Fergus the Great: King of the Scots

I received my first book review on Goodreads of my new book.  Check out Angie's Review..  She gave me a five star rating!

Synchronicity of Events: There are No Coincidences!

According to Wikipedia  “Synchronicity is the occurrence of two or more events that appear to be meaningfully related but not causally related.  Synchronicity holds that such events are "meaningful coincidences".  The concept of synchronicity was first defined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, in the 1920's.  Jung  believed  that life was not a series of random events but rather an expression of a deeper order.  This deeper order led to the insights that a person was both embedded in an orderly framework and was the focus of that orderly framework and that the realization of this was more than just an intellectual exercise, but also had elements of a spiritual awakening.  From the religious perspective, synchronicity shares similar characteristics of an "intervention of grace”.   He also believed that in a person's life, synchronicity served a role similar to that of dreams, with the purpose of shifting a person's egocentric conscious thinking to greater wholeness.”

At Tomer Devorah, a Jewish blog that I frequent, I recently read the following:

“I don't know if you are aware, but after the World Trade Center was attacked on 9/11 - much later, in fact - some people began to find allusions to the date in movies, TV shows and music videos from the time period leading up to it. It's a very fascinating study.  (4 minute video hitting the high points) 

Conspiracy theorists believe that the Illuminati has their minions encode the date in the open this way in order to announce their future intentions - "Everything the Illuminati do they first broadcast it via CODES planted in movies, sitcoms, cartoons, commercials. They literally OWN the MEDIA...."  That may be. I really don't know. But, I have an alternative theory.

Creative minds are very open to inspiration. I think that inspiration comes through spiritual perception - that if, say a bat kol makes an announcement, they can subconsciously pick up on it and reveal it through their creative works.

Far from being a pointless exercise, I think this idea bears more research, because a new date has been "announced" so to speak - the 22-23 of September - which this year just happens to be Yom Kippur 5776 or Motzaei Shvi'it!”

Her blog post resonated with me as I came to the same conclusion some time ago because of a personal experience that I had.  I am an author and am currently writing the third book in a series on ancient Ireland.  The books are historical fictional novels set in the time period around 400 CE.  As I finished my second book, “Sons of Niall”, I had the main character touch the Stone of Destiny on the hill of Tara where the high kings ruled.  The Stone reacted with a loud series of thunder claps anointed him high king.  The existing king tried to kill the newly anointed ruler and he fled to Scotland with a piece of the Stone of Destiny that had been fractured during the anointing by lightning.  He set sail on a Viking trading ship that was going to Scotland which is how I ended this second book.

When I began doing research for the third book in the series, I started by research who the king would have been during this time period in Scotland.  To my amazement, a king came to power at this time that was called Fergus the Great.  What was amazing about this king is that he had been exiled as a baby to the Vikings when the Romans attacked Scotland.  He returned to Scotland as a young man from Ireland bringing a piece of the Stone of Destiny with him just like in the ending of my second book.  I had no prior knowledge of this since all my research for the first two books in the series was exclusively on the ancient history of Ireland and not on Scotland.  The only way I could have possible written this into my storyline was through inspiration from spiritual sources.  In other words, I thought it was my own creative idea, but it was not as it actually had happened historically without me knowing it.

God speaks to us through an interface with the spiritual realm, either through creative thinking or in dreams.  These messages and information can come to anyone, not just God’s people.  An example in the Bible is King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  Even though he was not initially a believer in the God of Israel, he had dreams that came from God.  These dreams when interpreted by Daniel, revealed future world empires and future events.  I believe much of the predictive information that occurs beforehand in movies, TV shows, and music videos, are messages from God and not the Illuminati announcing future intentions.  There is no way the Illuminati can predict natural disasters like what happened in Japan with the earthquake damage to their nuclear reactor at Fukushima.  God is one and speaks to all mankind.  In Joel  Chapter 2 verses 28-29 which relate to the End of Days it states:  “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.  Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.  (NASB) 

God is speaking to all of us.  He is speaking in his written word.   He is also speaking to us through everything in our lives, including movies, TV shows, and music.  He speaks to us through the people we meet and through the circumstances we encounter in life.  There are no coincidences in this world.  The key questions to ask yourself is “Are you paying attention and are you listening?”  God often speaks in a small, still voice.  You have to pay attention to hear Him speaking to you.

A Reminder from God of our American Pharaoh

On Saturday, May 2, 2015, American Pharaoh won the 141st Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky.  There are no coincidences in this world.  I believe that God orchestrated the winner of this race to remind His people of a pattern that seems to be playing out in our country today.  I came upon this pattern in 2009.  I have a friend that lives in the West Bank of Israel that I visited them.  He pointed out numerous times how the weekly Torah reading (Parshah) that Jews read and study often parallel world events.  The Jews have been following a set reading schedule that starts at Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) each year with the very first portion in Genesis.  This schedule is designed so that the entire Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) can be read each year.

About that same time, I heard of one striking example of how the Torah reading paralleled world events from Bill Cloud, a Hebraic Restoration teacher.  He noted that the Torah reading for the week of the Presidential Inauguration for President-elect Obama was Exodus 1:1 – 6:2.  There is an excellent commentary by Rabbi Ariel on this Torah portion at his website koshertorah.  

As a short summary, this portion of scripture focuses on the arrival of a new Pharaoh over ancient Egypt who knew not Joseph.  This new Pharaoh either didn't understand Joseph’s role in Egypt’s history or he did respect Joseph’s historical contribution to Egypt.  Pharaoh was concerned about God’s people, the Hebrews, being too powerful in Egypt and taking over ruler ship.  The first thing Pharaoh did was set up task masters to make things harder for them by taxing them.  Eventually he enslaved the Hebrews (which would likely have meant disarming them).  Next he tried to increase their mortality rate by killing babies born to the Hebrew women.

Those with eyes to see will notice that the parallels are striking to what we are seeing happening in our country. We have a new Pharaoh that knows not Joseph.  He ignores the founding fathers and what the Judeo-Christian heritage did in contributing to our country.  His goal is to enslave God’s people.  Taxes are increasing.  We are surrendering our freedoms willingly for the sake of peace and security.  We serve our government task masters by paying more taxes to the ever expanding federal government.  Gun control is being aggressively pushed to disarm us since our rulers fear us Bible believing, gun toting folks.  And we are transitioning into Obamacare which will work to increase death rates with death panels and government funded abortions.  Just as King Solomon observed thousands of years ago, there is nothing new under the sun.  When evil grows it uses different personages but with the same old techniques and approaches.

So what lies ahead for us?  If we continue to follow the Biblical narrative we can see where we as a country are headed.  Our country will be experience plagues (judgments) sent by God.  Our freedoms will continue to erode the more government takes over and we will become more enslaved.  Our country will transition into a place that doesn’t even resemble the place we grew up in.  I already hear my friends and neighbors expressing fear for what is happening and wondering where they can go to maintain their freedoms as the choice is very limited. 

As I stated in my very first blog, we don’t need a George Washington to fix our country.  We need a Moses to lead us out as we follow God in the Second Exodus of His people back to Greater Israel.  I believe that is where this is all headed.  That is the reason that I started this blog.  Everyone seems to be asleep as to what is going on.  The Sleeper must awaken!  I pray that the words of this blog will stir the slumber and help folks see with the eyes and hear with their ears what God is doing.

The prophets of old were clear in the scriptures.  God will establish His people in His land for His Glory!  Are you among God’s people?  Jewish teaching is that only about 20 % of the Hebrews left ancient Egypt with Moses.  The other 80 % chose to stay where they were accustomed to living even under what became harsh circumstances.  The choice is coming soon and the decision is yours.  Choose wisely!  God is watching and waiting for signs that we are awake!

Soon a redeemer will come to lead us out of modern Egypt to the Promised Land and the second exodus will occur as foretold by the prophets of old.  It will occur when the Messiah Son of David comes to establish God’s Kingdom as foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 11:10-16 - Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious.  Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.  Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.  They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east; they will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.  And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; and He will wave His hand over the river with His scorching wind; and He will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry-shod.  And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of His people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt. (NASB)

Greater Israel: God’s One State Solution for Peace

Whose land is it?  The whole world belongs to the One that created it.  God, as the creator and owner of the title, can give His land to anyone He wants to.  Specifically, the land in question is called the “Promised Land” as it was promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

In the end of days God’s plan as prophesied in the bible is to establish all the tribes of Israel back into the land that He promised Abraham (See Jeremiah Chapter 31).  The original promise to Abraham was for land that went from the Nile in Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River in modern day Iraq. It is what I would call God’s “One State Solution” in contrast to the world’s desire for a “Two State Solution”.  God brought the tribe of Judah (the Jews) back into the land to prepare the way for the returning exiles (the lost 10 tribes along with the rest of Judah).  According to scripture, the messiah’s role is to gather the lost 10 tribes and bring them back to the land promised to Abraham. The end result will be the Restored and United Kingdom of God that includes all the tribes of Israel (See Ezekiel Chapter 37). This is taught in both Judaism and Christianity.

In looking at the big picture, Christians and Jews only differ on who the Messiah is.  Christians believe the Messiah to be Yashua who is today called Jesus.  Most Jews reject that view.  However, Jews do teach of two messiahs.  The Messiah son of Joseph starts the kingdom restoration work and then dies for his people while the Messiah son of David brings the lost 10 tribes back to the Promised Land to complete the restoration of the kingdom.

A look at historical events in conjunction with the modern day phenomenon of Hebraic restoration seems to indicate that Jesus (Yashua) was the Messiah son of Joseph that God used to reach out to the lost tribes and bring them back to Himself and His Torah.  A segment of Christians have been awakened to a love for Torah and the Jewish people.  Many even have an intense desire to return to Israel and be accepted by Judah.  However, they are many obstacles in the way of God’s two great houses (Israel and Judah) reconciling.  Returning members of the lost 10 tribes (House of Israel) are lame to walking the path of Torah while the House of Judah (i.e. the Jews) is blinded to the role of the Christian messiah in bringing the lost sheep of Israel back to God and His Torah.  The only thing that will bridge these differences is the love of God and the love of brothers one for another.  All the brothers need to love God and love one another enough to put their theological differences aside.  Love is the key that will establish Greater Israel (God’s Kingdom) and implement the final solution for peace!  If God’s people don’t make progress towards reconciliation, then the evil in the world will continue to grow and eventually force His people to come together for survival.

The evil forces in the world inherently know God’s plan for Israel and are feverishly striving to thwart it.  That is why the world’s plan for peace in the Middle-east is to divide the land a piece at a time in a futile attempt to prevent God’s plan for restoring the physical kingdom of Isreal.  The world’s plan is based upon hatred and separation with Israel’s enemies vowing to destroy the Jewish state.  Two peoples cannot coexist when there is hate.  Only love for your fellow man allows peace and harmony to exist with each group respecting the other. 

However, God’s plan is based upon love.  Those in the Middle East willing to love their Jewish neighbors regardless of religious differences will remain.  Those that hate their Jewish neighbors will have to leave or have their hearts changed from hate to love for them to stay.  If they continue to hate, they will have to either leave of their own accord or their hatred will result in their own self-destruction as is going on in Syria and Iraq today.  In the end the entire Promised Land will only be filled with those that love God and love His people, the Jews.  True children of God are identified by His love, not by hatred of any one group or person.

As for the rest of the world that is filled with hate for the Jews, they would be wise to listen to God’s words by the biblical prophet Joel in Joel Chapter 3:1-2:

“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.  Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.”  (NASB)

The Bus Troll: My First Written Story by Daniel J. Duffield

I wrote this story when I was in high school back in my home state of Michigan.  I was taking a writing class from a young teacher we called Miss Pohl.  She was a strict teacher that graded very hard and it was one of the few classes that I had work extra hard to get good grades.  Of all the writing that I did in her class, there is one story that stands out, a story that surprised even my teacher.

When all the students were seated in their seats and the class was about to begin, Miss Pohl set a small troll doll on her desk.  Her instructions were simple.  She told us to write a short story about the doll.  I sat there for a few moments and then suddenly had an idea.  From that moment on I frantically wrote with paper and pencil to capture my story.  I finished just as the bell rang to end the class period.

The next day when we assembled in Miss Pohl’s class again I could see a big smile on the teachers face as she held a paper in her hand.  She told the class that she had to read this wonderful story of “The Bus Troll” and then proceeded to read it to the class.  She never revealed who wrote the story as was her policy, but she called me up after class to talk to me.  She told me that I had an imagination and could write.  “Maybe, you should consider becoming an author someday.”  She told me.  Those words haunted me through the years.  I knew I had to write books someday and so I did. 

Click on the link below titled "The Bus Troll" to read this short story for free. 

The Bus Troll

March 3, 2015 – Decision Day: Will America Stand Up and Be Queen Esther?

On the evening of March 3^rd, 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the American Congress to plead Israel’s case against Iran’s nuclear program.  This will be a historic day for America as the Prime Minister of Israel describes the choices before our country and his.  The key question is whether or not congress side with Israel in opposition to the President or remain silent?  This may be the most critical decision congress ever faces for the survival of our nation.

For people of faith that have eyes to see, there have been several hints that reflect the importance of Netanyahu’s historic speech to our country’s future.  On January 20^th, President Obama delivered the annual State of the Union address to congress.  The very next day on January 21, Speaker of the House, John Boehner, invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give another response to the President’s State of the Union address.  Then two days later on January 23, the movie Mordechai was officially released in America.  However it wasn't until Netanyahu’s address to congress was scheduled at the Prime Minister’s insistence for March 3^rd that people began connecting the dots.  

For you see March 3^rd is the eve of Purim, the Jewish holiday that commemorates Queen Esther saving her people, the Jews, from Haman who had plotted to destroy them.  I would encourage you to read this story in the Bible in the book of Esther.  It is about a young woman who is adopted by a Jew named Mordechai and later rises to become the wife of King Xerxes.

History has a way of repeating itself and there are many parallels in the story of Esther to events today.  Both social media and news have been discussing the connections between the biblical story to destroy the Jewish people and the Iranians aspirations to do the same.  For blog examples see here and here.  For example news story see here.

In the blogs and news stories, Haman is represented by Iran who also wants to destroy the Jews.  President Obama represents King Xerxes who eagerly made a deal with Haman for the money he would receive.  Prime Netanyahu represents Esther who went before the king to make her case for her people.

However, as I thought about these parallels and roles being played out, I see another possibility.  Maybe both President Obama and Iran are playing the role of Haman trying to destroy the Jews.  In this scenario, Congress would represent King Xerxes and Queen Esther who are actually in authority above Haman (I.e. the President).  Netanyahu would represent Mordechai who reported Haman’s plan to Queen Esther.  If these parallels are the case, then Mordechai’s words ring true for both Israel and America.  For his statement to Esther (those in congress sympathetic to Israel) were as follows:

Esther 4:13 – 14: Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews.   For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

So the message to God believing people in congress as well as all America is that if we do not choose to stand in agreement with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel, we will perish.  For us it is decision time in the face of evil.  Do we stand with Israel against the evil of Iran or not?  What we decide in our hearts and then express with our prayers and actions, will determine our fate as a nation and individually.  May you choose wisely for who knows, maybe our country was founded by Godly men and attained our current status for “such a time as this”.  Pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu as he delivers the truth of the Iranian threat to us and pray that we have the courage to stand with God’s chosen people as Queen Esther did in Biblical times!

Collective Consciousness - Reality is a Projection of Our Minds

We live in a material world, but the sages of Judaism have taught for 3500 years that the world around us is an illusion.  It is real, but still an illusion created by God for us to experience life and make choices that affect our eternal well being.  I have learned this from Rabbi Ariel bar Tzadok at https://www.koshertorah.com/

I recently came across two articles that seem to verify this concept.  The first article Are We Living in a Computer Simulation is a scientific paper which argues that we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.  The second article Science Proves That Human Consciousness and Our Material World Are Intertwined: See For Yourself" postulates that units of consciousness (prayers,thoughts, and intentions) directly affect our physical material world.  It goes on to state the following:

"For quite some time now, physicists have been exploring the relationship between human consciousness and its relationship to the structure of matter. Previously it was believed that a Newtonian material universe was the foundation of our physical material reality. This all changed when scientists began to recognize that everything in the universe is made out of energy. Quantum physicists discovered that physical atoms are made up of vorticies of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating. Matter, at it’s tiniest observable level, is energy, and human consciousness is connected to it, human consciousness can influence it’s behavior and even re-structure it."

The paper on human consciousness goes on to review the latest quantum physics and recently declassified government military research documents to make their case.  The paper examines the following:

1) The quantum double slit experiment that demonstrates how the outcome can be altered by the observer.
2) The government sponsored psychokinesis experiments dealing with the possible influence of human consciousness on the behavior of physical or biological systems or processes (i.e. bending spoons).
3) The Global Consciousness Experiment/Random Number Generators.
4) NSA/CIA Remote Viewing Experiments In Conjunction With Stanford University.
5) Thoughts and Intentions Alter The Physical Structure of Water.
6) The Placebo Effect where people heal themselves by believing something will help them.
7) Teleportation of small objects.
8) The science of the heart - results have shown that emotional information is encoded into this electromagnetic field.

This research demonstrates that our consciousness and material physical world are intertwined and affect each other.  It seems that science is finally catching up to what religious people have know for centuries - heaven is the real world and this world is a mere illusion from which we interact to learn in preparation for eternity.

The Star Gate to Heaven - Near Death Experiences

In the 1990s, I had a good friend who had a massive heart attack.  His name was Chad and he was visiting his daughter who was a nurse at the local hospital when the heart attack occurred.  His daughter immediately recognized that her father was having a heart attack and went into swift action.  Chad died and then was brought back to life by the doctors and nurses who worked at reviving him.  While he was dead he had a Near Death Experience that he relayed to me one day while we were horseback riding in the Uinta Mountains.  His story sounded like so many others that had I heard or read about: the tunnel of light that he went through to meet deceased family members, the immense feeling of love from his deceased relatives, and being totally bathed in God's love while he was there.  He told me that he was told to go back to his body, but that he did not want to.  All he wanted to do was stay in heaven.

What I found fascinating was that Chad was a devout Mormon.  He believed in Jesus as his savior, but his theology was vastly different from mine as a Baptist.  I had heard other stories from my brother, a Baptist minister, who had been at the deathbeds of dozens of people from small children to the very old.  Some of these people were church members who believed in God and some were not.  Most of the stories he had heard from Godly people were nearly the same as Chad's story.  However when my brother was with people that hated God and wanted nothing to do with him, the stories were quite different.  They often saw demons coming to get them and went into death with screams.  If they survived the near death experience, they usually could not remember the experience or they assumed that they had been hallucinating and had a nightmare.

I did further investigations into near death experiences by reading three books that told near death experience stories.  The books were 1) Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo; 2) Visions of Glory as told by John Pontius; and 3) Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, M.D.  I would highly recommended all three books to see the common threads of the experiences from that of a little boy who died, to a Mormon, to an agnostic neurosurgeon.  The only real differences in the three stories were the theological perspective of the stories being told.

In Heaven is for Real, the little boy saw heaven as reflected by the theology of his evangelical-pastor father.  In Visions of Glory the stories and visions reflect the Mormon theology.  The story teller sees other righteous people in heaven who had not been Mormon, but assumes that they must have converted to Mormonism at some point in order to be in heaven.  Both the little boy and the Mormon see Jesus in their near death experience.  In Proof of Heaven, the neurosurgeon, Eben Alexander, experiences heaven without memories due to his damaged cerebral cortex.  In contrast to the little boy and the Mormon he does not see Jesus.  He sees only God who is energy emanating pure love from a concentrated source at the center of heaven.  An energy that is everywhere and in everything similar to descriptions in Judaism.

As I pondered the differences and similarities, a passage in the Mormon book "Visions of Glory" came to my mind that may explain the differences.  Here is the passage from page 89 of the book:

All of the glorified universes I perceived were one of three glories - celestial, terrestrial, or telestial.  There were other types, which were not types of glory.  These were wonderful places without glory where beings who had not qualified for a reward of glory during their lifetimes were ultimately sent.  These were of every type, of every description, and were created in response to their desires (Italics added).

 So, maybe the differences in the near death experiences were merely projected by the individual and what they expect to see in heaven.  Each person that goes to heaven puts his theological glasses on and as a result sees what they expect to see.  Those that don't believe in the God of heaven do not go to heaven.  They separate themselves from God by their own mental constructs and create their own hells devoid of the God that they don't accept or believe in.  For to be with God you must first believe in God.  In the end our theological differences may not matter as long as we believe in the God that created us and return to him through repentance to walk our path through life with Him.