SEAnews 2015-01-20 ArtNo.45421

　They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. (Jer. 6:14).
　Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matt 5:6)
○Realization of God's justice
　In his traditional Christmas message, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the 21st of December 2014 said, "All I want from Christmas is justice. Any initiative to bring peace will fail if it doesn't bring justice to the Palestinian people," quoting a scripture from the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

○Prophecy of Jeremiah
　"While the international community is talking about resumption of the peace process, Christmas in general, and the situation of Bethlehem in particular, are a reminder that peace cannot remain an empty word," Abbas said, quoting the Book of Jeremiah, one of the major prophetical writings of the Old Testament: "They say 'peace, peace' where there is no peace."
　The chapter 6, verse 14 of Jeremiah is a part of the oracle of Jeremiah, in which Jeremiah instructed his native tribe Benjamin, who had lived in outside of the northern Jerusalem, not to evacuate into the city, which had been depraved and abandoned from God, but to the southern outskirts of Jerusalem, when the kingdom of Judah was close to be destroyed by Babylonia. Therefore, God's wrath against the kingdom of Judah, which continued to ignore God's will and depraved even after the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by Assyria, remains in this scripture.
　Mr. Abbas quotes this scripture and calls upon not only Israel but also the international community to realize that it is the time to reveal the justice of God and warns not to repeat the mistakes of the northern kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.

○Jesus' message resonates among Palestinians till now
　Mr. Abbas stressed that there was no difference, discrimination or discrepancy in the justice of God, regardless you were Jews, Christians, Muslims, other religious believers or atheists, saying, "We celebrate the birth of Jesus, a Palestinian messenger of love, justice and peace, which has guided millions from the moment that his message came out from a small grotto in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. His message resonates among all of those who are seeking justice and among our people who have been the guardians of the holy sites for generations. It resonates in our prayers for our people in Gaza."

○The reaper draws his wages
　Although it is more than two thousand years after the Buddha testified under the Bodhi tree, saying, "Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth. Grass, trees and the domains of all living things, all attain buddhahood." and also after Jesus started the movement of baptizing with the Holy Spirit in the Judean countryside, myriad conflicts have still occurred in many parts of the world. Yet, one, who sows in order to harvest the crop for eternal life, can draw his wages and get eternal life at once. Because for the one, who returns to the Word which was with God and was God in the beginning, and testifies, saying, "Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth", grass, trees and the domains of all living things essentially all attain buddhahood. The saying, "The kingdom of God becomes manifest in this world", is none other than letting one's inner eye open and letting him know that heaven and earth are one and grass, trees and the domains of all living things essentially all attain buddhahood. (The Origin of Christianity P.207)

○Palestinians are a role model for the whole world
　The draft resolution formally submitted to the United Nations Security Council by Palestinian Authority and Jordan, calling for peace between Israel and the Palestinians within one year and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank by the end of 2017, may face the Americans' veto or will never been voted. In that case, the suffering of Palestinian refugees and residents of the occupied territory will continue. However, the one who decides to establish a Palestinian state, where Jews, Christians, Muslims, other religious believers or atheists can be equally treated, and makes a step forward for it, can draw his wages and get eternal life at once and live in heaven while staying in this world. Moreover, Palestinians, who follow Jesus as a role model and work with hope, seeking justice, in order to achieve a lasting peace, will become another role model for people facing territorial disputes or religious conflicts in other parts of the world.

○What is "Baptism with The Holy Spirit"?
　According to the dialectic of the Gospel of John,
【thesis】　"A man can possess eternal life through accepting testimony of the Son of man and being baptized by him." (John 5:24)
【anti-thesis】　But "The one who comes from the earth cannot accept the testimony by one from heaven."(John 3:32)
How then can a man possess eternal life?
【synthesis】　"If you want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, you can just go back to the word which was with God in the beginning (John 1:1) and certify that God is truthful. (John 3:33)"
　When he said, "You are Huichao," Zen Master Fayan thrusted vivid Self in Huichao in front of his eyes. (P.176)
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[Reference]

○Jeremiah
　Jeremiah was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Jeremiah is traditionally credited with authoring the Book of Jeremiah, 1 Kings, 2 Kings and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple. Jeremiah's ministry was active from the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah (626 BC), until after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in 587 BC. This period spanned the reigns of five kings of Judah: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Jeremiah's final year of prophecy is said to be 3350 HC (574 BC), on which he transmitted his teachings to Baruch ben Neriah.

○Tribe of Benjamin
　Benjamin was the 12th son of Israel's founder James and was the ancestor of one of 12 tribes of ancient Israel. Saul, who rescued Israel from Philistine incursions and became the first king of the unified nation Israel, came from the Tribe of Benjamin. After Saul died on the battlefield and his successor was also assassinated, David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, took the throne and the tribe of Benjamin also supported him. When the northern 10 tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom on the accession of Rehoboam, a son of Solomon and a grandson of David, the Tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to the House of David, and remained a part of the Kingdom of Judah, in which it remained until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c. 586 BCE. Israel's incumbent (December 2014) prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be of the Tribe of Benjamin, too.
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