This book is a follow-up to the author's previous one which revealed the underlying, but veiled, symbolism in the Wizard of Oz. His suggestion regarding the connection between Emerald City and the Catholic Church was not well received. Even more objectionable to many was his assertion that the powerless phony wizard, that "Whiz of a wiz," is a direct analogy to the God of the Old Testament. These chapters will serve as a guided tour of the "spiritual nooks and crannies" of Holy Scripture. These nooks have been carefully ignored and side-stepped by theologians for a very long time. Those willing to start from a spiritual blank slate and step forward with an open mind will be shocked to their core by what they discover in the many never discussed nooks. While many have claimed to reveal the "secrets" of the Mother Church, you will find here that her biggest secrets have been hidden in plain sight all along. Reassessing our most fundamental assumptions about our deepest and longest cherished core beliefs requires real courage and even a willingness to endure ridicule. When Dorothy pulled back the green curtain, she was changed forever - for the better. It is the author's sincere belief that everyone who walks the Yellow Brick Road (i.e. the Spiritual Path) must eventually summon the courage to look behind the mysterious veil that separates us from our real world wizard. Most of what follows is not pleasant or easy reading but all of it comes right out of the pages of Holy Scripture itself.

Auszug. � Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Oh, My God!

Moving Beyond Emerald City

By Javier J. Farias

Balboa Press

Preface, xi, 
Introduction, xv, 
Chapter 1 A Manual for Moral Living, 1, 
Chapter 2 Names of God, 27, 
Chapter 3 Got Slaves?, 39, 
Chapter 4 Virgins Anyone?, 51, 
Chapter 5 Suffer the Children, 71, 
Chapter 6 The Ultimate Sacrifice, 95, 
Chapter 7 Great Slaughters, 125, 
Chapter 8 Sweet Savors, 143, 
Chapter 9 That Precious Blood, 163, 
Chapter 10 Pulling Back the Curtain, 175, 
Conclusion, 199, 
About the Author, 229,

CHAPTER 1

A Manual for Moral Living

As I was saying in the introduction, there will be a few statements made in these pages regarding religion and the world's most popular god which will seem outlandish or even irreverent. However, none of them are made lightly or without solid biblical support. Where a statement is an opinion, I will say so. Since the Holy Bible itself will provide the support for all of my assertions, we should take a few moments for a brief review of its reputation as an undisputable source for "proving" practically anything we humans can say about anything – as long as we can somehow connect it to anything mentioned in the bible.

It is also well established that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time, with estimated annual sales of around 100 million copies and has been translated into over 500 languages. Also an undeniable "fact" is that it has been a major influence on world literature and history, especially in the West. As for its historical record, the Bible has also earned special status as the first mass-printed book. Very impressive, no?

Amazingly enough, even with all that popularity and world-wide distribution, I contend here that few people have a good working knowledge of what it actually says. In fact, I will predict that most who claim to be thoroughly familiar with its pages, and can even quote lots of its verses, will be utterly shocked by their ignorance (nothing personal) of its contents. Honestly though, their lack of familiarity is really not their fault. The reason for that being that it is the pastors, ministers and theologians who intentionally steer us only toward what I call the "pretty" or prosaic passages. If you read much further, you will see what I mean by that.

How Many?

Now, one small problem I have with "the" bible – and gosh this is almost too petty to bring up – is that there are so many versions of them in print. Even more bothersome, they all say the same thing – but differently. If you own or have read more than one translation, you've no doubt noticed that. So let me see now ... at my last attempt to count, I came up with about 117 translations – and that would be in the English language alone. In case you're wondering, no, I did not attempt to count all the other versions of the 500-plus languages that may be out there.

Since the first English language bible, Wycliffe's Bible, was published back in 1382, and especially after the invention of the printing press, there is no telling how many trees have been felled to meet the ever increasing demand for more. A simple internet search for "number of bible translations" will yield enough to occupy your free time for quite a while. Basically, there are now about a dozen "Standard" bibles of some type or other, about as many King James versions and "Living" (or "simple") bible versions, about seven or so "International" versions, as well as a few "American" versions. And no, I don't have any idea what makes the American ones any more relevant or special. You would probably need a degree in theology or something to understand that.

To Make It Easy

In the chapters that follow I will be quoting extensively from the New International Version of the Holy Bible (Zondervan Publishing House), and from The Living Bible Paraphrased (Tyndale House). The former because it seems to be one of the more popular and widely recognized versions and (according to the Preface) was the result of the efforts of "over a hundred scholars," and the latter simply because this version often renders a much more plain spoken interpretation of what the ancient writers meant or intended to convey in the original text. This according to their carefully selected panel of biblical scholars as explained in the Preface of that Bible. Not surprisingly, this sometimes results in much more blunt translations than many theologians, evangelists or otherwise "devout believers" are comfortable with. As their Preface also makes clear, the publisher endeavored to transcribe the scriptures "under the careful scrutiny" of a group of highly respected experts on the complexities of the original Greek and Hebrew. So I'm thinkin' those verses should be as "God breathed" as any other.

Less frequently, I'll also use verses from the ever-popular King James Version. This seems to be, for many, the preferred version because of its "beautiful, eloquent old English" phrases. But I quote from its pages for a more practical reason – a better insight into the ways the use of an archaic language like Old English can seriously distort the original meanings of the text and create significant misunderstandings upon which our spiritual ... understanding is based. If you are not already familiar, you will soon find that quite often, some truly objectionable events are described in such a polite or "eloquent" way they are rendered inoffensive to the less astute reader. Upon closer scrutiny, many of those events turn out to be anything but harmless – never-mind spiritually inspiring. In my opinion, those who have relied primarily on this version for their spiritual edification have almost no concept of what is actually being said in some of the most significant passages.

Then there is The Jerusalem Bible which was useful as well because, like my TLB, it was written as a modern bible for modern readers with heavy reliance on what they call "the original pioneer work of the School of Biblical Studies in Jerusalem." That sounds authoritative enough for me. Moreover, the publisher's heavy emphasis on providing a "modern clarity of the text" to modern readers is something sorely needed when translating texts which are several thousand years old. For ease of writing, I will sometimes abbreviate the bibles I use most by their generally accepted acronyms such as NIV for the New International Version, TLB for The Living Bible, KJV for the King James Version, TJB for The Jerusalem Bible and GNT for The Good News Translation.

It is also well established (just run an internet search) that many theologians insist that our Holy Bible is a "manual for modern moral living" and that it should be used exactly as such if we hope to find our way through the complexities and trials of modern life. You may have also heard at one time or another that the Bible is "God's instruction manual for life" or many similar statements. Additionally, the book some well-meaning, sincere pastors like to refer to as "God's Book" is also said to give you "stability and new meaning to life." Some give us the inspiring assurance that since it is God's Word, and since God is "perfect," then it stands to reason that it must "forever endure." Well ... I'll admit that does sound reasonable...

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