Mark 13:6

Many will take my name, and come saying ‘I am He’, and will lead many astray.


to my disciples I say
my disciples will deceive
many about my teaching

they will be well-intentioned
with a high niceness quotient
as sincere as the day is long

my teaching is not transferable
it is caught and extended
never certified or rule-bound

the more a core tenet
is centralized the more
it becomes tangential

having known how difficult
it is to live belovedly
I am prepared for disappointment

so friend I say to all
dive deeply enough
to teach your truth

I authorize no one
to represent me
and deceive others


Beginning with the plural “many” we finally end up with each of them claiming a singular state of being—the official representative of G*D, the I AM.

This represents the wide variety of claims, both personal and sectarian present everywhere today. We couldn’t handle a church unified by removing all but the official line of control with Peter holding all the keys.

We couldn’t handle it moving toward two sets of keys, the second claimed by Martin Luther.

We certainly can’t handle all the different G*Ds found swirling within any but the most rigid church structure.

Many were deceived by a church universal, by two, and by a multitude. Always this needs to be said in the present tense that many are deceived right at this moment. Someone is out to get someone else as they claim there is only one way, their way. So goes idolatry in every age, regardless of the number of choices.

It is always the right time to anticipate a prophet speaking against one’s own particular expression of a source of meaning. The dangers of internal idolatry, competing religious expressions attempting to convert one another, a next false G*D, and the neglect of Neighb*rs are ever present.

There is not only an unknown time factor for wrapping up; there are untold numbers of speculations as to how it is going to happen.