Joel - Part 1

First posted: December 20, 2022

In this series of articles, we shall be meditating on the book of Joel and what God is shouting to today's deaf generation through Joel's prophecy.

Index

Joel, son of Pethuel	1978: The end of Landry's Cowboys' success
The 4 generations	1978: The Steelers' 3rd championship
The first generation: 1948-1977	The 3-part catholic red horse
1978: The transition into the 2nd generation	Intermediate recap

Joel, son of Pethuel

In the first verse of the book of Joel, the Spirit of God declares the following:

"The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel" (Joel 1:1)"

The name "Joel" means "Jehovah is God" or "Yahweh is God", which points to recognising the fearsome God of Israel as the one and true God. This contrasts with the ambiguous concept of "God" held by most believers in the matriarchal Church, who often (consciously and/or subconsciously) de-personify God, turning Him into an amorphous entity that they feel free to shape to their heart's content. As a result, the one True God who IS (independently of us), Yahweh, the God of Israel, the great I AM, is simply labelled as "the God of the Old Testament" and is relegated to a "shameful" past that they hope will never return. However, God is declaring through the name "Joel" that no one who denies the fearsome God of Israel can enable or be a positive participant in all the prophetic things that are said in the book of Joel.

God is open and spacious

As verse 1 indicates, Joel was the son of Pethuel. The name "Pethuel" means "God is open" and is derived from the Hebrew word el meaning "God" and the verb pata meaning "to be spacious, open, wide". To get a better sense of this word, let us consider its first few appearances in Scripture. Its first appearance is in the following verse:

"God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." (Genesis 9:27)

The word "enlarge" was translated from pata, meaning that pata speaks of a wide-open space of opportunities for conquest and expansion. The next 2 appearances of pata are in the following verses:

"And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife." (Exodus 22:16)

"Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;" (Deuteronomy 11:16)

The word pata was translated as "entice" in Exodus 22:16 and as "deceived" in Deuteronomy 11:16. Therefore, pata, in a negative sense, has the connotation of someone who is so naive and open-minded that he can be easily manipulated to do things that he should not do. In a positive sense, therefore, pata speaks of someone who is open to new and unfamiliar ideas and who can therefore constantly grow into new areas of life. This correlates with how a baby can go from an "almost blank" knowledge base in his brain to mastering a complex language, developing advanced motor skills, and learning all sorts of new skills and abilities. This happens because a baby is not constantly questioning and doubting anything that is new. Since practically everything is new to him, he is forced to be open to it all, and it is through this openness or innocent naivete that he can fill his knowledge base and grow into adulthood. The reason why this openness or naivete for learning eventually diminishes is that the human begins to embrace a few false or incomplete paradigms along the way, and these paradigms begin to limit the new (and true) things that he can grow into. As the limitations on his growth set in, the human may then feel compelled to examine his paradigms and make corrections, but, as time ticks on, a spirit of conformity usually sets in, which quickly suppresses any feeling of dissatisfaction or disappointment about his limited state of being. Thus, we can conclude that, when God says "Pethuel", i.e.- God is open, He is saying that He is a God of constant, new opportunities, a God who does not abide in a limited state or who wants His people to abide in a limited state. Just like a naive and innocent baby in full "growth mode", His people are to be constantly open to (and easily "seduced by") God's new and "unfamiliar" ideas and opportunities, instead of immediately dismissing anything that seems new, "non-traditional" or "unorthodox". Even though not everything that is "new" is from God, not everything that is "new" is from the devil, either. Unfortunately, the matriarchal Church, trapped in Canaanite lies and Girgashite methods of repressive conformity, is unable and unwilling to embrace "Pethuel", i.e.- that "God is open", which is why they are also not open to embrace the "son of Pethuel", i.e. the spirit of Joel, the spirit that declares that the fearsome God of Israel is the one true God.

No Pethuel without Joel

The reason why the name "Joel" is mentioned before "Pethuel" in Joel 1:1 is to emphasise that you cannot embrace the idea of an "open or spacious God without first recognising that that God is still Yahweh, i.e. the fearsome God of Israel, the Consuming Fire of Judgements and Justice (Hebrews 12:29). Otherwise, you can open yourself up to new and "unfamiliar" ideas that are not from the one true God but, rather, from the God you want to fashion to your soul's convenience. Having been stuck in stifling, dead doctrines for centuries, many "Christian" organisations (that call themselves "churches") have opened themselves to "new" and "unfamiliar" ideas to make their doctrine more "in harmony" with "modern times" and more "palatable" to audiences that would otherwise shun their organisations. This is why so many of them (especially in America and Europe) have embraced the active promotion of homosexuality, transvestite lifestyles, the abortion of defenceless foetuses, as well as marxist/socialist ideologies that turn elitist and totalitarian governments into the ultimate "God" that people should bow to and depend on for every aspect of their lives (with the "Christian" organisations acting as the totalitarian government's "nurturing nurse" sidekick that soothes the souls and keeps them under sedated submission to the status quo).

It is ironically fitting that the promotion of depraved ideas in self-proclaimed "Christian" organisations has come mostly from organisations with strong European roots. This is because Japheth (from whom literal Europeans emerged) are anointed with a need to pata, i.e. "enlarge", as decreed by God (Genesis 9:27). As a result, these organisations have felt a need to "enlarge" their doctrine. But, instead of going to the God of Israel, the Consuming Fire of fearsome judgements, to "enlarge" their understanding, they have chosen the easier path of "modernising" their doctrine, adapting it to popular trends of thought. This is because they hate the God of judgements, convinced, like the rest of the lost world, that such a God is too "square", too "legalistic", too "limiting" to be a source of enlargement into all sorts of new ideas and conquests. These "hip" pseudo-Christians do not know the True and Awesome God, and, it is even safe to say that the vast majority of these pseudo-Christians and their "enlightened" pastors will burn in Sheol for all of eternity because they were not even born again.

In a sense, we can say that the name "Joel" goes against the Canaanite spirit that rejects the God of Israel's judgements, which opens people up to all sorts of depraved and low-level ideas. On the other hand, the name "Pethuel" goes against the Girgashite spirit that tries to artificially contain people within methods of oppression that prevent people opening up to the new, unfamiliar, and constantly-flowing things of the Spirit that defy the soul's understanding. Therefore, the phrase "Joel son of Pethuel" comes against the 2 "female" ministerial endowments that have dominated the Church and the world, Canaanite pastors (who open believers to soulish, unrighteous things) and Girgashite teachers (who close believers to the new things of the Spirit).

God's ironic usage of pata

It is interesting to consider that pata is used in 26 verses of Scripture, and, other than the first verse, Genesis 9:27 (quoted above), 24 of the other 25 verses use pata in a very negative way (as you may certify in this blueletterbible.org list). The only exception is the next to last verse where pata is used, Hosea 2:14, where God speaks of "alluring" (pata) or "seducing" Israel and bringing her into the wilderness to speak to her heart (which points to God's red-horse shout that calls people to break away from the restrictive ways of Cain so that they can go into the lonely black-horse wilderness to interact with God directly, with no human covering in between them and the sky above).

Hence, the fact that God associates Himself with pata, a word that is used positively twice and (very) negatively 24 times, points to how the embracing of "Pethuel" (i.e.- that "God is open") requires the willingness to take great risks. However, if your heart is focused on Yahweh, the God of Israel, the fearsome Consuming Fire of judgements, you will be safe in Him as you become "open-minded" to His ever-growing "strange" and "unfamiliar" ideas.

"At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Matthew 11:25)

"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14)

Notice that Matthew 11:25 speaks of "babes" being revealed new things that the so-called "wise and prudent" are unable to perceive. Interestingly, the Greek word translated as "babes" in Matthew 11:25, nepios, is the same word that is mistranslated as "children" by the KJV in Ephesians 4:14 above. This shows a contrast between being an open-minded "baby" towards the new things of God versus being an open-minded "baby" towards the things of the enemy.

Not hungry for malice but for truth

In 1 Corinthians 14, the Spirit of God declares the following:

"Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men." (1 Corinthians 14:20)

The first word "children", in the phrase "be not children in understanding", was translated from the word paidion, which refers to children of a young age in general, not babies per se. Therefore, the first part of 1 Corinthians 14:20, "be not children in understanding", does not contradict Matthew 11:25's declaration that babes can be revealed new understanding, since both verses actually use different words in the original Greek (paidion v. nepios). Whereas Matthew 11:25 says that we need to be like open-minded (or "naive") babies to understand the things of God, 1 Corinthians 14:20 is saying that we should not be like young children in our level of understanding. In other words, we must be like children, and not just children, but "babies", in our attitude towards understanding, but not "young children" in our level of understanding. The "wise and the prudent" mentioned in Matthew 11:25 stop learning because they believe that they have learnt all that they need to learn, and they never have the humility to stand like babies before God to learn more from Him, which ironically leaves them in a childish state of understanding.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case with the KJV translators, the second word "children", in the phrase "in malice be ye children", was translated from a different Greek word than the word translated as "children" (paidion) earlier in the same verse! This propensity for inconsistent translation leads to many subtle details being lost in Scripture (as well as misinterpretations). The second word "children" was actually translated from the verb nepiazo, which is the verb form of the word nepios mentioned above. Hence, 1 Corinthians 14:20 is declaring that we are to be like babies in malice. This does not mean that we must open ourselves like naive babies to understand and operate in "malice". Instead, it is saying that we must not cultivate our involvement or interest in "malice" in such a way that we start to grow in it. In other words, the Spirit of God is referring once again not to our attitude but to our level of participation with understanding. Because a baby is too young to understand many things, a great deal of evil things said or done before it can go over its head, as when it cannot participate in the "humour" of a dirty joke with a double entendre or when it does not rejoice over the use of a vulgar word because it has not yet learnt its meaning. However, if the baby remains exposed to such "malice" and is open-minded towards practising it, it runs the danger of being contaminated by it and growing in it (after which it stops being a "baby" in malice and becomes a "teenager" or an "adult" in it).

Sadly, the word "men" at the end of 1 Corinthians 14:20 was also mistranslated by the KJV. The original adjective in the Greek text is teleios, which literally means "complete, perfect, brought to its end". In other words, the Spirit of God is declaring in 1 Corinthians 14:20 that we are to have an attitude that seeks after completion or perfection in its understanding of God and His truth, and, ironically, this is achieved when we have a hungry, "baby-like" attitude towards the things of God, constantly being aware that there are many new things to learn and that we cannot prematurely reject any "new" things, claiming that we have understood all that we need to understand (as the "wise and prudent" of Matthew 11:25 are wont to doing).

As a parenthesis, it must be clarified that 1 Corinthians 14:20 does not mean that we are not to grow in our understanding of how "malice" operates. Ironically, as we grow in God's Truth, we also grow in our understanding of "malice's" internal nature and its inner workings. This, however, becomes a weapon, not to engage in it, but to defeat it. Said another way, even if we do not grow in the execution of malice or our interest in it, we are to grow in our understanding of it to engage against it. A baby will normally not be interested in using a vulgar word, and he may not even understand that word for a season, but, if he is walking in righteousness, he will eventually grow to understand it, not to embrace it and rejoice in it, but to recognise what unrighteous people are trying to say when they use it and to fight against them accordingly.

The 4 generations

In the 2nd verse of Joel, the Spirit of God declares,

"Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?" (Joel 1:2)

Notice that the Spirit of God first refers to "old men" and then to the "inhabitants of the land". The "old men", or "elders" (as the original Hebrew word is translated in other verses), refers to people in positions of recognised authority, whereas the "inhabitants of the land" (or "dwellers of the earth" in the original Hebrew text) refer to those who dwell in the earth or earthliness, thereby referring to Girgashite teachers, as we have studied before. The "elders", therefore, point to the Canaanite pastors who occupy the positions of highest recognised "authority" in the matriarchal Church. Hence, the "old men" and the "inhabitants of the land" refer to the 2 distorted "female" ministries of pastor and teacher that have dominated in the matriarchal Church.

After addressing the pastoral matriarchy, the Spirit of God then asks, "Has this happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?" (Apparently, the word "even" added in the KJV is not present in the original Hebrew text). If we apply this question to the "old men", we can say that God is referring to the old men's younger days and to the days of the old men's fathers. If we apply this question to the "inhabitants of the land" mentioned in the verse, we can say that God is referring to the present generation' days and to the old men's younger days. Hence, we can see how God is referring to the days of at least 3 generations of people: the grandfathers' days, the fathers' days, and the current children's days.

In the next verse, the prophetic spirit of Joel declares the following:

"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." (Joel 1:3)

Notice how the verse above also refers to 3 generations, the "children", the "grandchildren", and the "great grandchildren". However, the fact that the verse above does not refer explicitly to the days of those generations has significance. It is as if verse 3 lumps those 3 generations into one larger generation of "children", in which case we can conclude that verses 2 and 3 refer to 4 generations, with the last generation being broken into 3 sub-groups:

The "grandfathers"
The "fathers"
The "current people"
The current people's descendants
1. The children
2. The grandchildren
3. The great grandchildren

Thus, the Lord is speaking of something that is happening in the days of the current generation (the 3rd generation) and has happened in the days of the previous 2, mainly through a direct generation-to-generation transmission where one generation's actions (or inactions) cause the very next generation to experience the same thing they experienced (this is why the Lord phrased His question in Joel 1:2 the way that He did, directing the same question at both the "elders" and the "inhabitants of the land").

As I asked the Lord what these 4 generations may be referring to, the following thoughts came to my mind (do note that, just like all Scripture, these 4 generations can have many applications at many levels, even though, at all times, the spiritual pattern will remain the same).

The first generation: 1948-1977

With regard to us, the first generation was the generation of believers from 1948 to 1977. This generation arose from the literal rebirth of the nation of Israel on 14 May 1948. It is around this time that the "latter-rain" movement began in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (as explained on wikipedia.org) and a period of revival emerged, propelled by believers such as William Branham, Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham (in the days when he was not yet fully corrupted). This led to a 10-year foundational period that culminated in 1958. This 10-year spiritual period of revival is what led to the 1950s being so different and unique, culturally speaking. Things were stirring in the spiritual atmosphere, and those stirrings affected music, the social interaction between races, and the general view that people had of the world.

1958: The transition year

Unbeknownst to many, 1958 was a very significant milestone year in human and spiritual history. That is why it is no coincidence that the most spiritual sport league on Earth, America's National Football League, or NFL, had their transformational Championship Game at the end of that year, the game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts that the Colts won 23-17 in the first sudden-death overtime championship game in NFL history (after a 17-17 tie at the end of regulation). That game is referred to as the "greatest game ever played", for it transformed the NFL and the landscape of American sport forever (NB: The NFL's spiritual relevance died several years ago; hell-bound bastard boy roger goodell has turned it into a cesspool of worthlessness, for which reason his torment in the fires of Sheol will be unbearable for all of eternity).

1958 was also very pivotal in the football (or "soccer") world. That year, the World Cup was held in Sweden, with the hosts reaching the final to play against Brazil. Neither country had won the World Cup before, and Brazil stunned the world by beating the hosts by a resounding score of 5-2. As indicated on wikipedia.org, the 1958 final remains unique in many ways: It holds the record for most goals scored in a final (7), and is tied with the 1970 and 1998 finals for the record for the widest margin of victory, 3 goals (interestingly, Brazil played in all those finals). The 1958 final also holds the record for the youngest and oldest goal scorers in a final, with the Brazilian Pele at 17 years and 249 days and the Swede Nils Liedholm at 35 years and 264 days. The 1958 final was also historically significant in that it was the first final featuring a European team and a team from the Americas. It was also the first time that a team won the World Cup in a continent other than their own. In fact, if you exclude the fluke World Cup in the African continent in 2010 (because an African team has never come close to winning the Cup), Brazil's feat of winning in a continent other than their own was not repeated until 2014 when Germany ironically won the World Cup in Brazil.

Aside from the above, what people remember the most about the 1958 World Cup was that it saw the rise of a young Pele as the most dominant football player in the world, and it was also the rise of Brazil as the most powerful football team on Earth, winning 3 out of 4 World Cups over a 13-year period (by repeating in 1962 and winning again in 1970). Thus, just as 1958 began a new era in American football, it also began a new era in world football.

1958 was also the birth year of Michael Jackson, whose significant prophetic role in American history (in the context of the Dodanim anointing) has been described in detail before. "Coincidentally", a few days after writing the previous sentence, I received an email about trivia (to which I was once involuntarily subscribed) that happened to focus on the fact that 3 important musicians were born in the American Midwest in 1958: Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince. Regardless of what one may think of Madonna and/or Prince, one must admit that they were artists that produced fresh and impactful new music. And, despite their flaws and some of their not-so-spiritually-stellar songs, many of their songs had a deeper prophetic anointing than most of the "religious" songs produced by the matriarchal Church. In fact, this writer is convinced that, had the Church done what it was supposed to do and carried out God's remnant will, all 3 of these individuals, (apostolic) Prince, (prophetic) Madonna, and (evangelistic) Michael Jackson would have turned into devout remnant believers who would have stirred the Earth's spiritual atmosphere in a mighty way, greatly furthering God's Kingdom. Unfortunately, the Church never did her part, but that does not take away from the fact that all 3 of these individuals were born in the American Midwest within 3 months of each other in the transition year of 1958.

1958 was also the year when Russia's first satellite Sputnik 1, launched in October 1957, fell from its orbit and burnt up on re-entry, on 4 January. On 31 January, 27 days later, America launched its first successful satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit, meaning that, as the first Soviet satellite fell off the sky, America's first rose up to it. 1958 was also so spiritually meaningful that Egypt and Syria united to form a single country, the "United Arab Republic". As explained on wikipedia.org, Egyptian president Nasser had the vision of a "pan-Arabic nation" that would join all Arabs under a single flag and government. Due to Nasser's great popularity in Syria after preventing the UK and France recovering the Suez Canal in 1956, he was able to convince Syria to unite with his country of Egypt on 1 February 1958 as the first step towards his envisioned pan-Arab nation. Even though the union only lasted 3 years (until the 1961 coup d'état in Syria), it was significant in stemming the rise of Communism in Syria (even though Nasser was anything but a democratic capitalist), and it revealed that the prophetically-sensitive Arabs knew that "something was in the air" as the world entered into 1958. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Iraq and Jordan united in February 1958 as well to form a country called the "Arab Federation" (on 14 February), which only lasted 6 months until August 1958 when King Faisal II of Iraq was overthrown and executed by a military coup.

1958 was also the year that American space scientist James van Allen announced the discovery of Earth's magnetosphere. As explained on wikipedia.org, the Explorer 1 satellite that had been launched in January 1958 confirmed the existence of the "Van Allen radiation belt" through its reading of cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. In 1958, American solar and plasma physicist Eugene Parker added to this discovery the proposal of a "solar wind" that interacted with the Earth's magnetic field. As a result, a more complete understanding of the Earth's "magnetosphere" was formed. All of this new scientific understanding of the Earth's outer atmosphere emphasises how the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth was being stirred in 1958. Thus, it is no coincidence that the U.S. Congress created NASA in 1958 (on 29 July, as indicated on wikipedia.org).

It was also in 1958, on 12 July (17 days before the creation of NASA), that an English band named "The Quarrymen" paid 17 shillings and 6 pence to have their first recording session. That band became the Beatles 2 years later, in 1960. This shows how 1958 was a year that laid important foundations for the spiritual movements of the 1960s.

It was also in 1958 (on 12 September) that American electrical engineer invented the first integrated circuit (i.e.- microchip) whilst working at Texas Instruments, thereby inaugurating the modern era of computer circuitry. On 18 October of 1958, a video game called "Tennis for Two", the first pure entertainment computer game in history, was invented by American physicist William Highinbotham (as indicated on wikipedia.org). Thus, 1958 is important in laying the foundation for the transition from a mechanical age to an electronic age.

It is also interesting to note that 1958 became the first year in history where more passengers were transported by air than by sea in transatlantic service (as indicated on wikipedia.org), thereby emphasising the spiritual transition or "shift in the air" that occurred in humanity in 1958. Thus, it is absolutely no coincidence that (as indicated on wikipedia.org) the number 1 song on the Top 100 Billboard Charts in America for 1958 was "Volare (Nel blu, dipinto di blu)" by the Italian singer Domenico Modugno. As explained on wikipedia.org, the word "Volare" means "to fly", and the phrase "nel blu, dipinto di blu" means "in the blue, painted blue" and is referring to someone in the blue sky with his face painted blue. The song starts with the following prelude, translated to English here:

I think that a dream like that will never return
I painted my hands and my face blue
then was suddenly swept up by the wind
and started to fly in the infinite sky

As we have shared before, flying points to the prophetic anointing, and the colour blue points to the "blue prayer shawl" that God's green-horse prophets wilfully wrap themselves in to go through Death and Sheol. Hence, the song has a strong spiritual connotation of green-horse riders who are dreaming of God's glory being manifested on Earth and who paint themselves blue to go through the deep sacrifices required to make that dream a reality. God's green-horse prophets are the men and women who trigger the transition into a new and unchartered age.

The hippie 60s and 70s

After 1958, the spiritual atmosphere shifted considerably. Even though the 1960s obviously started in 1960, one could say that the era of the 1960s actually started in 1958. That is when American music, for example, began to transition from the style that dominated the 1950s to the style that eventually dominated the 1960s. This is why, for example, the Italian song "Volare" mentioned above was the first song of the year since 1955 that was not sung by Elvis Presley (in 1956, the number 1 and 2 songs were Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Don't be cruel", and, in 1957, the number 1 song was Elvis' "All shook up", whereas Elvis peaked at number 3 for the year in 1958 with 2 songs, "Don't" and "I beg you", according to wikipedia.org). This is also why, as we shared above, the Beatles had their first recording session in 1958 under the name "The Quarrymen", only to rename themselves as the "Beatles" when the literal 1960s started in 1960.

After 1948, the 1950s rolled through the world, and, as they did, the traditionalism that had dominated the American culture in the 1940s began to disintegrate. Then, as 1958, 1959, and the 1960s rolled in, that disintegration process accelerated dramatically. God had declared that the ways of the past could not continue, and He was forcing America and the rest of humanity to discover a new and superior way of doing things that went beyond the prevailing traditions. This is when the spiritual revival that began in 1948 evolved into the spiritual movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a movement that included the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit through people like Kathryn Kuhlman and that led to the so-called "Jesus Movement" that cried out for a great manifestation of God on Earth outside of the Church's traditional structures. Even though a small portion of the Church discerned this prophetic door that had been opened in the spirit realm, most of the Church remained either oblivious or resistant to it, and even those who responded to it either abused it or did not follow through completely on it. Because of this, the 1960s degraded into the hippie, anti-war, and drug movements that rejected traditionalism for the mere sake of rejecting it but had no righteous and spiritually realistic aim to target for. As is always the case, whenever a spiritual door of opportunity opens and God's people do not rise up to conquer the new space that becomes available, the "power vacuum" in that space is eventually filled by the enemy in an effort to mar and reverse any progress achieved on behalf's of God's Kingdom. As we have explained before, the Church's failure during this time was represented by America's first space-travel tragedy, when 3 astronauts inside a rocket died after the rocket exploded before it could leave the launching pad.

Even though the 1970s are often seen as different from the 1960s, in a spiritual sense, the 1970s were a continuation of the 1960s. Even though the hippie, drugs, and anti-war movements slowly subsided during the 1970s, their spiritual impact continued, and their effect could be seen in the music, fashion trends, and moral values of the 1970s. Having miserably missed her door of opportunity, the American Church's massive failure was reflected in the natural realm by America's first war defeat in its history, the Vietnam War. Thus, the cycle that started in 1948 and intensified in 1958 concluded towards the end of the 1970s, and God's latter-rain revival had not come to pass.

1978: The transition into the 2nd generation

It can be said that the spiritual period that started in 1948 and began to peak in 1958 ended in 1978, which is when a new spiritual period started. Just like 1958, the year 1978 brought with it a significant shift in the spiritual atmosphere. This shift was evident, for example, in the music that became popular that year. According to wikipedia.org, 5 of the top 8 songs of the year 1978 in America were by either the Bee Gees (3) or Andy Gibb (2). By contrast, in 1977, the previous year, only Andy Gibb had a song in the year's top 10 and the best position for a Bee Gees song was No. 80. This means that 1978 saw the rise to dominance of a very different type of music, the disco-style music of the Gibb brothers, a style that went beyond being danceable but had strongly creative and fresh compositional qualities.

Politically speaking, it can be argued that 1978 was the year when public opinion towards Democrat President Jimmy Carter began to turn negative. After appearing to be a fresh new option that would cleanse America's palate from the Republican failures of (RINO) Nixon and the (media-exaggerated) Watergate scandal, Jimmy Carter proved in his first year (1977) to be a weak leader who quickly descended into narrow-minded and self-righteous pettiness over things he did not fully understand. Thus, as music began to breathe fresh air of hope into America's (and the world's) spiritual atmosphere, Americans began to realise in 1978 that the staleness and wandering hopelessness of Carter's leadership did not fit with the times. And, as things became worse in 1979 (due to the Iranian-Revolution-induced oil crisis, the Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iran hostage crisis), America knew that they needed a fresh new leadership that was more fitting of the opportunities in the air. This paved the way for the unlikely election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, who went on to become the greatest President in American history.

Many would give the title of "greatest American President" to Abraham Lincoln, but, as we have described in gruesome detail in the audio snippets (and briefly in a few postings), Abraham Lincoln is a massively overrated man who succeeded despite himself and not because of himself. Lincoln was a man who fought God's perfect will at every turn and only yielded (as little as he could) to the changes that God was calling for, but only when he had absolutely no other choice. Having been placed in a pivotal and powerful historical position to fundamentally change America forever, Lincoln kept trying to return America to the past and is therefore responsible before the eyes of God for many of the evil roots that plague America (especially black America) even to this day. Mind you, saying that Ronald Reagan (and not Lincoln) was the greatest President in American history says less about the greatness of his presidency and more about the spiritual smallness of the vast majority of Presidents that America has had. Saying that Ronald Reagan was the greatest president in American history is like saying that Pau Gasol was the greatest basketball player in Spain's history, which is a nice title to have but is not as impressive when you consider that Spain does not have that strong of a basketball tradition. Ronald Reagan's presidency was very, very flawed, and he left a multitude of evils in America unaddressed and unresolved. Even so, he was able, on the strength of his character alone, to give America a new lease on life and allow it to continue as a strong nation, tearing down the Iron Curtain as God began to prepare things for His latter-day move.

A sad middle point that foretold the future

Based on what we have shared so far, we can say that the first latter-rain door of opportunity happened between 1948 and 1978, a 30-year period that was divided into a 10-year "preparatory" period and a 20-year period of (intended) growth. Therefore, we can say that the middle year in that 30-year period was 1963 (15 years after 1948 and 15 years before 1978). Thus, it is no spiritual coincidence that 1963 will always be remembered for a very sad reason, the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on 22 November 1963. Regardless of what you may or may not think of JFK, it cannot be argued that his assassination (at the hands of a left-wing Soviet-sympathising domestic terrorist) shook not only America but the entire world in a way that few assassinations have in recent human history. This is because of the hope, the promise of a fresh new future that JFK represented. It is as if, when JFK died, America and the world knew that the wonderful promises that were available in the spirit realm at the time would not be realised. And, sadly, this is exactly what happened. By the end of 1977, the generation of the "grandfathers", i.e.- the elders' fathers mentioned at the end of Joel 1:2, had come and gone, and they had wasted away the precious opportunities for profound transformation that had been placed before them.

As we said above, 1978 was the end of a spiritual generation and the beginning of a new one. Just for emphasis, let us reconsider some of the things that happened in 1978 that show how transitional that year was.

1978: Camp David

As some of you may know, 1978 was very important in Middle East history because it was the year of the Camp David Accords, when Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat met at Camp David, Maryland to discuss peace between Israel and Egypt. As detailed on wikipedia.org, the Camp David Accords were 2 political agreements (signed after 12 days of talks) between Israel and Egypt on 17 September 1978, which led to the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

The Camp David agreements were flawed because of the way they attempted to deal with the "Palestinian problem", whose real solution (as we have shared before) consists of asking the Palestinians who live in Israeli-controlled territories to submit to the God-decreed existence of Israel and to live like law-abiding Israeli citizens with full-blown rights in the freest and most democratic society in the Middle East (at least until the pandamic, when Israel descended into lockdown and mRNA injection ultra-tyranny --- cursed by God is self-righteous, hell-bound pig Benjamin Netanyahu). By the way, under God's solution to the "Palestinian problem", the Arabs who label themselves as "Palestinians" and who refuse to live as free Israeli citizens have the option to get out of Israel and return to Jordan, which is where they originally came from (for a better understanding of the "Palestinian problem", we recommend an article posted on science.co.il).

Despite their flaws, the Camp David Accords did accomplish one very relevant thing: the recognition of the God-decreed nation of Israel by an Arab nation. After 30 years, a few sons of Ishmael, the ones in Egypt, finally recognised what the God of Abraham had supernaturally materialised in 1948. After God's judgement process on Egypt is complete, Egypt shall be blessed, and it will be evident to all that God has loved Egypt for what it did in 1978.

"20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. 21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it. 22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them. 23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians." (Isaiah 19:20-23)

Many credit Jimmy Carter for the success of the Camp David Peace Accords, but those who do overestimate his contribution. Yes, those Accords were one of the few good things that Jimmy Carter did right, and, as a born-again Christian, he had a God-given authority and anointing to bring about something that God, not him, had initiated in the spirit realm. However, Jimmy Carter failed to add to the conversation the things that only a Christian (as opposed to a Jew or an Arab) could have brought to the table. He was the only one of the 3 who had an opportunity to hear God's voice directly and understand His solution for peace in the Middle East. However, he was too stupid to go beyond his very limited understanding and discern God's truth. Aside from this, the limitation of his contribution can also be discerned by what happened to all 3 participants after the Accords.

As mentioned on wikipedia.org, Egypt became reviled by the rest of the Arab nations. Being the strongest military force in the Arab world, Egypt was seen by the rest of the Arabs as the "one" that would someday lead the Arab world in crushing the hated Jews, driving them into the sea once and for all. Therefore, when Sadat signed the Accords in 1978 and then signed the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, he was perceived as a traitor, and Egypt was promptly kicked out of the Arab League and was not allowed to return until 1989. The God-hating Arab rubbish within Egypt was not too pleased either (especially the leftists, as indicated on wikipedia.org), for which reason they promptly assassinated him a couple of years later, on 6 October 1981. After having done much good in Egypt by introducing increased democracy and capitalism, the despised-by-God followers of meshuggah repaid Sadat's good deeds towards the Arab people by murdering him (what else can be expected from them?).

Even though Menachem Begin was not assassinated, he also suffered some political turmoil within Israel as a result of the Accords. Many people who had previously supported him became outraged over the fact that Begin had yielded conquered land, namely the Sinai Peninsula, in return for peace, which forced the Israelis who had begun settling in that area to abandon it. Begin, however, did not yield to Carter's insistence to relinquish Judaea and Samaria, known to the Jew haters as the "West Bank". Carter, being the matriarchal idiot that he was, remained convinced that the only way for Israel to be at peace with all of its enemies was to appease them with as much land as possible, thereby inaugurating the "land for peace" policy that has unfortunately prevailed even to this day. Even though it might seem like Begin sinned against God by returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, it must be said that the Sinai was never part of the historical Israel, even in ancient times, for which reason there was no need to insist on it remaining under Israeli control. The same, however, cannot be said about Judaea and Samaria, which was given to the Jewish people by God as part of the Promised Land and was, for centuries, controlled mostly by the 12 tribes of Israel until God temporarily took it away from them after they killed the Mashiach. In a sense, you could say that the Sinai, which Israel took during the Six-Day War of 1967 and successfully defended during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, was supernaturally given to Israel by God as a bargaining chip, as a sacrificial seed that would allow Sadat and the people of Egypt to make peace with Israel (a peace that produced long-lasting blessings for Egypt in the present and in the years to come). Returning the Sinai to Egyptian control, however, did not mean that God was now in the business of placating the Ishmaelites' satanic wrath against Jacob by yielding land and sovereignty to them after their every tantrum. This writer believes that Begin understood this deep within him, and it is to his credit that he understood how Israel was not supposed to Girgashitely cling to the Sinai, even if it meant him paying a political price. After additional unpopular moves and Hittite attacks following the death of his wife, Menachem Begin was forced to resign from his Prime Minister position in 1983, 2 years after Sadat's assassination (as indicated on wikipedia.org). He then fell into severe depression and lived the rest of his life in seclusion on the outskirts of Jerusalem, dying in 1992.

By contrast to Sadat and Begin, Jimmy Carter retired to a long, long life, remaining in the public spotlight, performing a multitude of actions that have been irrelevant at best and very destructive at worst. Thus, we can safely say that, when compared to Sadat's and Begin's deep personal sacrifice, Carter's spiritual sacrifice when it came to the Camp David Accords was minimal. In fact, had Carter had his give-away-land-for-pseudo-peace way, the Accords would have been more injurious than beneficial to Israel. Therefore, the Camp David Accords speak more about the spiritual relevance of 1978 than about the spiritual relevance of the worthless clown and baboon Jimmy peanut-brain Carter.

1978: Argentina's victory

1978's spiritual relevance can also be seen in the world of sport. In 1978, the World Cup was held in Argentina, with Argentina and Holland playing in an epic final played in River Plate's home stadium in Buenos Aires. "Coincidentally", this was the first time since the 1958 final (mentioned earlier) where neither team had previously won a World Cup, meaning that the final guaranteed a new world's champion. The 1978 final was very intense. This writer actually remembers watching that match on television as a youngster, and I was cheering for Holland the whole way. The "Matador" Mario Alberto Kempes scored in the 38th minute to give Argentina the lead, and Holland was able to equalise 8 minutes before the end of regulation when Nanninga scored (to my heart's delight). I then vividly recall how, on the 91st minute, as the referee was looking at his watch to whistle the end of regulation, Holland's Rob Rensenbrick received a long pass from Rene van der Kerkoff and, with the Argentinean defender slightly behind him, shot the ball at the Argentinean goal and hit the left goal post. I remember how the entire stadium gasped because, had the ball gone in, it would have been all over and Holland would have been World Champions. The game eventually went into overtime, and the Matador Kempes scored an extraordinary goal in the 105th minute, shortly before the end of the first half of overtime. I remember how I and the Dutch national team were emotionally exhausted and how Kempes' goal felt like an insurmountable hurdle. Because of this emotional exhaustion, Argentina's Daniel Bertoni scored some 10 minutes later, thereby sealing Holland's fate and Argentina's first world championship with a final score of 3-1.

Aside from the emergence of a new first-time World Champion in 1978, there is a spiritual element to Argentina's 1978 victory that is very important to consider: Argentina's 1978 coach, Cesar Luis Menotti. As explained on thesefootballtimes.co, Argentina suffered a humiliating 1st round exit from the 1974 World Cup in Germany, which included a 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Holland and its "Mechanical Orange" team. This was the result of Argentina's insistence on playing a style of football promoted by Osvaldo Zubeldia, coach of the "Estudiantes" team in the late 1960s. Zubeldia preached a very inelegant style that was totally obsessed with "winning and nothing else", a style that believed that brute force determination and physical sacrifice was the key to winning. Clearly, this pragmatic, brute-force style proved brutally ineffective and impractical when challenged by a team such as Holland who were playing with an innovative and dynamic new style known as "total football".

Despite Argentinean football being enthralled with Zubeldia's system, Menotti had chosen many years earlier to distance himself from it. In 1970, Menotti went to Mexico to watch the 1970 World Cup, the Cup where Brazil shined, playing beautiful football to become the first team to ever win the World Cup 3 times. When Menotti saw Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson, and the other Brazilian players do their "magic" (and do so with winning results), Menotti realised that Argentina needed to get away from their overly pragmatic and brute-force style of play in order to embrace a style that emphasised beautiful and elegant football. Menotti was convinced that, if you play great and elegant football, the wins will come more naturally. What was peculiar about Menotti's style is that it did not simply obsess with "playing pretty"; instead, it combined a beautiful approach with an attacking mentality that sought to effectively reach the other team's goal and conquer it.

What is even more interesting about Menotti's style is that, when he would teach it, he sounded more like a philosopher than a "football coach". Consider, for example, the following quote from him:

"I maintain that a team is above all an idea, and more than an idea it is a commitment, and more than a commitment it is the clear convictions that a coach must transmit to his players to defend that idea. So my concern is that we coaches don't arrogate to ourselves the right to remove from the spectacle the synonym of festival, in favour of a philosophical reading that cannot be sustained, which is to avoid taking risks. And in football there are risks because the only way you can avoid taking risks in any game is by not playing."

If you have listened to the audio snippet posted just the day before these words were written, you will probably notice how the above quote so "eerily" fits with everything said in that audio snippet about the fundamental flaws in the U.S. military. This writer must say that I was already writing about something else further down in this article when the Lord said with a clear voice, "You must go back and say much more about Argentina in the 1978 World Cup", which prompted me to write so many of the above details. After I felt that I was once again "done" with Argentina, the Lord said, "You must talk about Menotti", which prompted me to find the quote above. Many, many years ago, I watched a football documentary about Menotti, which made me aware about his unusually philosophical approach to the game, but I sincerely did not recall most of the details about his approach. And, if he perchance said the above quote in that documentary, I certainly had no recollection of it. Therefore, I was stunned when I read the quote and realised that it encapsulated everything that the Lord God of Israel had had me saying a few hours earlier in the audio clip. If you listen to that audio clip, you will understand what I am saying, and you will realise that the message not only applies to football teams or to the military but to the stupid American Church and to conservatives, who continue to "play" with Zubeldia's pragmatic, brute-force approach and refuse to listen to the "Menotti"s that are sent to them, discarding them as "fringe thinkers", as rebels who refuse to understand the "value" of their spiritually void orthodoxy. When Argentina lost 4-0 to Holland in 1974 and realised that they had been severely humiliated in the sight of the entire world, they accepted the fact that they needed a change. By contrast, even when the American Church, her vaunted prophets, and conservatives in general have seen their sound defeat, humiliation, and oppression at the hands of liberals over the last 3 years, they persistently refuse to listen to the "Menotti"s and are determined not to let those "Menotti"s' ideas transform their dilapidated and discredited systems. The God of Israel is tired of waiting on these stupid Americans, and He has set an ultimatum: If they do not respond in 9 months (from the time of this posting), America's calling will be as dead as Latin America's, and America will quickly fall into eternal third-world status.

Despite all the clear controversies regarding the Argentinean dictatorship's interference during the World Cup (as described on wikipedia.org), this writer believes that it was God's will for Argentina to win that World Cup and that Argentina was not "handed" the championship, as proved by the fact that they were able to tie the mighty (and non-conceding) Brazilian team in a tense and vicious 0-0 draw (which I also remember watching). The fact that they defeated the powerful Polish team 2-0, along with the fact that they were never behind in the game against the mighty Holland and its Mechanical Orange team during the final also proves that they were indeed playing at World-Championship level. In fact, Argentina's only loss came at the end of the first round when they lost 1-0 to the eventual 4th-place team, the 2-time World Champions Italy. This writer, however, would dare say that Argentina's loss to Italy was more a consequence of the Argentineans being in awe of their ancestors (many, if not most, Argentineans have Italian blood in them). Hence, Argentina's 1978 victory in a tense and hard-fought final that (for the first time since 1958) featured two teams with no previous World Cup titles, as well as the fact that the mighty Brazil were kept out of the final, illustrates how 1978 marked a period of transition in the football world from the dominance of Brazil in the previous generation to the rise of new powers and a new style of football in the world stage.

Having said all of the above, we must add an important clarification. Any seemingly "positive" thing we have said above about Argentina and Argentineans is in the context of the year 1978. Now, Argentina is a worthless land cursed and despised by God, a land of pathetic hispanic thugs and cheaters, murderers who are willing to stealthily and illegally destroy anyone that gets in the way of what they want. At the time of this writing, they just "won" a World Cup, but it was a "win" tainted by blatant cheating and thuggery (too long to detail here). Also, the World Cup in question is tainted by the mRNA-injection impositions on it, meaning that, if the world were filled with players with wisdom and conviction, that World Cup might have had to be cancelled (on top of the fact that it was played in another oppressive, terrorism-promoting country cursed by God). There are no more World Cups. The last full World Cup was played in 2018 (even if it was also played under yet another dark and oppressive regime despised by God). As some of you may know, the next "World Cup" is supposed to be a 3-country, 48-team farce where at least 2 of the host countries currently demand the mRNA injection for entry. Given the last 2 host-country choices and the ridiculous 3-country, 48-team circus that is coming in 2026, the perennially corrupt FIFA have shown that they are officially dead. The "FIFA World Cup", as an international event of any credibility or spiritual relevance ended forever when the extra time of the 2022 final ended in a 3-3 tie. Everything that happened after that is as relevant as if it had never happened. Argentina's "victory", achieved through deception and violent thuggery, is null and void, and it marks the death of the relevance of FIFA, the World Cup, and football (i.e.- "soccer") as a sport of any spiritual relevance.

Congratulations, argentineans! You just earned yourselves a deeper level of cursing and eternal wailing in literal hell when you die!!! And anyone who applauds your "victory" will share in that curse!!! Eternally cursed by God is the worthless hispanic land of argentina, cursed by God are hispanics, and cursed by God are all condoners of the hispanic culture, whether they be hispanic or not. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.

{I must share that it pains me to write the above about argentina, which went into a spiritual coma around 2009/2010 and died in 2014, for this writer truly had a deep love for that people and that land. They have proved that they are willing to callously destroy others to get what they want, for which reason God shall callously curse them unto eternal suffering and death.}

1978: The end of Landry's Cowboys' success

The spiritual shift of 1978 can also be discerned in American football. Even though the Super Bowl that was played in 1978 was Super Bowl 12, the Super Bowl that truly corresponds to the year 1978 is Super Bowl 13. This is because the NFL season of 1978, which was played between September and December of 1978, had its championship game, Super Bowl 13, played in January of 1979. By the same token, Super Bowl 12, which was played in January of 1978, was actually the championship game for the season played between September and December of 1977. Even so, it is worth examining both Super Bowl 12 and Super Bowl 13 to discern the spiritual transition that happened in 1978.

Morton v. Staubach

Super Bowl 12, which was played in New Orleans, Louisiana, saw the NFC champions Dallas Cowboys playing against the AFC champions Denver Broncos. Whereas Dallas had been a consistent winner for years and was not a "surprise" in the big game, Denver had been a perennial loser and took everyone by surprise when they made it to the big game. As explained on wikipedia.org, it took the Denver franchise 14 years (from 1960 to 1973) to finally have a winning season. And, prior to their miraculous 1977 season, they had not even made the playoffs. Things suddenly changed for Denver, however, when quarterback Craig Morton joined the team in 1977.

Craig Morton had just played 3 seasons with the New York Giants, and, prior to that, he had been with Dallas, where he started his career in 1965 (the year of the first Super Bowl). As indicated on wikipedia.org, Morton was a backup to the very successful Don Meredith for his first 4 years in Dallas, becoming the starter in 1969 after Meredith's unexpected retirement. That same year, Dallas also acquired the services of Roger Staubach, whom they had drafted in 1964 but who had not been able to join Dallas due to his military service. Despite Staubach's presence, Dallas head coach Tom Landry gave Morton the chance to be a starter and prove himself after 4 years of waiting under Meredith. In 1970, his second year as a starter, Morton led Dallas to the NFC championship and to Super Bowl 5, where he and Dallas lost to the Baltimore Colts on a last-second field goal by rookie kicker Jim O'Brien. The next year, 1971, Morton was not allowed to build on the momentum of the team's NFC championship but was instead forced by Tom Landry to share the starting role with Roger Staubach. Landry would start Morton in one game and Staubach in the next. In fact, in a game against the Chicago Bears, Landry went to the extreme of alternating Morton and Staubach between plays. After that game, Landry benched Morton, settling on Staubach, after which Dallas went on a 10-game winning streak that included their 24-3 victory against the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl 6.

The next season (1972), Morton regained the starting position, but only because Staubach had suffered a separated shoulder. After an outstanding performance that year, Morton led Dallas to the playoffs but was down 28-13 late in the 3rd quarter to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional playoff game. Given that the game looked all but lost, Landry replaced Morton with Staubach. Amazingly, Staubach threw 2 touchdown passes in the last 90 seconds, leading to a 30-28 comeback victory. After this game, Staubach became the permanent starter, and Morton was relegated to backup once again. He stayed with Dallas for one more season, 1973, before being traded to the New York Giants, where he had 3 terrible seasons from 1974 to 1976, playing less than outstanding football for a less than outstanding team. This is when he was traded to Denver in 1977, where things miraculously turned around for him and for the hapless Broncos.

Considering all of the above, it is interesting to consider that, upon succeeding and reaching an improbable Super Bowl with the Broncos, Morton would end up facing his old team Dallas and the quarterback, Roger Staubach, who had won the starting position from him. Unfortunately for Morton, things did not go too well for Denver or him in Super Bowl 12. Dallas jumped to a 10-0 lead in the 1st quarter and never looked back, winning decisively 27-10. Staubach completed 17 of 25 passes for 183 yards, 1 touchdown, and 0 interceptions. By contrast, Morton only completed 4 of 15 passes for 39 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.

Even though all of the above may seem like irrelevant sport gibberish with no spiritual value, it actually reveals in a very vivid way what happened in the spiritual period that had started in 1948 and ended in 1977. Morton represents the believers during this period who were spiritually talented, were willing to listen to God, but who never trusted God enough to get the fullness of the message and gifts that He had for them. As indicated on wikipedia.org, one of the reasons why Dallas coach Tom Landry chose Morton over Staubach for Super Bowl 5 was because he felt less confident about Staubach following his game plan. Staubach was more of a scrambler who would often break out of the "pocket" and improvise when he perceived that the play had broken down. Even though it must be said that Morton had better numbers than Staubach in 1970, the fact that Morton's "submissiveness" and Staubach's improvisations were a big factor in Landry's decision reveal a spiritual flaw in both Landry and Morton. Landry had a hard time letting go and allowing the players' individuality to shine through, and Morton was the perennial "good soldier" that always followed orders and never took individual risks. This writer believes that Morton's career was significantly hampered by injuries because of this. Since he would "stay with the called play" all the way through, he would often stay in the "pocket" too long and be forcefully sacked more often than he had to.

Thus, it is spiritually fitting that a rookie Colts kicker rose to the challenge and scored the last-second winning field goal to beat Landry and Morton in Super Bowl 5. Landry (who called all the plays in Super Bowl 5) and Morton, are a figure of how the Church's avant-garde believers of the 1948-1977 period were open to God's call and were equipped with many spiritual talents and much potential, but were unable to break through because they were ultimately unwilling to allow the spiritual value of individual believers to shine forth. The Church's avant-garde believers believed that they would be led to the Promised Land by a few Moses figures who would come up with a few spiritual innovations that everyone else was supposed to simply follow. Landry was a great innovator, but his innovations were never enough to become the dominant team in the NFL, for which reason he lived under the shadow of two dynasties, the Green Bay Packers of the 1960s and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s, never able to beat either of them when it mattered. And this is why Landry (who was a devout born-again Christian) and Morton lost Super Bowl 5 to a rookie kicker's last-minute field goal, a field goal that was set up by the interception of a Morton pass by Mike Curtis that put the Colts on the Cowboys' 28-yard line with time running out. It is worth noting that the interception was not technically Morton's fault, for it resulted from the ball slipping through Dallas running back Dan Reeves' hands and into the hands of Curtis, which is a figure of how, even when you seem to be "not at fault" because you were following instructions like a "good soldier", you do not have God's ultimate backing because you are ultimately following the instructions of (a good) man, not God.

As was mentioned earlier, Dallas did return to the Super Bowl the next year after their loss to the Colts in Super Bowl 5, winning convincingly by a score of 24-3 over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl 6, which was played in New Orleans, Louisiana (a town connected to the galloping of the black horse of independence). This time, however, Dallas were led by Staubach, not Morton. As indicated on wikipedia.org, Staubach's presence changed Miami's defensive tactic, prompting them to protect against Staubach's penchant for scrambling, which did succeed in containing Staubach but opened up the field for other Dallas players. There was also something about Staubach's inner swagger that "infected" Dallas with a strong confidence going into Super Bowl 6, something that would not have happened with Morton's more subdued, "good-soldier" personality. Interestingly, Miami's quarterback, the subtly cocky Bob Griese, actually completed the same number of passes as Staubach and for 15 more yards, but he threw 1 interception with 0 touchdowns, whereas Staubach threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, thereby revealing that Staubach (a devout Christian who, unlike Landry, was more willing to embrace individualities) had a spiritual presence about him that was more important than his cold statistics, which is why Staubach's passes were more fruitful than Griese's.

Alydar Landry

Considering the above, it is no spiritual coincidence that 1978 saw the horse "Affirmed" win the "Triple Crown" of horse racing in America, which involves winning the year's 3 biggest races: the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, and the Belmont Stakes in New York. Considering how both Super Bowl 12 (played in 1978 to end the 1977 season) and Super Bowl 13 (played at the end of the 1978 season) are linked to the year 1978, it is no spiritual coincidence that 1977 also had a Triple Crown winner in "Seattle Slew". This is the only time in American horse racing history that there have been Triple Crown winners in consecutive years. To give you a perspective of how unusual that is, there have only been 13 Triple Crown winners in a 104-year period (1919-2022), and only 2 since Affirmed in 1978. All of this emphasises the relevance of the spiritual transition that was happening on Earth between 1977 and 1978.

It is also worth noting that, in all 3 Triple Crown races that Affirmed won in 1978, a horse named "Alydar" placed second each time. In fact, as mentioned on wikipedia.org, Alydar lost to Affirmed by just 1.5 lengths in the Kentucky Derby, by a neck in the Preakness Stakes, and by a head in the Belmont Stakes. This correlates with what happened to Dallas in their 3 Super Bowl losses under Tom Landry: They lost to the Colts in Super Bowl 5 on a last-second field goal, they lost to Pittsburgh by 4 points in Super Bowl 10 (after leading by 3 in the 4th quarter), and they lost to Pittsburgh by 4 points once again in Super Bowl 13 (which they could have tied had Jackie Smith not dropped Roger Staubach's pass in the end zone in the 3rd quarter, forcing Dallas to settle for a field goal). Even though Dallas had 2 Super Bowl wins interspersed between those 3 losses, both wins were against former AFL teams (Miami in Super Bowl 6 and Denver in Super Bowl 12), whereas their 3 losses were against teams from the former NFL before the merger with the AFL in 1970. Also, their two Super Bowl wins were against teams that had never won an NFL or AFL championship (Miami won their first championship the next year, in Super Bowl 7, and Denver won their first championship until Super Bowl 32, 20 years after their loss to Dallas). By contrast, their 3 Super Bowl losses were against teams who had won NFL championships before (the Colts won the NFL title in 1958 and 1959, and the Steelers won their first NFL title in Super Bowl 9, the year before they faced Dallas for the first time). Therefore, their 3 losses were against teams with more "historical credentials", which correlates with how the Triple Crown races involve horses who already have established a significant winning reputation. Because of this and the fact that Dallas was also in the former NFL before the merger, we can see how their 3 straight losses against pre-merger NFL teams and against former champions prove that Landry's Dallas team were spiritually represented in Alydar in the equestrian world, a horse that was clearly very, very good but that had a limitation within him that prevented him getting over the hump that separates the "very, very good" from the "great".

The slightly Abelian Landry

As a parenthesis, it is now worth asking, "Why was Tom Landry the NFL equivalent of 'Alydar'"? You may think that this is a silly question that is only relevant to people interested in American football, but the answer to it actually points to deeper spiritual issues related to the spiritual transition that happened in 1978. According to a Chicago Tribune article from the year 2000 (highlight added by us),

"Tom Landry embodied the best and worst of the fathers so many of us grew up under in the 1950s and '60s. You did it his way and did not ask why. You were pretty sure he cared about you but never quite sure he loved you."

As explained in that article, Landry was an excellent teacher, and his players learnt a great deal from him, but he was very emotionally detached from them. As explained on coachfore.org, this was the result of a deliberate decision by Landry to make it easier for him to cut or bench players who no longer fit his plans, and he was known for being very cold when cutting players. He ran the team like a business, and he saw all his player and coaching moves as business decisions that needed to be done without any emotionalism. Consider, for example, this quote from Landry from around 1973, retrieved from texasmonthly.com (notice his subtle disdain for "individualism"):

"I've come to the conclusion that players want to be treated alike. They may talk about individualism, but I believe they want a single standard. Yes, that belief is behind many of the trades we made. If a player is contributing and performing the way he ought to, he will usually conform. Now if he isn't performing well and not conforming to team standards either, he ought not be around. We can put up with someone who is getting the job done as long as he'll conform. But we just can't get along with a player who doesn't conform or perform. No way."

This mixture of Jebusite and Girgashite and Amorite behaviour led him to "Amoritely" see his players like objects, like cogs in a Girgashite machine used as a means to an end. Thus, he had no qualms about applying severe Jebusite judgement to chop off the cogs that were not performing as needed, and he was willing to ruthlessly move cogs around in order to maximise the team's efficiency (as when he alternated Morton and Staubach at quarterback between games and even between plays in 1971). He did this without taking into account the cogs' emotions or their individual, long-term (prophetic) potential . Hence, we can say that, devoted to Christianity as he was, Landry suffered from a subtle infection of the spirit of Cain, since, as we have seen before, Cain is a Girgashite-Jebusite gone Amorite. Therefore, without meaning to, Landry was a subtle enemy of people with the spirit of Abel, so players who had a measure of that spirit would eventually shrivel and die under him.

Because his players would never be allowed a strong and independent individual identity, his teams had great trouble winning the "big game", which is why he was never able to defeat Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in 2 championship games during the 1960s and why he was unable to defeat Chuck Noll's Pittsburgh Steelers in 2 Super Bowls during the 1970s (which propelled the Packers and Steelers to become the "dynasty teams" of the 1960s and 1970s respectively). It was only until Roger Staubach's injection into Landry's team that Dallas was finally able to have a measure of the "Abelian ingredient" that it need to salvage 2 championships (Super Bowls 6 and 12). Staubach had an internal self-confidence that allowed him to go "off-script" during the game, even if it meant drawing Landry's ire (or at least his passive-aggressive displeasure). The reason why Landry was willing to tolerate Staubach in a way that he would have never tolerated any other player is two-fold. For one, Staubach, like Landry, was a committed Christian, meaning that Landry could not simplistically attribute his "rebellion" to a "soul that is out of control". Second, Staubach proved his sense of commitment and integrity when he fulfilled his military obligations by serving in the Navy for 4 years after his university studies at the Naval Academy, which is why he was a 27-year-old rookie when he finally entered the NFL. Thus, Staubach had proved to Landry (a World War II Army veteran) and to all that he could be an "obedient soldier" when needed, and a faithful one at that. This gave Landry latitude to give Staubach a greater "benefit of the doubt" every time Staubach would inject his own thinking into the plays as well as injecting his own personality into the rest of the team. He would have never tolerated this from anyone else.

The Duane Thomas test

Because of his relative coldness towards his players, Landry had trouble relating to black players and to the spiritual issues that they would sometimes come with. For example, he had a black running back named Duane Thomas who, when he came out of college, was seen by many as the next Jim Brown (the running-back equivalent of Pele in American football). When Thomas joined Dallas in the 1970 season, he became instantly productive. Even though Landry did not trust him enough to start him from the beginning of the season (starting him only until the 5th game), Thomas led the team in rushing that season with 803 yards (8th best in the NFL) on just 151 carries (for a league best 5.3 yards per carry). In Dallas' 2 playoff games that season, he rushed for 135 and 143 yards respectively, proving that he was indeed a very talented player.

Unfortunately, Thomas' success went to his head, and, in keeping with the sense of Hivite entitlement prevalent in the American black culture, he demanded that his 3-year contract be rewritten, and, when Dallas refused, he became vocally aggressive in the media against Dallas' management and against Landry. Because of this, he was traded to the New England Patriots, but (for reasons too long to describe here), the NFL commissioner at the time voided Thomas's trade, forcing Thomas to play for Dallas in the 1971 season. In keeping with the spirit of Amorite pride prevalent in the black American culture, Thomas went on a "vow of silence", refusing to speak to teammates, management, or the media the entire season. Despite all of this, Thomas still led the league in rushing and total touchdowns, was named an All-Pro, and ran for a team-leading 95 yards and 1 touchdown in Dallas' 24-3 win over Miami in Super Bowl 6. In the 1972 off-season, Thomas became even more isolated and rebellious, prompting Dallas to trade him to the San Diego Chargers, where he continued with his intransigent behaviour, prompting the Chargers to bench him for the entire 1972 season and to then trade him to the Washington Redskins, where he played for 2 seasons, producing few numbers but still demanding a substantial salary increase. As a result, he was waived by the Redskins before the start of the 1975 season. He then played with the "Hawaiians", a team from the new WFL (World Football League), but the league folded quickly, and Thomas was left with no team. Incredibly, Dallas signed him back for the 1976 season, but, because of Thomas' self-destructive behaviour, he was waived by Dallas before the season started. He then signed with the British Columbian Lions in the CFL (Canadian Football League) for the 1977 season, but he was promptly waived after only a couple of weeks. After going through the 1978 season with no team, the Green Bay Packers gave him a chance by signing him for the 1979 season, but he was waived, yet again, before the season started, thereby ending Thomas' American football career, a career that began with so much promise and ended in utter shame and failure. Just like so many black Americans, Thomas was endowed with strong prophetic and evangelistic endowments that became corrupted by a lack of right-handed apostolic and teacherly impartation (an impartation that they refuse to produce on their own).

Again, you may be wondering, "Why are we going into so much detail about the career of a self-destructive black American football player?" The answer to that question would be, "To better understand what happened in the spiritual transition of 1978 by illustrating what was lacking in Landry's character as a coach and as a human being". Landry was distant from his players, so Thomas prophetically chose to be distant from him. And, because he chose to see his players as impersonal cogs that he would plug into his playing machine, he was unable to understand them as individuals, which prevented him understanding what made Duane Thomas "tick". Landry was unable to comprehend why his dry approach, which was grudgingly embraced by his white players, did not resonate with a black player like Duane Thomas, a player who clearly needed a fatherly figure with an apostolic and teacherly anointing that could also speak to him as a prophet and an evangelist and not just as an impersonal teacher. Landry was a sincere Christian in his personal life, so he clearly had access to the Holy Spirit, and, thus, would have been able to say to Thomas what God Himself would have said to him had God descended physically to the Earth and engaged him. The troubled soul of Duane Thomas was put within Landry's sphere of influence, not just once, but twice, yet Landry, in typical Cain-sian style, never saw it as his responsibility to reach out to Thomas. "Am I my brother's keeper?", he would ask himself. "Is it my fault that Thomas is not like everybody else and simply follows instructions like a professional? Is it my fault that Thomas is so self-destructively proud and rebellious? Of course not!!". Even when God placed the potential next "Jim Brown" (the equivalent of Pele for American football running backs) in front of him, Landry refused to change his attitude. Instead of grieving the waste of such incredible talent and doing something to redeem it, Landry remained convinced that he did not need to change his coaching philosophy, just like today's American conservatives who remain convinced that their defence of federalism, their worshipping of the Constitution, and their Founding-Fathers idolatry is the way to go, which is why, to them, anyone who fails under the Founding Fathers' "pragmatically perfect" paradigms does not deserve to succeed (as when black people were not worthy of success because that success went against the slavery that their federalism enabled). For reasons that are too long to explain here, this writer is convinced that, had Thomas Wade Landry listened to God and reached out to Duane Thomas in the Spirit (not the soul), Landry would not only have rescued Thomas' career but would have gained a devout brother in Christ who would have gone on to do great things for the Lord in his personal life. Duane Thomas would be in the Hall of Fame, and Landry would have probably won at least 2 or 3 more Super Bowls, going on to be considered the greatest coach in NFL history (a title that now belongs to the Packers' Vince Lombardi, a contemporary of Landry and fellow assistant coach with the New York Giants in the 1950s).

The eventual demise after the failed test

Because Landry refused to understand what God was asking him to change, his coaching career, which had peaked in 1977-78 with Super Bowl 12, eventually ended with an embarrassing whimper instead of a glorious bang. After years and years of being a perennial powerhouse and championship contender, Landry's Cowboys went on a sudden and steep decline. After reaching 3 straight NFC Championship games between 1980 and 1982 (without reaching the Super Bowl), Landry's Cowboys never won another playoff game. Despite their more than respectable 10-6 record in 1985, Dallas went 7-9 in 1986, 7-8 in 1987, and an embarrassing 3-13 in 1988 (the worst record in the NFL that year). In the natural realm, this sudden decline was a combination of several factors, including Landry's refusal to develop new offensive and defensive strategies, his continued detachment from players who no longer had a figure such as Staubach (or Don Meredith) to bring them together and give them life, the disruptive use of replacement players during the players strike of 1987, and the assistant coaching changes imposed on him by the Dallas front office, which created a subtle philosophical schism in the coaching staff.

However, even before Landry's fast decline, it is as if Landry's doom was already sealed. In 1984, Clint Murchison Jr., the long-time owner of the Cowboys (who had hired Landry back in 1960), sold the team to Dallas businessman Bum Bright, who quickly grew disenchanted with Landry's game strategies and began to criticise him publicly. Because of financial setbacks in his other businesses, Bum Bright was forced to sell the team after the 1989 season. According to some, he refused two good offers because the buyers were planning on keeping Landry, and he eventually sold the team to Jerry Jones for a lower price. After acquiring the team, Jones immediately fired Landry in a very ungracious way and brought in Jimmy Johnson, his former college football teammate (and a former high school classmate of Janis Joplin), as head coach. Thus, it is as if God Himself set things in motion to allow Landry to be fired in the same cold and unceremonious way in which he had dismissed so many of his players. The coldness that Landry continuously sowed for 29 years (against God's will) came back as a harvest of losing seasons and an unforeseen and heartless firing. Ironically, when Landry met with his players 2 days after being fired to say goodbye to them, he told them how much he would miss them and began to cry, to which the players responded with a standing ovation. Landry was finally expressing the emotion towards his players that he had systematically suppressed throughout his long coaching career, but, by then, it was too late.

Even though Landry had always cared about his players deep within him, he made a decision early on in his career that he would never act on those emotions, for which reason God brought a man who had zero emotions towards him to fire him. As indicated on chicagotribune.com, Landry, who always wanted to be in control, was the last head coach in the NFL to run his team's offence and defence and call every play, for which reason God brought in a control-freak owner to fire him, a control freak who also fired long-time general manager Tex Schramm and decided to be his own general manager, constantly intruding on the team's coaching and other football matters. After giving Jimmy Johnson (Landry's replacement) freedom for a few years, Jerry Jones became jealous of the credit Johnson was getting for Dallas' success, so he fired Johnson and hired someone he could control. As a result, the (spiritually contaminated) dynasty that Johnson built so quickly was dismantled just as quickly, and Jerry Jones' Cowboys have not been in the Super Bowl in the last 26 years. This writer believes that the 3 Super Bowls that the Cowboys won in 4 years (1992-1995) as a result of Jimmy Johnson's work were the 3 extra Super Bowls that Landry should have won had he understood that he needed to relate to his players (something that Johnson did understand, which contributed greatly to his success). Johnson and his gang of mostly arrogant players may have thought that they owed their success to their own greatness, but they never realised that they were simply reaping the harvest that Landry had sown but had refused to harvest due to his unwillingness to change his ways. As proof of this, Jimmy Johnson never made it to another Super Bowl after leaving Dallas, and his players at Dallas never had any significant success after Johnson's departure (except for the Super Bowl that they won 2 years after Johnson, which happened mostly because they were still the same team playing almost the same way).

Landry's "red" innovative side

To Landry's credit, it must be emphasised that, at the start of his career, Landry was a very innovative coach and an excellent teacher of his innovations. As indicated on wikipedia.org, Landry developed the now commonly used 4-3 defence when he was the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, which helped the Giants to win the NFL title in 1956, after which the 4-3 defence was adopted by almost the entire league the next season (according to wikipedia.org). In Dallas, Landry improved on the 4-3 scheme by adding a "flex" variation that allowed the defence to react better to option blocking. On offence, Landry (who had a master's degree in industrial engineering) also became adept at disguising simple plays using multiple formations intended to slow the opposing defence's reaction time. Dallas' offensive line also became famous for frequently doing the "Landry Shift", which involved standing up in unison before they set themselves back in position prior to the snap of the ball. According to a thread on cowboyszone.com, Landry would do this to confuse the defensive line and throw off their timing, especially if they were intent on rushing the quarterback. By standing up, the offensive line would also create a "screen" to shield any shifts in the backfield from the defence's view, giving them less time to adjust.

Landry's innovative nature reveals that, in some ways, he had embraced a measure of the red-horse anointing that would prompt him to break away from the traditions or methodologies that others would follow when he intuited that there was a better way to do things. However, it seems as if he only embraced a red-horse "Abelian" nature when it would afford him a competitive edge against his opponents, but he did not look kindly on the manifestation of that Abelian nature in his players or in his personal life. Thus, we can conclude that Landry represents the spiritual leadership of the 1948-1977 period who were slightly Abelian, i.e.- red-horse enough to embrace new, tradition-defying spiritual concepts from God and succeed in their ministries but not Abelian enough to let their fellow believers act like individual, New-Covenant red-horse riders. Because of this, many precious souls lost their way and were unable to fulfil their spiritual potential. An example of this is Janis Joplin, a singer whose death this writer grieves very deeply. Going into the specifics of her life would fall outside the scope of this posting, but it is no spiritual coincidence that Jimmy Johnson, the man who replaced Tom Landry, had been a high school classmate of Janis Joplin. Just like Duane Thomas, many "Janis Joplin" believers figuratively died before they could fulfil their calling in its fullness, all because the "Tom Landry"s in charge during the 1948-1977 period were never able to relate to them and help them to complete their development as red-horse riders so that they could go into the black-horse phase and beyond.

1978: The Steelers' 3rd championship

After Staubach's Dallas defeated Morton's Denver in Super Bowl 12 to end the 1977 season, there were 8 franchises in the NFL who had won the Super Bowl, 4 of them once (the New York Jets, Kansas City, Baltimore, and Oakland), and 4 of them twice: Green Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Dallas. Thus, when Pittsburgh and Dallas met in Super Bowl 13 to end the 1978 season, the game became a decider of what franchise would be the first to win the Super Bowl 3 times. The fact that this happened at the end of the 1978 season has spiritual significance, since, as we have shared before, the number "2" points to the "female" endowments that minister to the soul, and the number "3" points to the "male" endowments that minister to the spirit. Super Bowl 13, the first Super Bowl where both teams had won the Super Bowl more than once, was also the first Super Bowl "rematch" in NFL history, given that Pittsburgh had faced (and defeated) Dallas in Super Bowl 10. Thus, Super Bowl 13 yet again reveals the transitional nature of 1978, a year in which the Earth went from one last-days spiritual generation to the next, with the dying generation represented by Landry's Cowboys and the new generation represented by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Noll's start in scarcity

To understand what Dallas represented, we had to meditate on their coach Tom Landry. By the same token, to understand what Pittsburgh represented spiritually, we must meditate on their coach Chuck Noll. As indicated on wikipedia.org, Noll grew up in a relatively low-income household in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a butcher who often could not work because of his Parkinson's Disease, and his mother worked for a florist. The family lived in the house where Noll's mother had grown up with her 12 siblings, which was in a neighbourhood with a large black population. This contributed to Noll's efforts throughout his coaching career to promote black people, making a deliberate effort to draft players from traditionally black universities as well as hiring black assistant coaches.

As a child, Noll began to work in 7th grade and was able to save enough for the first 2 years of tuition when he entered high school at Benedictine High School (which charged US$150/year). He continued to work through high school, earning 55 cents/hour at a meat market called Fisher Brothers. Despite having to work and study, he believed in the value of a good education, so he was able to graduate 28th in a class of 252 (i.e.- he was in the top 1/9th of his class). On top of his studies and his work, he also managed to excel athletically, playing both running back and tackle on his high school (American) football team and winning All-State honours. During his senior year (1948-1949), he was named to the "All catholic Universe Bulletin team" in Cleveland, and he was given a scholarship to play for the University of Notre Dame, a (catholic) university that had the most prestigious (American) college football programme in the entire country. In fact, according to wikipedia.org, they won their 7th national championship (the 3rd in 4 years) in 1949, the year that Noll was to join them.

Cain's epilepsy attack on Noll

Unfortunately (for Notre Dame), Noll did not end up playing for Notre Dame due to an incident before the start of his freshman season. Whilst practising with the rest of the Notre Dame team, Noll suffered an epileptic seizure on the field, which prompted Notre Dame's coach Frank Leahy to drop him from the team, all because Leahy refused to take the risk of Noll having another seizure during a game. As a result, Noll had to find another university to play for, and he accepted a scholarship to the University of Dayton (in Ohio), where he played for 4 years as a lineman and a linebacker and became co-captain of the team. Whilst there, he was given the nickname of the "pope" for his "infallible" understanding of the game, showing that, even as a youngster, he was exhibiting an ability to grasp the game from a tactical perspective.

Noll's "epileptic incident" at Notre Dame has deep spiritual significance, and it points to what Noll represents in the context of the spiritual generation of 1978-1998. Epilepsy is a disease eminently inflicted by the Jebusite spirit, for it takes the victim and thrashes him, throwing him to the ground and hitting him with convulsions, shaming him in front of everyone around him. This is consistent with the Jebusite's tendency to whip others with harsh and unfair judgements that emanate from the soul, not the Spirit of God, judgements that intend to humiliate the victim unnecessarily, with no regard for the victim's potential or dignity. Epilepsy also has an Amorite component, for it flourishes in environments where an arrogant Amorite spirit is dominant and has its Jebusite henchmen hunting down anyone who dares to challenge its supremacy. Epilepsy also has a Girgashite component, for its seizures force people to wallow in the ground, which correlates with how the Girgashite spirit makes people focus on earthliness and act like pigs. The Girgashite component in epilepsy can also be seen in how it causes people to break out in robotic and repetitive movements that serve no purpose, which correlates with the Girgashites' excessive focus on following cursed methods and procedures that are devoid of any prophetic purpose.

If epilepsy is eminently triggered by the Jebusite spirit, why was Noll suddenly struck by it whilst practising with Frank Leahy's Notre Dame team? To answer that, we must consider Frank Leahy's coaching style. As indicated on wikipedia.org, Leahy believed that games were won in practice. As a result, he would be ruthlessly demanding during practices, which always included actual hitting (as opposed to touch practices where players focus on position and movement without hitting each other); and, during these practices, the quarterbacks would sometimes catch snaps from the centre until their hands bled. Hence, Noll's body was reacting to the oppressive Jebusite spirit hovering over the Notre Dame practices, and, unlike all the other players who simply "sucked it up" and endured it, Noll had a spontaneous reaction to it, a reaction that exposed before all the spirit that everyone else had chosen to ignore. This is why Leahy was so immediately repulsed by it. At a deep, sub-conscious level, he knew that Noll's epileptic seizure was exposing him as a ruthless Jebusite taskmaster, so, without any consideration for Noll's future, he immediately cut him from the team. Leahy must have known that Noll came from a poor family and had (literally) worked very hard to make it to university and would probably not be able to afford a university education without a football scholarship. Even so, Leahy chose to potentially end Noll's football career and his chances of higher education, all under the selfish excuse that "he could not take the risk" of Noll playing for him and possibly having a dangerous seizure during a game (or a practice). To Jebusites, the "little people" are always of little value and "dispensable"; to Amorites, other people are nothing more than means to accomplish their personal ends; and, to Girgashites, "feelings" and considerations beyond the visible are not worthy of any interest. This is why the Jebusite Leahy, who was also an Amorite and a Girgashite, let Noll go. As you may have noticed, Leahy's attitude parallels the cold attitude of Tom Landry described earlier.

Noll's prosperous escape from Cain

Despite Leahy's heartless dismissal, Noll not only was able to play for 4 years with a different school, but he was able to make it to the NFL, playing professionally for 7 seasons with the Cleveland Browns (his hometown team), winning 2 NFL championships there. Noll's collegiate and NFL success not only proved that Leahy's selfish fears were unfounded, but it proved that the epileptic incident that got him out of Notre Dame was more a manifestation of something spiritually wrong with Leahy and Notre Dame and not with Noll. Interestingly, whilst playing for the Browns, the coach, Paul Brown, would use him as one of his "messenger guards" to send play calls to the quarterback. Brown grew to admire Noll's intelligence, saying once that Noll "could have called his plays himself without any help from the bench". Noll, however, felt belittled by this role, resenting the term "messenger boy" that normally came with it. This is why, when he became a head coach, he let the quarterbacks call their own plays, thus bypassing the need for an intermediate "messenger boy".

Noll's atmosphere of black independence

As you may have noticed, the above is a significant difference between Landry and Noll, given that Landry would call the plays and resent when quarterbacks (like Staubach) would deviate from the script and improvise. As we have shared before, the black horse of the Apocalypse is the "horse of independence". Therefore, the fact that Noll would give quarterbacks the independence to call their own plays points to how Noll (unlike Landry) made it past the red-horse stage and into the black-horse stage.

Gilliam's waste of black independence

As mentioned earlier, another difference between Noll and Landry was that Noll was able to relate to black players, making a deliberate effort to enable black people whenever he could. As indicated on wikipedia.org, Joe Gilliam, a black quarterback from a historically black university (Tennessee State University) was drafted by Noll and the Steelers in the 11th round of the 1972 NFL draft (as the 273rd player selected). In the 3rd month of that season (on 5 November, the Sunday after Nixon had trounced McGovern in the 1972 Presidential elections), Noll sent the rookie Gilliam into the game to relieve the starter Terry Bradshaw after the Steelers had taken a sizable lead against the Cincinnati Bengals, showing that Gilliam was more than a "token draft pick" to Noll and that Noll believed that Gilliam was worthy of an opportunity to develop as an NFL quarterback (it must be noted that, for decades and decades, even into the 1980s, black quarterbacks were not given much of an opportunity in the NFL, not because of racism, as liberals would say, but because they simply were not that good in general, and, when they were good, it was because of unorthodox talents that the NFL was not yet ready to understand and exploit).

In his second season (1973), Noll gave Gilliam the opportunity to be the starting quarterback in week 12. This was not a "throwaway opportunity" in a meaningless game versus a meaningless team, for it came against the Miami Dolphins, the defending Super Bowl champions who had completed a perfect 17-0 season the year before. And, on top of that, the game was a "Monday Night" game (which, for decades, was the most important game of the week in the NFL, watched by a national audience in primetime television). Things did not go well for the young quarterback, though, as he completed 0 of 7 passes with 3 interceptions, one of which was returned for a Miami touchdown. This disastrous performance did not deter Noll from believing in Gilliam's potential, as shown by the fact that, before the start of the next season (1974), Noll stated that the starting quarterback position was up for grabs between Terry Bradshaw, Gilliam, and the other backup, a quarterback from Notre Dame named Terry Hanratty. During the pre-season, Gilliam outperformed the 2 Terry's and was given the starting position, making Gilliam the first black quarterback to start in a season opener since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. One must take into account the significance of this, given that Terry Bradshaw was drafted 2 years before Gilliam as the very first pick of the entire the 1970 draft and was perceived as the more talented player and the "future of the franchise".

Gilliam took advantage of Noll's vote of confidence by leading the Steelers' offence to a 30-0 victory over the Baltimore Colts in the 1974 season opener, after which he was featured on the cover of the popular Sports Illustrated magazine. After 6 games as a starter, Gilliam and the Steelers had a record of 4-1-1. However, despite this apparent success, Noll decided to bench him because he began to ignore team rules and game plans, which included Gilliam running too many pass plays, as when he threw a record 50 passes in a 35-35 tie to the Denver Broncos in Week 2. In Week 3, Gilliam only completed 10 of 31 passes, and the Steelers were shutout at home 17-0 by their bitter rivals the Oakland Raiders (the defending Super Bowl champions), and he did not do much better afterwards. According to wikipedia.org, Gilliam ended the 1974 season with 67 completions out of 148 attempts (a 45.3% completion percentage) for 1274 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception, meaning that, if you take out the numbers from the first game (17/31 for 257 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT), his numbers for 1974 were 79/181 (a 43.6%) for 1017 yards, 2 TDs and 7 INTs, which are clearly terrible numbers and explain why both Noll and many Steeler fans became dissatisfied with him. Curiously enough, Terry Bradshaw's numbers were not that much better that year. In fact, Bradshaw's completion percentage for 1974 was practically identical to Gilliam's (a paltry 45.3%), and he threw the same number of interceptions (8), even though he did start 1 more game than Gilliam. Bradshaw's total passing yards were not that impressive either. In fact, Gilliam amassed almost 500 more yards than Bradshaw with 1 fewer start. Why, then, was Gilliam's demotion justifiable? Because, aside from his successful first game, Gilliam's passing percentage was significantly lower, and he insisted on throwing more passes despite his low completion percentage. By contrast, Bradshaw, whose completion percentage was not that much better, threw 64 fewer passes than Gilliam despite starting in 1 more game, meaning that he allowed the Steelers' strong running core to shine. Unlike Gilliam, Bradshaw realised that he had outstanding running backs to support him, outstanding enough to produce a combined 2417 yards in 1974. Whereas Bradshaw realised his limitations and played to the team's strengths, Gilliam tried to force his passing on the team, attempting to have the spotlight every week and be the reason why the Steelers won the game. And, even though both Gilliam and Bradshaw had the same number of interceptions, Bradshaw passed for 7 TDs to Gilliam's 2, meaning that Bradshaw was able to capitalise with his passing better than Gilliam, especially because Bradshaw forced defences to worry more about the run near the opponents' end zone, which gave his receivers more freedom in those situations where there are fewer yards to run passing routes in. Bradshaw's more run-oriented play-calling also played to the biggest strength of the Steelers that year: their feared "Steel Curtain" defence. A running game in American football eats up more of the clock, giving the defence more time to rest, whilst also giving the opposing offence less time to catch up when the Steelers took the lead.

Any accusation that Noll had a preference for Bradshaw is easily debunked by the fact that, after the offence struggled in Week 9 of that season (1974), losing to their division rivals Cincinnati Bengals, Noll benched Bradshaw and made Terry Hanratty the starter for Week 10 against the Cleveland Browns (Noll's former team) in Cleveland. However, Hanratty only completed 2 (long) passes (one of them a 28-yard TD) in 15 attempts and threw 3 interceptions (according to pro-football-reference.com). It was only because of the Steelers' 233 rushing yards (156 of them from Franco Harris), the 6 turnovers forced by the defence (one of them returned on a nifty rugby-style pass for a TD), and 7 field goals in 8 attempts (4 by Roy Gerela and 3 by Donald Cockrott) that the Steelers were able to come from behind in the 4th quarter, overcoming 7 turnovers of their own to defeat the Browns. Hanratty's performance was so bad that Noll even put in Gilliam to replace Hanratty during that game, but Gilliam's performance was not that impressive either, completing only 1 of 4 passes for 18 yards. As a result, Bradshaw regained the starting position in Week 11 in New Orleans, Louisiana against the Saints. Bradshaw, a native of Louisiana, only completed 8 of 19 passes for 80 yards, but he actually ran for an amazing 99 yards (a remarkable number for a quarterback) on 9 attempts. And, with the additional support of 173 rushing yards from the Steeler running backs (114 from Franco Harris alone), the Steelers were able to win comfortably by a score of 28-7. Interestingly, less than 2 months later, Bradshaw and the Steelers were back in that same New Orleans field to play and win their first Super Bowl ever, Super Bowl 9, against the Minnesota Vikings.

Sadly, Gilliam proved how unworthy he was of a future chance by believing that his demotion was motivated by racism from Noll, a deception he clung to for the rest of his life, as he stated in an interview with The Tennessean, a Nashville daily newspaper, a year before his death. Obviously, this smear on Noll's human right to a fair reputation disregarded the fact that it was Noll who drafted him from a small black college and who gave him the starting position at the start of the 1974 season despite the franchise's investment (up until then) in Terry Bradshaw. This smear was also an attempt by Gilliam's soul to disregard his selfish play calling, which was motivated by his internal desire to put up big numbers and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated every week. Bradshaw clearly had an intangible winner quality that Gilliam's Girgashite eyes could not perceive in the quarterback stats. Gilliam's psychological crutch of "racism" was also the manifestation of something very common in Canaanites, a determination to judge everyone but themselves. As testified by (black) teammate (and Hall of Famer) John Stallworth, Gilliam's demotion was motivated not only by his sub-par performance and his total dismissal of Noll's game plans but by his drug abuse issues. Another teammate, (All-Pro) linebacker Andy Russell, considered Gilliam an "immensely talented" quarterback who was unfortunately unable to stay off of drugs. As we have shared before, the spirit that is most directly related to drug addictions is the Canaanite spirit, a spirit that is extremely anti-judgement, at least when the judgement is against itself, which is why the ungrateful Gilliam would rather accuse Noll of racism than question himself (something that is prevalent in the black American culture and has contributed to its spiritual death as a group). Gilliam died under God's judgement, of a cocaine overdose on xmas day 2000, a mere 4 days before his 50th birthday, despite having stayed sober for 3 years. Like an Amorite-Hittite-gone-Girgashite Balaamite in the black-horse wilderness, Gilliam tried to rise in Amorite arrogance by lustfully taking the grace given to him and using it for selfish, Girgashite, earthly ends, and he succumbed to the Hittite deception that he was not allowed to succeed because he was black, ultimately dying the death of a Canaanite. And so, just as with millions of black Americans, Gilliam's life, a black life that had been given so much by God, ended in wasteful tragedy.

Black prosperity from Noll

Chuck Noll's desire to enable black people is seen not only in his more than generous (but unthanked) support of Gilliam but in his enabling of black running back Franco Harris, whose running yardage was bolstered by the selfless blocking of white running mate Rocky Bleier. Franco Harris became the first black player to win the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, in Super Bowl 9, which was followed by black Steeler teammate Lynn Swann winning the MVP award in the very next Super Bowl (Super Bowl 10) against Landry's Cowboys, this despite suffering a concussion in the previous game that might have prompted most coaches not to rely on him in the Super Bowl.

As indicated on wikipedia.org, Tony Dungy, an undrafted black quarterback from the University of Minnesota, was given a chance by Chuck Noll on the Steelers' team, and he went on to have 2 successful seasons with the Steelers, in 1977 and 1978, as a defensive safety (meaning that Noll found a way to utilise his talents despite the fact that the quarterback position was already secure in Bradshaw's hands). Dungy won a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers in 1978 (in Super Bowl 13) and went on to play 2 more seasons in the NFL (with the 49ers in 1979 and the New York Giants in 1980) before becoming a defensive backs coach for the Minnesota Vikings in 1980 and a defensive backs coach with Noll and the Steelers for 3 years, 1981-1983. Noll then promoted him to defensive coordinator for 5 years (1984-1988) but had to let him go after the Steelers' owner pressured him to make coaching changes after the Steelers' poor (5-11) 1988 season. As history bears out, the Steelers' 1988 woes were not due to Dungy's coaching. He continued to work as a coach in the NFL, with the Kansas City Chiefs between 1989 and 1991, and with the Minnesota Vikings between 1992 and 1995, eventually landing the head coaching position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996. Despite Tampa Bay's perennial ineptness, Dungy was able to turn the franchise around, implementing his now famous "Tampa 2" defensive scheme (which he developed from concepts picked up from his time with the Steelers), turning the Buccaneers into contenders. Ironically, the Buccaneer franchise that had had virtually no playoff history before Dungy let him go after the 2001 season because of his lack of success in the playoffs. The very next season, the Buccaneers made it to Super Bowl 37, winning it under the guidance of a coach who had been maligned and traded away by another franchise (the Oakland Raiders), Jon Gruden (who "coincidentally" attended the University of Dayton, the same university as Noll, as indicated on wikipedia.org). Even so, many believe that the Buccaneers' Super Bowl team was built on the foundation that Tony Dungy had left behind. This writer must add that Dungy's inability to take Tampa Bay over the top was his conservative, play-it-safe, coaching philosophy, a philosophy that he slowly learnt to relinquish after he became the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2002. Dungy continued to have problems taking his team "over the top" in the post-season, but his work and willingness to change paid off when he, quarterback Peyton Manning, and the Colts were able to win Super Bowl 41, defeating the Chicago Bears 29-17, giving the Colts franchise their first Super Bowl appearance and title since the Colts' last-second victory over Landry's Cowboys 36 years earlier in Super Bowl 5. Thus, Dungy became the first black head coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl (or any NFL championship, for that matter), thereby reinforcing Chuck Noll's effect on the enabling of black people in the NFL. As can be easily discerned, Noll's deliberate efforts to enable black people emphasises his spiritual connection to the black horse, a connection emphasised by his childhood upbringing in black-horse scarcity, his belief in working for his education without depending on others (a trait of black-horse independence), and his belief that quarterbacks should be given the freedom to call their own plays on the field (another black-horse independence trait).

As we have already shared, the fact that Noll started from a poor background and went on to became the channel of prosperity/success for so many black people and for himself further emphasises his spiritual connection to the black horse, for the black horse comes to produce apparent scarcity in the natural but great prosperity of evangelistic "wine" and prophetic "oil" in the spirit realm. As the believer heeds the red-horse shout and escapes from the structures of Cain into the black-horse wilderness, he loses access to the resources and the "support system" provided by the religious structures he left behind, but he is then able to access the spiritual riches of God from above now that the obtrusive roof of Cain is no longer in the way. This is what literally happened to Noll when he was forced to leave the very successful Notre Dame football programme to join a small school whose name almost no one knows in college football circles, the University of Dayton, but was still able to have a successful college and professional career as a player, and then a legendary career as a coach, achieving successes far more relevant than what, Frank Leahy (the coach who booted him off of Notre Dame) ever accomplished.

Noll's decline compared to Landry's

It is interesting to consider that the decline in Chuck Noll's coaching success coincided with Tom Landry's. In 1985, Landry made it to his last playoff game with the Cowboys, losing in the NFC Divisional game against Eric Dickerson and the Los Angeles Rams. A year earlier, Noll and the Steelers lost to Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship game (1 game shy of reaching the Super Bowl for a 5th time). Noll then experienced his first losing Steelers season in 14 years the next year, in 1985, which happened to be Landry's last winning season. Both Noll's and Landry's records bottomed out in 1988, with Noll going 5-11 whilst Landry went 3-13. However, despite this concurrent decline, Landry never coached a game after 1988, whereas Noll was able to continue coaching, returning to a winning record of 9-7 the very next year (1989), making it to the playoffs and winning a playoff game against the Houston Oilers before losing by a single point to the Broncos in Denver (a game that the Steelers were expected to lose by a large margin). Noll also had a winning 9-7 season the next year (1990), without making the playoffs, before retiring with a (barely) losing record of 7-9 in his final year of 1991. The fact that God allowed Noll to outlast Landry is a spiritual sign of how the 20-year spiritual generation of 1978-1997, represented by Noll, was able to advance further than the 30-year generation of 1948-1977 represented by Landry, even when neither generation achieved God's intended final goal, as shown by the fact that neither Landry nor Noll ended their careers with a winning season.

Despite Noll's spiritual superiority over Landry, Noll was also unable to adapt, only this time it was at a higher level than Landry. Noll was unable to grasp the spirit behind the tactical innovations of the 1980s, innovations brought on by the genius (and sneaky) Bill Walsh in San Francisco and the more forward-thinking Joe Gibbs in Washington. Even so, neither Bill Walsh nor Joe Gibbs were able to win 4 Super Bowls like Noll. Bill Walsh coached the 49ers for 10 years and retired after winning his 3rd Super Bowl (Super Bowl 23), and the team he left behind won the next Super Bowl (Super Bowl 24) under George Seifert, meaning that, had Bill Walsh stayed for 1 more year, there is a possibility that he could have won his 4th Super Bowl. However, it is as if God forced/prompted Walsh into retirement to prevent him winning that 4th title so as to emphasise the spiritual relevance of Noll during the spiritual period of 1978-1997. Joe Gibbs also won 3 Super Bowls, but those 3 Super Bowls were scattered over a 10-year period with 3 different quarterbacks. He retired at the end of the 1992 season, 1 year after winning his 3rd and last Super Bowl (Super Bowl 26). Despite being a devout Christian, Joe Gibbs ignored God's voice and came out of retirement 12 years later to coach the Washington Redskins again, this time under a new owner, the worthless Dan Snyder. Because of this, God prevented Gibbs having any significant success, forcing him into re-retirement after only 4 years and a combined losing record of 30-34. As indicated on wikipedia.org, in 2007, Gibbs' last year with Snyder's Redskins, one of Gibbs' grandsons was diagnosed with leukaemia (i.e.- blood cancer), a disease that entered his family through the spiritual door that he opened when he entered into an unnecessary covenant with the worthless Snyder. It is no "unrelated coincidence" that Snyder had surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid gland in 2001 and that Snyder's wife is a spokesperson for breast cancer awareness, as indicated on wikipedia.org.

Noll and the horse with no name

Despite the fact that Noll won 4 Super Bowls, compared to the 3 by Gibbs and Walsh and the 2 by Landry, this writer would dare say that Gibbs, Walsh, and Landry have by far greater name recognition than Noll. In fact, this writer would even assert that many NFL fans may have a hard time recalling Noll's name, even if they can picture him in their heads and are aware that the Steelers won 4 Super Bowls under him. This correlates with the fact that the black-horse is the horse of anonymity that releases invisible judgements into the structures of Cain from the lonely wilderness.

From all of the above, we can conclude that Chuck Noll embodied a spiritual period where avant-garde believers fully embraced the black-horse anointing. It is this "anonymous" black-horse anointing that enabled Noll to be the first head coach to win 3 Super Bowls and the first coach to win 4. His connection to the black horse is emphasised even further by the fact that he won his first Super Bowl, Super Bowl 9, in New Orleans, which, as we have shared in great detail before, has a strong spiritual connection to the black horse's gallop in America. Even that Super Bowl's lack of offensive production points to the black horse of scarcity (the only 2 points in the first half were scored by the Steelers' defence on a safety, and only 14 of the measly 22 total points were actually scored by the offence). The fact that Noll's 4 Super Bowls were won with Bradshaw as quarterback further reinforces the black-horse connection to New Orleans, given that Bradshaw is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana and went to college at Louisiana Tech, in Ruston (as indicated on wikipedia.org). Even the fact that the Steelers are notorious for their black uniforms and helmets is God's way of emphasising the black-horse connection between Noll, the Steelers, and the spiritual generation of 1978-1997.

The 3-part catholic red horse

The spiritual transition in the years leading up to 1978 can even be seen in what happened within the catholic sect.

Pius 12 and God's judgement of the literal Jews

In 1978, after being in charge for 15 years, the catholic sect's leader, pope Paul 6, passed away. Paul 6 took over in 1963 after the passing of sect leader John 23, who, in turn, took over in 1958 after the passing of sect leader Pius 12, who had taken the sect's leadership in 1939, when the worthless fascist Pius 11 died. Pius 12, therefore, reached the sect's "throne" in time to live through the entire World War 2, which started in his first year, in September 1939. Pius 12 was forced to deal with the issue of the Nazi massacre of Jews, never issuing a public and explicit condemnation of Hitler and the Nazis (after becoming pope) but at the same time doing some things behind the scenes to help Jews escape from the Nazis, as indicated on wikipedia.org. He is often criticised for always making vague statements of generic condemnation against cruelty without ever "naming names", but it seems as if he made a deliberate effort to assert the catholic sect's neutrality in the war to avoid saying something "incendiary" that would make things worse for Jews and the catholics trying to help them.

It is difficult for this writer to discern with clarity whether Pius 12 was acting more out of cowardice or out of wise, pragmatic discretion. This is made more difficult by the fact that the Nazis' massacre of Jews during World War 2 was through a spiritual door that the Jewish people had opened 1900 years earlier when they murdered Yeshua. As declared in Scripture, Yeshua told the women of Israel to cry for their children because of the judgement that Israel had drawn unto itself for openly challenging God and murdering His Son. Yeshua's judgement on the Jewish people had been prophesied through Moses centuries earlier, in Deuteronomy 28 and 29, which describe the blessings that would come over the people of Israel if they submitted to God as well as the curses that would come over them if they chose to defy Him. If you read those chapters, you will see how it is an eerie description of what the Jewish people suffered through in the Holocaust. It was a judgement from Yeshua that the Jewish people needed to go through before they could be allowed back in the Promised Land, the land that they had been kicked out of less than 40 years after murdering Yeshua. After the holocaust (i.e.- burnt sacrifice) of 6,000,000 Jews, the debt that the Jewish people had with God was, in a way, paid off, and God granted Israel the opportunity to exist as a nation once again in 1948, the year when the first spiritual period subtly prophesied through Joel in Joel 1:2 started.

Sadly, the Jewish people have not seized the opportunity made available by the redemption afforded to them by God in 1948, regressing instead into an attitude of pride and defiance of God's will for them, seeing God's restoration of Israel not as a sign of mercy over a sinful people but as a vindication that they were "right all along". They continue to reject Yeshua, and their leaders continue to see the Christians in their midst more as a "nuisance to put up with" than as people that they need to uphold and listen to. This is why the bastard Netanyahu chose to listen to satan and impose some of the strictest lockdown restrictions in the world when the pandamic started, which is analogous to the bitter confinement in ghettos that the Nazis imposed on the Jews prior to massacring them (as described on wikipedia.org). This is also why Netanyahu and his idiotic successor (whose name this writer does not care to know) have imposed the mRNA gene therapy injections on the Israeli population in such a dictatorial way, leading to one of the highest rates of RBIs (i.e.- rapes by injection) in the world. This means that another mini-holocaust is currently underway, with the Israeli people set to die off at a dramatic rate over the next 5 to 10 years as a result of the injections. Just like conservative America, Israel continues to cling to its cursed point of view, refusing to submit to God and hear His "unorthodox" message, a message that defies their understanding of things, an understanding that they are staunchly proud of.

As I was typing the words above, I felt the Spirit of God declaring,

70 years, 70 years I have given to My people to set things right with Me, 70 years since I gave them back Palestine, 70 years to begin to acknowledge the foolishness of their ways and to begin to seek My Mashiach, not theirs. However, they have chosen to stay in their ways and to pretend that they have overcome their enemies by the power of their righteousness. Yet, I the Lord God of Israel declare that the time is up. The time ended on 14 May 2018, and they know it not. This is why My veil of protection is coming off of them, and their enemies are now able to destroy them, even from within, for I the Lord God shall not be mocked."

Pius 12, the subtle challenger

Despite the hesitant nature of Pius 12's support of the Jewish people, it can be said that he began to challenge many of the traditions and thinking that his predecessor, the fascist-loving Pius 11, was hellbent on upholding. Pius 11 was what we could call a "continuator of things". As indicated on wikipedia.org, he basically continued the policies of his predecessor, Benedict 15, when it came to the management of internal church affairs. He was determined to continue the systematic efforts to convert Africans and Asians to catholicism, and he opposed the "modernism" efforts in catholic theology, being convinced that the orthodox doctrines and rituals that the catholic sect were founded on were "the truth" and needed absolutely no tweaking or correction. He did support the "ecumenical movement" (the movement to "unite" all the Christian sects into a "chop suey" of conflicting ideas that is tasty to the matriarchal soul). The interesting thing, however, was that his attempts at "ecumenism" with the Anglican Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, for example, were not so that catholicism could learn from those sects and "get along better" with them. Instead, it was to bring these "prodigal sons" back to the "mother ship", to the "true Church" from which all the other sects emerged, i.e. the catholic sect. It is "commendable", in a peculiar sort of way, that Pius 11 was not a fan of compromise for the sake of compromise. The sad thing is that he was staunchly uncompromising about the wrong thing, just like the Pharisaic Jews who had murdered Yeshua 1900 years earlier (Jews with whom Yeshua did not compromise either).

From the above, we can conclude that the spirit of Cain was strong on Pius 11. This is further certified by the fact that, in 1929, he convinced the fascist Mussolini to require religious education based on the catholic sect in all schools, even in schools with a Protestant or Jewish majority, and he expressed "great pleasure" when the fascistic decree was passed (as indicated on wikipedia.org). Fascists take great pleasure when they can force people to submit unconditionally to their institutions. Thus, Pius 11's "great pleasure" at forcing catholicism on all children reveals his fascistic nature. Five years later, in 1934, Pius 11 convinced Mussolini to expand the ban on public gatherings of Protestants to include private home gatherings, meaning that the fascist Pius 11 was intent on (adulterously) encroaching even on the private lives of Italian citizens to impose his agenda (he would clearly have made a great Democrat, had he been born in America).

Without going into much detail, it can be said from all of the above that Pius 12, though akin to Pius 11 in many ways, was less of a "Cain"-sian and more of a subtle Abelian, meaning that his soul was more open to the white- and red-horse galloping that occurred in the spiritual atmosphere during the spiritual period of 1948 to 1977. Interestingly, Pius 12 died in 1958, which, as we shared above, was a significant year within the 1948-1977 period, a year that began the intensification of what had been started in 1948.

John 23, the overt challenger

After Pius 12, a man who chose the name "John 23" took over. The fact that he did not choose the name "Pius" is a figure of how his soul was leaning towards more "radical" changes than what Pius 11 and 12 had allowed. As opposed to Pius 11 (who was the first "Pius" after Pius 10 at the start of the 20th century) and Pius 12 (who was obviously the first "Pius" after his predecessor Pius 11), John 23 took a name that had last been used in the 14th century by John 22 (1316-1334). In keeping with the controversial nature of the red horse, the papal name "John" was fraught with controversy and confusion. This is because there had already been someone known as "John 23", who was "pope" between 1410 and 1415. However, this "John 23" is now considered an "antipope" by the catholic sect, for he became "pope" during the Western Schism, which saw the catholic sect split in two between 1378 and 1417, with one pope "reigning" in Rome and an alternative pope (or "antipope") "reigning" in Avignon, France (as indicated on wikipedia.org). In 1410, whilst Gregory 12 claimed the legitimate "papacy" from Rome and Benedict 13 claimed it from Avignon, John 23 emerged during the Council of Pisa (organised to settle the schism) as a 3rd claimant to the "papacy" (as explained on wikipedia.org). All of this points to the spiritual "schisms" or divisions produced by the red horse, which explains why John 23 was drawn to take that name. By taking that name and using the number "23", he was in effect disavowing the 15th-century John 23 from Pisa and retaking the name and the number for the catholic sect in Rome.

Given that John 23 was already 76 years old when he became pope in 1958, he only lasted 5 years. Even so, he triggered many changes and made many impassioned speeches during that time. He opened catholicism to exposure from other beliefs through ecumenism. In an ironic way, this is exactly what catholics needed, not because ecumenism is inherently good in any way, but because this attempt to reach out to other "Christian faiths" was done, not in Pius 11's spirit of converting non-catholics, but in the spirit of learning from them without the delusional belief that catholicism was the "perfect" religion. As a result, the ecumenical movement actually opened a door of opportunity for catholics to be exposed to "strange" Protestant concepts such as the studying of Scripture in a personal way (as opposed to receiving pre-chewed indoctrination during Sunday masses) and Pentecostalism. This is how the "charismatic" movement was eventually able to flourish within catholicism, allowing many catholics around the world to experience pneumatikos even as they officially remained "catholic". Many of the catholics exposed to these "strange" new concepts eventually left the catholic sect and became bona fide Christians, meaning that the "ecumenism" of John 23 and future popes ironically became an "escape hatch" that allowed many catholics to break free and experience spiritual growth beyond the limitations of catholicism. Thus, it is not a coincidence that John 23 became the first pope since Pius 9 (who did his "popey" time between 1846 and 1878) to travel outside of Rome, which symbolised how catholics were now being allowed a red-horse exit door out of Roman catholicism.

The fact that John 23 died in 1963 emphasises the spiritual relevance of that year, as explained above, meaning that it was no spiritual coincidence that he passed away on that specific year, just as it was no spiritual coincidence that he became pope in the spiritually relevant year of 1958. In a sense, his period of "popedom" points to the 2 "middle" years of the 1948-1977 spiritual period (with 1958 being a year that separated the 10-year preparation period from the 20 years that followed and 1963 being the middle year that split the 30-year period in two 15-year periods). Hence, it can be said that John 23 was indeed the "middle pope", the pope that divided the 1948-1977 period of white-horse epiphany and red-horse division.

Paul 6, challenge on auto-pilot

As detailed on wikipedia.org, the pope that followed John 23, Paul 6, basically continued and expanded on the changes started by Pius 12 and John 23, emphasising how the 3 popes were basically influenced by the same white- and red-horse anointings that were prevalent during the 1948-1977 spiritual period. Interestingly, Paul 6, known before his time in the big house as Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, or "Gio" for short (this writer assumes), was the Vatican's "Secretariat of State" between 1922 and 1954 and actually met with Pius 12 every morning from 1939 (when Pius 12 started "poping") until 1954, when Pius 12 appointed him Archbishop of Milan after that position became available by "death of incumbent". Montini (aka Paul 6) was also good friends with Angelo Roncalli, aka John 23, before he became pope. In fact, during the Second Vatican Council, which John 23 convoked to promote many reforms, Montini was asked by John 23 to live in the Vatican, thus showing how much John 23 valued Montini's thoughts. Hence, we can safely conclude that Paul 6 was "compatible" with both Pius 12 and John 23, interacting with both regularly whilst they were popes and welcoming the same red-horse anointing that they had welcomed. The fact that Paul 6 chose the name "Paul" further emphasises this red-horse compatibility, for, as we have shared before, Paul often manifested a red-horse attitude of "pestilent" division.

Just as John 23 became the first pope in over 70 years to travel outside of Rome, Paul 6 became the first pope to ever visit 6 continents, as indicated on wikipedia.org. This further emphasises how Paul 6 further widened the "escape hatch" that John 23 (and Pius 12) had opened for catholics to be free from the catholic spirit of Cain. As mentioned on wikipedia.org, Paul 6 believed it important to engage in a "dialogue with all of humanity", not as an end in and of itself but as a means to find the truth. He is quoted as saying,

"Those who have the truth, are in a position as not having it, because they are forced to search for it every day in a deeper and more perfect way. Those who do not have it, but search for it with their whole heart, have already found it."

{As you may have discerned, this quote evidences that Paul 6 understood the spiritual meaning of "Pethuel" in Joel 1:1 better than most Protestant Christians of today.}

All of the above reinforces what we said earlier about how the catholic ecumenism of these 3 popes (Pius 12, John 23, and Paul 6) differed from the quasi-ecumenism of Pius 11 in that it was not intended as a means to bring non-catholics into catholicism but to open catholics to a search for truth under the humble admission that they did not have the "perfected truth", no matter how much they had bragged about their centuries and centuries of human traditions and laws. As a result, Paul 6 often refused to excommunicate opponents, admonishing them but not "punishing" them, thus allowing for a diversity of views that provided many catholics a way out of the sect. In short, Paul 6, along with his predecessors John 23 and Pius 12, allowed many catholics to hear God's red-horse shout, the shout that calls believers out of the stale structures of Cain.

Intermediate recap

We saw how the phrase "Joel the son of Pethuel" of Joel 1:1 refers to a prophetic word that comes to present the "male", fearsome nature of the God of Israel, a nature whose acceptance requires the soul's willingness to open itself up (i.e.- pata) to "strange" and "unfamiliar" concepts of the Spirit that may seem "deceitful" or "outright false" on the surface but are actually profound truths from the Spirit of God. The Lord God has come to expose the pastoral matriarchy in the Church, a matriarchy that has fought to hide the nature of Yahweh and to deny that He (the fearsome God of Israel) is the One, True God. The believers who are enamoured with the "kinder and gentler" version of "God" that the matriarchal Church offers will find Yahweh "offensive" and "blasphemous", for they will refuse to open themselves up to the "strange" things of the Spirit that are key to restoring the Church and the entire Earth. The latter-day Kingdom of God cannot come about without believers being open ("Pethuel") to the truth that "Yahweh is God" (i.e.- "Joel").

We then saw how the first part of Joel 1:2 emphasises that the "Joel, son of Pethuel" prophetic message is directed at the Old-Testament caste system of matriarchal "elders" and "laymen" earth-inhabitants. We then saw how the second part of Joel 1:2 declares that this message would be given to 3 generations: the generation of the "elders'" fathers, the generation of the "elders" themselves, and the generation of the earth-inhabitants, who are, in a sense, the "elders'" children.

We then saw how the next verse, Joel 1:3, refers to a 4th generation, the generation of the current earth-inhabitants' descendants, which are then split into 3 sub-generations (the "children", the "grandchildren", and the "great grandchildren").

We then began to share on how these 4 generations are manifesting themselves in a literal sense in these latter days. We saw how, starting with the literal rebirth of Israel in 1948, the first generation corresponded to the period of 1948-1977, a period that can be considered to be divided into a 10-year white-horse period between 1948 and 1958 and a 20-year red-horse period between 1958 and the end of 1977.

We then saw how the 1948-1977 period was characterised by spiritual "Tom Landry"s that were willing to embrace the red-horse anointing, but only up to a certain point, which is why that generation fell woefully short of what God had intended for it, ending with a shameful whimper rather than a bang. Having cut their spiritual journey short, that generation wasted the spiritual door opened during the 1960s, allowing it to decay into a hippie movement that did more harm than good to many. As a result, many promising "Duane Thomas"s (and precious "Janis Joplin"s) died without fulfilling their promise.

We then began to see how the 2nd generation, i.e.- the 1978-1997 period, was characterised by relatively-nameless "Chuck Noll"s who rose out of "poverty" and overcame many of the limitations that the "Cain"s and the slightly Abelian "Landry"s of the previous generation had imposed on them. They were able to advanced further than their "Landry" predecessors, but they also fell short at the end, for they ended their days wandering aimlessly in the black-horse wilderness without understanding that there was a "next stage" to reach. Even so, they were able to produce much new fruit, but they were unable to take that fruit and apply it towards the next stage of their walk and the Church's walk, which is why much of their spiritual legacy died with them. Many of the people who were allowed to thrive under the leadership of these "Noll"s also became "Gilliam"s who abused the independence and grace afforded them, thereby dying a disgraceful death.

We also went back to the 1st generation of 1948-1977 and saw how its red-horse nature was reflected in the 3 popes that led the catholic sect during that time. These 3 popes challenged the catholic sect's structures and traditions, with the first pope acting as a subtle challenger, the second pope as an overt challenger, and the third pope continuing that challenge on "auto-pilot". Through these 3 popes, millions of people trapped in the catholic sect were able to experience a greater level of freedom and spiritual growth, with many of those people making use of the red escape hatch enabled by these 3 popes in order to fully escape from catholicism.

God willing, in the next posting, we will meditate in greater detail on the 2nd generation of 1978-1997 referred to in Joel 1:2.