MORE eOOP NEWS.
'X'he gospel of
as reported
by Arasmus
^I,g ^ospgl of ^as ^afar-i.
copyright © 2008
ISBN-9780557001705
CHAPTER ONE
The Creator gave Adam the power of choice
between good and evil, between spirit and flesh.
In choosing flesh and evil, Adam lost the
original state of grace, and left his descendants
more likely to descend than to rise. But the Lord
God never abandoned humankind; in love and
mercy the Lord God communicated with the
prophets and witches of humanity, teaching the
ways of rising from the world into heaven. The
Lord God taught Arjuna and Noah, and Lao-Tse
and Osiris, and Queztalcoatl and Siddartha and
the millions of saints humanity has known. In
fulfillment of God's plan of redemption for all
people, Moses was taught in Egypt like his
father Abraham; Moses led his people from
bondage into a holy land, where subsequently
David was blessed to consolidate the power of
the worship of the Lord God Creator. David's
earthly kingdom was inherited by his son
Solomon the Wise, who reigned in Zion at the
height of its glory.
At that time, a Queen of Ethiopia, a true saint of
God the Creator, Candace, was inspired to travel
to Solomon in Zion. It was a glorious meeting;
there was attraction, affection and respect on
both sides, resulting in exalted conversation,
many peaceful hours, and sacred lovemaking.
Candace, Queen of Axum in Ethiopia, returned
to her realm, and Solomon failed to find her
match in any of the wives and mistresses he
took into his home, though many were holy in
ancestry and noble of character. When Menelik,
the son of Candace and Solomon, came to
manhood, his mother sent him to present
himself to his father. Solomon begged the young
man to stay and receive Zion's kingdom, but he
would not.
The Almighty Creator blessed Menelik for his
virtue as much as for the holiness of his lineage;
it was his destiny to rescue the Ark of the
Covenant, an object of holy presence, and install
it in Ethiopia, safe from the subsequent
destruction of Zion's Temple.
Solomon's other sons fought among themselves,
causing the nation to split; conquerors were able
to humble Jacob, ravish the temple of Zion and
enslave its people. For many generations Jacob's
children were roughly used, crushed by great
empires warring around them and in their home.
Their worthiest sons were uprooted and driven
to labour in Babylon. Their faith was abused
and persecuted, though many held firm. Some
spoke for God and some listened, and many
were faithful to their truth. Some fought against
their persecutors, and even reconquered the
land. In time, the children of Jacob were ruled
by Herod the Moabite under sufferance of
Rome, and though true worship continued, and a
marvelous Temple was raised on Mount Zion,
the hope and zeal of Solomon's time could not
be recaptured.
Menelik and his children ruled Axum in power
and glory, past the edges of grinding wars which
humbled even mighty Egypt, beyond the reach
of Greece's eruption and decline, and far from
the interest of Rome. In relative peace and
security, the Empire flourished, for it was
established under the feet of God's anointed.
Ruler and people remained true to the true
Creator and received rich blessings for many
generations.
CHAPTER TWO
The First Coming of God took place in Jacob's
land, when Herod the king was old in his
brutality, mighty in power, and twisted in spirit.
In fulfillment of prophecy, a holy young woman
named Mary was made pregnant by the Holy
Spirit, and gave birth to a boy, who was
accepted by her husband Joseph. The boy was
named Jesus, and though in nature he was
uniquely the same as God, he lived and grew
among other children, was taught the same
things as they were, and had ordinary
experiences among them. But always he was the
essence of God, the nature and power of God,
and God in character. In addition, Jesus was a
descendant of glorious Solomon, though the
generations had been hard; Mary and Joseph
made a humble family, living on the work of
Joseph's hands and mind.
Jesus had grown to a responsible age when a
prophet named John began to preach God's
coming, exhorting the people to turn from the
ways of material and learn the ways of spirit. It
was time for the Man-God, the prophesied
Redeemer, to make himself known.
Jesus received the baptism of John and went to
the wilderness to prepare himself. When he
returned to the world, he disposed of his
material possessions and lived a humble life,
travelling and teaching. Jesus showed how
God's priests had become complacent and
insincere, and tried to reform the heart of each
person. Among the common people his words
were inspiring, but the established leaders
feared him when it became clear that he was
against many of their attitudes and practices.
Jesus came to break Evil Spirit's hold on the
world. To effect this, his hands gave healing to
sick people, and his inspiration gave hope to
those in despair. The glory and power of his
presence on earth went unnoticed by many,
because he was a man of humble station. The
inheritors of Moses failed to see the fulfillment
of prophecy in his words and deeds. The
miracles of healing and feeding he performed
were especially feared by religious leaders, who
were swift to characterize them as demonic. But
Jesus' presence was irresistible; he was a large
man, full of tenderness, with all the strength and
zeal of his royal lineage. Many people supported
him, even wishing to make him king.
Eventually, the politicians dressed as priests
were sufficiently disturbed by Jesus to advocate
his destruction. Afraid to have his blood on their
hands, they presented Jesus to the Roman
military as a threat to their power. By
humiliating him, beating him, and imprisoning
him, they sought to break his spirit, thinking
him only a man. But Jesus spoke forthrightly to
the priests and the Roman Governor. Despite
that, and despite the entreaties of good people,
the leaders were determined to kill him, and
Jesus was publicly tortured to death like a
common criminal. Even this had been revealed
to the prophets.
Jesus was placed in a new grave, and his body
disappeared.
Those who were close to him, and knew that he
was God, discerned that Jesus had risen from
the dead. He left tokens of himself, and
personally gave inspiration to many who lived
in his teaching. Through Jesus' life, death, and
resurrection, God gave humanity a chance to
regain the state of Grace lost by Adam.
Jesus' followers celebrated his life with
sacramental acts, by writing scriptures, and in
living to his guidelines. Thousands were
inspired to join them, and preachers travelled far
and wide spreading the Good News: God had
come, and would return. The Gospel was
preached and joyfully received in holy Ethiopia,
where once again a saintly queen ruled,
continuing the Solomonic line established by
Menelik.
The children of Jacob rebelled against Rome,
and Rome crushed them. Once again the Temple
on Zion was burned and disgraced, and the
people were scattered as slaves throughout the
world. Even so, many brave and faithful clung
to the Law of Moses. At the same time, people
of all races and nationalities accepted Jesus as
God.
But there grew divisions among the followers of
Jesus, with the most powerful sects not always
being the most true. Doctrines and teachings
grew in force whether or not they improved in
wisdom. Sometimes falsehoods developed out
of political necessity, sometimes through the
force of one or another personality. Even the
children and the cousins of Jesus were
suppressed, and a doctrine, Christianity, took
precedence. The Holy Spirit, though empowered
by Jesus' coming, still had to war against Evil,
and Evil still sometimes prevailed
CHAPTER THREE
Whose sorrow is the greatest
after the first passage of the Holy Child?
Who shall scream the loudest,
whose back will bleed the bloodiest stripes
when men slap God's face
and spit in his eyes?
Great is the woe in Zion!
Her glory is raped, her power is broken,
her children are slaves in the house of a
stranger!
Great and terrible is the grief
among those of Moses' law!
Shame is thrust in their faces
and honour eludes their greatest sons!
They are yoked to the plough that tills Satan's
fields;
They will feast on the pain of two thousand
years!
Who shall endure the greatest agony
when the Child of Humanity is butchered?
Whose is the shame
when God is made a criminal?
Who will repent
when they find the cornerstone?
Blazing and awful
is the fate of Babylon!
Woe to the nation
which blasphemes the Holy Spirit!
The zombies of the Great Whore
forget the giver of eternal bliss!
The dogs in the manger
fail to remember the dispenser of eternal pain!
Woe to pride, to greed and lust!
Zion has fallen
but her presence was saved.
South, South to Earth in Jah Kingdom.
Jah saveth the reality of Zion
in Ethiopia's throne.
Hallelujah hallelujah
we can be forgiven.
Hallelujah hallelujah
His Kingdom endureth forever
CHAPTER FOUR
About three hundred years after the time of
Jesus' birth, there grew in Rome one called
9
Constantine, whose destiny it was to become a
mighty emperor. This Constantine took Jesus'
holy tokens as common talismans, but their
power, little affected by a few centuries,
sufficed to put the Empire in his hands.
For the first time, it was not a crime to pray in
Jesus' name, nor to recognize his divinity.
Unfortunately, though Constantine was an
impressive soldier and a strong ruler, he did not
possess great wisdom or deep spirituality, and
the system he sanctioned was the most
expedient, rather than the highest in holiness.
Still, a great many holy persons, aroused by
God, and inspired by the Christian teachings
built around Jesus, flourished under this Church,
which established itself in Rome on top of the
grave of the leader of Jesus' disciples, Simon,
called Peter.
At this time, few in the Mediterranean area and
Europe remembered that God's presence had
long ago been transported to Ethiopia, and that
the anointed children of Solomon and Candace
still flourished, and had come to rule the whole
empire of Ethiopia. There, and in some other
places, true faith resisted fashion, but wherever
there was Christianity, there would be schisms,
confusion, and even war, all in the serene and
10
pacific name of Jesus. Evil Spirit had truly
found fertile ground in the limitations of
humankind's spirituality.
But worse was to come before God would
return.
While uncivilized Europe came together under
the banner of Christianity, and while local evils
as well as local wisdoms were christened in the
aftermath of Jesus, a great many cruelties were
practised in God's name upon the millions
created by God in the image of God. Although
the wisdom of Moses and Abraham had lost no
power nor beauty, persons in Europe who dared
to declare them were oppressed without mercy.
Foolish laws and traditions allowed cruel people
to mindlessly wreck or even end lives on a
whim. But from this turmoil came European
civilization, which, with the sweet name of
Jesus like blood in its mouth, was destined to
overcome the world. Tragedy and glory would
wrestle over the face of the land
CHAPTER FIVE
Not long after the time of Constantine, the Lord
God and the angels of heaven made a special
11
effort to uplift man, in the desert areas East of
Zion of old. One called Muhammad was
inspired to bring his people the unity of God,
and he received many blessings. The submission
he taught conquered many hearts, but he raged
in holy war and created a great deal of violence.
His followers conquered many lands in his
name, even building a holy place on top of
Mount Zion. Although good people followed
Muhammad even in holy Ethiopia, his word was
used by wicked people to excuse their
wickedness. In arrogance his followers regarded
Jesus as only a prophet, and placed Muhammad
above him. The relentless zeal of his inheritors
sometimes offended the spirit of mercy, and the
innocent errors of his interpreters promoted
schism and misguidedness.
Even when Holy Spirit guides a group of
persons, human nature among them can cause
small issues to grow into serious falsehoods, and
only in the humble spirit of honest prayer can a
person discern the spirit of God in the words of
humanity!
In the age following the time of Jesus, the
people of Europe received God's richest
blessings. As other races and peoples had done
in the past, they succumbed like Adam to
12
animal nature, and squandered their chance to
regain paradise. While science and wisdom
produced inspired art and miraculous
inventions, cruel systems evolved which
benefitted the wicked and powerful. Intellectual
strength gave the Christian people of Europe
illusions about themselves and their world. I fed
them full, and they became adulterers, they
hurried to the whorehouse. Nothing stood in the
way of the practices of Rome, or the reflections
erected in response to Rome. In Jesus' name,
well-trained men, some inspired by goodness,
many driven by willfulness, travelled the world
and blasphemed the names of Osiris,
Zarathustra, Krishna and Guatama.
Great wars were undertaken between the
Christian nations and the followers of
Muhammad. Stubborn adherents of Abraham
and Moses were tormented and burned. When
the ancient peoples of the Americas were found,
Europeans treated them with new degrees of
wickedness: scriptures and holy sites were
mindlessly defiled and destroyed, individuals
and groups were tormented without respect,
traditions which had been cherished since before
the time of Noah were ground under the sinful
wave of destruction. European Christians even
tried to destroy the holy traditions of ancient
13
Europe, subsuming what they could, and
shaming the rest with the name of evil. In all
these places, there were people who held to their
truth, and even plunged deeper into their
inherited mysteries. But in the face of the
Roman edifice built on a grave in Jesus' name,
this wisdom had to be practised and passed on
in the secrecy of divine night.
Even in Ethiopia, the Solomonic dynasty
trembled as European Christians chopped roads
through the land, enslaving people from central
and West Africa, striving South for gold and
enslaving people in their home, in the matter of
three centuries stripping from multitudes the
inheritance of a million years. Blind to the store
of punishment they were building themselves,
these people stole the homes of others and
plunged millions into lies. In ranging
everywhere and fighting everything. Christian
people from Europe also made it possible for
truth in different disguises to reach every
direction. Knowledge and devices developed by
Europeans could be enjoyed by people in
diverse places, even though selfishness and
greed were being seen as admirable.
14
CHAPTER SIX
If i could die
i would be dead
for all the times
humanity has shamed my name.
When they say my name in four letters
and say i am a jealous God,
they shame that name in four letters,
my name in four letters forever.
When my prophet calls my ninety-nine names,
they say he is calling evil.
Shame.
For those are my ninety-nine names,
my ninety-nine names forever.
When my redeeming name is cried out
over the pain of a girl raped,
or the blood of a boy dashed out in war,
it is shame on my redeeming name,
my redeeming name forever.
What little they know of death
who say that i am dead!
Odin - shamed and forgotten.
15
Ra - defiled and shamed.
Shamballa - banned as a shameful demon.
Krishna - shameful, sinful, an idol.
Marduk and Jupiter - called stone: shameful.
My names, my names forever.
Isis, Gaia, Diana,
Ishtar, Lilith, Shekhinah,
Lakshmi, Spider- Woman,
how have you treated these names?
Called me a whore, liar and thief -
my names, my names forever!
I give you the choice of good and evil,
i put the power of destruction in your childish
hands.
I gave you the knowledge,
but the choice is yours.
See what you will - and choose!
Shame is nothing to one who cannot be spoiled,
always a new name is found,
or one survives my holocaust.
There will be no shame
for i have many names,
many names forever!
16
CHAPTER SEVEN
The conquering Lion of Judah, the King of
Kings, Elect of God and Light of the World,
who is seated in Zion and reigns in the hearts of
all flesh, is Ras Tafari.
The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world, the worthy lamb who was slain, the Good
Shepherd, the Vine, the Door, Sun of Prophecy,
Son of Redemption, is Jesus, the Son of his
Mother.
The Holy Spirit inhabits the lives and memories
of certain people like Mary the mother of Jesus,
Mirabai, or Joan of Arc. She is King Alpha and
Queen Omega, the Bornless, Undying, Ineffable
Beauty.
Always prophets are inspired to herald the
coming of God, his angels or his saints.
Out of the pain and chaos left in America and
the Caribbean by European slavery of other
races, there came many whom the fire had
transmuted into diamonds and gold. In the jewel
that is Jamaica, dark and hard, Marcus Garvey
was born and grew with the vision and character
to preach the oneness of humanity, and to try
17
and scrape three hundred years of torment from
the skin of his people. He was born in the
1 885th year after the time of Jesus' birth, far
away from Zion and Ethiopia. Jamaica, a holy
place old in long-forgotten wisdom.
Marcus Garvey did not play the role which his
rulers made for him; he became his own man,
and he urged others to also find themselves. Of
Jesus, Marcus Garvey said: "He taught us to
love, yet we hate; to forgive, yet we take
revenge; to be merciful, yet we condemn and
punish, and still are Christians. If hell is what
we are taught it is, then there will be more
Christians there than days in creation. "
He said: "If humanity is regarded as made up of
the children of God, and God loves all humanity
(we all know that), then God will be more
pleased with the race that protects all humanity
than the race which outrages the children of
God."
He asserted that the salvation of the world
would come through the disenfranchised
children of the African race, he foretold a
Golden Age, and of an African king. Marcus
Garvey said: "We Africans believe in the God
of Ethiopia, the everlasting God, the One God of
all ages."
These are the roots of the faith called Rastafari,
which sparked during the first world war, and
celebrated fruition 1930 years from the time of
Jesus' birth
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tafari came to the world at Harar, Ethiopia, on
the 23rd day of the seventh month, the 1892nd
year since Jesus' time. Tafari was born a head of
the Solomonic line, even as his parents' parents
had all been. A Son of David as Jesus was, and
Jesus' children, though they had sold their
birthright.
It was the ninth time Tafari's mother,
Yashimabeit, was pregnant, and Ethiopia was
gripped in famine, the land thirsty from drought.
As the child was born, thunder rolled in the
burning sky. As he breathed his first breaths,
heavy rains came to restore the land. The one
who was first the source of creation, was now a
Prince of the last of God's divine kingly
priesthoods. His Imperial Majesty. Jah,
everliving.
19
Jesus' mother was a young girl, a virgin, and
Jesus' birth was miraculous, as he was
conceived directly by the Holy Spirit, without a
man. Tafari's mother was an established married
woman of the noblest house in the land. His
conception and birth took place in the usual
way, and his mother died when he was still a
small baby. Jesus grew to be a man under the
love and guidance of his mother; Tafari was
brought up by the priest Abba Samuel, the
physician Dr. Vitalien, and Roman fathers from
France.
The father of Tafari, Ras Makonnen, was not a
king, but a noble dignitary of the royal house.
He made Tafari Governor of the province when
he was only twelve years old. As a child he was
in the charge of an advisor for the making of
great decisions, but it was he who stood on
ceremony. With his dignity and composure the
boy Tafari impressed powerful men of the
world. With the advantages given him, he
studied and learned the history of his people and
the world, and he possessed the gift of learning
languages. Of his youth. His Majesty later
wrote: "Although my physical strength may not
have been great, my spiritual and intellectual
powers began to increase gradually. " Ras
20
Makonnen died when his son was thirteen years
old.
When the boy Tafari was fourteen years old,
three European nations, Britain, France and
Italy, made a treaty dividing Ethiopia among
themselves, as though they had already
vanquished the Mighty Emperor, Menelik, and
his people. In the year 1911, the great Emperor
Menelik, before he lost his reason, declared his
Crown Prince Yassu the New Emperor, and
cursed anyone who would defy him. This Yassu
was a cousin and close acquaintance of Tafari.
Yassu was tall and virile, dynamic and fiery.
Tafari was small and gentle, disciplined and
calm.
When Tafari was nineteen years old, he was
married to Princess Menen, who throughout her
life with His Majesty, was cordial, strong, and
his quiet partner. Together they had six children,
of whom two outlived His Majesty.
The First World War, the beginning of the
cataclysm for Europe, started in the year 1914.
Tafari's kinsman, the Emperor Yassu, had been
trying to reconcile the people of the Ethiopian
Church with Ethiopian followers of
Muhammad; he wished to integrate their
21
symbols in his royal regalia, he involved his
nation in the violence of nations ruled by
Muhammad's people. He was on the verge of
entering the Great War on the side that was to
lose. Tafari preferred to stay out of the war
altogether, and so continue the upliftment and
modernisation of Ethiopia.
There were people in Ethiopia with better
claims on the throne than Tafari, but Yassu was
not one of them; when Tafari saw the danger his
cousin was creating, he was determined to place
himself on the imperial throne. Emperor Yassu
ordered his cousin Tafari to send troops into this
foreign war, but Tafari refused, and instead of
going away into banishment, he marched to
Addis Ababa. Because of his mild character and
bent for learning, the Rases of Ethiopia did not
consider Tafari a contender for the throne; there
were elder men of higher dignity. But none of
them had a vision for modern Ethiopia. Tafari
did not receive his due kingdom as a matter of
course; in his kingly character, the God-Man has
always needed to achieve his seat with patience,
skill, and against bitter opposition.
While he grew as a man, the royal inheritor of
the divine anointment, Tafari, heard, read, saw
and experienced new stirrings of God's power
22
among those who had tried to defile the Divine
names. The Blessed Mother of Jesus appeared in
glorious body to innocent children in Europe,
performing awesome miracles, and urging
renewal in God. She described events of the
present, and of the times to come. She revealed
many secrets and teachings which the fathers of
the Roman church are afraid to expose. Ignorant
greed caused a War which toppled the last of the
kings who were the sons of Jesus, who had
accepted the degradations of their ancestor's
name, and their usurpers, who treated humanity
as clay.
In his own home, with little support but that of
the Ethiopian Church, Tafari continued the
quest for his throne. He took a stand against his
Emperor in the matter of the European war, so
that England and France, the nations who were
to win that war, and who had taken colonies
around Ethiopia, gave private support to Tafari
in his quest. They saw that they would gain
advantage in Africa by having the friendship of
one so agreeable, with such good sense and
discretion, and one of such high personal
strength.
Tafari saw Europeans discard the kings of their
faith and adopt attitudes and practices which are
23
Godless. He knew Ethiopia as a last bastion of
the true faith, the throne of the Lord God, the
Creator. He is the child who will rule with a
sceptre of iron, he is the Opener of the Seven
Seals. Nation rose against nation in the World
Wars of Europe. After that, Jesus' sons and the
usurpers of Jesus' sons were stripped of their
power in Europe, while military creeds,
mockeries of faith, captured hearts and
provoked evil in millions. Only the core of the
Roman church remained from ancient times,
and its holiness was buried among centuries of
falsehood, error and expediency.
In Ethiopia, with the support of nations on their
way to victory, and the support of the Ethiopian
church, Tafari in Addis was able to have the
rash Yassu deposed, although the people loved
him. Yassu was chased through the land, until
he was finally caught and displayed in a cage.
Zauditu, the daughter of Menelik, was crowned
Empress, and Ras Tafari, as he was now named,
was recognized as her successor. Among the
noblemen of Ethiopia, there was fear of his
plans to advance comfort and peace; in their
zeal to preserve the identity of Ethiopia, they
wished to cut her off from the world. At that
time, Tafari was twenty-five years old. He
24
continued in patience, learning the ways of
rulers and thinkers who have gone before.
His strongest opponent was the head of the
army, Habte Georgis, who died in the year
1926. To the surprise of the nobles, when Habte
Georgis died Ras Tafari brought his army to
Addis and took over the Imperial Palace. He
made the Empress appoint him to head the
army, casting the nobles into confusion. In the
year 1928, he summoned her strongest ally, Ras
Balcha, to Addis Ababa to present his terms of
agreement. Ras Balcha was persuaded to come
to Addis, and he took with him an army of
10,000. With his bodyguard of 500, he dined at
the side of Ras Tafari and his guard of 200. Ras
Tafari made Ras Balcha's bodyguard drunk with
abundant liquor, while his own bodyguard
remained sober. Ras Tafari offered each of Ras
Balcha's army of 10,000 money to go home and
leave their master. Ras Tafari listened to Ras
Balcha's unworthy terms, and refused to accept
them. When Ras Balcha returned to his empty
camp, he was captured, and his bodyguard was
full of liquor and of no use to him.
On the seventh day of the tenth month, the year
1928, Ras Tafari was crowned Negus of Shoa
by the Empress, as his great-grandfather had
25
been in his day. At the start of the year 1930, the
Empress' candidate for the throne, and Ras
Tafari's only rival, Ras Gugsa, led his army to
attack Ras Tafari in Addis, and the army of Ras
Tafari met him at Zebit. The battle ranged in the
mountains for a long time. Heroes and warriors
clashed. Now Ras Tafari's army held the
balance, now Ras Gugsa. Finally, Ras Gugsa
fell in battle, and the army of Ras Tafari won
the day. Two days later, the Empress died.
The Great War had left Europe fearful and in
the thrall of evil. The European nation in
America was feeling the cruelty of their love of
money, and in all places there remained the
hatreds and Godlessness of olden days. But do
not weep. Look, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,
the root of David, has triumphed. On the second
day of the eleventh month, 1930 years since
Jesus, Ras Tafari was crowned King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the
Tribe of Judah, Light of this World, Emperor of
Holy Ethiopia. He was spiritually renamed:
Haile Sellassie I, Might and Power of the Holy
Trinity. To Jah be the glory.
At that time, the Sceptre of Righteousness,
stolen by an English man half a century before,
was returned to His Majesty from the hand of
26
Prince Edward VIII of England. All nations will
come and adore you. His throne forever and
ever, and his sceptre a sceptre of justice. The
sceptre shall not pass from Judah. The kings of
the world came to Addis to bend the knee before
the Son of David in his power and glory. As
people of earthly and spiritual power hated God
as Jesus in his day, so they hated God as Ras
Tafari in these recent times. Grudgingly they
bent the knee before the rightful throne of God,
forever and ever.
CHAPTER NINE
At their last meal together, Jesus told his holy
apostle, Simon Peter, that Peter would three
times deny Jesus before the morning. And as
morning draws near, we can see how the church
founded on the grave of Saint Peter has also
three times denied God.
This Peter was indeed a rock of faith; he
personally carried the Good News into the jaws
of Rome, and sat at the head of the true faith's
strongest community. There he was tortured to
death like the Lord Jesus his Master, and went
honourably to God as an old man. The church
that grew on his grave would grow to rule the
27
world. They denied the Lord when first they set
Peter's throne above faith and above the
Scriptures. It was arrogant, but it was for the
safety of God's Church. It was expedient, but it
took the church further from God. These things
began within three hundred years of the lifetime
of Jesus.
Peter built the Church of Jesus; he ensured that
the Good News was established in writing, he
taught the way to remember Jesus. The people
who prayed over his bones would control the
minds of seventy generations. They denied the
Lord next when they cornered the children of
Jesus and made them sell their birthright. Before
the end of a thousand years of Jesus' time, the
children of Jesus who had become kings in
Europe were at the mercy of usurpers, and
wrapped in the cloak of Rome. Though they
continued to reign, the source of their nobility
was hidden in secrets, smothered in lies. They
still were kings, but they allowed the Church to
drift further from God.
Peter's spiritual brothers multiplied in sin, but
the third denial was not yet. Their arrogance
allowed the nations of America to be wiped out,
but the time had not yet come. They allowed
sons of Peter to be warriors, adulterers and
28
drunkards, but saints among them delayed their
punishment. They played in the highest politics
of two thousand years, spilling defilement on
the power Jesus had given them, and holy men
and women cried How long? How long? inside
and outside of Peter's graveyard.
Two thousand years, and the greatest mysteries
of Peter's sons are still enacted on top of his
bones. The people who have clung so fiercely to
him are still rewarded with high spirituality and
worldly power. They denied God a third time in
the 1936th year of Our Lord, when Pope Pius IX
put the blessing of his hands on the men and the
hardware being sent against His Majesty. Great
tribulation befell Babylon then, and great is the
tribulation to come
CHAPTER TEN
The rulers take counsel together against the
Lord and his anointed.
Since the end of the Great War in Europe, the
European nation of America and the other
victorious European countries formed a League
of Nations, an inspiration of the American
leader Woodrow Wilson. This League was
29
designed and intended to ensure peace and
stability among its members, and promote
contact among the peoples of the world. This
was something which Ras Tafari supported and
promoted all his life. Although involved in the
effort to sit upon his rightful throne, Ras Tafari
saw to it that Ethiopia joined this international
alliance, in the 1923 rd year.
Ethiopia thus became part of the covenant of
great nations, but the League did not have
power to do more than make statements, and
had little interest in the welfare of the Ethiopian
Empire. In the 1936th year, as Sellassie I sat
upon the throne of the King of Kings, the
Roman Pope gave his blessing to Italian guns
and troops that were being sent to rape holy
Ethiopia. All Jesus' sons and all the men of
Peter saw it and they marked it not. To defend
the Empire, the King of Kings needed weapons,
and the only nation which would provide them
was Germany, at that time an ally of Italy. Arise
judge of the world, give the proud what they
deserve!
But, at the battle of Maichen, where Sellassie I
personally himself led his army, the Ethiopians
were decisively defeated, and His Majesty's
ministers thought it better that his royal and holy
30
personage be spared the indignity of capture.
The elected representatives of the people
agreed, though His Majesty's enemies used it to
accuse him of cowardice. On the fifth day of the
fifth month, His Majesty escaped from his
country in fulfillment of the prophecies, and
three days after, the Italian army entered Addis.
I will praise you among the peoples Lord, i will
make music for you among generations.
The League of Nations assembled in the sixth
month, and His Majesty rebuked them for
allowing Ethiopia's conquest. Sellassie I said:
"This is a problem of the duty of governments to
assist each other to establish world security."
But when the leaders of the world looked at His
Imperial Majesty, they saw only a black man, an
exile and an inferior they thought, instead of
seeing the God-Man, or a king, or even a man.
Sellassie I told the League of Nations: "The
Emperor of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government,
and the people will not accept anything done to
them by force." But the leaders of the world,
even in their guilt, did nothing about the
aggression of the Beast Benito Mussolini, the
leader of Italy. The leaders of the world failed in
their responsibility to all people in the person of
Sellassie I, Jah Rastafari. European nations
31
would pay for this culmination of European
Christian hubris, for His Majesty told them:
"Today it is us, tomorrow it will be you." They
failed to pay attention, but as Jah liveth his word
became truth.
Adolf Hitler, poisoned and poisonous forever,
and Benito Mussolini, the Great Beast,
conspired to butcher Europeans in the name of
European supremacy. Their wickedness stands
as Christian Europe's punishment for a thousand
years of dominion that they wasted in cruelty. In
Africa the Ethiopian people resisted the Beast's
insurgence, so that miracles and human
greatness flashed of God's glory. The presence
of Italy in Ethiopia caused many buildings and
roads to be built in the land; such projects were
a drain on Italy's resources, and advanced the
work of Sellassie I. In Europe and Asia
thousands died bitterly and millions suffered in
vain, despite heroic acts and brilliant inventions.
Why do the nations so furiously rage together?
And why do the people imagine a vain thing?
While in exile, Sellassie I lived at his property
in Britain, a nation which had opposed
Ethiopia's entry into the League of Nations. At
that time, the descendants of the slaves in the
Caribbean, the early Rastafarians, sent their
32
fortunes to His Imperial Majesty, and assisted
him in his work.
Five years after leaving the Holy Empire, His
Majesty returned in glory, opener of the seals,
joy of Zion and root of Jesse. His return was the
fulfillment of ancient inspiration: the return of
God in Glory, God-Man tempered in the fire,
coming home to claim his Kingdom! But of the
billions on earth, only the exiled prophets of
Jamaica and the Caribbean could discern the
presence of God in His Imperial Majesty, the
humble one of whom it is said: "I am your
fellow-servant and the fellow-servant of your
family. God alone must you worship.", the
Almighty speaker of these words: "Look, i am
making the whole of creation new. " These are
the words of Jah and his angels in the Day of
Judgement. In the flesh of His Majesty Haile
Sellassie I, these are the words of Jah coming
into his Kingdom: "On this day truly Ethiopia
stretches her hands to God, shouting and telling
joy to her own sons." Praise is rightfully yours,
O God, in Zion
33
CHAPTER ELEVEN
While blood continued to flow in the decline of
the European Empires, Jah Rastafari Haile
Sellassie I lived and ruled the example of God's
kingdom in holy Ethiopia. He ensured that
young and gifted Ethiopians were given every
opportunity, and could receive the knowledge of
past and present. He battled the advance of the
desert, but the struggling colonies around
Ethiopia were unwilling or unable to participate,
and success was negligible. With a rod of iron
Haile Sellassie I resisted the Godless
philosophies and ignorant brutality of
competing European systems of government.
Sellassie I associated himself with attempts to
establish international bodies. With Marshal
Tito of the European nation Yugoslavia, he
established an organization owing allegiance to
neither side in the ideological war that grew out
of the destruction of Hitler, the possessed
butcher, cursed forever.
Sellassie I changed the system of government so
that noble persons would be fewer in number,
having fewer privileges and more responsibility.
He rooted out corruption and punished offenders
with justice and mercy. He personally took part
in the task of translating the great writings of
34
Ethiopia into modern language. He gave
opportunities for advancement to young
Ethiopians in every field, including his trusted
advisor, Lieutenant-Colonel Workineh
Gebeyehu.
Sellassie I travelled the world giving blessings
to God's children, his friends and even his
enemies, showing the world the unparalleled
character and dignity of his proud, ancient
African Empire. Miracles attended his visit to
Jamaica. In these years His Majesty organized
the Empire, maintaining his composure and
remaining extremely active from the dark hours
before morning, until the deep part of the night.
Each day, he attended the solemn worship of the
Ethiopian Christian Church.
Personally, Sellassie I was restrained and
abstemious where Jesus enjoyed wine and
laughing company; where Jesus was easygoing
and popular, Sellassie I was always composed,
and held in awe. Sellassie I and his blessed wife
Menen continued to be Perfect Exemplars of
divine rulership: out of their personal
possessions they helped to uplift people, while
always presenting themselves with Imperial
dignity. Their first child, his daughter Tenagne
Worq, was a friend and advisor to her father all
35
his life. Asfa Wossen is his first son, the heir to
his throne, who differs very much in character
from his divine father. There were times of great
tension between Asfa Wossen and Sellassie I.
Ras Makonnen of Harar, their fifth child, lively
and adventurous, was a favourite of His Majesty
although he sometimes embarrassed the dignity
of his marriage and position. Sahle Sellassie was
Sellassie I's youngest son. He declined his place
in the succession, and shared with Christ in his
kingly character a love for the arts and culture
of Ethiopia and the world. Ras Makonnen was
killed in the year 1957, in an automobile crash.
Sellassie I walked behind the coffin and
mourned with the words of his father David:
"Would God i had died for thee, O Absalom, my
son, my son! " Keen was the pain in the father of
the dead.
In the rest of the world, ugly new lies came to
lash the oppressed: hard prejudice from
powerful Europeans in America had smeared
Marcus Garvey as a criminal, broken his power
and driven him to his grave. Godlessness
persisted in the name of science, and arrogant
thinkers even discarded God as dead. Woe to
the blasphemers. The European presence in
America grew to dominance in the aftermath of
Hitler's defeat at Armageddon, and with the
36
development of light-destruction, that dangerous
atomic science. With this science, the European
nation of America even caused the divine
Emperor of Japan to sell his birthright for the
life of his people. That left His Majesty, Haile
Sellassie I, as the last divinely appointed
emperor reigning in the world. But Africans and
other enslaved peoples, even in America, and
especially the discarded diamonds of the
Caribbean islands, grew in voice and strength.
His Majesty concentrated on the upliftment of
the people of Ethiopia, continuing to spend all
his days in living the perfect example of king
and leader. Workineh Gebeyehu was even
provided with lodging in the Imperial Palace so
that His Majesty could consult with him at odd
hours. Gebeyehu was empowered by Sellassie
I's confidence, but he used it to improve his own
position, overruling wiser ministers and
providing himself with luxuries. Gebeyehu was
impressed by the godless Soviet leaders in
Russia, and held secret talks with them. And so,
inspired by evil and his own arrogance, he
persuaded Sellassie I to travel to the South
American nation Brazil
37
CHAPTER TWELVE
On the thirteenth day of the last month in the
year, the people of Workineh Gebeyehu told all
ministers and dignitaries that the Empress
Menen was gravely ill. When they came to the
palace, they were arrested. Many allied
themselves with Gebeyehu and his people, and
supported them in their bid for power. These
were soon appointed the leaders of the new
government. The Crown Prince Asfa Wossen
consulted with his father's cousin Ras Aserate
Kassa, but was arrested the same day. The
dignitaries and nobles who remained steadfast to
Sellassie I were held hostage. Ras Kassa
negotiated between Gebeyehu's side and the
side of those loyal to His Majesty. The army
discovered the plot just in time, so its leaders
were not captured.
On the fourteenth day, army and police forces
were seen in the streets, although the day in
Addis Ababa continued normally. They
monitored the movement of the citizens, but did
not take action against the usurpers of His
Majesty. At the high point of the day, everybody
knew what Workineh Gebeyehu and his people
had done. The usurpers were named, saying
they had banished Sellassie I, while maintaining
38
Asfa Wossen as their powerless figurehead. The
rebels forced Asfa Wossen, the son of His
Majesty, to declare their rule legitimate, and
they brought the son of the emperor to a low
place.
For two days the army of His Majesty waited,
and the people in the army assembled their
forces for action. The new city of Addis was too
nervous to tremble, and the streets grew empty.
In the afternoon, the fighting began. Innocent
people were killed and wounded, buildings
destroyed, and the land was in confusion. The
army commanders and elders of the Church told
the people they would not betray His Majesty.
The next day, the army closed on the imperial
palace, and Workineh Gebeyehu escaped with
some of his party, though some were killed.
Before they escaped from the palace, the people
of Workineh Gebeyehu had all the loyal
hostages murdered.
The Empress Menen asked her son Sahle
Sellassie to relay a message to the people, which
he did, in the hope that word would reach His
Majesty in Brazil. No mention was made, or
reached His Majesty's ears, of the role played by
his trusted assistant, Workineh Gebeyehu. This
traitor tried to take refuge on the grounds of the
39
Soviet embassy. But soldiers pursued him and
cornered him. Workineh Gebeyehu went on
shooting to the end, and saved the last shot for
himself. They came up as he was dying, and he
said: "Ethiopia will never be the same."
His Majesty received the message of his son,
and immediately left for Ethiopia. How quick
his zeal to defend his throne! How hard he made
them drive the aeroplane! So much that the
engines broke down in Chad, and repairs would
have taken days. How keen he was to assert his
authority at home! Sellassie I refused to be
delayed, saying to his airmen and personnel:
"Whose life is it you are trembling for, yours or
mine?" Those who travelled on that flight over
the desert say it was a miracle they reached
Khartoum. There His Majesty sent a message of
reassurance, and travelled on another aeroplane
to Asmara. He called a council, and reassured
everyone that Workineh Gebeyehu would
restore order. Even now he did not know how he
had been betrayed. No one knew what to say,
until the brave nobleman Ras Mesfin Sileshi
told the truth about the man Sellassie I had
trusted like a son. With anguish in his heart. His
Imperial Majesty stood, and quickly left the
room.
40
His Imperial Majesty Haile Sellassie I, King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, the conquering Lion
of Judah, finished off the stubborn remnants.
The people of the land helped to bring in every
single rebel, and many culprits were killed this
way. All the citizens felt betrayed by those who
had tried to upset their way of life. The bodies
of Workineh Gebeyehu and his accomplices the
Neway brothers were hung in a square in Addis
Ababa as a reminder to the people what kind of
man defended their peace
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
What is that sound?
The voices of Addis are sore from screaming,
who still has the face to fight?
What is that sound?
that crosses the city like a healing wave,
so that everyone is responding?
What is that sound?
As though in every house an angel enters
and makes the people sing?
The men are intoning the sound of liberation,
the women trill excited jubilation!
41
We line the streets before His Majesty's parade,
some lower faces to the street, thanking God!
In the car. His Majesty's face is set.
He cannot face the celebration.
Though he has brought back the peace to his
streets,
there is no peace in his situation.
The Patriarch met him with relief and affection,
the generals with faith that they had done well.
Here is Asfa Wossen with a stone on his back,
bowing low to his father.
His Majesty raised his son,
cast away the gesture of atonement,
and rebuked him;
true, they forced Asfa Wossen's hand,
but His Majesty had said
a person's responsibility does not cease
even when entirely under the will of another.
His Majesty's face is set.
His Majesty will go and renew the land.
His Majesty will punish the offenders.
His Majesty will complete his destiny.
The sounds of work, the sounds of power,
42
let them be heard in Ethiopia.
Now let us hear the sounds of Ethiopia
standing among the great.
The sounds of crying, sounds of ache?
We hear that Her Imperial Majesty has died.
We hear the death of Sahle Sellassie.
Listen to the sound of God's sad silence!
We have heard his sadness, his sorrow,
when Ras Makonnen of Harar was taken,
when his ministers all were slain so unfairly,
when his trusted ones turned their knives on
him.
Now make the sounds of resurrection!
Grow ten thousand flowers from the waste
with songs of faith and fortitude!
Hear Ethiopia's voice you leaders of the world!
Listen: in Jamaica,
Rita waited to see him
so that she could know.
Watch: His Imperial Majesty
sought her eyes
and turned his hand in greeting.
Know what he showed her:
43
the sign of holy stigmata
so that she could know.
And whose body hangs dead in the centre of
Addis?
Gebeyehu, the one His Majesty groomed
himself.
Gebeyehu, the man His Majesty himself gave
teeth.
Gebeyehu, the only one His Majesty trusted.
Gebeyehu, the traitor, hangs in the square in
Addis;
as a sign to people who would trifle with God
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The one who seeks the truth
will only find ecstasy through sorrow.
The one ready to accept wisdom
will taste the sadness of God,
and wear God's exhaustion and loneliness in the
eyes.
And their eyes will see the awful tribulation of
the world,
and their spirit will know the rapture of living.
This world of substance
is the realm of the Evil One.
44
This world of divine light
is the speech of Heaven to humanity.
I live in the rapture of the spirit,
but my eyes tear in the world of substance.
God is far from creation, the reaching for it is
wearying.
In the world, God is knowing sadness,
but the wise have accepted more;
we live with sorrow to find ecstasy
and be at home in the truth.
Sellassie I's first mission after the coup of
Workineh Gebeyehu was to reestablish himself
in the minds of the people, and continue with
normal business as soon as possible. A son of
David oppressed with the work of unifying his
people, a kingly personage who had overcome
long trials and maintained the authority of his
station, a human man, of advanced years, who
reached out to the young people of his age with
understanding, and was rudely turned aside.
Sellassie I still travelled the world with power
and blessings in his hand, and he still brought
the distinguished persons of the world to
witness the blossoming of Ethiopia under his
hand. He was leading Ethiopia towards higher
civilization under a light yoke and with
45
gladness. But still the evil men counselled
together.
In the worldwide power plot of European
Christians who ruled America and Russia, the
task of Russia was to obliterate from Earth the
last trace of true, divinely appointed kingship in
the world, the throne of Haile Sellassie I, still
the King of Kings and still the Lord of Lords,
still the conquering lion, still the opener of the
seals who sitteth upon the throne. The Soviets of
Russia failed to dislodge His Majesty in 1960,
but they bided their time, and continued to
provoke division among the youth of Ethiopia.
His Majesty was the peacemaker of Africa; he
brought his healing hand into conflicts between
African rulers, he lifted his kingship to
leadership among his fellows, by leading
opinion on African events. Sellassie I placed
himself as ruler and exemplar first for
Ethiopians, then for all the people of Africa, and
then, for all the Africans scattered through the
world. And his rulership and his example shine
forever for any and all who have been
disenfranchised, even to those whose works
have been evil, so that any person, at any time,
can turn from cruelty to share the humble joy of
46
all God's people, to the power of the Trinity Jah
Rastafari. Amen.
Sellassie I lived as a model for all leaders. Until
the coup of Workineh Gebeyehu, he took upon
himself the full, exclusive and personal
government of the nation. When the crime of
Workineh Gebeyehu was passed. His Imperial
Majesty began to delegate more authority to his
ministers, and to Asfa Wossen, the Crown
Prince. As at the beginning, he pursued the
quest of making Ethiopia a leader among the
nations of the world, all the while bearing
himself as the Perfect Exemplar, the model
ruler, the rightful king.
Still the manipulators of vast power paid people
to encourage the students of Ethiopia against
His Majesty. By the Year 1973, the Russian and
American sides of the ideological war had both
invested heavily in removing the light of truth
which was His Imperial Majesty, Haile Sellassie
I. He was a mirror to the people of the world, a
light onto the nations, revealing the corruption
of the rulers of the world. Young people and the
students of Ethiopia, led by touts well paid from
foreign nations, frequently disrupted the peace
of Addis Ababa, now a gleaming modern city
consolidated by His Imperial Majesty.
47
For years before his fall, His Imperial Majesty
begged the students of the institution he built; he
begged them: be patient and trust in the wisdom
of one who was like you. They desired
blessedness all in an instant, though he knew, as
Jah liveth, the most suitable rate of change.
The Godless kings of earth put out that he was a
tyrant, and people in His Imperial Majesty's
own land turned to the false faith that held
millions in Russia and Asia. A famine caused
thousands of deaths in the hinterland; His
Imperial Majesty trusted his appointees to
rescue the hungry and the dying, but they failed
him. Nations far and wide denounced him,
without knowing the facts. In the city, young
people who had and who still received benefits
at His Majesty's hand began to make impossible
demands, sponsored by the powerful Soviet
leaders. Even in the army there were those who
plotted His Imperial Majesty's downfall. Among
his international friends, there were nations
which had no means to assist, and leaders who
were smiling enemies.
Smiling enemies were the Soviet leaders, who
called His Imperial Majesty to Moscow with
only a small retinue. These devil-blinded people
48
threatened Sellassie I as though he was to fear
them. "Walk away from your throne," they
urged him, "and we will let you live." They
looked on His Imperial Majesty as an old man,
tired of fighting, and they longed to gloat over
his fall, but he stood full of calm vigour and said
to them: "We are not afraid of destiny." And he
walked directly to his aeroplane, and went home
to Addis a final time. Russia's punishment is
even now growing in bitterness.
In Addis Ababa, the creatures of Soviet evil
caused strikes, roadblocks and street violence.
His Imperial Majesty made his best offers, but
the ringleaders wanted a revolution, and spat on
offers of compromise. In the 1973rd year. His
Imperial Majesty's generals sent a division of
the army to a region which had gotten out of
hand, but that division was filled with mutiny,
and had already begun to plan. Though foreign
representatives warned him he should go, he
remained Emperor in the Imperial Palace. His
Imperial Majesty concluded a will, giving to his
family everything he owned outside Ethiopia.
The mutinous division arrested their generals,
and placed His Imperial Majesty's governor and
representatives under lock and key.
49
Tenagne Worq, His Imperial Majesty's
daughter, and his ministers and generals, all told
His Imperial Majesty: "The greater part of the
army is still faithful. Send it against the lesser
part of the army, and show the nation God's
Emperor once more." But His Imperial Majesty
said firmly: "We will not again sanction the
shedding of blood. Let the rebels negotiate with
us." Tenagne Worq, and His Imperial Majesty's
ministers and generals, all rebuked H. I. M.: "Is
this how you repay those who have sacrificed
everything for you?" But His Imperial Majesty
looked on his most faithful and his best beloved
and said: "It is no longer a matter for me. They
wanted it this way. " And in the small houses by
the streets, people remembered the curse of
Menelik, sworn so long ago. And as Jesus, long,
long even before that, had surrendered himself
at his most powerful moment, so did His
Imperial Majesty Sellassie I place his life in the
hands of the traitors and rebels against his
divine rule.
In the second month of the year 1974, the power
of ruling Ethiopia passed into the hands of the
army and its Soviet converts. They did not
remove the throne from under him, and he did
not behave as though he had been usurped. For
three months. His Imperial Majesty negotiated
50
with the army. The army took control, and His
Imperial Majesty still negotiated with them. The
rebellious army returned to their posts, and their
leaders formed a ruling body, and still His
Imperial Majesty worked for a peaceful and
orderly transition, negotiating with traitors.
The powers of the world wished to fill Ethiopia
with war and death, to send weapons in the
hands of people called peacekeepers, and set
family members against one another, but His
Imperial Majesty denied them that wicked
desire. He had fulfilled the destiny appointed to
H.I.M.: to create at the end of the Solomonic
line a ruler who in all things remained
exemplary. In defeat or victory, he did not
waver from his task of upgrading and unifying
his people. At home and in the world, he did not
forget to pray and be subject to the Holy Spirit.
In war and at peace, he did not forget to present
in himself the perfect picture of the divinely
appointed King of Kings.
While all his supporters, appointees and
dignitaries were arrested one by one around
him. His Imperial Majesty never considered
escape. Then in the eleventh month, the
usurpers murdered sixty of His Imperial
Majesty's people: judges and generals,
51
governors and ministers, even the two sons of
Tenagne Worq. O cruel moment for the Lamb
and his faithful! The usurpers told His Imperial
Majesty's nobles they should come to account
for crimes the rebels invented. Those who were
caught were treated without mercy, and even
those of their own who showed mercy were
killed.
Greedy men, urged by leaders of huge power
and evil intent stole the blessed land. They
imprisoned Sellassie I in a palace, away from
his power and his subjects. As Jah liveth they
feared to kill him, because his presence was
irresistible. His Imperial Majesty spent half a
year of exile in his home as Jesus spent a night
of humiliation in the Roman prison.
For three mornings, as a token of grudging
respect to the holy lineage of H.I. M., the captors
he suffered escorted H.I.M. out to private
worship, and waited to escort H.I.M. back into
isolation. On the third morning they waited and
waited, but he did not return. They went inside,
but found no means of escape. The work
destined to H.I.M. was done, and he had
returned again to his heavenly kingdom, where
he liveth and reigneth forever and ever. The
52
third morning was the 24th day of the tenth
month, the year 1975.
Some say, if Jah has come and gone, where is
heaven on Earth? Read the prophecies that have
been given you, and learn humanity's history.
People asked the same after Jesus' passage, and
ask it still, though God has come again, and
gone again. People ask for signs and wonders,
and when they get them, ask for ore. Even
when God appears in person, it is easier to fall
than to rise. This generation expects simple
answers and instant solutions. But those are not
the ways of God.
Arasmus
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