Witness Lee has Seven Gods

[aron]

I would like to show how George Lucas' company Lucasfilm, owner of the "Star Wars" franchise, is actually representative of "gospel hucksters" who merchandise the gospel. In the Star Wars films, the "Trade Federation" is a massive and incessant merchant conglomerate which enslaves formerly independent, peace-loving planetary federations in its quest to rule the universe. I remember the discussion in 2005, post-Iraqi invasion, of how "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" was a not-too-veiled dig by Mr. Lucas at the "Evil Empire" of the (Republican?) U.S. military/industrial complex. In the film, the politicians are "bought out" and acquiesce to lies, violence and oppression, and one of the film's main characters says with obvious disdain, "So this is how democracy ends". All the t.v. commentators had a field day out of the coincidence of the film's script to the ostensible manipulation of the U.S. Senate to rubber-stamp the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld Iraq invasion.

But what actually struck me was that the Hollywood folks probably represented the "Trade Federation", the "Evil Empire", as anyone else! What is more emblematic of the United States today than our cultural hegemony? Satan(Hollywood) makes billions of dollars selling overstuffed tripe, which is warning people that Satan is merchandising them, selling overstuffed tripe! Genius! First you rob people, then you sell them a story telling about the robbery! George Lucas just sold Lucasfilm to Walt Disney last year for $4 billion, which is a pretty good reward by the Trade Federation for his storytelling efforts on its behalf.

To transpose that on "Local Church Discussions", the Trade Federation's ultimate weapon, the "Death Star", is actually a representation of the merchant/prophets who warn(for a fee) the gullible sheep of the coming doom. Ten bucks and you can watch Angels at Armageddon, folks! Step right up, buy your ticket!

The key is in the money changing hands... the exchange is something like: "Your will benefit from my prosperity". If you give me ten bucks, you will be amused for 90 minutes watching people wave light-sabers for the Republic, or you will see "The New Jerusalem" and the Highway to Zion in "God's New Testament Economy" in living color! Thus the story becomes a stand-in, an exchange, for reality itself. The story becomes a monetized product, and the birthright can then be exchanged for a bowl of soup, Esau-like.

Remember the incessant and pervasive merchandizing in Revelation 18? Remember how the Beast is obsessed with buying and selling? Remember his version of "One Publication Policy" in Revelation 13? Remember how Simon the Magician tried to exchange money for power with Simon Peter in Acts 8? Step right up, folks, get your God-man socks! On sale this week only! Get your Crystallization wall calendars! Who cares if we can't tell the Masoretic from the Septuagint? There's merchandise to move here! Come on in, folks... grab your ticket and take your seat!

The moral of the story is: when money changes hands for the gospel, the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) becomes the Rule of Gold (He who has the gold makes the rules). Money becomes the route to power; when you have the gold you can "buy the truth". See Ezekiel 27 and 28: e.g., "When your wares went forth out of the seas, you filled many people; you did enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of your riches and of your merchandise." The marketplace seems to be spreading the truth, but the spreading-for-cash distorts the truth and ultimately ruins it.