The Roman Empire and Jesus of Nazareth

by Meghan Rouillard & Matthew Ogden

In LaRouche’s recent report, “Obama’s Armageddon End-Game”, he begins the sub-section titled “The British Imperial Evil” with the following passage:

“The best choice of past references for discussion of this set of contemporary issues, is the mass-murderous reaction of the Roman Empire to the existence of Christianity. That is best typified, clinically, by the case of the immediate conflict of principle between the sheer evil of the Emperor Nero and the murdered Christian Apostles Peter and Paul.

“That fact was already documented publicly, in April 2009, by the proof which I presented in my public, webcast exposure of the characteristics of the personality of U.S. President Barack Obama. I exposed Obama then as exhibiting an echo of a mental disorder identical with that of the Emperor Nero.”

Today, as we face the end-game war against the fourth incarnation of this ancient Roman Empire, the British, their puppet President Obama threatens the world with an act of “sheer evil” which would make Nero’s burning of Rome look merciful in comparison -- a thermonuclear confrontation between the three greatest powers on Earth: the United States its allies, versus the combined forces of Russia, China, and the allied nations of Asia.

The above-quoted passage from Lyndon LaRouche indicates the fundamental “conflict of principle” at the core of this entire sweep of two-thousand years of history. On this occasion of Christmas Day, as we remain on watch against the outbreak of war, let us examine a little more closely the precedent of the mass-murderous reaction of the Roman Empire against the real-life historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth and his movement.

Ostensibly, the Christmas Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Even to those who think that they personally have been less banalized by the Christmas holiday than those for whom it is hardly a spiritual occasion (i.e., committing acts of violence on “Black Friday”), it must be said that even many of you who will go to church today to celebrate the birth of Jesus will probably forget the real, political act for which he was killed.

Now, while there are obvious differences of opinion about Jesus and his role, it can’t be denied that he was a real historical figure, a point made by Pope Benedict XVI in his book “Jesus of Nazareth.” Officially, Jesus was crucified for “sedition” against the Roman Empire. In other words, challenging its power. Pope Benedict XVI has even claimed that Barabbas -- the “robber” who was tried in parallel with Jesus -- was not a petty thief, as is popularly believed, but that the specific connotation of “robber” during this period of the Roman Empire was one who aimed to take away the Empire’s power; the only way to do it was to “rob” them of this power, as the empire would not willfully give it over to anyone. Barabbas had actually been a well known “resistance fighter”, as Benedict reports, and in fact was probably the leader of an armed uprising against Rome. However, Barabbas was freed. In the eyes of the Roman authorities, there must have been something even more dangerous about that Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate on December 25, who himself died in the act of challenging the power that this Empire had over the people of Judaea and others.

In fact that there had been several resistance movements, and even a few armed uprisings against the Empire during the short life of Jesus. At the time of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem, there had been a revolt against Caeser Augustus in Galilee, which had been put down by the Romans with a great deal of bloodshed. The party which led this uprising were known as the Zealots, and Benedict even speculates that at least a couple of the original Twelve Apostles, had actually been partisans of this movement, and had been recruited by Jesus away from their former methods of terror and violence.
This is the context in which Jesus himself was ultimately executed for sedition, or rebellion, against the Roman Empire under Tiberius. And not long after, the Roman Emperor Nero would be accused of murdering his Apostles Peter and Paul, who continued to recruit extensively after the execution of Jesus, and who ultimately made a very significant contribution to epistemology in his First Letter to the Corinthians, Verse 13, as featured in LaRouche’s recent report, “Reflections On a Work by Nicholas of Cusa: The Strategic Situation Now”.

So, while you may have thought initially that the idea of “cancelling” Christmas was radical, the very Jesus Christ whose birth you are supposed to be celebrating, ended his life in an act which challenged the power of the Roman Empire, which has since gone through several incarnations and re-locations, but remains the same enemy, committed to upholding the oligarchical principle. Should you not take a page out of Jesus’ book, and do something yourself this Christmas to help bring down our own modern day Roman Emperor Nero, Barack Obama? In fact, in this time of hyperinflation and war -- a moment in which we are about to lose everything which we have taken for granted -- there is no other Christmas gift which is actually durable, than such a gift to mankind, past, present and future: the salvation of civilization through the impeachment of Emperor Nero’s likeness Obama. Christmas’ namesake would surely approve.

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