Sunday, October 13, 2019
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Calender
On this date, 1752 Britain and the British Empire (including the American colonies) adopt the Gregorian Calendar, losing 11 days. People riot thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives
They implemented the Gregorian Calendar to fix the Julian calendar that drifted about one day every 314 years.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Roman Baths Used in Algeria for 2,000 Years
The Essalihine Bath, in Algeria, is an ancient Roman bath that is still in use after nearly 2,000 years.
Since this bath complex was built in the 1st century AD, nothing has changed, except for the more recent Ottoman bricks and the doors of the newly built dressing rooms.
The Flavians rose to power during the civil war in 69, also known as the Year of the Four Emperors. The Year of the Four Emperors is named after the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, who came to the throne of the Roman Empire in 69 consecutive years.
According to the inscriptions, the complex was reused or possibly rebuilt during the Flavian dynasty in Vespasian's time in 69 AD. Another inscription shows that Septimus Severus repaired it in 208.
There are hundreds of spas or fountains in Algeria, and some of these resources have been used for thousands of years. Others saw major construction and repairs during the days of the Numidian kingdom and during the Roman times.
The circular pool in the bath complex is 8 meters in diameter and 1.45 meters in-depth, and the rectangular pool is 1.45 meters in depth and measures 13.80 × 10.05.
The water source of Essalihine Bath is very rich in minerals and this water is pure enough that it does not need any filtration. In fact, this hot spring water naturally cools down before reaching the resting basins and is the center of attention for thousands of tourists every year.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Friday, October 4, 2019
Vatican, Pope, Napoleon, Mussolini
Then in 1870, the Italian nationalist army invaded Rome and the Pope surrendered but he declared himself to be a prisoner of the Vatican and refused to leave St. Peter’s. The new Italian government took possession of the papal states leaving only a small parcel of land on Vatican Hill to the Pope. The loss of the papal states represented an economic setback for the Vatican due to lost tax revenues.
It wasn’t until the signing of the Lateran Pacts with Mussolini in 1929, that sovereignty was fully restored. In exchange for political support of Mussolini’s fascist government, the church was granted enormous power, including full sovereignty, tax exemption and establishment as Italy’s sole religion. Still, with the loss of almost all of its land, the Vatican lost a significant source of regular income. To cover its expenses and with direction from hand-picked bankers, the church began investing heavily in real estate and setting up banks throughout Italy. Money from the Lateran Pacts was also invested in insurance companies and industry, including arms and munitions manufacturing. Investments were later made in large American businesses, including IBM, General Electric, Shell, Procter & Gamble and others.4
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Vatican, Pope Pius xii
World War II: A Unique Money-Making Opportunity
March 2, 1939, Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope. He had been the papal nuncio to Germany and had a great fondness for everything German. His family was among the Black Nobles, Roman aristocratic families that remained loyal to the Pope when the Italian nationalist army took Rome and confiscated the Pope’s kingdom in 1870. Early in his pontificate, Pope Pius XII sent Hitler a message assuring the Führer of the Vatican’s desire for good working relations with the Nazis. Shortly afterward, he directed his diplomatic representative, the Papal Nuncio to Germany, Archbishop Orsenigo, to fete (honor) Hitler on his fiftieth birthday.5
Pope Pius XII’s policy was silence in response to the atrocities of the Holocaust and the slaughter of Serbs in Croatia. Priests and bishops were actively involved in the politics and killing machinery of Croatia and Slovakia where hundreds of thousands, possibly more than a million, Jews and Orthodox Christian Serbs and others were killed . Though repeatedly implored by eyewitnesses to speak out against the brutality, the Pope remained silent. Even when the Nazis entered Italy, where 1200 Jews living in Rome were rounded up and transported along streets that lay just 250 yards (approximately 230 m ) from the Vatican – virtually right under the Pope’s nose – to a military detention center, Pope Pius did nothing to stop the violence. A thousand of those Jews, mostly women, and children, were put in rail cars two days later and sent to Auschwitz.
Germany’s Ambassador reported, “ The Curia is upset considering the action took place, in a manner of speaking, under the Pope’s own windows. The Vatican’s response at that time ? An official thanks Hitler’s Foreign Minister for the German military’s respectful wartime behavior to the city-state,8 possibly a reference to a promise made by Ernst von Weizsacker, Germany’s ambassador, that Germany would protect the Vatican from damage.
Unbelievably, in 1942, Pius was pre-occupied with the filming of a movie he was having made about himself, Pastor Anglicus.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Monday, September 30, 2019
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Friday, September 27, 2019
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Monday, September 23, 2019
Sunday, September 22, 2019
"The Nation Changed Its Gods"
A good read for times such as ours . . . . . .
"The Nation Changed Its Gods"
Our nation is not subjecting itself to God, but neither is it godless.
"Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit" (Jer_2:11).
Our own nation is no different. We have not merely abandoned God as some have suggested. We have systematically turned to other gods. The irony of a self-proclaimed secular state with a storeroom full of idols is a little painful actually .
But perhaps you are not convinced . May I take a moment to name the gods we serve?
Molech
Solomon and others fell prey to his twisted allure. He built a place of worship for Molech east of Jerusalem (1Ki_11:7). In the days of Jeremiah, this worship of Molech
How have we served Molech? America has taken part in 38 million abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973. I cannot offer one reason that explains it all. Some hoped to get out of a bad situation. Some believed the life gifted by God would be a detriment to their life or career plans. Others found themselves abandoned by a male who was not a man, no father, no husband. As churches, we reviled the practice, but we did not offer to take in these children and mothers. It would have been terribly inconvenient to us. So for whatever reason, our nation found an alternative to the difficult road of embracing God's gift. We exchanged the God of life for a false god of death.
Baal
Baal and his affiliates (the plural, Baal-im) are the most prominent of the gods mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. His name means "lord." He, like Molech, is a parody of the true God, a corrupted reflection of YHWH. Baal represented power. Israel's God was powerful, even dangerous, but he was invisible and often subtle. His ways were never our ways. In Baal, Israel could imagine god was served with humility rather than conquest. It makes his power, perfect in weakness (2Co_12:9). Israel's God would be crucified for his people in the person of Jesus. Baal is not the self-sacrificing sort. He is more likely to be hammering the nails.
How have we served Baal? Our political dialogue is about harnessing the power of death to attain security, whether through military action, capital punishment, or other forms of force. Our great national fear is the decline of national superpower status. We rarely hear anyone make a case for a kind of citizenship that entails self-sacrifice. When was the last time a public leader asked us to think about what we can do for others rather than what can be gained for ourselves? Would we even vote for a candidate who made moral demands of us instead of issuing promises? We exchanged the God of mighty weakness for a false god of puny strength.
Asherah
Asherah (and the myriad variations of her name and person, such as Ashtar, Ishtar, and others) is the female companion of Baal. She is the counterpart to Baal's promise of obvious power. She is the goddess of selfish sexuality, the gratifying end of having unbridled power. In the time of Solomon, she had morphed it seems into Ashteroth, and It is not accidental that Solomon became pliable towards Ashtoreth worship at the same time that he "loved many foreign women" (1Ki_11:1). The Asherah poles erected in her honor were evidently phallic symbols, and God commanded them cut down (Exo_34:13-16). It is easy to understand why God often described Israel's fascination with Asherah as "whoring after their gods."
How have we served Asherah? First, our culture is over-sexualized, and the church culture is not immune to it. Our singles are sleeping around, and too often our married folk are too. There is nothing so unpalatable to our current culture than the sexual ethic of the Scriptures. Furthermore, technology has been harnessed to make pornography ubiquitous and shameless. It is the true addiction of our society. And we haven't even said a word yet about homosexuality and the drifting institution of marriage. We have traded the God of chaste holiness and mutual respect for a false god of unbridled wantonness and degradation.
Mammon
I save Mammon for last because strictly speaking, he is not an ancient god. The word "mammon" simply means wealth or riches . However, in the teachings of Jesus, the term was personified into a rival of God. "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money [mammon]" (Mat_6:24). Mammon then is a god of desire, not sexual desire as Asherah, but of prosperity and possession. Paul will even identify covetousness with idolatry to cement the connection (Col_3:5). The pursuit of wealth is the antithesis of trust in God's providence. It is an attempt to take blessings rather than receive them.
How have we served Mammon? Our very national identity is rooted in our economic might. Individually, we have made the very meaning of our lives about income. As USA Today recently reported, the American dream costs $130,000 per year. Some few will achieve that and find even that income is not enough. Others will submit to crushing debt in order to catch a glimpse of that dream. We have exchanged the God of providential contentment for a false god of economic hunger.
Conclusion: Broken Cisterns
Jeremiah explains the failure of all our false gods.
We have engineered gods which we believed would meet our true needs. They have not and will not. The cistern is broken and empty. Before we can repent as a nation and a culture, we must realize that we have not merely forsaken God. "My people have committed two evils." We have also replaced him. And no one can serve two masters.
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