History
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History |
May 2018
This Day in History - Defiant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged - 1945:
On this day in 1945, Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged at Flossenburg, only days before the American liberation of the POW camp. The last words of the brilliant and courageous 39-year-old opponent of Nazism were “This is the end–for me, the beginning of life.”Two days after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, lecturer at Berlin University, took to the radio and denounced the Nazi Fuhrerprinzip... a synonym for dictatorship. .... In April 1943... Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo. ... While in prison, he acted as a counselor and pastor to prisoners of all denominations. ... Among his celebrated works of theology are The Cost of Discipleship.
April 2018
The Story Behind ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’: It begins with the aging Paul imprisoned in Rome, awaiting the beheading that Christian tradition accords him. ...
In A.D. 67, when Paul met his death, historians have estimated that there were only about 2,500 Christians scattered in small communities throughout the Roman Empire. By the year 350 there were nearly 34 million of them, a majority of the empire’s population. Why did these early Christians thrive, despite being universally despised? (They trusted God!)
4 in 10 millennials don't know that 6 million Jews were killed in Hitler's Nazi Holocaust: Israelis stood still on Thursday for a nationwide moment of silence in remembrance of the Jewish victims, as a two-minute siren wailed across the country and the nation paid respects to those systematically killed. As every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, buses and cars halted on streets and highways and Israelis stepped out of their vehicles, standing with heads bowed in solemn remembrance. ...
On college campuses all across America today, millennials are frighteningly ignorant of the facts of the Nazi genocide that took place in the 1930’s and 40’s.
Israel and Anne Frank's Jewishness: The co-option of Anne Frank’s legacy by intellectuals and political forces who pretended away her Jewishness may have been the first successful attempt to deny the anti-Semitic nature of the genocide of a third of the Jewish people. But it wasn’t the last one.’’ ...
“Anne says, ‘We’re not the only Jews that had to suffer. Right down through the ages, there have been Jews and they’ve had to suffer.’ ... Dutch Nazis deported them to German death camps.
The Story Behind ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’
: It begins with the aging Paul imprisoned in Rome, awaiting the beheading that Christian tradition accords him. ...In A.D. 67, when Paul met his death, historians have estimated that there were only about 2,500 Christians scattered in small communities throughout the Roman Empire. By the year 350 there were nearly 34 million of them, a majority of the empire’s population. Why did these early Christians thrive, despite being universally despised?
(They trusted God!)
March 2018
The Story Behind ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’: It begins with the aging Paul imprisoned in Rome, awaiting the beheading that Christian tradition accords him. ...
In A.D. 67, when Paul met his death, historians have estimated that there were only about 2,500 Christians scattered in small communities throughout the Roman Empire. By the year 350 there were nearly 34 million of them, a majority of the empire’s population. Why did these early Christians thrive, despite being universally despised? (They trusted God!)
4 in 10 millennials don't know that 6 million Jews were killed in Hitler's Nazi Holocaust: Israelis stood still on Thursday for a nationwide moment of silence in remembrance of the Jewish victims, as a two-minute siren wailed across the country and the nation paid respects to those systematically killed. As every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, buses and cars halted on streets and highways and Israelis stepped out of their vehicles, standing with heads bowed in solemn remembrance. ...
On college campuses all across America today, millennials are frighteningly ignorant of the facts of the Nazi genocide that took place in the 1930’s and 40’s.
Israel and Anne Frank's Jewishness: The co-option of Anne Frank’s legacy by intellectuals and political forces who pretended away her Jewishness may have been the first successful attempt to deny the anti-Semitic nature of the genocide of a third of the Jewish people. But it wasn’t the last one.’’ ...
“Anne says, ‘We’re not the only Jews that had to suffer. Right down through the ages, there have been Jews and they’ve had to suffer.’ ... Dutch Nazis deported them to German death camps.
Warning: East Germany's Stasi is back: The Stasi, the East German secret police agency, was one of the most reviled and feared institutions of the East German communist government. And it’s back, at least in spirit.... “While such policies would doubtless have earned the German authorities many points with the old Stasi regime of East Germany, they more than likely contravene the European Convention of Human Rights... to which Germany is a party.
December 2017
The most wonderful day of World War I: ...on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1914, an estimated 100,000 British, French and German troops... in Belgium along the Western Front, ceased fighting. The thunderous booming of artillery fell silent that night. German troops started decorating their trenches with Christmas trees and candles in their branches. They began singing ... “Silent Night.”
As this was one of the Christmas carols that soldiers on both sides knew, English, French and German troops all began to sing across the battle lines.
Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.
July 2017
Rewriting American History: George Orwell said, "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." In the former USSR, censorship, rewriting of history and eliminating undesirable people became part of Soviets' effort to ensure that the correct... political spin was put on their history. See The Fall and Rise of Human violence
Declaration of Independence Day 2017 As Only Mark Levin Can Tell It.
June 2017
The Book of Daniel. The Bible deals with the history of man's world from the beginning, across historical time and into our present time and forward until the very end of time.... The great "I AM" of Exodus 3:14, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush... speaks to us today through His written Holy Word and the Holy Spirit. And, today, that ancient malignant spirit of Satan is also still whispering in the ears of modern man, "Yea hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1)
Rewriting American History: ‘George Orwell said, "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."
The Book of Daniel is Unsealing - Focus on the Middle East and Prophecy! The Bible deals with the history of man's world from the beginning, across historical time and into our present time and forward until the very end of time as we understand it. You are living RIGHT NOW in Biblical days. The great "I AM" of Exodus 3:14, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, STILL IS and speaks to us today through His written Holy Word and the Holy Spirit. And, today, that ancient malignant spirit of Satan is also still whispering in the ears of modern man, "Yea hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1)
There is a second "gap" in the Old Testament aside from the one in Genesis. That "gap" is the Church Age, the roughly 2000 year period of time between the first and second advents of the Lord Jesus Christ. That gap is hidden within the prophecies of the Old Testament, but it can be seen there through what is revealed in the New Testament.
March 2017
The Man who Died Preaching on the Titanic (The testimony of a wonderful man of God, John Harper (1872-1912): God’s servants are everywhere.... As the renowned steam-liner Titanic hit a deadly iceberg on the Atlantic strait that fateful night, 14th April 1912, Harper cried out for women, children and the unconverted to quickly get onto the lifeboats. He even gave his own life jacket away knowing that such an act meant certain death alongside another 1,500 helpless passengers.
George Henry Cavell, who was clinging to a board drifted near Harper. Harper, who was struggling in the water, cried, “Are you saved?” The answer returned, “No.” Harper shouted words from the Bible: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
Did You Know That The U.S. Entered World War I On April 6, 1917 And Trump Just Start World War III On April 6, 2017? Did World War III begin on April 6th, 2017? After Donald Trump fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria on Thursday night, millions of Americans were cheering, but the cheering isn’t going to last for long if a new world war erupts. What is amazing to me is that this happened on the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I. The U.S. officially entered that war on April 6th, 1917, and now 100 years later to the day Donald Trump has essentially declared war on Syria. See The fall and rise of human violence
Europe: What
happens to Christians there will come here
[to America]:
"I fear we are approaching a situation resembling the tragic fate of Christianity in Northern Africa in Islam's early days," a Lutheran bishop, Jobst Schoene, warned a few years ago. In ancient times, Algeria and Tunisia, entirely Christian, gave us great thinkers such as Tertullian and Augustine.
Two centuries later, Christianity has disappeared, replaced by Arab-Islamic civilization. ...
Within 20 years, more babies will be born to Muslim women than to Christian women world-wide... "Christianity is literally dying in Europe..."
See
The emerging New World Order
A Jewish Photographer Buried These Photos So Nazis Wouldn't Find Them
: Henryk Ross of Łódź, Poland was a simple... photographer when German forces invaded his city in 1939. ...he risked his life to secretly document day-to-day events in the Łódź ghetto, which eventually included the deportation of its residents to death camps. ...he buried his photos near his house in a tar-sealed box, preserving evidence of the crimes against his people for future generations. After the liberation ... in 1945, Ross came back to dig up his photos.... The ones that remained... provided an intimate look inside the lives of Polish Jews, many of whom met the most unspeakable of ends. See His strength in my weaknessThe Man who Died Preaching on the Titanic (The testimony of a wonderful man of God, John Harper (1872-1912):
God’s servants are everywhere.... As the renowned steam-liner Titanic hit a deadly iceberg on the Atlantic strait that fateful night, 14th April 1912, Harper cried out for women, children and the unconverted to quickly get onto the lifeboats. He even gave his own life jacket away knowing that such an act meant certain death alongside another 1,500 helpless passengers.George Henry Cavell, who was clinging to a board drifted near Harper. Harper, who was struggling in the water, cried, “Are you saved?” The answer returned, “No.” Harper shouted words from the Bible: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
November 2016
“Fake News” Has Been a Problem for Thousands of Years:
...Socrates was killed in 399 BC for spreading “fake news.” William Tyndale was killed in 1536 for spreading “fake news” ... i.e. translating the Bible into English so that everyone could read it... In 1616 and 1633, Galileo was tried for spreading “fake news”. His crime: Saying that the Earth rotates around the Sun....
Freedom Falling Worldwide: “Harvard historian Yascha Mounk notes that after rising steadily from the mid-1970s through the early 2000s, the number of countries globally that are considered “free” have been on a steady decline....” See Spiritual Warfare
American Minute for November 19th: November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address where 50,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in a 3 day battle: "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal..."
September 2016
3,000 year old treasures dated to the time of King David unveiled: ...it was not until the second year of excavations in 2008 that archaeologists realized they had stumbled upon what was possibly the earliest physical evidence of a Davidic city dating back to the 11th Century BCE. Over the course of seven years, excavations revealed a walled city with two equally large and dominant gates.... The Elah Valley divided the lands of the Israelites and the Philistines, whose champion warrior was felled by the young shepherd boy David's slingshot.
July 2016
‘HILLARY’S AMERICA’ - The Secret History of the Democratic Party: The Secret History of the Democratic Party is now the top-grossing documentary of 2016, placing ninth last weekend in 1,216 theaters and grossing $4.6 million to date. Together with his 2012 film, the $33.4 million hit 2016: Obama’s America, right-wing writer/activist/director Dinesh D’Souza is now the conservative Michael Moore.
March 2016
(May be slow to open) Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure and the Planned Dumping of German Nuclear Waste on America: “'Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.' Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran theologian and pastor become Anti-Nazi dissident and hung by the Nazis on April 9, 1945.
"U.S. First Army troops found... rings, with watches, precious stones, eyeglasses, and gold teeth fillings, in a cave adjoining the Buchenwald concentration camp...” Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland." See pictures from
Auschwitz: Nazi Concentration Camp, World War 2
Holy Bible - Book of Isaiah 17: Destruction of Damascus: "The prophet Isaiah provides us with God’s commentary on a future conflict between Damascus and Israel, and...reveals certain prophecies which have been partially fulfilled in the past.... 'This is what God revealed to the prophet Isaiah': 'Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins.... The fortified cities of Israel will also be destroyed, and the power of Damascus will end. The few left in Aram will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 17:1-3)
Rising Turkish Menace: NATO Ally Wants Islamic Advance in Latin America: "The president of Turkey has re-written history by claiming Muslim explorers, not Christopher Columbus, discovered America. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chief of America’s NATO ally, said November 15 that Islamic sailors found the New World in 1178. He said, “Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus.” Turkey is the only Islamic nation in the NATO."
World War Two - How a Global Elite controlled Both Sides: "...many anomalies (strange or inconsistent events) in the course of World War Two, which cannot be explained by conventional historical analysis, can be fully understood if we recognize that the same people controlled both sides. These people are the Global Elite or Illuminati. They brought about and controlled the First and Second World Wars and, after a period of consolidation, are on the point of starting the final phase of their plan for global reconstruction, namely World War III. Following the horrors of that awful event they intend to impose their New World Order.
"Why did Hitler order a pause at Dunkirk, letting the British escape? ... The German generals, awaiting approval to launch a full-scale assault, were horrified. As military blunders go, this was one simply inexplicable by conventional standards.
"The truth, however, is very straight forward. The collapse of Britain was not part of the plan. The Global Elite were aiming, rather, to create upheaval in Eastern Europe, and to demoralise France and destabilize Germany so that the entire region could be remoulded into a ‘united states’ of Europe – the European Union."
Syria is What Happens When Islam Wins: "Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren’t talking to each other. Syria and Turkey are shooting at each other. Not only are the Shiites and Sunnis killing each other in Syria, but the Sunni groups have been killing each other for some time now....
"Money and weapons are only the symbols. What they represent is Islam. And what Islam represents is the intersection between identity and power.... Hasan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, wrote, 'Our task is to stand against the flood of modernist civilization.' Syria is the desert that remains when the flood of civilization has passed." See The Muslim Brotherhood and Nazi/Arab plots to kill Jews & Christians and Rule an Islamic World
Are we as asleep as the Germans of the '30s? "On Nov. 20, 1945, the Nuremberg Trials began, bringing Hitler’s Nazi criminals to justice. By this time, several countries were destroyed, and 50 million people...lost their lives – including 12 million Jews, German dissidents... and others who were exterminated in Nazi concentration camps....
"One of Hitler’s first moves when he rose to power was to attack his own Reichstag, only to blame it on his political opposition.... Hitler no longer abided by the law, but instead promulgated his agenda by force....
"Have Americans today forgotten the price of their blood-bought freedoms, paid for by hundreds of thousands of veterans who laid down their lives, fortunes and sacred honor? ...Interestingly, Time magazine merited the murderous dictator Adolf Hitler 'Man of the Year' in 1938. Josef Stalin was also declared Time’s 'Man of the Year' in 1939 and 1942..."
See Bonhoeffer: Nazi Religion versus "Religionless" FaithVideo: No Higher Power: "'In God we trust' is our national motto but Obama would replace it with 'E Pluribus Unum.'"
The Fall and Rise of Human Violence: "As centuries come and go, history occasionally reveals sudden, momentous changes that transform cultures in ways that defy human logic. One of these astounding leaps began about 400 years ago. Its transforming power brought light into the darkness of the Middle Ages and safety to people bound by fear, superstition and tyranny. ...[Roth's]s research showed little variation in the rate of human violence between the 14th and the 16th centuries. 'Then in the 17th century, there is a very big, dramatic drop,' he says. 'It’s so sudden and rapid that it seems too hard to explain....'"
For WWII soldier's widow a 60 year-mystery finally solved: "Sixty-eight years ago today, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower gave the final order for the allied invasion of Normandy. It was the eve of D-Day....Peggy and Billie got married just six weeks before he got shipped off to war. A fighter pilot -- his last mission was July 17, 1944 over Nazi-occupied northern France. He never returned from that mission. ...Peggy... never got a knock at the door, never got a telegram, never got anything definitive explaining what happened to her husband Billie during World War II...." See Video
The 70th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor: "Wednesday marks the 70th. Anniversary of the Japanese attack on our Pacific Fleet. 'Remember Pearl Harbor' was the Second World War’s most enduring slogan – sported on buttons, blazoned across billboards and blared from the radio....
"Americans are tragically ignorant of our past. ...The Japanese sank or severely damaged 18 ships, including 8 battleships, and destroyed 161 of our planes. It forced our entry into a war.... More than 16 million Americans wore their country’s uniform. Nearly 300,000 died in battle...."
Quote from "Trusting God as Freedom Fades": "This was not simply a war to save Europe from Nazi tyranny. More important to greedy 'power elites' was their plan to persuade the masses to accept a 'peaceful' world government. To gain support for this vision, they must make war look horrific indeed. As Dr. Cuddy wrote,"President Roosevelt then followed McCollum’s Action F, keeping the U.S. fleet in Hawaiian waters....[T]he fleet’s commander, Admiral James Richardson, objected to the president about this. On February 1, 1941, Admiral Richardson was relieved of his command. The fleet was deliberately left in harm’s way, and Joseph J. Rochefort will later say that the attack upon Pearl Harbor 'was a pretty cheap price to pay for unifying the country.'”
His Wonderful Word - Worth dying for! "In the sixteenth century, Spain's King Philip II took a hard line against those who would try to interpret Scripture for themselves. Anyone found studying the Bible during this time was hanged, burned at the stake, drowned, torn in pieces, or buried alive..."
Who cares about American history? "When the Department of Education last week released the results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress -- 'the Nation's Report Card' -- the bottom line was depressingly predictable: Not even a quarter of American students is proficient in US history." See Warnings from America's Founders
The Novel That Changed America: "In April 1857, Samuel Green, a free black farmer and preacher living on Maryland's Eastern Shore, was taken from his home and sentenced to 10 years in prison for the felony of possessing a book that was, the law asserted, 'calculated to create discontent among the colored population of this state.' The book was called 'Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly.' The prosecution of Green was of course a travesty.
"By presenting an array of emotive story lines—e.g., the bonding of Uncle Tom with St. Clare's saintly daughter Eva, Tom's fatal persecution at a Louisiana plantation, and the dramatic flight of the Harris family to freedom in the North—the author Harriet Beecher Stowe rendered American slavery as a soul-destroying system of grinding injustice and, for the first time in American literature, depicted slaves as complex, heroic and emotionally nuanced individuals.... 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' became a phenomenon like nothing Americans had seen before."
"A Fortress in the Church" (Armenia): "Men, women, and children, all of the families of the church must flee over the mountains. The people were poor.... Soon a long line of people straggled along the track to the mountain, pulling their children with them. 'Hurry! The Turks... will kill us!' they repeated over and over....
"As darkness fell upon the mountainside, a lone mother came up the path with her two children. She had been left behind, for she could not keep up with the others. 'I must rest again,' the woman groaned.... Tired legs trembling, she sank down on a rock beside the road. But something was in the way! Feeling about her in the dark, her hands explored the object’s fine leather cover. 'This is our church Bible!' she gasped in dismay. '“Who could have left it here?..." See His strength in my weakness
History. Historical and archeological evidence for Biblical accuracy: "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference." Nelson Glueck, renowned Jewish archaeologist.... [Here is some of the evidence]
6. He would face mockery from ruling authorities: [Old Testament prophecy] 'All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 'He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him...”
(Psalm 22:7-8). Fulfilled! "...the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, 'He saved others; Himself He cannot save. ...He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him....’” (Matthew 27:41-43)7. Nails would pierce his hands and feet: [Old Testament] "They pierced My hands and My feet." (Psalm 22:16) Fulfilled! When the resurrected Jesus appeared to His disciples, he said, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet." (Luke 24:38-39)
8. They "cast lots" for his clothes: [Old Testament]"They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots." (Psalm 22:18) Fulfilled! "And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take." (Mark 15:24)
A Natural Law Lesson for Obama: "President Obama's editing out of the words "...by their Creator..." from the Declaration of Independence on the 15th (video and transcript here) is a remarkable act for sitting president..... The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson (when he was 33 years old), based on a list of points laid out by a 5 person committee which also included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams." [I question some of the points in this article]
Filtering History: "If the history of slavery ought to teach us anything, it is that human beings cannot be trusted with unbridled power over other human beings-- no matter what color or creed any of them are.... But that is not the message that is being taught in our schools and colleges, or dramatized on television and in the movies. The message that is pounded home again and again is that white people enslaved black people.... Just as Europeans enslaved Africans, North Africans enslaved Europeans-- more Europeans than there were Africans enslaved in the United States.... The treatment of white galley slaves was even worse than the treatment of black slaves picking cotton....
"The inhumanity of human beings toward other human beings is not a new story.... If American society and Western civilization are different from other societies and civilization, it is that they eventually turned against slavery, and stamped it out, at a time when non-Western societies around the world were still maintaining slavery and resisting Western pressures to end slavery.... Yet today there are Americans who have gone to Africa to apologize for slavery-- on a continent where slavery has still not been completely ended, to this very moment." Purging the Memory of our Christian Roots
History's Clues to America's Crisis: "Empires rise and fall. Though military might and a measure of cultural (not Christian) ethics brought times of peace and progress to some of 'great' civilizations, they all crumbled after a century or two. Might America's freedom fade as well? If so, why?
"You can find some insights and answers in the following [two-century-old] message by Rev. Chauncey Lee, who followed the famed Rev. Jonathan Edwards as pastor of a church in Connecticut. Concerned about the rising assault on Christian faith and freedom, he compares America's foes two centuries ago to (1) the serpent who tempted Eve and (2) the left-wing, anti-Christian revolutionaries called Jacobins. Led by the devious but charismatic Robespierre, this tyrannical movement steered the bloodiest part of the French Revolution during the 1790s."
A darker side of Columbus emerges in US classrooms: "In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year—charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. 'In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy,' teacher Laurie Crawford said."
American Minute with Bill Federer September 21: "The worst evil that could be inflicted upon the youth of the land would be to leave them without restraint and completely at the mercy of their own uncontrolled inclinations. Under such conditions education would be impossible, and all orderly development intellectually or morally would be hopeless....
"The foundations of our independence and our Government rests upon basic religious convictions. Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the World, to whom we still appeal....
"It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God. If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive." President Calvin Coolidge. See Human Nature
Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet: "The 2,000-year-old scrolls, found in the late 1940s in caves near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, contain the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew Bible (missing only the Book of Esther).... The texts, most of them on parchment but some on papyrus, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D." See Abraham didn't exist? Moses a myth?
First Temple seal found in Jerusalem: "A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David.... According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem....
"The... elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either
side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.
A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the
top of the altar. Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech....
"The Bible refers to the Temech family:
'These are the children of the province, that went up
out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah,
every one unto his city.' [Nehemiah 7:6, 55].... The fact that this cultic
scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews
who used it on their own seal...."
This story from Jerusalem Post is interesting, but it's also a sad statement about Old Testament paganism. I question its accuracy, since the Bible [in its list of returnees in Nehemiah 7] refers to Tamah, not Temech. The Hebrew letters in that name do not at all resemble the three letters on the excavated seal. But I am thankful that excavations continue to unearth evidence for Biblical inerrancy.
The Currency of Faith: "On Nov. 13, 1861, in the first months of the war, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase received the following letter from a Rev. M.R. Watkinson: 'Dear Sir, One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins. You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were now shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation?'...
"Chase... emerged as one of 12 new followers of Christ. As Chase wrote to another acquaintance.... 'It has pleased God in his infinite mercy to bring me... to the foot of the cross and to find acceptance through the blood of His dear Son.'...
"Dartmouth President Bennet Tyler believed in the importance of integrating faith, virtue and knowledge: '...The man who discards all religious belief... knows no law but his own inclination, and has no end in view but present gratification.'...
"Chase wrote the following to the director of the Mint in Philadelphia: 'Dear Sir, No nation can be strong except in the strength of God or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.' It was several years in the making, but on March 3, 1865, Congress passed a bill calling for 'In God We Trust' to be inscribed on U.S. coins. It would be one of the last acts President Lincoln signed into law." See Trusting God
When Europeans were slaves: "A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before.... Pirates (called corsairs) from cities along the Barbary Coast in north Africa – cities such as Tunis and Algiers – would raid ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children. The impact of these attacks were devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants." See Human Nature
Stop 'Making A Difference' (Some interesting observations by Thomas Sowell): "A classic example is slavery, which is repeatedly drummed into our heads -- in the schools and in the media -- as something unique done by white people to black people in the United States. The tragic fact is that, for thousands of years of recorded history, people of every race and color have been both slaves and enslavers.... What was unique about Western civilization was that it was the first civilization to turn against slavery, and that it stamped out slavery not only in its own societies but in other societies around the world during the era of Western imperialism." See The Hand of God in History
Biblical Destruction [Jerusalem]: "...a trench two-feet deep... has begun working its way toward the southern end of the Temple Mount.... Some of the digging is being done with mechanical equipment, instead of by hand as a professional archaeological excavation would be conducted. I don't know who are worse: the Muslim religious authorities digging up Jerusalem's Temple Mount, or the Israeli authorities who are allowing it to happen....
"In 1999, to accommodate a major expansion of an underground mosque into what is known popularly as Solomon's Stables in the southeastern part of the Temple Mount, the Waqf dug an enormous stairway down to the mosque. Hundreds of truckloads of archaeologically rich dirt were dug with mechanical equipment and then dumped into the adjacent Kidron Valley. When archaeology student Zachi Zweig began to explore the mounds of dirt for antiquities, he was arrested at the behest of the Israel Antiquities Authority -- for excavating without a permit." [Herschel Shanks, 7-18-07] See God's holy, unchanging Word
A Fourth Mosque on the Temple Mount?: "...since 1996... archaeologists - any archaeologist, whether he is from the IAA or not - are not allowed to inspect the Temple Mount. The
Waqf, the religious Muslim endowment that rules the Temple Mount, decided to banish archaeological supervision...."
The Hand of God in History: "That a congregation, not exceeding six hundred persons in all, and most of them exiles from their native land, and poor, should originate the idea of missions to Greenland, to the West Indies, to Labrador, to America, to Africa, and Asia, is, of itself, sufficiently providential to enlist our admiration. But that they should, from generation to generation, amidst incredible hardships and praiseworthy self-denial, sustain these missions, is still more to be admired....
"In the midst of extraordinary perils by sea and by land, from the elements and from savage men, the hand of God was with those devoted and self-denying men, who, for Christ’s and the gospel’s sake, braved the eternal snows of the north, or scorched beneath the broiling sun of the equator. Oft did they encounter famine, pestilence, shipwreck, and distressing extremes of heat and cold; and the Lord delivered them out of them all." See The Moravians & Count Zinzendorf
Pharaoh's chariots found in Red Sea? "One of the most famous stories of the Bible is God's parting of the Red Sea to save the Israelites from the Egyptian army and the subsequent drowning of soldiers and horses in hot pursuit. But is there evidence that such an event did in fact happen – and if so, precisely where did it take place?" No matter what "scientists" conclude, they neither "prove" nor disprove the miraculous interventions of God. See The Creator of all
January 11, 1791. Just One Day of School a Week. "In 1790, many children had no school to be free of. They worked six days a week in factories and never learned to read or write. Christian leaders in England and America thought this tragic and unacceptable. They knew that these children would lose opportunities in life because of their lack of education. They would be better workers if they could write letters and figure bills, and better Christians if they could read the Bible....
"The first American Sunday school was begun in Virginia in 1785 when William Elliot taught his own children and slaves. His school was a great step, but hundreds more were needed...." Phil 3:11-13
January 17, 1604. King James:' "...on this day, January 17, 1604, the motion was carried '...that a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek; and this to be set out and printed, without any marginal notes...' Forty-seven of England's top Bible scholars were appointed to do the work. In an effort to diminish bias, Anglicans and Puritans were included. King James himself organized the task. The translators... were charged to stick as close to the earlier Bishop’s Bible as accuracy would allow, but to take into account earlier versions. In the end, about seventy percent of the wording was borrowed from William Tyndale’s vivid translation."
April 15, 1912. While 'Unsinkable' Titanic Sank, John Harper Preached: "Lifeboats were quickly made ready and women and children were ordered to get into them first (Christian culture had stamped the ideas of chivalry into men, making them willing to give up their lives for women and children as their protectors)....
"The captain ordered the band to play to keep up the spirits of the passengers. It began playing a rag-time tune, but soon was playing hymns....
"One of the passengers traveling on the ship was evangelist John Harper. He put his six-year old daughter into a life boat and then ran through the ship warning others of the danger and talking to them about the eternal destiny of their souls. When he was finally forced to jump into the icy water, he clung to a piece of wreckage and asked another man 'Are you saved?' When the man answered no, John said to him, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.' ... John Harper was among the 1,522 people who died."
June 7, 1891. Spurgeon's Last Sermon from the Tabernacle: "Years before, his ministry had almost come to an early end. His congregation had grown so large they had to erect this special building to accommodate the crowds who came to hear him. While it was being built he rented a hall in Surrey Gardens. A 22 year old man, he had already been preaching five years at the time.
"An overflow crowd filled the Surrey Garden hall. As he prayed aloud, malicious pranksters yelled, 'Fire,' and shouted that the balcony was about to collapse. In a panic, people surged toward the exits. Seven people were trampled to death and dozens more taken to hospital badly injured. Spurgeon collapsed in horror. He had to be carried from the pulpit and fell into such deep depression that he later said he doubted anyone had ever passed as close to madness and yet escaped with sanity intact....
"His
last sermon at the Tabernacle was on this day June 7, 1891. He had labored in
the building 30 years, his sermons showing no faltering in freshness. He chose
as the topic of his final talk what it is to have Christ as our captain."
See
July 1, 1555. Huge Crowds Gathered in Protest of John Bradford's Burning: "A rumor sped through the streets that John would be burned to death at 4 a.m. the next morning. Indignant crowds gathered before the crack of dawn, filling the streets around Smithfield, the place of execution. Among them were Catholics, outraged because the charges against the Protestant preacher were so obviously trumped up....
"With soldiers lining the way... John was led to his death. He asked permission to give his clothes to his poor servant. It was all he had left. That done, he was bound to one side of the stake and another Protestant witness, John Leaf on the other side.
"
John Bradford turned to his partner and said 'Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night!' He prayed to be worthy of the Lord in death and quoted Christ's words, 'Strait is the way, and narrow is the gate that leads to eternal salvation, and few there be that find it.' Soon afterward, he was in eternity." 2 Corinthians 4:7 and 4:16
July 23, 1605. John Welsh Preached Last Sermon: "John had expected this arrest. Earlier that year, King James VI of Scotland forbade any pastor from attending a convention in Aberdeen. Like many Scottish pastors, Welsh believed no king had the right to stop preachers from conducting God's business."
"John was given a mock trial and jailed. At first he was held in the prison known as the tollbooth where many Scottish preachers served time. Later he was taken to brutal Blackness Castle. According to tradition, he was lowered into a dungeon pit that could be reached only through a hole in the floor.... One could not sit, stand or lie down without misery...." Loving God First
6: Weary John Eliot : "'I am old, ready to be gone, and desire to leave as many books as I can,' wrote John Eliot on this day, August 29, 1686.... Eliot had gone to the Indians of Massachusetts as a preacher, learned their language, created its alphabet and translated the Bible into it.... In addition to raising a large family, he pastored, taught, wrote many books... and reached out to the Indians whom everyone said should be evangelized but whom no one else did much about. For this he is called the Apostle of the Indians.
"He did not convert a large proportion of the Algonquins despite translating the Bible for them.... Regrettably, most of them were wiped out during King Philip's War. They found themselves between the two sides. The other Algonquins butchered them as traitors and the whites, who did not see them as brothers in Christ, massacred them in their hatred of the Indians who were warring on them." John 16:33
September 6, 1849: "Originally Edward Baierlein had planned to go to India, but sickness kept him from sailing at that time. Instead, he was reassigned... to work among a different Indian race on the other side of the world: the Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians.... Edward (whom the Indians called Black Coat) promised two things: to teach the tribe about eternal life and teach its children reading, writing and arithmetic, so they could read the Bible for themselves and so that they could keep accounts and no longer be cheated by traders. He also asked two things: that they send their children to his school and that they appear in church each Sunday. The Indians thought about it and agreed....
"Unlike most missionaries, Edward and his wife didn't expect the Indians to adopt white ways. On the contrary--the pair went to live in a bark hut with the Indians." Phil 1:20-21
October 11. Warrior for the Lord: "John Hus was a reformer long before Luther. Like the better-known Protestants who came after him, Hus opposed the sale of indulgences to cover sins. We should appeal directly to God for forgiveness through Christ, he taught.
"Hus preached against various abuses within the church. Under a promise of safe conduct, he traveled to the Council of Constance to plead for ecclesiastical reform, but was betrayed and burned to death as a heretic...."
September 19. Search in Ecuador: "It seemed as if the hunt that began on this day, September 19, 1955, would prove futile. Gas was running low and it was essential to turn back soon.... In the few minutes remaining to them, they spotted fifteen more clearings and a few houses. Elated they headed home. The Auca had been found. ...
"Although they badly wanted prayer cover, the men decided to say as little as possible to the outside world. Government powers or secular forces might try to one-up them with armed expeditions. Nate and the other missionaries hoped to prevent that. They wanted no interference in winning Auca souls.
"The outcome is well known. Nate Saint, Ed McCulley, Jim Elliot, Roger Youderan and Pete Fleming made contact with the Aucas. They dropped gifts to them from the air and landed on a beach where they spoke with members of the tribe. On January 6, 1956 all five were massacred in an ambush. Later, in the efforts of the widows, the Aucas discovered the meaning of Christian love and forgiveness and were converted to Christ." Philippians 1:20-21
John Wycliffe: Reformation Morningstar: "Wycliffe cared deeply for the poor and common folk and railed against the abuses of the Church. The Church owned over one-third of the land in England. Clergy were often illiterate and immoral. High offices in the church were bought or given out as political plums. But the problems went even deeper. Wycliffe, a devoted student of the Bible, saw that some of the doctrines of the church had departed from biblical moorings....
"Church authorities had him banished from his university teaching post at Oxford. But his exile turned into a kind of liberation. Some of his students joined him at the parish church in Lutterworth. There they undertook the monumental task of translating all the Scriptures into English, working from a handwritten Latin translation that was over 1000 years old...."
Psalm 119:11