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B.
DYBWAD BROCHMANN THE ART OF READING
THE BIBLE Chapter 8 The Tower of Babel The Jews and Money The following is from Genesis11: 1-8: And the whole
earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they
journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and
they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for
mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top
may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad
upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and
the tower, which the children of men built. And the Lord said, Behold, the
people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and
now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go
to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from
thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. (Copied
from the Bible.com Website). The ordinary person who reads this story would make fun of it and
would dismiss it as something “unreal” that at least doesn’t have anything to
do with his life, or the reality of today’s modern society. The ordinary
pastor assures people that this is a story about something that happened a
long time ago, and that maybe they can find “the place” where Babel’s tower
stood. The scientist just shakes his head and assures people that it is only
an old “myth”, which safely can be dismissed. Modern people with their
practical science don’t build Babel’s Towers anymore, but with ordinary
“simple” people the story is still remembered, and the expression is still
used for building “castles in the air”.
When you build “illusion” on top of “illusion”, you are making a Tower of
Babel. Philosophers and etymologists (those who research in languages) give
quite another explanation as to why there are so many different languages on
this earth. Therefore, you don’t have anything concrete to believe in when
you want to believe that the story about the Tower of Babel was inspired by
God. The following is an example. During the last world war the German
“state” needed much money. “The state” took a war loan with the people who
were ready to pay their “money” in to the state treasury and they compensated
them with a promissory note. The people believed in “the state”, worked day
and night for “the state”, and quickly received their own money back. So then
they had both the money and the promissory notes. Since “the state”
constantly needed more money, “the authorities” played the German national
anthem for the people and encouraged new loans, and a large amount of
promissory notes were written and gathered up. After a while, while this was
going on, the term promissory note
was changed to “fortune”. “The state’s” notes continue today to be considered secure
property. The language quickly became confusing. What one called debt, the
other called credit; and what one called the national debt, the other called
the national credit. Nobody could detect that “the spirit of God” stepped
down from heaven and confused their language and terminology. This happened
quietly inside of them. The spirit of God worked Itself “down” to them. When
the people had emptied their pockets at least 10 times, a complete “Babel’s
Tower “ of German “national property” now existed. If Germany had “won” the
war, they would have demanded that “the enemy” pay the German “state” an
amount equal to the total German war loan. Then they would say: “Look, we
made money on the war. We were right when we said that the “state’s” notes
were assets. Of course the German people would then have paid “property tax”
on their “state’s” notes. If Germany had won, then Germany’s customers (the
enemy) would have had to take up new “state’s” loans in their country, and
“assets and debts” would have grown correspondingly in these countries. When
Germany lost, the German “state” received the net amount of their war loan. They
went bankrupt, and the people were
disappointed, cheated and swindled by their “moloch”, i.e. the state of
Germany, the German pastors, and statesmen. The great Tower of Babel fell down, and a new one appeared in its
place. All the prices went up, and everyone was happy because they were
getting richer. The workers got a “higher salary”, even an increase from day
to day, so they couldn’t to strike
as often as the salary went up. The property owners paid their debt by
selling things – first a pig for 43 million marks, then a hen was worth just
as much as the whole property’s mortgage debt. This new Tower of Babel didn’t
end before the stamp for a letter cost more than the entire French war
indemnity in1874. This Babel’s Tower also fell down, and at the same time the German
people were very divided, and it became
so difficult to express new ideas, that the people “reached a boiling point”.
One didn’t understand more than the other. The German people were swindled
and cheated. The Kaiser had said: “I will be leading you toward glorious
times”. The people believed him, and they worked and sacrificed day and
night, as only the clever and energetic German people can. Disappointment had
to create panic and was a sign of internal disruption. The faith in the
adventure of a “state” as a benefactor began to crumble. It was clear that a
“state” that loses is a deceiver. A “prugelknabe” (scapegoat) had to be
found, and that was quickly found in the Jew. It was the fault of the Jews,
according to the Kaiser and the people. Now the foundation was laid for the next Tower of Babel. “The writings
would be proven true”. The Jews were God’s disobedient children. The Jews had
crucified their Messiah. “We have their blood on us and our children”. Many
Germans knew The Bible well, and the writings were fulfilled (for the
thousandth time?). I don’t know how many times the Jews have been the
“scapegoat”, but it happens every time the illusions of the national heathens
and the utopias connected with the political money start being revealed in
the histories of various peoples. At least 10 or 15 times the Jews have been
pointed to as the scapegoats for various reasons when “wars” are not
successful, or when one or another Tower of Babel falls down. I only need to
remind you about the persecution of the Jews in the old Rome, Spain, Poland,
Russia, France, etc. I don’t know how many times people really want “the
writings to be fulfilled”, before people learn to understand and obey the
writings. In 1936 I traveled to Vienna and spoke to the Jews to help them to
accept – for their own good – any misconceptions about the writings. It was
of no use. In Vienna there was a strict censor, and the truth was told in
such a “watered down” version, that no one understood what was said. When German nationalism was forced on Norway, we had already built
quite a few Towers of Babel. We had done this ourselves, but a lot was also
copied from abroad. Everything was so
confused that German socialism suddenly became “Norwegian” socialism, and a ravished people were now called “freed
people”. In Norway, no one had seen God, the Father step down from heaven to
confuse the formation of our languages and ideas. This was taken care of by
our leading men, i.e. the spirit of the time. Soon I won’t know a word in our
language that doesn’t have two or three different meanings. Here are some
examples of what I mean: Intolerance and mutual sabotage = “Liberalism” Central power = “Democracy” Struggle against public control and bungling the election laws when the Parliament re-elects itself =
“Parliamentarianism” Monopolies, privileges, cartels, syndicates = Hurray for freedom and Independence Day Terror, force, and violence = Humanism Compulsive formation of organizations = Freedom National heathenism and the dance around the golden calf = Christianity Judaism’s customs, sanitizing the race, and ideology = Eliminating the
power of the Jews Enormous war losses = Enormous
gains Price increases and a period of high prices = Good times Excess of material goods = Bad times Exporting basic goods (discounted price) = A thrifty economy Taxes and fees = Increasing revenues and prosperity Old fashioned delusion = Radicalism (the opposite of conservatism) Debt = Credit National property (stolen from the nation’s flesh and blood and mortgaged abroad) =
National fortune Unemployment = A thrifty economy Expropriation Committee = Provisions Committee Maximum prices = Insuring a continued rich supply Black Market = New organization The exorbitant prices of the State Wine and Liquor Store = Price
police The State Lottery = Tax-free income (the players pay about 1 million
crowns in taxes each month) Military power with bombers and torpedo boats = Protective tax and
defense Class consciousness and class hate = Feeling of brotherhood (positive
socialism) Class differences = Equality Demagogues = Pubic information Civil war and provocation = the Norwegian Nazi Party Delusion = Experience and empirical science Lack of organization, everybody struggles with everybody else = the
current society Blindly obedient to foreigners = Patriotism Challenge by Russia = Protection against Russia International armaments race = Finally awake and alert Fear of a superior force = Organized world peace Increasing power of the government = “Power to the people,
self-government” Keeping quiet and agreeing to swindling = “Everything for Norway” Foreign impulses = National self-government “Reorganizing” finances = Restricting industry, unemployment A large increase in use of non-personal items = National economy Attempt to show misinterpretations = Negative criticism Inspired speech = “Speaking in tongues” Religious intoxication = A special type of religious devotion Public Pharisaism = True Christianity True Christian proclamation = False prophets We could continue forever. All Utopians and daydreamers have the following in common: 1. They always build one fantasy
tower on top of the other. 2. They’re all trying to reach heaven. 3. Everybody means well and believes they’re coming closer to heaven. 4. Everybody dreams that his or her wishes will be fulfilled. 5. Everyone experiences the symbols as reality. 6. No one reacts to what is not real. All the internal censors and
self-controls are missing. 7. The worried subconscious is shown by: a. Their expressions b. Their choice of types of violence c. Their positive and generous reaction to giving to preserve the
illusions d. Their need for a “scapegoat” if things don’t go according to plan e. Their bitterness if someone tries to awaken them. Disinterest in
criticism. f. Their Pharisaic question about the ‘bad” human nature g. Their rage and bitterness if something doesn’t go their way (while
they’re playing) h. Their confusion with languages i. Their need to monopolize. (Compare this with what we have shown earlier regarding the most
common characteristics in the dream state). - Picture of Quisling - All of this shows us that the story about the Tower of Babel is a
fantastic, natural, symbolic version of man’s involuntary self-deception. I
have many years experience from discussions and controversies in the
newspaper, and all of my experience is that people speak and write without
listening to each other, because the confusion
of ideas has become so great because the words that are used have various
meanings. The practical contents and
the original etymological meanings have been slowly changed, “so that the one
doesn’t understand the other”. How shall life, or the great creation, free itself from all of this? What
shall or can realistic people do with the fanatical supporters of unreality? Everybody
can see that now, if they have eyes that can see, and ears that can hear. It
is stated rather clearly in The Bible that the spirit itself “came
down” and “caused confusion”. Our
spiritual life declines into thoughtlessness,
being uncritical, and superficiality
that continue first into confusion of languages, and then into
disintegration. The inherent
orderliness of life sees that the laws of life are followed, and this
happens dynamically. The Spirit of God is exactly just this almighty and
invincible. His creation is built in such a solid way that the universe with all its innumerable and
huge heavenly bodies doesn’t end up in chaos. Even all of our thoughts
and delusions are taken into consideration, so that every Utopian idea is
dissolved and eliminated. “Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not”
is a remote and unreal plant, which because of its own reality “shall be
rooted up”. (Matthew 15:13). Listen heathens, Utopians, and everyone who believes that they are
selfish: Life has plenty of time. There is enough of eternal material, energy
and dynamics. Just keep up with the utopias, as long as you feel like
disappointing yourself and others. Just keep it up everybody. "Just continue like your
forefathers have done", but
when you finally discover the truth about yourself, it would surprise me if
you don’t, for your own sakes, discontinue the utopias and the misunderstood
ways of living your lives. Stop and think about the dangerous “leaven” that
the Savior of the world has warned against. The League of Nations in Geneva, and now the U.N., are surely the
largest Towers of Babel the world has ever seen. The intention was and is
good. People wanted “to keep” the peace within an organization - but think about
this. Every country has experienced that the more you tried to organize the
many artificial opposition interests, the more oppositions arose. Then it
became even more acute, because the oppositions were taken seriously as a
reality that had to be protected, instead
of finding out what the reasons were to the opposition interests and removing
them. In all the European “national” administrations the oppositions were
legalized, and intrigues, censures, passions and understandings were elevated
to “politics” or “practical politics”. The political state’s administration
in every country had developed into an arena for all special interests and a
gathering place for all kinds of opposing interests. Everyone who had decided
to live with and organize desire after
your neighbor’s goods met in “the state”, so that together they could
manage the community’s interests. But
wasn’t this, in itself, Utopia? If all the animals that had the blood and
mentality of wolves were put together to “steer” the lives of all the other
animals, how would that be? (When I compare politicians with wolves, it is
partly because they believe people are “animals”, for example wolves and
sheep, and partly because The Bible uses this analogy). When the wolves come
together, won’t they share the carcass among themselves? “Where the carcass
is, there will the predators gather,” as Christ says. This has been practiced
for a long time in every “Christian” country in Europe. The result was
miserable. “The “wolves” understood this and agreed that all of “the wolves”
in Europe should meet in Geneva “to organize” the whole world and to organize
peace. Yes! That is really how it happened. Wouldn’t it have been more
correct to say that a political state is unsuitable because it is easier to
get organized and create peace in small, simple and special groups, than in
large, complicated and complex groups? Everything in the reality of life
starts as something small. Find first the key to the small, secret, local and
easily understood difficulties. Above all, don’t generalize. Wouldn’t this
type of thinking have been closer to the truth? Instead, people say that
since the delusions in the various countries are so difficult to straighten
out, we have to gather all of the European delusions in one room, so that the sun will
come up and shine over both the good and the bad. If one crazy “statesman”
isn’t crazy enough, he could learn from the others and take a whole suitcase
full of more craziness home to his own country. We have to build a tower that
is so high that it reaches all the way to heaven. Up there we can watch over
the peace in Europe and knock down anybody who creates unrest. “When the
president of the League of Nations opened the first meeting, it was deathly
silent in the room. Everyone took himself or herself so seriously”, said the
local press. The Germans and the Jews did too. And don’t forget Hambro and Mowinckel. What an honor. Think about all of the new
possibilities available for all the small nations. And Satan laughed so much
that hell shook. “People have an unconquerable need to fool themselves and
misunderstand themselves”, said Satan, and then he started working on the
League of Nations. Here in Norway I pleaded that we shouldn’t be a part of the Tower of
Babel in Geneva. I begged Norwegian scientists to explain that life can’t be
organized in a general way, from top down, from the complex to the simple,
but that everything that is living and real grows from down below upward,
from the inside to the outside. But also the scientists meant they had
“historical” experience that there also were “trees” and plants that grew
from top down. Such plants are not in nature and it was my mission to tell
people about the Savior’s orientation to life and that such a plant would be
torn out by the root. The Tower of Babel was repeated. It was the Utopists’
picture of the world that was manifested. Henrik
Ibsen would have said: “Flowers
bloom from the abyss. The night betrays itself”. I have understood The Bible as a textbook in the art of living together. But Norwegian members of Parliament
cried tears of joy and gratitude because they got to participate in “Norway’s
solemn occasion”, when Norway was allowed to participate in organizing world
peace and to eat cherries with the great ones. We humans can read The Bible in different ways; we
can also have different meanings for words like peace, freedom, justice, as
well as “practical politics, reality and fantasy reality”. ”Jøssinger” (Norwegian patriots during World War II) was a name
carried by Norwegians who believed in the Tower of Babel in Geneva. It’s
understandable and reasonable that they were very disappointed and bitter
when the Tower of Babel fell. It almost felt like malice or an insult, and
now they had to find another “prugelknabe” or scapegoat. Couldn’t they be the ones to blame? Maybe they had thanked God
for the League of Nations. It would be insulting to God to realize that their
god had made fools of them. “These damned Germans”. “If only the Germans
hadn’t come”. “We had it pretty good before the Germans came”, were some of
their comments. It wasn’t possible for the ”Jøssinger” to admit that their
pastors and authorities had “made a mistake” and seduced them. If a German
soldier seduced a Norwegian girl, it was one thousand times worse than if
“the Church”, the university, the press, schools, and “the state” had seduced
all of the Norwegian people. This is exactly how deeply rooted the Tower of
Babel is in our nature. The thousands of years old story in Exodus is so
worthwhile that we can forgive the old patriarchs larger and smaller
indiscretions, when we take into consideration the spiritual riches, the very spiritual treasures contained
in their bible. The ”Jøssinger” will never find peace in their soul before they look
inside themselves and see the German invasion of Norway during the Second
World War as a result of the legalities of life. (Please see Revelations
17:17). The Germans themselves didn’t know what they did or why they did it;
they were instruments in the hands of the spirit of the times. Being able to
admit this is the first step toward salvation. If this isn’t admitted, then
the next and the last will be much worse than the first. We have our destiny
in our own hands, but our hands are weak now, and our picture of life is a
“foggy” and black night. The spirit of seduction
sits where it shouldn’t sit – in a holy place – on society’s temple
summit. That’s why we are afraid that the next big Tower of Babel will soon
be built. The poor “egoists” don’t know any better. The devil talks behind
their backs every Sunday in church and every day in the newspapers. For many years, here at home, I have testified for my fellow citizens
that military war is only an extension of
a trade war. Tanks and airplanes are only “an extension” of safes and adding
machines. Suggested prices are the extension of declarations of war. When everyone wants to buy cheaply and
sell for a good price, everyone is unconsciously at war with himself or
herself. It is only unrestrained fantasy to believe that you can deceive
others without also deceiving yourself. That’s why a bishop in Bergen said,
showing his endless lack of knowledge, that it would be to “honor the name of
God” when someone on his honor signed
his name agreeing that he had really made a profit. People are not clear
about their “dedication” to mammon and “the state”, and it is the scourge of
mankind. There is no profit. When
what you call earnings or profit is deception and self-deception, how big is
the self-deception? Compare this to the teachings of Jesus: “But if your eye
is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in
you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6: 23). Also read the
prophet Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that
put darkness for light, and light for darkness…” |