Iconophili's Great Big Thread of Conspiracies!

[CGW]

The problem, as far as I am concerned, is you never manage to trace this root back to Genesis chapter 3.

[AndyHolland]

Look for the common patterns. For example:

Combine Genesis 3 with Psalm 2 etc.... The rebellion is crushed. Those 'who hate Zion are accursed' the Scripture is very consistent. Psalm 2 is chrystal clear, there isn't any wiggle room - Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

The message is pretty clear, serve God or else. Why do you think its the bad guys who ask "What is stronger than a lion?", "What is sweeter than honey?" or "What is truth?"

They reduce reality to materialism - to a "what" or object. They do not compare things spiritual to spiritual as St. Paul says. The reduction leads to one eventually judging for oneself (money is the root of all evil) and living a purely materialistic philosophy against one that combines material and spiritual. This is rational enlightenment, the American dream - a fat belly, a fat wallet and what - a grave at the end of the road? He who dies with the most toys looses!

The tree of Life is the cross, and the fruit of that tree is Jesus Christ. It is giving up the material and sacrificing oneself for others that becomes the proper use of things spiritual to gain what is purely spiritual.

Things Spiritual is the Church, Iconography and the Symbols that are not mere representations but actual of or are what they represent. How we treat the material is how we are spiritually.

Truth, love, goodness, faithfulness, probity, and all forms of virtues and spiritual qualities are intrinsically inseparable from material reality. They go together to become Very Good in Jesus Christ. Why do you think God says "Let us create man in our image"? We are participants before the fact, during and after.

But when you separate material and spiritual and dissect them, eventually humanity drifts towards the demonic (pure spiritual) or animalistic (pure material). That is precisely what we are seeing today in our "culture."

Those who took up the flag of rebellion during the rebellion were taking up the cause of the serpant to form a rational materialistic government. They wanted to judge for themselves apart from God. The outcome proves the point of the source, just as the outcome of creating us proves the source of God who creates us in joint action (deification).

But the Christian defers judgment, obeys the King as long as the King obeys Christ in a specific command (one does not worship the king), and never would take up a flag with a snake with the words "Don't tread on me" during a rebellion.

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
In other versions the word is "crush thy head." Again, consistency with Psalm 2 and many other passages.

To eat dust is to eat materialism and to swallow man who is dust in death. But Jesus overcomes death by death, lifting up the serpant and becoming a WORM for our sake as Psalm 22 proclaims.

None of this is in isolation. You cannot reduce - you have to look at the whole picture.

andy holland
sinner

[Miriam]

Don't Tread on Me Flag (Gadsden Flag)

First flown aboard a Colonial Troop ship on January 4th, 1776

This was the flag of the American Colonies at the time of the American Revolution against England.

It features a rattlesnake above the warning, "DON'T TREAD ON ME".

The rattlesnake had become a traditional symbol of the American Colonies. The most obvious reason for this is that the rattlesnake was only found in the American Colonies (and in abundance, to the dismay of settlers) and nowhere else in the world.

The origin of the slogan (Don't Tread On Me) pertains to the snake's deadly strike and the idea that it is best to leave them alone.

The snake on the flag is also roughly arranged in the shape of the American Colonies with the tip of the tail being the Florida peninsula and the head being New England.

[Miriam]

The origins of the Gadsden flag, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps
By 1775, the snake symbol wasn't just being printed in newspapers. It was appearing all over the colonies: on uniform buttons, on paper money, and of course, on banners and flags.

The snake symbol morphed quite a bit during its rapid, widespread adoption. It wasn't cut up into pieces anymore. And it was usually shown as an American timber rattlesnake, not a generic serpent.

We don't know for certain where, when, or by whom the familiar coiled rattlesnake was first used with the warning "Don't Tread on Me."

We do know when it first entered the history books.

In the fall of 1775, the British were occupying Boston and the young Continental Army was holed up in Cambridge, woefully short on arms and ammunition. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, Washington's troops had been so low on gunpowder that they were ordered "not to fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

In October, a merchant ship called The Black Prince returned to Philadelphia from a voyage to England. On board were private letters to the Second Continental Congress that informed them that the British government was sending two ships to America loaded with arms and gunpowder for the British troops.

Congress decided that General Washington needed those arms more than the British. A plan was hatched to capture the cargo ships. They authorized the creation of a Continental Navy, starting with four ships. The frigate that carried the information from England, the Black Prince, was one of the four. It was purchased, converted to a man-of-war, and renamed the Alfred.

To accompany the Navy on their first mission, Congress also authorized the mustering of five companies of Marines. The Alfred and its sailors and marines went on to achieve some of the most notable victories of the American Revolution. But that's not the story we're interested in here.

What's particularly interesting for us is that some of the Marines that enlisted that month in Philadelphia were carrying drums painted yellow, emblazoned with a fierce rattlesnake, coiled and ready to strike, with thirteen rattles, and sporting the motto "Don't Tread on Me."

An American Guesser
In December 1775, "An American Guesser" anonymously wrote to the Pennsylvania Journal:
"I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, 'Don't tread on me.' As I know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America."

This anonymous writer, having "nothing to do with public affairs" and "in order to divert an idle hour," speculated on why a snake might be chosen as a symbol for America.

First, it occurred to him that "the Rattle-Snake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America."

The rattlesnake also has sharp eyes, and "may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance." Furthermore, "She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. ... she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her."

Finally, "I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles, 'till I went back and counted them and found them just thirteen, exactly the number of the Colonies united in America; and I recollected too that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers. ...

"'Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together, so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. One of those rattles singly, is incapable of producing sound, but the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient to alarm the boldest man living."

Many scholars now agree that this "American Guesser" was Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin, of course, is also known for opposing the use of an eagle -- "a bird of bad moral character" -- as a national symbol.

[AndyHolland]

Maybe the fact that the snake doesn't strike first is why it is written, "[her seed] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

Do you realize also that by calling Eve the Mother of all Living, Adam prophesied the Mother of God - because God is living and part of "all?"

Holy Scripture is perfect. Man's sources are dubious.

Then Jesus says to the New Eve, 'what have you to do with me' - so she could name herself (real liberation - because Adam Lorded over Eve by naming her).

Holy Scripture is perfect, and human history must comply - and it has and it does. Believe Holy Scripture and the Church, then the Fathers (who don't always agree - they are fallible too). Compare things spiritual to spiritual as St. Paul commands. Father Abraham also warns in the Gospel of St. Luke, that we have the Scriptures - so that we may believe the one who arose from the dead!

Remember also the prophecy against Dan in Genesis, how he strikes like a serpent? Holy Scripture is perfect.

andy holland
sinner - very fallible so don't take my word for anything, read Scripture and talk it over with your Priest. It is true joy!

[ICONOPHILI]

Andy:
I have to say that as a fellow Orthodox person, (I am a cradle Orthodox) I find your absorbtion in the mythology of symbols rather disturbing.

It doesn't matter if one is "Cradle Orthodox" as long as one is Raised in Western Europe/ U.S.A. AKA= Non Orthodox Nation, one will have a NoN Orthodox outlook on things.

[Liudmilla]

Iconophilli wrote:

It doesn't matter if one is "Cradle Orthodox" as long as one is Raised in Western Europe/ U.S.A. AKA= Non Orthodox Nation, one will have a NoN Orthodox outlook on things.

Excuse me....but where do you come off saying that I have a non-Orthodox view on anything?

You who have no clue to begin with would judge that I am non-Orthodox????? You who would condemn God's children rather than pray for them, would in one fell swoop condemn all cradle orthodox born and raised in the US or Europe as non-orthodox???????

I would say that you have serious issues and should go confess to you priest what you have said and done and be sure to tell him what filth you have been wallowing in.

Milla

I beg forgiveness from any who are reading my strong words.