Manariwa

Alexander VI’s Papal Bull

In the previous article, we posed these questions: Why was this historical truth withheld from the people who needed to know it most? Rizal, Paterno and others tried to bring out this truth, but were never given much credence. Why? Who caused our eyes and minds to be so blinded?

When Alexander VI issued the 1493 Papal Bull of Demarcation (shown above) which essentially divided the “unexplored” parts of the world into two and distributing them to Portugal and Spain, which were under his auspices and who were engaged in so-called “exploration” and “colonization”, he essentially claimed authority over those regions in spite of the fact that those regions, continents or islands belonged to the people who dwelt therein, even if they were not “Christians”. (Apparently, being “children of God” did not exempt anyone.) We can now understand how the pope’s authority stood above the rulers or kings of nations, not just indigenous people. In essence also, we can say that those explorers “discovered” unknown lands on behalf of the pope, the final authority to whom they owed allegiance. But where did the pope get the idea and authority to do what he did? As a mandate from God or merely a privilege he appropriated for himself? Was it, therefore, right or wrong?

We ask all these questions not merely to determine who must take the blame for the abuses and injustices that have been perpetrated in the name of imperialistic pursuits but what caused them to do it in the first place. Although we do not belittle whatever good they may claim to have sought to bring to those regions they colonized, we do question why their so-called good intentions could not have been granted, or even offered first to those whom they wanted to grant them, without disrupting their freedom, their way of life, their rights to property and, most especially, their sovereignty. We know this given yardstick in human affairs had no place in the rush to colonize weak nations among those hungry, powerful nations eager to procure raw materials for their nation’s enterprise, if not survival. But it was that way in the past and, to some extent, it is still so today.

One thing for sure, the pope did it because it had always been the way conquering nations had done it, from the time of the Babylonians to the “Roman Empire” (as we shall begin to see), of which he was clearly and effectively the ruling power — if not as emperor, then as co-ruler. Thus, parts of Americas came under Spanish rule and its people were either displaced from their ancestral lands or eliminated in some drastic ways and the resources appropriated by the colonizers for their own benefit. We can be sure that Vatican benefited as well from those global economic ventures, as it still does today.

For as the Bull stipulated, the pope’s aim was clearly that “barbarous nations (be) subjected, and brought over to the said (Christian) faith … for the propagation of the Christian empire”. At least two things then become clear from those pronouncements: One, that “barbarians” (unbelievers) were to become “subjects” of the explorers, hence, of their colonizing nations and, it follows ultimately, the pope; and, two, that the pope was indeed expanding an “empire” and a “religion” at the same time. How those unbelievers were to be subjected became a rather “subjective” issue left purely in the hands of those explorers. And as we have seen in the case of Magellan and many others before and after him, military force was the tool of the trade; hence, in many cases, death was the ultimate price for rejecting the “Christian religion” or, at least, their rule. Or as Dr. Jose Rizal immortalized it into sublime poetry prior to his martyrdom: “Voy donde no hay esclavos, verdugos ni opresores, donde la fe no mata, donde que el reina es Dios.” (I go where there are no slaves, brutes or oppressors, where faith kills not and the One Who reigns is God.) The noblest of “indios” treated and executed as a virtual barbarian, in essence. His death alone is evidence of the evil that the Bull had propelled upon the Islands of Ophir. Ironically, his death also propelled a revolution that ended Spanish rule in Ophir. Touché!  

Photo of Rizal’s Execution at Bagumbayan on Dec. 30. 1896

For when did Christ ever establish an “empire”? Or, for that matter, a religion? He did neither! He established a spiritual Kingdom ruled in Heaven by Himself and not by any puny man, whether with white skin or not, with blonde or black hair. So what kind of man then would be so proud as to proclaim that he can send his envoys to “unexplored regions” to plant the “Christian empire” over their dwellers? Who gave him the right even to subject by military force or by religious coercion masses of people in order to establish his sovereignty over what were previously prosperous and independent tribes or nations? If that is what Christ and the apostles taught and how they went about preaching the pure Gospel of Christ, then we see no biblical precedence whatsoever. Nada! Read your bible and be embarrassed for the pope or for yourself.  If not, fear the judgment against such presumptuous sin.

The “new gospel” those explorers spread was clearly outside the limits of the foundation laid down by the true disciples of  Christ. And, that “empire” was never one that the apostles would have wanted to be a part of, for the very means and the ends utilized led to the opposite of what Christ had taught them: love, mercy, kindness, compassion, sacrifice, communion, brotherhood, service, justice, world peace, unity and forgiveness.

If a man sends you to convert a tribe to Christ while carrying a cross, a sword and a musket (whether you carry it yourself or your military escort), you must be as lost as that man. That is no missionary trip to convert people but an expeditionary journey to subjugate people, which is what was actually accomplished, negating whatever good their religion they purported to have achieved. Zero-sum applies here; it would have been much, much better if they had not come at all.

Peter once pulled out a sword and cut off a soldier’s ear, after which Christ rebuked him as he healed the soldier. Magellan, who sailed under the command of the Spanish king and with the express approval and blessings of the pope, ended up beheading his own mutinous men and attacking and killing natives with muskets and cannons in order to impose the so-called the colonizer’s “right by discovery” over what he allegedly “discovered” and then “claimed” to become part of an oxymoronic “Christian empire”. Whatever healing or vindication those natives derived had to wait after three centuries. Whatever rebuke and recompense such an offense will require from the True King in Heaven will surely come at the final day.

Lapu-lapu, Datu of Mactan, Defeats Magellan

There are then those who take the stance that Lapu-lapu, Magellan’s opponent and nemesis, was a mere chieftain of a small tribe and did not (and does not) deserve the rank of a national hero of Ophir. Really? Indeed, he was a tribal head of a small island among 7,000 islands more and only had the paltry reputation of defeating a sailor on a mission for his king and his pope. If so, he should then be lifted up and honored instead by the peoples of North America, South America, many parts of Africa and of Asia, where Spanish imperialists had also brutally imposed their will, if his own people will not! Lapu-lapu was not only a champion of the people of Mactan but of all freedom-loving peoples and sovereign nations, including unspoiled – or what they loved to call “unexplored” — Ophir. Yes, they “explored” it then “spoilt” it after — that is probably the etymology of the word “exploit”. The rotten fruit of a self-proclaimed “apostle of Christ” who participated in, no, orchestrated, in effect, the global imperialism for the past half-millennium. For even the independent British king, William I, continued to give the yearly tribute his predecessors had given to the popes, even if he or his country did not recognize pope’s Gregory VII’s ecclesiastical authority.¹ Go figure!

As defined in the Bull, “unexplored”, simply meant areas no European colonizers had ever claimed. In the case of Ophir, which had remained an independent archipelago under various rajahs or datus and which traded freely with China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Lebanon and Israel in ancient times, the classification fit conveniently the pope’s definition. By extension, the word “unexplored”, therefore, also meant “free-for-the-taking” by any nation which had the capability to put it under subjugation in order to incorporate it under its polity or governance. Moreover, everything that was within the boundaries of those regions became the sole property of Spain or Portugal – whether people and resources. Those colonizers, thus, became the literal slave-traders, pirates and looters of nations through their global enterprises. By the way, those two so-called “Christian” nations waged war against each other over their “discoveries” because of conflicts in jurisdiction, hence, requiring the issuance of the Bull. How very “Christian” indeed! Like children fighting over  stolen fruits taken from a neighbor’s orchard.

Within such a system, therefore, we can forget about religion or teaching “pagan” nations “modern civilization”. For all the western nations became filthy rich and were able to build their modern and fabulous cities by trading human flesh and sucking the resources of their colonies. So, when you visit those rich, western cities on your bucket list, make sure you remember what Solomon wrote: A time to build up, a time to tear down. He did it all, saw it all and paid dearly for it all through his own divided kingdom after his death. His son ruled half of a divided kingdom of Israel. Someone, later on, would divide the whole world – distributing it and getting proceeds from both parts! How clever indeed. We all know what happened and what will happen to all the kingdoms of this world – from the Babylonian Empire to the Roman Empire – based on King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. (Daniel 2:27-45)

The Image in King Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

For what kind of concessions or representations did those colonies receive in the beginning in order to preserve their own culture, their beliefs, their independence, their sovereignty and basic rights as original dwellers, hence stewards, if not owners, of the resources they had enjoyed since time-forgotten? Nothing! In the case of Ophir, which was a trading center as well as a cornucopia of resources which the people exported to other nations through their own ships and sailors, it was necessary for the colonizers to take over Ophir’s previous role as a free, robust and wealthy trader through a systematic take-over and obliteration of the infrastructure required for that role. (Rizal learned this from de Morga’s book, Successes of the Philippine Islands, and must have known why and what its history and its resources made such progress possible.) What the colonizers did, in effect, was: first, wrest ownership and control of the the resources (gold, silver, lumber, agricultural products, land and sea resources, etc.); second, embargo or destroy the natives’ tools of enterprise and occupation (trading ships, fishing boats/bancas, mining equipment, farms, etc.); third, subvert and control the minds and activities of the natives through various means (religious indoctrination, social/political/military control, cultural transformation, plain harassment, etc.); fourthly, establish taxation or require tributes from the masses in order to finance the colonizers’ operations and to derive more profit for the empire; and, lastly, through urbanization, organize the whole archipelago into a province of Spain (hence, a part of the state patterned after the ideas of the Greek city-state) where people were ruled by a central insular government and made to follow ordinances issued by the ruling government to achieve all the preceding objectives and to instill continued compliance and subservience.       

Apart from setting up laws to avoid conflict among the imperialistic nations, neither the pope nor the colonizers themselves ever laid down beneficent rules on how to manage or administer a colony. If ever they did, it was ultimately for their own exclusive benefit and glory and not for the inherent dignity, rights and privileges of the people who had lived and enjoyed their lands before those foreigners came. Hence, such rules would have only been self-oriented guidelines as to how to go about peaceably giving the natives enough space where they can still practice their innocent way of life while slowly indoctrinating them into the western ways of life. And religion was the best tool available, prior to any necessary military action, to appease and acculturate the natives to become subjects of the monarchs back in Europe.

What the unwritten rules, therefore, included was that colonizing a region or nation necessitated putting the people to labor on behalf of the colonizer’s requirements. Hence, they were employed as laborers in privately-owned haciendas or encomiendas, that is, incorporated farms or commissions engaged in producing tobacco, spices, poppies, sugar and other agricultural products that were shipped to Europe, Asia and Americas, as well as miners to extract gold, silver, bronze, iron ore and other minerals, again to be shipped to Spain via Mexico through the Galleon Trade route.

Moreover, the Spaniards gradually went about erasing the culture of the natives and imposing their own legal, social, political, religious and cultural norms. As part of such a process, many of the practices, beliefs and historical records of the natives were eliminated. For just as a colonizer was not required by anyone to account for the amount of gold it had stolen or extracted from its colony, other than to the king and his ministers — or the pope, perhaps — it did not also find the need to preserve for the natives whatever religious, social or cultural treasures or heritage which the colonizers precisely sought to replace or erase. With a few exceptions, the whole process was a thorough deleting of the character and identity of the natives through a slow and surgical procedure. In the end, the native’s mind, soul and spirit became a totally reconstructed entity beneath the old brown-skin. Ophir became a land named after a king who never even set foot on these islands.

The natives continued to eat the food they used to enjoy, with the added menu they picked up here and there from the colonizers. They eventually learned a foreign tongue, although it took centuries before they could get the legal right to do so. Some of those who were given the privilege to acquire education in Spain were allowed to take low positions in government. By the 19^th-century, sons of the wealthy native families imbibed the liberal ideas that were taking Europe by storm and upsetting the old status quo. Revolution and reform soon ignited the shores and fields of the islands. Nationalism grew with the spread of those ideas among the oppressed natives. The uprising of the masses, under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, was but a matter of time and reached boiling point when Dr. Jose Rizal – the prime inspiration of the revolution — was executed in December 1896. The revolutionaries eventually surrounded the remaining Spanish holdout within the walled city of Intramuros in Manila by early 1898. Independence was declared on June 12, 1898. Complete take-over was only a few steps away with the surrender of the Spanish forces.

Andres Bonifacio, Founder of the Revolutionary Movement “Katipunan”

But it was not meant to be. The US Navy, suspiciously dispatched in time to arrest a final victory of the revolutionaries, practically took over the war – turning the Ophir-Spanish War into an extended American-Spanish War in Asia – and ended up claiming the islands for itself. The Americans’ initial assistance to the revolutionary government under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo against the Spaniards was but a predisposed colonial agendum disguised as friendly support for the natives. Once its ultimate goal was revealed, the revolutionaries turned their arms against the traitorous Americans. From the frying pan for three centuries to the fire for another century or so is hardly a national tragedy one can easily forget; yet, today, so many of the natives do and are even thankful that it did happen.

One wonders how the Americans knew all along that the times were gradually turning and merely waited for the fruit to fall at their feet at the proper time. Was Britain in on it all the while, as it had always targeted Ophir from the very beginning, having invaded the city of Manila in 1762 but giving up its short-lived occupation in 1764? With its waning naval capability, its only option, perhaps, was to send her younger cousin to finish the job. Rizal, in fact, had dealings with some British individuals while he resided in Hong Kong in connection with his desire to lease a portion of Sandakan in North Borneo, where he planned to relocate his fellow town-mates in Calamba who had been dispossessed of their farm lands by the Dominican friars. It turned out those British entities had spurious claims and could have actually been planted spies casing Spain’s nemesis and numero-uno critic in the person of Rizal.

In retrospect, Rizal’s failure to launch his small colony in Sandakan became a major motivation for him to go home, face his enemies and, most likely, his own martyrdom. Or was his decision to come home brought about by the confluence of events that had been broiling underneath the social-political-military volcano that was Southeast Asia? That is, with Japan flexing its muscles in northwest Asia through its militarization and industrialization programs, US extending its influence over a wider scope in Spanish colonies in South America and the British already in Asia and still playing an active role in colonizing Asian countries, such as China, India, Borneo and former Dutch East Indies, Rizal must have eagerly sought to convince the Spanish rulers to strengthen its Asian colony against all the formidable forces posed against it. He knew his own country did not have the ability to defend itself as an independent nation, hence, his hesitation to support an untimely armed revolution against Spain. But with Spain’s support, perhaps, the colony could have been spared from another brutal annexation by any of those hungry vultures lurking around the colony. For he did accurately predict US designs in Asia and must have also seen all those other salivating nations that would eventually impose their will over the islands later on.

What we see in history is basically a vicious historical cycle of greed for valuable resources. Yes, blessings from God freely given to all His children to be nurtured, shared and enjoyed equitably. Just as Ophir did with Israel during the reigns of David and Solomon. Who would now dare say without contradicting themselves that God reigned in the hearts of those who despoiled Ophir for their selfish ends?

Hence, with Britain’s operatives at the very doorsteps of Ophir, is it any wonder why their principals merely allowed the Americans to come in out of the blue and wrest away from their clutches a golden opportunity it has lusted after for centuries? Delve into the real ties between the US and the UK and uncover how a younger, rising power actually received the baton of world domination from an older, declining empire to become a novice empire-builder itself. The global wars that would ensue in less than a half a century will prove this partnership was no accident but a continuing devious alliance of true siblings whose blood-relations go back to Ancient Babylon, the Mother of all World Conquests. Along with Rome and its network of obedient nations, this US-UK alliance, propped up by its own puppet nations, imposed a balancing force that practically turned the entire globe both as a colonizers’ treasure trove and open battlefield.    

The brief period within the new chapter in the history of Ophir is this: A rich, bold colonizer with the same set of rules for conquest had arrived. For the natives, that meant learning another new religion, new language, new culture and a new way of doing things. The final goal remained the same: Putting the natives to work in the same farms, same mines and same seas but who remained brown-skinned but now having to speak and think differently. They had not only forgotten their original identity; they now had to gain an entirely new identity. A double-conversion of a nation into something it was not meant to be all along, while losing its wealth and right to course its destiny, could only be a tragedy of unimaginable proportions that would have been very obvious and abominable to most peoples in the world. However, the procedure with which the two colonizers went about in accomplishing the feat could have only come from such an insidious plot concocted not by them alone but by some other force or forces way back in the ancient past.

For how could two conquering nations supposedly bearing the banner of Christianity go about decimating a nation’s wealth for their own use while depriving its colonized subjects of their basic rights and their inheritance formerly enjoyed by their ancestors before the colonizers arrived? How can anybody claim that those colonizers did it to serve the God of mercy, justice and peace when they ended up stealing the wealth of those people and putting to death thousands and thousands of those natives in order to achieve their goals? Who can worship a “God” that would justify the division of the world and distributing wealth to only a few nations, that is, wealth derived by destroying majority of the remaining “unexplored” nations through despoiling their resources and enslaving the people. Is not the one who issued the Bull equally guilty of the sins and abuses of those explorers and colonizers? Certainly, the answer is a shameful YES!

Yet, those global rulers and their explorers were mere instruments of an unseen malevolent spirit that has existed from the beginning. For their spirit of conquest can only come from the first and original spirit of this world that also enslaved the spirits of ancient peoples and ruled their lands the way modern imperialists have also done – Babylon. Yes, the same Babylon that conquered Israel and robbed the temple of God of its glory and its treasures. The Mystery Religion of Babylon remains alive and active in our times. It arose as a result of the rebellious spirit that had once raised Nimrod to put up the Tower of Babel and to challenge God. All the wicked spirits and principalities that now rule over false religions and all the kingdoms of this world have set themselves against the plan of God to save the remnant of Israel scattered throughout the nations. God has reserved His people for the final return of His Son when He will reveal His glorious Kingdom preached and established through the Gospel in the way it has always been proclaimed and practiced by His true disciples.

Colonization delivered a distorted religion, let us make that very clear. In the case of Ophir, it came not only to teach a “new religion” (not the original faith of the fathers) to the natives who already had one passed on to them by their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Israel. Yes, Ophir, Tarshish and Havilah, by their origin through birthright (from Shem), likewise received God’s promise through Noah and, therefore, so did their succeeding descendants through Israel. The One God Who saved Noah from the Flood is the same God Who saved Israel from Egypt. The final outcome will be the destruction of Babylon and its Mystery Religion and all other bearers of its abominations in the world.

The deception and destruction with which the colonizers operated in order to achieve their nefarious aims resulted in completely erasing what Noah and Israel bequeathed to those people who had received the inheritance by God’s will. When Magellan and his crew heard how the natives of Ophir worshiped their God by raising their hands and calling on His name “ABBA”, they should have known it was the true God of the forefathers. For if they believed those people to be the same people who traded with David, Solomon and Hiram in ancient times (the same Ophir, remember?), then they should have also known that they were indeed part of the lost tribes that had escaped and returned to where their forefathers Ophir, Havilah and Tarshish originally dwelt in. That is, they knew exactly who those natives were – the rightful heirs of the Kingdom of God. And yet, they enslaved and oppressed them. Why?

Only one reason comes to mind: The likes of Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, Cortez, Villalobos and all the European and American colonizers – whether they knew it or not — were under the power of the worldly prince in order to enslave, if not exterminate, the remnant of Israel. For how can a true Christian, believer or servant of Christ not treat a fellow follower of Abba (who happens to own so much gold) with the love and compassion that is expected of a genuine believer as well? How can you travel halfway around the world in search of spices or gold for your ruler and souls for your pope and use cannons, muskets and swords in order to take over their own land and take their wealth for yourself? Only a satanic spirit can even think of such a plan and one that had, in the first place, driven out the lost tribes out of their inherited lands. And history proves beyond a shade of a doubt that that is what those nations and people had done and continue to do. Beware then: The future history will reverse this process and the people they oppressed and continue to oppress will sit with the coming King of Heaven to judge the wicked works of those wicked people.

This is not a hidden agendum of God. It is as open as any high school textbook on World History. God has revealed everything to humans, unlike colonizers who have kept their deeds hidden in the dark for centuries, just as they have hidden the wealth of their colonies in their treasuries. But all hidden things will be revealed in the proper time. For now, these things are as clear as the day. Only those who refuse to look up to the sky will not see. They remain as blind and deaf as the idols they worship.

Why do many people in Ophir do not believe this report? It is because of the intentional blinding of the world by God; for if they truly believe Him, He will listen and open their minds and their eyes so that they will also see. IF THEY BELIEVE! But because they only believe Mystery Babylon, they remain within its cloud of many mysteries. If Nimrod of old could deceive thousands to cause them to challenge God by building a tower to Heaven by their god Baal, the same spirit will deceive millions and even billions to cause them to deny or reject God and His Son’s Pure Gospel through their adulterated gospel preached by their false apostles.

Nimrod and the Tower of Babel

God caused a revolution when He dispersed the people of Babel by confusing their language. A revolution is a process of subverting the order of a system, such as the one tongue and one tribe of Babel. Today’s world order is that of a few elite and rich nations run by a few elite families who control the economies and the governments of the world on behalf of Satan, whose final aim is to destroy the remnant of Israel — God’s faithful children through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yes, to subvert the will and plan of God established through His Son to eventually reunite the lost tribes upon His return. They do it by taking over the old religion of ancient Israel, sitting in the place of God, as prophesied by John in Revelation 17 and deceiving people to believe that this is God’s making. The only way God can overturn this insidious plot is to cause another revolution which must involve people going back to Him and stopping the continued enslavement of people by the worldly kingdoms and religions that rule over the multitudes.

Christ established a Kingdom of royal, holy priests. It is not a religion — least of all, one that would abet the evil works of old or new colonizers. Anyone who thinks otherwise is totally blind and has been deceived by false teachers, false history and fake media. We have laid out how the colonizers propagated the material and spiritual conquest of the world by the spirit of Babylon. The ultimate aim is to win the souls of people for Satan; for Babylon is, in reality, where the very throne of Lucifer, the Great Deceiver, rules the world in defiance of God.

There is no other way to speak about these things, just as there is no other way to describe the real history of Ophir, which they have tried to erase or hide for centuries. It is time for Ophir to rise up! Wake up from your long, long sleep and seize what is rightfully yours from God. He is able to hand it over to you if you listen and follow His leading. Land of Gold, shine! Land of God, arise!

Land of God, Arise!

In the next part of this series, we will deal with these issues: Where is all the gold of Ophir now? Gold neither tarnishes nor decays. And nobody throws gold away but stores it. Whoever has the gold of David, Solomon and Ophir owes it to God and His people to make a proper accounting. Not to determine how much Ophir owned or owns but how much was owed to him during the time it was taken away from him; not in terms of the weight of gold but in terms of the loss and suffering inflicted. Then, the Judge of All will measure back the corresponding payment.

Note:

¹https://archive.org/stream/linesofdemarcati00daws/linesofdemarcati00daws_djvu.txt

(Photos/images courtesy of www.google,com & https://akopito.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/silapulapu-aka-lapu-lapu-of-mactan/)