President Obama’s soul mission…revealed

As I watched the second inauguration of President Barack Obama this morning, I was reminded of a heart-pounding election prediction that I stumbled upon on September 7, 2012 in the most unlikely place: Facebook. At the time, national polls were yanking us every way but loose, as they predicted conflicting outcomes.

Polls, though scientific, are guesstimates; they’re based on human feedback, statistical probability and history. The election predictions on Esteban E. Ramirez’s Ete Light Facebook page, on the other hand, were based on spiritual feedback: He posted a collection of provocative messages that had been transmitted to and through him for more than a year from what he calls the “Higher Dimensions”—the ultimate balcony of Earth’s theater.

I was both astonished and relieved by the predictions. More important, these alleged spiritual messages confirmed what I suspected: Our life purpose is established before we arrive on this planet.

Obama was chosen to lead before birth

Are our life scripts already written?

I had my first conversation with Barack Obama in 1994. He was a young civil rights attorney who reviewed my housing discrimination case. I instantly trusted him. There was something earnest, yet sincere and empathetic about this young man.

The following year provided an opportunity for me to support him. I joined a small audience at a book signing for his autobiography, “Dreams for my Father,” in our Hyde Park neighborhood. It was his birthday, and several family members were there. The brilliantly written book was further evidence that Barack Obama was no ordinary being.

Embracing our greatness

When we come to the realization that we are not here randomly, that life does not begin with physical birth or end with physical death, we move more powerfully and fearlessly through the world. When we believe that we’re here for a purpose, we see clearly that all of our life scenes and props have been staged, and each actor has been cast to fulfill our purpose.

When we embrace the possibility that we, too, are not ordinary beings or mortal beings, we become increasingly aware that not only do we have a life script, we wrote it before entering the stage door of Earth’s theater and slipping into these human body costumes. When we know that physical life is not Life itself, posts such as Mr. Ramirez’s resonate with our hearts.

“President Obama will be re-elected, and this is no more a matter of politics now than it ever was. Often we have told you that the Golden Age master planners requested this soul from a highly evolved civilization to come to the planet specifically to fill one of the most strategic positions during this phase of Earth’s ascension out of third density and entry into fourth. And all of you agreed with this when you enthusiastically chose your own roles in this lifetime.” Spiritual message from July 2012, posted on Ete Light

A great “Being of Light”

I thought it highly unlikely that a U.S. Senate neophyte wearing a black human body costume would become President of these United States during my current lifetime. So, imagine my surprise when Spirit compelled me to tell Michelle at Barack’s senatorial victory party that they would be the first black family in the White House. She was as stunned to hear those words as I was to speak them.

I had no idea it would happen two short years later. It also didn’t cross my mind at the time that Barack, like all of us, has a soul history. If we are to believe the claims of those in the Higher Dimension, his history includes experience as a world leader.

What an ingenious strategy: If Spirit’s mission is to lure dark forces from their hiding places so that this nation can evolve, why not put a black man in the White House? That will force the Darkness, mouth foaming, from the deepest bowels of the Earth.

But who would agree to be the target of such hatred? Only a brave and committed soul who is fully aware, even while wearing a heavy human body, that he is immortal and therefore, invincible.

Obama prays

(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

 “The vociferous and rancorous disagreements within the US government are not as they appear to be, a stubborn partisan bloc or inflexible ideological differences—it is the influence of the light and of the darkness being played out on the United States government stage.” ~Spiritual message, posted on Ete Light

Earth valiantly struggles to mimic Life

It is difficult for most of us to grasp the possibility that Earth itself is theater and that we are merely actors, immortal souls temporarily wearing human body costumes. But if you’re open to that possibility, consider: If we are immortal souls rather than human bodies, we could choose to be anywhere right now. If we chose to be on this planet, in this country, at this time, why? Perhaps we wanted to actively support this nation’s shift from barbaric conflict resolution and hatred to peace, love and enlightenment.

Most of us gave our spiritual energy, our votes, our activism and our dollars to this cause—as we agreed while standing in the wings of Earth’s stage. The curtain is still rising, if we are to believe Spirit’s message about the President that came through Ramirez in January 2011:

Barack Obama-2013 inauguration“His best work is still to come, and he is well aware of his destiny to lead the people out of the darkness. He is a highly spiritual soul and will, with our help and protection, work with us to speedily transform your experiences into ones of happiness and release from the Draconian laws that rule your lives.” January 2011 spiritual message, posted on Ete Light

Later in 2011, according to Ramirez, another significant message came through. It is most poignant on this Inauguration Day:

“Be aware that he is a great Being of Light, who is having to play a role that requires him to ‘play’ along with the dictates of those who advise him. He has achieved a degree of success even though he has faced opposition all along. He needs your continued support and love, and you will see him blossom and take charge once he can fully implement his own policies without interference.”

No wonder the President’s 2012 campaign slogan was “Forward.”

If you’d like to read all the Obama-related readings mentioned in Ramirez’s September 7, 2012 post,
visit: http://www.facebook.com/esteban.e.ramirez and search for that date.

The Bible vs. President Obama?

Several times within the past few days, I’ve received emails admonishing me not to buy a bright yellow T-shirt that says: “Pray for Obama, Psalms 109:8.” If you haven’t read that verse, it says: “Let his years be few, and let another take his office.” (KJV)

In the game of politics and political parties, some variant of this prayer is whispered, shouted, and muttered through clenched teeth—without Biblical reference—throughout the four-year term of any President. When a Republican is in office, Democrats pray for another to take his office, and vice versa.

It’s tradition, and it’s no big deal—except in this case, many have decided that the verse on these shirts and bumper stickers is intended to include subsequent verses in that chapter, namely Psalms 109:9-13. These five additional verses, which are referenced nowhere on the shirt, infer that we should pray for God to hurt or kill our enemies—yes, God’s other children. For weeks now, folks have been whipping themselves into a frenzy, concerned that everyone who wears the shirt poses a threat to our President’s safety.

I could be wrong, but it seems that the only real threat here is that there are people who actually believe that God responds affirmatively to mean-spirited vengeful prayer requests. But what else are they to believe, if the Holy Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God? That means that every word is true, even if those words characterize God as behaving more like Satan and less like The Divine.

Over the years, I’ve had a number of circuitous discussions with those who believe in the rage-filled, relentlessly unforgiving, kick your kids out, kill-every-living-thing God portrayed in the Old Testament. Typically, they discount these rants by asserting that God changed in the New Testament.

No, it wasn’t that the Jewish rabbi named Yeshua (colloquially known as Jesus) perceived God as more benevolent than the scribes portrayed Him in the Hebrew scriptures. They insist that God actually committed genocide, crammed predators and their prey in the cargo hold of a boat with one window for weeks while bloated human bodies floated all around it, contaminating the water, killing the fish, all the fruit-bearing trees and other vegetation. God did those diabolical inhumane things. But He changed after that, and the New Testament proves it: God decided to forgive all of His children’s sins, on one condition: The Prince of Peace had to be subjected to three days of horrific sadistic torture.

Really? Why did Jesus teach that God was unconditionally forgiving before he was heinously tortured, if it didn’t happen until after his death? And why did God want the Romans to savagely stop the good rabbi from teaching that God was a loving Father? His important message and ministry had lasted only three years. If you have the answers, please free me from my confusion.

What does this confusion have to do with President Obama, a t-shirt and Psalms 109, you ask? Simply, I think it’s helpful to understand the meaning and implications of scripture before deciding whether or not it has the power to harm our President. As any Bible scholar will tell you, we can’t intelligently discuss or react to specific passages in the Bible if we haven’t read the entire book, have no historical context for the writings, the writers or the politics of the time, and have read none of the large body of theological research regarding the collection of works that comprise the Bible.

This reminds me of a link that my friend Rev. Gaylon McDowell shared yesterday on Facebook. The link led me to the YouTube videos from an insightful lecture by New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman. It’s divided into 10 segments because of the time limits on YouTube, but I’d highly recommend watching all of them. Treat yourself to some jaw-dropping “I didn’t know that!” moments.

Dr. Ehrman is the chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he calls the “buckle” of the Bible Belt. He has written 20 books about the Bible, including New York Times bestsellers Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why and JESUS, INTERRUPTED: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible. Dr. Ehrman teaches historical approaches to early Christianity and the New Testament.

On the first day of class a few years ago, he looked out at the 360 students in his lecture hall and asked three questions:

  1. How many of you would agree with the proposition that the Bible is the inspired word of God? (Voom! The entire roomful of students raised their hands.)
  2. How many of you have read The DaVinci Code? (Voom! The entire roomful of students raised their hands.)
  3. How many of you have read the entire Bible? (There was a hand raised, here and there throughout the lecture hall.)

Ehrman looked at them and said, “I’m not telling you that I think that God wrote the Bible. You’re telling me that you think God wrote the Bible. I can see why you might want to read a book by Dan Brown; but if God wrote a book, wouldn’t you want to see what He had to say?” he laughed.

And that brings us back to Psalms 109:9-13. Did God say or even inspire those destructive words? Do these verses really pose a threat to our President or his family?

I can’t think of a better time to have a discerning heart than when reading or repeating the Bible. If we put our thinking caps on, we would  realize that God wouldn’t give us conflicting directives or portray Himself as bi-polar. For example, an Old Testament scripture about discernment totally contradicts the spirit of Psalms 109: “So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart…’” (1 Kings 3:11-12, NIV)

When we are discerning, we can objectively look at a situation, person or written word and determine whether it aligns with what we believe to be true. When we are discerning, we can more appropriately interpret and react to Bible verses.

For example, does God brutally punish humans, as is indicated in so many Bible passages, or is 1 John 4:8 and 4:16 accurate when it states that God is love? It’s impossible for the answer to be “all of the above” unless we believe that God is bi-polar and not absolute. We must make a choice.

Why? Well, according to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (NIV)

If God is love, is God angry and vindictive? If God is love, does God brutally punish? If God is love, does God harshly judge? Would love destroy every living thing on the planet? Can we believe the Flood story and believe that God is love? Can we believe the Garden of Eden story and believe that God is love? Which do you believe?

Have you tried the “Would Love do that?” challenge when you read the Bible? It’s my litmus test. When I applied it to the vengeful lyrics in Psalms 109, my answer was a resounding, “No, Love would not do that!” That influenced my response to both the t-shirt and the e-mail.

Between you and me: If we believe that God is Love, we really don’t care whether people buy “Pray for Barack, Psalm 109:8” t-shirts and bumper stickers. We don’t even care if they pray the entire mean-spirited chapter. Why? Because they’re spitting in the wind. We know that Love would never respond affirmatively to prayers asking Him to brutalize any of His children.

Needless to say, I didn’t respond to the urgent call to forward those Psalms 109 t-shirt e-mails. In fact, they immediately went in the trash, right behind the e-mails asking me to pray for President Obama’s protection.

Don’t be alarmed. I have a rationale for that, too: Appeals of this nature presume two things: 1) God is not Love and (2) God has such careless disregard for His child Barack Obama that He will only protect him if we submit a formal request.

I am not going to denigrate God by believing that either of these presumptions is true.