Hare escaping the WT (haha)
Rabbits in the Church!
by cameo-d 43 Replies latest watchtower bible
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cameo-d
funny show, Mickey Mouse!
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cameo-d
This is an excellent website to see the many photographs of the Three Hares motif in the caves of China.
quote:
Beginning in the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE), Dunhuang was an important stop on the Silk Road, the ancient trade route which stretched from Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) in the east to Central Asia, India, Persia—and, eventually, the Roman Empire—in the west. And in the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms (366-439), at Mogao, less than a day's journey from Dunhuang, Buddhist monks began digging out hundreds of cave temples from the cliffs along the Daquan River. The caves were decorated with statues, murals and decorative images, and construction of new caves continued at Mogao for over 500 years.
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cameo-d
The Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution
The oldest depiction of this mysterious symbol has been found in cave temples from the short-lived Chinese Siu Dynasty.
During both the Sui and Tang Dynasties (581-907 CE) the Three Hares were painted on the ceilings of at least 17 caves.
The early demise of the Sui Dynasty was attributed to the government's tyrannical demands on the people.
During the 38 year reign the resources were exhausted due to the completion of the Grand Canal as well as the construction of extending the Great Wall. Six major construction projects were undertaken and this took a labor force of hundreds of thousands of people.
Due to ongoing wars, people were burdened with military service; that, coupled with the need for construction laborers, forced peasants to leave their farmlands. As a result the country fell into famine.
In 611 the peasants organized a rebellion and people from all over the country formed several powerful groups. They took over the graineries to feed the people. In 618 the Emperor was assassinated and the empire completely collapsed.
Most of the Three Hares motifs were executed during the Tang Dynasty which followed this collapse. Trouble was brewing on the religious homefront due to foreign traders who began to bring in other religions. Islam was introduced in China in 651. The Persians brought the religion of Manichaeism into the region and Zoroastrianism and Christianity began to thrive as well.
The Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution initiated by the Tang Emperor reached it's height in 845 CE. War was declared to cleanse China of foreign influences. The Emperors reasons were social, economic, and religious.
The country was bankrupt as wars had left it financially devastated. The Emperor's solution to this crisis was to go after the wealth that had been accumulated by the religions and the monasteries. The Emperor closed the shrines and confiscated the properties.
Buddhism had recruited people to become monks and nuns and serve the Temples. It was further hurting the economy by taking these people out of the taxed labor force.
The Emperor was a follower of Taoism and decided that this should be the nation's religion.
At first, there was an attempt to reform the churches. As the Emperor became more deeply involved with Taoism, he developed a greater dislike for Buddhism. His sanity also became questionable. He decided to exterminate Buddhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam and ordered all the temples destroyed. All foreigners were defrocked and sent back to their homeland.
It is noteworthy that the Board of Worship determined that during that time period there were 4600 monasteries; 40,000 religious retreats; and 260,500 monks and nuns. Apparently religion was overwhelming both resources of manpower and finances in the country and creating the economic imbalance as well as family divisions.
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cameo-d
The circumstances reminds me of this:
"When the people chose new gods, war broke out inside the city gates." (Judges 5:8)
Perhaps the rabbits were a signal to flee because persecution and extermination was coming.
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cameo-d
Do you see any parallels between the circumstances of the Sui and Tang Dynasties and our current world or national problems?
Like China's Great Wall, and Great Canal, do you think governments of today act beyond reasonable capabilities by building super trans corridor highways and border fences that go for hundreds of miles?
Do you see any similarities of how governments still continue to bankrupt the treasury with wars? You would think that back when the world was so much younger that people would have had plenty of space and less reason to fight wars. Have wars always been genocidal in nature and based on greed, ego, and a sense of right of entitlement and superiority?
Do you see any similarity to todays world in that economic crash preceded a religious revolution?
Do you think religions, now as well as during the Tang Dynasty, could have negative impact on social, economic, and financial standards in a community, state, and nation?
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cameo-d
btt
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cameo-d
The Three Hares appear again at the time of The Protestant Reformation!
One hundred years prior to the Reformation era, Paderborn (Germany) had been devastated by wars between government and religion. For several centuries the bishops exercised full judicial power and were actual sovereigns. The Wars of Deitrich saw uprisings and feuds between the bishops and nobility.
One of the numerous causes that led to the Reformation was the exposure of corruption in the church. Indulgences and abuses were a major point of contention, and because of this, Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517.
Before the Reformation, the church demanded confession of sins and then punished people for the admission of those sins. Penances were commuted to demanding works, prayers, alms, fasts, and even the payment of fixed sums of money (tariff penances) depending on the various kinds of offences.
"Indulgences" were actually a form of slave labor as penance. The works required were both religious and civil, such as building roads, bridges, etc.
The church, in its corrupt greed, sanctioned professional pardoners, who were sent out to collect the sin debts. The pardoners often took advantage of the ignorance of people and preached things that went beyond the dogma of church teachings. For a certain sum of money they even promised that the damned would be released from hell.
The church granted permission to the kings and princes to receive a cut of the take from the pardoners, and so government officials became accomplices in the deceit.
The simple-minded continued to believe that the pope was authorized to forgive their sins and continued to believe the promises of the pardoners, that by giving all their money to "the cause (world wide work?)" or for the restitution of sin, that they would receive perpetual happiness and eternal glory in the next world.
It was the aggressive marketing practices of the church in promoting the pardoners that caused Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses, protesting what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. A saying attributed to Tetzel ( a Dominican Monk and the Pope's head saleman) was :"As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs."
Luther denounced the Pope's worldly acts and his right to grant pardons on God's behalf. Many people began to wake up and realize their stupidity at having been scammed of their time, their labor, their energy, and their money. This caused a great apostasy from the church. People were now coerced to choose sides and it became brother against brother and nobles against church.
So why are the Three Hares found in Paderborn and other near-by areas? Perhaps it was a warning to apostates to flee the impending persecution.
Apparently Paderborn was the seat of the anti-Reformation movement. During the Reformation, the cathedral and monastery at Paderborn were the only ones to remain faithful to the Catholic church.
Apostate heretics were persecuted.
To save the Catholic cause, the cathedral chapter later summoned the Jesuits to Paderborn to restore the practice of the Catholic religion.
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