Christian Bouchet

In the Levant, Presbyterians are the absolute worst iteration of Christianity I can conceive. They aren't even recognized as true Christians by the Orthodox and Catholics here, who rightly categorize their Calvinist, iconoclastic theology as outright heresy. Beyond this theological bastardization, their political traitorousness is staggering and astonishing. They function as blatant imperial proxies, actively fracturing indigenous Christian communities by pushing American geopolitical agendas over local solidarity. Their inherent political irrationality and disruptive, divisive missionary tactics have caused nothing but demographic erosion and endless chaos in our region. They are a foreign virus.

The Mandaeans (Sabians) are a indigenous Mesopotamian Gnostic community. Unlike most Gnostics who venerate Jesus, the Mandaeans strictly follow John the Baptist. To them, Jesus was simply a disciple of John. Their cosmology is radically anti-Judaic. They view the Jewish God, Adonai (called Adunai in their sacred texts), not as a supreme creator, but as a selfish, ignorant, and deceitful deity. They believed Adunai was a cruel power who chose a specific people (the Jews), They were accusing Jews of widespread homosexual and chaotic irrational actions. They saw Adunai as a bloodthirsty, jealous Lord who took sadistic pleasure in genocide and slaughter. Their theology is deeply rooted in ancient Mesopotamian beliefs and Syrio-Mesopotamian mysticism, particularly in its profound reverence for living water (Yardna) and its strict dualism between the World of Light and the World of Darkness. Because of this, they fiercely reject creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing). Instead, they believe the material universe was not created by a supreme good God, but is a corrupted prison constructed by the forces of darkness and the demiurge. However, unlike Manichaean dualists, they believe in Strict Emanation. They do not argue that the World of Darkness is ontologically on par with the World of Light. Hayyi Rabbi (the Great Life) is absolutely and ontologically superior to the Ruler of Darkness. Mandaean dualism is asymmetrical considering that the World of Light is eternal, self-subsistent, and ultimately supreme, while the World of Darkness is born of chaos, ignorance, and is ultimately destined to be conquered by the forces of Light. The Light does not need the Darkness to exist, but the Darkness exists only as a corrupted distortion or antithesis to the Light. They argue Hayyi Rabbi is called "Life" merely as a name to glorify him, not to limit him as simply "life". He is utterly beyond being, transcending all predicates. He is even transcends eternity as he is super-eternal, standing as an Incomprehensible Mystery. They believe he is called "Life" metaphorically because he is the Ultimate Ground of Being and Source of All things, utterly unbound by created categories. Consequently, they reject core figures like Abraham and Moses viewing them as false prophets who corrupted the true faith which was the true knowlegde. They also entirely reject the practice of circumcision, considering it a barbaric mutilation of the body. To the Mandaeans, he (Adunai) is nothing but a god of vengeance. They declare that his work is the work of darkness.