[Editor’s note: The following article is based on excerpts from an address delivered by Minister Louis Farrakhan March 5, 2006 at Life Center Church in Chicago, Illinois. To order this message visit store.finalcall.com or call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
We are living at a time that was described by Jesus in these words: “If those days were not shortened for his elect sake, no flesh would be saved.” We know that we have now entered that period when we witnessed a tsunami killing over 200,000 people in Asia; an earthquake in Pakistan; storms raging throughout America, fire on one side, water on the other, snow, cold, ice in between; and the President of the United States unraveling in front of our eyes.
Pres. Bush used the tragedy of 9/11 to launch a war that is not justified by truth or justice. Our young sons and daughters, who love this country and are willing to fight to defend and protect it, are dying on a foreign battlefield on the basis of a lie. The war is going to widen. It will not get easier because we have now entered the dreaded war prophesied in scripture. In Luke 21:20, the scripture says, “when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them that are in Judea flee to the mountains.” Hard days are coming to America because, like Babylon in the scriptures, America said:
“I sit as a queen and shall see no sorrow.” America has made other nations and their cities desolate, burned them to the ground and destroyed their governments as long as their governments do not rule according to America’s international designs on their raw materials. Every leader in Africa who rose to fight for the true liberation of Africans, the U.S. government either assassinated them, or orchestrated coups through funding, and drove those leaders out so that the multinational corporations of America could continue to suck the blood of those nations.
In Africa today, millions of people are trying to live on a dollar or less a day, while we can tithe. We can eat, while other nations are suffering famine. Jesus prophesied of famine, pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places—but he said this is only the beginning of sorrow. I wish I could tell you today that there are good times ahead, but there are no more good times for the United States of America.
If I do not warn you, then your blood will be required of me, so you will never be able to say that I did not tell you what you needed to know to come up out of your lethargy and foolishness. The time is over for hypocrisy, approaching Jesus with our lips, while our hearts are far removed from him. Churches and mosques have become playgrounds for religion, where we give lip service to righteousness, but practice evil because Satan is making evil fair-seeming to us. Everything that Allah (God) says in the scripture, “Thou shalt not do,” America is guiding people to do. Then, we come to church or the mosque thinking it is alright as long as we give charity or sing in the choir. It is absolutely not right.
Righteousness is scorned in today’s society. It is difficult for pastors to preach righteousness on Sunday and have other weekly spiritual meetings, but then send our people home to turn on their televisions where filth and degeneracy is shown from morning until night. We listen to the radio because we love good music, but what are we rapping and singing about—a man singing his way into a woman’s clothes; a woman taking off her clothes to excite a man with the beauty of her body.
Is this God’s world to excite a man with the beauty of a woman’s body? I hate this world and I am with Allah (God) to destroy this world. This world is destroying our children and turning our boys into girls and our girls into boys. This world is filling our communities with drugs and guns. A beautiful 14-year-old girl heard some shots and went to the window of her Chicago home, and today her parents and friends are saddened to have to attend her funeral because stray bullets killed her. The murder of innocent people is occurring, not only in Chicago, but also throughout the cities of America. Do you think that you will not have to pay for these losses of lives?
I recently visited New Orleans to address a townhall meeting. I had visited one of the levee breaches during a tour of the Ninth Ward and I saw devastation like I had never seen before. I asked the question of the pastors, friends and leaders present at the meeting: “Why did God actively bring a hurricane of that magnitude and why did He permit manmade destruction of the levee?” I told them in Christianity, Islam and Judaism, we believe that everything happens either by the active will or permissive will of God, so Allah (God) is the ultimate cause of all causes, but most of us do not have the courage to question God.
We saw our people wading in water up to their waists, with bodies floating by them. Hurricane Katrina laid bare the hypocrisy of America’s so-called love for the poor and exposed institutionalized racism. The government knew fully well in advance that Hurricane Katrina was building up in the Gulf, yet Pres. Bush did not act.
The ambassador from Cuba told me that his country has been hit by several Category 5 hurricanes, in which they have lost houses, but never lost one life. He told me that the Cuban government called the State Department three times to offer knowledge on disaster preparedness, but the government of the United States rejected the offer out of arrogance.
The Bible teaches that pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Look at how Pres. Bush walks. He revels in the might of his army and navy, but Allah (God) can bring a snowstorm so that planes cannot take off and tanks cannot move. He can cause temperatures to drop to freezing, so that weapons cannot fire any ammunition. God is God, not the president, governor or powers of White America.
At the townhall meeting in New Orleans, I pointed out the high Black-on-Black crime rates, rebellion against the will and law of God, and the love of partying and acting foolishness that prevails in the city. I asked them if they did not think that Allah (God) would handle the city as He did to ancient cities that lived in rebellion. I told them Allah (God) brought a punishment to America, but He also brought a punishment to Black people, and that punishment is going to spread. There will be many more disasters that we are not prepared for in this country.
This country glories in its cities and skyscrapers, but Allah (God) is going to bring them down. We are going to know that He is God. America, who bullies other nations, is going to know that there is a God present today Who is not playing with America.
Allah (God) wants Black people because He has an assignment for us. In the church, we sing the hymn, “My God, He calls me. He calls me by the thunder. I hear Him call within my soul? I ain’t got long to stay here.” We do not have long to continue to be the clown for White people. We do not have long to continue to play foolish roles on television while our people are dying in the streets of America. We do not have long to continue to pimp or hustle. We are going to pay a price for rebelling against Allah (God) and His Christ.
Black ministers must begin to preach with the strength that Jesus preached, or leave the ministry because the Judgement of Allah (God) is going to begin in the House of God. Ministers do not want to condemn what Jesus condemned or correct people when they are going wrong. They do not want to hurt peoples’ feelings because that may hinder what the people place in the collection plate.
But if ministers hurt God’s feelings by not warning the people of their errant behaviors, then the people will die in their sin, but God will require the blood of the people at the hands of those who preach.
In Ezekiel 3:18, Allah (God) warns that if you see a man in his sin, he will die in his sin. If you warn him, you have delivered your own soul, but if you warn him not and he dies in his sin, God is going to require it of you.
We should not play with religion or Jesus Christ. We should not think that when Jesus Christ returns, that he is coming back to play with us. I wonder how many of us believe in His Return and how many of us will be ready when He Returns.
The Bible says that in His Second Coming, He will have a sword dripping with blood in His hand. He is not coming back to teach. He is coming back to kill the enemies of His teaching and set up a new government.
This country talks about so-called democracy, but who are we trying to vote for, as though voting is going to change the reality of the wickedness of American life. We should vote for Christ and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth, because in His Kingdom there will be peace, joy, freedom, justice and equality. We should vote out Pres. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
I want to see the Kingdom of God established on earth, like the Lord’s Prayer recites, “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth.” What is the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is a government, wherein the people live under the rules and laws of God. We cannot be a true disciple of Christ and be loved by the world. Most of us want to be loved by the world, the governor, mayor or president. I want to be loved by God and His Christ.
I watched for six hours the funeral of Coretta Scott King. It was a fantastic Homegoing for a woman who has earned the right to our respect and honor. Four presidents attended, including the sitting president. As I watched, I wondered where was my Brother Harry Belafonte. I thought that since Pres. Bush was going to be there, he did not want to speak because he might say something that he thought would be inappropriate.
A few days later, I spoke with Mr. Belafonte, who was in great pain because he was one of the top fundraisers for Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. After Dr. King was assassinated, I am told that Harry Belafonte raised the money to pay off Dr. King’s house and sent money every month to the children, who referred to him as “Uncle Harry.”
But when four White presidents were coming to honor their mother, someone, on behalf of the family, called Mr. Belafonte to dis-invite him. According to his words to me, he said he was told, “You can come and we will make a place for you in the auditorium, but it was a mistake to invite you to speak.” So, he decided not to come.
This reveals a sickness that we suffer from as a people. We love White people more than we love our Black selves and we are going to go to hell with such a foolish love. There is nothing wrong with loving White people, but there is a lot wrong with such a love when we will choose a president that has never done anything for us, while we disrespect a man who was our benefactor.
This foolish love is what bothers me about the Civil Rights Movement because we take all kinds of abuse from White people and forgive them, but we remain angry with our Christian Sisters or Brothers if they say or do something to offend us. We do not forgive our people, but can forgive a man that lynched, burned, raped, robbed and spoiled our people.
We have diseased hearts and minds, which make us afraid to love ourselves and afraid to hate our enemies. We say, “Hate hurts the hater,” but we were taught that phrase from the same lyncher that fears that, if we hate him, we may return the favor. He does not want justified hate to replace our foolish love.
Most of our leadership are rotten to the core, because they sell our people out. Many leaders are unfit to stand in front of our people because, if they are not willing to lay down their life for the sheep, what are they doing standing in front of them? Some leaders are hirelings, who are in leadership for the fun, money and good life at the expense of the hurt of the masses of our people. They scheme and hate others in leadership because they want to be the center of attraction. They undermine movement when movement is necessary. They undermine unity when unity is necessary.
This is the reason I took for the subject for my Saviours’ Day address, “The Birth of a Nation.” In birth, the foot is usually at the mouth of the uterus until there is a turning, because the foot cannot lead the way to freedom for the baby. When the feet of the baby emerge first, it is called a stillbirth or breach birth.
When the baby turns in the womb, the head emerges first. The head is in a lot of pain because it pushes against the bone of the tiny house that held the baby. Both the baby and mother must push. When the baby comes to birth, its head and shoulders are sometimes bruised. The baby cannot tell you the pain it endured to get here, but the mother can tell the baby the pain she endured to give birth.
Similarly, this house cannot hold us any longer. Allah (God) wants to give us land and make a great nation out of us, but He must separate us from our tormentors, of whom we seem to not want to let go.
The Holy Qur’an says, if a flea or anything smaller, flew and took a morsel from our plate, we do not have the power to make that flea come back and drop that morsel back on your plate. So the Holy Qur’an reads, “Weak is the invoker and weak is the invoked.” White people only have power when we give it to them, and we give them power by bowing to that which is less than Allah (God). But, as the Bible tells us, if you resist the devil, he will flee from you.
We must decide today who we are going to follow, and not pay attention to the sound bites manipulated by the media, because a good man can be made to look bad with a 30-second sound bite. Are we followers of the son of perdition or are we followers of the Son of Man? Are we going to follow someone who makes evil fair-seeming so we can get drunk and feel good about ourselves? White people never wanted to share with us the real Gospel of Jesus, because that Gospel has power to heal us, raise us up from where we are, and give us power over our weaknesses. That true Gospel has that kind of power.
If we are going to be true disciples, then, as Jesus said, “you are going to be hated of all men for my name sake.” If you are not hated by the world for his name’s sake, we need to examine ourselves, because then we have been co-opted by the world. Like Jesus warned his disciples, some of us will be put in prison, beaten and killed for his name’s sake.
I know that they hate me and I know that one day soon they will come after me. I know that they are planning my death. I know that there are enemies around me and that everyone around me is not my friend. Everyone that was around Jesus was not his friend. But like the church hymn says, “What a friend we have in Jesus.” My Friend sees what I do not see and knows the hypocrites hiding like snakes. My Friend knows the one that is going to deny me in that hour, like they denied Jesus in his hour. My Friends—God and His Christ—know the heart of Their servant.
I have never been more ready than I am now to go where destiny leads me. There is a cross waiting for me because I dare to speak truth to power, but I love the fact that I am on my way to my Calvary. But you have a cross, too. I am on my way to my Golgatha, but you have one, too. I am not running from my cross; I am running to the cross because unless I go, my Father will not be glorified. I want to prove to all of you that the God we serve is real and that there is no weapon formed against the righteous that will prosper.
When they nailed Jesus to the cross, they mocked him, saying, “Here is the king of the Jews.” The rulers of this world see Farrakhan as the voice of Black people in America and throughout the world. Whether they have a crown for me, it does not make any difference, because Allah (God) has one for me. The rulers of this world know who I am. In the hour of his crucifixion, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them.” The disciples ran away, and Peter denied knowing him. Only John and a few Sisters were at the cross with the mother of Jesus. A good woman will go the last mile with a good man, but sometimes Brothers are only with you in fair weather, because when the weather gets foul, they begin thinking about what they are going to suffer.
In his hour of crucifixion, Jesus said, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.” And the Jews standing nearby said, “Behold, he calls for Elijah. Let us see will Elijah take him down.” I know that my Redeemer liveth. Because He lives, I, too, shall live and stand with Him at the latter days. I want us all to stand and be strong in the Lord because the victory is ours.
