The Passion of the Christ - Crucifixion

 The Crucifixion scene from Mel Gibson's 2004 masterpiece, The Passion of the Christ. Audiovisual content copyright Billion Dollar Boy Icon Film Distribution Pty Ltd (Australia VOD)

Francis Chan - Jesus Died to Reconcile All Things to Himself

Iranian leaders believe that their 13-year plan to control the Middle East is being guided by their promised Shi'ite Messiah!

They even believe that their Messiah will come out of Yemen!

NEWS BRIEF: "Death of Saudi King & Coup in Yemen: Signs in Iranian Prophecy', The Clarion News

"Iranian regime elements focused on the 'end-of-times' prophecies see the coup in Yemen and the death of the Saudi King as the fulfillment of prophecy." 

Please note that the "death of the Saudi King" expressed in this Clarion news article refers to the elderly Saudi King Abdullah, who passed away January 30, 2015.

The coup in Yemen, coming in conjunction with the death of Saudi King Abdullah, are seen as fulfillment of unique Shi'ite end of the age prophecy.

"The Iranian regime’s view of the world is centered around the appearance of the Mahdi, also known as the 'Hidden 12th' in Shia Islam ... The most vivid explanation of the end-of-times prophecy in the Iranian regime’s calculations came in 2011 when a terrifying video was leaked titled, 'The Coming Is Upon Us'.”

"The basis of the video was that the Iranian regime is fulfilling specific prophecies to trigger the appearance of the Hidden 12th Imam. Supreme Leader Khamenei, President Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah are depicted as the incarnations of figures foretold in prophecy."

Therefore, the current leaders of Iran believe they are the physical incarnation of the final Iranian (Persian) leaders foretold in Shi'ite prophecy, and are paving the way for the "Hidden 12th Imam" to appear! It is no wonder they are acting so boldly and so fearlessly.

Even more shockingly, this Shi'ite prophecy depicts the "12th Hidden Imam" as arising out of Yemen!

"Their capturing of Yemen’s capital and achieving what is essentially a coup against the U.S.-allied government will be seen one of the strongest signals that the Mahdi is about to appear. The film also mentions a prophecy about a Yemeni figure named Yamani who will lead a march to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. "

Let us stop right here! This Shi'ite prophecy which foretells the appearance of the 12th Hidden Imam will be preceded by a march from "a Yemeni figure named Yamani", upon the Islamic holy site of Mecca! Quickly examine the Pentagon's 2006 map of the Middle East.

Looking at Saudi Arabia, can you see that the Saudi's have lost control over Mecca and Medina and that Iran has seized control? Don't you find it interesting that Western Illuminati is planning to "fulfill" Shi'ite prophecy?

Sunni Saudi Arabia is about to be defeated and humiliated, just as the above Pentagon map illustrates.

Read this article at -  http://www.cuttingedge.org/newsletters/

Serious Talk About Contacting Aliens Is Sparking A Fiery Debate In The Scientific Community

by SkyWatch Editor

One of humanity’s biggest questions is “Are we alone?”

But is that still the right question?

Astronomers have confirmed over 1,800 exoplanets in our galaxy and estimate that there are around 100 billion in total and many of these seem to be habitable. So, chances are good that we are not alone.

A better question for the new age is: If ET exists, what should we do about it?

That’s what scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute discussed last month at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting.

SETI is famous for its series of telescopes that search the skies for messages that look like they could be sent by intelligent extraterrestrial beings. But so far the cosmos have been quiet.

And after 50 years of listening, some of the folks at SETI are starting to say it’s high time for a change to the way we search.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/should-we-actively-try-to-contact-aliens-2015-3#ixzz3W7uhmLBv

Sigismund I, Polish King Tolerated Reformation

Poland is known today as one of the most Catholic of European countries. The native land of Pope John Paul II, the faith of its people helped bring down the Soviet empire. There was a time, however, when it appeared that Poland might become Protestant.

Thirty-nine year old King Sigismund I took the throne in 1506. He was a humanist--that is, one who appreciated the arts and literature. As such, he corresponded with Erasmus (everyone of importance corresponded with Erasmus!) the humanist whose writings had precipitated the Protestant Reformation. The permissive Sigismund allowed a variety in faith. On the one hand, Nicolas Copernicus flourished as a Catholic canon during his reign, writing his theory that the sun is the center of the universe, while on the other John Laski preached reformation.

If Sigismund did not persecute, it was partly owing to the power of his nobles, many of whom had embraced the Reformation. The nobles of Poland gained significant rights during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Sometimes their power paralyzed the nation, because the king had to win regional approval for taxes and wars. They pushed for limitations on the established church. However, there was no unity among the nobles in what should replace the Catholic church. Lutherans, Anabaptists, Calvinists, United Brethren and other sects flourished alongside traditional Catholicism.

Protestants went too far in some cases. At Danzig they threw the town council out with threat of arms and appointed their own representatives. They seized Catholic churches and other church properties, some of which they converted to use as hospitals. Sigismund eventually beheaded a number of Protestant leaders in that city.

The most significant accomplishment of Sigismund's reign was the defeat of the Teutonic Knights who had long troubled eastern Europe. When their grandmaster, Albert of Brandenburg, became a Lutheran, Sigismund made him Duke of Prussia.

Sigismund died on this day, April 1, 1548. His son Sigismund II ruled in his stead, but died suddenly and the throne passed to a nephew. Jesuits, working to restore Catholicism to Poland during the counter-Reformation, were successful because Poland's Protestants were badly divided. And they were helped by the fact that Sigismund had married his nephew into the royal family of the Catholic Hapsburgs, which brought Poland more firmly into the Catholic sphere.

Bibliography:

1. Wylie, James A. History of Protestantism. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/ Voice/History.Protestant.v3.b19.html #CHAPTER2
2. Various internet and encyclopedia articles.

Read this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/sigismund-i-polish-king-tolerated-reformation-11629977.html

He Frequented Gay Bars in Hollywood Until God's Grace Set Him Free

Michael Ashcraft, Mark Ellis  God Reports

"I never got what I deserved... here I am alive and serving Jesus." -Paul Gualtieri
(Apple Valley, CA)—Molested a few times when he was a child, Paul Gualtieri dabbled with homosexuality as a largely unsupervised 13-year-old in Palm Springs. (Photo via God Reports)

It wasn't long before he found himself in his bedroom proclaiming his destiny: "I'm gay. I'm a homosexual," he said out loud with no one around. It was a pivotal moment of his life. "There's power in confessing both good and bad things. When I declared I was gay, I gave a right to a spiritual force in my life."
When he was 13, he ran away to Hollywood and threw himself headlong into the partying and gay lifestyle. "I just got sucked right into it," he recalls. "I thought it was great."
He was too young to be admitted to the gay bars but prostituted himself to support a lifestyle that included drugs like Quaaludes, coke and meth.
"I just ran rampant," he says. "I had different boyfriends. We would panhandle every day to buy drugs and pay our hotel."
He slept at anybody's house who'd have him, in Plummer Park and in the "Hotel Hell," once posh lodgings for movie luminaries that became decrepit and abandoned on Hollywood Boulevard.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=15714

Ferdinand and Isabella's Edict Against Jews

The year 1492 is most often associated with Columbus and his discovery of America. But another event of tragic proportions developed that year. It gave the world the Sephardic Jews (so called because Sepharadh was a region of Spain where many Jews had settled).

By 1492, Spain, under Ferdinand and Isabella had just emerged as a defender of the Roman Catholic faith. The marriage of the two rulers eventually united Aragon and Castile, although while she lived, Isabella did not yield her authority to her husband. In Granada, the pair defeated the Islamic Moors, who had long controlled Spain. Spurred on by the cruel Grand Inquisitor Torquemada, Ferdinand and Isabella felt they must remove all heretics and non-Christians from their land in order to purge it of pagan influences and firmly establish the Christian faith.

The fires of the Inquisition had already roared in Spain for twelve long years. The Inquisition's primary purpose was not to deal with Jews and Muslims. Any person who professed Christianity and then returned to his or her ancestral faith was tried and punished. In eight years, the tribunal of Seville alone put 700 persons to death and condemned 5,000 others to life in prison.

But what about those Jews who never adopted Christianity? Their majesties had a plan for them, too. On this day, March 31, 1492, in the city of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella signed an edict banishing from the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile all Jews unwilling to receive baptism.

"You know well or ought to know, that whereas we have been informed that in these our kingdoms there were some wicked Christians who Judaized and apostatized from our holy Catholic faith, the great cause of which was interaction between the Jews and these Christians...we ordered the separation of the said Jews in all the cities, towns and villages of our kingdoms and lordships and [commanded] that they be given Jewish quarters and separate places where they should live, hoping that by their separation the situation would remedy itself."

Separation not having worked, the monarchs gave the Jews until July 31st to sell their goods and leave the country. They were forbidden to carry gold or silver out of the kingdom. Worse, although signed in March, the edict was not publicly announced until the end of April, so the Jews actually had only three months to convert their property to trade goods.

"Christians" took advantage of the situation and paid ridiculously low prices for Jewish possessions -- a donkey bought a house; a piece of cloth or linen purchased an entire vineyard.

In July 1492, the exodus began. When Columbus left on his famous voyage in August, he could not use the port of Cadiz because of the large numbers of Jews waiting to board ships in the harbor. Many Jews of Castile went to Portugal, where they were forced to pay a ransom to remain. Others went to Italy or the northern coast of Africa. Wherever they went, they were robbed.

Spain's economy paid for its mistreatment of the Jews: many had been skilled craftsmen. Sultan Bajazet of Turkey warmly welcomed those who escaped to his country. "How can you call Ferdinand of Aragon a wise king--the same Ferdinand who impoverished his own land and enriched ours?" he asked. He employed the Jew in making weapons to fight against Europe.

Bibliography:

1. Adapted from an earlier Christian History Institute story by Diane Severance, Ph.D.
2. "Ferdinand V, King of Castile." Encyclopedia Americana. Chicago: Americana Corp., 1956.
3. "Jewish History Sourcebook: The Expulsion from Spain, 1492 CE." The Medieval Sourcebook.
4. "Spanish Expulsion, 1492." http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ jsource/Judaism/expulsion.htm

Read this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/ferdinand-and-isabellas-edict-against-jews-11629894.html

The Radical Cross

  By A.W. Tozer

 

 

“The work of Christ on the cross did not influence God to love us, did not increase that love by one degree, did not open any fount of grace or mercy in His heart. He had loved us from old eternity and needed nothing to stimulate that love. The cross is not responsible for God's love; rather it was His love which conceived the cross as the one method by which we could be saved. God felt no different toward us after Christ had died for us, for in the mind of God Christ had already died before the foundation of the world. God never saw us except through atonement. The human race could not have existed one day in its fallen state had not Christ spread His mantle of atonement over it. And this He did in eternal purpose long ages before they led Him out to die on the hill above Jerusalem. All God's dealings with man have been conditioned upon the cross.”
― A.W. Tozer, The Radical Cross: Living the Passion of Christ

12th Lunar Wave Timing Predicted & Filmed March 27 in Houston

They keep coming....wonder when it's going to get enough interest that the more powerful telescopes get focused on it...

This clip captures the 12th lunar wave to date and was filmed in Houston at 9:20pm. The videographer, Randy, had been following my research which is backed up by Hatybow (Russian research) and he not only used this information to film the lunar wave but applied the filming style I have said is best for lunar wave work. This demonstrates that we do, in fact, know something concrete about the lunar waves. Try to Film from now until just after Easter 2015, if you would like to join the research for the truth about the lunar wave. Or – just keep filming and help to change the world!

Viewer requested T-shirts: http://www.cafepress.com/crrow777
If you would like to support the Crrow Discovery Project, please use the link below. All proceeds are used to acquire better gear to improve filming abilities.
Donate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr..

ON THE PATH OF THE IMMORTALS — PART 4: Secret Mountains, Vortices, and Denizens from Unseen Realms

by SkyWatch Editor

By Cris Putnam
Located in the northern Verde Valley region of the state of Arizona, Sedona is arguably one of the most beautiful small towns in the world. Glowing in brilliant orange and red, the quaint western settlement is famous for its stunning array of red sandstone rock formations. The famous red stone of Sedona is formed by a layer known as the Schnebly Hill Formation. It is a thick layer of red- to orange-colored, iron-rich sandstone found only in the Sedona vicinity. Its beauty is unprecedented in the world.

Cathedral Rock: An “energy vortex” in Sedona

Sedona’s modern history only dates back to nineteenth century, when the first white settler, John J. Thompson, moved to Oak Creek Canyon in 1876. The early settlers were hard-working ranchers and farmers. In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were only fifty-five residents. The first church there was the Assembly of God in 1933.[ii] However, most people do not realize the area’s previous Christian history. A local evangelist and author, David Herzog, writes, “In the early 1900s Sedona was a place where Christians from all over the United States gathered to hold large conferences and retreats as God’s glory filled the city—long before it was claimed as a New Age vortex city. God has already designated Sedona as an open portal, a high place over the Southwest.”[iii]While the little town of Sedona grew up and became famous in the twentieth century, the area has ancient roots. The surrounding landscape hosts many petroglyphs and is steeped in Native American lore, with Hopi, Navajo, Apache, and Yavapai reservations a short drive away. It is also well known among fortean researchers that Sedona and its neighboring regions host some of the most intense UFO, paranormal, and spiritual activity in the world. It has one of the highest concentrations of UFO sightings in the United States.[iv]Some say the “aliens” are attracted to the iron-rich, red-rock spires and castle-like summits. Many UFO sightings have been viewed near Sedona’s four major vortex areas—with more than fifty at Bell Rock. Since the 1990s, it is rumored to host one of the most active dimensional doorways in America due to a book Merging Dimensions by former resident Linda Bradshaw and paranormal investigator Tom Dongo. John Keel was an early author who connected interdimensional gateways to the magnetic anomalies data, which provides a means of “seeing through” nonmagnetic rocks and cover such as desert sands, vegetation, and manmade structures to reveal hidden features such as faults, folds, dikes, and underworld portals.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://skywatchtv.com/2015/03/29/on-the-path-of-the-immortals-part-4-secret-mountains-vortices-and-denizens-from-unseen-realms/

Cranmer Got the Top Job but Didn't Want it

When Thomas Cranmer learned he had been named Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry VIII, he balked. Visiting Germany at the time to promote the King's interest in a divorce, he dawdled seven weeks getting back to England. Although the King's word was law, Cranmer hesitated to accept the position.

The English church was in a turmoil over the question of Henry's desired divorce from Catherine. Having presented him with no male heir, the queen, once so charming to Henry, was now repugnant. Yet he could not get the Pope to agree to an annulment.

Cranmer had come to the King's attention when, in conversation with two of Henry's men, he had suggested that the universities could just as well settle the question as the Pope. Henry swore Cranmer had "the right sow by the ear." He earmarked the priest to become Archbishop of Canterbury, England's highest religious post. Cranmer was consecrated on this date, March 30, 1533.
Believing himself subject to the King, Cranmer promptly granted Henry the annulment. Throughout his tenure as archbishop, he would do pretty much whatever the King commanded. Henry's continual shifts of policy often made Cranmer appear wishy-washy. For example, he ruled Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleve lawful and six months later annulled it as unlawful.

Already leaning toward Protestantism, Cranmer became the chief architect of the English Reformation. He urged the King to place Bibles in England's churches and it was done. He wrote the first Book of Common Prayer. In only a few things did he resist Henry. At some jeopardy to himself, he pleaded for the lives of Thomas More and Bishop Fisher and testified for three days against Henry's Six Articles which went back to Roman Catholic forms. However, he sat with the persecutors of John Frith and Joan of Kent, both of whom were executed by fire.

By his twisting and turning, Cranmer escaped execution under Henry. Henry trusted him above all his other prelates and on his deathbed clung to Cranmer's hand. Under Edward, Cranmer advanced Protestantism, helping draft doctrines which became the basis for the Church of England's Thirty Nine Articles.

Under pressure, Cranmer supported Lady Jane Gray to succeed Edward. It was not to be. Mary took the throne and charged him with treason and heresy. In face of death he recanted his Protestant opinions. When he learned he was to die anyway, he publicly renounced his recantation. "As for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine." When the fire was lit, he held the hand that had signed the recantation into the flame, burning it off before the fire touched his body, saying, "This unworthy right hand." As death approached he repeated several times, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Bibliography:

1. "Cranmer, Thomas." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
2. Foxe, John. Book of Martyrs.
3. Hook, Walter Farquhar, 1798-1875. Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury. London, R. Bentley, 1865-1884.
4. McKilliam, Annie E. A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury. London: J. Clarke, 1913.
5. Pollard, Albert Frederick. Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation. London: Putnam's, 1905.
6. "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation." Christian History & Biography # 48.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/cranmer-got-the-top-job-but-didnt-want-it-11629953.html

Bar Sauma, in Rome, Attended Easter Services

This day, March 28, 1288 was Easter. As could be expected, Rome, the center of Western Christianity, was electric with a sense of importance. Easter has always been the most significant day in the church calendar, the day on which Christ was vindicated by rising in triumph from the grave. The day calls for special celebrations, especially in Rome.

The occasion was charged with more than the usual significance this time, however. It would be the first time that Girolamo Masci celebrated Easter in the capacity of pope. Newly-elected, he had taken the name Nicholas IV. Adding to the importance of the occasion was the presence of Rabban Bar Sauma, an enthusiastic envoy from the Far East.

Bar Sauma was a Nestorian, a member of an ancient sect of Christians. Born near Beijing, he traveled West to visit Jerusalem shortly after Marco Polo arrived in the East. In the Mideast, Bar Sauma was delegated to act as ambassador for newly-elected Patriarch Mar Yabahalla III. But there was no pope in Rome, so negotiations could not be completed. Bar Sauma seized the opportunity to pass on to France and possibly England. A partial record of his travels has come down to us.

Back in Rome, the ambassador found Nicholas IV now installed as pope. Nicholas received him with open arms. He allowed Bar Sauma to celebrate the Eucharist. And when the onlookers had seen his actions, they rejoiced and said, "The language is different, but the use is the same."

On Palm Sunday, the pope gave Bar Sauma the Eucharist in front of a throng of tens of thousands, roaring their amens so that the ground shook. "And Rabban Sawma rejoiced greatly in receiving the Eucharistic Mystery from the hand of Mar Papa. And he received it with tears and sobs, giving thanks to God and meditating upon the mercies which had been poured out upon him."

Today's Easter service was almost an anti-climax. "And on the day of the Sunday of the Resurrection Mar Papa went to the holy church of my Lady Mary. And he and the Cardinals, and the Metropolitans, and the Bishops, and the members of the congregation saluted each other, and they kissed each other on the mouth, and he celebrated the Mysteries, and they receive Eucharistic Mystery, and then he returned to his Cell. And he made a great feast, and infinite gladness."

Soon afterwards, Bar Sauma asked permission to return to his own people. The pope wanted to keep the old man, but Bar Sauma reminded him that he had obligations to those who sent him. The Asian Christian also pleaded that he might be allowed to take back a few relics. Nicholas gave him a fragment of cloth reputed to be from Mary's scarf as well as small pieces from the bodies of saints. Nicholas also furnished him with gold for his journey.

Back in Persia, Bar Sauma, with the help of the king, built a church to house the relics. When he died, his body was buried beside that church.

Bibliography:

1. Budge, E.A. Wallis. The Monk of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China; or The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sawma, Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe and Markos who as Yahbh-Allaha III Became Patriarch of the Nestorian Church in Asia. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1928.
2. Montgomery, James A. The History of Yaballaha III, Nestorian Patriarch and of his Vicar Bar Sauma, Mongol Ambassador to the Frankish Courts at the end of the 13th century. New York: Octagon, 1966.
3. Outerbridge, Leonard M. The Lost Churches of China. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1952.
4. "Rabban Bar Sauma." Encyclopedia Britannica 1911. 

Read this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/bar-sauma-in-rome-attended-easter-services-11629847.html

Black Death was 'triggered by asteroid impact and could reoccur today', scientist claims

By Nathan Rao

© Getty
The Black Death may have been triggered by asteroid impact

The devastating Black Death which killed hundreds of millions of people in the 14th century may have been triggered by an asteroid impact, scientists have sensationally claimed.

The shocking revelation threatens to debunk one of the biggest chunks of British history and turn the world of science and academia on its head.

And experts warn another collision with Earth could happen "at any moment" sparking an outbreak of disease capable of wiping out entire populations.

History has for centuries claimed the Black Death which led to the gruesome deaths of up to 200 million people in Europe was carried by rats and fleas.

Its victims were covered in huge weeping boils, swollen lymph glands, gangrene and rotting limbs and eventually succumbed to a slow an painful death.

It struck again every 30 or so years until the famous medieval bubonic plague in 1664 which finally came to an end after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://www.express.co.uk/news/history/559714/Black-Death-trigger-asteroid-impact-scientists

Yet another English Tory icon - MP Enoch Powell - named in satanic child sex abuse scandal

© Reuters
Enoch Powell

Allegations of satanic worship and child abuse involving the late firebrand Tory MP Enoch Powell have been handed to staff investigating the VIP pedophile sex ring alleged to have operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

Powell, who died in 1998, is one of a series of high-profile figures named in a Church of England (CofE) review into historic sex abuse, which was given to Scotland Yard by the Bishop of Durham Paul Butler.

The claims are reported to involve the abuse of children, as well as satanic rituals.

On Sunday evening the CofE confirmed the names of both Enoch Powell and Leo Abse - an eccentric Welsh MP who died in 2008 - had been given to detectives of Operation Fernbridge, the police investigation into the Westminster sex ring.

Butler, who is leading the Church's review into sex abuse, said he was given the names by the former Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, who became aware of the allegations when he was working as a counselor in the 1980s.

Walker said Abse's name was given to him by three survivors of abuse during counseling sessions. He further gave the investigation the names of two former Tory cabinet ministers, neither of whom had been previously linked to the investigation.

Butler questioned Walker after discovering descriptions of counseling sessions with adult survivors in a book published in 1991.

"A number of survivors independently gave the name of a particular MP being involved," Walker said. "I don't believe there was any collusion in their stories."

"The name Enoch Powell was passed to Operation Fernbridge on the instruction of Bishop Paul Butler," a Church of England spokesperson said.

The claims against the two former politicians come amid mounting allegations of an elite pedophile ring involving establishment figures, which was allegedly covered up by Special Branch police.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://rt.com/uk/245157-enoch-powell-satan-worship/

Elizabeth Dirks Drowned as Anabaptist

Elizabeth Dirks was a trailblazer and a woman of great courage. Raised in a nunnery in East Friesland, she learned to read Latin and read the Bible through and through. She became certain that monasticism was not the way taught in Scripture. With the help of milkmaids she escaped and became a follower of peaceful Menno Simons. She was one of the first Reformation women ministers, probably a deaconness.

In 1549, Catholic authorities arrested her. When they found her Bible they knew they had the person they were looking for. Mistakenly, they thought she was the wife of Menno Simons. When they tried to get her to take an oath at her interrogation, she refused, saying Christ had taught that our yes should mean yes and our no mean no.

The record of her inquisition shows that the examiners asked her to inform on those whom she had taught. Knowing that this would lead to their arrest, she refused.

"No, my Lords, do not press me on this point. Ask me about my faith and I will answer you gladly."
"We will make it so tough that you will tell us," they threatened.

When she would not reveal who had baptized her or whom she had taught, they questioned her beliefs. She insisted that church buildings were not the house of God, for our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. She denied that the New Testament spoke of the bread and wine as a sacrament but rather as the Lord's Supper. Asked if she were saved by baptism, she replied, "No, my Lords. All the water in the sea cannot save me. All my salvation is in Christ, who has commanded me love the Lord, my God, and my neighbor as myself." She denied that priests have authority to forgive sins--only Christ.

Still refusing to reveal who had baptized her, she was taken to the torture chamber and said, "So far we have treated you gently. Since you won't confess, we will put you to the torture."

A man named Mr. Hans applied screws to a thumb and fingers until blood spurted from under her fingernails. Still she wouldn't give away her friends, but her agony was so great that she cried aloud to Christ and received relief. So they lifted her skirt to apply torture to her shins. She pleaded that she had never allowed anyone to touch her body and they promised to respect her.

Then they crushed her leg bones with screws until she fainted. The men thought she was dead, but she came to and assured them she was not. Realizing that they could get nothing out of her, the authorities condemned her to die. Rather than burn her, as was customary, they tied her in a bag and drowned her on this day, March 27, 1549.

Bibliography:

1. Bainton, Roland H. Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg, 1971.
2. Williams, George Huntston. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press, 1962.

Read this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/elizabeth-dirks-drowned-as-anabaptist-11629978.html

Deepwater Horizon still creating an environment of fear and intimidation five years on

I've wondered about the silence regarding the incredible amount of damage done by this disaster.  This article helps explain why the silence exists....

 

Published by Charles Digges

THE NATURE COAST, Florida – A group of fishermen living along Florida’s “Nature Coast” – tucked along the state’s western shore from the Panhandle to Pine Island – have agreed to meet with Bellona’s Karl Kristensen and me and they’re feeling a bit edgy.

We’ve driven out to a house out along the Gulf of Mexico through the early sunset of a late February night.

All of them have switched off their cellphones. A woman paces back and forth to the edge of the yard to monitor passing cars and gauge if our voices might carry over the still sea waters where prying ears could be listening from darkened boats.

The people at the house are trying to puzzle together the four most devastating events following BP’s Macondo well blowout on April 20, 2010, which killed 11 and fouled Gulf waters with 4.9 million barrels of crude: declining and deformed seafood harvests, chronic illnesses they’ve developed, what’s happening to the environment that provides their livelihood, and why their concerns are met with foreboding hostility and ominous threats.

Unlike other interviews I’ve had with Deepwater Horizon victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama – who all talked to me in public lunch shacks or on their docks – this discussion opens with one of the fishermen telling me: “We could get killed for what we are telling you.”

The fishing community in which they live is small and insular, they explain, and solely dependent on the sea for its survival. Talking about how it was impacted by the BP oil spill is violently discouraged.

One of the group says the message to many in these small fishing villages is clear: “If you’ve got something to say about oil or [the toxic oil dispersant] Corexit affecting these waters, keep your mouth shut.”

A barrel of the oil dispersant Corexit. (Photo: Courtesy of Brokovich.com)

He recounts the retribution he’s seen, and that might await anyone sitting in the dim ring of the porch’s light.

“You get your [car’s] gas tank sugared, houses burn, people get followed by unmarked vans and trucks, people disappear,” he says. “There’s the little stuff that just messes with people’s livelihoods, can’t get to work, can’t fix your boat, and then there’s the big shut up – the threat is very real, and people’s lives are in danger.”

Shanna Devine is with the Government Accountability Project (GAP), America’s premier whistleblower protection group. She has catalogued the health and welfare of the post BP Gulf community, and told me these anonymous accounts square with dozens she’s documented.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://bellona.org/news/fossil-fuels/oil/2015-03-deepwater-horizon-still-creating-environment-fear-intimidation-five-years

Meister Eckhart's Propositions Condemned

Good guy or bad guy? On this day, March 27, 1329, Pope John XXII condemned seventeen statements made by Meister (Master) Eckhart and said that eleven others were rash. Eckhart had appealed to the pope following his condemnation by a church court. He died before he got the pope's ruling.

This ruling did not stop Eckhart's disciples from spreading his teachings. His works had a strong influence on German mystics who came after him: John Nider, John Tauler and Nicholas Cusa among them. Indeed, he was one of the strongest influences on German Christianity before Luther and the Reformation. To this day, his defenders excuse him by saying that he was not really a heretic: he just expressed himself in dramatic language that could be easily misunderstood.

Much of what Eckhart taught was excellent. For example, he said that external acts such as pilgrimages and fasts were worthless unless the soul had the right attitude. He reminded people that God delights in goodness:

"And in every deed, however puny, that results in justice,
God is made glad, glad through and through.
At such a time there is nothing in the core of Godhead
that is not tickled through and through
and that does not dance for joy."

He showed his readers the danger of sin:"

Now God is the life of the soul, and deadly sin separates from God; therefore it is a death of the soul. Deadly sin is also a disquiet of the heart, for everything rests nowhere except in its own proper place; and the proper resting-place of the soul is nowhere except in God... Deadly sin is also a weakening of the powers, for by his own power no one can throw off the load of sin nor restrain himself from committing sin. It is also a blindness of the sense, for it prevents a man recognizing how brief is the space of time that can be spent in the pleasure of voluptuousness, and how long are the pains of hell and the joys of heaven. Deadly sin is also a death of all grace, for whenever such a sin is committed, the soul is bereft [deprived] of all grace. Similarly, it is the death of all virtue and good works, and an aberration of the spirit."

However, the pope was right to condemn certain of Eckhart's statements. Although Meister Eckhart studied Scripture for a deeper understanding of God--an understanding that he hoped would bring life to the soul--he speculated so freely that at times he actually opposed scripture. For example, whereas the Bible teaches that love is the greatest thing, Eckhart taught that solitude is, because in solitude one can "force" God down into one's own soul.

Meister Eckhart's thinking fits well with certain New Age ideas, for he described every creature as both a revelation of God and a part of him, blurring the lines between God and his creatures.
However, he never rejected man's need for the church or the sacraments. In fact, when accused by the Archbishop of Cologne, he readily said that he would recant any teaching that was in error.

Consequently, the pope said that he died reconciled to the church.

Bibliography:

1. Eckhart, Meister Johannes. "The Self-Communication of God." Meister Eckhart's Sermons, translated by Claud Field. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/eckhart/sermons.all.html#viii.
2. McMahon, A. L. "Meister Johann Eckhart." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1909.
3. Pell, Archbishop George. Issues of Faith and Morals. Oxford University Press, 1996; cited at http://www.edmundrice.org/multimedia/ stage%204%20-%20Text%20-%20Poem.pdf.
4. Runes, Dagobert. Treasury of Philosophy. Philosophical Library, 1955.
5. Schmidt, C. "Eckhart," A Religious Encyclopedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, edited by Philip Schaff. New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894.
6. Various other encyclopedia and internet articles

Read this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/meister-eckharts-propositions-condemned-11629858.html

Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem - Compilation of Palm Sunday Clips From Movies

Nice compilation of various movie clips of the "Triumphant Entry" of Jesus into Jerusalem, when He was received (at least for the moment) as Israel's Messiah.

Part 3: On the Path of the Immortals — Do Petroglyphs Tell the Story?

Six-Toed Giants, Fallen Angels, And The Portals They Came Through

COMING IN MAY!

After a week on the road, having covered hundreds of miles of reservations to walk amidst their multiple ruins including hogans, temples, and kivas, to follow guides and visit with a medicine man, not to mention tracking down and photographing petroglyphs, we were finally on our way to the last site we would visit—one that our Cherokee guide had told us not to miss. 

We’d already collected enough pictogram and logogram images from ancient rock engravings throughout the Four Corners area to make our case and to calculate for our purposes a recurring theme, which definitely seemed to match the Middle Eastern and biblical stories of portals, reptilians, fallen angels, giants, and the havoc these played on the old world. But this final petroglyph was important, our guide had said, and one we could drive right up to. So, we decided to make one final excursion, this time into Utah, fifty miles north of Moab, where one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs is located in San Juan County. The “storyboard” we would visit there etched in sandstone began as early as one thousand years before Christ, and it records practically every element contained in the upcoming SkyWatchTV Special Investigative Report and the new book On The Path Of The Immortals—from spiral vortices and those who come through them to human-animal chimeras and even giant, six-fingered and six-toed footprints in pursuit of much smaller five-fingered and five-toed humans. Even that reptilian with his halo is drawn here, just a couple feet away from alien-looking, bug-eyed creatures. This location is also (again, a great thing for any reader) easier to get to than most of the ones we trekked to, yet it’s as important if not more so than other petroglyphs you could spend days hiking over miles of rough terrain to reach. (But again, if you can, I recommend that you do visit the Four Corners, get a hiking permit or a guide, and see as much as you can of what I started calling the “Anasazi Trail,” as much of this area includes evidence of a former time, in my opinion, an era when civilizations worldwide were suddenly and dramatically interrupted by those beings depicted on the Anasazi’s Utah wall.)

The Newspaper Rock Petroglyph, as this one is known, is somewhat decipherable as to which images are older due to the fading and darkness of the earliest depictions (which are certainly the most mysterious, with their alien-looking heads, suits, and what might be some type of craft), and archaeologists believe the writing on this great wall continued from 1000 BC or earlier up until about AD 1300—the same time the Anasazi suddenly disappeared.

Allie Anderson gathers commentary on ancient petroglyphs for upcoming SkyWatch TV Special Report.

But the National Parks sign admits:

There are no known methods of dating rock art. In interpreting the figures on the rock, scholars are undecided as to their meaning or have yet to decipher them. Unfortunately, we do not know if the figures represent story-telling, doodling, hunting magic, clan symbols, ancient graffiti or something else.

I suggest “something else” is exactly what they tell us based on redundancy of the same story told all around the world. The Anasazi, who disappeared when the habit of writing on this tablet also suddenly ceased, used images and symbols similar to those found globally that connect to a first, and second, incursion of giants and the mountainous gateways their creators came through.

And it wasn’t just me who immediately saw this story on the wall as a biblical one told through ancient American eyes. I could see it on Carl Olafsen and Allie Anderson’s faces too—my chief investigators—after we finished filming, packed up our drone (which we had been using to gather aerial film), and started the long drive back to our hotel. As I drove, I glanced at Carl in the rearview mirror, and I could see that he especially was deep in thought. Soon, he got a notepad out and began writing something, which later he gave me at the hotel. It said:

Looking on that last petroglyph I could see a multitude of antique memos: the spiral that Dr. Mose had explained, the reptile with the halo at its head, footprints of animals, footprints of people…suddenly I stopped. There was a path of human footprints, each holding exactly five toes, alongside a path of giant human footprints…the larger sets carrying six toes! I was reminded of 1 Chronicles 20:6:

And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants.

Why would Native Americans concoct the same anomalous physiology as the ancient Hebrews on the other side of the world? While polydactylism certainly does not indicate someone is a Nephilim, accounts of giants with an extra digit on both sides of the Atlantic suggests a genetic relationship. On other places within the ancient figures was a more mystifying anomaly: There were strange, reptilian, humanoid shapes with bulbous heads and large, almond-shaped eyes. The oldest and most desert-varnished of them was a humanoid shape with what appeared to be an antennae coming off the head or helmet. Other humanoid shapes had horn-like features coming off their distorted human heads. One—the oldest appearing outline—appeared to be holding a disc-like object or a weapon of some kind and stood near a shape that had a square object affixed to the top of a shoulder-high post.

What could these figures have been left to communicate to future travelers? What were the motives behind the painstaking, time-consuming efforts of these messages? And where did the Anasazi go? Archaeologists theorize that the Anasazi were just absorbed into the Navajo and Hopi Tribes. But we were told in the Hogan [by Dr. Mose] that the tribes looked for them and could not find them. They tracked them to the Chaco valley but they were gone. The tribes mourned them and cried. Chaco means “to cry.” The oral history knows they just disappeared.

The question is…where, and why?

Carl Olafsen with Allie Anderson and Tom Horn at the entrance to an Anasazi ruins.

Read the rest of this article at -  http://skywatchtv.com/2015/03/24/part-3-on-the-path-of-the-immortals-do-petroglyphs-tell-the-story/

William Leddra: Executed for Quakerism

William Leddra stood at the foot of the tree where he was to be hanged. As his arms were being tied he said, "For bearing my testimony for the Lord against deceivers and the deceived, I am brought here to suffer." His final words were, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." A few moments later, on this day, March 24, 1661* he became the last Quaker to swing in Boston for the crime of returning from banishment.

From the first, Quakers who landed in Massachusetts were arrested, beaten and banished. Some were lashed behind carts, others taken deep into the forest and abandoned, still others branded with "H" for heretic. Some had their tongues bored with a hot irons and others had their ears cut off. When such severity did not stop them from preaching pacifism and insisting that Christ could be known intimately as a friend without the need of religious rituals, Governor John Endicott pushed for the death penalty. Between 1659 and 1661, four Quakers swung in Boston. These were Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer--and William Leddra.

Like the other three, William was an individual of pure character. Even the court acknowledged that it "found nothing evil" in William. Even so, he had suffered beatings and banishment for preaching in Massachusetts. When he dared to return in 1660, Puritan authorities arrested him. The charges against him were typical. He had sympathized with the Quakers who were executed before him; he had refused to remove his hat, and he used the words "thee" and "thou," which, to Quakers, implied the equality of all people.

William lay in prison all that winter without heat. But on the last day of his life, chained to a log in a dark cell, he wrote to his wife:

"Most Dear and Inwardly Beloved,
"The sweet influences of the Morning Star, like a flood distilling into my innocent habitation, hath filled me with the joy of [God] in the beauty of holiness, that my spirit is, as if it did not inhabit a tabernacle of clay. Oh! My Beloved, I have waited as a dove at the windows of the ark, and I have stood still in that watch, wherein my heart did rejoice, that I might in the love and life speak a few words to you sealed with the Spirit of Promise, that the taste thereof might be a savor of life to your life, and a testimony in you, of my innocent death."

Robert Harper, a prominent Quaker in Boston caught William's body under the scaffold when the hangman cut it down. For this sign of respect toward his dead friend, Robert and his wife, were banished. Another Quaker, Edward Wharton helped bury the body. Shortly after William's death, King Charles II put a stop to the executions.

* This date will sometimes be given as March 14, because Massachusetts was still under the old calendar.

Bibliography:

1. Early Quaker History. http://thorn.pair.com/earlyq.htm
2. Holder, Charles Frederick. The Quakers in Great Britain and America; the religious and political history of the Society of Friends from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. New York: Nuner, 1913. Source of the image.
3. Various internet articles.

Read this article at -  http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1601-1700/william-leddra-executed-for-quakerism-11630133.html

Germanwings Shock: Black Box Reveals Co-Pilot Locked the Pilot Out of the Cockpit, and Flew the Plane into the Mountain

Aimee Herd : : Fox News

"The [pilot] outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer. And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer... You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."
French investigators revealed on Wednesday night some shocking news from the "black box" cockpit voice recorder which was recovered from the crash site of Germanwings Flight 9525 in the French Alps. (Photo: Airbus A320 cockpit/Wikipedia Commons) 

Prosecutor Brice Robin said during a press conference in Paris that the pilot of the plane had gone to the restroom after reaching cruising altitude. When returning to the cockpit, he knocked "politely" on the locked door to be let back in.

When the plane began its 8-minute descent toward the mountains, the pilot's banging on the door became frantic, then screams were heard from the cabin, and calm breathing from the co-pilot as he was described by Robin to have "manually and intentionally" driven the plane into the mountainside at over 400 mph.

The co-pilot, named as Andreas Lubitz, a German citizen, did not appear to be connected with any known terrorist group.

Regardless, Robin noted that Lubitz—for whatever reason—"wanted to destroy this plane," and subsequently murder the 149 other souls onboard.

Read this article at -  http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=15677

Conrad Grebel Drew Crowds in Switzerland

When Conrad Grebel arrived at St. Gall Switzerland, on this day March 25, 1525, he began to speak on the need for repentance and baptism. Hundreds turned out to hear him preach and over the next few months, he baptized five hundred. What was significant about this was that most of them had already been baptized as infants.

Grebel was in exile from Zurich. Well-educated, he had studied the Bible with Uhlrich Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich, and stood by him as he made changes in the city. However, Grebel thought that Zwingli moved too slow in implementing reforms based on the Bible.

And Conrad Grebel became convinced from Scripture that infant baptism was wrong. In order to exercise faith, a person had to be old enough to understand the Gospel. Baptism could only have meaning for a person who understood why he or she was being baptized. Those who thought this way were called Anabaptists.

Zwingli and Grebel held public debates on the issue, but Zwingli stuck with infant baptism and so did Zurich. Consequently, Conrad Grebel and a number of others decided to obey their consciences. Grebel is often called the "Father of the Anabaptists" because on January 21, 1525, he re-baptized George Blaurock, a former priest. It was the first such adult baptism in Zurich.

Immediately the Zurich authorities forbade the Anabaptists to speak about their beliefs on adult baptism. Shortly afterward, they drove the Anabaptists out. Soon they would be killing them, often by drowning. Grebel went to St. Gall, where he found immediate success.

Seventh months later, he was arrested, tried and sentenced to life in prison. Friends helped him escape, but his life was destined to be short all the same. He could not outrun the plague, which carried him off less than two years after he baptized George Blaurock. He was only about 29 years old.

Although Conrad Grebel left few writings, he left many converts. A college in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada is named for Conrad Grebel. It was founded by Mennonites--spiritual offspring of the early Anabaptist reformer.

Bibliography:

1. Bautz, Friedrich William. "Grebel, Konrad." (http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/g/grebel_k.shtml).
2. Bender, Harold S. Conrad Grebel; c. 1498-1526, the founder of the Swiss Brethren sometimes called Anabaptists. Scottdale, Pa., Herald Press, 1971.
3. "Conrad Grebel." (http://cat.xula.edu/tpr/people/grebel/).
4. "Conrad Grebel." Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
5. Little, Franklin H. The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism; a study of the Anabaptist view of the church. New York: Macmillan, 1972.

Is Google planning a microchip for people's brains?

• Google faces major backlash over claims it colluded with U.S. authorities to open a 'back door' to users' personal information
• But it nevertheless intends to leverage the wealth of data it holds on people to offer them increasingly personalised search results
• The ultimate ambition is to get inside users' heads with microchips that will download search results straight into their brains

By Damien Gayle

Just a stepping stone... A woman models Google Glass, which is being trialled across the U.S. Google hopes one day to use microchips in users' brains

Online advertising giant Google's new wearable accessories are merely a stepping stone to its ultimate ambition - a microchip which can be embedded in users' brains.
The company, which uses its search, email and other services to funnel personalised advertising to users, is currently trialling prototypes of its Glass device, which is worn like a pair of glasses.
But Google is staking its future on a new service which will use the information it holds on registered users to automatically predict their search needs and present them with the data they want.
The ultimate ambition is to literally get inside users' heads: using search queries to read their thoughts and then fulfilling their data needs by sending results directly to microchips implanted into people's brains.
Ben Gomes, Google's Vice-President of Search told The Independent that the sinister-sounding vision is far from a sci-fi fantasy and that research had already begun with such chips to help disabled people steer their wheelchairs.
'They are getting a few senses of direction with the wheelchair but getting from there to actual words is a long ways off,' he said.
'We have to do this in the brain a lot better to make that interaction possible. We have impatience for that to happen but the pieces of technology have to develop.'
But standing in the way of this ambition is a major civil liberties backlash over claims that Google has conspired with U.S. authorities to open a 'back door' to data it holds on its hundreds of millions of users, allowing spies to monitor their online activities.
The company, whose 'Don't be evil' motto has long attracted derision from privacy campaigners, is alleged to have allowed analysts from the National Security Agency to 'mine' the terabytes of personal information it holds.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2372591/Google-planning-micro-chip-peoples-brains-Engineering-boss-says-sci-fi-style-technology-begin-helping-disabled-people-control-wheelchairs.html#ixzz3VYoliSm8

Walter Hilton Gave Spiritual Advice

Walter Hilton was an innovator. He was the first man to write a book of mysticism in the English language. At that time, Latin was the language of the church--although Wycliffe and his Lollards had worked hard to circulate manuscripts of an English Bible.

Hilton urged holiness. Every Christian is called to overcome sin, he said. As he saw it, this would come through ascetic practice and contemplation of God. In The Ladder of Perfection, he wrote, "But you should ever seek with great diligence in prayer that you might gain a spiritual feeling or sight of God. And that is, that you may know the wisdom of God, His endless might, His great goodness in Himself and through His creatures...so that you may know and feel with all saints what is the length of the endless being of God, the breadth of the wonderful charity and the goodness of God, the height of His almighty majesty and the bottomless depths of His wisdom. In knowing and spiritual feeling of these should be the exercise of a contemplative man. For in these may be understood the full knowing of all spiritual things."

His Ladder of Perfection sets out to describe the steps by which a soul attains the new Jerusalem. According to Hilton, the soul is formed in the image of God, first by faith, then in both faith and feeling. After passing through a dark night (in which humility and love stand it in good stead) the soul learns a longing "to love and see and feel Jesus and spiritual things." When true love comes, vice is destroyed and Jesus becomes the life of the soul. A man is now able to see Christ working in all things.

Curiously enough, this man who set himself up as a guide for others admitted that he had never experienced the familiarity with the Divine that he described in his writings. This has not kept mystics from embracing his system. It was a fairly common outline of spirituality in Medieval Europe.

Little is known about Hilton, although there is evidence that he trained as a canon lawyer and spent years as a hermit before joining the Augustinian friars around 1386. He was well educated as his many quotes show. He translated Latin works into English and quoted Latin scripture in his book, with his own English translations.

Walter Hilton died on this day, March 24, 1396. His books, printed about a hundred years later, influenced 15th and sixteenth century mysticism.

Bibliography:

1. Gardner, Edmund G. "Walter Hilton." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
2. Hilton, Walter. The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection. http://www.ccel.org/h/hilton/ladder/.
3. "Hilton, Walter." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
4. Hinson, E. Glenn. Seekers after Mature Faith. Waco, Texas: Word, 1968.
5. Miller, Gordon L. The Way of the English Mystics. Ridgefield, CT: Morehouse Publishing, 1996.
6. "Walter Hilton and His Scale of Perfection." http://www.gloriana.nu/hilton.html

Last updated May, 2007.

Thornews - NASA's Ceres Dawn Mission is Shady

More on why NASA hasnt followed up on the first set of interesting images from it's Dawn Mission which showed lights in craters on Ceres.  Eventually, you will see all that here....language warning, Thornews ahead....