there all the days.

4 `And thou -- if thou dost walk before Me as David thy father walked, in simplicity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee -- My statutes and My judgments thou dost keep --

5 then I have established the throne of thy kingdom over Israel -- to the age, as I spake unto David thy father, saying, There is not cut off to thee a man from [being] on the throne of Israel.

6 `If ye at all turn back -- you and your sons -- from after Me, and keep not My commands -- My statutes, that I have set before you, and ye have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,

7 then I have cut off Israel from the face of the ground that I have given to them, and the house that I have hallowed for My name I send away from My presence, and Israel hath been for a simile and for a byword among all the peoples;

8 as to this house, [that] is high, every one passing by it is astonished, and hath hissed, and they have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land and to this house?

9 and they have said, Because that they have forsaken Jehovah their God, who brought out their fathers from the land of Egypt, and they lay hold on other gods, and bow themselves to them, and serve them; therefore hath Jehovah brought in upon them all this evil.'

10 And it cometh to pass, at the end of twenty years, that Solomon hath built the two houses, the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king.

11 Hiram king of Tyre hath assisted Solomon with cedar-trees, and with fir-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire; then doth king Solomon give to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

12 And Hiram cometh out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon hath given to him, and they have not been right in his eyes,

13 and he saith, `What [are] these cities that thou hast given to me, my brother?' and one calleth them the land of Cabul unto this day.

14 And Hiram sendeth to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

15 And this [is] the matter of the tribute that king Solomon hath lifted up, to build the house of Jehovah, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer,

16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt hath gone up and doth capture Gezer, and doth burn it with fire, and the Canaanite who is dwelling in the city he hath slain, and giveth it [with] presents to his daughter, wife of Solomon.)

17 And Solomon buildeth Gezer, and Beth-Horon the lower,

18 and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land;

19 and all the cities of stores that king Solomon hath, and the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and the desire of Solomon that he desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

20 The whole of the people that is left of the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, who [are] not of the sons of Israel --

21 their sons who are left behind them in the land, whom the sons of Israel have not been able to devote -- he hath even lifted up [on] them a tribute of service unto this day.

22 And out of the sons of Israel Solomon hath not appointed a servant, for they [are] the men of war, and his servants, and his heads, and his captains, and the heads of his chariots, and his horsemen.

23 These [are] the heads of the officers who [are] over the work of Solomon, fifty and five hundred, those ruling among the people who are labouring in the work.

24 Only, the daughter of Pharaoh went up out of the city of David unto her house that [Solomon] built for her; then he built Millo.

25 And Solomon caused to ascend, three times in a year, burnt-offerings and peace-offerings on the altar that he built to Jehovah, and he perfumed it with that which [is] before Jehovah, and finished the house.

26 And a navy hath king Solomon made in Ezion-Geber, that is beside Eloth, on the edge of the Sea of Suph, in the land of Edom.

27 And Hiram sendeth in the navy his servants, shipmen knowing the sea, with servants of Solomon,

28 and they come in to Ophir and take thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and bring [it] in unto king Solomon.

[_LeVay]

Anton LaVey and Modern Religious Satanism

To comprehend religious Satanism, one must first understand that Satan has become an ambivalent symbol within the modern world. Part of the reason for the attractiveness of LaVeyan Satanism is its ability to hold together a number of diverse meanings found in this symbol. In the Western cultural tradition, the Devil represents much more than absolute evil. By default, the Prince of Darkness has come to embody some very attractive attributes. For example, because traditional Christianity has been so anti-sensual, Satan became associated with sex. The Christian tradition has also condemned pride, vengefulness and avarice, and, when allied with the status quo, has promoted conformity and obedience. The three former traits and the antithesis of the latter two traits thus became diabolical characteristics. LaVeyan Satanism celebrates such "vices" as virtues, and identifies them as the core of what Satanism is really all about.

LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966, the first organized church in modern times devoted to Satan. As a consequence, Anton LaVey has sometimes been referred to as the "St. Paul of Satanism." LaVey has two biographies, one historical and one legendary. This dichotomy has only become apparent in recent years. His real life was far more prosaic than the story he fabricated for the benefit of the media. LaVey effectively promoted his carefully crafted pseudo-biography through conversations with his disciples, media interviews, and two biographies by associates that he appears to have dictated-The Devil's Avenger (1974) by Burton Wolfe and Secret Life of a Satanist (1990) by Blanche Barton. LaVey's fictional biography was clearly meant to legitimate his self-appointed role as the "Black Pope" by portraying him as an extraordinary individual.

According to the official biography, he was born Howard Anton Szandor LaVey in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Joseph and Augusta LaVey, moved to San Francisco while LaVey was still an infant. He was introduced to the occult by his Transylvanian gypsy grandmother. As a teenager he pursued various avenues of occult studies, as well as hypnotism and music. He also played an oboe in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He dropped out of high school at 17 to join the Clyde Beatty Circus and worked as a calliope player and big cat trainer, later learning stage magic as well. While an organist in a burlesque theater, he had an affair with the young Marilyn Monroe shortly before she became famous. He married in 1950 and about that time took a job as a police photographer, but in 1955 returned to organ playing. Until he formed the Church of Satan in 1966, he was the city of San Francisco's official organist. He divorced in 1960 in order to marry Diane Hegarty. He purchased his house-eventually becoming the Church of Satan headquarters, later dubbed the "Black House"-after he found out it had been the former brothel of the madam Mammy Pleasant.

Drawing on his circus and occult backgrounds, he began to conduct "midnight magic seminars" at his house. This proved popular enough for him to found the Church of Satan in 1966. The basis for his rituals were Nazi rituals recorded on top-secret films he had seen as a teenager. LaVey's showmanship encouraged significant media coverage of such events as the first Satanic wedding and the first Satanic funeral, worship with a nude woman as an altar, and a cameo appearance as the Devil in the movie "Rosemary's Baby." LaVey made much of being a close friend of Sammy Davis, Jr. and of having had an affair with Jayne Mansfield, two celebrity members of the Church of Satan. At its peak, he claimed that the Church had hundreds of thousands of members. LaVey passed away in 1997.

LaVey's historical biography overlaps his legendary biography at several points. He was born in Chicago and his family did move to San Francisco. He did make his living as a musician and, of course, he actually did found the Church of Satan and died in 1997. He had several marriages. Almost everything else, however, seems to have been a fabrication.

LaVey's self-created legend was not seriously challenged until a 1991 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, entitled "Sympathy for the Devil." The author of that article, Lawerence Wright, did a little investigative footwork and discovered that: LaVey was born Howard Stanton Levey to Gertrude and Mike Levey; there never was a "San Francisco Ballet Orchestra"; no one by the name Levey or LaVey worked as a musician or cat trainer for the Beatty Circus during the period he claimed to have been an employee; neither he nor Monroe ever worked for the Mayan "burlesque" theater; he never worked for the San Francisco Police Department; and there was no such thing as an official San Francisco city organist. These discoveries led Wright to remark toward the end of his article:

Later, as I began to take apart the literary creation he had made of his life, I would realize that "Anton LaVey" was itself his supreme creation, his ultimate Satanic object, a sort of android composed of all the elements his mysterious creator had chosen from the universe of dark possibilities. (Wright 1992)

These findings were considerably amplified in "Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality," a 9-page "fact sheet" compiled a little more than three months after LaVey's passing by his estranged daughter Zeena LaVey Schreck and her husband Nikolas Schreck (1998). In addition to repeating the points made by Wright, the fact sheet dismissed most of Anton LaVey's other claims, such as his claims to have had a Gypsy grandmother, seen films of secret German rituals, purchased the "Black House" (it was given to him by his parents, who had lived there, and had never been a brothel), appeared in "Rosemary's Baby," had affairs with Monroe and Mansfield, and so forth.

The current leadership of the Church of Satan has disputed some of these challenges to LaVey's official biography. Their strategy has been to vigorously dispute undocumented challenges while ignoring LaVey's documented fabrications. As one might anticipate, splinter groups from CoS as well as other independent Satanists have seized upon these revelations to challenge the Church leadership's implicit claims to be the only authentic Satanist religious body.

Thinly disguised claims to exclusive legitimacy are peppered throughout CoS documents, such as in some of Blanche Barton's remarks in her "Sycophants Unite!" essay (composed prior to LaVey's death) posted on the CoS official website:

We're lucky to have a leader like Anton LaVey. He has ensured that his philosophy will not
die with him; it has been and will continue to be codified, expanded and applied in new areas by his organization. (emphasis in original)

The scope and significance of this dispute is reflected in the many attacks on non-CoS Satanists found on the Church of Satan website, particularly in the "Satanic Bunco Sheet," "Sycophants Unite!," "The Myth of the 'Satanic Community,'" "Pretenders to the Throne," and "Recognizing Pseudo-Satanists." Even a superficial perusal of these documents makes it clear that CoS is obsessed with shoring up its own legitimacy by attacking the heretics, especially those who criticize LaVey. For example, the unnamed author of the "Satanic Bunco Sheet" blasts non-CoS Satanists for "LaVey-baiting," and then goes on to assert that such pseudo-Satanists deal with LaVey and the Church of Satan by playing "the Christian game of handing out laurels with one hand while stabbing their progenitor in the back with the other. ...they must somehow convince you that the author of The Satanic Bible wasn't practicing pure Satanism [and] that his Church has gone awry in the hands
of his successors...."

The Church of Satan began generating splinter groups as early as 1973 when the Church of
Satanic Brotherhood was formed by group leaders in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida. This Church
lasted only until 1974, when one of the founders announced his conversion to Christianity in a dramatic incident staged for the press in St. Petersburg. Other members of the Church of Satan in Kentucky and Indiana left to form the Ordo Templi Satanis, also short lived. As more schisms occurred, LaVey decided to disband the remaining grottos, the local units of the Church of Satan, which left the Church as little more than a paper organization generating a meager income for LaVey through sales of memberships. There are many presently-existing groups which derive directly or indirectly from the Church of Satan, the most important of which is the Temple of Set. The conflict (mostly on the internet) between the original Church of Satan and new Satanist groups accelerated after LaVey's death.

In addition to attacking non-CoS Satanists as illegitimate, LaVey's organizational successors have also sought to legitimate their positions by appealing to the authority of LaVey and his writings. These kinds of appeals are rather ironic, given the Black Pope's rejection of traditional religious authority. As indicated earlier, LaVey himself did not attempt to legitimate his new religion with appeals to tradition or to the supernatural. Rather, he grounded Satanism's legitimacy on a view of human nature shaped by a secularist appropriation of modern science.

Genesis of The Satanic Bible

The most significant single document for the Satanic "tradition" is The Satanic Bible. The idea for this volume came not from LaVey, but from an Avon Books editor named Peter Mayer. As a direct result of the success of the popular film "Rosemary's Baby" and the subsequent increase of popular interest in Satanism and the occult, Mayer decided that "the time was right for a 'Satanic Bible'" and he approached LaVey about authoring it. (Aquino 1999, p. 52)

LaVey and his wife took the material they had on hand, wove it together and expanded on these writings to form what became the core of The Satanic Bible. This pre-existing material consisted of:

•
A short, mimeographed paper that they had been distributing as an "introduction to Satanism."
•
The so-called "rainbow sheets," which were "an assortment of polemical essays" the LaVeys had been mimeographing on colored paper. (Ibid., p. 52)
•
A handout describing and containing instructions for the conduct of ritual magic. The LaVeys then ran into a problem, which was that, even after expanding upon all of their available material, they were still substantially short of having a manuscript of sufficient length to satisfy their publisher. So, either because the deadline was coming up quickly or because LaVey just didn't want to write anything else at the time (Aquino describes their situation in terms of the former), LaVey tacked materials written by other authors onto the beginning and end of his manuscript.

Without acknowledging his sources, he took sections of "an obscure, turn-of-the-century political tract," Might is Right by New Zealander Arthur Desmond (writing under the pseudonym Ragnar Redbeard), added in a few sentences of his own, and incorporated it as a prologue. He also added the Enochian Keys ("a series of Elizabethan magical incantations") as they had been modified by Aleister Crowley, and "further altered them by replacing their Heavenly references with diabolical ones." Traditional occultists immediately recognized LaVey's source for the Keys, but it was not until 1987 that the source of LaVey's prologue was discovered. (Ibid., p. 65)

It should also be mentioned that, in circles critical of CoS, one often comes across the accusation that LaVey's "Nine Satanic Statements", one of the Church's central doctrinal statements, is an unacknowledged "paraphrase...of passages from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged" (Schreck and Schreck 1998), specifically a paraphrase of the character John Galt's lengthy speech in the latter part of Rand's novel. However, when one actually examines these parallels (which are conveniently laid out in Appendix 11 of Aquino's The Church of Satan), one finds that this is a caricature of LaVey's indebtedness to Rand. For example, the first Satanic Statement is:

Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!

The Rand passage presented as the source of this statement is:

A doctrine that gives you, as an ideal, the role of a sacrificial animal seeking slaughter on the altars of others, is giving you death as your standard. By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man-every man-is an end in himself. He exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose.

This passage is rather more lengthy than LaVey's supposed "paraphrase." The second Satanic Statement is as brief as the first Statement:

Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!

The Rand passage said to correspond with this Statement, though shorter than the first, is similarly distant in style and content from LaVey:

My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists-and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these.

And there is a similar disparity in the other "parallels" between the Satanic Statements and Rand. Thus, even if it is true that LaVey was looking at Atlas Shrugged when he composed the Nine Satanic Statements, it would be more proper to say that he was inspired by Rand rather than to assert that he paraphrased her work.

I should finally note in this regard that the title of the appendix (which originally appeared as an article by George C. Smith in 1987) in which the LaVey/Rand connection is delineated, "The Hidden Source of the Satanic Philosophy," similarly implies that Rand's philosophy was the unacknowledged core of LaVey's thought. This is, however, incorrect; LaVey himself explicitly acknowledged that his religion was "just Ayn Rand's philosophy with ceremony and ritual added" (cited in Ellis, p. 180). (Refer also to the "Satanism and Objectivism" essay on the Church of Satan website where this connection is examined at length.)

Despite the book's diverse source material and piecemeal assembly, it nevertheless coheres as a succinct-and, apparently, quite attractive-statement of Satanic thought and practice. As Aquino observes, "the Satanic Bible was somehow 'more than the sum of its parts.' Its argument was an argument of common sense, assembled in part from pre-existing concepts, but the excellence of the book lay in its integration of these into a code of life meaningful to the average individual-not just
to occultists and/or academic-level philosophers." (Aquino 1999, p. 52)

One measure of The Satanic Bible's appeal is that it has continuously been in print since it first appeared in 1970, and has been translated into a number of other languages. I have been unable to obtain recent figures, but in his 1991 book, In Pursuit of Satan, Robert Hicks mentions a sales figure of 618,000 copies (p. 351). There were also a number of illegal foreign language editions. These include a Spanish translation published in Mexico in the 70s and a Russian translation in the late 90s. Legal editions include Czech and Swedish translations in the mid 90s and a 1999 German edition. The French translation has been completed but not yet printed. Also, the rights for a Greek translation were purchased, but the book does not seem to have appeared.4

The Role of The Satanic Bible in Modern Satanism

Although religious Satanism is interesting, academics have almost entirely ignored it. (The relevant academic literature consists of a handful of articles-e.g., Alfred 1976; Harvey 1995-and passing mentions in studies of the ritual abuse scare.) The principal reason for the lack of attention appears to be that Satanism is perceived as a trivial phenomenon rather than as a serious religion. The tendency seems to be to regard Satanists as immature adolescents who have adopted a diabolical veneer as a way of acting out their rebellion against parents and society. Does the phenomenon of adolescent rebellion, however, exhaust the significance of religious Satanism? Are most Satanists, in other words, just angry teenagers who adopt diabolical trappings to express their alienation, only to renounce the Prince of Darkness as soon as they mature into adults? While many youthful Satanists undoubtedly fit this profile, I came to feel that this was, at best, only a partial picture. Instead, I reasoned, there must be a core of committed Satanists who-for whatever reasons they initially become involved-had come to appropriate Satanism as something more than adolescent rebellion.

In order to test this hypothesis-and also because so little had been written on contemporary Satanism-I decided to collect some basic demographic data. To this end, I constructed a simple questionnaire that could be answered in 5 or 10 minutes. I began sending out questionnaires in early August 2000. By the end of February 2001 I had received 140 responses, which I felt was adequate to use as the basis for constructing a preliminary profile.5

When I sought feedback on preliminary write-ups of my findings from informants, a few voiced objections to the central role I assigned LaVey and his best-known work, The Satanic Bible, in the formation of modern Satanic religion. I was, furthermore, encouraged to shift my emphasis to the work of earlier literary figures ultimately responsible for fashioning the positive image of the Devil that LaVey later adopted for his Church of Satan. My survey findings, however, consistently indicated the centrality of LaVey to modern Satanism. This finding was a surprise, as I had initially assumed that contemporary Satanism had moved well beyond LaVey. I was thus led to conclude that-despite his dependence on prior thinkers-LaVey was directly responsible for the genesis of Satanism as a serious religious (as opposed to a purely literary) movement. Furthermore, however one might criticize and depreciate it, The Satanic Bible is still the single most influential document shaping the contemporary Satanic movement. As one of my informants noted, "I do not think Satanists can get away from LaVey, although some seem to take a real issue with him or try to downplay his importance. He wrote the book that codified Satanism into a religion, and for that he should be considered the central figure of the religion."

I do not intend to review all of my survey findings here (they are the subject of Lewis 2001), but I do want to note that I was startled to find that the average respondent had been a Satanist for seven to eight years. I also found that over two-thirds of the sample had been involved in at least one other religion beyond the tradition in which they were raised-usually Neopaganism or some other magical group. Both of these statistics indicate a level of seriousness I had not anticipate. Because most respondents became involved during their teens, I inferred that many had initially 5 110 (almost 80%) of my respondents were North American. Because European Satanism is a somewhat different phenomenon, one should be therefore be cautious about making inferences to European Satanism based on my survey findings.

[_The Erotic Apologist]

From Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health:

SYNOPSIS
The creation of dianetics is a milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and arch. Dianetics (Gr., dianoua -- thought) is the science of mind. Far simpler than physics or chemistry, it compares with them in the exactness of its axioms and is on a considerably higher echelon of usefulness. The hidden source of all psycho-somatic ills and human aberration has been discovered and skills have been developed for their invariable cure. Dianetics is actually a family of sciences embracing the various humanities and translating them into usefully precise definitions. The present volume deals with Individual Dianetics and is a handbook containing the necessary skills both for the handling of interpersonal relations and the treatment of the mind. With the techniques presented in this handbook the psychiatrist, psycho-analyst and intelligent layman can successfully and invariably treat all psycho-somatic ills and inorganic aberrations. More importantly, the skills
offered in this handbook will produce the dianetic clear, an optimum individual with intelligence considerably greater than the current normal, or the dianetic release, an individual who has been freed from his major anxieties or illnesses. The release can be done in less than twenty hours of work and is a state superior to any produced by several years of psychoanalysis, since the release will not release. Dianetics is an exact science and its application is on the order of, but simpler than, engineering. Its axioms should not be confused with theories since they demonstrably exist as natural laws hitherto undiscovered. Man has known many portions of dianetics in the past
thousands of years, but the data was not evaluated for importance, was not organized into a body of precise knowledge. In addition to things known, if not evaluated, dianetics includes a large number of new discoveries of its own about thought and the mind.

The axioms may be found on Page 42 of this volume. Understood and applied, they embrace the field of human endeavor and thought and yield precision results. The first contribution of dianetics is the discovery that the problems of thought and mental function can be resolved within the bounds of the finite universe, which is to say that all
data needful to the solution of mental action and Man’s endeavor can be measured, sensed and experienced as scientific truths independent of mysticism or metaphysics. The various axioms are not assumptions or theories -- the case of past ideas about the mind -- but are laws which can be subjected to the most vigorous laboratory and clinical tests. The first law of dianetics is a statement of the dynamic principle of existence. THE DYNAMIC PRINCIPLE OF EXISTENCE IS: SURVIVE!
No behavior or activity has been found to exist without this principle. It is not new that life is surviving. It is new that life has as its entire dynamic urge only survival.
Survival is divided into four dynamics. Survival can be understood to lie in any one of the dynamics and by faulty logic can be explained in terms of any one dynamic. A man can be said to survive for self alone and by this all behavior can be formulated. He can be said to survive for sex alone and by sex alone all behavior can be formulated. He can be said to survive for the group only or for Mankind only and in either of these the entire endeavor and behavior of the individual can be equated and explained. These are four equations of survival, each one apparently true. However, the entire problem of the purpose of Man cannot be resolved unless one admits all four dynamics in each individual. So equated, the behavior of 1 the individual can be estimated with precision. These dynamics then embrace the activity of
one or many men. DYNAMIC ONE: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of self and his immediate symbiotes. DYNAMIC TWO: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of sex, the act and the creation of children and their rearing. DYNAMIC THREE: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of the group, whether civil, political, or racial, and the symbiotes of that group. DYNAMIC FOUR: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of Mankind and the symbiotes of Mankind. Thus motivated, the individual or a society seeks survival and no human activity of any kind has other basis: experiment, investigation and long testing demonstrated that the unaberrated individual, the clear, was motivated in his actions and decisions by all the above dynamics and not one alone. The clear, the goal of dianetic therapy, can be created from psychotic, neurotic, deranged, criminal or normal people if they have organically sound nervous systems. He demonstrates the basic nature of Mankind and that basic nature has been found uniformly and invariably to be good. That is now an established scientific fact, not an opinion. The clear has attained a stable state on a very high plane. He is persistent and vigorous and pursues life with enthusiasm and satisfaction. He is motivated by the four dynamics as above. He has attained the full power and use of hitherto hidden abilities. The inhibition of one or more dynamics in an individual causes an aberrated condition, tends toward mental derangement and psycho-somatic illness and causes the individual to make irrational conclusions and act, still in an effort to survive, in destructive ways. Dianetic technique deletes, without drugs, hypnotism, surgery, shock or other artificial means, the blocks from these various dynamics. The removal of these blocks permits the free flow of the various dynamics and, of course, results in a heightened persistency in life and a much higher intelligence.
The precision of dianetics makes it possible to impede or release these dynamics at will with invariable results. The hidden source of all inorganic mental disturbance and psycho-somatic illness was one of the discoveries of dianetics. This source had been unknown and unsuspected, though vigorously sought, for thousands of years. That the discovered source is the source requires less laboratory proof than would have been necessary to have proven the correctness of William Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood. The proof does not depend upon a laboratory test with complicated apparatus but can be made in any group of men by any intelligent individual. The source of aberration has been found to be a hitherto unsuspected sub-mind which, complete with its own recordings, underlies what man understands to be his “conscious” mind.
The concept of the unconscious mind is replaced in dianetics by the discovery that the “unconscious” mind is the only mind which is always conscious. In dianetics this sub-mind is called the reactive mind. A holdover from an earlier step in Man’s evolution, the reactive mind possesses vigor and command power on a cellular level. It does not “remember”; it records and uses the recordings only to produce action. It does not “think”; it selects recordings and impinges them upon the “conscious” mind and the body without the knowledge or consent of the individual. The only information the individual has of such action is his occasional 2 perception that he is not acting rationally about one thing or another and cannot understand why. There is no Censor. The reactive mind operates exclusively on physical pain and painful emotion. It is not capable of differentiative thought but acts on the stimulus-response basis. This is the principle on which the animal mind functions. It does not receive its recordings as memory or
experience but only as forces to be reactivated. It receives its recordings as cellular engrams when the “conscious” mind is “unconscious.” In a drugged state, when anaesthetized as in an operation, when rendered “unconscious” by injury or illness, the individual yet has his reactive mind in full operation. He may not be “aware” of what has taken place, but, as dianetics has discovered and can prove, everything which happened to him in the interval of “unconsciousness” was fully and completely recorded. This information is unappraised by his conscious mind, neither evaluated nor reasoned. It can, at any future date, become reactivated by similar circumstances observed
by the awake and conscious individual. When any such recording, an engram, becomes reactivated, it has command power. It shuts down the conscious mind to greater or lesser degree, takes over the motor controls of the body and causes behavior and action to which the conscious mind, the individual himself, would never consent. He is, nevertheless, handled like a marionette by his engrams. The antagonistic forces of the exterior environment thus become entered into the individual himself without the knowledge or consent of the individual. And there they create an interior world of force which exerts itself not only against the exterior world but against the individual himself. Aberration is caused by what has been done to not done by the individual. Man has unwittingly long aided the reactive mind by supposing that a person, when
“unconscious” from drugs, illness, injury or anaesthetic, had no recording ability. This permits an enormous amount of data to enter into the reactive bank since none have been careful to maintain silence around an “unconscious” person. The invention of language and the entrance of language into the engram bank of the reactive mind seriously complicates the mechanistic reactions. The engrams containing language impinge themselves upon the conscious mind as commands. Engrams then contain command value much higher than any in the exterior world. Thought is directed and motivated by the irrational engrams. Thought processes are disturbed not only by these engramic commands but also by the fact that the reactive mind reduces, by regenerating unconsciousness, the actual ability to think. Few people possess, because of this,
more than 10% of their potential awareness. The entire physical pain and painful emotion of a lifetime, whether the individual “knows” about it or not, is contained, recorded, in the engram bank. Nothing is forgotten. And all physical pain and painful emotion, no matter how the individual may think he has handled it, is capable of re-inflicting itself upon him from this hidden level, unless that pain is removed by dianetic therapy. The engram and only the engram causes aberration and psycho-somatic illness.
Dianetic therapy may be briefly stated. Dianetics deletes all the pain from a lifetime. When this pain is erased in the engram bank and refiled as memory and experience in the
memory banks, all aberrations and psycho-somatic illnesses vanish, the dynamics are entirely rehabilitated and the physical and mental being regenerate.
Dianetics leaves an individual full memory but without pain. Exhaustive tests have demonstrated that hidden pain is not a necessity but is invariably and always a liability to the health, skill, happiness and survival potential of the individual. It has no survival value. The method which is used to refile pain is another discovery. Man has unknowingly
possessed another process of remembering of which he has not been cognizant. Here and there a few have known about it and used it without realizing what they did or that they did 3 something which Man as a whole did not know could be done. This process is returning. Wide awake and without drugs an individual can return to any period of his entire life providing his passage is not blocked by engrams. Dianetics developed techniques for circumventing these blocks and reducing them from the status of Powerful Unknown to useful memory. The technique of therapy is done in what is called a dianetic reverie. The individual undergoing this process sits or lies in a quiet room accompanied by a friend or professional therapist who acts as auditor. The auditor directs the attention of the patient to the patient’s self and then begins to place the patient in various periods of the patient’s life merely by telling him to go there rather than remember. All therapy is done, not by remembering or associating, but by travel on the time track. Every human being has a time track. It begins with life and it ends with death. It is a sequence of events complete from portal to portal as recorded.
The conscious mind, in dianetics, is called by the somewhat more precise term of analytical mind. The analytical mind consists of the “I” (the center of awareness), all
computational ability of the individual, and the standard memory banks which are filled with all past perceptions of the individual, awake or normally asleep (all material which is not engramic). No data are missing from these standard banks, all are there, barring physical organic defects, in full motion, color, sound, tactile, smell and all other senses. The “I” may not be able to reach his standard banks because of reactive data which bar portions of the standard banks from the view of “I.”
Cleared, “I” is able to reach all moments of his lifetime without exertion or discomfort and perceive all he has ever sensed, recalling them in full motion, color, sound, tone and other senses. The completeness and profusion of data in the standard banks is a discovery of dianetics, and the significance of such recalls is yet another discovery.
The auditor directs the travel of “I” along the patient’s time track. The patient knows everything which is taking place, is in full control of himself, and is able to bring himself to the present whenever he likes. No hypnotism or other means are used. Man may not have known he could do this but it is simple. The auditor, with precision methods, recovers data from the earliest “unconscious” moments of the patient’s life, such “unconsciousness” being understood to be caused by shock or pain, not mere unawareness. The patient thus contacts the cellular level engrams. Returned to them and progressed through them by the auditor, the patient re-experiences these moments a few times, when they are then erased and refiled automatically as standard memory. So far as the auditor and the patient can discover, the entire incident has now vanished and does not exist. If they searched carefully in the standard banks they would find it again but refiled as “Once aberrative, do not permit as such into computer.” Late areas of “unconsciousness” are impenetrable until early ones are erased. The amount of discomfort experienced by the patient is minor. He is repelled mainly by engramic commands which variously dictate emotion and reaction. In a release, the case is not progressed to the point of complete recall. In a clear, fill memory exists throughout the lifetime, with the additional bonus that he has photographic recall in color, motion, sound, etc., as well as optimum computational ability. The psycho-somatic illnesses of the release are reduced, ordinarily, to a level where they do not thereafter trouble him. In a clear, psycho-somatic illness has become non-existent and will not return since its actual source is nullified permanently. The dianetic release is comparable to a current normal or above.

[_LittleNipper]

Luke 9:25

New American Standard Bible
"For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?